Number 33, stand up and bless
the Lord. We sing this to a different tune
that's written here, so don't let that throw you, but it's
a familiar tune. Let's all stand together. Number 33. Stand up and bless the Lord,
ye people of his joys. Stand up and bless the Lord your
God with heart and soul and voice. Though high above all praise,
above all blessing high, Who would not fear His holy name,
and laud and magnify? Hope for the living flame, from
his own altar brought, to touch our lips, our minds inspire,
and wing to heaven our thought. God is our strength and song,
and His salvation ours. Then be His love in Christ proclaim,
with all our ransomed powers. Stand up and bless the Lord,
the Lord your God adore. Stand up and bless his glorious
name, henceforth forevermore. Please be seated. Good evening. We're going to
read for our call to worship from Psalm 84. Psalm 84. Thank you for your prayers for
this past weekend. It was an enjoyable trip for
me. I trust that it was profitable. I was very grateful to know that
you were here praying for me and that Robert and Michael were
here faithful to the gospel. I had a chance to listen to both
those messages yesterday and was so encouraged and so grateful
for these men. Before we read our scripture
for tonight, I'll give you an update on Brian. As I understand
it, the regulations for being approved for a transplant are
very rigorous. A lot of details have to be taken
care of in order to create, I guess, a level playing field for those
who are looking for a transplant. And that's what Bryan's going
through right now. expedited the procedures, but he still
has some hoops to go through before he can get on the list. If and when he gets on the list,
he's high on the priority rating, so it could be the same day he
gets on the list, that a liver would be available. It could
be a week or two. But continue to pray. That's
our hope. They seem to be... He's in great
spirits. I know many of you have seen
him. He told me again today, he said,
these people treat me like a king. So he's enjoying the TLC and
thanking the Lord. He's just very, very grateful.
for the Lord's goodness toward him. And I'm very thankful for
him. He's watching tonight. Psalm 84, you have your Bibles
open. How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts! My soul longeth,
yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my
flesh crieth out for the living God. Our hope is that the Lord
would create such a spirit in our hearts tonight. I asked Noah
a few minutes ago how he's doing. He said, I need to hear about
Christ. That's what this is saying. God's put it in my heart to want
to hear the gospel, to need to hear the gospel. Yea, the sparrow
hath found a house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she
may lay her young, even thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my King
and my God. Blessed are they that dwell in
thy house. They will be still, praising thee. Blessed is the man whose strength
is in thee, in whose heart are the ways of them, who passing
through the valley of Baca make it a well, and rain also filleth
the pools. They go from strength to strength. Every one of them in Zion appeareth
before God. We come before the throne of
grace to find help in our time of need, and know that we are
welcomed there and accepted in the beloved. O Lord God of hosts,
hear my prayer. Give ear, O God of Jacob. Behold, O God, our shield, and
look upon the face of thine anointed. This is the believer asking the
Lord to look upon the face of the Lord Jesus Christ on my behalf. For a day in thy courts is better
than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper
in the house of my God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.
