Good evening. Tom's going to
come and lead us in number 39 in your hymnal. I just wanted
to read Psalm 121 verse one. I was glad when they said unto
me, let us go unto the house of the Lord. What a thankful
heart the Lord gives us to be able to come together and worship.
Let's stand together. Tom? Number 39. Oh, the little
one. Wretched, lost, condemned, and
dying, Guilty I deserve God's wrath. Long I fought against
my Master, Hell-bent I was courting death. But the blood of Christ
had bought me, He refused to let me die. This poor sinner, loved by Jesus,
Must be conquered by and by. At the time which was predestined
in the covenant of God's grace, God in mercy sent His Spirit,
blessed time of love and grace. to reveal His Son's great merit
as the sinner's substitute. I saw Jesus bleeding, dying,
suffering as my substitute. Precious blood for sin's atonement,
justice could not ask for more. I heard Christ cry, it is finished,
and I could resist no more. Thanks to God for intervening. Grace that broke my stubborn
will. Grace that would not let me perish. Grace that rescued me from hell. Sovereign grace, I will proclaim
it Irresistible and free Grace that chose me and redeemed me
God, by grace alone, saved me Sinner, now you've heard my story. Now I bid you trust my God. Christ, my all-sufficient Savior,
saves poor sinners by His blood. Please be seated. Would you turn to Daniel chapter
3. Beginning in verse 14. Daniel chapter 3 verse 14, Nebuchadnezzar spake and said
unto them, Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego? Do not
ye serve my gods, nor worship the golden image which I have
set up? Now if you be ready, that at
what time you hear the sound of, he names a bunch of different
instruments, and you fall down and worship the image which I've
made well. But if you worship not, you should
be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. And who is that God that should
deliver you out of my hands?" Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we're not careful
to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God, whom we
serve, is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace,
and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O King. But if not,
be it known unto thee, O King, that we will not serve thy gods,
nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up. Then
was Nebuchadnezzar full of fury, and the form of his visage was
changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Therefore he spake
and commanded that they should heat the furnace one seven times
more than it was wont to be heated. And he commanded the most mighty
men that were in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,
and to cast them into the burning, fiery furnace. Then these men
were bound. and their coats, their hose,
and their hats, and their other garments, and were cast into
the midst of the burning, fiery furnace. Therefore, because the
king's commandment was urgent, the furnace, exceeding hot, The
flame of the fire slew those men that took up Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego. And these three men, Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego, fell down bound into the midst of the burning,
fiery furnace. Then Nebuchadnezzar the king
was astonished. and rose up in haste and spake
and said to his counselors, did not we cast three men bound in
the midst of the fire? They answered and said unto the
king, true, O king. And he answered and said, lo,
I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire and
they have no hurt. And the form of the fourth is
like the son of God. Then Nebuchadnezzar came near
to the mouth of the burning, fiery furnace and spake and said,
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, ye servants of the Most High
God, come forth and come hither. Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
came forth out of the midst of the fire, and the princes, governors,
captains, and the king's counselors, being gathered together, saw
those men upon whose bodies the fire had no power. nor was an hair of their head
singed, neither were their coats changed, nor the smell of fire
had passed on them. Then Nebuchadnezzar spake and
said, blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who has
sent his angel and delivered his servants that trusted in
him and have changed the king's word and yielded their bodies
that they might not serve nor worship any God except their
own God. Therefore, I make a decree that
every people, nation language, which speak anything amiss against
