Good evening. Let's open tonight's
service with hymn number 186 from your hardback hymnal, number
186, The Church's One Foundation, Jesus Christ her Lord. Let's
all stand together. The Church's one foundation is
Jesus Christ, her Lord. She is His new creation by water
and the Word. From heaven He came and sought
her. to be his holy bride. With his own blood he bought
her, and for her life he died. Elect from every nation, yet
one Her charter of salvation, One
Lord, one faith, one birth. One holy name she blesses, Partakes
one holy food, And to one hope she presses, With every grace
endued. Mid toil and tribulation and
tumult of her war, She waits the consummation of peace forevermore. Till with the vision glorious
her longing eyes are blessed, And the great church victorious
shall be the church at rest. ? Yet she on earth hath union
? With God the three in one ? And mystic sweet communion ? With
those whose rest is won ? O happy ones and holy ? Lord give us
grace that we Like them, the meek and lowly, on high may dwell
with thee. Please be seated. Good evening. Let's open our
Bibles together to Exodus chapter 15. for our call to worship, and
that's exactly what Moses is doing in Exodus 15, calling the
people of God to worship. Then sang Moses and the children
of Israel this song unto the Lord, and Spake saying, I will
sing unto the Lord, For he hath triumphed gloriously, the horse
and the rider hath he thrown into the sea. The Lord is my
strength and song, and he is become my salvation. He is my
God, and I will prepare him and habitation, my father's God,
and I will exalt him. The Lord is a man of war. Remember Isaiah chapter 40, my
people tell them that their warfare is accomplished. We raised our
fist in rebellion against God and God won the war. He won the
war and won us back to himself. The Lord is his name. Pharaoh's
chariots and his host hath he cast into the sea, his chosen
captains also are drowned in the Red Sea. The depths have
covered them, they sank into the bottom as a stone. He's cast our sins into the depths
of the sea. Job said he's sewn them up in
a bag, separated them from us as far as the east is from the
west and remembers them no more. Thy right hand, O Lord, is become
glorious in power. Thy right hand, O Lord, hath
dashed in pieces the enemy. and in the greatness of thine
excellency thou hast overthrown them that rose up against thee.
Thou sentest forth thy wrath, which consumed them as stubble,
and with the blast of thy nostrils the waters were gathered together.
The flood stood upright as a heap, and the depths were congealed
in the heart of the sea. The enemy said, I will pursue,
I will overtake, I will divide the spoil, and my lust shall
be satisfied upon them. I will draw my sword and my hand
shall destroy them. Thou didst blow with the wind,
with thy wind, the sea covered them, they sank as lead in the
mighty waters. Who is like unto thee, O Lord,
among the gods? who is like Thee, glorious in
holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders. Well, if that doesn't inspire
us to worship, we just don't have ears to hear, do we? Let's
pray together. Our heavenly Father, thank you. Thank you for speaking
such glorious words of hope to the hearts of thy children. Thank
you for the accomplished work of thy dear son, the truth behind
these words, who has conquered our enemy, put away our sin,
and saved us all by himself. Lord, we pray that you would
be pleased once again to draw us into thy presence We pray
that you would cause your face to shine upon us, that we would
find our reason for rejoicing in the glorious person of thy
dear son. Father, we pray for this coming
weekend. We pray for Chris and Todd. Ask, Lord, that you'd burden
their hearts with the messages that we should hear. We pray
that you'd be pleased to give them liberty and clarity and
compassion to preach your gospel. We pray, Lord, that our hearts
would be tendered by your spirit, our ears would be open, that
you would give seeing eyes believing hearts, Lord, that you would
draw us into that presence and cause the spirit of revival to
rest upon us. Well, we ask it in Christ's name.
Amen. Number 352 from the hardback.
352 from the hardback temple. Let's all stand together. Jesus, lover of my soul, let
me to thy bosom fly. While the nearer waters roll,
while the tempest still is high, Hide me, O my Savior, hide, Till
the storm of life is past. Safe into the haven guide, O
receive my soul at last. Other refuge have I none, hangs
my helpless soul on Thee. Levi, leave me not alone, still
support and comfort me. All my trust on Thee is stayed,
All my help from Thee I bring. Cover my defenseless head With
the shadow of Thy wing. Thou, O Christ, art all I want,
more than all in Thee I find. Raise the fallen, cheer the faint,
heal the sick, and lead the blind. Just and holy is I am all unrighteousness. False and full of sin I am, Thou
art full of truth and grace. Plenteous grace with Thee is
found, Grace to cover all my sin. Let the healing streams
abound, Make and keep me pure within. Thou of life, the fountain heart,
freely let me take of Thee. Spring Thou up within my heart,
rise to all eternity. Please be seated. Will you open your Bibles with
me again to Isaiah chapter 40? There's so much in this chapter,
we could spend months right here. And I hope the Lord will speak
to our hearts tonight and draw us into His presence. That's
what He's doing here. He's speaking to His children.
