Now as we said the first three
verses of this chapter Isaiah 61 Described the father sending
the Lord Jesus Christ his son to this earth to proclaim and
Really to be the gospel as I said to fulfill but the truth of the
matter is he just is the gospel and It tells us what the message
is what Christ means to a sinner freedom Liberty comfort beauty,
righteousness, joy. It describes us as trees planted
by God and the purpose of it all being that God might be glorified.
Isn't that what it said there? At the very end of verse three,
that he might be glorified. Why does God plant a garden?
Why does he plant an orchard? Why does he plant a vineyard?
As we've said so many times from the scriptures when we see these
parables of him saying, the kingdom of heaven is like a householder
that planted a a vineyard and parables like that we plant
a garden for a reason don't we so does he so does he and what
he reaps is glory to his name that's what it said there that
he might be glorified And we say that, as I said, you
plant an apple tree because you want some apples. You plant an
orange tree or bananas, you want that fruit. But God plants a
tree to get glory. And he does plant. When the fig
tree didn't have any figs on it in Matthew 21, remember what
the Lord did? He cursed it. He cursed that
tree and it withered up right in front of their eyes. And the
disciples said, wow, look how fast that thing withered up. Listen to it. That's a picture
of a tree that the Lord Jesus Christ did not plant, that God
did not plant. That's what that is now. In Matthew
15, 12, it says, then came his disciples and said unto the Lord,
knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended after they heard
this saying? They were offended every time he opened his mouth.
But he answered and said, every plant which my heavenly father
hath not planted shall be rooted up. We're talking about trees that
he plants. Our text describes his elect
as trees of his planting that he might get glory So let me
ask you a couple of questions in the salvation of a sinner
who gets the glory And that's he's he's saying now that we're
trees the planting of the Lord that he might be glorified is
that what happens first Corinthians 126 you see your calling brethren
how that not many wise men after the flesh and Not many mighty,
not many noble are called. He saves the worst of the worst.
God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the
wise, and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound
the things which are mighty, and base things of the world,
and things which are despised hath God chosen, yea, and things
which are not to bring to naught things that are, that no flesh
should glory in his presence. He's gonna get all the glory.
But of him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto
us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, that according
as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord, not
in the flesh. God gets all the glory when he
saves a sinner. All right, now that you're saved,
who gets the glory in your life? If you are one of his, if you've
believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, listen to what he says. You are
the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill
cannot be hid. And that's what we are. Neither
do men light a candle and put it under a bushel. The Lord has
lit a candle. And he said, I intend for that
light to shine. Not going to be put under a bushel,
but on a candlestick. If you remember in the book of
Revelation, the candlestick is a picture, isn't it? the preaching
of the church and the light, but on a candlestick, and it
giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light
so shine before men that they may see your good work. Then
do what? Glorify your Father, which is in heaven. He's gonna
get glory from start to finish. And this is the point and the
pursuit of our lives. Either that or we're a fig tree
with no figs on it. And we see what happens to that. About His grace, He planted us.
And we're planted by the clear river of pure water of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now in the next verses, the church
is described, and what a beautiful vision of what Christ is accomplishing
in us. This is what he's doing, not
what we're doing. It includes what we're doing,
but it's what he's doing. He said, I'll build my church.
So that book, you know, if you've ever been in one of them Christian
bookstores, that for some reason or other, I found myself in a
few times in my life. And you see that book on how
to build a church, don't buy it because you don't build a
church and neither do I. God does. He said, I will build
my church. But this is a beautiful picture
of what he's doing in us and through us to us for us He said I'll build my church
and he is and this is what it looks like And he gives us the ministry
Of building and we'll talk about that now, but that's him doing
it through us listen to verse four and they shall build They
shall build the old wastes. They shall raise up the former
desolations, that which was desolate, a wasteland, worthless, empty. And they shall repair the waste
cities and the desolations of many generations. Never, nothing's
happened. It's just been for generations. nothing but destruction and death
and debris, rubble, nothing. But
now, the Lord Jesus came. And it doesn't, again, it's not
just particularly the time that he came down here to this earth,
it's whenever he comes. If he comes to you tonight, that
which is desolate and wasted, it'll be built up. It's not about
he said they shall build it's not about building buildings
religions always wanting to build another building There's always
a fund. I've been in it. I know what I'm talking about.
There's always a building fund Let's build another building
somewhere This is talking about building
a church, but the church is the people of God It's the people
of God and there is a word in the New Testament that That is
the fulfillment of this in us. Do you know what it is? Do you
know what the New Testament talks about when it talks about building
up his church? It's the word edify. Have you
ever seen that in the scripture? Edify, it means to build up.
