Number one in your Gospel Hymns
book, number one. We have come into this place
to call upon His name and worship Him. We have come into this place
to call upon His name and worship Him. We have come into this place
to call upon His name and worship Christ the Lord. Worship Him, Jesus Christ the
Lord. So forget about yourself, and
magnify His name, and worship Him. So forget about yourself, and magnify His name and worship
Him. So forget about yourself and
magnify His name and worship Christ the Lord. Worship Him, Jesus Christ the
Lord. We are debtors to His grace. The law's been satisfied. Now worship Him. We are debtors to His grace. The law's been satisfied, now
worship Him. We are debtors to His grace. The law's been satisfied, now
worship Christ the Lord. Worship Him, Jesus Christ the
Lord. We are chosen in His grace, redeemed
by His blood, now worship Him. We are chosen in His grace, Redeemed
by His blood, now worship Him. We are chosen in His grace, redeemed
by His blood, now worship Christ the Lord. Worship Him, Jesus Christ the
Lord. He is all our righteousness. I stand in Him complete. Now worship Him. He is all our righteousness,
I stand in Him complete, now worship Him. He is all our righteousness,
I stand in Him complete, now worship Christ the Lord. Worship Him, Jesus Christ the
Lord. May God the Holy Spirit give
us the grace to worship. He'll have to do it if we do.
Let's stand together. Brother Tom, you're going to
lead us in number 32, in the same hymn book, number 32. Let's
stand together. All children of wrath, in bondage
and sin, We helplessly lay, condemned and unclean. God's law in its
infinite justice and wrath, Demanded we suffer an eternal death. But long before time had ever
begun, One stood in our place, God's glorious Son. He offered Himself to go live
among men, And give His own life to atone for our sin. The great substitute, behold,
he has come. The price has been paid, the
work is all done. Christ took on himself the great
load of our sin. He poured out his blood and he
put away sin. God's justice and law are now
satisfied, and all who believe have been justified. Through faith in the blood of
the Lamb, we are free from sin's condemnation, eternally free. Please be seated. For our call to worship, would
you please turn with me in the word of God to Mark chapter four. Mark chapter four. And as we read the Word of God,
we always ask ourselves, what does this tell us about Christ
and how He saves His people? If we don't see that, we might
as well read Grimm's fairy tales because there is no difference.
Let us begin in verse 2, please. And the Lord is speaking, and
He taught them many things by parables. And He said unto them
in His doctrine, Listen, I'm going to tell you something important.
Behold, there went out a sower to sow. And it came to pass,
as he sowed, some fell by the wayside, and the fowls of the
air came and devoured it up. And some fell on stony ground,
where it had not much earth, and immediately it sprang up,
because it had no depth of earth. Then when the sun was up, It
was scorched and because it had no root, it withered away. And some fell among thorns and
thorns grew up and choked it and it yielded no fruit. And
another fell on good ground and did yield fruit that sprang up
and increased and brought forth some 30 and some 60 and some
100. And this is our call to worship. And the Lord said unto them,
he that hath ears to hear, let him hear. That's why we're here
this morning. And when he was alone, now notice
this is his disciples, they that were with him, with the 12 asked
of him the parable. And this is what our Lord told
them. And he said unto them, unto you, it is given to know
the mystery of the kingdom of God. But unto them that are without,
all these things are done in parables, that seeing, this is
the unbeliever, that seeing they may see and not perceive, and
hearing they may hear and not understand, lest at any time
they should be converted and their sins should be forgiven. This next hour, Our shepherd
is going to speak words to the people in this auditorium and
anyone that's in the internet. And they're going to be able
to physically hear everything he says. But unless the Lord
gives the grace, they'll not understand. And if you can understand the
declaration of Christ this morning, it's because the Lord made your
