Good morning. Everybody settled
and ready? That's terrific. It's two minutes
to go. Anyway, well, let's open this
morning's service with hymn number 239 in your hardback hymnal.
Number 239, Art Thou Weary. Let's all stand together. Art thou weary, art thou languid,
art thou sore distressed? Come to me, saith one, and coming
be at rest. Path he marks to lead me to him
if he be my guide. In his feet and hands are wound
prints and his side. Is there diadem as monarch that
his brow adorns? Yea, a crown in very surety,
but of thorns. If I still hold closely to him,
what hath he at last? Sorrow vanquished, labor ended,
Jordan passed. If I ask him to receive me, will
he say me nay? Not till earth and not till heaven
pass away. Finding, following, keeping,
struggling, is he sure to bless? Saints, apostles, prophets, martyrs,
answer yes. Please be seated. Good morning. We're going to
reverse the order this morning in that we're going to be in
Isaiah 42, the first hour and first Corinthians, uh, the second
hour. So if you'd like to turn with
me in your Bibles to Isaiah chapter 42, let's pray together. Our Heavenly
Father, we confess to You that our flesh
causes us a constant struggle in this life. We are at odds
with everything that's in this world. And oh, how we thank You. We thank you for the accomplished
work of thy dear son. We thank you for the fellowship
that you give us one with another. We thank you especially for the
hope of eternal life that you speak to our hearts. We ask that
you would be pleased to do that this morning. For we do languish
in this life, and we pray, Father, that you would assure us of our
sin being put away, and that you would reveal to us the glory
of Christ. For it's in His name we ask it.
Amen. concluded with verse 8 on Wednesday
night in Isaiah chapter 42. I am the Lord. I am the Lord. That is my name. That's the name that the Lord
gave to Moses at Mount Sinai at the burning bush when Moses
said, whom shall I say sent me? And the Lord said, tell them
I am that I am. I'm self-existent. I'm the creator
and sustainer of all of life. I'm not like you in any way. I'm holy. I'm other than you
are. You're dependent upon me. I'm
in no way dependent upon you." And so he says, that's my name. My glory will I not give to another. I'm not going to share my glory. I'm going to get all the glory,
the gospel of God's free grace in the finished work of the Lord
Jesus Christ is the only message of salvation in the whole world
that gives to Christ all the glory for salvation. Everything
that we depend upon for the salvation of our souls was accomplished
in Christ. And he goes on to say, neither
my praise to graven images. We all have come into this world
as idolaters, that's our nature. The idol factory begins working
very early in life in our imagination, forming a God that is like unto
ourselves. And until the Lord reveals himself,
we'll be bound to be idolaters. And here he says, I'm not gonna
let that happen. not gonna share my glory with
another and I'm not gonna tolerate your idolatry I'm gonna set you
free from it and I'm going to reveal to you who I am and what
I've accomplished now look at verse 9 behold the former things
are come to pass and new things do I declare before they spring
forth I tell you of them Now the Lord's speaking of that which
is going to happen when the Lord Jesus Christ comes into this
world. He says, right now I'm speaking
to you with types and shadows and pictures. But there's going
to come a day when I'm going to reveal my glory more fully
and more clearly to you. uh... hebrews chapter one uh... god who at sundry times and in
divers manner spake unto our fathers by the prophets half
in these last days spoken unto us by his son is sort of like
uh... you go away from your spouse
and you have a picture of them that you reflect on. And you
can't wait till that day when you're reunited. You don't look
at the picture of your loved one while you're in their presence.
Once you're reunited, you put that picture away. and and that's
what the Lord say right now you have types and shadows and pictures
but I'm gonna tell you about something that I'm going to do
I'm going to reveal my glory more fully to you and you're
not gonna have to go back to the pictures you're gonna have
the person of the Lord Jesus Christ revealed in his fullness
And so he says, behold, the former things are come to pass. You remember in Luke chapter
24 when our Lord was walking with those disciples on the road
to Emmaus and they didn't know who he was. It was after his
resurrection. And, uh, he said to them, ought
not these things to have been fulfilled? and beginning with
Moses and the Psalms and the prophets, he expounded unto them
those things concerning himself." And so, what did he say? All fools and slow of heart to
believe. How many things I've told you
that I was going to do. I told you before I did them.
