Good evening. Let's open tonight's
service with hymn number 442. Praise him, praise him. Let's
all stand together. 442. Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus
our blessed Redeemer. Sing, O earth, His wonderful
love proclaim. Hail Him, hail Him, highest archangels
in glory. Strength and honor give to His
holy name. Like a shepherd, Jesus will guard
His children. In His arms He carries them all
day long. Praise Him, praise Him, tell
of His excellent greatness. Praise Him, praise Him, ever
in joyful song. Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus
our blessed Redeemer. For our sins He suffered and
bled and died. He our rock, our hope of eternal
salvation. Hail Him, hail Him, Jesus the
crucified. Sound His praises, Jesus who
bore our sorrow, love unbounded, wonderful, deep and strong. Praise Him, praise Him, tell
of His excellent greatness. Praise Him, praise Him, ever
in joyful song. Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus
our blessed Redeemer. Heavenly portals loud with hosannas
ring. Jesus, Savior, reigneth forever
and ever. Crown Him, crown Him, prophet
and priest and king. Christ is coming over the world
victorious, power and glory unto the Lord belong. Praise Him,
praise Him, tell of His excellent greatness. Praise Him, praise
Him, ever in joyful song. Please be seated. Good evening. I want to welcome
our Sarasota brethren, their meeting tonight. And they asked
me to express to you their sincere gratitude, appreciation for your
support of them. And particularly this past Sunday,
many of you went over and they were just They're always so very
encouraged when you do that and they appreciate your prayers
and they were so blessed by Aaron's visit. I'm very thankful for
you and I'm thankful for them. Our call to worship tonight comes
from Psalm 121. We read scripture at the beginning
of our services in order to remind us why we're here. And this psalm
is so glorious as to why we are here. It's called A Song of Degrees. It was one of those songs that
the Israelites would sing as they processed toward the temple. And I will lift up mine eyes
unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from
the Lord, which made heaven and earth. He will not suffer thy
foot to be moved, He that keepeth thee will not slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel
shall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is thy keeper. The Lord
is thy shade upon thy right hand. The sun shall not smite thee
by day, nor the moon by night. poetic language describing the
fact that the outward circumstances, the heat of trials and persecutions
that attack us from without will not overwhelm us, and the fears
that come from within. will not destroy us. The Lord
will keep his people. The Lord shall preserve thee
from all evil. He shall preserve thy soul. The Lord shall preserve thy going
out and thy coming in from this time forth and even forevermore. Amen. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful
to be able to come into thy presence, knowing that we have a throne
of grace that we can approach. Lord, like Mephibosheth before
David, Lord, you're a God of mercy for Christ's sake. We thank you for the eternal
covenant of grace that you have established preserving us from
everlasting to everlasting. We thank you for the blessing
of being able to gather together in this place and in Sarasota
and wherever other believers might be gathering tonight. We
pray that Christ will be lifted up. We pray that you would send
your Holy Spirit in power, that you would anoint your word and
cause it to be living and effectual, that it would divide asunder
the soul from the spirit and discern the intents of our hearts
and cause us, Lord, to find all our hope in Christ. For we ask
it in His name. Amen. Number 488. Number 488, My Redeemer. Let's stand. 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, oh, 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. With His blood He purchased me. On the cross He sealed my pardon. On the cross He sealed my pardon. Paid the debt and made me free. I will praise my dear Redeemer,
His triumphant power I'll tell, How His victory over sin and
death and hell, Sing, oh sing of my Redeemer,
of my Redeemer. He purchased me, He purchased
me. He sealed my pardon, He sealed
my part, paid the debt, and made me free, 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. With His blood He purchased me. On the cross he sealed my pardon. He sealed my pardon. Debt and made me free. Please be seated. We have in our garage right now
at home a little finch that has made a nest and her eggs have
hatched and we're watching these little birds grow, having to
lock all the doors and leave the garage door up so she can
get in and out. And the other night I I looked
in the nest, and I thought they were dead. And I made a sound,
and sure enough, all four of them, all you could see was mouths. That's all you could see, just
their little mouths opening up. And I thought, you know, that's
the way it is for us, isn't it? Those little birds are completely
helpless. They can't do anything for themselves. They're just waiting on mama
to bring them some food. And if she's able to do that, then
they'll grow and fly away. Get off on their own. I hope
the Lord will feed us and that we'll be like those little birds
with our mouths open. That he'll cause our hearts to
be receptive to his word. And if he does, then we will
mount up with wings as eagles. We will run, as Isaiah said,
and not be weary. We will walk and not faint. Isaiah chapter 2, if you'd like
to turn with me there in your Bibles, a humbling work of grace. We looked at the first three
and a half verses of this chapter Sunday morning. And I'll read
those again tonight before we delve into the following verses.