soil fertile. Because it wasn't any different than the soil of
anyone else. And that's our plea this morning. He that has ear
to hear, let him hear. And if you don't understand this
morning, my dear friend, our prayer is that you'll plead with
God to give you the ability to understand. May we try to pray. Lord, we've gathered this morning desperate, needy sinners that
we confess we can do nothing for ourselves. We can't even
pray unless you enable us to, and we certainly cannot understand
unless you send your spirit and you reveal yourself to us and
you teach us, Lord. We thank you for the opportunity
to be taught. As we come, we pray for your
servants, our pastor and wherever your preachers are at and their
families, Lord, that you would bless them, encourage them, that
you would speak to us through them. And Lord, we confess we
can do nothing and we plead for you, Lord. Oh, enable us to hear
with understanding and Lord, would you give us the faith to
believe? And Lord, we plead with those
today who can hear but do not understand that their case is
a desperate one. All that they may see themselves
as lost centers. And that you would gather them
to yourself. We alone we know you alone are
able to save him. We plead for their souls as well
as ours. We ask this that Christ would
take this prayer. and that he would make it acceptable
to God the Father and that he alone would be glorified. Amen. Let's stand together once again
and we'll sing hymn number 352 from the hardback hymnal 352. Jesus, lover of my soul, let
me to thy bosom fly, while the nearer waters roll, while the
tempest still is high. Hide me, O my Savior, hide, Till
the storm of life is past. Safe into the haven guide, O
receive my soul at last. Other refuge have I none, hangs
my helpless soul on thee. Leave, ah leave me not alone,
still support and comfort me. All my trust on Thee is stayed,
all my help from Thee I bring. Cover my defenseless head with
the shadow of Thy wing. Thou, O Christ, art all I want,
more than all in Thee I find. Raise the fallen, cheer the faint,
heal the sick, and lead the blind. Just and holy is I am all unrighteousness. False and full of sin I am, Thou
art full of truth and grace. Plenteous grace with Thee is
found, Grace to cover all my sin. Let the healing streams
abound, make and keep me pure within. Thou of life, the fountain art,
freely let me take of Thee. Bring thou up within my heart,
rise to all eternity. Please be seated. Michael, I don't know if you
could have read a more appropriate passage fit with the message
the Lord's put on my heart for this morning. I've titled this
message, When God is Silent. What happens when God is silent? Turn with me, if you will please,
in your Bibles to Psalm 28. And then you might want to also
find Isaiah chapter 44. Psalm 28 and Isaiah 44. When God is silent. Psalm 28, verse one. Unto thee. Well, I cry. Oh, Lord, my rock. What do we cry? Most of the times
when we cry out to God, we're wanting some relief from our
temporal circumstances. Isn't that true? But when one cries in faith,
he's crying that God would speak. Lord, I need you to speak to
my soul. Unto thee will I cry, O Lord
my rock, be not silent to me. Lest, if thou be silent to me,
I become like them that go to hell." What does God have to do for
me and you to go to hell? Nothing. Nothing. All he has to do is be silent.
All he has to do is leave us to ourselves. Our own opinions,
our own devices, the voices and values of this world will be
all we'll have if God doesn't speak. And so, The one whom the
Lord has stirred up His soul for salvation, the one who has
a burden to know God and to be saved, cries unto the Lord His
rock, be not silent to me. For Lord, if you be silent to
me, if you don't speak to me, if you don't reveal yourself
to me, I'll be like everyone else that goes down into the
pit. The only hope that I have of
being delivered from the pit is that God would speak to me. You see, the truth is, according
to the Word of God, we're born into this world spiritually dead.
We're born spiritually dead. God says, we come from the womb
speaking lies. When that little baby cries as
if he's going to die because he's hungry or has a dirty diaper,
he's lying. He's lying. What endears us to
an infant is that they're not able to hide their lies. But
that's what we are. The world is here to serve me.