For the Lord God is a sun and shield. The Lord will give grace
and glory. No good thing will he withhold
from them that walk uprightly. O Lord of hosts, blessed is the
man that trusteth in thee. Now, Don't get that turned around. It's not you will be blessed
if you trust in him. If you trust in him, it's because
you've been blessed. Let's let's pray together. Our merciful heavenly father,
we do come in the name of thy dear son, thanking you that we
have acceptance before thee. thanking you, Lord, that we have
an advocate, a sin bearer, one who presents us perfect before
thy presence. We thank you, Lord, for this
place where we can come together and open thy word and join our
hearts together in worship of thee. Lord, how we do pray that
you would bless us, bless us with thy presence, bless us with
the understanding that can only come by your Holy Spirit, enabling
us to see Christ, to rest in Christ, to rely upon him. Lord, we do pray that you would
increase our faith, and we pray, Father, for those who are strangers
to your grace. And we asked Lord that you would
send your Holy Spirit in power and make them willing cause them
to come. We thank you for Brian. Thank
you for the faith that you've given him. We asked father that
you would. She would provide for him. Healing
to his body. For our sakes. Lord that. She would give to him this. This miracle of life and enable
us Lord to be able to. to rejoice in your grace and
in your mercy toward him. To that extent, we thank you
for the rejoicing that we have now, knowing that our sins have
been put away, knowing, Lord, that you have nothing but good
for your Children, knowing that we have a place that's been prepared
for us. We thank you for it in Christ's
name. Amen. Let's stand together again. Number
229 229. Mhm. Yeah. Tell me the old, old story of
unseen things above, of Jesus and His glory, of Jesus and His
love. Tell me the story simply as to
a little child For I am weak and weary and helpless and defiled
Tell me the old, old story. Tell me the old, old story. Tell me the old, old story of
Jesus and His love. Tell me the story slowly that
I may take it in. Wonderful redemption, God's remedy
for sin. Tell me the story often, for
I forget so soon. The early dew of morning has
passed away at noon. Tell me the old, old story. Tell me the old, old story. Tell me the old, old story of
Jesus and his disciples. Tell me the story softly with
earnest tones and grave. Remember I'm the sinner whom
Jesus came to save. Tell me the story always, if
you would really be. In any time of trouble, a comforter
to be. Tell me the old, old story. Tell me the old, old story. Tell me the old, old story of
Jesus and His love. Tell me the same old story when
you have cause to fear That this world's empty glory is costing
me too dear Yes, and when that world's glory is dawning on my
soul, Tell me the old, old story Christ Jesus makes me whole. Tell me the old, old story. Tell me the old, old story. Tell me the old, old story of
Jesus and his love. Please be seated. The passage of scripture that
the Lord has led me to try to preach from tonight is that old,
old story. And it's so clear that very little
needs to be said about it. If you can't see the gospel in
Isaiah chapter 4, then I would encourage you to ask the Lord
to have mercy on you. Open the eyes of my understanding,
Lord. I want to be able to see Christ. It's so clear in this
passage of scripture. I have read and studied Isaiah
chapter three and tried to develop a message from the rest of that
chapter and just wasn't able to. I know the gist of the chapter. that the Lord is pronouncing
judgment on those who would put their trust in anything other
than Christ. That's the message. And the application
of that message relates to man-made religion. It relates to free
will, works religion, which is natural for man. But as I studied
chapter three of Isaiah, I also saw, as we saw last Wednesday
night from the first two verses of that chapter, that it relates
to my old man. It relates to the man in me that
cannot believe and the man that will suffer death one day. And I look forward to that day.
I look forward to that day when this corruptible, will be made
incorruptible. And this mortal will be made
immortal. Because there's something in
me that cannot believe the gospel. And then there's another part
of me that cannot not believe the gospel. And I'm so thankful
for that. So Isaiah chapter 3, if you get
a chance to go back and and read it. Let me just show you a couple
of verses that summarize this chapter. Verse 8, for Jerusalem
is ruined and Judah is fallen because their tongue and their
doings are against the Lord to provoke the eye of his glory. Now that's the gist of the whole
chapter, and you can see how the unregenerate man would provoke
the eye of God's glory by believing that something that he does,
some prayer that he prays or some work that he performs would
merit him favor with God. And the Lord says, you've provoked
the eye of my glory. You've robbed me of my glory.
You've taken to yourself that which belongs only to me, and
I will not share my glory with another. And so you have nothing
but the judgment and wrath of God to look forward to. And as
I said, there's a part of every believer, his old man, that's
never been able to believe. And he's no less sinful now than
he's ever been. He's nothing but sin. That's all he is. And that old
man is, well, he's going to get what he deserves. He's going
to be put back into the ground. And the Lord is showing us that
in this chapter. Look at verse 10 and 11 of that
same chapter. Say ye to the righteous that
it shall be well with him for they shall eat the fruit of their
doings. Now here's to the child of God.
