Good morning. I like that hymn
a lot. The everlasting covenant of grace
established by God according to His own purpose and will before
the world ever began and ordered and made sure in all things by
the accomplished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's hope. That's hope. Um, I got a email yesterday from,
from, um, Crossville, Tennessee saying that Mary, uh, Bell's
not doing well right now physically and may not be with us more than
a few more days. So, uh, I pray for Donnie and
for the church in Crossville. Let's uh, let's pray together. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
we do thank Thee for having established and provided an eternal covenant
of grace whereby sinners can find favor before Thee. We thank
You for the finished, accomplished work of the Lord Jesus Christ,
satisfying all the demands of Your holy law putting away the
sins of your people and giving us a righteousness before thee
that would make us acceptable in thy sight. We ask that you'd
be pleased now to bless your word and bless the hearts of
your children as we look again for the reason of hope in Christ. We pray for our brethren in Crossville
and pray for Donny and for Mary and we ask Lord that you hand
of mercy would be upon them, that you would draw them near
to thyself in these difficult hours. And Lord, that you would
give that peace that only you can give. We ask it in Christ's
name. Amen. The first passage we're going
to be looking at this morning is a very familiar passage, but
one in which we find so much encouragement. And you'll find
it in the 40th chapter of Isaiah. Isaiah chapter 40. I want you and me this morning,
right now, to find comfort and hope in believing that our God
is a God of purpose and that in his purpose he has accomplished
everything necessary for our salvation. In his purpose he
has glorified himself and provided for his children. Now what hope
we would have if the Lord would increase our faith to believe
that, that our God is a God of accomplishment and that His accomplishment
is that according to His purpose. I want you and I to be persuaded
like Abraham was that what he has promised he is also able
to perform. I want us to understand the words
of Isaiah 46, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass,
I have purposed it, I also will do it. Now in contrast to those
precious promises, I remind you of the words of Jethro to Moses
when he brought the children of Israel out of Egypt. And Moses'
father-in-law said to him, thou wilt surely waste away, both
thou and these people. For this thing is too heavy for
you. You are not able to perform it. Does that apply to you this morning?
This thing is too heavy for you. You are not able to perform it. Whatever it is, and however many
people we have here this morning, that's how many different applications
of that truth there are, I'm sure. The one thing that's consistent
for all of us is that the burden of sin is too heavy for us. The requirements of the law are
too great for us. We are not able to perform it. He is. He is. Now there's a word that is used
several times in the scriptures that is not understood by most. It's not believed. It's left
out of the false gospel presentations that men in religion make. And it is the word accomplish. Accomplish. And yet if we leave
that word out of the gospel, then we've lost the gospel. For truly, the work of grace
is an accomplished work. There's nothing left for you
to add to it. And nothing can be taken away from it. Now this
word that we find so many times in the scriptures means to fill
up. It means to fill up. It means
that if I took this glass and put water in it and got it right
there, one more drop, it's coming over the edge. It's full. I promise you, it's full. That's
what the word accomplish means. It means to fill it up. And that's
what the Lord Jesus Christ has done in saving His people. He's filled it up. He gets all
the glory for it. He's not going to share it with
another. This word means to bring to its goal or conclusion, to
finish one's mission, to complete a task, to consummate, perform,
or finish that which is purposed. And so when we read here in Isaiah
chapter 40, The Lord tells the prophet, comfort ye, comfort
ye my people, saith the Lord. There it is right there, look
at verse two. Speak ye comfortably to them. Speak to their hearts. To Jerusalem, cry unto her and
tell her, what? That her warfare is accomplished. It's accomplished. Like Ezekiel's
valley of dry bones, we stood with our father Adam in rebellion
against God. The battle did not last long
and we lost. We lost. And here we are, very
dry bones in a battlefield of a valley. And the Lord says to
the prophet, Son of man, can these bones live? Is there any
hope that these bones can live? I mean, these sun-bleached bones,
these bones that you'd have a hard time finding enough DNA in the
marrow of to identify anybody in them, there's nothing there.
They're just dried bones. That's the battle that we fought
and that we lost. And what did Ezekiel say? Lord,
thou knowest. If there's any way these things
are going to live, Lord, you're going to have to do it. You're
going to have to do it. And here's the means that I'm
going to use to do it. Son of man, prophesy to the bones. Preach the gospel to them. Bone
came to bone and sinew and muscle and flesh and then they were
walking and standing, but there was yet no life in them, prophesy
unto the wind, call out to the Spirit of God that he would come
and breathe life into them, and they became a living army once
again. Not in rebellion against God,
but now on God's side. Tell them that their warfare
has been accomplished. All the things that we tried
to do in our rebellion has been accomplished in the person of
the Lord Jesus Christ. The accusations of the law, the
holiness of God, the stand against Satan was all accomplished in
the work of Christ. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people.