Come tend to my needs. We come from the womb speaking
lies. And we're just so consumed with ourselves, aren't we? From
the very beginning, we're consumed with ourselves. God says, except you be born
of water and of the Spirit, there's no life in you. And the water
is the word washed by the water of God's word. Of His own will
begat He us or birthed us with the word of truth. And this is
the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. So when
the gospel is preached, that's the means by which God births
us into His family. And then, of course, The Word
of God has to be attended by the Spirit of God. You remember
in Ezekiel chapter 37 when God took Ezekiel up on a mountain
and he looked down into a valley. And the scripture says that the
valley was filled with dry bones. They were very dry. And the Lord tells Ezekiel that
this is the whole house of Israel. These are my people. They raised
their fist in rebellion against me and they died. And now they're
left lying on the battlefield as dried bones. The birds of
prey have plucked away all the flesh. There's not enough DNA
left in those bones for you to figure out who they are. And
God says to the prophet, Son of man, can these bones live? And what's Ezekiel say? Lord, thou knowest. If they're
going to live, you're going to have to make them live. You're
going to have to do a miracle of grace for them. And that's
the way it is for every one of us. And so God says, all right,
preach to them. Prophesy to them. Lord, they're
dry bones. Yep. And as a prophet began to
preach the gospel, bone came to bone and sinew came to bone
and the bones became in the body of a man and they took shape. That's what happens when the
gospel is preached. God begins to put things together. Yet there was no life in them.
There was no life in them. And so God says to the prophet,
prophesy to the wind, call upon the spirit of God to come and
breathe life into these dead men. And he did. He called out for the Spirit
of God to come. It's why in Acts chapter 6 when the church was
struggling with some of the problems of distributing the food and
different things, Peter stood up and he said, he said, choose
out from among you men that are capable of this. God has called
us to prayer and the preparation of the word. This is the means
by which sinners are saved. the preaching of the gospel attended
by the Spirit of God. And apart from that, everything
else is in vain. So we come into this world dead
if God doesn't speak. And speak not just audibly, but
speak spiritually. When I say God speaking audibly,
God speaks when His Word is read. So if you're hearing, as Michael
said, you're hearing my words, and my words are God's Word,
this is what God says, you're hearing audibly. Oh, but how
dependent we are for the Spirit of God to make those words effectual
to our hearts. Lord, be not silent to me. For
if thou be silent, I'll go down into the pit. Lord, I need for
you to speak to me. What happens when God is silent? Man is incurably religious. He knows in his conscience that
there is a God with whom he must do. And so if God's silent, if
the God who is doesn't speak to him, he will devise his own
God. And that's all man-made religion
is. It's man's idolatrous attempt
to communicate with a God who hasn't spoken to him. It happened to the children of
Israel at Mount Sinai, didn't it? When Moses went up on the
mountain to get the law, children of Israel said, this Moses who
brought us out of Egypt, they're talking to Aaron now. We don't
know where he's gone. God's not speaking. We need to
make a God. And so Aaron instructed the people.
He said, well, take off your earrings. And Aaron, the scripture
says Aaron put them into the fire and fashioned a golden calf. Aaron made that calf. And the
people began to worship the golden calf. And Moses came down off
the mountain with the law on the tablets. And what did Moses
do with those tablets that were written by the very finger of
God? He broke them, didn't he? This is man's incurable sin,
to create for himself a God. And Moses asked Aaron, Aaron,
what have you done? And Aaron said, well the people
became impatient and you didn't come and God wasn't speaking
and so I threw the gold into the fire and out popped a calf.
That's what he said, out popped a calf. Not only was the law of God broken
by their idolatry, Moses took that golden calf,
the scripture says, and he ground it into powder, mixed it with
water and made the people drink it. Same thing happened to the
serpent that was put upon a pole, isn't it? Well, what happens
to that which you ingest into your body? It becomes dung, doesn't
it? And Paul said, that which I thought
was gain, I now call it a loss, and I count all things but dung
for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ. All of my idolatry,
all of my idolatry. When God speaks, when God reveals
the glory of Christ to the heart, then you confess, Lord, I've
been an idolater ever since I was born. I've been fashioning images
of you that were not true to your image, and now that you've
spoken, now that you've spoken, I realize that I made a God of
my own hands, just like the children of Israel did, a God that I could
see and a God that I could control. You have your Bibles turned with
me, if you will, to Isaiah chapter 44. Idolaters are shameless. They're
actually proud of their idols. and the work that they did to
produce them. I was talking to a man some time
ago, he was a professor in college and he was in his 70s, had a
PhD in philosophy and he admitted to me, he said, I'm still struggling
with the same questions that I struggled with when I was a
student in college. Did we create God or did He create
us? That was his question. Well,
the God that most people worship is created by man. There is a
God. There is a God who made us, but
if He doesn't speak and if He doesn't reveal Himself to us,
we'll just make for ourselves a God. And that's what Isaiah
chapter 44 is all about. You have your Bibles? Look with
me at verse 9. They that make a graven image
are all of them vanity, and their delectable things they shall
not profit. They are their own witnesses.