Listen to what the scripture says about that. And think about
our text, and they shall build. They shall build, it'll be built
up. Romans 14, 19, let us therefore follow after the things which
make for peace. And things wherewith one may
edify another, build up one another. And it's the old wastes that
are built up. When you find an old waste, if
you found a building that could be described like that, a desolation,
it's a goner in other words. Let's talk about this old house
over here, this white house on this property next to our property
here. If you were gonna build a house
right there, how much of the material from that old house
would you use? If you did anything, you might
find something neat that you might frame and put it up on
a wall somewhere, but it's not gonna make any of the structure,
is it? It's not gonna make up any of the structure of the new
house. No, you must be born again. The
Lord builds his church, but he also speaks this word to us,
build up one another, build up one another. Christ, when he makes a new man
and builds his church, of what use is the old man? Nothing but a detriment. If he
used part of the wood from that old house over there, would it
make the new house better or worse? That's how much business your
flesh and mine has in the church of God. It's not gonna help it. It's not gonna make it better.
It's not gonna build up. It's gonna tear down, if anything.
And may God forbid that it ever be permitted to do that. The
word repair, in our text back in Isaiah, repair, repair the
old wastes. That word means to make new. When we use that word repair,
it often means fix something old. Not there, it doesn't. It
means to make new. That's what the Lord does. He
makes a sinner. Completely new. In the context
of Romans 14, where we read there, what's meant there by edifying
is not offending one another, but encouraging and being a blessing
to one another, a help to one another, being kind and considerate
to one another. The Lord works in us both to
want to and to do that. 1st Corinthians 10 23 Paul said
all things are lawful for me. It's not that we're just worried
about are we gonna break the law? I can answer that. Yes,
you are Even when you do something good you broke God's law because
you didn't measure up to it But all things are not expedient
All things are lawful for me, but all things edify not It's
not gonna build up it might be okay for certain things, but
if you're offending a weaker brother or You're being unkind
about it. You may actually know more than
somebody else, and that's just an example, but the way you handle
that may not be helpful. You remember what Paul said about
love? Listen to this now, 1 Corinthians
8, 1. Now as touching things offered
unto idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffeth
up, though, and love. Buildeth up. Love edifies. You see what he's
saying there? It might be, it might be true. I may know more than you and
I may beat you over the head with what I know, thinking I'm
doing you a favor. Love, love. And that's just one example now
of what he meant by all things are lawful. It may be lawful
for me. It may be, I may be right and still be wrong. if I have
not loved. Wherefore, comfort one another,
yourselves together, 1 Thessalonians 5.11, and edify one another,
build up one another, they shall build. And of course, that's
the Lord, we know that. Verse five, and strangers shall
stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the alien shall be
your plowmen and your vinedressers. This refers to the Gentile, the
alien, the stranger is what that means, usually in the scriptures,
and refers to the Gentile, it's just simply expressive of how
the Lord's gonna build his church out of every kind of rock there
is. Every kind of stone there is. It's from all men, not all
men without exception, but all men without distinction. Every
kindred, tribe, nation, and tongue under heaven. The only distinction
among men is that some are his and some aren't. That's it. That's
the difference. And then there's feeding of the
flocks here that these Gentiles are involved in. Remember what our Lord said to
Simon, do you love me? Feed my sheep, feed my flocks,
feed my lambs. That's what happens in his church.
In the parable in Matthew 21, 33, It says the householder planted
a vineyard and let it out to husbandmen. He let it out. In other words, he hired them
to dress it. The word husbandmen there means
a tiller of the soil, a vine dresser. That is almost word
for word from our text, isn't it? They're gonna plow the soil,
and they're gonna dress the vines. Husbandmen, that's what he's
talking about. That's the church. The point
of it all now, remember, is that God gets his crop. He lets it out to us. Here we
are, stewards of his grace. But the point of it all is that
he get the return. for all the labor he gets his
glory he's going to get glory and to be involved in that in
any way is the greatest privilege I'm still learning that but I
believe the Lord is teaching me that what a privilege to be
involved in any way in that listen to what Paul wrote to
Timothy in first Timothy one eleven according to the glorious
gospel of the blessed God which was committed to my trust He
let it out, didn't he? We're husbandmen of the gospel. What an amazing thing. And look,
he said, I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord, who hath enabled me.