Tell them their warfare is accomplished. No more battle to be fought.
We tried that and we lost. The Lord went against Satan. He stood faithful to the law. He was able to stand in the presence
of a holy God and not be destroyed. Your warfare is accomplished.
Not by you, but by another. Like Daniel in the lion's den,
trapped in a world of Satan's domain, who is, as Peter said,
like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour, the Lord allows
him to afflict us. He allows him to sift us like
wheat. Sometimes in that sifting we
feel as if we're nothing but chaff fit for the fire, brought
to the very edge of despair. The Lord allows that to show
us that the battle's not ours, it's His. He's accomplished it. He destroyed the works of the
devil. Like Samson, he brought down
the gates of the Philistines and led captivity captive. He delivered his people from
the bondage of sin. Your warfare is accomplished.
It's not for you to do. It's for him to do. Why does
the Lord allow us to be sifted by Satan so many times? To expose
our weakness. To show us our inability. to
cause us to find our dependence in Him. What is the weapon that Satan
most often uses in the warfare that we try to fight? I'll tell
you what he uses. He uses the accusations of the
law. He's the accuser of the brethren,
and the number one accusations that he uses against the children
of God is, if you were a child of God, you wouldn't have done
that. You wouldn't have thought that. You wouldn't have acted
that way. And then we begin to think, well,
maybe I can do better. And we find ourselves returning
back to that which we've been delivered from. We've been delivered
from the law. The accusations of the law have
been silenced. The Lord Jesus Christ has satisfied
the demands of the law. You're not under the law. You're
under grace. But He still does that, doesn't
He? He still accuses the brethren with the law. Knowing that if
he can put us back under the law, then we'll not stand fast
in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free. Returning again
to the bondage of the law? Why would we do such? Your warfare
is accomplished. It's accomplished. What great
hope we have. It's not for you to fight. The
battle's been fought. It's been won. Michael, the archangel, would
not dispute with Satan over the body of Moses. If he would not
dispute with Satan over the law, that's what the body of Moses
is, then why should we? Why should we justify ourselves?
Why should we try to measure up to something? The Lord's done
it. He's done it. What do we say? We say the same
thing Michael said. The Lord rebuke thee. The Lord
rebuke thee. Turn with me in your Bibles to
the book of Lamentations. That's right after Jeremiah.
Lamentations chapter 4. I want you to see a couple of
verses in this chapter that I hope will be of much encouragement
to you as they have been to me. Lamentations chapter 4. Look at verse 11. The Lord hath
accomplished his fury. He hath poured out his fierce
anger, and hath kindled a fire in Zion, and it hath devoured
the foundations thereof. Now when God Almighty reigned
His fire of justice from heaven, it pleased the Lord to bruise
Him when Christ Jesus the Lord hung on Calvary's cross and the
fire of God's wrath fell from heaven. That's when this prophecy
was fulfilled. And the foundations. The foundations. How do I know that the fire that
fell upon the Lord Jesus Christ was sufficient to satisfy the
demands of God's justice for my sins. I'll tell you, one of
the ways you know is that all of your faulty foundations have
been taken away. They've been taken away. I'm
always encouraged when I hear someone testify of all their
false hopes in false religion. and cling to the finished work,
the accomplished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I'm always
concerned when one's not able to do that. When they're not
able to confess that they were, in fact, a blasphemer. That they were, in fact, an idolater. Oh, when the waves of God's grace
come and wash away the sandy foundation of our old hopes,
that's when the fire has fallen. That's what he says here. I've
kindled a fire in Zion, and it has devoured the foundations
thereof. Oh, the people of God are like
Abraham who seek a city which hath foundations, whose maker
and builder is God Himself. We're not trying to build a city.
He's already built it. And He is the foundation. He
said, upon this rock I'll build my church. Paul said, I'll not
build on another man's foundation. Christ is the only foundation.
And when we see the justice of God being satisfied in the fire
of His wrath that fell on Christ in Zion, then all our foundations
are taken away. And we find that there's but
one rock on which we can stand in the presence of God. That's
what he told Moses. He said, there's a place nearby
to me. It's a rock, and there's a cleft
in that rock, and I'm going to put you in that cleft and hide
you. There's another verse in this
chapter of Lamentations that I want you to see. Look at verse
22. The punishment of thine iniquity is accomplished. It's accomplished, Gabe. It's
accomplished. Look, just from the little bit
of movement on this pulpit, the water has come out of the glass.