They see not, nor know, that they may be ashamed." They're
not ashamed of their God. They're proud of it. They're
proud of the decision that they made. They're proud of the idols
that they fashioned. They're proud of the works that
they performed. who hath formed a God, or molten
a graven image that is profitable for nothing? Behold, all his
fellows shall be ashamed, and the workmen they are of men. Let them all be gathered together,
let them stand up. Yet they shall fear, and they
shall be ashamed together. And when God breaks you about
your idolatry, you're shamed. You're shamed of the idols that
you made. But in order for that to happen,
he has to speak. He has to reveal himself. The
smith with the tongs both worketh in the coals, and fashioneth
with hammers, and worketh with the strength of his arms. Yea,
he is hungry, and his strength faileth, and he drinketh no water,
and is faint, and the carpenter stretcheth out his rule. He maketh
it out with a line, he fitteth it with planes, and he maketh
it out with a compass, and maketh it after the figure of a man,
according to the beauty of a man, that it may remain in the house. He heweth him down cedars, and
taketh the cypress and the oak, which he strengtheneth for himself
among the trees of the forest, he planteth an ash, and the rain
doth nourish it. Then shall it be for a man to
burn. For he will take thereof and
warm himself. Yea, he kindleth it and breaketh
and baketh bread. He maketh a God and worshipeth
it. He maketh it a graven image and
falleth down thereto. He burneth part thereof in the
fire, and with part thereof he eateth flesh. He roasteth roast. He satisfieth. Yea, he warmeth
himself and saith, Aha, I am warm. I have seen the fire and
the residue thereof. he maketh a God, even his graven
image, he falleth down into it, and worshipeth it, and prayeth
unto it, and saith, Deliver me, for thou art my God. They have
not known nor understood, for he hath shut their eyes that
they cannot see, and their hearts that they cannot understand. If God is silent to you and me,
we will be shameless idolaters. We will fashion a God after ourselves. Psalm 50 verse 21 says, Thou
thoughtest that I was altogether as unto thyself. So what man
does in his imagination, I don't think that idolatry is something
that some primitive tribe does in New Guinea. Idolatry is what
we're all addicted to until the Lord speaks, until the Lord's
pleased to reveal himself. We're going to fashion an idol.
And we're going to be shameless about our idol. We're going to
be proud of our idol. We'll be proud of the decisions
that we made. We'll be proud of the aisle that
we walked, or the church that we supported, or the sacrifices
that we made, or the knowledge that we have achieved. Man by
nature is going to have a God that he makes. that He makes. Now what's the difference between
a God that we make and a God who is? Well, look at, let's
go back to our text. Verse 19, And none considereth
in his heart, neither is there knowledge nor understanding to
say, I have burned part of it in the fire, yea, also I have
baked bread upon the coals thereof, I have roasted flesh, and eaten
it, and shall make the residue thereof an abomination? Shall
I fall down to the stalk of a tree? He feedeth on ashes, and a deceived
heart hath turned him aside, and he cannot deliver his soul,
nor say, Is there not a lie in my right hand?" He doesn't know
that the God that he's worshiping is a false God. He doesn't know
it's an idol. He doesn't know that it's a figment
of his imagination. Why? Because the God who is has
not yet spoken. And when he speaks, when he speaks,
then the God who is reveals all the idolatries. all the idols
that man devised in his own imagination. Look at verse 21. Remember these,
O Jacob and Israel, for thou art my servant, I have formed
thee. Thou art my servant, O Israel,
thou shalt not be forgotten of me. I have blotted out as a thick
cloud thy transgressions, and as a cloud thy sins, return unto
me, for I have redeemed thee." You see, one is a religion that
depends upon man to do something to persuade God. And then God
says, I formed you. You didn't form me. You're dependent
upon me. I'm not dependent upon you. A
religion that's based on man making for himself a God. You see, in man-made religion,
the scriptures are subordinate to experience. A God who makes us A God who
speaks, speaks through His Word, and in man-made religion, the
Word of God is subordinate to one's own personal experience,
one's own personal opinion. The Word of God becomes subordinate
to tradition. The Word of God becomes subordinate
to creeds. It becomes subordinate to the
opinions of men. And so, man fashions a God after
what he believes. He won't say what sayeth the
Scriptures. And if he does go to the Bible in order to find
God, he goes with Well, he goes with presuppositions
that are just wrong. They're just wrong. You know,
we've all done it. You're buttoning up your shirt.