the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be cut in
pieces and their house will be made a dunghill because there's
no other God that can deliver after this sort. Then the king
promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon. Lord, we. Ask. In the name of thy son. By only
begotten son. The son of God, the Christ. We ask that you would give us
the same faith. That there is three men had the
faith that's the gift of thy grace. And oh, Lord, that we might see
that through him we don't even have the smell of sin. Lord, give us grace to believe
your gospel. We pray that you would give our
dear brother a word from you. Lord, leave him not to himself,
but speak powerfully through him. And Lord, give us hearing
ears and receptive hearts and cause us to know that we're your children
through faith. Lord, those that don't know you,
we ask that you would be pleased to slay them and cause them to
believe the gospel. Lord, we confess our sins there
ever before us. Forgive us and cleanse us for
Christ's sake. Lord, we ask that you would Deliver us from temptation and
preserve us and put a hedge about us We pray for your continued
blessing upon this assembly lord. We ask that you glorify yourself
in this place and that many sinners might be brought to a Saving
knowledge of thy blessed son lord. We pray for all your people
wherever they meet together Bless us for the lord's sake in his
name. We pray. Amen Let's stand together once again,
we'll sing hymn number 488 from the hardback teminal, 488. I will sing of my Redeemer and
His wondrous love to me. On the cruel cross He suffered
from the curse to set me free. Sing, O sing of my Redeemer With His blood, He purchased
me. On the cross, He sealed my pardon,
paid the debt, and made me free. I will tell the wondrous story,
How my lost estate to save. In His boundless love and mercy,
He the ransom freely gave. Sing, O sing of my Redeemer, With His blood He purchased me
On the cross He sealed my pardon And made me free And made me
free I will praise my dear Redeemer His triumphant power I'll tell
How the victory He giveth Over sin and death and hell Sing,
O sing of my Redeemer He purchased me, He purchased
me on the cross. He sealed my pardon, paid the
debt, and made me free, and made me free. ? I will sing of my Redeemer ?
And His heavenly love to me ? He from death to life hath brought
me ? Son of God with Him to be ? Sing, O sing of my Redeemer
Please be seated. Will you turn with me in your
Bibles to Isaiah chapter 41, Isaiah 41. And we're going to
try to reserve our, uh, comments and preaching to one verse, one
verse, verse one of Isaiah chapter 41. I've titled this the beginning
and the end of faith. In this one verse of scripture,
we hear from the Lord as to where faith begins and where it ends. If you'll notice with me, there's
five things that the Lord tells us in this one verse. The first
one, keep silent before me. That's where faith begins. The
second thing he says is, renew your strength. And we saw from
the last verse of the previous chapter that that word renew
means change, and that's what it means here. Keep silent before me, change
your strength. The third thing that faith does
is it comes near. The fourth thing, let them speak. And then where does faith end?
It ends where we are right now in public worship, gathering
together to hear about the judgments of God. Now faith, the scripture says,
without it, it's impossible to please God. It is the substance
of things hoped for. It is the evidence of things
not seen. Whatever is not a faith is sin. It's sin. The only thing God's impressed
with is faith. Faith is what the Lord gives
to the regenerate heart, enabling us to believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. Faith is to the new birth what
breathing is to the first birth. When that baby's born, the fact
that it breathes is evident that it's alive. And so it is in the
new birth. If there's life from the spirit,
then there's faith. Faith. What is it? Well, you remember when the Ethiopian
eunuch was asking Philip What doth hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, if thou believest
with all thine heart, thou mayest. And what did the Ethiopian say?
I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God. He didn't say, I believe that
I was elected by God. He didn't say, I believe that
I'm saved. He said, I believe that that
one you just told me about, remember Philip preached Christ from Isaiah
53. He said, that's the Christ. That's the anointed one. That's
the one sent from God to accomplish the salvation of his people.