This is a word from God to His children, to His church. And if the Lord speaks effectually
to our hearts and we hear these as words of grace from Him, they
will be words to live by. There'll be words of encouragement.
There'll be words of hope. There'll be words of forgiveness
and words of grace. The Lord is speaking to His church
and it is the Lord Jesus Christ that's speaking as the Word,
the Word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning His church,
Judah and Jerusalem. And it shall come to pass. I
like that word shall. You call His name Jesus for He
shall save His people. He doesn't say it might come
to pass if you do your part. He doesn't even say it will come
to pass. He says it shall come to pass. When God says shall, You can
rest your immortal soul on that as a promise from God. It shall
be. It shall be. There's no taking
it back. God speaks. He's not saying,
well, this is what I'll do if you'll do your part. No, this
is going to come to pass. That the mountain of the Lord's
house shall be established in the top of the mountains. That's
the church. and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations
shall flow into it." That word flow, you remember, means to
be drawn to the light. And when the gospel of God's
grace is preached, Christ is lifted up, he draws men to himself. And that's what the Lord says,
this is going to happen. It's not going to happen everywhere.
It's going to happen in that mountain that's exalted above
all other mountains, that mountain that I have established and many
people shall come or shall go and say, come ye and let us go
up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. And he will teach us. He will
teach us. That's my hope. I want the Lord
to teach you. And I want the Lord to teach
me. They shall be all taught of God. They shall hear my voice. And He'll teach us in His ways.
He'll show us Christ in His glory and cause us to follow after
Him. And we will walk in His paths. We'll walk in His paths. We'll follow after Him. John
put it like this if you walk in the light as he is in the
light you have fellowship one with another and the blood of
Jesus Christ shall cleanse you of all your sin. We have sweet
fellowship one with another walking after Christ and we have sweet
fellowship with the Lord as he sheds the light of the gospel
in our hearts through in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ.
For out of Zion, out of Zion. You know that word Zion means
parched place. It means parched place. It's
a picture of a mountain in Jerusalem. It's arid, dependent upon the
wells of water that come from from the wells there nearby,
and it's just a parched place. The earth doesn't provide anything
for Zion. It must get its water. It must get its nourishment from
underground. It shall out of Zion shall go
forth the law. He's not talking about preaching
the moral law. He's talking about the word of
God. This word law is used oftentimes in the scripture to describe
the whole of scripture. And we know who the whole of
scripture is about. In the volume of the book, it
is written of me. And beginning with Moses and
the Psalms and the prophets, he expounded unto them those
things concerning himself. And so when he says, Out of Zion
shall go forth the law, the word of God, which lifts up the Lord
Jesus Christ will go forth, and the word of the Lord from the
teaching of peace, the place where the peace of God is preached. We have peace with God through
the Lord Jesus Christ. There's no peace in this world.