You get to the end and you realize you've got a button left over.
How are you going to fix that problem? You've got to unbutton
the whole shirt, don't you? You've got to start back with
the first button. But men won't do that. They'll go to the Word
of God with faulty presuppositions and try to reconcile what they
thought was true to what they're reading. Men will go to the Word
of God with the idea that God loves everybody. And then they'll
try to figure out, well, how does the God who has revealed
himself here reconcile with this idea that God loves everybody,
Christ died for everybody, God wants everybody to be saved?
And they can't make sense of it. You can't make sense of it. They'll go to the Bible with
the presupposition that man has a free will. It's up to me to
make a decision, to pray the prayer, to accept Jesus into
my heart. You see, man by nature is going
to create for himself his own God because he denies the truth
of the Bible and relies on those things which he believes to be
true. A God that he can make. And what does God say? Remember
Jacob. Remember Israel. I made you. I redeemed you. I put away your
sins. I did this. It's not of him that
willeth. It is not of man's free will.
It is not of him that runneth. It is not of man's efforts or
good works. It's of God that showeth mercy. God made us. We didn't make Him. But man by nature wants a God
that he can see. He has no faith, and so the only
sight that he has is that which is physical. That's why man-made
religion is so filled with things to entice the eyes. Stained glass
windows. icons, statues, robes, choirs,
all the things that are attracted to the flesh. Why? Because he
needs a God that he can see. That's why Men want a gospel that promotes
the works of man rather than the accomplished work of Christ.
You see, you can't see with your physical eyes the work that the
Lord Jesus Christ accomplished 2000 years ago. You can't see
it. If the Spirit of God doesn't
take the Word of God and speak effectually to your heart and
cause you to believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is the end
of the law for righteousness, that He has put away once and
for all, all the sins of all of God's people, satisfying divine
justice, declaring it's finished. If you can't see that, if you
don't have eyes of faith to see that, that happened completely
outside of you. That happened 2,000 years ago.
And if you can't look to that for the hope of your salvation,
you're going to look to your works for the hope of your salvation. And you're going to measure and
monitor and motivate yourself by the law to try to gain assurance
of salvation. Why? Because you need a God that
you can see. Jacob, Israel, thou art my servant. I made you. I redeemed you. And finally, man needs a God
that he can control. A God that he can control. Turn with me to 2 Thessalonians
chapter 2. Verse 10, And with all deceivableness
of unrighteousness in them that perish, them that go down to
the pit. He's talking about false religion. He's talking about
man-made, free will, works religion. To people to whom God has not
spoken. in them that perish, because
they receive not the love of the truth, that they might be
saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion
that they should believe the lie." It is the definite article there,
the lie. The lie is that man has saved
himself. The lie is that man has made
God. that they all might be damned
who believe not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness."
Now that doesn't mean that they went out and indulged their flesh
in the sinful pleasures of this world. It means that they pleasured
themselves in believing that they were right with God based
on something they did, which was all unrighteousness. And that's what religion's all
about. Man competing with man to see who's more righteous.