And I believe that he is the son of God. Now, there's a whole
lot of folks that will say, well, I have faith because I believe
that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, but they redefine what
Son of God is. They deny the fact that He sovereignly
chose according to His own will and purpose before time ever
began. They deny the fact that He was
the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. They say, oh no,
your contribution of faith is that which makes what He did
work for you, denying His deity, denying that He's the Son of
God. To deny particular redemption is to deny that Jesus Christ
is the Son of God. To deny sovereign election is
to deny that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. To hold to progressive
sanctification is to deny that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
Let me show you that. Turn with me back in chapter
40. Look at verse 18, to whom then
will you liken God, and what likeness will you compare unto
him? Look at verse 25, to whom then
will you liken me, or shall I be equal, saith the Holy One? Now progressive sanctification
is all based on man comparing himself to God and seeing how
much closer he's getting. And the Lord says, I'm holy. I'm separate from sinners. I'm
undefiled. You can't compare yourself to
me. And to hold to some idea of increased
holiness or progressive sanctification is to deny that Jesus Christ
is the Son of God. To confess that Jesus Christ
is the Son of God is to say that I believe salvations of the Lord.
I believe He's done it all. I believe He's the Alpha and
the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last,
that He does it all. That's what it means to say that
Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Now, that Ethiopian said, I believe
with all my heart that that's who He is. That's what faith
does. I'm not sure of a lot of things.
But I know God has convinced me that Jesus is the Christ,
the son of the living God. What those disciples say when
the Lord said, will you lead me also? Lord, where should we
go? Where are we gonna go? You alone have the words of eternal
life. We know and are sure that thou art the Christ, the son
of the living God. That's what faith, that's what faith is.
The Lord says without it, it's impossible to please God. Listen
to what, But what the scripture says in these things, John said this
towards the end of his gospel account, I think it was in John
chapter 21, he said many of the things have been written that
are not recorded, but these things have been written in order that
you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the
living God, and that believing you might have life through his
name. He goes on to say, no man can
say that Jesus is Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. Now in another
place the Lord said, you honor me with your lips, but your hearts
are far from me. And when the Lord said, no man can say that
Jesus is Lord, but by the Holy Ghost, he was talking about saying
it with understanding. And then he goes on in that same
verse to say, and no man by the Holy Spirit will call Jesus accursed. What is it to be accursed? It's
to be cut off from God with no reward. It's to be cut off with
God with no hope. Now for anyone to suggest that
Jesus died for someone who wasn't saved is to say that he was accursed. He was cut off from God with
no reward. It's a denial of Jesus being
the Christ, the Anointed One, the One Son of God, to save His
people. The Sovereign Savior, the Lord,
the Son of God. And that's all faith is. It's
looking to Christ. The author and the finisher of
our faith. How does this kind of faith begin? And it's not a one-time experience,
you know that. Faith is something we continue
to come to the Lord for. Lord, I believe, help thou mine
unbelief. Lord, I need more faith. Increase our faith. Increase
our faith. And in every case where God gives
faith, it always begins in one place. And here it is in our
text. Look at verse 1 of chapter 41. Keep silence before me. Now we know that faith comes
by hearing and hearing comes by the word of God. Have you
ever noticed how difficult it is to hear when you're talking? It's impossible, isn't it? It's
impossible. Be swift to hear and slow to
speak. Every good and perfect gift comes
from your Father above, from the Father of lights with whom
there is no variableness nor shadow of turning. And then he
goes to say, be swift to hear. Of his own will begat he us with
the word of truth, be swift to hear. The Lord shuts the mouths
of his people when he opens their ears. Solomon, who was the wisest man
that ever lived, said, there is a time to keep silent, and
there is a time to speak. Now, when is the time to keep
silent? It's when God's speaking. That's the time to keep silent.
You ever notice in a service when the Lord is just present
and speaking that there's just silence? There's just silence. And it's that way in our own
private worship as well. Lord, what did, speak Lord, thy servant listeneth.
I'm here and Lord, I don't have anything to say. Be still, be still and know that
I am God. Praise waiteth for thee, O God,
in Zion. Just waits. Just listens. Look at verse 31. We looked at
this a week or two ago. Verse 31 in the previous chapter.
But they that wait upon the Lord, they shall change their strength.