These words, I'm sure that I've quoted them in preaching, in
an attempt to intimidate men, and that's really not the objective
here. The Lord is speaking to the hearts of His children. You
remember how this chapter started out? He said, Comfort ye, comfort
ye my people, speak ye comfortably. And that literally means speak
to their hearts from my heart. Here's our God drawing us to
Himself by convincing us of His glorious ability, His success
in saving His people. I've titled this message, if
you'll look with me, verse 26. The very last three words in
verse 26, not one faileth. Now most folks worship a God
that's a miserable failure. He's a figment of their own imagination. He's an idol. He wants to save. He's trying to save. He's doing
his best, but he can't get it done without your approval. He
wants to bless, but he can't really bless unless you cooperate
with him with some level of obedience to reward his blessings. That's not our God. Our God fails
not. He is a successful Savior. He has satisfied all the demands
of God's holy law. He's fulfilled justice and he's
successful in wooing his children to himself. He's not declaring
his omnipotence, his omniscience, his sovereignty here in these
verses to cause fear in our hearts. Now, when I meet a person who
tries to intimidate me, I can't get away from them fast enough
or far enough. There's just something about
that spirit of intimidation, isn't there, that causes us to
recoil, to flee the presence of that person. Now, it would
be a fool who's not intimidated by God. Yet, the intimidation
that he gives to his children is not one that causes them to
cringe or run from Him. It's one that draws them into
His presence. It's one that causes them to
want to worship Him. And that's what He's saying here.
He's declaring His glory in order... He's telling us about His omnipotence. He's got all power. He's telling
us about His omniscience. He knows everything. Can't be taught anything. He's telling us about His incomparable
and incomprehensible holiness. And if He's given us ears to
hear, These declarations of his divine nature and glorious character
will cause sinners not to run from him, but to run to him. And that's the spirit of this
whole chapter. Like I said, I'm sure that I've
quoted verses out of this chapter in an attempt to try to cause
men to be afraid. That's really the opposite of
what the Lord's doing here. He's convincing us that He is
able. He is successful in all of his
purposes. And what he says in that verse
we just looked at, not one faileth. Now you and I fail at everything
we do. We've never been successful at anything. No, we do our best,
don't we? And our best, the scripture says,
is vanity. Man at his very best state is
altogether nothing. He's empty. We just, you know,
when we talk about success among men, all we're doing is comparing
ourselves to ourselves and thinking, well, I succeeded that time when
I failed in the past. Or we're comparing ourselves
to another man thinking, well, I'm more successful than he or
whatever. But on God's standard of success,
he's the only one that can claim that. And he does. He's saying to his children here,
I've got this. I can't fail. I'm not a frustrated
God. I'm in absolute total control
and I've always, always got your best interest at heart. I know
the thoughts that I have for you. Thoughts of peace, not of
evil. I'm going to bring you to your
expected end. I can't do anything for you except
for that which is good. And I've succeeded in saving
your sin sick soul. And I will succeed in getting
you all the way to glory. Now let's begin, let's begin
in verse, in verse 13, well, verse 12, who hath measured the
waters in the hollow of his hand and meted out heavens with the
span and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure and
weighed the mountains and scales and the hills in a balance. Who's
done that? Nobody. I have, I've done it. I've got it. I heard recently,
you know, the brilliant astrophysicist came up with this idea of dark
matter some time ago. We know that mass equals gravity
and we can look out into the stars and see that there's not
enough mass to hold the galaxies together. So the scientists concluded that
there's got to be mass out there that we don't we can't see it
We can't detect it. We can't see it and they called
it dark matter and they've been looking for it for years and
Just recently they've come to the conclusion. Well, maybe we
were wrong Maybe it's really not out there. Oh Anything man can do to deny
the glory of our God he's holding it together and And it's not dark matter, it's
light. It's the light of the gospel
that enables us to see that it's the hand of our God. And that's
what he's saying here. He's saying, I know how many
specks of dust there are in the hills. I can hold all the oceans
in my hand. I'm not able to fail. I've got
you in the palm of my hand. And no one can separate you from
me. No one. You see, the Lord is, as we said
Sunday, He has every right to say to us, I said so, so therefore
you submit. But He doesn't. He sits us down
and He's telling us about Himself for the purpose of of wooing
us to himself. And when he gives us ears to
hear what he's telling us about himself, we come running. We
do. Look what he says. Who hath directed
the Spirit of the Lord, or been his counsel, or hath taught him? Our God's never had a new thought.
