If you turn in your Bibles to
Galatians chapter 4 Verses we are looking at are
16 and 17 Paul is provoked, he's greatly
provoked by these false teachers. And it's a right, a right thing
for God's people to be provoked, to be zealous, and to be jealous. In verse 11 he says, I'm afraid
of you, I'm afraid for you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour
in vain. Brethren, I beseech you, be as
I am. So he's not raising himself up
above the missus. Be as I am, for I am as you are. When it comes to righteousness,
when it comes to sanctification, when it comes to relationship
with God, all, one in Christ Jesus. You have not injured me
at all. You know how through infirmity
of the flesh I preached the Gospel unto you at first, and by temptation
which was in my flesh you despised not, nor rejected, but received
me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. Where is then the
blessedness you spake of? For I bear you record, if it
had been possible, you would have plucked out your own eyes
and then given them to me. Am I therefore become your enemy
because I tell you the truth? They zealously affect you, but
not well, yea, they would exclude you, that you might affect them. But it is good to be zealously
affected always in a good thing, and not only when I am present
with you." Verse 17 could very easily be translated, they have
a zeal for you, they are zealous for you, and it is not good because
they wish to shut you up. so that you may be zealous for
them." The same word is used at the beginning and the end
of the sentence. But now it is good to be zealous
in a good thing always. There's hardly a page I haven't
checked It is hardly a page of the New Testament that doesn't
warn about false teaching and the dangers of anything other
than a declaration of the finished work of the Lord Jesus. Behold
your God. Behold your God reigneth. That's the proclamation that
the people, the servants of God bring again and again. Not that
he tries, not that you have to add something of your works to
make his works effective. False teachers proliferate in
this world and the reality is that when we look around and
see the outworkings of humanity's
addiction to religion, and we see the multitude of ways in
which Satan has been allowed, under the judgment of God on
people, to bring all sorts of damning delusions to people. Love for these people and love
for the Lord Jesus has provoked Paul. provoked him in a right
way. The extraordinary thing about
these Galatian believers is that the inroad the false teachers
had into their lives was because of their zeal. They were anxious,
weren't they? As all of God's people are, they
are anxious to honour him more. They're anxious to live in this
world that he might be honoured. And not only did they use the
zeal of the Galatians as a means of bringing this bewitching influence
upon them, this enticing influence, but they did so expressing their
own zeal. They didn't just sit back in
Jerusalem where the church was centred. These people travelled
over land and sea. went great distances and no doubt
when they arrived the Galatians would have heard much about their
zeal and their activity and been impressed by their knowledge
of the scriptures, impressed by their so-called
zeal for them. It says in verse 17, they zealously
affect you. They have a zeal for you. They are zealous. And see, as I said earlier, the
true believer knows how unfruitful he is. Knows when he comes before
the fruit-checking Pharisees that he fails miserably. And the true believer knows how
fruitful he ought to be out of gratitude and love and just amazing
mercy that's been shed abroad on him by the Lord Jesus. And the reality is that I want
to be more zealous. I grieve over how little zeal
so often I have. And I want, as no doubt these
Galatians did, I want personally to be more used of Him. And I
want that for each of you. I want us to be zealous. I want us to be provoked. by
the glory of the Lord Jesus, to be more zealous. I want that
for our church. We are, as we see in our bulletin
each week, we are the beneficiaries of men that have gone before
us and have been used, much of the Lord. We have been the recipients
of God sending His servants here for these last five or six years,
all the way to the bottom end of the world. People sometimes
that we knew very little of beforehand and then we ended up in these
warm bonds of fellowship that we expect again to experience
in this next few weeks. And we would love to be used
of the Lord for His glory, not just in this district but in
this land and in this world. part of what it is to be brought
into this amazing family of God. And as we read in Zechariah,
so often we find ourselves like the myrtle trees in the bottom
of the valley. But the scriptures again and
again remind us that this is a place of war, isn't it? That we are so often to be like
soldiers under guard, we are like the Song of Solomon describes
the Church of God, as marching under an army, as army marching
under banners. We are, as God's children in
this world, we are traitors to the Prince of this world, and
we are traitors to his religion and we are seen as traitors by
his followers, whether wittingly or unwittingly. The Lord Jesus
speaks in his letters to the churches and the one that you
probably remember as I often do is the one that he writes
to the Laodiceans. In each of these letters he says,
I know thy works. that thou art neither hot nor
cold. I would thou wert cold or hot,
so then because thou art lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I will
spew you out of my mouth." It's interesting isn't it, that both
heat and cold are places of discomfort. The older I get, the more I like
my temperature just to be about perfect. And mercifully in this
part of the world we have it for months and months every year.