I told you before I did them, and you didn't believe. But this
is the fulfillment of what I promised. Now, for us, we have the hope
of knowing that the promises that have yet to be fulfilled
are going to be fulfilled just like those promises were. We
anticipate the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. We
anticipate shedding this flesh. We anticipate this mortal being
made immortal. We anticipate that which is corruptible
being made incorruptible. We anticipate seeing Him as He
is and being made like Him. And we can be sure that all the
promises that He made concerning our future are going to be fulfilled. The Lord's promises are always,
always fulfilled. So he says in verse 9, Behold,
the former things are come to pass, new things do I declare. Before they spring forth, I tell
you of them. The Lord Jesus Christ is coming
again, not as a suffering servant, He's coming as a reigning king
to take home all of his children. Oh, what hope we have in knowing.
Lord, we don't want to be accused of being fools and slow of heart
to believe. Lord, we want to believe your
promises. And that's my hope, isn't it? Isn't that your hope?
The promise is standing on the promises. That's where we are. Look at verse 10. Sing unto the Lord a new song. New in its revelation. We have
a more full revelation. Our fathers, the Old Testament
saints, longed to see the fulfillment
of the promise and yet they didn't see it. They believed God, but
they didn't see it. The angels want to look into
it. We have a revelation of Christ
in light of His coming and His accomplished work and the fullness
of the revelation that's made of Him in the New Testament that
is the fulfillment of this promise. He says, Sing unto the Lord a
new song and His praise from the ends of the earth He gets
all the praise and all the glory. According to His own will and
purpose, He chose a particular people and put them in Christ
before time ever began. He succeeded in paying to the
Father the redemption price for their souls. He satisfied all
the demands of God's law, even unto death. In the day in which
you sin, you shall surely die. That was the first law God gave.
death had to be satisfied in crisis the only one that could
do it and uh... he he fulfilled all righteousness
everything that god requires from me and you he looks to christ
we'll see that more clearly towards the end of this passage let me
uh... but let's go back to burst and sing into the lord a new
song and his praise from the ends of the earth you that go
down to the sea Now, the Scripture is written in symbolic language.
What does the sea represent in the Scriptures? Well, several
things. It represents separation. It's
the oceans that separate the continents, is it not? And in
the book of Revelation, when we are standing in the presence
of Christ, the Scripture says there is no more sea. There's
no more separation. It represents turbulence, doesn't
it? The way of the Lord is through
the seas. And God has ordained trials and
troubles for us to experience in this life to cause us to depend
upon Him. You that go down to the sea,
you that feel in your soul separation from God as a result of your
sin, And there's another picture of the sea, isn't it? When the
Lord said, I will cast their sins into the depths of the sea. Do you find yourself going down
to the sea? You feel the separation as a result of your sin. You
experience the turbulence that your sin has brought in this
life. You that go down to the sea.
You see, not everybody feels that. Not everybody feels. the separation that believers
experience when their sin is made manifest. Not everybody
does that. Most folks think, well, I'm good
with God. God's good with me. We're okay. I'm okay. You're okay. We're
all okay. We know there's a problem, don't
we? And the Lord, even for His children, will often withdraw
the awareness of His presence in order to instill in our souls
the fear of God and cause us to seek His face. And all that
comes as a result of sin. You that go down to the sea,
what are we told to do? And all that is therein, the
isles and the inhabitants thereof, those far away places, that's
what the isles represent. Far away places. That's where
we are. We're just by nature, spiritually, we're far from God. The Lord has to come to the isles. in order to capture us. And the
inhabitants thereof let the wilderness and the cities thereof lift up
their voice." We live in a dry and thirsty land. There's nothing
in this world to satisfy the soul of a child of God. The unbeliever
can be satisfied with the things that this world has to offer.
They can be satisfied with religion, they can be satisfied with material
wealth, and they can be content. The child of God is never content
with the things that this world has to offer. We live in a wilderness,
and those that are in the wilderness are always looking for what?
When the children of Israel were wandering around in the wilderness,
what were they... Every time they'd come to a new place, what'd
they look for? They looked for that rock, didn't they? That
rock that followed them. That rock that led them through
the wilderness, because that's the source of water. Now, if
you were in a desert, you'd be constantly looking for an oasis,
wouldn't you? You'd be looking for that place,
because you know, in this place, without any water, you're going
to die. you that are in the wilderness. Do you live in a wilderness?
Do you find yourself going down to the sea? Well, that's who
the Lord's talking to. Let the wilderness thereof lift
up their voice, and the villages that Kedar doth inhabit. Now that word Kedar means dark.