Pleasure in themselves and unrighteousness. God turns man over to a strong
delusion. They believe it with all their
heart. And you'd believe it too. You were born an idolater. And
if God doesn't speak, oh Lord my rock, be not silent to me. For if thou be silent to me,
I will be like everybody else. I'll go down into the pit. Who
maketh thee to differ? What do you have that you've
not received? O Lord, speak to me. Reveal Christ to me." Verse 13, But we are bound to
give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the
Lord. Lord, show me. that you've loved
your people with an everlasting love. Never been a time when
God didn't love his elect. Chosen in the covenant of grace,
placed in Christ before the foundation of the world, always loved of
God. That's the gospel. Because God
hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the spirit. It's the Spirit of God that makes
us holy. He that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified
are all as one. You can't get more sanctified.
Not if you're in Christ. If you're in Christ, you're perfect
before God. Man, the The beginning of that
chapter, 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, speaks of man setting himself
up on the throne of God and calling himself God. Now that's what
man-made religion is all about. Here's the message of man-made
religion. God votes for you, the devil votes against you,
you break the tie. That's the message of man-made
religion. You're the deciding factor. You're the one that holds
the power. You're the one that makes the
decision. You've set yourself up on the throne of God, if you
believe that. And you fashion for yourself a God that you can
see and a God that you can control. Go back with me to our text in
Isaiah 44, please. He doesn't even know in verse
20 that there is a lie in his hand. Why? Because God has turned
him over to a strong delusion and he believes the lie is true. He believes the lie is true.
He believes with all of his heart. He's not questioning what he
believes. Why is he not questioning what he believes? Because God's
not speaking to him. When God speaks, you call everything
into question. Everything that you ever believed
about yourself, about God, about salvation, you know when God
speaks, you've been wrong all your life. But he's got a lie in his hand,
he doesn't know it's a lie. And so God says, remember these,
oh Jacob, Jacob Israel, that's our name. Jacob's the old man,
Israel's the new man. For thou art my servant. I have formed thee. Thou art
my servant, O Israel. Thou shalt not be forgotten of
me. The hope of your salvation is
not determined by your faithfulness, but by mine. I'm going to keep
you from falling. I'm gonna present you faultless.
I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions. You
didn't do anything to persuade me. I did it. I did it for you
were born. I did it for Adam was made. Christ
is called the lamb slayed before the foundation of the world.
God in a covenant grace that he established according to his
own will and purpose before time ever began took care of the fall
before the fall ever happened he took care of it you see the fall was ordained
for Christ Christ didn't come into the picture
to fix the fall. The fall was ordained of God
to glorify Christ. I've already taken care of all
this. I've already blotted out your
sins. I've already satisfied my justice. You came from the womb speaking
lies and you've been an idolater all your life, but now that I've
spoken, now that I've spoken, you understand that I formed
you. You didn't form me. And as a cloud, thy sins, I've
put them away. Return unto me, for I have redeemed
thee. He doesn't say, return unto me
and I will redeem thee. He says, return unto me for I
have redeemed thee. Now, how often times do you need
to return to the Lord? We're perpetual backsliders,
aren't we? And what is it that causes us
to return? The hope that returning will
somehow Cause Him to reward us? No. No, what causes us to return
is to know that we've already been redeemed. It's already been
taken care of. Everything's done. Sing, O ye heavens, for the Lord
hath done it. Now I want to close. You've heard me say this before,
I just want to say it again. It's so simple. Man-made, idolatrous
religion is all about what you do. A prayer you pray, a work you perform,
a law you try to keep, a level of preeminence that you achieve
over your fellow man, a knowledge that you acquire, And it doesn't
matter if you're talking about Buddhism or Islam or what's called
Christianity. It's all the same. It's all the
same. It's all about what you do. Now
let's read this phrase again. Sing, O ye heavens, for the Lord
hath done it. It's done. That's a big difference
between doing and done, isn't it? It's just done. When the Lord Jesus Christ bowed