Say ye to the righteous and say ye to the new man. It shall be
well with you. It shall be well with you. And
you will eat the fruit of your doings. Because everything that
the Lord Jesus Christ did, we did in Him. That's my hope. Union with Christ. That His righteousness
is my righteousness. He's called the Lord our righteousness,
and we are called the Lord our righteousness. Say to the righteous,
it shall be well with them, for they shall eat the fruit of their
doings. This matter of imputation was
so real that the Lord Jesus Christ considered our sins to be his
and suffered all the wrath of God and the shame for sin on
Calvary's cross when God charged him with our sin. God made him
sin who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him. And so this matter of imputation
is so real that as he is so are we in this world right now say
ye to the righteous it shall be well with them and whatever
providential circumstances God ordains for us in this life while
we're still in this flesh that'll be good too that'll be good too
I've got nothing but good for you now we can look at every
situation every circumstance I was telling somebody in Kentucky
last weekend I said They were talking about, you know, the
candidates for president and I said, well whoever it is, it's
going to be good for us. It's going to be good for us.
I believe that with all my heart. It'll be good for God's people. It may not be good for the economy,
it may not be good for the unbeliever, but everything's going to be
good for us. Say ye to the righteous, it shall
be good with them. They shall eat of the fruit of
their doing. what the Lord is doing he's doing for us and it's
all good and verse 11 woe unto the wicked
as I said this applies this whole chapter applies to the to the
unbeliever in religion in the world and in me And say ye to
the wicked, woe unto the wicked, it shall be ill with him, for
the reward of his hand shall be given him." The reward of
what he's done. Everything we've placed our hands
on in this world has been infected with sin. And one day, these
hands are going to be put back in the ground. And that's going
to be good. That's going to be good. Now in light of that, in light
of that, we're in need of a word from God, a word of grace, a
word of promise, a word of hope. We're in need of hearing the
gospel. We're in need of knowing that, how is it that it's going
to be well? Lord, this wickedness that's
in me, this sin that does so easily beset me, this unbelieving
flesh that's strapped to my back, Lord, what's my hope? What's
my hope? the Lord speaks peace to the
hearts of his people and my hope tonight is that the Holy Spirit
will take his word and speak peace to our hearts and in that day I've titled this
message this is that day right now And if the Spirit of God
is pleased to come in power and make us willing, now will be
the day of salvation. Now will be the accepted time.
And this will be that day. Isaiah is prophesying, of course,
of what's going to happen in the latter day. The latter day,
you remember, is the whole period of time between the first and
second coming of Christ. And so he's 700 years before
the coming of Christ. He's prophesying of what's going
to happen in that day. That day has come, and that day
is now. And so the Lord is speaking peace
and hope and promise to the hearts of His people when He says, in
light of the fact that the wicked are going to be destroyed and
the righteous are going to be provided for, in that day seven
women shall take hold of one man. Now you know the number
seven is the number of perfection. It's on the seventh day, God
had finished His work and He rested. And this thing that we
call a week repeats itself every seven days, doesn't it? It's
a perpetual number. It's a number that represents
the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's all of God's elect. It's all those that He chose
in the covenant of grace before the world began. It's the women. It's the church. And seven women
are going to go to one man. All Israel shall be saved. Not one will be lost. I'll not lose one of my sheep.
All seven women. Every single one of them. The
whole church and every member of the church is going to go
to one man. the God-man. First Timothy chapter
2 verse 5, there is one God and one mediator between God and
man, the man, the man, Christ Jesus, the Lord. He's the man
that we all flee to. We don't go anywhere else. We
don't go to the law for salvation. We don't go to another man for
salvation. There's no strength in man. There's
no hope in our works. When the Lord is pleased to teach
us the gospel, He causes every one of His bride, all seven of
them, to flee in faith to one man. But I want you to notice
what this woman says to her potential husband when she
first comes to him. She says, we will eat our own
bread and wear our own apparel, only let us be called by thy
name to take away our reproach. Now in Exodus chapter 21 verse
10, God made provision in the law for those men who would violate
his law by taking more than one wife. The Lord had always ordained
one woman for one man for life, and those who would have multiple
wives, God put a provision in His law for the protection of
those other wives. And He said in Exodus chapter
21 that if a man takes a second wife or a third wife or however
many wives he takes, he cannot show partiality towards any of
his wives. He has to provide every one of
them the same exact thing. The same exact thing. I'm sure
that that was a deterrent for some men taking on more than
one wife, but that was the law. The law was that whatever bread
and whatever shelter and whatever provisions, you could not diminish
those provisions, is what it says in Exodus chapter 21, for
your second and third and multiple wives. It had to be exactly the
same for every one of them. You could not show partiality.
