Good evening. Let's open tonight
with hymn number three from your Gospel Hymn Spiral Notebook.
We'll have to sing this a cappella because we do it to the tune
of How Tedious and Tasteless. So let's all stand together and
we'll sing number three. A debtor to mercy alone, of covenant
mercy I sing, nor fear with thy righteousness on my person an
offering to bring. The terrors of law and of God
? With me can have nothing to do ? My Savior's obedience and
blood ? Hide all my transgressions from view ? The work which His
goodness began ? The arm of His strength will complete ? His
promises yea and amen and never was forfeited yet. Things future nor things that
are now, not all things below nor above can make him his purpose
forego or sever my soul from his love. My name from the palm
of His hands Eternity will not erase Impressed on His heart
it remains In marks of indelible grace Yes, I to the end shall
endure as sure as the earnest is given, more happy but not
more secure, the glorified spirits in heaven. Please be seated. And that's the truth. Wow. What a great hymn. We're going
to read from Psalm 44 for our call to worship, and you might
want to mark your Bibles there because the message will come
from the chapter just before that, chapter 43. It's good to have Kurt and Shara
and Kinsley with us from Cottageville, West Virginia, where Mike Walker
pastors and where Jimmy Toll attends. By the way, today's
Jimmy's birthday. So we're so happy to have you all here, Kurt
and Shara. You have your Bibles open to
Isaiah chapter 44, Did I say Psalm? I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. Isaiah. Isaiah 44. And the message will
be from Isaiah 43. I don't know if my brain's ahead
of my mouth or behind it, but sometimes they don't work together. Verse 1. Yet now here, O Jacob,
my servant, and Israel, whom I have chosen. Jacob, Israel. Our given name is Jacob. Our
surname is Israel. Thus saith the Lord that made
thee and formed thee from the womb, which will help thee. Fear not, O Jacob, my servant. And thou Jeshurun. Now that word translated means
upright and it's just another name that the Lord's giving instead
of Israel. So Jeshurun are those that are
upright before God, imputed with the righteousness of Christ.
whom I have chosen, for I will pour water upon him that is thirsty
and floods upon the dry ground. I will pour my spirit upon thy
seed and my blessing upon thine offspring." This is our Lord's
promise. That's what we need, isn't it?
That he would fulfill this for us tonight. Verse four, and they
shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the water
courses. And one shall say, I am the Lord's
and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob. And another
shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord and surname himself
by the name Israel. Let's pray together. Our Heavenly Father, we're so
very thankful for your precious promises. And we're thankful
to know that all of your promises are yea and amen in Christ. Oh, how we pray that you would
send your Holy Spirit in power and reveal the Lord Jesus Christ
in our hearts. and cause us, Lord, to believe
you, to believe your promises, to believe on Christ, to rest
our souls in him, to have him for our hope and all our salvation,
to rejoice in him. Lord, we come here from a dry
and thirsty land, a place where there is no water, and oh, how
we pray that you would be pleased now to open the windows of heaven
and rain showers of blessings on our hearts. We pray that you
would open the well of living water and cause us to drink of
that river of everlasting life. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Let's stand together again. We'll
sing hymn number 290 now from the hardbacked hymnal. 290. Let's
all stand together. Be still, my soul, the Lord is
on thy side. Bear patiently the cross of grief
or pain. Leave to thy God to overcome. In every change, He faithful
will remain. Be still, my soul. Thy best, thy heavenly friend,
Through stothearty ways, Leads to a joyful end. Be still, my soul, thy God doth
undertake to guide the future as He has the past. Thy hope, thy confidence, let
nothing shake. All now mysterious shall be bright
at last. Be still, my soul, the waves
and winds still know His voice who ruled them while He dwelt
below. Be still, my soul, the hour is
hastening on, when we shall be forever with the Lord. When disappointment, grief, and
fear are gone, Sorrow forgot, love's purest joys restored. Be still, my soul, when change
and tears are past. All safe and blessed, we shall
meet at last. Please be seated. We get so disquieted in this
world, don't we? The Lord would still our souls,
give us rest in Christ. That's, oh, what a blessing. That's our hope. You have your
Bibles, let's open them together to Isaiah chapter 43. Isaiah chapter 43, I've titled