I've become addicted to my air conditioner in my office. I love
it. It only has to be a few degrees
hotter or colder than I like it, or the humidity just a few
percent outside of my comfort zone and I flick it on. I can
just press a button and the temperature's right. But see, lukewarm, hot or cold
is discomfort, but lukewarm is comfortable, isn't it? Lukewarm
is a place where people are comfortable. The scriptures say, Woe to those
that are at rest in Zion. Paul writes this letter to provoke
the Galatian believers. to provoke them. He asks questions
again and again. Who has bewitched you? What's
happened to your blessedness? Why have you turned from loving
Me, from being so thankful of hearing the Gospel? He's now treated as an enemy. He's wanting to provoke a division
in the Galatian Church. He's wanting there to be a clear
division. he's saying to them, are going
to be found on one side of this equation or another. It's a striking
thing that he says to the false teachers and to those who follow
them. He says, you did run well, who
did hinder you? I'm trying to find the verse. But He says in verse 10 of chapter
5, He has confidence in you through the Lord that you will be none
otherwise minded. And then He describes the ones
that trouble Him. He that troubles you shall bear
his judgment. The Lord Jesus has borne the
judgment of all His people. As the scriptures say, who can
stand with everlasting burns? They shall bear their judgement. See the persuasion that they
had, this captivating zeal that had come to them, it didn't come,
verse 8 of chapter 5, it didn't come from Him that calls them,
it didn't come from the Lord Jesus, it didn't come from His
messengers. And then he describes how easy
it is for people to be led astray a little, even. So they didn't
come along to the Galatians with what seemed to be anything other
than some minor changes. They would have applauded them
for their zeal for God, they would have applauded them for
their faith in the Lord Jesus, and then they just add a little
bit of leaven, a little bit that we hear all the time having proclaimed
the Gospel to so-called professing believers. But you must. It's all very well to talk about
the glories of God and the glories of our Lord Jesus and His sanctifying
work in the hearts of His people and His comforting words to His
people. But you must. I don't know how
many times I've said that. But you must do this. But you
must do that. God's children will do those
things. as Jeremiah says, that with weeping
and supplications will I lead them. We see in Galatians again and
again the danger, the danger of false teaching, how it led
these people captive who had all just recently leave their
pulpit. What a great letter of warning. What an extraordinary thing it
is for God to have given us this letter. It's good to be zealous. When
zeal is flagging, the Lord's children have an answer. They have a place, they have
a person to go to. Over this last several months
with sort of sicknesses of various thoughts and concussion and ridiculous
amounts of work I have pleaded with God so often, don't let
me go with the flow. He is, as we read in the scriptures,
He's doing this mighty work of building His church and He says
the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. You have worked zeal and passion
for your glory in the hearts of your people throughout time.