They shall mount up with wings as eagles and run and not be
weary and walk and not faint. It's waiting on God. It's being
silent before the Lord. You know, Peter often spoke when he shouldn't
have. Can you relate to Peter? One
of the times when he did that was on the Mount of Transfiguration.
God was speaking. God spoke audibly from heaven
that day and said, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well
pleased. The veil of our Lord's humanity was taken away. The
radiance of his deity shined forth. The scripture says that
his face shine as the sun and his raiment was white as light. And Peter, not knowing what to
say, Answered it wasn't ask a question, but he answered and said Lord. It is good for us to be here
Let us make three tabernacles one for you and one for Moses
and one for Elijah And while he yet spake Behold a bright cloud overshadowed
them and He didn't speak anymore after that, Daddy. God was speaking. And Peter got quiet. I pray the Lord will cause us
to be quiet before him. And that we would be given ears
to hear. Habakkuk put it like this, he
said, the Lord is in his holy temple. Let all the earth keep
silent before him. Lord, speak to me. This is where
faith begins. And God speaking, we don't. Just coming before his presence
and, you know, what he has to say to us is a whole lot more
important than what we have to say to him, isn't it? And we oftentimes think, well,
we just need to fill up our prayers with talking. No. Just be quiet. Maybe read scripture. The Lord speaks through his word,
doesn't he? Keep silent before me. Look at
verse 1. This is where faith begins. It
begins with being still before God. Being quiet. Not complaining, not plead, just
Lord speak. And what does he say? Keep silent
before me, O islands. I looked up that word. The first
time it's mentioned is in Genesis chapter 10, and the scripture
says that it talks about the isles of the Gentiles. Now what
this is a reference to all throughout scripture, the Gentiles were
pagans and islands were far away places. And so the Lord is speaking
to pagans that are far from him. That's what we are by nature.
Pagans, far from God. And he speaks to the islands. Lord, let faith begin in us by
giving us a quiet spirit, a contrite heart, a broken spirit before
Thee. Just, Lord, the hearing ear and
the seeing eye is from the Lord. It's a gift from God. We're just,
we wait on Him to give us the ability to hear. But we have
to quit talking. And when we hear, what is the
first thing that happens? Look at the second thing that
the Lord mentions about this progression. I started to title
this Progressive Sanctification, but I thought the title might
confuse some folks. But this is the progression of
faith. It begins with being silent, and then what happens when God
speaks? What's the first thing that's
exposed about us when God speaks? Our weakness, isn't it? When
God spoke to Isaiah in Isaiah chapter 6, what was the first
words out of Isaiah's mouth? Woe is me. I'm undone. I don't have the
ability. I don't have any strength. I
can't save myself. I can't satisfy the demands of
the law. I can't put away my sin. I've
got no ability to stir up faith within my heart. I'm completely
dependent upon God for everything. And prior to that, we're always
trying to fix it, aren't we? And we're, every one of us, a
bunch of control freaks, and we'll do everything we can to
try to fix our problems, try to make it right. And when it
comes to the salvation of our souls, God will, when we're silent
before Him and He speaks, the first thing that we come
to conclude, Lord, I've got no strength. That word, renew. It's not to reform. You know,
calling the revival that took place in the 15th, 16th century
is a misnomer. It wasn't a reformation. You don't reform evil. And the
Catholic Church, nor any error in religion pertaining to the
gospel, has ever been reformed. And you're not going to be reformed.