That's the literal translation of that word. And the inhabitants
of Kedar were the descendants of Ishmael. They were the descendants of
Ishmael. There was no hope for the descendants of Ishmael. They
lived in darkness. There's no hope for us unless
the Lord floods the light of the gospel in this dark place
where you and I live. So these are the ones he's speaking
to. Can you identify with these folks? And he's saying, sing a new song. Why? Because the light of the
gospel has been shed in our hearts in the face of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's been fully revealed in all
of His glory. We're no longer in a wilderness.
There's a rock from which springs the fountain of life. The sea? We don't have to go down there
anymore. We can rejoice in knowing that that separation between
us and God has been fixed, hasn't it? Let the wilderness and the cities
thereof lift up their voice, and the villages that Kadar doth
inhabit, let the inhabitants of the rock the inhabitants of the rock. If we're in Christ, we're in
that rock. That's where the Lord put Moses,
isn't it? When Moses went up on Mount Sinai
to get the law, Moses said, O Lord, that I might see thy glory. Show
me thy glory. And what did the Lord say? If
you're going to see my glory, the only way you're going to
survive that is if I put you in the cleft of the rock. There is a place here near unto
me. And the Lord put Moses in that
cleft, covered him up with his hand and caused his backside
to pass by, didn't he? Showing him his glory, revealing
to Moses what he had accomplished in the sacrifice of Christ. you the inhabitants of the rock
saying saying we have reason to sing since then put away got
satisfied we have a savior we have an advocate that stands
before god in our behalf we have all the hope of the promises
of god fulfilled in christ for the scripture says all the promises
of god are you a and a man they're all yes and let your yes be yes and your
nay be nay you know what the scripture says we don't we don't
preach yay nay preaching we'll say well you know it could be
this way it could be that way now all the promises of God are
yay yes no ifs ands or buts no maybes maybe well you know no
all the promises of God are yes and amen complete. Nothing to be added to it in
Christ. That's reason to sing. In spite
of the fact that we live in a wilderness, in spite of the fact that we're
going down to the sea, in spite of the fact that we are by nature
children of Kadar in darkness, we have now reason to sing. Why? Because He's revealed His
glory. He's revealed His glory in the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Shout from the top of the mountains. Oh, we don't want to keep this
a secret, do we? We don't. We want others to know. We want
others to believe. This candle is not put under
a bushel basket. It's set up on a hill that it
might shine forth light. We want our children to believe.
We want our family members to believe. shouted from the housetop
and be ready you know one of the you say well i you know i
don't feel confident in in in declaring the gospel god god give us opportunity every
one of us you ask the lord give you opportunity he will and you
may not be able to give all the the necessary defense that men
sometimes want to argue. But you can say what that blind
man said, that the Lord healed. You know what? As far as your
theological debates are concerned, I don't know. All I know is that
once I was blind, and now I see. Once I couldn't see Christ, once
I could not see that I was a sinner, once I could not see how it is
that God's pleased to put away my sin, and now I know. I know
that it's all in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Shout it from the housetops and be ready always to give an answer
to them that ask you for the hope that's within you. Do it
with meekness and do it in fear. And another way we shout it from
the housetop is to support the ministry of the church. Is that not true? your attendance,
your encouragement for your friends to come, and your support in
every way that we seek to try to get the gospel out into the
world. That's another way that you shout it from the housetop. And, you know, What the church
in Lexington, Kentucky is doing right now and what they will
be doing, you're part of that. And what we're doing, they're
part of that. And everywhere the gospel is part. In other
words, we're part of the family of God. When the Lord said to
his sheep, when He separated the sheep from the goats, He
said, I was hungry and you fed me. I was thirsty and you gave
me to drink. I was naked and you clothed me.
I was a stranger and you took me in. And what does the child
of God say? What's the child of God say? Lord, when did we
do those things? When did we do those things?
Here's what the Lord said. Those are spiritual things. I
do that. He's talking about preaching
the gospel to those who are hungry, putting the robe of righteousness
on those that are naked, uh, taken in those who are strangers
to cry to grace and receiving them into the fellowship of the
gospel. And what the Lord saying is that everything that my church
accomplishes in the preaching of the gospel is credited to
every member of my church. You're part of that. If you're
part of the body of Christ, you're supporting the ministry of the
gospel. The Lord is saying to every member
of his church, well done, well done, my good and faithful servant. You're part of the body of Christ
and everything the body of Christ has done in every generation
is credited to every member of the body of Christ. That's glorious to me. That's such an encouragement.
Look at verse 12. Let them give glory
unto the Lord and declare His praise in the islands. Lord, You get all the glory.