Don't pass me by. Don't let me go with the flow. Don't let me find my comfort
and my peace in the things of this world. And especially don't
let me find my peace and my comfort in the activities of religion
that's lived out before men. Let's live before God. Let's live in His presence. Let's live in His company. Paul describes His zeal for his
brethren, doesn't he, in Romans 10, he says, brethren, my heart's
desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be
saved, for they bear them record that they have a zeal for God,
a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. They expected the
Lord Jesus to come, They expected a messiah. They were, these Jews in the
modern parlance, five-point Calvinists. They knew their Bibles supposedly
well, recited huge sections of them, but they had a zeal but
not according to knowledge." They had no consciousness of
Christ. They were totally ignorant of
Him as a Saviour. They had complete ignorance of
Him as the Lord, our righteousness, even though their scriptures
had described Him such. But their righteousness is of
Me, He says again and again. For being, for they, verse 3
of chapter 10 of Romans, for they being ignorant of God's
righteousness. God's righteousness. We spoke
about it last week. They're ignorant of God's righteousness. And everyone who is ignorant
of God's righteousness is doing what the next part of this verse
is saying, isn't it? And going about to establish
their own righteousness. That's their zeal, that was the
zeal of these false teachers in Galatia, going about to establish
their own righteousness. And as I keep telling you, you
know how much people cling to their righteousness when you
take it away from them. And it's only taken away from
them in the presence of the gospel proclaimed to them. And all of
a sudden you'll find how much they cling to it. how much they
are desperately doing what this verse says. They are going about
to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves
unto the righteousness of God. The righteousness of God is necessarily
humbling to us. God's righteousness is the perfect
righteousness. God's righteousness is in His
dear and precious Son and no one else. And verse 4, for Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes. And I love that ETH ending there,
that believeth, that believes and believes and continues to
believe. The great mass of religious Christian
professors are seeking a hope of acceptance with God partly
on the basis of their deeds, of their activities, and partly
on the grace of God. They go about to establish their
own righteousness, their own legal righteousness. And Paul
has made it abundantly clear in Galatians 3.10 is, Cursed
is everyone that continueth not in all things written in the
book of the law to have done. Cursed is everyone. is declared
again and again through Galatians, isn't it? We are redeemed from
the curse of the Lord. He has made a curse for us. We are saved by grace through
faith and it's the gift of God, it's not of ourselves. Oh, how wonderful that is for
those who are caused by God to see themselves as sinners. It is the great point of confusion,
doesn't it? And it's all joined as one together,
the whole business of justification before God. How can a sinner
be right with God? It is just too simple, isn't
it? The Gospel, as someone said in Bible study 20 years ago,
it's just the news is too good to believe. It is too good to
believe unless the Lord causes you to believe. Christ is the
end. He's the terminus. He's as far
as the law goes. He's as far as the law goes in
pictures, in types, and in prophecies, and in promise. He's all of the
promises of God. Terminate in Him, they are yes,
and Amen in Him. He is the sole, complete, perfect,
established, promised righteousness of God for His people. In Him,
and in Him alone, we are justified by God. I love what Robert Hawker says
about this business of justification. He says, such is God's value
of the infinite worth and perfection of it, of the work of the Lord
Jesus Christ on behalf of his people, that God beholds and
accepts the persons of the redeemed as fully and completely justified,
as if they had wrought the work themselves. Because they did. Christ and His redeemed. Christ and His church are one. These people had been blessed.
They've been blessed with the Word from God. They've been blessed
with God's appointing. In extraordinary providence He
sent Paul to Galatia and not to many other places. In extraordinary
providence He sent Paul there, weak and infirmed and seeming
to have some serious problem with his eyes. Now he didn't
look much, he didn't sound like much, All of the glory, all of
the glory goes to God. And that's exactly how Paul wanted
it to be. And that was the blessedness
that they spoke of, justified freely by his prophets, redeemed
freely. Where were they when Christ died
on the cross? What did they know of it? What
were their activities? They were Galatian idolaters
of all different sorts no doubt, some Jewish ones and some Gentile
ones. He died thousands of miles away
on a cross and his work was perfect and complete for them. I love how James describes that
word, that word of the Gospel, that word that is milk to the
babes in Christ. He calls it an engrafted word. I love what grafting does. There
are two wounds in grafting. You wound the tree, and then
you wound the little piece, the little bud that you put into
the tree. You wound the tree with a cup, and you open it up,
and then you insert another wounded piece, and then you wrap them
up together, and then they grow together. And after they've grown
together for a while, you can't see often where the wound was. That word cuts and wounds, and
that word heals and becomes life. It lives in the hearts of God's
people. They have felt in that wounding
the sentence of their holy law. They felt it in their conscience. a guilty sinner with nothing
in my hands to bring. And there in the Gospel the Lord