No peace in our flesh. Oh, but what peace, what rest,
what comfort, what hope we have when Christ is preached and when
he speaks and causes us to rest in him and to rely upon his finished
work of redemption for all our salvation. He said, this is the
only place that this message is preached. Zion and Jerusalem
and Judah, not going to hear it anywhere else. Not going to
hear it in the world. Politicians aren't going to tell
you about it. Religion is not going to tell you about it. But
here, in a parched place, the river of life flows and God's
people drink. Verse 4. And He, the Lord Jesus Christ,
shall judge the nations. Now that word nations is a reference
to Gentiles. Often times this word is translated
Gentiles in the Old Testament. He's talking about all those
outside of national Israel. And He's going to judge them.
I want Him to judge me. I want him to expose in the judgment
of his grace the unrighteousness of all my sin. I want him to
leave me without any place else to go than the judgment that
he exercised when the Lord Jesus Christ bore in his body my sins
and suffered the full wrath of God's judgment on Calvary's cross. And that's what he's saying,
I shall. You see the word shall again?
He shall judge among the Gentiles and shall rebuke many people. Now this isn't a rebuke just
for the sake of rebuking. This word actually most places
is translated correct. He shall correct his people. He'll cause them to give up in
trusting in their works, and trusting in their will, and looking
to themselves for any hope of their salvation. He's going to
rebuke them. This is what he's going to teach
them. This is the word that he's going to give to them. And they
shall, here again, they shall, beat their swords into plowshares. Now what is the sword? It's the
word, isn't it? And the words that we used to
speak. How blasphemous. As irreligious when we profaned
the name of God and used His name in order to confirm our
cursings and our oaths. He changes that tongue, doesn't
He? And as religious, we profaned
the name of the Lord worse in religion than we did before we
became religious, in that we attached to His name things that
were not true about Him. And now what does He do? He causes
us to beat our swords into plowshares. Now what are we doing? Now we're
not speaking profane things about the Lord. Now we're speaking
the truth about Him and what does that result in? It results
in the seed being planted and a harvest of grace being made
in the hearts of God's people. When the Word of God goes out
in truth. Turn with me to Luke chapter
6. Luke chapter 6. And we'll begin reading in verse
43. And now in Isaiah chapter 2, he's going
to liken us to trees. And in another place we're called
the trees of righteousness, which are the plantings of the Lord. That tree which is planted by
a river of living water that produces fruit in its season. Here he says in verse 43 of Luke
chapter 6, for a good tree bringeth forth, I'm sorry, a good tree
bringeth not forth corrupt fruit, neither doth a corrupt tree bring
forth good fruit. How much fruit inspecting we
did in religion to try to see if your lives measured up to
a good tree. It's not what he's talking about.
For every tree is known by its own fruit. For of thorns men
do gather. Men do not gather figs, nor a
bramble bush gather they grapes. A good man out of the good treasure
of his heart bringeth forth that which is good, and an evil man
out of the evil treasure in his heart bringeth forth that which
is evil. For of the abundance of the heart,
the mouth speaketh." There's the fruit, the fruit of our lips. What do we say about Christ?
You say, well, you know, some believers may feel intimidated
to speak about Christ, or maybe they don't know what to say.
They want to speak, but they just don't know how to express
themselves. And yet, when they hear the gospel
being preached, you know what they do say? Amen. I believe that. What he's saying
is what I believe. And that's their testimony. I hope that the Lord will grow
us in his grace and make us bold and give us opportunities and
make us witnesses for his glory. But if we can't speak, we can
hear and we can say, Amen. That's the gospel that I believe.