You get the praise. If I'm able to participate in
the work of the ministry of the gospel, it's to your glory. Because
I can't see it in my life. I can't see what contribution
I'm making. But if you consider it to be
so, then it's all of grace. And all of grace is all to your
glory. Look at the next verse. Now,
the Lord has written His word in such a way as to give the
unbeliever enough rope to hang himself. uh... he just has and uh... the the ridiculous arguments
that the unbeliever will make when it comes to the word of
god uh... and he'll take the very scriptures
and uh... and use them to to hang himself
now we noticed in uh... verse 2 of this chapter, "...he shall
not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the
street." It's very clear. Speaking of Christ, He's not
going to go around begging men to let Him have His way. When
he walked up to Matthew, Matthew's minding his own business. Matthew's
sitting there at the money changers table and I'm sure that Matthew
was very profitable in his endeavors as would all money changers be.
And the Lord walked by the table and said, you follow me. And the scripture says that Matthew
immediately got up from the table and followed after Christ. left
it all there. Left his prophets, left his friends,
left what? Somebody else is going to take
over this. He called me to follow him. Peter was part of a family
fishing industry. I'm sure he was very successful.
I'm sure that his family was well known in the region and
people came there and did business with Peter and his father and
his brothers. The Lord walked along the seashore and said,
I'm gonna make you a fisherman, you come follow me. And Peter,
the scripture says, left his nets and followed after Christ. And his friends and co-workers
are all standing around thinking, what are we gonna do? There goes
Peter. That's what the Lord means when
he says, he shall not cry nor lift up nor cause his voice to
be heard in the street. When he's ready to make you willing,
he's going to have the power to do it. And you're just going
to follow. And he doesn't have to manipulate.
He doesn't have to beg. He just says, you follow me. My sheep hear my voice and they
follow me. That's power. So, how do we understand
verse 13? The Lord shall go forth as a
mighty man. He shall stir up jealousy like
a man of war. He shall cry, yea, roar. He shall prevail against his
enemies. I have long time holding my peace. I have been still and refrained
myself. Now will I cry like a travailing
woman and I will destroy and devour at once. Matthew chapter 27 the scripture says when our Lord
was hanging on Calvary's cross that he cried with a loud voice
Eli Eli slama sabachthani which being translated is my god my
god why hast thou forsaken me and then the scripture goes on
to say that he cried again with a loud voice it is finished now
when the Lord Jesus Christ was crying from Calvary's cross who
was he talking to he wasn't talking to me and you we just get to
get him on the conversation that he's having with the father when the Lord Jesus Christ is
talking to his father is not like ways talking to us when
he's talking to us he just says you come and we come But he doesn't
presume upon his father. He's crying out to his father
for mercy. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? I've been silent long enough,
and now I'm going to cry out like a travailing woman with
a loud voice, declaring to the father, 8 this is the cop the father saw
the travail of his soul and was satisfied father if there be
any way this cup can pass for me let it be nevertheless not
my will but I will be done this is the cop and you and I have
no on father here's another here's another cry from the cross father
for give them for they know not what they do you and I at we're
just clueless when it comes to our sin we don't know what we're
doing the Lord Jesus Christ for all eternity had experienced
perfect fellowship with his father and as a result of him bearing
in his body the sins of his people on Calvary's cross he was forced
to cry out in agony experiencing for the first time what he dreaded
to experience, the drinking of the wrath of God for the sins
of his people. And then when he cried, it is
finished, he was talking to the Father. Scripture says he cried it. He
didn't cry to us. He cried to the Father. Father,
I have finished the work which Thou hast sent me to do. And
now I'm giving up the ghost into Thy hands I commend my spirit.
I'm trusting You to reward me for what I've done. What are
You going to reward me with? My bride? My bride? My church? Those for whom I lived
and died? That's my reward? Verse 15. Look at the last phrase in verse
14. I will destroy and devour at once. He exercised his power
as a man of war. He accomplished his purpose in
destroying the devil and delivering those that are held captive by
him. And he did it just like that. All at once. The Lord Jesus Christ is not
in a battle with Satan like you and I are in our flesh. He's
already conquered him. He defeated him all at once.
When he finished the work that the Father sent him to do, it
was done. God's people were delivered and
everyone for whom he died was saved. I will make waste mountains and
hills and dry up all their herbs and I will make the rivers islands
and I will dry up the pools. The things that we trusted in
for our salvation The things that we hoped in, God takes them
away, doesn't He? He just takes them away. Paul
said, that which I thought was gain unto me, I now count but
loss. Yea, I count all things but loss
for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. Those
things that I thought were giving me merit with God, He's taken
them away. He knocked me off my high horse.