Why? Because it's full. I mean, if
you could see it from here, it's actually higher than the rim
of the glass. It's accomplished. Can't put any more in it. O daughter of Zion, he will no
more carry thee away into captivity? You're not captive. He will visit thine iniquity,
O daughter of Edom. He will discover thy sins. He's
going to expose you, you Edomites. There's only two nations. There's
the Edomites and the Israelites here. And He's saying to the
Edomites, I'm going to expose your sin. But for the sins of
the daughters of Zion, I've covered them. I've covered them. Sin shall not have dominion over
you. Why? Because you're not under
the law. You're under grace. You're under
grace. Grace is the only power to break
sin. What great hope we have in knowing
that Christ has led captivity captive. And He's promised here,
the punishment of thine iniquity. The punishment of thine iniquity
is accomplished. What gives sin its power in your
life and in my life? I'll tell you what it is. It's
the law. It's the law that gives sin its power. It's our attempt
to satisfy the demands of the law, our thoughts and feelings
that somehow we can do something to fix the problem. That's what
gives sin its power. And what he's saying here is
that the punishment of thine iniquity, it's full. It's full. Isaiah said in Isaiah chapter
55 verse 11, so shall my word be that goeth out of my mouth.
It shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that
which I please. It shall prosper in the thing
where I sent it. And we know that's true of the
precious promises of God's written word as He applies them to our
hearts and gives us faith to believe them. This is the sword
of the Spirit, which is the word of God. This is our shield of
faith. This is the means that the Lord
gives us. But that's especially true when
it comes to the living word, isn't it? When the Lord Jesus
Christ, as the Word of God, ascended back into glory, He accomplished
the purpose for which God sent Him, which was the salvation
of His people. And He took with Him the names
of those for whom He lived and died, and presented them before
the Father, accepted in the presence of God. There's our hope. It will accomplish the purpose
for which I sent it. It will not return unto me void. The Lord Jesus Christ didn't
go back into heaven wringing His hands, hoping that somehow
the men for whom He died would let Him have His way and invite
Him into their hearts. That's blasphemy. That's a faulty
foundation. When you see the fire of God's
wrath coming upon the Lord Jesus Christ, that foundation will
be exposed. and it'll be rejected. The Lord Jesus Christ came in
order to satisfy all the demands of God's law and to fulfill all
prophecies. Listen to this in John chapter
19 verse 28, And after this, Jesus, knowing that all things
were now accomplished, saith that the Scriptures might be
fulfilled, I thirst. I thirst. Not one of the prophecies
were left unfulfilled. Why? Because he came with a purpose. His purpose was to glorify God. His purpose was to save his people
and he accomplished that purpose. He accomplished that purpose
in every word and every deed. We have the precious word of
God, the scriptures. I love that passage over there
in Peter where the Lord speaks of, or is in Corinthians, where Paul says we have a more sure
word of prophecy. He said, we handled the Word
of God, we're not being deceitful to you. We saw him and his, actually
this was Peter, because Peter's speaking of how he saw him on
the Mount of Transfiguration, and he recounts that experience
that he had on that mountaintop. What a glorious experience that
would have been. And Peter says, we're bringing
to you a first-hand witness that we saw and we handled. And then
after recounting that experience, he says, but we have a more sure
word of prophecy relating to the word of God. Say, well, if
I'd had an experience like Peter, James, and John had on Mount
Transfiguration, I'd be convinced. God says that what we have written
in his word is more sure than that experience was. Experiences
are always subjective. They're always subjective. The
Word of God's not subjective. It's objective. It's just true. And as the Lord's pleased to
open the eyes of our understanding and enable us to believe it,
believe it in all of its fullness. And we're not talking about the
Bible. We're talking about the gospel.
Turn to me to 1 Peter. 1 Peter 1. Look at verse 23. Being born
again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the
word of God which liveth and abideth forever. Oh, this is
the word that's sharper than any two-edged sword that divides
asunder the soul and the spirit and reveals the intents of the
heart. This is God's word. But we're not just talking about
the Bible. Look at the next verse. For all
flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man is the flower of
grass. The grass withereth, and the
flower thereof fadeth away. That passage in Isaiah chapter
40, when the Lord said, Comfort ye, comfort ye, tell them their
warfare is accomplished, their iniquity is taken away. And Isaiah
said, Where do I start? And the Lord said, Tell them
their grass. That'll be a good, that'll be their encouragement.