That has to be part of it, doesn't it? He worketh in us both to
will and to do of his good pleasure. It's not going to happen that
way. For he counted me faithful. He didn't find me faithful. But
he counted me faithful in putting me into the ministry. That words in our text too, ministers. Who was before a blasphemer,
a persecutor, and injurious. The old waste places were built
up weren't they? Before I was nothing, I was worse
than nothing. But I obtained mercy, because
I did it ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was
exceeding abundant with faith and love, which is in Christ
Jesus. Committed to our trust, the old
waste places were built up, and Paul was made a tiller of the
soil and a dresser of vines. God made him a husbandman. He
praised God for it. verse six back in our text, but
you shall be named the priests of the Lord. Men shall call you
the ministers of our God. Paul just wrote there, he put
me into the ministry, he put me into the ministry. You shall
eat the riches of the Gentiles and in their glory shall you
boast yourselves. Religion has invented a priesthood
that is disgusting. That's just the first word that
comes to my mind. It's disgusting. It's blasphemous, and that's
probably an understatement, but look with me at what the Lord
has done in his church and for his church. In this passage,
we're going to read a passage in 1 Peter 2, if you'd turn there
with me, please. And this passage contains a lot
of language that corresponds with our text. See if you can
catch it as we read through this. 1 Peter 2 verse 1. It talks about
the building of the church, the foundation of the church, and
also about the true priesthood. So it's right there along with
our text. 1 Peter 2 verse 1, Wherefore
laying aside all malice and all guile, Don't tear down, build. They shall build, edify one another. Hypocrisies and envies and all
evil speakings, as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the
word that you may grow thereby, that you may be built up and
grow. We're a garden. Living things
grow. Brother Jack preached a message,
I don't know how many years ago, with that title. living things
grow that's the truth that gods give you life you'll grow if
so be you have tasted verse three that the lord is gracious to
whom coming as unto a living stone disallowed indeed of men
but chosen of god and precious Ye also as lively stones are
built up a spiritual house. You see God's building a house
He's planted a garden and he's building a house and all of its
right from our text in them Of course, he he's let it out. He tells us to build build up
one another As living stones you're built
up a spiritual house and holy priesthood Of priesthood that's
our verse we're in right now to offer up spiritual sacrifices
acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. We're priests, but we have a
high priest. We have one that represents us
before God. Wherefore also it is contained
in the scripture, verse six, behold, I lay in Zion a chief
cornerstone, elect, precious, and he that believeth on him
shall not be confounded. Unto you therefore which believe,
he is precious. That's everybody that knows him.
He's precious to everybody that knows him. But unto them which
be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the
same is made the head of the corner. You disallowing him doesn't
change anything. He's still the chief cornerstone,
and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense, even to them
which stumble at the word, being disobedient, whereunto also they
were appointed. But you, you were appointed too. You're a chosen generation, a
royal priesthood, kings and priests, royal priesthood, and holy nation. A peculiar people, that means
owned. Peculiar means it has to do with
ownership. We belong. We're a people that
belong to him. That you should show forth the
praises of him who have called you out of darkness into his
marvelous light, which in time past were not a people. You were
a waste place, but are now the people of God, the house of God,
the building of God. the chief cornerstone being the
Savior, which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained
mercy. We're made priests. Christ is
still our great high priest. He still intercedes for us. He's on the right hand of God,
ever making intercession for us. And we have access to God
by him. That's what the priest is. He
spoke to God for men and to men for God. He was a mediator between
God and men. And there's just one really,
the man cross Jesus, but he's made us priests in this sense. And listen, the priest had something
to offer too. And it said there, we offer up
spiritual sacrifices. One of the things that we offer
is the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving unto our God, the
scripture says. But everything that we offer
unto God is acceptable, how? It was in that what we just read,
by Jesus Christ. by Jesus Christ, but we do offer
it. We offer it by Him. That priest in the Old Testament,
the high priest and all the other priests, when they came before
God, how were they accepted of God? They better have blood and
it better be as according to God's design and purpose and
decree. It better be acceptable blood. Well, all of that pictured Christ. There's just one acceptable sacrifice.
And so we offer up everything we offer to God by the sacrifice
that pleases God. So he's our great high priest.