this message, Things to Remember and Things to Forget. Things
to Remember and Things to Forget. If you're like me, you are prone
to remember the things you ought to forget and forget the things
you ought to remember. And what a blessing it is when
the Spirit of God speaks to our hearts by His Word and enables
us to remember the things we ought to remember and forget
the things we ought to forget. how oftentimes we read in God's
Word that we're to remember. But here in our text, notice
with me in verse 18, remember ye not the former things. The Lord is telling us there's
some things we ought not to remember. Well, obviously there are things
we need to remember. In Ephesians chapter 2 verse
11 it says, Remember in times past that you were Gentiles. You were Gentiles in the flesh,
without Christ, aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers
from the covenant of grace, having no hope. and without God in this
world. Remember the pit from which you
were digged. What a blessing it is to be able
to look back and know the Lord's brought me from death to life. He's regenerated me. He's given me a new nature, a
new heart. He's enabled me to believe Him
and to trust Christ and to know Christ. That's a miracle of grace. Those who know Christ can remember
when they didn't know Christ. Those who believe God can remember
when they were not able to believe God. Those who are saved can
remember when they didn't know they weren't saved. They were dead in their trespasses
and sins, they were blind, they were naked, they were poor and
miserable and didn't know it. And the Lord says, remember.
Remember when you were Gentiles? Remember when you were without
Christ? Remember when you were strangers to the covenant of
grace? Remember when you were separated
from the commonwealth of Israel? Remember when you were without
God? and without hope in this world. Oh, that's cause to rejoice,
isn't it? It's cause to rejoice to know
that the Lord has brought me from such a place and set me
down at his feet and given me everything contrary to what I
used to have. The scripture also reminds us
of the importance of remembering Lot's wife. Remember. In other words, we don't presume
upon God's grace. We know that the same one who
saved us must keep us. If he leaves us to ourselves,
we'll look back and we'll go back. The Lord says if a man
puts his hand to the plow and looks back, he's not fit for
the kingdom of God. Oh Lord, don't let me, don't
let me look back. In Ezekiel chapter 36 verse 31,
you shall remember your own evil ways that were not good. Now, What ways did you have before
the Lord was pleased to make himself known to you that weren't
good? All your ways. So when the Lord
is telling us to remember your evil ways that weren't good,
he's not telling us to wallow in the shame and guilt of some
past infractions of God's law or some shameful sin that we
committed. He's telling us to remember that
all our ways were not good. What'd the Lord say to that rich
young ruler? Why callest thou me good? For there's none good but God.
And what'd the Lord say to Moses on Mount Sinai when he hit him
in the rock and he said, I'm gonna cause my goodness to pass
before you. And David said, oh, his goodness
and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. There's
none good but God. And when we reflect on our ways,
we remember that all our ways fall short of His glory. And the scripture says in Ezekiel
36, you shall loathe yourself in your own sight for your iniquities
and for your abominations. We don't look, we don't look
to our works, we don't look to anything in us for the hope of
our salvation. We remember that everything about
us fall short of His goodness and of His glory and we loathe
our iniquities and would never present them to God for our salvation. The Lord tells us to remember
the Sabbath, to keep it holy. Now you know that most folks
who try to keep the seventh day of the week, the first day of
the week, holy, they've missed it all together. We keep the
Sabbath holy when we do what we just sang, put all our hope
All I rest in the finished work and glorious person of the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's what it is to keep the
Sabbath holy. All my holiness. He's your holy one. Isn't that
what we saw Sunday? All my holiness before God, all
my sanctification, all my righteousness, all of my justification before
God is bound up in him. And that's what it is, to keep
the Sabbath holy. He is our Sabbath. And then Paul said, remember
that Jesus Christ, the seed of David, was raised from the dead
according to the gospel. A wicked and perverse generation
seeketh after a sign. No sign will be given to it except
for the sign of Jonah, who spent three days and three nights in
the belly of the whale, and then he was brought forth to life.
The resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ is the evidence
that God gives to his people that he is satisfied with his
finished work. He's been, remember that the
Lord Jesus Christ, who is the seed of David according to the
flesh, but the fulfillment of David's, all the promises of
David, the sure mercies that scripture talks about of David
are fulfilled in Christ. And the only evidence that we
need for that is the resurrection. God would not allow His Holy
One to seek corruption. He was obligated to raise Him
from the dead because He was satisfied with His finished work. And the Lord tells us, remember
that. Remember what Christ has done. Now turn with me to Deuteronomy
chapter 5. Verse 14, but the Sabbath day,
I mean, I'm sorry, the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord
thy God. In it thou shalt not do any work. Thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter,
nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass,
nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is written within
thy gates, that thy manservants and thy maidservants may rest
as well as thou. Oh, don't put anybody under the
law. Don't give anyone anything to do with their hands. Fashioning bricks with hands
and putting them together with slime like the Tower of Babel.
God says don't do it. This is the Sabbath. In verse
15, and remember, remember that thou wast a servant in the land
of Egypt. and that the Lord thy God brought
thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm. Therefore the Lord thy God commanded
thee to keep the Sabbath day. Remember where the Lord brought
you from. Remember that you were under
the rigors of the law as the taskmasters were cracking their
whips on your back in Egypt. You never were able to satisfy
its demands. And now what do you have? You
have rest. No more cries from the law. The voice of the law has been
silenced. Christ has satisfied the demands of the law. He's
put away our sin. We have rest for our souls. And the Lord says, what a contrast
that the Lord paints there in Deuteronomy chapter five between
being a slave and now sitting back at ease and resting. Resting, nothing to do, just
enjoy your rest. That can only happen if we remember. In Deuteronomy chapter 8, thou
shalt remember the Lord thy God, for it is he that gaveth thee
power for wealth. You shall remember the Lord thy
God for it is he that gave it thee power for wealth. We wouldn't
have power. We have no power. He's not talking
about physical wealth here, although that's true. Whatever abilities
we have in this life, the Lord gave them to us. But the wealth of the gospel.
He gave it to us, that He may establish His covenant with you,
which He made with your fathers. That's why He did it. To establish
the covenant. The promise. The promise of grace. The promise of salvation. All
the promises of God are yea and amen in Christ. Oh, this covenant. It can't be changed, can it?
David said, although my house be not so with God yet, He has
made with me an everlasting covenant. And this covenant is ordered
in all things. Everything necessary to satisfy
the demands of this covenant. A covenant is a promise. And
so with a promise comes conditions. And David said, it's all ordered. And it's all sure. The sure promises
of God are finished in Christ. And what did he say? This is
all my salvation. And this is all my desire, though
we make it not to grow. I don't look at myself and find
any evidence of growth in my life. I'm just as dependent upon
Christ for his salvation now, more so, more so. See, more of
my sin now than I've ever seen before. David said in Psalm 42 verse
6. Oh My god, my soul is cast down
within me therefore Will I? remember thee When do we remember
him? When our soul is cast down when
we're disquieted when we're troubled when our sin Convicts us when
when? when when we we don't have Comfort
we we look to him and David said therefore will I remember thee
and in then psalm 763 he said my soul shall be satisfied when
I remember thee upon my bed and Meditate on thee because thou
hast been my help therefore in the shadow of thy wings Shall
I rest? Remember. Remember the covenant
of grace. Remember what Christ accomplished
in making that covenant ordered in all things and sure. Remember
His perfect righteousness before God, satisfying all the demands
of God's law, obedient even unto death. Remember that He was raised
from the dead. offered up for our offenses and
raised again because of our justification. Remember that he returned back
to glory, not empty, not empty. His reward went with him. The names of those for whom he
lived and died went with him. And that's what we are now. That's
why the scripture says all the blessings of God are in the heavenlies
in Christ. Remember. Remember from where
you came and remember where you are now. Remember that he laid
down his life for his sheep. Remember that he loves you with
an everlasting love. Remember that he'll never forsake
you. nor leave you, and no man can
pluck you out of his hand." Oh, we've got so much to remember,
don't we? If the Lord would give us grace to remember the things
we ought to remember and forget the things we ought to forget.