I'm not going to be reformed. The Lord doesn't say, come to
me and I'll shore you up. I'll strengthen you. I'll give
you some ability to go along with what you've got. No, Lord,
I've got to change my strength, exchange my strength. That's
the word here, to exchange it. Paul said, when I was weak, when
I am weak, then I'm strong. His strength is made perfect
in my weakness. in that while we were yet of
little strength, in that while we were yet trying our best,
no, in that while we were yet without strength, Christ died
for the ungodly. We've gotten it. Faith always
does this. Yeah, well, people think of faith
as some sort of stalwart virtue of character and strength and,
you know, there's a great godly man of faith. That's not the
way the Lord defined it. He said unless you have faith
as a little child, you're not in the kingdom of heaven. Faith
is a confession of its inability, its weakness. Peter may have had the greatest
faith in getting out of that boat, but what that demonstrated
was not his virtue of character, but his weakness. It was, Lord,
I can't trust this boat. I can't depend upon these men
to save me. I'm scared. I've got to get to
you. Renew, exchange, Your strength. When God gives faith, He creates
something out of nothing. we use that word create uh... very broadly don't we but literally
the word create means to make something out of nothing and
God's the only one that can do that we talk about a person being
creative we're not creative God's the only one that can create
and that's exactly what he does the scripture says he called
those things which be not as though they were and Abraham
in Romans chapter four when he had faith He believed God against
hope. He believed in hope. Against
any ability. He's talking about Abraham and
Sarah having a child at 90 and 100 years old. That's impossible.
It's impossible. And what does God say? What's
impossible with man is possible with God. It's impossible for
you to believe. It's impossible for you to come
to Christ. It's impossible for you to save
yourself. It's impossible for you to put
away your sin. It's impossible for us to keep
the law. So what does faith do? It exchanges
its strength for His. Paul said, we are the true circumcision
which worship God in the spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and
have no confidence in the flesh. It exchanges its strength, its
presumed ability for his ability. Has the Lord brought you to that
place? This is where faith begins with
silence and it moves to exchanging its strength for His. The Lord
said that He takes those base things, the things that are despised,
the things that are not. to confound the things that are,
why? That no flesh, no flesh should
glory in his presence. That's what faith does. It starts
with being silent before God. And when God's pleased to speak,
reveal his glory. We have no choice but to exchange
our strength for his. And only then, only then, only
when He gives us supernatural strength are we able to come
to Him. Coming to Christ is not the cause
of our faith, faith is what causes us to come to Christ. So look
what he says, keep silent before me, O islands, you far away pagans. Close your mouth. Listen to God. He's going to speak. He's going
to speak truth to our hearts. He's going to reveal Himself.
What did Isaiah say? In the year the king Uzziah died...
Isaiah was pretty... He was desperate. You remember
how Uzziah died? He died in shame, afflicted with
leprosy. Isaiah was convinced that the
Lord was done with Israel. The king had died in shame. trying
to usurp the authority of the priest and Isaiah went to the
temple that day thinking, all is lost. In the year that King
Uzziah died, I saw the Lord. High, lifted up. And the Lord,
the scriptures make it clear in John chapter 12 that the one
that Isaiah saw was none other than the Lord Jesus Christ sitting
upon his throne. Let the people change their strength. Let them come near. That's what
powerless people do. People that have no strength.