That's the Christ that I'm dependent upon. That's the fruit of my
lips. Out of the abundance of the heart,
the mouth speaketh. Listen to what someone says about
Christ and you'll find out whether they still have a tongue of a
sword fighting against God or whether he has beat their sword
into a plowshare. And now they're speaking of his
glory and talking of his grace. Go back with me to our text. Their weapons of warfare have
been changed into instruments of planting seeds. They're no longer at enmity with
God. Now they're receiving the word
of God and declaring that word, that more fruit might be borne
by Him. They shall beat their swords
into plowshares and their spears into pruning forks. Their javelins, their spears,
their instruments of war where they fought against the things
of God, where they didn't believe the gospel, where they resisted
the Lord. Now He's caused those spears
to be beat into pruning forks. instruments of harvest. They're
not fighting against the Lord. Now they're harvesting his word
for the salvation of their own souls, and they're planting that
word through the church through the ministry of the church for
the salvation of others. Nation shall not lift up sword
against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. Now, nation against nation, we
did that. We did that. We were in religion. We took
the precious truths of the gospel and made them a subject of debate
and argument where we argued with other nations and tried
to see who had a better ability and understanding to defend their
doctrine and theology and said that's not going to happen anymore.
They're not going to act that way anymore. They're not going
to try to compete with one another to see who knows more than the
next person. I'm going to put an end to all
of that. Nations shall not lift up sword
against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. O house of Jacob, come ye and
let us walk in the light of the Lord." I'm glad the Lord calls
us sons of Jacob. Jacob was such a deceiver and
such a supplanter. and so inconsistent and then
all his life what a picture he calls us the house of Jacob the
tribes of Israel Jacob's name was changed but his old nature
never changed right up to the end Jacob was still limping he
was still crippled He still had his flesh and he says, he's called
us now the house of Jacob, your sons of Jacob. Come and let us,
let us do what? Let us walk in the light of the
Lord. He's that light, isn't he? He's
that light. He's the light of the world.
And we're blessed of God to be able to walk in that light. The
light of His sovereign grace. The light of particular redemption. The light of eternal redemption.
The light of successful redemption. The light of who Christ is as
the Son of God, having accomplished everything necessary for all
our salvation. The light of Him as our surety. The light of Him as our sin-bearer. The light of Him as our substitute
before God. the light of adoption, like we
heard Sunday. All these glorious truths about
the Lord Jesus Christ and now the Lord is calling us graciously,
come you sons of Jacob, you house of Jacob, come let us walk in
the light of the Lord. And we rejoice in that light. Here's the evidence. We love things that other men
hate. And some of us, some of us love
the very things that we used to hate. We used to hate these things.
Now we love them. How can it be? How can it be? Well, we were once in the dark,
and he brought us into the light. And now the Lord's speaking,
you house of Jacob, You sons of Israel, come, let us walk
in the light of the Lord. The light that He shines in our
hearts, causing us to see ourselves as sinners, devoid of any righteousness
whatsoever. That's a light that we didn't
have before. We thought, well, you know, I've
got something to offer. No, you don't. And I like it that way,
don't you? Don't you like it, having a Savior
that does it all by Himself? Accomplishes everything by Himself,
a successful, a successful Savior. Oh house of Jacob, come and let
us walk in the light of the Lord. Now verses six through nine are
a description of the unbeliever. And how often times in scripture
the Lord gives these glorious precious promises to his children
and then he contrasts them to those who won't believe the truth.
And we can see ourselves in this description before the Lord was
pleased to reveal the truth to our hearts. And I hope that we
will be grateful that the Lord has called us out of darkness
into his marvelous light. And I hope that the Lord will
cause us to realize that this is a plight that's certain death
and eternal destruction and separation, as he says in the end of this.