His head on Calvary's cross, He cried with a loud voice, It
is finished. It's finished. It's done. What a contrast. It's the God who is and by His
mercy speaks through His word. And the God devised in the imagination
of man, shout ye lower parts of the earth. That's where the
Lord got you from. If He spoke to you, you were
at the bottom of the barrel when He spoke to you. That's where
He gets His children from. He gets them out of the dust
of the earth. He gets them out of the dunghill. He makes them
to be sinners. And then He redeems them, delivers
them. Ye lower parts of the earth,
break forth into singing ye mountains, O forest, and every tree therein. For the Lord hath redeemed Jacob,
and glorified himself in Israel. The trees of righteousness the
scripture calls His people, the plantings of the Lord. He did it to glorify Himself. Man-made religion glorifies man. The gospel gives all the glory
to Christ. All of it. Now, I want to conclude by asking
you to turn with me to Isaiah 53. Isaiah 53. There is a time when you want
God to be silent. Lord, be not silent to me. There
is a time when you want God to be silent. Isaiah chapter 53,
verse 4, Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem him stricken,
smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions,
he was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray,
we have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord hath laid
on him the iniquity of us all." This is a prophecy given of the
Lord Jesus Christ over 600 years before he died on Calvary's cross.
As our sin-bearer, God imputing to the Lord Jesus Christ all
the sins of all of God's people and pouring out his wrath in
order to satisfy his justice. This is the passage that that
Ethiopian eunuch was reading. Does the prophet speak of himself
or of another? No, he's not talking about himself.
Philip told him he's speaking of Jesus. He began right there
and preached unto him Jesus, didn't he? Look at verse 7. He was oppressed, and he was
afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the
slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened
not his mouth. There is a time when you want
God to be silent. And that's when God Almighty
was satisfying the justice of God by bearing our sins and suffering
the wrath of His Father. Why was He silent? Why was He silent? The scripture says that when
the law comes, every mouth is stopped and all men become guilty
before God. The law of God, the holy law
of God, saw the sin that was placed on the Lord Jesus Christ.
And his mouth was stopped. And he was guilty before God. Not for his own sin, but for
our sins. God made him sin, who knew no
sin, that we might become the righteousness of God in him.
He had no defense. It pleased the Father to bruise
him. God saw sin on his son. And God forsook him. God's eyes
were too pure to look upon sin. He can't look upon you. He can't
look upon me. He could not look upon the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's why the skies were blackened.
That's why the earth shook. That's why the Lord Jesus Christ
cried out in agony, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
Because he was forsaken. And his mouth was stopped by
the law of God and he was guilty before God. suffering the wrath
of God's justice for the sins of his people. He did it out
of love for his bride. That's the only time that you
want God to be silent. Annas Caiaphas, Pilate, they
all brought the Lord Jesus Christ before them and tried to interrogate
Him and He was silent to them. He was silent to them. He didn't
speak to them. Oh Lord my rock, be not silent
to me. For if thou be silent to me,
I will be like everybody else. I'll go down into the pit." Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful
that you have spoken. And we pray that your Holy Spirit
would make your words effectual to our hearts. And thank you,
Lord Jesus, for being silent on Calvary's cross, satisfying
the justice of God. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Let's stand together, Brother
Tom. Number 318. I need thee every hour, most
gracious Lord. No tender voice like thine can
peace afford. I need thee wholeheartedly. I need thee, every hour I need
thee. Oh, bless me now, my Savior,
I come to thee. I need Thee every hour, stay
Thou nearby. Temptations lose their power
when Thou art nigh. I need Thee, O I need Thee, every
hour I need Thee. O bless me now, my Savior, I
come to Thee. I need Thee every hour in joy
or pain. Come quickly and abide, or life
is vain. I need Thee, O I need Thee, every
hour I need Thee. O bless me now, my Savior, I
come to Thee. I need Thee every hour, Most
Holy One, O make me Thine indeed, Thou blessed Son. I need Thee, O I need Thee, Every
hour I need Thee, O bless me now, my Savior, I come to Thee. Yeah.