People who have nothing but their sin come unto Him. Will the Lord say, Matthew chapter
11, come unto me all ye that labor, And that's what we do. We come into this world laboring,
trying to satisfy the demands of God, trying to atone for our
own sins. But most folks spend all their
lives laboring, but they're never heavy laden. Their labor never
overwhelms them. They keep thinking, well, I'll
just do a little bit more. I'll do a little bit more. And
the Lord said, come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy
laden. You've come to the end of your
labor. You can't labor anymore. The weight's too great. The weight
of your sin that God's put on you is beyond your ability to
do anything about it. And the Lord says, come unto
me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden. I'll give you rest. I'll give you rest. Take my yoke
upon you and learn of me. I'm the Son of God. I'm the Christ. I'm the successful Savior. I'm
the Messiah. I'm the one sent of God for the
purpose of saving His people, satisfying the demands of the
law, and satisfying God's justice. Come to me. Learn who I am and
what I've done. And you'll have rest for your
soul. I'm the meek and lowly in heart. My yoke is easy, my burden is
light. Isaac, you remember when Jacob
was deceiving his father Isaac about being Esau? The scripture says that Isaac
spoke to Jacob and said, come near to me, my son. that I might feel thee, whether
thou be Esau. For the voice is the voice of
Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau, and the smell,
remember he put on Esau's clothes, and the smell is the smell of
Esau. That's how we come. The hands
represent works, we can't come with our works. His works went
before him. We come in the person of our
brother. And the Lord says, my yoke is
easy, my burden is light. And the smell in scripture is
a picture of prayer. That's what it is. It's a picture
of prayer. You know, when the smoke went up, it was a picture
of our prayers ascending into heaven. and it was a sweet-smelling aroma
in the nostrils of God. Whose prayers are effectual for
saving you? Yours? You're going to pray a
sincere enough prayer to impress God to save you? Peter, be of
good cheer. I've prayed for you. I've prayed
for you. Father, I pray for them. I pray
not for the world. I pray for them which thou hast
given me out of the world. Thine they were, and thou gavest
them unto me. And Father, I pray that you keep them. The Lord
Jesus Christ, our brother, has prayed for us. And he's offered
up his works on our behalf. Come. Why would we not come? They shall enter into my sanctuary
and they shall come near to my temple. Come ye sinners, poor
and needy, weak and wounded, sick and sore. Jesus ready stands
to save you, full of pity, full of pity, love, and power. Men don't come to Christ. Well,
the Lord said the light's coming to the world. Men love darkness
rather than light. They won't come to the light
because the light exposes their deeds for what they are, evil.
Todd and I were talking about this today. How often times we
think, you know, coming to Christ, He puts up with us and He loves
us, but it's kind of a real effort for Him. No. No, the publicans and the harlots,
they were drawn to Him. And they still are. They still
are. The Lord Jesus Christ doesn't
intimidate His people. He tells us in the previous chapter,
He says, the nations are a speck of dust on the scale to Me, but
you are everything to Me. He compares the vanity of the
whole world to the value of His church and His children. And
He says, you're everything to Me. And He describes our beauty
in the Song of Solomon. It's beyond our comprehension.
How could the Lord see us that way? But He does. He said He
did. Faith believes God. Come. That's what He said. Be silent. Listen, when God speaks,
exchange your strength for His strength. And then in the power
of His grace, come. Come. The Spirit and the Bride
say, come. The Lord Jesus Christ is not
hard to be with. He's not hard to be around. He
doesn't beat His sheep. He doesn't humiliate His children. That woman with the issue of
blood, she came, didn't she? Oh, poor blind Bartimaeus, he
came. Be of good cheer, Bartimaeus,
the master calleth thee. Oh, son of David, have mercy
upon me. He knew he didn't have any strength.
He knew he had no ability. He had heard that Jesus was the
Christ, the Son of God, and he believed it, and he said, Jesus,
Son of David. That was a title for the Messiah. Have mercy on me. This is the beginning and ending
of faith. This is the experience that every
child of God has when God gives them faith. Now look what he says, let them
come near, then, then let them speak. Now what do we speak? First of all, we speak things
concerning ourselves and our need. If you read the book of
Job, you'll find that Job did a lot of foolish talking. He
wasn't listening, he was talking. He was justifying himself. He
was interrogating God. It wasn't until Elihu came that
God spoke. Who is this that darkens my counsel
without knowledge? Job, brace yourself like a man.
I'm going to interrogate you. I'm going to ask you a few questions.
