I bring you greetings from all
the Brethren in Ashland. And I can honestly tell you how
much I've looked forward to this visit, our time together of worship. I've looked forward to it in
a very special way. The Brethren in Ashland and the
Brethren here at Katy have been tied together in close fellowship
a long time. A long time. And it stayed so
closely tied together because Scott and Henry were such good
friends. And I hope we stay tied together for a long time to come. In God's providence, he's raised
up two more pastors. And I'm very happy to count Marvin
Stonker as my friend. And I pray we'll be tied together
and fellowship around our Lord for many more years. Now, if
you would, open your Bibles to Isaiah chapter 12. I've entitled
the message, The Day of Eternal Purpose. Now there are several things
that we know. We know salvation is by God's
eternal purpose. Salvation doesn't come at a time
man makes a decision and decides to set things in motion. The
day of salvation is the day of God's eternal purpose. In eternity
past, God purposed in Himself To save some of Adam's fallen
race by the righteousness and by the blood of the sacrifice
of his son. And we know that. We know that
in eternity past, the people that God would save were set. He chose those people. He elected
them. He chose them by name. He wrote
their names down in the Lamb's Book of Life. God chose them. He set His love upon them. Those
exact people. He did that in eternity past.
And God didn't do that because His people were better than anybody
else. Because they weren't. They were the same as everybody
else in Adam's fallen race. God chose those people just because
He would. He chose them to save them from
that lump of Adam's fallen humanity. And we know this. Those people
that God chose They shall be saved. There's not any possibility
that one of those people that God chose will perish. No chance
whatsoever. And we know in eternity past
that the day and time of Christ's sacrifice for those set people,
that day was set. That exact day and time that
Christ would be sacrificed was a day set and appointed by God.
And we know this concerning our days, that in eternity past,
all our days were determined. They were determined by God.
The day of our conception was determined. The day of our birth
was appointed. The day of our death was appointed.
And every day in between, every one of those days was appointed
by God for His purpose. And the day I want to talk about
this evening, is that day of salvation. The day when faith
in Christ comes in the new birth. Now, what happens in that day?
Why does that day come? Does it come because you make
a decision? Because you decide to do something different? Or
does it come, as we know from God's Word, at the exact moment,
the exact day that God has ordained for His child from all eternity? That day is no accident. I know
that. I know that day is no accident.
I know that hour, that moment is no accident. It was no accident
Zacchaeus was up Sycamore tree the very day, the very hour our
Lord walked by and said Zacchaeus come down. Today I must abide
at your house. That was no accident. It was
no accident Lydia showed up at the riverside that morning. Just
so happened the Apostle Paul was there that morning. And he
preached Christ. And the Lord opened her heart.
That was no accident. It was no accident that jailer
was on duty that night in Philippi. An earthquake came and he thought
all the prisoners escaped. He was going to kill himself.
And Paul said, don't do yourself any harm. We're all still here.
He came in. Paul preached the gospel to him.
The Lord saved that man. Saved his house. It was no accident. That man could have called off
that night. Maybe he got somebody else to work for him, but no.