He's never had a new thought. He's never been taught anything.
He's never learned anything. He knows it all. Who's going
to teach him? Who's going to teach him? We don't know anything, do we?
We're confused about everything. We don't have perfect knowledge
about anything. And what the Lord is saying here
is, it's okay, I do. I do. Trust me. Look at verse 14, with whom took
he counsel and who instructed him and taught him in the path
of judgment? These questions are so glorious
because they're really statements about him, aren't they? Who's
going to instruct our God on how to make judgments? And who's
taught him knowledge and showed to him the way of understanding?
Who's done it? Come unto me, all ye that are
heavy laden, all ye that are burdened. Learn of me. Learn of me. Take my yoke upon
you. My yoke is light. My burden is
light. My yoke is easy. I'll give you
rest for your soul. I know it all. There's not any
detail that I don't know. I've numbered the hairs of your
head. I know the details of your life. I know what's going to
happen tomorrow. I know you better than you know
yourself, of course. That's an understatement, isn't
it? Behold, now again, the Lord's
not The Lord's not attempting to intimidate us here. He's just
saying to us, the nations are nothing to me. You're everything
to me. He's comparing the vanity of
the world to the value of his children. That's what he's doing. He's not just saying, you know,
we've quoted these verses to say, well, all men are nothing
but vanity and all are sinners and we've thrown ourselves into
that category. But that's not what the Lord's
saying here. He said, the nations are dropping the bucket to me,
but you're everything to me. You see, He's drawing a contrast. between the vanity of the world
and the value of his children. Behold, the nations are as a
drop in a bucket. They're counted as a small dust
on the balance. And you see this balance scale
and you put the weights on one side and then you balance it
out on the other side. What's a speck of dust gonna
make any difference on a balance scale? It's not gonna make any
difference at all. Then the Lord says, all the world
is like that speck of dust. It's of no value. It's of no
significance. It doesn't matter. But you are
everything to me. He's not calling us the nations.
He's not calling us the speck of dust on the scale. He's saying
to us, you're the apple of my eye. They don't mean anything
to me. I've given everything for you. What is our Lord doing? He's not trying to engender some
sort of spirit of fear and cringing or obedience or anything like
that. He's drawing us to himself. He's
saying, I know everything. I know everything. Everything. And all the things that the world
puts all of its value on, it's a speck of dust. Behold, he taketh up the aisles
as a very little thing, and Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor
the beast thereof sufficient for a burnt offering. All nations
before him are as nothing, and they are counted to him less
than nothing and vanity. Our God is the omniscient God. He is the glorious I Am. He is the self-existent God who
is not dependent upon anything. And He's speaking to His children,
telling them what value they are to Him. How much He loves
them. and how much he has to give them. He is the self-contained, self-satisfied,
self-existent, immutable, omniscient, omnipotent God. And he's given
himself to his people. Look, here's the conclusion of
the matter. Look at verse 27 in this chapter. In
light of this, why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel,
my way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over
from my God? Why would you even think such
a thing? Why would you entertain such a thought, Jacob? Before the heavens were filled
with His glory, before the angels sang of His praises, before creation
declared Him, before the world was made, before man ever existed,
our God is. And He stood not in time, but
in eternity. Not dependent upon anything. Self-existent, that's what, who
do I say sent me? Tell them I am sent you. He's in need of nothing. When
we speak of glorifying God, we're not talking about adding to His
glory. He cannot gain anything. Nothing can be taken away from
Him. He is solitary. That's what He's telling us.
He is perfect. He is complete. Worship is not
for God. Prayer is not for God. It's for us. When we speak of glorifying God,
we're not talking about adding to His glory. We're talking about
declaring His glory among men. It's for us. He's in need of
nothing. That's what he's telling us in
this whole chapter. I'm not like other gods. I'm
not derived. I'm not dependent. Turn with
me to the book of Job chapter 35. Job 35. Now Elihu is the gospel preacher that's
declaring unto Job the character of God. Prior to Elihu coming
on the scene, all Job had was his own perverted ideas about
God, reinforced by his miserable comforters, false preachers.