And the Lord did. And what did Job say? I had uttered
things without knowledge. Lord, I'd spoke foolishly, things
that I understood not, things that were too wonderful for me,
things that I knew not, but now mine eyes have seen thee, and
I repent in dust and ashes. So the very first thing that
we speak, faith does speak. Doesn't speak while God's speaking,
but after God speaks, it speaks. And what it says is what Job
said, behold, I am Baal. Woe is me, I'm a sinner. Lord,
have mercy upon me. That's the first thing that it
says. When that Syrophoenician woman,
when the Lord called her dog, what'd she say? Truth, Lord. Truth, Lord. She spoke, she spoke. And we were reminded this past
weekend from Isaiah, I mean from Psalm 73, the foolishness of
Asaph before he had gone into the sanctuary of God and then
he knew their end. And the things he spoke after
that verse were a whole lot different than the things he spoke before
them, weren't they? David said in Psalm 32, when
I kept silent, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the
day long. I acknowledged my sin unto thee,
mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions. Now that word confess literally
translated means to speak the same thing. John said, if we
confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us of our
sins and cleanses us of all of our, there's no way we can identify
our sins. We can't. You know, we feel bad
about some of the bad stuff we do, but there's no way that we,
there's not enough time or discernment to be able to know. To speak
the same thing is to just simply agree with God. Is to say, as
Todd reminded us this weekend, is to take sides with God against
ourselves. It's say, Lord, you're right,
I'm a sinner. Everything about me is sinful. And that's what
David's saying in Psalms 32. I said I will confess my transgressions
unto the Lord and thou forgave us the iniquity of my sin. So we speak to God what he has
spoken to us. And then we confess our need.
We confess our need. Have mercy upon me, O Lord. Lord, save me. Save me. David said in Psalm 51, wash
me truly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. And that's our Phoenician woman
said, Lord, you're right, I'm a dog. And then what'd she say? She begged for some crumbs, didn't
she? So the dogs eat the crumbs that
fall from the master's table. So faith does speak. It speaks
things concerning the Lord back to Him. the things that He has
revealed to us about Himself. I will praise Thee, O Lord my
God, with all my heart, I will magnify Thy name forevermore.
Let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually. That is the fruit of our lips.
The fruit of our lips is to praise Him. It's to speak back to him
those things that he's revealed to us about himself. Return unto
the Lord thy God, Hosea said, and take with you words. What words? The words that he's
spoken about himself. say unto him, take away all iniquity
and receive us graciously, so will we render the calves of
our lips. Not a blood sacrifice, it's not
a sacrifice of bulls and bullocks, it's the calves of our lips.
The sacrifice of praise is the confession that we make to God
about who he is and what he's done. And then, notice in chapter 40
at verse 9, we speak lastly of Him to men. The Lord says faith does speak. Faith speaks first to God about
oneself. And then faith speaks back to
God the things that God's revealed to us about Himself. And then
faith speaks to men about God. Did the Lord not say that we're
to be ready always to give an answer to them that ask us for
the hope that's within us and do it with meekness and do it
with fear. You are to be my witnesses. Look at verse nine of Isaiah
chapter 40. Oh Zion, that bringeth good tidings. Get thee up to the high mountain.
Oh Jerusalem, that bringeth good tidings. Lift up thy voice with
strength lifted up. Be not afraid. Don't be afraid of men, say unto
the cities of Judah, behold by God. When we speak to men about
God, we know the only ones that are going to hear are those who
are of Judah. We declare and outwardly the
call of God to repent and believe, but we know when we're doing
that that the only ones that are going to do it are the ones
that the Spirit of God gives the effectual call to, the inward
call. So we speak to all men, but we
know that we're really just speaking to Judah. We're just speaking
to God's elect. We're not trying to make goats
look like sheep. We're not trying to make the unbelieving world
look Christian. You know, there's a big movement
in, quote, Christianity today, particularly in Calvinism, the
new Calvinism. You know, let's have an influence
on culture and let's make the culture look more Christian.
We're not interested in that. Say unto Judah, behold thy God. That's who we're talking to.
We're talking to God's elect, confident that God's elect are
going to hear. They're going to hear. And what
are they going to do? They're going to behold the Lord. They're
going to see Christ. They're going to come to Him.