That particular man was on duty that particular night because
this was the day appointed by God from all of eternity that
he'd meet Christ. And this evening is no accident. Barbara and I tried to plan this
several times. It didn't happen because it wasn't
in the Lord's purpose. Tonight is the day appointed
from all of eternity by the Almighty that we hear the gospel and we
worship Him. There's no accident that you're
here tonight. It's no accident any day. Anything that happens
in any day is never an accident. It's always the day appointed
by God. Now God chose a people. God chose
a people to save. But we don't know who those people
are. God does. We don't. And we don't know when. God may be pleased to reveal
Himself to one of His people. We don't know when. So we preach
Christ at every surface to everyone. We preach Christ. And I pray
that tonight would be that day for one of us. The day appointed
from all of eternity that we come to faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And the only way that will happen is if I preach Christ
to you. So from Isaiah chapter 12, the
passage your pastor read for us a moment ago, that's what
I pray the Lord will enable me to do, to preach Christ from
this chapter. Now the day of God's eternal
purpose, it comes to God's elect at different times and in different
ways. But there are several things
about that day, the day of God's eternal purpose, that are common
to every believer. And the first one we see here
in Isaiah chapter 12, verse 1, the day of God's eternal purpose
is a day of praise. And that day, thou shalt say,
O Lord, I will praise thee. Now we praise God for who He
is. He's the Sovereign. He's the Monarch over all things. He's the Creator. He's the Giver
of life. We all have life sitting here
this evening because God gave it. He sustains that life. He sustained our life up to this
very moment. And as long as we're left here
on this earth, that life is sustained by God. He's the creator, He's
the giver, He's the sustainer of life, He's the giver of everything
we have. And He's the Savior. He's the one who has mercy on
sinners. Now that's who He is. Well, He's
worthy to be praised, isn't He? Just for who He is, He is worthy
to be praised. Not just for what He's done for
us, but for who He is. Now, God has blessed us so much.
He blessed His people. Every spiritual blessing. What
more could we ask for? He's given us everything. He's
blessed us so much. And we do praise Him for that.
We do thank Him for that. Gratitude is natural to a believer. We thank God for that. But do
you know if the Lord doesn't do one more thing for us? Not
one more thing. He's still worthy to be praised
for who He is. He is God Almighty, who is merciful
to sinners. And that day of salvation, the
day that God's purpose from all of eternity, we'll say so. We'll say He's worthy to be praised. We'll be like that leper that
came to our Lord. He's full of leprosy. He didn't
know if the Lord was going to heal him or not. He said, Lord,
if you will. You can make me hold. I don't
know if you will or not. But before he even made a petition,
you know what he did? He fell at his feet and worshipped.
He worshipped the Lord Jesus Christ because he's worthy to
be worshipped. And in that day of God's eternal
purpose, we'll praise him. We'll worship him for who he
is. We'll have a new heart that says
so. We'll have a heart that says
God's worthy to be praised. And out of the abundance of the
heart, the mouth will speak. The mouth will speak and say,
I want to praise the Lord, just for who He is. Second, this day
of God's eternal purpose is a day of conviction of sin, a day of
confession of sin, and a day of repentance from sin. See that
in verse 1? And that day thou shalt say,
O Lord, I will praise Thee, though Thou wast angry with me. Now,
You were angry with me, and rightfully so. God should be angry with
us because of our sin against Him. All of our sin is not sin
against one another. It's not sin in general. It's sin against God. It's rebellion
against God. God should be angry with us.
Scripture says God's angry with the wicked every day. You know
who the wicked is? Me. You. By nature, this is who
we are. We're the wicked. We're born
with a wicked, sinful nature. And God's angry with me. And
He should. What did God do? He gave me good. Just holy laws. Laws that if
I would obey them, would be for my good. God gave me laws so
that I would know something of who God is. He gave those laws
to me for my good. And what did I do with them?
I've broken every one of them. Every last one of them. I don't
love God with all my heart and soul. I don't love my neighbor
as myself. So I'm guilty. I covet what doesn't
belong to me. So I'm a thief. I'm an adulterer. I bear false witness. And you
know, it's really important to me to be known as a man of honesty
and integrity. It really is. I really want to
be known and to truly be an honest person. I really want that. That's
very important to me. But you know, there are times
I tell the truth, but I really didn't want to. You know why
that is? Because I'm a liar by nature.
I've got a sin nature. This is the nature that we're
born with. And when I see just a little bit of myself, I see
God should be angry with me. Look at Psalm 51. This is what the Lord showed
David. When the Lord shows me just a
little bit of myself, I say God should be angry with me. He's
right to condemn me. In Psalm 51 verse 3, this is
what David said. For I acknowledge my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me against thee. Thee only have
I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight, that thou mightest
be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.
Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive
me." That's the day of confession of sin, conviction of sin, and
confession of sin. And this day of grace, this day
of God's eternal purpose, God's going to make me see my sin.
To see myself as I am, and I'll confess my sin. I'll repent of
my sin, and I'll turn to Christ. Because that's God's eternal
purpose for His elect. You see, before mercy, always
comes judgment. Before conviction of sin, or
conviction of sin comes first, always before comfort. But true
conviction of sin and true confession of sin is always followed by
comfort. If you're still there in Psalm,
look back at Psalm 32. True conviction of sin and confession
of sin is always followed by comfort. Psalm 32, verse 5. I acknowledge my sin unto thee,
and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said I will confess my
transgressions unto the Lord, and thou forgavest the iniquity
of my sin." Now that's comfort. The forgiveness of sin. The only
time, the only place you can find true comfort is the forgiveness
of sin. And that's my third point about
this day of God's eternal purpose. It's a day of comfort. At the
end of verse 1, Isaiah says, and thine anger is turned away,
and thou comfortest me. Now it's hard for us to talk
about with any understanding of God's anger towards His people.
Scripture says God's loved His people with everlasting love.
We know God's always seen His people in His Son. So He's always
loved His people. He's always been pleased with
them because they're in His Son. And God loves His Son. God's
pleased with His Son. So we don't understand how God
can love His people from all of eternity And yet still be
angry for our sin too. And whatever that means, and
I confess to you I don't fully know, but whatever that means,
we do know this. God's anger toward His people
because of their sin is turned away. And you know why it's turned
away? Because He turned that anger
upon Christ our substitute. And took that anger out on our
substitute. Now you parents, you'll understand
this. There were times my daughters were growing up, they did something
wrong. Sometimes I thought it was kind
of cute, but I knew I had to correct them. So I hid my, you
know, laughter, what they'd done. And there were times what they
did made me angry, and I punished them. And I punished them until
I was just tired of punishing them. Just, you know, that's
enough. That's not the way the Father
punished His Son. When He punished His Son for
our sin, the sin of His people, He turned His anger, the Father,
the Holy Father turned His anger from His people to His Son. And
He exhausted that anger upon His Son. He exhausted it. The
fire of God's wrath burned until the sacrifice consumed the fire.
Every other sacrifice offered in the Old Testament, the sacrifice
burned until the fire went out. When our Savior was sacrificed
for the sin of his people, the fire of God's wrath burned until
the sacrifice extinguished the fire. Sin is gone. The fire is out. Sin is forgiven
because it has been punished in the substitute. That's the
only real comfort a sinner will ever find in knowing our sin
has been forgiven through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. See, if God just said, well,
we'll forget about this sin. We'll just put it over here and
forget it. Take it off the books. It could come back. But if your
sin forgiven through the sacrifice of Christ, brethren, there's
no sin left to punish. It's gone under the blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's real comfort. Knowing
God's anger will never be turned back on me because it was exhausted
on my substitute. The Lord Jesus Christ, my Savior. Put away all of my sin with the
sacrifice of Himself. Shedding His blood freely is
payment for my sin. And God's anger against my sin
has been turned away because of the blood. The Father said
when He saw the blood, that's enough. And we're comforted knowing
God's not angry anymore. He's got no reason to be angry.
Sin's been put away in the person of our substitute. And God's
reconciled through the death of His Son. Through the death
of our substitute. And there's comfort in being
reconciled to God. God's reconciled. Now you be
reconciled to Him. There's comfort in that. Why
are you going to be reconciled to God? The same reason He's
reconciled. Because of the sacrifice of Christ.
So first there's conviction. Then there's comfort. First there's
death, then there's life. First God shows us who we are.