We have access to God by him. He offered himself unto God for
our sins. But now we, in Christ Jesus and
by Christ Jesus, we're priests in the sense, only the Old Testament
priests could come into the presence of God. The people never, they
couldn't go in there. Only the priest entered into
there. But now, Paul said, we come boldly unto the throne of
grace. That's the sense in which we're made priests unto God because
of our great high priest. We have access to the throne
of his grace. In verse seven, let's look at
verse seven back in our text. We've got a lot to look at. For
your shame, you shall have double. For confusion, that's a double
portion a double double blessing and for confusion. They shall
rejoice in their portion It's a portion you're gonna be real
happy with You remember that parable where everybody got a
penny some of them were perfectly happy with that That's the believer
Whatever he gives me is right. I know that I They shall rejoice in their portion,
therefore in their land they shall possess the double. Everlasting
joy shall be unto them. And again, of course, this is
still the church. All of this is talking about the church.
You and them, and that's God's people, God's elect. But this
is talking again of an exchange. You remember the beauty for ashes
that we saw in the first three verses? An exchange. His beauty
for our ashes. This is an exchange too for your
shame. You shall have a double portion
from God. It's a trade. What do you have to trade? What
do you got to give God? What are you going to put on
the table? Shame. Shame. That's it. Religion talks about
basically let's make a deal. That's what salvation is. Let's
make a deal. You know, you make your decision and God will, you
take a step and God will, no, you just got one thing to trade,
shame. Shame. What can I get for a lifetime
of shame? By God's grace, you get a double
portion of his blessing. That's what you get. Everlasting joy. Our minds just sort of pass over
that, don't they? Everlasting joy. We just kind
of, we just don't, you can't grasp that. You know why your
mind just kind of passes over that? Because you don't know
what it is. You have no idea what that is and I don't either.
But having God's word and having his spirit, can we not think
about it for a minute? Everlasting joy. We know what joy is, we've got
an idea of what is it in this life that you rejoice in, that
blesses your heart? Well, you know, I rejoice in
my children and grandchildren. That's true, isn't it? Why don't
they live with you then? Why don't you let them move in
with you, Bob? We don't rejoice in them quite that much, do we?
You see what I'm saying? There's nothing in this world,
the greatest of joys. They're not what they ought to
be. They're just not, are they? I love my job, people say. I'm
not even gonna dignify that with a response. I love what I do,
do you? Why you keep looking at the clock
then and all afternoon? We love it a little bit. We love
the idea of it. We love it sometimes maybe. We don't know what everlasting
joy is. I rejoice in the gospel. You might, you know, get spiritual
on me. There's nothing wrong with that.
I rejoice in the gospel. Okay, well I've got a lot of
notes there. Let's just go two hours instead of one tonight.
Would that be all right with you? We'll just do that from
now on, come to think of it. You see what I'm saying? Don't even know what it is. You can watch a two hour movie
though. So let's just go from now on, it's two hours, every
message. Can't do that any more than you
can But we do rejoice in the gospel don't we? We do But do you see what a strange
concept everlasting joy is it's worth thinking about though isn't
it Because we're gonna rejoice in Christ Jesus like we never
had before I and there's no end. And like with everything that
we don't understand really, everything good, I guarantee if you think
about it long, you're gonna come back to this truth, Christ is. What is everlasting joy? Christ
is. There's no better way to answer
that. verse eight in our text for I
the Lord love judgment I hate robbery for burnt offering and
I will direct their work in truth and I will make an everlasting
covenant you see how that's talking about the church all of this
is regarding his church and what glorious promises I'm gonna make
an eternal covenant with them I'm gonna direct their work in
truth aren't you glad? oh boy I'm just a voice. You're here
for the truth of God, aren't you? That comes from Him. I, the Lord, love judgment. God's
love for judgment is now a good thing for us. I can rejoice in
the fact that God loves judgment. Isn't that amazing? It sounds
like a bad thing that God loves judgment. We think of judgment,
you know, as God pouring out his wrath upon a sinful world.
That's part of judgment. I'll tell you what else is part
of judgment, too, though. I find no iniquity in Jacob. That's God's judgment, too. He
just made a judgment. He looks at me, he makes a judgment.
You know what it is? No sin. He went down to his house
justified. Because I cried, God have mercy. Be merciful to me, the sinner.
And I never would have cried if he hadn't already had mercy
on me. And he justifies me. He loves judgment, doesn't he?
I'm glad now that because of Christ and what he did for us
on Calvary, we have every blessing and all of these blessings described
in this chapter are ours because it's the right thing for God
to do. That's what that means. He loves judgment. He hates robbery, though, for
burnt offering. I'm glad of that, too. He hates
it. Any offering that is not satisfactory, that doesn't perfectly
fulfill the justice, you offer God to something. He said in
one place, are you gonna offer the lame to me? He said, go take
that to your governor and see if he'll even take it. And you're
gonna do that to God? You're gonna offer God your pathetic
works? Is that what you're gonna do?