Tell them they can't offer anything. We're born again by the word
of God. Now look at verse 25. But the word of the Lord endureth
forever, and this is the word which by the gospel is preached
unto you. Now I know there's plenty of
folks who claim to be Bible-believing conservative Christians that
opened this book. and pretend to be preaching the
Word of God. If they're not preaching the
gospel of God's free grace in the accomplished work of the
Lord Jesus Christ, they're not preaching the Word of God. This
is the Word which by the gospel is preached unto you. What precious promises we have
when we go to the Word of God and we understand them in light
of the gospel, the good news, the accomplishment of the Lord
Jesus Christ. John chapter 4 verse 34, you
don't have to look these up. My meat is to do the will of
Him that sent me and to finish, it's the same exact word, accomplished. You remember? It's to fill up.
It's to finish. It's to accomplish that which He sent to do. He
sent me to finish His work. For the works which the Father
hath given me to finish, the same works I do. And they bear
witness of me that the Father has sent me. I finished His work. What's the proof that God has
given to his people that the Lord Jesus Christ finished the
work? It's the resurrection. It's the
resurrection. The resurrection of the Lord
Jesus Christ is the sign that God has given to his children
to convince them that the Father was satisfied with the work that
Christ came to do. I have glorified Thee on the
earth, I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do."
I've accomplished it. That's what the Lord Jesus Christ
said in His high priestly prayer in John chapter 17. He said,
Father, I have accomplished the work which Thou gavest me to
do. And now I pray, not for the world,
but for them which thou hast given me out of the world. Thine
they were, and you've given them unto me. Father, I pray that
you would keep them. Keep them. What about the trials and the
troubles and the temptations that we face in this world? how often we feel as if things
aren't accomplished. Paul called them necessities,
ordained of God in the lives of their children in order to
expose their weakness and cause them to find in their weakness
their strength in Christ. When I am weak, then I am strong. His strength is made perfect
in my weakness. And listen to what Peter said.
Be sober. Don't think too highly of yourself.
That's what that means. Be vigilant because your adversary
the devil as a roaring lion seeketh whom he may devour, whom resist
steadfast In the faith. In the faith. Say, I can't stand
up to Satan. He's too strong for me. What
did Michael say? The Lord rebuke thee. In the
faith. Knowing that the same afflictions
are accomplished in your brethren throughout all the world. Every
child of God. suffers the sifting of Satan,
the trials and troubles and temptations, they are for the accomplishment
of our salvation. Turn with me to Luke chapter
9. I just have a couple of more verses that I want us to see.
Luke chapter 9. We'll begin reading in verse
28, And it came to pass, about the eighth day after these sayings,
he took Peter, and John, and James, and went up into a mountain
to pray. And as he prayed, the fashion
of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and
glistening. And behold, there talked with
him two men, which were Moses and Elias, or Elijah. Now Moses
is a picture of the law, and Elijah is a picture of the prophets.
It's the whole of the Old Testament. Beginning with Moses and the
prophets and the Psalms, he expounded unto them those things concerning
himself. Here we have a picture of the
law and the prophets conversing with the Lord Jesus Christ. on
the Mount of Transfiguration, and look at the next verse, who
appeared in glory and spake of his decease, which he should
accomplish in Jerusalem. Now we don't normally think of
one's death as an accomplishment, but that's exactly what it was
for the Lord Jesus Christ. Moses and Elijah spoke with Christ
about that which he would accomplish through his death in Jerusalem. What did he accomplish? The glory
of God and the salvation of his people. It's full. It's full. He accomplished it. Don't try
to add to it. Turn with me to Luke chapter
22. Luke chapter 22, verse 37. For I say unto you that this
that is written must yet be accomplished in me." What was written? Well,
the next phrase. And he was reckoned among the
transgressors. For the things concerning me
have an end. They have an end. Christ Jesus the Lord is the
end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. When
you come to the end, you just come to the end. There's nothing
else after the end. These things concerning me have
an end. And so when the Lord Jesus Christ
in his dying breath cried from Calvary's cross, it is accomplished. We have it translated finished
in our Bibles, but it's the same word. It is accomplished. Father, into thy hands, I commend
my spirit. Like Moses, like Moses, this
thing's too heavy for you. It's too heavy for me. You can't
do it. He's the only one that can. And
he has accomplished the salvation of his people in every way he's
able. Peter say, cast your care upon Him, for
He careth for you. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we are so very thankful that we have an accomplished Savior.
We rejoice in being able to confess, Lord, that You are a God of purpose
and that You've fulfilled, accomplished, filled up to the overflow so
that nothing else can be done. We pray that you would enable
us now to find our strength, our hope and all our salvation
in the only one who can accomplish. We ask it in his name. Amen.