He shows us who He is. He's holy. He's just. He condemns
and punishes sin. Then He shows us who Christ is,
the Savior of sinners. And that day of God's eternal
purpose is a day of love. You'll remember Ezekiel's baby
in Ezekiel chapter 16, cast out into the field to the loathing
of its person. And the Lord said, there you
are out in the field, polluted in your blood, and I pass by. And behold, behold, for that
unlovable baby thy time is a time of love. What comfort there is
in having the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy
Ghost. It's a day of comfort when we
see Christ. The day of God's eternal purpose
is the day when Christ is revealed. None of this can happen until
Christ is revealed. Look at verse 2. Behold, God
is my salvation. I will trust and not be afraid,
for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song. He also has become
my salvation. Now, I'm a sinner who needs a
Savior. And there's such comfort in knowing
that my Savior is none other than God Himself. My Savior is
God. Why? Because He can't fail. If
the Savior is God, He can't fail. If God is my Savior, my salvation
can never be lost. And every person that God says,
every one of them without exception, has the exact same Savior revealed
to them. The Lord Jesus Christ. He's Jehovah. God with us. God my Savior. Every person God saves sees the
same Savior, believes the same Savior, trusts the same Savior.
They see God the Son, who became a man. And He is my salvation. Brethren, salvation is not a
thing. It troubles me to hear this in
religious circles, even among people that ought to know better,
to refer to salvation as a thing, as a legal state. Salvation is
not only a legal state before God. If salvation is a legal
state, a legal standing, written on legal documents, put in a
safe somewhere by God, that's all right, I suppose. But that's
cold and unpersonal and unfeeling. Salvation is a person. Salvation
is a person. Salvation is the Son of God who
loved His people enough to become a man for them. Now can you imagine? We can't. We can just barely
understand anything about this. But the humiliation of the Son
of God, to become a baby, to become an embryo in the womb
of the Virgin, and to be born as a baby, completely dependent
upon Mary. We just can't understand that.
But we do have some idea of the humiliation He suffered in doing
that. But He did it because He loved
His people. And He loved His people enough to suffer for them,
and to die for them, to pay for their sins. Now, He is our salvation. That's a whole lot different
than a legal state before God, isn't it? That's the warmth and
life of the gospel. He is my salvation. Christ is the Savior by whom
I'm saved. But Christ is my salvation in
whom I'm saved. In that day of God's eternal
purpose, we're going to see Him. He is going to be revealed to
us. And this is why we're insistent on preaching Christ. We just
don't get off on a tangent. We're going to preach Christ
because if God's going to save anybody, this is who will be
revealed to your heart. The Lord Jesus Christ. And He's
going to be revealed to the heart. And when we see Christ, we see
the Lord Jesus Christ, that God-man, He is my salvation. That man,
he became a man to be my representative, to be our sacrifice. God couldn't
be our representative. God can't be our sacrifice. So
he became a man to be our representative and to be our sacrifice, and
he's the only sacrifice we got. If he's not my sacrifice, I don't
have one. He's my salvation. He's my sacrifice. When Christ is revealed to our
heart, we see Christ as our righteousness. We don't see Christ as giving
us righteousness, just like salvation is not a thing. Righteousness
is not a thing. Righteousness is a person. And
when we see Christ, we see He is my righteousness. And when
you see that, you don't claim any righteousness of your own
anymore. He's my righteousness. When we
see Christ, We see the death of Christ as the death of the
sinner substitute who died for me. I know he died for a multitude
no man can number. But he died for my sin. For my
sin. He died the death that I deserve. And that makes him precious to
me. When we see Christ, we see Christ risen as our life. He is raised again for our justification. When we see Christ, we see Christ
seated on His throne, at the right hand of God, making intercession
for His people. And we see Christ, and that day
we see Him, and He's revealed to our hearts, we see Christ
who accomplished all of salvation for us. There's nothing left
to be done. He accomplished it all. And when
we see Christ like that, As He is, oh, we'll trust Him. We'll
trust Him completely and not be afraid. We won't be afraid
of death. Why would a believer be afraid
of death? Christ died for us. He took the sting of death away.