Look at verse 6. Thou hast forsaken thy people
for this reason. That's what that word therefore
means. For this reason, thou hast forsaken thy people, the
house of Jacob, because they be replenished from the east. Now, what is it to be replenished
from the east? What was east of Jerusalem? Think about it on a map. What's
east of Jerusalem? Babylon. And what he's saying
is those who refuse Christ are still looking to Babylon for
the hope of their salvation. And whether you see Babylon in
the Tower of Babel, man attempting to work his way to heaven and
speaking a perverse language that can't understand the voice
of God, whether you understand it as that Jerusalem, which now
is, the scripture says, is Babylon under the law, or in Revelation
it speaks of Babylon as being the mother of all harlots, mystery
Babylon. Or Achan, remember when Joshua
took the city of Ai and Achan took a Babylonian garment and
hid it for himself? Babylon is clearly a picture
of works salvation. That's all it is. It's a picture
of works salvation. It's a picture of man relying
upon something that he has to offer for his hope of acceptance
before God. And the Lord says, you do that
and you'll be rejected. If you look to the East to be
filled, you'll have no hope in Christ. You can't look to works
and grace. If it is of grace, it can no
longer be of works. Otherwise, grace is not grace. For this reason, God has forsaken
the house of Jacob because they'd be replenished from the east
and are soothsayers like the Philistines, dreamers, sorcerers,
enchanters, diviners, fortune tellers. false prophets if a man is preaching if a man
is preaching right now I'm I'm I'm trying to preach the gospel
I mean we're telling you the truth I'm telling you a lie this is either the voice of God
or it's the voice of a devil there's no in between The Lord says those who look
to the east have got sorcerers, they've got fortune tellers,
they've got false prophets who are saying peace, peace, when
there is no peace. They're pointing you somewhere
other than Christ to find your peace with God. They're causing
you to look to your own works to determine whether or not you're
really a Christian. And the Lord says they're sorcerers. They're like the Philistines.
They please themselves with the children of strangers. They've united to the things
of this world. for the hope of their salvation. Their land also is full of silver
and gold. What is silver and gold? It's
what men trust for their security. And I hope the Lord will enable
us to hold on to the things that he's given us lightly and that
he'll give us a generous, thankful spirit with the silver and gold
that we have. But that's not what he's talking
about here. He's talking about what he said to the church at
Laodicea when he accused them of being rich and increased with
goods and in need of nothing. And the Lord said, do you not
know that you are both miserable and poor and blind and naked? Come and buy from me, buy from
me pure gold. So it's, again, it's man putting
the hope of his salvation in his possessions, in his righteousness. Their land is full of silver
and gold, neither is there any end to their treasures. Their
land is also full of horses, neither is there any end to their
chariots. They're riding on the beast of
their own works, trying to get into the presence of God. Their
land also is full of idols. They worship the works of their
own hands. Oh, Lord. You've been there? You know that you still have.
An idolatrous nature that stays with you, don't you? Oh, Lord,
break the spirit of that desire to make of Thee an idol. Their land is full of idols.
They worship the work of their own hands, that which their own
fingers have made. Verse 9, And the mean man boweth
down, and the great man humbles himself. In other words, work's
religion is the same for the poor as it is for the rich. They're
bowing themselves down to an idol that they made, and they're
trusting in their own righteousness for the hope of their salvation.
They're not hearing the voice from God. They're not looking
to Christ. They've not beat their swords
into plowshares. Look at verse 10. Enter into the rock. That's the only place of safety,
isn't it? Enter into the rock. Don't worship the idols of your
hands. The only reason that Moses survived
his encounter with the Lord on Mount Sinai is because God put
him in the cleft of a rock. Lord, put me in a rock. Cover
me up. Put me in Christ. The rock of
ages, the rock that was cleft, the rock from which the water
of life flows freely. That rock, the only rock on which
I can stand when the storm of God's wrath and judgment comes
against this world. The house that stands upon that
rock will stand. He's the cornerstone, isn't he? And hide thee in the dust. Where
is the dust? That's where sinners lie. That's
where sinners lie. Paul, the Saul of Tarsus had
to be knocked off his high horse, didn't he? And where did he find
himself? With his face in the dirt. And
that's every believer's experience. When the Lord shines the light
of the gospel from heaven in our hearts, he just takes us
off our high horse. He humbles us before himself,
puts us in a rock, and causes us to hide in the dust. Why? For fear of the Lord and the
glory of his majesty. What am I going to do to stand
in the presence of a holy God? How can a man be right with God?