We are so prone to do just the opposite, aren't we? You know,
we're so much like the guy that, you know, he said, boy, it's
a beautiful day, isn't it? Well, yeah, but it's raining
somewhere. You know, we just, we gotta put a negative spin
on everything, don't we? We just, oh, Lord, deliver us
from such a spirit. Deliver us. Cause us to rejoice
in the Lord always. Be thankful in all things, for
all things are the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
Remember that He is sovereignly working all things together for
your good and for His glory. Remember that. Oh, the world
would have us to think on other things, wouldn't they? Set your
affections on things above. Finally, my brethren, whatsoever
things are good and whatsoever things are holy, whatsoever things
are just and lovely, if there be any virtue in them, think
on these things. Think on Christ. This is where,
Lord, give me the mind of Christ. Deliver me from such stinking
thinking and enable me to look to him and to remember him for
who he is and what he's done. So much we have to remember. And so the title of this message
is Things to Remember and Things to Forget. Look at look at our
text Remember ye not the former things neither consider the things
of old Behold, I will do a new thing Now it shall spring forth
and shall you not know it? Is it going to be possible for
me to do something and you not know it? No, you're gonna know
it if you're mine You remember those things that I've done then
you'll know that this is a new thing. I will even make a way
in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. The beast of the
field shall honor me, the dragons and the owls, because I give
waters in the wilderness and rivers in the desert to give
drink to my people, my chosen. This people have I formed for
myself. They shall show forth my praise. So what sort of things ought
we to forget? Well, turn with me to the book
of Numbers chapter 11. Numbers chapter 11. We remember having come from
Egypt, We remember that we were once alienated from the Commonwealth
of Israel. We remember that we were Gentiles
without God in this world. We remember that we were under
the law and taskmasters. But we don't remember Egypt lustfully. We don't want to go back to Egypt,
do we? Look what the children of Israel said in Numbers chapter
11 at verse 5. They said, we remember the fish
which we did eat in Egypt freely, the cucumbers and the melons
and the leeks and the onions and the garlics, but now our
soul is dried away and there is nothing at all besides this
manna before our eyes. We don't remember. We don't remember
the pleasures of Egypt to lust back for them. We forget, come out from among
them and be separate, saith the Lord. We forget that, that, that. that land where the food came
from the ground. Isn't it interesting that you
see the contrast between the cucumbers and the leeks and the
garlics and the onions and the melons, all things that grow,
and the manna that comes down from heaven. And we've got, you
know, we like the variety of vegetables that we got from the
ground, and now all we have is this manna from heaven. Look
at verse 8. And the people went about and
gathered, I'm sorry, Verse seven, and the manna was as coriander
seed and the color thereof as the color of dillium. And the
people went about and gathered it and grounded in mills and
beat it in mortar and baked it in pans and made cakes of it.
And the taste of it was as the taste of fresh oil. And when
the dew fell upon the camp in the night, the manna fell upon
it. What did the Lord say? He said,
when you pray, ask the Father to give you your daily bread. Lord, give us. And this manna
came with dew, didn't it? When the dew of the night came,
that's when the manna came. Isn't that the same way it is?
When the refreshing dew of God's Spirit comes, He feeds us on
the bread of life. And Lord Jesus Christ is this
manna. It's white like coriander and
round and sweet like honey. The Lord said to the Pharisees,
he said, Moses didn't give you that manna. My father gave it
to you and I am the bread of life. Lord, give us, give us
this day our daily bread. Don't allow us to put our hands
to the plow and to look back to Egypt. Don't allow us to be
like Lot's wife, to look back to Sodom. lest we be destroyed. Let me forget, let me forget
the pleasures of that false religion, the things that I was involved
in. Paul said, this one thing I do,
He said, I've not yet apprehended that which has apprehended me,
but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind,
I press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling
in Christ Jesus. And the Lord said, your sins
and iniquities, I remember no more. I remember no more. So we don't, we forget. We forget the false religion
that we came out of in that we're not like children of Israel.