That's what the Lord has to do, doesn't He? He makes the valley,
He makes the hills to be valleys. He humbles the proud. I will
bring the blind by a way that they knew not. You remember when
the king of Assyria surrounded the prophet Elijah at Dothan?
And because he was telling the king of Israel the the battle
plans of the of the king of Assyria so the king of Assyria sent his
army down there surrounded him and and the prophets servant
went out in the morning and saw all these these chariots all
around the city and all what should we do what did the prophets
say He said, don't be afraid. They that are with us are more
than they that are with them. And went back out and looked
and how can that be? Lord opened his eyes that he
might see. And then when the young man went
back out, what did he see? Flaming chariots between the
army of Assyria and the prophet protecting them. And then what
did the prophet do? The prophet smote the army of
Assyria with blindness and took them by the hand and led them
down to Samaria where the king was. And the king said, Shall
I kill them? And the prophet said, No, don't
kill them, feed them. And the king provided for his
enemy, and the enemy left, and the scripture says they never
came back. What a glorious picture. First
of all, we have to have our eyes open to know that. And then we've
got to be led by, we're at enmity with God. He will make his enemies
to be his footstool. By nature, we're at enmity with
God. What does he do? He takes us blindly down to the
king. And the prophet says, shall I
kill him? And the King says, no, feed him, feed him. And he makes his enemies to be
his friends. What a, that's, that's the promise that he's
making here. I will bring the blind by a way that they knew
not. I will lead them in paths that
they have not known. I will make darkness light before
them and the crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them
and not forsake them." I'm going to do these things unto them. They're going to come to see
for the first time that sin is more than just a behavioral problem. I'm going to reveal to them that
sin is what they are. They think that God is all together
as themselves and they think that God wants to save everybody
and is doing his best to try to make it happen. I'm going
to reveal to them that God has an elect people. and he's accomplished
their salvation through the sacrifice of his son. He's put it away
once and for all. I'm going to show them so many
things that they could not see before. I'm going to reveal to
them. They've been measuring themselves
and monitoring their progress and motivating themselves by
the law. I'm going to show them. Why did
they do that? Because they were blind. I'm
gonna show them that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness.
The law has been fulfilled. It's been made honorable. Look
at verse 21. The Lord is well pleased for
His righteousness sake. He will magnify the law and make
it honorable. Our attempts to keep God's law
don't honor the law. They don't honor the law. The
law is only honored when we look to Christ. He's the one who made
the law honorable. Verse 17. They shall be turned
back, they shall be greatly ashamed, that trust in graven images,
that say to the molten images, you are our gods, Are you ashamed
of your past religious convictions? Are you? I mean, just ashamed
of them. I can't believe I ever believed
that. I'm so, just so ashamed. Hear ye deaf, and look ye blind,
that ye may see. if his head her I mentioned this
recently I I've heard so many times people say well God wouldn't
command you to do something you can't do here ye deaf and look
he blind exactly what he's doing everything God commands of us
we can't do look at verse 19 who is blind
but my servant, or deaf as my messenger. Now I remind you,
where this chapter begins in verse one behold my servant whom
I uphold he's talking about Christ who is blind as my servant or
deaf as my messenger that I sent who is blind as he that is perfect
and blind as the Lord's servant seeing many things but thou observeth
not opening the ears but he heareth not now that's what I need that's what I need I need a sovereign,
omnipotent, omniscient God who's not able to see my sin. Why is God not able to see your
sin? Very simple reason. Because He's
not looking at you. He's not looking at you. You get that? We look at us. He says I've separated your sin
as far from the East as from the West. I remember it no more.
The only hope that we have to stand in the presence of a holy
God is for God not to look at me. Who is so blind as my servant? He sees everything but he observes
not. Why? Because he's not looking
at me. He's looking at Christ. And Brie is expecting in just,
what, how many weeks Brie? Twelve more weeks. And she has
a baby in her womb. And everywhere that Brie goes,
that baby goes with her. And everything she eats, that
baby eats. And we've never seen that baby.
All we can see is Bree. That's where we are in Christ.
That's a separate life in her womb. But it's completely dependent
upon her and hid from the rest of us because it's in her. So it is with Christ. God's not
looking at us. He's looking at His Son. Alright,
let's take a break. Okay.