We're looking at Job chapter 35. And Elihu has to come and
declare unto Job who God really is. And at the end of Elihu preaching,
God begins to speak to Job's heart, and Job makes this conclusion. He said, I had heard of thee
by the hearing of mine ear, but now mine eyes have seen thee,
and I repent in dust and ashes. Oh God, I'm vile. I had spoke
without knowledge, didn't know what I was saying. Now I want
you to see what Elihu says to Job in chapter 35 at verse six.
If thou sinnest, what doest thou against him? Or if thy transgressions
be multiplied, what doest thou unto him? Now Elihu is telling
Job about God and he's saying, Job, if you sin, do you think
that your sin is somehow going to detract from God? You can't detract from him. Sons of Jacob, I'm the Lord. And that word Lord is I am. You
know, that's when God gave his name, he said, I am, has sent
thee Jehovah. Yahweh and that's and and and
it's translated in our Bibles Lord I am the Lord and I change
not and therefore you sons of Jacob or not I'm not diminished
by your sin, and I'm not Increased by your obedience look at the
next verse if thou be righteous But give us thou him or what? Receiveth he of thy hand What
are you going to give God? You can't add to him. You can't
take away from him. Thy wickedness may hurt a man
as thou art, and thy righteousness may profit the sons of man. You
do what's right and it'll be a benefit to man. If you worship
God and glorify him, it'll be a benefit to you. But what Elihu's
saying to Job, and what God's saying to me and you, is that
nothing we do changes God. You can't add to Him. You can't
take anything away from Him. He's not dependent upon you. Now, a God like that, who is
self-existent, is a God I can find all my needs
in. All my needs. The need for sustenance
in this world, He's got everything. He said, I own the cattle on
a thousand hills and I own the hills too. Am I going to withhold
from my children that which they need? No. Am I able to save? Yes, to the
uttermost. Can I provide for you everything
that you need in this life and in the life to come? Yes. Can I speak peace to your heart
in spite of your circumstances? Yes. Have I sent you your circumstances? Yes. I know the thoughts that I have
for you and I'm able and will bring you to your expected end.
Come to me. Come to me. Trust me. Lean upon me. Rest your soul
in me. In me. We're not talking about
a doctrine here. We're talking about a God who's
able. And we're talking about sinners
who are unable. Go back with me to Isaiah chapter
40. Well, before we do that, turn with me to Romans chapter
11. Romans chapter 11, a very familiar passage. The one where the Lord's telling
us the same thing here. Romans chapter 11. Look at verse
33. And again, these verses aren't
for the purpose of of trying to impress or intimidate. Look what our Lord says to us.
Oh, verse 33, oh, the depths of the riches of both the wisdom
and the knowledge of God. You can't begin to scratch the
surface, much less plumb the depths of it. How unsearchable
are His judgments and His ways are past finding out. The just
shall live by faith. You're not going to figure out
what God's doing. We're like Job so many times, aren't we?
Interrogating God and putting God on the witness stand and
trying to get God to explain Himself. And that's what the
Lord is saying to us here. It's okay. Trust Me. My ways are past finding out.
You're not going to discover them. But this is who I am. And I'll give you faith to believe
this is who I am, and you will come running to me. For who hath known the mind of
the Lord? Or who hath been his counselor?
Does that sound familiar? It's exactly what we just read
in Isaiah chapter 40, isn't it? Or who hath first given to him
that he should recompense unto him again? That's what we just
read in Job. What are you going to give to
God that's going to reward him? How are you going to detract
from him? No, you can't. For of him and through him and
to him are all things, to whom be glory forever. And God's people
say, amen. So be it. Yes. Yes. I don't have to have all the
answers. I can know all the answers. But I can know Him. And I can
say with the Apostle Paul, I know whom I have believed and I am
persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed
unto Him. What have you committed unto Him? Everything. Everything. My soul and my body are committed
unto Him. And he's able to keep that which
I've committed unto him against that day. To the bitter end. Do you believe that? This is
our Heavenly Father telling us how glorious and able he is. Causing us to fall at his feet. He is to be worshipped, for he
is solitary in his majesty, unique in his excellencies, peerless
in his perfections. He sustains all, but is independent
of all. He gives to all, but is enriched
by none. What a glorious God. All right, let's go back to Isaiah
chapter 40. He's contrasting the vanity of
the nations to the value of his children. He's saying to them,
you are the apple of my eye. This theme continues on. Turn
with me over just a couple of pages to Isaiah chapter 43, Isaiah
43. Look at verse one. But now, but
now, thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he
that formed thee, O Israel, fear not, for I have redeemed thee. Your redemption's already accomplished.