When we go back to the leeks and the garlics and the cucumbers,
we eat the bread of life and we don't wallow. We don't wallow. We know that everything outside
of Christ is unrighteousness, but, you know, people that wallow
in the guilt and shame of past sins are trying to atone for
those sins. It's what they're doing. If I
can just feel sorry enough, if I can just beat myself up enough,
if I can do enough penance, Preacher, I just need you to step on my
toes. That's why people go to these
places where the preacher beats up on sheep and people leave
church feeling like, boy, I've done my penance. The Lord doesn't. We don't remember. He says, I remember your sins
no more. I've separated them as far as the east is from the
west. It's false piety. It's false
humility. The Lord said, confess your sins.
In other words, agree with God that you are nothing but sin. And he is faithful and just to
forgive you of all your sins and cleanse you of all your unrighteousness. The world would say to those
who are overwhelmed with shame and guilt, it's not your fault. The child of God says, oh no,
I accept full responsibility, but you know what? I'm forgiven.
I'm forgiven. And if God doesn't remember it,
why should I? Why should I? What hope do I
have in trying to salve my conscience by bringing up the past? The Lord has put it away. It's
been put away. So what do we forget? Forget
religion in terms of going back to it. Forget your sins. Know that you loathe yourself
because you know you're nothing but sin before God, but you don't
try to atone for or redeem yourself by thinking, well, if I just
can feel a little bit more sorry for it. You can't feel sorry
enough. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
only one who was able to do that. He's the only one who was able
to feel the full weight of sin. And God saw the travail of his
soul and God was satisfied. God will never ever see the travail
of your soul or my soul and be satisfied. We cannot be sorry
enough. Christ was. So why would we wallow
in the guilt of past sins Thinking that, well, we'll just somehow
try to atone for them. No. Christ is our atonement. Now another thing that's closely
related to that is forgetting the blessings that have come
from God in terms of trying to live off of them. You know, we don't live off of
past experiences. We don't live off of past graces.
That's so clear in the Scriptures. What happened to the children
of Israel when they tried to gather up enough manna to hold
them over for a few days? They went back to that manna
the second day. And it was full of worms. It
was rotted. As sweet as that manna was the
day before, by the next day it was rotted. And the same thing's
true of the graces that the Lord gives to each one of us. If we
try to live off of yesterday's manna, it's not going to be sufficient. We've got to have fresh bread
every day. You get hungry, thinking about
the last good meal you had doesn't satisfy your hunger, does it?
You've got to have food again, don't you? And so it is spiritually. So we, you know, thankful Lord
for the graces you showed me yesterday, but I can't live off
of that. I gotta have fresh manna. I gotta have another meal. I've
got to have you feed me again right now. And reveal yourself
to me afresh and anew. I love it when someone hears
the gospel and they say to me, Pastor, it was like I heard it
for the first time. I think Deanna, you said that
to me recently. I feel like I heard it for the first time. Isn't
that the way it is? That's what we need, isn't it?