Jesus has been displayed before them, evidently set forth before
them as crucified, and they have fled to the only possible rest,
the only possible place of safety in all this world, is in the
womb of Jesus Christ. And they find their rest there,
they find liberty there, they find joy there, they find companionship
and community there, they find that they are now part of not
just something that's little happening in Galatia, they're
part of a huge, huge church. the great church of the Lord
Jesus Christ. It includes Abel and Adam and
Eve and Enoch and Noah. They have been brought into this
vast cloud of witnesses. They are one with their brothers
and sisters in heaven right now. They worship the same Lord in
the same way. One day they'll all see Him and
all their voices will sing with absolute perfect harmony. They've
found rest in Him. They've come to a rock that is
higher than us. They have, as we have, brothers
and sisters, they've borne witness. We have remarkably, miraculously,
stupendously bore witness to God fulfilling promises again
and again and again. I love how Isaiah 9 describes
the Lord Jesus and his people. The people that walked in darkness
have seen a great light. They that dwell in the land of
the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. They didn't do anything. shined
upon them." And he talks about that nation he
multiplied and he talks about breaking the yoke of his burden
and the staff of his shoulder and the rod of the oppressor.
And then he says why, for unto us a child is born, unto us. under this church a child is
born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon
his shoulder. He rules all things, effortlessly,
purposefully, unhindered. His name shall be called Wonderful
counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince
of Peace. Of the increase of his government
and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David and
upon his kingdom to order it and to establish it. I love the
way he describes the establishment of this kingdom. with judgment
and with justice. All of God's attributes of holiness
and justice and judgment and truth are all displayed and established
from henceforth even forever. And how is that going to happen?
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. Our zealous God will perform
this. No wonder these false teachers
zealously offended them. They came and what was their
strategy? Their strategy is the same as the false throughout
time. Their strategy was to attack
the character of God's messenger, Paul. He wasn't with the apostles. in the days of the Lord Jesus'
earthly ministry. He's a secondary apostle. We
actually come from Jerusalem. We are on inside track. They
attack his character. They deride the Gospel preached. Any time the Gospel is compromised
or marginalized or rationalized, intellectualized, It no longer
is just simply the power of God under salvation. And they use
all sorts of techniques. They've done it throughout time,
haven't they? They did it with Jeremiah, they did it with all
of God's saints, didn't they? They label them and they use
slogans and they're working As this verse says, they are zealous
for you because they wish to shut you out. They wish to shut
you out of God's kingdom and gather you to themselves. They use the words that we've
heard so many times. And it's amazing how if they
can attach a label to someone, then you no longer have to engage
with what that person says or even what the scripture says.
You've got a little label hyper-Calvinist, a little label antinomian, a
little label narrow, hard, dogmatic. Just a little label and they
can put you in the box and put the label on the box and then
you're out of the way. You don't have to engage with
them and what they say. They exclude people from hearing
the gospel or engaging with his preachers. And they grow them
in fear. They exclude them from the liberty. If you're excluded from liberty
then you're entrapped. They were enticing these Galatians
with their zeal and they preyed on their ignorance and they grew
their fear. Paul was distraught that he had
gone from someone that they would have plucked out their own eyes
to care for him, to someone who now was seen as their enemy. and they would have established
their credentials as true guides, as I said. They would have said,
look at my zeal, look at my learning, look at all those that follow
me. There's an extraordinary verse
in Acts 21, I think it is, where it talks about when Paul went
back to Jerusalem, We don't have time to go into it now, but I
do believe that the Lord allowed Paul, who was probably tired
and weary from the battle, He allowed him to fall and then
rescued him. But in Acts 21 verse 20, He says, they said to him, Thou
seest, brother, how many thousands of the Jews there are which believe. If these false teachers would
have said, we have a multitude back in Jerusalem who preach
and do the same things as us, how many thousands of Jews which
have believed, and they are all zealous of the Lord. Not zealous for the Lord, but
zealous of the Lord. Paul, I love how he expresses
his compassion and his zeal for people. In 2 Corinthians 11 he
describes his heartfelt desire for these people. He says, He
would to God that you would bear with me a little in my folly,
and indeed bear with me. And then he describes his heart
emotions with them. For I am jealous over you with
a godly jealousy. For I have espoused to you the
one husband that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest by any means,
as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should
be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ, the singleness
that is in Christ, the oneness that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preaches
another Jesus whom we have not preached, and if you receive
another spirit which you have not received, another gospel
which you have not accepted, you might well bear with him."