There's nothing left to fear. We won't be afraid of sin because
Christ bore our sin away. We won't be afraid of men. Christ
is in control of them. You know, when our Lord died,
He purchased the salvation of His people. But He purchased
this whole creation too. All these men are His. They're
under His control. No one will fear them. They're
under the control of my Savior. And we won't fear Satan. Now,
when we say, or when I say, we won't fear Satan, don't get me
wrong. I don't want anything to do with
him. I mean, I want nothing to do with Satan. Why? Don't fear Him. Because Christ
crushed His head at Calvary. He took His power away at Calvary. And when we see Christ, we see
Him by revelation. See what Isaiah says at the beginning
of verse 2? Behold. Behold. We can't see Christ until God
reveals Him to us. And so God says, Behold. Stop. And look at My Son. Behold Him. And God gives us,
in this day of God's eternal purpose, He gives us eyes to
see. And we see Christ. And that's
the day that Christ is revealed to our heart. It's the day that
Christ is revealed. Then, fifthly, the day of God's
eternal purpose is the day when faith lays hold on Christ. Look at verse 3. Therefore, with
joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation. Now,
we know that Christ is the living water. He is the water of life. But Isaiah speaks of wells here.
Plural. Wells of salvation. More than
one well. Now, what does he mean by that?
Well, he means the whole Godhead. He means the Trinity. Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit. Look at Jeremiah chapter 2. See
if I can't make good on that. In Jeremiah chapter 2, Scripture
calls God the Father the fountain of living water. Jeremiah 2 verse
12. Be astonished, O ye heavens,
at this, and be ye horribly afraid. Be ye very desolate, saith the
Lord, for my people have committed two evils. They have forsaken
me. The fountain of living waters.
And they hewed them out cisterns. Broken cisterns that can hold
no water. They've forsaken me. Who is he?
The fountain of living waters. The Father is the fountain of
living waters. Yet in John's gospel, Christ
is called the water of life. He's called the giver of living
water. John also calls the Holy Spirit the source of rivers of
living water. Those are the wells of salvation.
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who are all involved in this
day of salvation that's been purposed of God in eternity past.
And we come to those wells, and we draw the water. We come seeking
the water. We come to Christ for water.
And we take the water, and we drink it. You know, when I reach
out and take weird, having dinner earlier, and I didn't have water,
but it serves my purpose, I had iced tea, but I took that water
in my hand, and I put it to my mouth, and I drank it and set
the glass down. That was Frank that took that
water. That was Frank that picked the water up and drank that water.
But Frank didn't have anything to do to quench my thirst. The
water quenched my thirst. And this is the way it is spiritually
too. Physically, God had to give me the desire to drink. He had
to give me the physical strength to reach and take that water
and drink it. The same thing is true spiritually. It's God the Holy Spirit who
gave me life. So I realized I was thirsty.
When you're dead, you don't know you're thirsty. You don't know
anything. You're dead. But when you have
life, you're thirsty. The Holy Spirit gives life. And
He salts us, so we're thirsty. And we come to Christ. But now,
it's not my coming that quenched my thirst, is it? It's Christ,
the living water, who quenches the thirst. Now, drawing water
from these wells. Drawing water from a well can
be hard work. Cody Gruber told me years ago,
I think they don't have to draw water from these deep wells as
much today as they used to. They used to have deep wells
in their backyards, and they'd pull up that water from way down
there, one bucket at a time. He said it'd take them days to
fill up that tank of water they had behind their house. It was
such hard work. That's not drawing water from
the wells of salvation. That's easy. Look in John chapter
4. It's not hard to draw the water
of life because that water is a spring that's flowing from
within us, from within a believer. Look at John 4, verse 13. Jesus answered and said unto
her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again. But
whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never
thirst. But the water that I shall give
him shall be in him, A well of water springing up into everlasting
life. Now, I don't know a lot about
drawing water, but if I've got a well of water springing up
in me, it's not hard to draw it, is it? It's not hard to draw
this water of life. Look in John 7, verse 37. In the last day, that great day
of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst,
Let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the
Scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living
water." It's not hard to draw this water. It's a spring, springing
up that God puts in you. But you know, you don't draw
this water one time and that's it either. No, we draw this water
every day. We need daily cleansing. We need
our thirst quenched daily. Well now, how are we going to
do that? How are we going to have our thirst quenched daily?