Lord, make it fresh. Make it new. Don't let me live
off of yesterday's manna. You know, if you've, we are what
we eat, physically and spiritually. If you've got a really bad diet
and you just get sick and tired of being sick and tired and you
decide to do something about it and you change your diet,
you're not gonna change overnight. But you know what, you stick
to it, you'll notice a huge change, won't you? You stick to a good
diet and all of a sudden things start getting better and you
start feeling strong. I've been so impressed lately
just in observing the effects that the gospel has had on you
and me by having a steady diet of Christ. Someone someone said
to me Sunday, you know, I needed to hear that again You know,
we just and I and I people accused me. Well, you just preach the
same thing over and over again. Yeah Yeah, and a steady Diet
of Christ has an effect doesn't it has an effect on you? It's
it we don't need we don't need any fancy meals. I We need that
manna from heaven over and over and over again, don't we? And
just like we are what we eat physically, we will be what we
eat spiritually. We feast on Christ. And what a difference. What else are we to forget? Well,
we're to forget Scripture except for how it relates
to the gospel. Now what I mean by that is we
don't study the Bible in order to achieve some knowledge of
history. Some of us have been there. And we forget that now. We know
that this is all his story. We don't study the Bible. We
had systems of theology. We had all of our theology categorized
and we studied the Bible in order to put the square peg in the
square hole and get everything in order. And now we know that
in the volume of the book it is written of me. The Word of God. It's powerful
and sharper than any two-edged sword. And it is by the gospel
that it's preached unto us, isn't it? It's by the gospel. We don't study the Bible in order
to figure out prophecy. The scripture says that the testimony
of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. So we forget, trying to study
the Bible in order to get an advantage over someone or to
boost our knowledge puffs up, doesn't it? We're not looking
for history, we're not looking for theology, we're not looking
for, we're looking for Christ. We're looking for Christ. The
Lord said to those Pharisees, you search the Scriptures because
you think in them that you have eternal life, but these are they
which testify of me. Forget studying the Bible for
any reason other than looking for the Lord Jesus Christ. Because
whatever knowledge of Scripture that we have, And whatever time
we spend in the Word of God, if it doesn't point us to Christ, it's worse than not having studied
the Bible at all. Because if it hasn't pointed
us to Christ, it's pointed us somewhere else, usually to ourselves,
or back to the law, or back to Egypt, or back to something.
You see what I'm saying? We'd be better off. We'd be better
off with no knowledge whatsoever. Had someone here who listened
to the gospel for the first time and they said that they weren't
religious. They didn't come out of a religious
background. And I said, well, that's great.
You don't have anything to unlearn. That's what I told him. I said,
you know, most people come here and they hear the gospel and
they're coming from a religious background where they've got
to unlearn a bunch of stuff. And so we forget going to the
Scriptures for any other reason other than looking for the Lord
Jesus Christ. And if the Scriptures don't point
us to Christ, it's worse than no prophet at all. All right, look back with me.
Let's look at these last verses here. Remember ye not the former things Don't wallow in the guilt of
your sin thinking that you're going to add an ounce of atonement
or redemption To your salvation Christ has already done that Remember that you were alienated
and you were brought out of darkness into His marvelous light and
all by His grace. Remember what Christ did. But
we don't go back and try to resurface the things of Egypt. And we don't look to the Scriptures
for anything other than Christ. Behold, I, verse 19, will do
a new thing, and now it shall spring forth. Isn't that the
way the gospel comes? It just springs forth. It's a
root out of dry ground. It's the stem of Jesse. It's
the budding of Aaron's rod. It springs forth in life. And that's the effects that the
gospel has on our hearts. It comes forth out of death into
life. Shall you not know it? If you're
brought to life, you're going to know it, aren't you? Birth can't be denied, a live
birth. It's evident to everybody. I will even make a way in the
wilderness." Oh, this world we live in is
a wilderness to the child of God. The unbeliever can find
comfort and hope and satisfaction in this world. You can't. Not
if God's done a new work of grace in your heart. You can be thankful for the things
that you have, but you can't find satisfaction for your soul.
What the Lord said to that woman at the well in Matthew, in John
chapter four, if you knew who it is that saith unto thee, give
me to drink, you would ask of him, and he would give you living
water. If you come to this well, you're
gonna thirst again, but if I give you, living water, it'll spring
forth from your soul. Then you'll not have to go anywhere
else. And it'll be the water of everlasting
life. Oh Lord, give me this water.
Isn't that what she said? And he did. Rivers in the desert. What's this a reference to? Well, the scripture says that
when the children of Israel were wandering through the desert,
that that rock was there every time they set up a new camp.
That's that same rock. And Moses took the rod of the
law and smote the rock, and what came forth? Rivers of water came
out of that rock. and supplied them and all their
cattle enough water to sustain them in the wilderness. What
a glorious picture. The rod of God's law has smitten
the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's cross and out of him comes rivers
of living water. So that we don't go anywhere
else, not to get thirst for our souls, We know that vanity of vanities,
all is vanity. Isn't that what Solomon said?