So these women are coming to their husband and they're saying,
we're not gonna hold you to the law. We'll keep the law ourselves. We'll provide our own bread and
our own water if you'll just let us have your name so that
we can have this reproach taken away from us. You say, well, that's not how
believers come to Christ, is it? In Acts chapter 2, when Peter first preached
the gospel on the day of Pentecost, The scripture says that they
were pricked in their hearts and said, men and brethren, here's
what the people of Jerusalem said to Peter and to the disciples,
men and brethren, what shall we do? In Acts chapter 16, you remember
in the story of the Philippian jailer, when Paul and Silas were,
the earthquake came and Paul and Silas were delivered and
the Philippian jailer was going to kill himself and when Paul
came out he said, what must I do to be saved? In Mark chapter
10, the rich young ruler that Robert preached from on Sunday,
responded to the gospel by saying, good master, what must I do to
inherit eternal life? Now here's the point. These seven
women come to one man and they say to this one man, we're not
going to hold you to the law, we're going to keep the law,
only save us. And my understanding, in my own
experience, and in the experience of others who first hear the
gospel, is that's how they come. That's how they come. What must
I do? You see, we're by nature, by
nature we think that salvation is by works. By nature we can't
comprehend grace. By nature, we're always thinking
that there's something I've got to do. There's some law I've
got to keep. There's some prayer I've got
to pray. There's something that I need to avoid in my life. There's
an aisle I need to walk. There's a baptistry I need to
go through. There's something, there's a
ceremony I need to perform. Surely, if I'm going to be saved,
there's something that I have to do, and all seven women come
to this one man, and they say to him, we're not going to hold
you to the law, we'll keep the law. Just save us. Just save
us. Give us your name. We're going to get past verse
1, so don't worry too much yet. But you see, that's the natural
response, isn't it? And people, when they do hear
the gospel, and we talk about the fact that there's nothing
that you can do, and that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness,
and He provides all the bread and all the water equally for
all of His wives. He doesn't show partiality. He
provides everything necessary for all seven women. They can't understand it. They
just can't comprehend it. I was talking to somebody just
the other day and I said, well, what is your hope for salvation?
And they said, well, to keep the commandments. Keep the commandments,
that's what God requires. They said that, to keep the commandments. So how are you doing on that?
Well, I'm doing my best. I'm doing my best. That's just
the natural... Unless the Lord is pleased to
open the eyes of our understanding and give us faith in Christ,
that's the way we all think. And that's the way we all come. And the Lord has to grant us
repentance. You know what repentance is.