We don't look to a feeling. We don't look to an experience.
We don't look to evidence of salvation in our lives. Don't
look for proof of life. Look to Christ. Look to what
he did. When the spirit of grace and
the spirit of supplication is poured out upon the house of
Jacob and upon Jerusalem, they shall mourn after him as one
mourneth for his only son. For they know that they pierced
him. They pierced him. It was my sin. I have called thee. How do I
know that he redeemed me? How do I know? Some people, somebody's
thinking right now, well I know that he accomplished the salvation
of his people, but I don't know if I was part of that. Do you
have any hope for having your sins put away other than the
accomplished work of the Lord Jesus Christ? Are you holding
on to anything else? Are you holding on to the depths
of your sorrow, to the evidence of your salvation, to anything
other than the finished work of Christ for the hope of your
salvation? Are you holding on to anything? If you're not, then you can have
great hope that He redeemed you. Because that's what faith does.
Faith looks to Christ and Christ alone. And only the faithful
will do that. Only the faithful will do that.
Everyone else is gonna have Jesus plus something else. If Christ, Todd was telling me
about a brother that started attending their services several
years ago and he said, he came up to him recently and said,
He said, Todd, he said, when I first started coming here,
I thought that Christ was all I needed. But now I know that
Christ is all I have. How do you know that he redeemed
you? Because Christ is all you have. He's all you've got. Nothing
else, no one else, nowhere else to go. Fear not, Jacob. I've redeemed
you. I have called thee by thy name,
and thou art mine. When thou passeth through the
waters, I will be with thee, and through the rivers they shall
not overflow thee. And when thou walkest through
the fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle
upon thee, for I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel,
thy Savior. I gave Egypt for thy ransom,
and Ethiopia and Saba for thee. Since thou was precious in my
sight, thou has been honorable and I have loved thee. Therefore,
will I give men for thee and people for thy life. The nations
are a drop in the bucket to me. They are a speck of dust on the
scale to me. I've given the whole world for
you. Those whom I have redeemed is
what everything in this world is all about. It's all it's about. In God's
sight, and not in man's sight. In the unbeliever's eyes, what's
the Lord saying? How are things? Are they like
you think they are, or are they like I think they are? Someone
said, well, that's the way God sees it, and that's the way it
is. That's the way it is. And faith sees it like God sees
it. And that's all the Lord's doing
here. He's telling us the way it is. And he's saying to his
children, look, this is the way it is. Let the heads of state, you know,
let the potsherds of the earth contend with the potsherds of
the earth. Let Putin and Trump, you know,
rattle their swords and flex their muscles, whatever, you
know, let them go. The guy in North Korea, what,
you know. Those nations, United States
of America is a speck of dust on the scale to me. It's nothing. It's vanity. It's less than vanity. This is
all about you and me and it's all it's about. It's all it's about. And God's people say, really? Really? Yeah, really? Really? Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful
for your precious promises, and we ask, Lord, that you would
cause us to believe you. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Number 37, let's stand together. Oh Lord, my God, when I in awesome
wonder Consider all the works Thy hands have made I see the
stars, I hear the rolling thunder Thy power throughout the universe
displayed Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to Thee How great
Thou art! How great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Saviour
God, to Thee How great Thou art! How great Thou art! When through the woods and forest
glades I wander And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees
When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur And hear the brook and
feel the gentle breeze Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee
How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee How great Thou art! How great Thou art! And when I think that God, His
Son not sparing, Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in. That on the cross, my burden
gladly bearing, He bled and died to take away my sin. Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee, How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee, How great Thou art! How great Thou art! When Christ shall come with shout
of acclamation, And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart! Then I shall bow in humble adoration,
And there proclaim, My God, how great Thou art! Then sings my
soul, my Saviour God, to Thee How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Saviour
God, to Thee How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Yeah, that's a good point all
you know, we've all got our favorite little picnic areas around where
we normally sit Let's clean it all up. Just leave him books
But take the stuff that you usually have because you may not get
your seats come Friday Saturday