He is jealous. He was zealous. zealous for the
people that he loved and cared for. As I said earlier, there's
hardly a page of the New Testament that doesn't describe false teaching
and false teachers and the dangers that they fall into. Paul has
asked these Galatians to ask questions of themselves. Who
are these people? Who has beguiled you? Where is
your liberty now? Where is your friendship? Where is your love for me and
the Gospel? Where is the blessedness that
you did describe?" No wonder he describes them as the Lord
Jesus does. They talk about blind guides
and deceitful workers and dogs. As Romans 16, 18 says, for they
that are such to not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly,
their own desires. If you go to Galatians chapter
6, you'll see that's exactly what these Galatians false teachers
wanted to do. They wanted to be able to boast
about the people that they had gathered to themselves. They
wanted to boast about your flesh. They wanted to boast, say, Paul
had done all this but now we've actually got these people and
look what they're doing. They're signing covenants and
they're staying under the law and here they are, zealous for
us and our party. Blind guides. They serve their
own belly and by good words and fair speeches. What a description
that is of so much that goes on in religious activity. Good
words and fair speeches. They deceive the hearts of the
simple. They don't deceive them by saying,
here's a great big chunk of heresy swallowed. They deceive them
by just simply leading them away from the simpleness and singleness
that's in the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. They come masquerading. They look as if they're angels
of light, but they're ministers of darkness, with feigned humility
and good works. And then the Gospel comes and
you find that when they are tested against the Gospel, you find
that something rises up in these people who have good words and
fair speeches. Something rises up in them. when
they are brought to confront an absolutely sovereign God,
when they are brought to confront the Lord Jesus as He's really
described in this book. And it's an extraordinary thing,
isn't it? It's just an exposing of what's in their hearts, And
you pray as Paul does with these Galatians, that it might just
be for a season. They appear humble. They appear
to be zealous for your good. They appear to be zealous for
the Lord Jesus Christ. As I said earlier, we've had
enough time together and we've seen this Gospel do its work,
do its convicting work and its liberating work. And we've seen
what happens to those in many cases who reject the Gospel. And again, I pray it's for a
season. But when men leave the light,
they move to darkness. And it doesn't matter where they
are in the darkness. If they're not living in the
light of the Gospel, It doesn't matter where it is. It doesn't
matter where it is. And we must, as I said last week,
we mustn't lose hope that our God in some way has been removed
from His throne. It's a promise, isn't it? The
Lord Jesus is asked about what's going to happen with this world.