We saw that last Wednesday night from verses 1 and 2 of chapter
3. It's a changed mind. We've got
to have our minds changed. We just naturally think that
salvation is by works. God has to change our mind. What did they want? They wanted
His name. Jeremiah chapter 23 his name
shall be called the Lord our righteousness Jehovah said Kenya
and Jeremiah chapter 33 says and she shall be called Jehovah
said Kenya and in Jeremiah and in Ezekiel, I think it is and
The scripture says that she will now call her husband Ishi, which
means husband, and no longer will she call him Bali, which
means Lord. So she's not going to come cringing
before him, she's going to embrace him in love as her husband. How many pictures of that we
see in the Song of Solomon, where this wife is looking for her
beloved and the affection that the bride has with her husband. And all the way through to the
book of Revelation, what do we read of the lambs? the lamb,
the wedding feast of the lamb, where we're all seated together
at our husband's table and he's providing for us everything necessary
for the full enjoyment of his grace. Hosea Hosea chapter 2 is where
she shall call his name Ishi, not Bali. And then Hosea goes
on to say, I will allure her. You remember what Gomer did in
forsaking her husband, and Hosea did not give up on her. He continued
to pursue her and drew her to himself and allured her and won
her over with his affection and with his love. Look back with me to Isaiah chapter
4. In that day, seven women, that's the whole church, that's
all of God's elect, shall take hold of one man. And she'll say to him, if you'll
make me your wife, I'll provide my own bread, my own water, my
own clothing, just take away the reproach of my sin. Save my soul and I'll do whatever
is necessary. Verse two, in that day, The branch
of the Lord will be beautiful and glorious. Now the Lord Jesus
Christ is called the stem that grows from the root of Jesse.
He's called the branch. You remember when John the Baptist
came preaching and the scripture says that John said the axe has
been laid to the root of the tree. In other words, national
Israel is about to be cut down. And from that stump is going
to spring forth the branch, the root of Jesse, and he's going
to produce fruit. And it's going to be beautiful. It's not going to be like that
old self-righteous works. law-mongering religion of Israel. It's going to be a religion of
grace. It's not going to be one that's
going to require the wife to provide for herself anything.
He's going to keep the law for her. And the branch is going
to be beautiful. Turn with me to Zachariah. towards the end of the Old Testament,
Zechariah chapter 6. And look with me at verse 12.
and speak unto him, saying, Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying,
Behold, the man whose name is the branch. and he will grow up out of his
place, and he shall build the temple of the Lord. Even he shall
build the temple of the Lord, and he shall bear the glory,
and shall sit and rule upon his throne, and he shall be a priest
upon his throne, and the counsel of peace shall be between them
both." He's going to do it. This is the beautiful branch.
This is the one who gets all the glory. So this wife comes
saying, what must I do to be saved? Surely there's some law. Surely there's something that
I can do to earn favor with God. Surely there's something I can
avoid or I can practice. That's just the natural mind.
and then she looks and she sees the branch of the Lord to be
beautiful and glorious verse chapter 4 Isaiah verse 2 and
the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely now the
natural man sees no beauty in him that we should desire him
according to Isaiah chapter 54 we look at him and we think well
you know what he doesn't, he's not beautiful, he's not comely,
he's not glorious, he doesn't get all the glory. So the Lord does a work of grace
and now he's beautiful and glorious and excellent and comely. Hebrews chapter 1 verse 4 says
that he has a name that is more excellent than the name of all
the angels. In Hebrews chapter 8 verse 6,
the scripture says that his ministry is more excellent than the ministry
of Moses. And Abel, being a type of the
Lord Jesus Christ, makes it clear in Hebrews chapter 11 that his
sacrifice was more excellent than Cain's. Cain brought the
works of his hands and Abel brought the blood sacrifice of the Lamb.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the excellent one. God has given him all preeminence. And here's the church coming
to the one man saying, we'll eat our own bread. We won't obligate
you to the law. We'll keep our part of the law
for us. Just save our souls. Here's a
person who's got a desire to be saved, but they don't know
what salvation's about. They think it still has something
to do with their works. And in that day shall the branch
of the Lord be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the
earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped
of Israel. The elect. Not for everybody.
Not for everybody. The natural man is still going
to say, I'm not going to obligate you to the law, I'll keep the
law for myself. But I still need you to save
me. Isn't that the thoughts of religion? We need Jesus. We need to be
saved. The shame of our sin is evident.
But this matter of law keeping, we'll take care of that ourselves.