How are we going to be cleansed daily? By drawing from the wells
of salvation. It's given to us in God's Word.
It's given to us through the preaching of God's Word. It's
given to us in prayer. That's how you draw from those
wells with joy. Through prayer, and through the
Word, and through the preaching of the Word. Faith lays hold
on Christ. Sixth, the day of God's eternal
purpose is the day of worship. Look at verse 4 back in our text,
Isaiah chapter 12. And in that day, shall ye say,
praise the Lord, call upon his name, declare his doings among
the people, make mention that his name is exalted, sing unto
the Lord, for he hath done excellent things. This is known in all
the earth. Now these verses tell us what
worship really is. You know what worship is? It's
just talking about Christ. It's praising Him for who He
is and for what He's done. Praise the Lord. Worship is to
call upon His name. Now, you know why we call upon
the name of the Lord? Because we're completely dependent
on Him. That's worship. Admitting who we are and who
He is. We call on His name to save us. We call on His name
to enable us to worship. We call on His name to comfort
us and to instruct us. And this word called, Isaiah
used, it actually means to proclaim His name. Now that's what worship
is. Telling who God is. Telling people
who Christ is. And I know this. I've been around
long enough to know this. If you proclaim who God is, you
just faithfully proclaim who Christ is, God's people worship. They love to hear about Him.
And that's the only way they can worship, is to hear about
the Lord Jesus Christ. Worship is simply declaring His
doings. Well, what did Christ do? He
did it all. He did it all. Christ did everything
that's required of us, and nothing is left undone. His obedience
is our obedience. We don't have to be obedient
to the law as a way to earn righteousness. Christ's obedience is our obedience. We don't have to improve our
righteousness. Christ is our righteousness. And when God's
people hear that, they'll worship. It's the only way they can. They
can't worship unless they hear of Him. And if you want to worship,
You just be sure the name of Christ is exalted, because that's
when we can worship. And when I say this, be sure
that the name of Christ is exalted. This is what I mean. Say things
in such a way that it's crystal clear. Christ gets all the glory
and we get none. And don't ever, ever talk carelessly
and flippantly about the Lord. Don't joke about him. I like
humor. I like it a lot. But there are
plenty of other things to joke about. We don't joke about the
Lord. If you're going to take the name of God Almighty on your
lips, if you're going to take the name of the Lord Jesus Christ
on your lips, do it reverently. That name is precious and is
to always be exalted. There is none other name under
heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. Take that name
on your lips reverently. It's the name of the Savior.
There's no other name so dear to a child of God than the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior. Take His name on your
lips reverently. It's the only way His people
can worship. And Isaiah mentions singing here. You know an important
part of worship is singing. Well, what are we going to sing?
Are we going to sing songs that have a good beat to them? You
know, we can get our emotions all fired up and get everybody
going and everybody in the spirit of worship? No, you don't have
to do that. That's not worship. Tell you
what to sing. Sing His name. Sing what He's
done for His people. Isaiah says, He's done excellent
things. Excellent things. Gary, we've
got plenty of things to sing about, don't we? He's done excellent
things. Many excellent things. Well,
just sing those. That's worship. And sing unto
the Lord. Sing unto the Lord. Sing from
the heart. Everybody can't sing like...