They're sitting on Mount Olives and they're looking across at
these great buildings and they ask, what's going to happen with
these? And the very first words out of the Lord Jesus' mouth
in Mark 13, 5 are, take heed lest no one, any man deceive
you. For many shall come in my name
saying, I am Christ and shall deceive many. And he talks about
the wars and the rumours of wars He says, verse 9, take heed to
yourselves. For they shall deliver you up
to councils and into the synagogues. You shall be beaten and you shall
be brought before rulers and kings for my sake for a testimony
against them. And the Gospel must first be
published among all nations, that when they shall lead you
and deliver you up, take no thought beforehand what you shall speak,
neither do you premeditate that whatsoever shall be given you
in that hour speak ye, for it is not you that speak, but the
Holy Ghost. Now brother shall betray brother
to death, and father the son, and children shall rise up against
their parents, and cause them to be put to death. And you shall
be hated of all men for my name's sake. But he that shall endure
unto the end, the same shall be saved. God will make his people
endure until the end in this trial, in this trial that this
world is. They zealously affect you, but
not well, that they would exclude you, that you might be zealous
for them. The promise to God. This world
we live in is a fulfilment of promise. Every little last bit
of it. And it's good to be zealously
affected always in a good thing. I'd just like to finish on a
more positive note. It's good to be zealous. It is
good to be zealous. I want to be zealous. I came
in here this morning and there was a notice on the board there
from the people that run that kitchen thing here. And it's
the most extraordinary blasphemous thing. And I was just incensed. I'm so thankful. I hate the fact
that so often I'm prepared to let things go as it were through
to the keeper that we should stand and be bold about. I want
us to be zealous for the truth. I want to be zealous for the
truth. I want to know what the truth
is. I want it to be so important that it's actually a matter of
life and death. As I've said in times past, if
the gospel that we preach is not a matter of life and death,
not a matter of eternal life and death, then we don't have
the gospel. It is that serious, brothers
and sisters. Our Lord Jesus is worthy of extraordinary
zeal. How do we get there? What's the
antidote to zeal? The lacking zeal, sorry, the
flagging zeal. Jealousy or zealousness is composed
of two things. It's composed of love and hatred. If the Lord is jealous for His
people, it means two things, doesn't it? He dearly loves them,
and He hates all that would draw their hearts away from Him. I trust that we would hate the
things that draw our hearts' affection away from Him. What's the answer? What's the
answer to flagging zeal? There's a passage I'd like to
spend a little bit of time looking at in closing. The answer, as
in all of these things, is from our God, isn't it? To go to Him. If you turn to Isaiah 62, verse
6, It's a passage that I find very comforting and I
trust the Lord might bless his words to our heart. Isaiah 62,
6 says, I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which
shall never hold their peace day or night. Ye that make mention
of the Lord, keep not silence. and give him no rest till he
establish, till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth. This is the good thing. This
is the good thing, isn't it? It's a word of comfort, isn't
it? It's a word of promise to Jerusalem. Jerusalem like the
church throughout time is often seen to be in bondage and darkness
and despair. But do you see what he says?
He says, I have set watchmen upon thy walls. He describes the watchmen in
those amazing chapters in Ezekiel 33 and 34 and the work of the
watchmen. In 33.7 he says, So thou son
of man, I have set thee a watchman under the house of Israel. Therefore thou shalt hear the
word at my mouth and warn them from me. See our friend Peter
is coming next week. He is a watchman that God has
set upon the world. Wouldn't it be wonderful, wouldn't
it be wonderful if God answered his promise to us. And He spoke,
God Himself spoke through His servant to us over these next
few weeks. I have set Thee, I have set Thee,
set Thee upon the walls. Isaiah 26 reminds us that there
is just one wall, there's one wall And that's the Lord Jesus Christ.
In that day this song shall be sung in the land of Judah. We
have a strong city. Salvation will God appoint for
walls and bulwarks. Salvation needs to be in capital
letters there. It's the description of the Lord
Jesus. He's the wall, isn't He? He's the wall around His Church. He's the wall upon which His
Church is built. He is the wall upon which His
watchmen stand and speak. They don't speak in their own
name, they don't speak for the profit of their own bellies as
these false teachers do. They speak His words. Isaiah 52 talks about them and
their works. These watchmen have one job to
do, don't they? The watchmen standing upon the
wall of the Lord Jesus Christ by watchmen shall lift up the
voice, and with the voice together they shall sing, for they shall
see eye to eye when the Lord bringeth Zion. Therefore my people shall know
my name, They will know the character and person of God as He is revealed
in the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And therefore
they shall know in that day that I am He that doth speak. Behold,
it is I. How beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of Him that bringeth good tidings, that publishes
peace, that bringeth good tidings of good, that publishes salvation,
that proclaims salvation, that sayeth unto Zion, Thy God reigneth. He reigns. He's reigned throughout
all eternity. He's reigned now. The watchmen
are set. by God, aren't they? They are
set by God on a wall or on a vantage point, and on that wall and that
vantage point they watch and they hear and they see from Christ,
and they stand there to blow a trumpet in times of need, to
proclaim the jubilee to God's children, to proclaim that their
sins are being dealt with, to proclaim that their God reigns,
and to warn of dangers. We are, to an extent, all watchmen,
aren't we? See, no watchman of the Lord
is ever without a people who, together with him, are watchmen. And we have these tasks, don't
we, in these verses before us. I have set watchmen upon my walls,
O Jerusalem, which will never hold their peace day and night. They'll keep not silent. They
won't be silent. And they give him no rest. That's their activities, isn't
it? But there is another description of God's servants in this world.