And the wise man says the same thing. I can't find anything
in this world to give me hope. It's all promises, promises,
promises. The deceitfulness of riches.
And the religions of this world, you remember what happened with
the prodigal? He took his inheritance and wasted
it on riotous living. Where'd he end up? He ended up in church. He ended
up a Sunday school teacher. He ended up feeding swine and
eating the same husk that the swine did eat. And then he came to himself.
Oh, my father's house. And that's all the religions
of this world are for us. It's just, it's, it's, it's wine
food. It's, it's, it's husk. There's
nothing of any substance to it. Once you've tasted the bread
of heaven, you don't want to go anywhere else, do you? Once
you take, that's what the Lord said, I'm going to make, I'm
going to make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert and
the beast of the field shall honor me. Now, David said, I
was as a beast before thee. He's not talking about dragons
and owls. What is a dragon known for? It's
fierce. It's vicious. And what's an owl? Well, an owl is an unclean bird
and it's nocturnal. And that's what we were, weren't
we? We were fierce in our opposition against God and we lived in darkness
and we were unclean. And so the Lord says, the beast
of the field shall honor me, the dragons and the owls, because
I give waters in the wilderness and rivers in the desert to give
drink to my people My chosen. My chosen. Even the pleasures of sin don't. It's kind of like fishing with
bait, isn't it? You've nibbled on that. There's
always a hook in it, isn't there? Always a hook in it. There's no comfort, there's no
hope, there's no satisfaction. I'm left with no place to go
but to come back to Christ. Verse 21, This people have I
formed. Now that word is fashioned like
pottery. And the scripture says, hath
not the potter power over the play? Shall the thing formed
say to him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus? Can he
not make from the same lump of clay some vessels of honor and
some of dishonor according to his own will and purpose? Yes,
he is the potter, and we're the clay, and that's what he's saying
here. This people have I formed for myself, for myself. They shall show forth my praise. They're not gonna rob me of my
glory. They're going to confess that salvations of the Lord,
every bit of it, from election to glorification and everything
in between, that Christ will be all to them. He's all their
sanctification. He's all their righteousness.
He's all their redemption. He is all, and he is in all,
and they're going to give to him all the praise. They'll not
rob him of his glory. not rob him of his glory. I was
talking to a man this week who is a Calvinist in another state
and he was asking about progressive sanctification. You cannot believe in progressive
sanctification and believe the gospel. You can't. You're either going to have to,
if you think you're getting better, you're going to have to compare
yourself to the law, or you're going to have to compare yourself
to yourself, or you're going to have to compare yourself to other
folks, and any of those that you're not looking to Christ.
You're not looking to Christ. He that sanctified and they that
are sanctified are all as one. All our holiness before God is
all Christ. It's all Christ. My people shall praise me. They're going to give to me all
the glory. The world's not going to do it, are they? No. Our Heavenly
Father, we're thankful that you have told us clearly in your
word the things that we ought to remember and the things that
we ought to forget. And oh, how we pray that you
would forgive us for reversing the order of those things so
often. And we ask that your Holy Spirit
would speak to us and cause us to remember the things we ought
to remember and forget the things we ought to forget. We ask it
in Christ's name. Amen. Number 27, let's stand
together. Free from the law's great curse,
in Jesus we are free. For Christ became a curse for
us and died upon the tree. The rituals of the law and all
the Law's commands have been fulfilled in Christ the Lord,
established by His hands. No covenant with the law can
now with us exist. Complete in Christ we stand by
grace, both free and ever blessed. No more the dread of wrath, No
more constrained by fear, We worship and we serve our God
With gratitude and cheer. In Jesus we are free. In Jesus we are free. Free from all sin and from all
guilt, we live in liberty. We'll join the happy song with
all the blood bought from And sing the praises of the Lamb,
Whose grace makes us His own. Welcome back.