I use Mike Bartram as the illustration all the time. I listen to Mike
sing every week. I can't sing like him. But you
know what? I'm more bold when Mike's standing
right next to me and singing, because I know he's going to
drown me out. Y'all not do that. Don't sing, worry about what
men are going to think. And don't sing, try to impress
people. Sing from the heart to the Lord. I sat down here in
the worship service. Y'all sing so good, it's because
it's from the heart. It's worship from the heart.
That's singing. In Isaiah it says, all creation
knows this. Yeah, here I am explaining all
these things. All creation already knows this. It isn't a shame
man doesn't. By nature man doesn't. That's
why we preach Christ. But you'll know this. If God's
visited you in that special day of His grace, that day of His
eternal purpose, you'll know this. Beyond a shadow of a doubt
you'll know it. And that brings me to my last
point. The day of God's eternal purpose. is a day of assurance. Look at verse 6. Cry out and
shout, thou inhabitant of Zion, for great is the Holy One of
Israel in the midst of thee. Now cry out and shout. Don't
be hesitant and don't worry that God's purpose is going to fail.
Just shout it out. Just belt it out and don't worry
what anybody thinks. God's going to take care of the
results of this thing. My wife Janet tells me she's
driving the car alone. There are certain songs that
come on that just right in her vocal wheelhouse, you know, she
says, oh, I like it, I can belt that out. That's the way we're
to preach the gospel. Just belt it out. Boldly and
clearly belt it out in full assurance. Our Savior is great and He is
greatly to be praised. He is so great. Nothing is going
to stop his eternal purpose. Then why wouldn't we be bold?
Why would we ever be hesitant to preach his gospel? The day
that he's purposed from all of eternity will come. It will come. Someone said recently,
well, if I believed in Calvinism, that removes all incentive to
You go out and preach and evangelize is the word. I wouldn't preach if I didn't
know this. I wouldn't waste my time trying to talk you into
doing something if I didn't know that the day of God's eternal
purpose will come. God's people are going to hear.
They're going to believe. They're going to be blessed.
And they're going to awaken His likeness in glory. I have full
assurance of that. And if I didn't, I wouldn't bother.
But His purpose will be done. Our Savior is the Holy One of
Israel. Now that does describe His nature,
His character. He's the Holy One of Israel.
But this is also our assurance. The character of our Savior is
holy. Neal, he won't go back on his
promise. He's holy. The character of our Redeemer
is holy. So the salvation He accomplished
for His people is holy. It can't fail, there's no holes
in it. There's no flaws. The character of our Savior is
holy, and He's made His people holy. So God accepts them. Well
now, how are we holy? I don't see anything but me,
in me but sin. When I look at myself, that's
all I see is sin. Well, I'll tell you how we're holy. Because
Christ is in us. He's in the midst of thee. Isn't
that what Isaiah says? He's in the midst of thee. Christ
is in His people. Our worship is holy because Christ
is in the midst. He said, where two or three are
gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.
Then our worship is holy because the Holy One of Israel is here.
And God's children are holy. Because He's in the midst of
them. He has made His people holy and righteous in Him. And
wherever it is that you go, His Holy Spirit goes with you. Because
He's in the midst of you. Does that give you assurance?
He's not going to leave you. What assurance there is in that?
All of this. because of the day that God appointed
from all of eternity. It's all of Him. It's all of
His grace and His purpose and His doing. I'm thankful. What a Savior we have to preach. What a gospel we have to preach
because of His eternal purpose. Alright, I hope the Lord will
bless that to you. You know the thing I notice about
God's preachers. They just say one thing. They
just preach one thing. That God Almighty is in control.
God Almighty's purpose. I love that. Thank you, Brother
Frank. Well, it's been good to have
been together. Come around and fellowship. Hearing of Him. That's all God's
people want to do. I pray the Lord bless this, bless
it to our hearts, bless it to our understanding, our comfort,
and to the calling out of His people. I pray God save somebody
tonight, one that He's everlastingly loved.