that make mention of the Lord. We don't make mention of man,
we make mention of the Lord. We want Him to be seen to be
high and lifted up. As far as man's concerned, it's
a pretty simple equation, isn't it? He's a sinner, can't do anything
to help himself, can't do anything to save himself. That's the end
of the story. We don't have to talk much about
man, but we have an awful lot to talk about our Saviour, haven't
we? God will have His Son exalted. That's who we're here to preach.
We make mention of His name. That's the message. says, a Zion that bringeth good
tidings, get thee up on a high mountain, get you up on a place
that can be heard and seen, Jerusalem that bringeth good tidings, lift
up thy voice with strength, lift it up, be not afraid, say unto
the cities of Judah, say unto the churches of God, the children
of God, behold your God. hold him, gaze upon him in awe
and wonder, declare his glory among the heathen, declare his
marvellous works among all nations. You make mention of the Lord. That's the difference between
God's churches and God's watchmen and man's religion. Man's religion
always has a dose of man in it somewhere. Somewhere at the beginning,
somewhere at the middle, somewhere at the end. But I love what that
verse says in the marginal reference of the King James Bible that
says, you that make mention of the Lord, It can easily equally
be translated, you that are the remembrances of the Lord. You that bring Him to memory. So this is a remembrance service,
isn't it? We are declaring something that
God has done. We are declaring something that
you know. You know He has done. You know who He is. And we need
to be reminded, Peter when he was dying, Peter who writes that
amazing description of his beloved brother Paul, who in his zeal
had been the means by which the Lord used to bring him out of
a pit of darkness. He says, doesn't he, he says
in verse 12, he says, therefore I will not be negligent to put
you always in remembrance of these things. That's what preaching
is, isn't it? That's why it's repetitious.
We forget all the time. We need to be reminded, don't
we? I put you always in remembrance
of these things, though you know them, and be established in the
present truth. So you know them. You need to
be reminded of them. Yeah, I think it is me, I think
it is right, as long as I'm in this tabernacle, to stir you
up by putting you in remembrance. See, how is the zeal of God's
people stirred up? It's stirred up by telling them,
Our God reigns. Behold your God. And that's what God calls upon
his people to do. Peter wants them to be put in
remembrance. God says to us in Isaiah 43,
He says, put me in remembrance, give Him no rest, put Him in
remembrance. Isaiah 43, 25 says, I, even I
am He that blotted out Thy transgressions, and I love
this next phrase, for mine own sake. God is doing everything
He does in the lives of His people for His sake, for mine own sake,
and will not remember thy sins. Put me in remembrance. Let us
plead together. You plead the Lord Jesus Christ,
I'll plead the Lord Jesus Christ. We'll plead together. We are
proclaiming the same Gospel. We are pleading together. Declare thou that thou mayest
be justified. So keep not silence. God's church
and God's preachers and God's people are to keep not silence
between season and out of season. It means when we are received
well and when we are treated with contempt. Keep not silence. I love this next phrase in Isaiah
62, it says, and give him no rest. Give him no rest. Pester heaven, brothers and sisters. Pester heaven for the things
that you would like him to do in your life and through your
life. It's remarkable that the Lord
Jesus in Isaiah 62.1, He says, For Zion's sake I will not hold
my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest. The Lord Jesus for Zion's sake,
he does everything for Zion's sake, everything for his church's
sake. He won't rest, he won't be still,
and then he calls on his people to give him no rest. The Lord
Jesus has finished the work of redemption. Gloriously and marvellously
He has displayed the glorious character of God in the saving
of the people that the Lord gave Him from eternity. He put away
their sins as we read, forever. But He is still active, isn't
He, our Lord Jesus, until the last of the wandering sheep is
brought in. Not one of them can be lost. All power is given to Him and
He rules all things for the sake of His Church. You read about
it in Ephesians 4. He is the one who gives pastors and missionaries. He is the one that gives these
gifts, the gifts that all of God's children have for all of
what God's people need. He gives all of those gifts and
He sends His Word out into this world. That's the good thing
that Paul talks about in Galatians 4.18. There's nothing more important.