I made a decision for Jesus, really? You're gonna bring that
to God now? I don't recommend that. Don't come to God like
that. There's one offering that he
will accept. One burnt offering. And everything else is a robbery.
It's a travesty. It's an affront to heaven. It's
a crime against God. That's what he's talking about
there now. He will direct our work in truth.
We can't mess it up, can we? Well, I'm so glad I can't mess
it up, because I sure would if I could. The covenant, I'll make
a covenant with him. David said that's all my, he
made a covenant with me, and it's all my salvation and all
my desire. Is it that way for you? Does
it mean that to you, the covenant of grace in Christ Jesus? How do we talk about God's church
without talking about the covenant? There's no church without his
covenant. I can spell church without you, but I can't spell
it without the covenant of God's grace in Christ. You can spell
it without me too, can't you? That's who the church are. You
remember what Paul said? This is key. Now think about
this with me. In Philippians 3.3, Paul said, we are, he's
about to tell you who the church is, who God's people are. We
are the circumcision. which worship God in the spirit. We don't worship him with trinkets
and baubles and religious idols. We worship him right here. People
say, well that cross, that's not an idol, that just helps
me worship. That's an idol. That reminds me of my savior.
What about this? Does that not do it for you? That's not enough? You need a I used to be real intolerant
of that kind of thing, and then I got nicer for a little while.
And I was like, well, just let people wear their crosses. Now
I'm intolerant again. It makes me mad, doesn't it? Not at them, but at the whole
concept of the religious world that we live in, making religion
all about rituals and trinkets and objects. statues and crosses and We worship God in the spirit
And the Lord he said to that woman at the well He said you
you don't worship God in a mountain or a valley you worship him in
spirit Didn't know what he said to her it's not about where it's
about who you worship it And he's worshipped from the heart
if you have a heart to worship him you had to get it from him,
wouldn't you? To have one of those. That's
two, three, and rejoice in Christ Jesus. He's not saying there
that Christ Jesus is one of the things we rejoice in. When it
comes to our identity as the people of God, we rejoice in
Christ Jesus. And number four, we have no confidence
in the flesh. we are the circumcision what's
he talking about there two scriptures first of all it's spiritual circumcision
romans 2 29 but he is a jew which is one inwardly in circumcision
is that of the heart in the spirit not in the letter whose praise
is not of men but of god The second scripture I want to
read about that is this. The first time that the word
circumcised appears in the word of God. And you can often learn
a lot about something. If you're studying something,
you want to learn what something means and not just a definition
that somebody came up with. God defines what he says, doesn't
he? Amen. Often, the first time it's mentioned
in the scriptures will tell you a lot about it. Listen, the first
time the word circumcised is used, Genesis 17, 11. And you
shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, and it shall be
a token of the covenant between you and me. That's what it was. So when he says we're the, he
made a neverlasting covenant with us. That's what Paul's talking
about, identify. He said we're the covenant people
of God. He's not talking about outward.
He says that over and over in the New Testament. It has nothing
to do with the flesh. This is a spiritual thing. And what it
is is a token of the covenant. It's the fact, if God has given
you these other three things that he mentions, and the heart
to worship him, And there's that circumcision of the heart where
the flesh is denied. We take up our cross and follow
him. We deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow him.
That shows that God made a covenant with you. Otherwise it wouldn't
be that way. And so that's the church. We are the covenant people of
God who worship God in the spirit. then rejoice in Christ Jesus
that's that's how you worship God by praising his son, by rejoicing
in his son by preaching his son, hearing of his son and we don't
have any confidence in the flesh verse nine back in our text and
their seed shall be known among the Gentiles and their offspring
among the people All that see them shall acknowledge them,
that they are the seed which the Lord hath blessed. You remember
when Paul said, he said seed and not seeds, and you remember
why he said that, right? Because it's talking about Christ. That's Christ and everybody in
him. He said, if you have the faith that God gave Abraham,
you're Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. This goes right along with let
your light shine, so shine among men that people glorify your
father. All that see them shall acknowledge
them that they are the seed which the Lord hath bled. What are
people gonna say when they look at God's church? Oh, what a holy
people they are. Then that's not the church. According
to God, that's not the church if that's what they say. If people
look at the church and say, look how many of them there are, then
that ain't it. But if people look at the church
and say, look what God has done for them, that's the church right
there. Isn't that what he just said? Everybody's going to say, these
are the people the Lord's blessed them. Look at that. Look at that. What else are you going to say? Verse 10, I will greatly rejoice
in the Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my
God. For he hath clothed me with the
garments of salvation. He hath covered me with the robe
of righteousness. As a bridegroom, decketh himself
with ornaments, and as a bride, Adorneth herself with her jewels
What a beautiful picture this is the beauty of the church This is the beauty and the reasons
we rejoice in him clothed and covered Not the same thing But
both are true of his people clothes here are an adornment of Clothes are an adornment. I want
to wear something flattering, don't you? I want to wear something
that makes me look good. Women, you know the ladies, they
want to look beautiful. There's nothing wrong with that.