We just need Him to put His approval on our efforts to keep the law. And it shall come to pass. And
it shall come to pass. It shall come to pass. Have you escaped? We were prisoners of war, weren't
we? Scripture says that the gates
of hell shall not be able to prevail against it. and that
God will take those who are in bondage and make them in bondage
to himself. He'll come down into the very
pits of hell and bring his children out. We lost the battle. When we stood, Michael, with
our father Adam and raised our fist to God, we died. We died. And we need the Lord Jesus Christ
and the power of the Spirit of God through the ministry of the
gospel to come into the prison and set us free. You know, there's
been on the news recently a couple of prison breaks in the nation. And I was thinking about them
today and they were as the result of an inside job. There was somebody
that worked in the prison that actually provided them the resources
that they needed to get out. I don't remember the result of
that, but I remember seeing that on the news. And our being delivered
from prison was an inside job. The Lord came into the prison
and took down the gates and set us free, came to set the prisoner
free. And it shall come to pass, verse 3, that he that is left
in Zion and he that remaineth in Jerusalem shall be called
holy. Holy? Yep. I'm so thankful for that. Should be called holy. He has
chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world that we should be
holy and without blame before Him in love. He that sanctifyeth
and they that are sanctified. That's the word holy. The word holy means to be sanctified,
to be set apart. He that sanctifyeth and they
that are sanctified are all as one whereby he is not ashamed
to call them his brethren. She should be called holy. Now
God speaking, God's going to look at me and call me holy?
If I'm in Christ He is. See, this thing of marriage in
the Old Testament, you know, people read the Old Testament
and they think, well, that was just a male chauvinistic culture
where the women didn't have any rights. It's a gospel message. The woman was completely dependent
upon marriage with her husband for her to provide anything for
her in this world. That's the gospel. The Lord established
the economy of Israel in order to declare and illustrate the
gospel. She shall be called holy, even
every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem. Now,
when were we written among the living in Jerusalem? When God
etched our names in the Covenant of Grace, the Lamb's Book of
Life, before time ever began. Whosoever was not found in the
Book of Life was cast into the pit of fire. Everyone, everyone that is written
among the living in Jerusalem When the Lord shall have washed
away the filth of the daughters of Zion. That's my hope. I'll separate your sin from you
as far as the east is from the west. I'll wash you of your sins
and remember them no more. No more. Oh, to be washed in
the blood of the Lamb. Look at it. When the Lord shall have washed
away the filth of the daughters of Zion. How do I know that I've
been washed? How do I know? Because I really
do believe that everything about me is filth. I believe that. I didn't used to believe that.
I used to think that the only sin problem I had was some bad
behavior that, that, that, that, that smoked my conscience from
time to time and things that I made, you know, rededications
and renewals. Now I know, I know that everything
about me before God is filth. I can say with Job, I am vile. I have no clean flesh on my body. I've got no righteousness. My
righteousnesses are as filthy rags before God. I'm going to
say this Sunday, but I'll say it again tonight. Last week,
I got a call Sunday morning when Wayne got here and found out
that the offering box had been broken into. Somebody pried that
door open right there, came in, broke the offering box, looking
for money. I'm sure drug money. And I thought,
you know, whoever did that unconscionable act, breaking into a church and
stealing money from a church, certainly needs to be forgiven.
No one would deny that. Everybody would say, yeah, that's
sin, that's wrong. And that person needs forgiven.
no less than you and I need to be forgiven when we put money
in the box. Every time we make an offering,
oh Lord, why can't I trust you with more of what you've given
me? Why am I so bound to material
things? Why do I have any thought in
giving this offering other than I'm an unprofitable servant?