There is nothing. There's nothing in this world.
All of what we see and touch is going to disappear and never
be remembered again. We read about it in Isaiah. The one thing that abides is
Him and His work. Give Him no rest. Lord, save
your people. Lord, bless your word to the
hearts of your people and do it. Do it, Lord, in such a way
that you receive all the glory. Do it in spite of the frailties
and the weakness of the flesh of your people. He will do it. He's promised to do it. And He'll
do it in such a way that we'll be revealed like Paul was. We'll
be revealed in the weakness of our flesh and we'll be called
upon like him to say that by the grace of God, I am what I
am. The Lord will be the strength
of his people. That's what he says in Isaiah
62, 7, doesn't he? And give him no rest. Who's going
to establish this? His zeal is the one who is going
to create the zeal in the hearts of His people. Give Him no rest
till He establish, until He make Jerusalem a praise in the earth. We speak to the people from God
and we plead with the Lord for the people. We preach His Gospel
and then we ask Him to bless it. That's the answer to zeal,
isn't it? Where does zeal come from? It
must come from a zealous God. It must be a zeal that He causes
to be a zeal that works in this one good thing. And we have a word of promise,
haven't we? Just to finish, if you read down
in Isaiah 62. The Lord has sworn by His right
hand and by the arm of His strength. The Lord has sworn by the Lord
Jesus Christ. He will give, He said, I will
no more give thy corn to be meat to my enemies, and the sons of
the strangers shall not drink thy wine for which thou hast
laboured. that he that has gathered it
shall praise the Lord, and they that have brought it together
shall drink it in the courts of my holiness." None of the enemies of the Lord
Jesus are going to share in the fruits that he has wrought for
his people and wrought in his people. We are more than conquerors
in this world. We have a great God and Saviour. Give him no rest, brothers and
sisters, give him no rest till he established, till he made
Jerusalem a praise in the earth. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we pray that you would cause by your words engrafted life
in us, Heavenly Father, that we would have a zeal for Your
glory in this world. And Heavenly Father that You
would protect us from ourselves, You would lead us not into temptation
and You would continue to lead us in Your ways. You would continue
to be lifted up before us that we might behold our God and know
that He reigneth. Oh our father we live in a world
that is just in such deep darkness. through your judgement, the activities
of Satan and the wickedness and deceitfulness of men. And we
praise you, Heavenly Father, for the light of the Gospel.
Please work in our hearts that we wouldn't be caused ever to
take it for granted, Heavenly Father, that we might see something
of the extraordinary blessing of bringing the Gospel to your
people and bringing your servants to bring that Gospel to us. O
our Father, we pray that you would cause us to come before
you again and again, pleading for your people and pleading
for your Gospel's cause in this world, that we, as we've been
instructed, would give him no rest till he establish Zion,
till he make it the praise of all the earth. Our Father, we
thank You that the Lord Jesus reigns supreme. He said it is
finished. He said He'll do it. And all
of the promises of God are yes and amen in Him. Our Father,
we do pray for Your blessing on us as a church and us as individuals. We do pray for our brother Peter
and the messages that You have laid on his heart. We pray, Heavenly
Father, that it would be You who speaks to us. that we might be like the young
boy Samuel who says, speak Lord, for your servant is hearing. Help us, our Father, to honour
your dear and precious son with gratitude and worship. We thank you again for your mercies
to us. We thank you in Jesus' name.
Amen.