They're going to believe on Him. They're going to find Him to
be the only rest for their souls. So we do speak. David said in
Psalm 51, restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, then will
I teach transgressors thy ways and sinners will be brought to thee, converted unto
thee or something. You see, David knew he couldn't
speak to men until God spoke to him. Keep silent. That's where faith
begins. And when God speaks to a silent
heart, the evidence of that is that they exchange their strength
for His. The evidence of that is that
they come. They come. The evidence of that is that
in coming they do speak about themselves, about God and two
men. And then notice where faith ends. Notice where faith ends. Let us come near together. Someone said public worship is
more important than private worship. I don't know about that. Private
worship is awfully important. I don't know if we can put a,
a value on one over the other, but I do know this, those who
worship privately long for the times when they can get together
with other believers that have also worshiped privately to join
their hearts and voices in public worship. I was glad when they said unto
me, let us come into the house of the Lord. Is this not the
highlight of your week? To come together for judgment? What judgment? To hear about
the judgment of God. To hear about how a holy God
can save sinners, and has saved sinners. How He can fellowship
with us. How He can be just. Maintain
His justice and His holiness and justify us at the same time. That's judgment and only God
could do that. And so when we come together,
that's... Your faith brought you here,
isn't it? Turn with me to Psalm 122. Faith expresses itself most freely. There's something about public
worship. Well, I do know what it is. The
Lord said, I walk among the candlesticks. Now we know that our God is omnipresent. He's everywhere. But he manifests
himself when his people come together for public worship and
the gospel of his grace is preached. Christ is lifted up. If I be
lifted up, I'll draw men to me. And God's people just, they long
for those times when they get to come and be together for judgment. There's no substitute for it,
is there? Faith wants to be where God's people are. Faith wants
to be where the gospel's being preached. The Lord said, I inhabit
the praise of my people. There's a special presence from
God when we gather together that we don't have anywhere else.
You can't duplicate it on the internet. You can't get it from
a CD. And those who have been given
faith are going to do whatever they possibly can do. Now I know
there may be some situations where a person just absolutely
is unable to get to a place where there's a gospel church out there.
But a child of God that's been given faith, who's engaged in
private worship, will do everything in their power. Look, look at,
look at Psalm 122. I was glad when they said unto
me, let us go into the house of the Lord. We don't shame or
manipulate folks. I know that if God's given a
person faith, they're going to want to be here. Look at, our
feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem. Jerusalem is builded
as a city that is compact together. With it, the tribes go up, the
tribes of the Lord, unto the testimony of Israel. What is
the testimony of Israel? That's the gospel. So they come to hear the gospel,
to give thanks unto the name of the Lord. When Noah, after the deluge had
ceased and the waters began to recede, Noah sent out a raven
and a dove. And the raven went out and didn't
come back. Why? Because he found plenty
of carrion to feed on. Dead flesh floating everywhere.
Can you imagine? What did the dove do? He came
back to the ark, didn't he? He couldn't find anything out
there in the world to feed himself with. And there's the child of
God who's been given faith. They cannot find anything in
the world that will satisfy their souls. Not if they've been given
faith. So where does faith end? Look, let us come together to
judgment, to hear the gospel. The beginning and the ending
of this walk of faith. We walk by faith. Believers don't
walk by sight, they walk by faith. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful
for your word and we ask now that your Holy Spirit would cause
us to hear thy voice. We prayed in Christ's name. Amen. The Tom number 1 25. Let's stand together. So, I hear the Savior say, Thy strength
indeed is small, Child of weakness, watch and pray, Find in me thine
all in all. Jesus paid it all, all to Him
I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow. Lord now indeed I find thy power
and thine alone can change the leper's spots and melt the heart
of stone. Jesus paid it all All to Him I owe Sin had left
a crimson stain He washed it white as snow For nothing good
have I Whereby thy grace to claim I'll wash my garments white In
the blood of Calvary's Lamb Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow. And when before the throne I
stand in Him complete, Jesus died my soul to save, my lips
shall still repeat, Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow. Thank you.