What am I going to present to God that's going to enable him
to accept me? If the Lord Jesus Christ does
not present himself on my behalf, all I've got is the fear of his
majesty. Don't you know Mephibosheth was
quaking in his boots when he was brought before King David?
Feared his majesty. What a description of worship. The lofty looks of man shall
be humbled. You suppose when Mephibosheth
was over there in Lodabar that he was boasting to his servants
that he was a descendant of Saul? Until Joab showed up and said,
come on Mephibosheth, we're going to see the king. He was humbled,
wasn't he? What a beautiful thing humility
is. Lord, don't you want to be made humble? And how offensive
pride is in myself. I offend myself with my pride. And you don't want to be around
somebody that's just full of pride and boasting. You don't
want to be around yourself sometimes, do you? And in His presence we're put
in the rock, we're in the dirt, And the lofty looks of man shall
be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and
the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. Now, verses 10 to
the end of the chapter are speaking of the day of the Lord. And they
can be understood in the day of God's wrath. When the Lord
Jesus Christ comes in the second coming, when the Trump of God
sounds and the dead in Christ shall be rise from the dead.
And those of us which are alive will be caught up together with
him in the air. And, and, and so shall we ever
be with the Lord and the, and the wrath of God falls and consumes
this world and destroys everything. But it can also be understood
in the day in which the Lord visits our hearts spiritually. The same thing happens. You see,
it's either going to happen spiritually now or it's going to happen physically
then. We can be humbled now spiritually
in our hearts with a spiritual visitation from God by His Spirit
to our hearts through the preaching of the gospel or we're going
to be humbled in that day when the Lord speaks and every knee
bows and every tongue confesses that Jesus is the Lord. The lofty... The lofty looks of man shall
be humbled, and the haughtiness of man shall be bowed down, and
the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. For the day of the
Lord of hosts shall be upon everyone that is proud and lofty, and
upon everyone that is lifted up, and he shall be brought low."
Isn't that what the gospel does? I love it when believers Believers
know that sinners can't be preached low enough Christ can't be preached
high enough and grace can't be preached free enough Just put
me in the dirt preacher put me where I need to be and Lift up
Christ so that I find in him all my hope Otherwise, I'll turn
to my idols. I'll turn to my righteousness.
I'll be proud and self-righteous and Here's what the Lord said
he's going to do in the day of the Lord. And upon all the cedars
of Lebanon that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks
of Bashan, and upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills
that are lifted up, and upon every high tower, and upon every
fenced wall, and upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all
pleasant pictures. That's desired images. That's the icons of religion.
All those things are going to be brought down. You're going
to hate them. In the day of the Lord, you're
going to hate what you used to love. Has that day come for you? And the loftiness of man shall
be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be brought low,
and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. The child of God
says, not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but into thy name be
glory and power forever and ever. Lord, put me. If you, preacher, if
you leave me looking to myself, I'm gonna either be filled with
fear or filled with pride, one or the other. And neither one
of those is where I wanna be. I wanna have hope. I wanna have
peace with God. I wanna have comfort for my soul.