Why do I entertain the idea that I'm doing something good? The fact that I put it in the
offering box makes it vile. It makes it a sin. It makes it
something I need to be forgiven for. How do I know if I'm elect? because the Lord has washed away
my filth. He's made me clean in the Lamb's
blood. When John saw the saints in glory
in Revelation and their robes were washed white in the blood
of the Lamb. and shall have purged the blood
of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment and
the spirit of burning." When did He forgive me? Did He forgive
me when I came and begged forgiveness? Did He forgive me when I came
and said, just make me one of your wives and I'll provide for
myself? Did He forgive me then? No, the
scripture says that He forgave us in judgment and in burning. When did that happen? When God
Almighty looked down from heaven and he saw your sins and my sins
on the Lord Jesus Christ and he was forced by his holy nature
to cut off his own son. He couldn't have anything to
do with his son when he saw our sin. And the fire of God's wrath
fell from heaven and consumed the sacrifice, even as the sacrifice
quenched the fire. The judgment of God fell on the
Lord Jesus Christ. And the burning wrath of God's
fury fell upon the Lord Jesus Christ. That's my hope. That's
my hope. I've got no righteousness but
the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning. And the Lord
will create upon every dwelling place of Mount Zion and upon
her assemblies a cloud and smoke by day and the shining of the
flaming fire by night. For upon all the glory shall
be a defense. upon every thing that is above
shall be you see that word defense perhaps you have it in the margin
of your Bible have it in mind is the word covering covering
upon her glory shall be a covering what is the covering the shed
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ When I see the blood I'll pass
by you, it's the only thing that hides our sins from the view
of God. And so he says, in every place,
I'm gonna provide you think about those Israelites in the wilderness
I don't know Michael I think you brought this up Sunday morning
the pillar of fire by night providing them not only warmth in the cold
desert but light in the darkness and then the pillar of smoke
by day I mean you would have cooked out there in that in that
desert and every single day was a cloud-covered day The Lord
protected them from the sun by day and the darkness by night
and so he does for all his people. Here we are wandering through
the dry desert of this world and the Lord said in every place
I'm gonna provide for them light in their darkness and I'm gonna
provide for them shade in the heat of their trials and troubles
and persecution And there shall be a tabernacle, verse 6, for
a shadow in the daytime from the heat, and for a place of
refuge, and for a covert from storm and from rain. I'm going
to provide a tabernacle. The Lord Jesus Christ is that
tabernacle. If we looked at the Old Testament
tabernacle, every part of it Every part of it, from the badger
skin, to the one door that came in, to the columns, to the showbread,
to the lavers, and the place of sacrifice, and the holies
of holies, everything. everything in that tabernacle
pointed to Christ and the scripture says that the Lord Jesus Christ
was made flesh and he tabernacled among us and what he's telling
us here is that he's still doing that he's tabernacling he is
the pillar of fire by day by night he is the shadow by day
and he's the covert He's the place where we go and find our
hiding from the storms. The storm of God's wrath and
storm of God's judgment that's going to come against our sin,
come against the sins of this world one day. We don't have
to fear that storm. That storm's already come. It's already come. We hide in Christ. Isaiah chapter 4. That day is now. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful
for Your Word. We're thankful for the declaration
of Your mercy and Your grace towards Jerusalem. We're thankful
that You've caused some to escape. Lord, we pray that you would
cause us now to believe what you've said and to flee in faith
to the Lord Jesus Christ. For it's in his name we ask it.
Amen. For the time number 5 14 in the
hardback terminal, let's stand together. you Come ye that love the Lord, and
let our joys be known. Join in a song with sweet accord. Join in a song with sweet accord. And thus surround the throne. And thus surround the throne. We're marching to Zion. Beautiful, beautiful Zion. We're marching upward to Zion,
the beautiful city of God. Let those refuse to sing who
never knew our God, But children of the Heavenly King, But children
of the Heavenly King, May speak their joys abroad, May speak
their joys abroad. We're marching to Zion, beautiful,
beautiful Zion. We're marching upward to Zion,
the beautiful city of God. The hill of Zion yields a thousand
sacred sweets Before we reach the heavenly fields Before we
reach the heavenly fields Or walk the golden streets Or walk
the golden streets We're marching to Zion, beautiful, beautiful
Zion. We're marching upward to Zion,
the beautiful city of God. Then let our songs abound, And
every tear be dry. We're marching through Emmanuel's
ground, We're marching through Emmanuel's ground, To fairer
worlds on high, To fairer worlds on high. We're marching to Zion,
beautiful, beautiful Zion. We're marching upward to Zion,
the beautiful city of God. Yeah, that's you. You just got here?