And I'll tell you that. We do look beautiful in Christ,
don't we? But there's another aspect to
this. Our clothes, We want our clothes to be nice. I don't want
to wear rags. I don't want to wear something
that is ugly. But also, our clothes are covering
something up. You see, that's a different aspect
of it, isn't it? Our clothes are covering something
up. That's the word, he hath covered me. He hath clothed me
with the garments of salvation. Beautiful in Christ Paul said
put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ the new man But also I'm covered
in his righteousness Because Christ is my righteousness God
sees no iniquity in me you can I can But it doesn't matter what we
see Being clothed with the garments of salvation Not only am I not
repulsive I'm clothed with his beauty with his grace with his
precious blood and washed clean not but but Not only this what he is what
he sees as a bride adorned when he looks at us. We're his bride.
That's what we are and and more beautiful than any bride that
ever walked an aisle unto him. But also he doesn't see my shame
and my guilt and my sin. We're beautiful through his comeliness. Ezekiel 16, 14, and thy renown
went forth among the heathen. You remember who he's talking
about? He's talking about that little baby that was laying in
an open field that nobody loved and they cast it out to die in
an open field that was covered in its own blood and filth but
listen to it now listen to what he said your renown went forth
among the heathen for thy beauty for it was perfect through my
comeliness which I had put upon thee saith the Lord the king
provides the wedding garment doesn't he We have no beauty of our own
and we can't put any on. We have no way to obtain any.
We come as we are and he provides. He made a marriage for his son. And you don't get in without
his wedding garment. The perfect righteousness of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 11, for as the earth bringeth
forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown
in it to spring forth so the Lord God will cause righteousness
and praise to spring forth before all the nations here's that beautiful
beautiful picture again the church God's church is a garden it's a garden that's hedged about
the scripture says it's a garden that he walks in he feedeth among
his lilies it's a garden that he delights in It's hedged about,
it's enriched with every blessing that God has to give, and just
like you would go out into your garden and pick tomatoes, what
a beautiful, as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it
to spring forth, you go into your garden and you sow those
little seeds or those little shriveled up looking plants that
you're thinking, boy, I don't know this year. But there they
are now, taller than you, and tomatoes all over them. And you pick those tomatoes and
cucumbers in your garden, and there's a few things just more
enjoyable than that, more fulfilling than that. Well, God delights
in his garden, and what does he reap? Righteousness and praise. It's not that it adds righteousness
to him, but he delights in righteousness, you see. He has made us righteous,
and he delights in the righteous. the reason he puts that robe
of his righteousness on us is because he thinks it's pretty there's never been a more beautiful
bride he looks at us and he's just happy as he can be there's nothing else we could
wear that would make him happy but the righteousness of his
only begotten son shines the brightest when the fruit of that
righteousness The salvation of his elect has
come to fruition and every good fruit is born because he's made
us like himself. He's created us in righteousness
and true holiness. And what else does he reap? Praise.
We're going to praise and glorify him forever. And like us, when
we have a wonderful garden, we want everybody to know it. We're
going to take pictures of it. We're going to give away. Look
at all these tomatoes. I can't even, I can't even can all of
them. Here you go. You know, it's like
you're doing something for them and you are, but it's kind of
like a little bit something too. It's kind of showing off. That's
fine. You can show off all you want
to giving me stuff. Isn't it just wonderful. Just
wonderful. We want everybody to know it. That's why it says
here before all nations. Oh, the trophies of his grace
are always on display. Romans 9, 23, that he might make
known, that he might make known, that he might make known the
riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had aforeprepared to
glory. He's gonna make known His glory.
How's He gonna do that? Look at my garden. Look at those vessels of mercy. And I'll just give you this passage
to read and we'll close. Revelation 7, 9 through 17. If
you read tonight before you go to bed, read Revelation 7, 9
through 17 and think about what we talked about tonight. Let's
pray together.