Tell me about the one who's put away my sin. Tell me about the
one who made of himself no reputation and became a servant and laid
down his life for his sheep. Tell me about him. The one that's
been given a name which is above every name. The one that has
been exalted on high and taken his rightful place at the right
hand of the majesty on high. Because my only hope is that
I'm in that rock. I'm in the cleft of that rock. And the idols, look at verse
18, and the idols he shall utterly abolish. Take away all my hope in anything
other than Christ. Shut me up to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Don't give me a choice. Don't
give me any options. They shall be humbled and their
idols will be taken away. Look at verse 19, and they shall
go into the holes of the rocks. Now if you remember Revelation
when it talks about the second coming of Christ, this passage
is quoted in Revelation as the fear of the unbeliever trying
to hide from God, desperately and yet futilely trying to hide
from the day of judgment. But again, this is a picture
of what God does in the day that the Lord visits us, right now,
in His grace and in His power. What does He do? They shall go
into the holes of the rocks and into the caves of the earth for
fear of the Lord and for the glory of His majesty, when He
ariseth to shake terribly the earth. Lord, shake the foundation
of everything in my life. to cause me to know that that
which cannot be shaken shall stand." The only thing, whatever we put
our hands to is going to be shaken. Our reputation, our careers,
our possessions, everything we've got in this world, our works,
everything is going to be shaken. And when God shakes the earth,
has He shaken it for you? Has He caused you to realize
that everything is on faulty footing? And the only thing that's
sure is the glorious person of my successful Savior, who's seated
at the right hand of God, who ever lives to make intercession
for me, who was successful in satisfying the demands of God's
justice in putting away my sin. once and for all, by the sacrifice
of himself. That can't be shaken. He shakes
everything else. And every time we find a little
bit of hope, if you're a child of God, he knows how to discipline
his children, doesn't he? We start trying to find our security
and our satisfaction and our happiness and all these things,
and he shakes them a lot, doesn't he? And in that day, verse 20, a
man shall cast his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which
they made, each one for himself to worship, to the moles and
the bats. Now think about it for a minute.
What do moles and bats have in common? They're nocturnal creatures
and they have very poor eyesight. And that's where we were, living
in the dark with very little eyesight. Boy, we were blind. And now what do we do? There's
a whole lot of folks still moles and bats in this world, aren't
there? A lot of acquaintances and friends that we had that
are still living in the tunnels of the molehills. And what do
we say? You can have those idols. I don't
want them. I don't want anything to do with them. And so they
will cast their idols to the moles and the bats to go into
the clefts of the rock and into the tops of the ragged rocks
for fear of the Lord and for the glory of His majesty when
He rises to shake terribly the earth. He's going to shake this
earth. Everything in this earth is going
to be shaken. Lord, shake it spiritually in my heart now. cause me to believe and to agree
with you about how temporal and how vain the things are in this
world that men find their hope in. How vain my works are. How vain this... One day this
earth is going to be shaken. Only one thing that's not going
to shake loose. Cease ye from man. Quit putting your hopes in something
that you've done or you haven't done. Cease ye from man. Quit looking to another man for
your hope and for your happiness. Cease ye from man, whose breath
is in his nostril. What is man? What do they say? Three weeks without food, you're
dead. Three days without water, you're dead. Three minutes without
air. God breathed life into the nostrils
of Adam. And God's gonna reach down from
heaven one day and pinch our nose. And we're gonna die. And about three minutes without
air is all it's gonna take. for you to slip from this world
into the next. Cease ye from man. His life is
but a breath away in his nostrils. What can he do for you? For wherein is he to be accounted
of? Wherein is he to be accounted
of? What can man do for you? We're talking about other men.
We're talking about what can this man do for me? No more than those little tiny,
tiny chicks that are in the nest in our garage right now. What
can they do for themselves? Nothing. Nothing. When they hear mama coming, they
just open their mouths. Lord, feed me with the bread
of life. Our heavenly father, we're thankful
for your word for these precious promises. you've made for us,
thy people. We pray that you would give us
ears to hear, cause us, Lord, to find our hope
and our happiness in thy dear son. For it's in his name we
ask it. Amen. 126 in the hardback tenor. Let's
stand together. Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let
me hide myself in thee. Let the water and the blood from
thy wounded side which flow be of sin the double cure. Save from wrath and make me pure. Could my tears forever flow? Could my zeal no longer know? These for sin could not atone,
Thou must save and Thou alone. In my hand no price I bring,
Simply to Thy cross I cling. While I draw this fleeting breath,
When my eyes shall close in death, When I rise to worlds unknown,
And behold thee on thine throne, Rock of ages cleft for me, Let
me hide myself in thee. I didn't say that's the word
of the game. That whole passage is a picture
of the final section.