Isaiah 26 y'all remember Y'all
remember last we let's read the first three verses and then That
was our text last Sunday night, and then we'll look at verse
4 on tonight Lord willing or part of it anyway In that day
shall this song be sung in the land of Judah as I mentioned
the Lord's people are singers musicians and singers by God's
gift, by his grace. And here's the song we're singing.
We have a strong city. Beautiful, strong, mighty. The place we live is secure,
safe. Salvation will God appoint for
walls and bulwarks. Open ye the gates that the righteous
nation which keepeth the truth may enter in, as strong and secure
and enclosed, but with an open gate, and all are welcome to
enter. Thou wilt keep him in perfect
peace whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in
thee. Trust ye in the Lord forever. For in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting
strength. Every gospel message is an appeal
to sinners. Paul said, we beseech you as
the ambassadors of the King, as emissaries of King Jesus,
we beseech you that you be reconciled to God. He's reconciled himself
to us by the death of his son. Now be you reconciled to Him.
Every gospel message. But tonight, this is just going
to be a blatant appeal to you to trust in the Lord. If the
Lord gives me strength and wisdom to do it, I just want to just
with all of my heart appeal to your heart for you to trust Him. Trust in
Him. Verse 3, I want you to notice
something very interesting. Verse 3 is an expression of verse
1. See, thou wilt keep him in perfect
peace. What does that got to do with
verse 1? Strong city, with bulwarks and walls, kept. Kept in the
perfect peace of God. You see that? A secure and safe
place. But verse 4 is an expression
of verse 2. Look at verse four. Trust ye
in the Lord. What's that got to do with verse
two? The gate is wide open. Come in, come to him. The spirit
and the bride say come. And let him that heareth say
come. And let him that's thirsty come. Come to the waters. Drink of the water of life freely.
You see that? Trust in the Lord. This is a place where sinners
are kept. That's a beautiful word, keep. There in verse 3. I will keep. That's what Simon Peter said
in 1 Peter 1 verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ. which according to his abundant
mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible
and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for
you who are kept. Thou wilt keep. David knew that
too, didn't he? David and Simon sing in the same
song. Oh, we're kept by our God. Kept
in perfect peace. Kept by the power of God through
faith. Unto salvation that's just waiting
to be revealed. God's already saved us. He is
saving us and He shall save us and we're going to know it one
of these days. You might say, well I already
know I'm saved. You don't know the half of it. Neither do I,
but we're going to. He's going to reveal it to us.
He's going to reveal who is saved and He's going to reveal what
salvation is for sure enough one of these days. We have a
strong city. We're kept by the very power of God unto salvation. Not part of the way, all the
way. All the way my Savior leads me.
We have walls and bulwarks which are the very salvation of God
and yet the gate is wide open. Will you come in? Here's the
appeal. from King David this morning,
or from Isaiah, and from my heart, trust ye in the Lord. Trust ye in Him. Those who trust Him are kept.
That's what He said. They're kept. We're kept. We're
safe. We're secure. We're in peace.
Now you trust Him. You trust Him. This is like Solomon
who had received wisdom from the Lord. And you know what he
said? God gives wisdom. And wisdom's a person. And he
said, now you get some of it. Isn't that what he said? Now
you get some of it. That's what those who are kept say. Come
in. We have a strong city. You're
not ever going to regret coming in here. Come with us to the
house of the Lord and we'll do you good. It's a place where
sinners see and trust in God the Son. And we sing of this
place. We sing of the place. We sing
describing the place. Beautiful for situation. But our song has a refrain. It
has a chorus. And that chorus goes like this.
Come into this place. We sing of the place itself.
We describe it. We sing of the beauty. David
said one thing have I desired and that's what I'm gonna pursue.
I want to dwell in God's house And that's what Isaiah saying
here and then he said now you come in come into the house come
home Trust him we would to God that you were all together like
unto ourselves Except these chains of sin that bind us Trust ye
in my Lord. Because He's the Lord. He says,
come and reason with me, and though your sins be as scarlet,
they'll be white as snow. We've experienced that. No one in heaven, earth, or hell
can lay anything to our charge, because our Redeemer has died
in our stead. Trust Him now. He said He would
wash us, and He has. He said that we would be white
and we are by our Savior's precious blood and in His spotless robe,
the best robe, put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ now. All those
who have, say you, trust you in the Lord. Those that hear,
say come. The bride says come, just like
the Spirit does, because we have come. And we've tasted that the
Lord is gracious. And everybody that does wants
everybody they know to taste. Come. He says, come unto me all you
that labor and are heavy laden and I'll give you rest. He said
that to me and I came and I'm resting. I lay down in peace
and sleep at night because I know that the Lord only makes me to
dwell in safety. I've ceased from all of my works,
all of my labors, and found that my Savior's work as my representative
is enough, it's sufficient, it's satisfactory unto God himself.
And we count our own righteousness but dung that we may win Christ
and be found in Him. And that's a bed that I'm able
to stretch out on. How about you? That's covers
that we can roll around under and not even a toe will ever
stick out. Who are we calling on you to
trust in the Lord notice it the Lord Jehovah See that in the
tech the Lord Jehovah Trust you in the Lord Thou will
keep him look at verse 3 again that will keep him in perfect
peace whose mind is stayed on thee Because he trusts in you
That's what it is to stay your mind upon Christ. Trust in Him. You can stay your mind upon Him.
Remember that word stay is the same word as leaned. It says in Leviticus chapter
16 verse 21 that Aaron put both of his hands on the head of the
scapegoat. And if you look up the original
language for put his hands, it says lean. And this is the same
word here. My mind is leaning upon Christ. That's why I have perfect peace.
Because my mind is staid. It's leaning upon Him. And it's
important that that's the same word there. It means upheld,
supported by, because when Aaron leaned upon the scapegoat, he
put all of his sins and all of the sins of God's people upon
the head of the scapegoat. And that's what it means to trust
in the Lord. We're not trusting in the Lord
to give us wealth and prosperity and happiness and all of the
things that people call happiness in this life. We're trusting
Him to put our sins away. That's what true happiness is. They're not anybody telling you
right now, and you know this is right, there's not a happy
person in the world whose sins are not gone. They just don't know what happiness
is if they say, I'm happy. To trust Him is to put all, to
lean on Him. Your mind, your heart, your whole
person is stayed upon Him. And all of our sins, now think
about this. We put all of our sins upon His
head. That's what happened there in
Leviticus. It says He was putting all the sins of the people upon
the head of the scapegoat. Have you done that? Have you
put all of your sins upon Christ? That sounds like a terrible thing,
doesn't it? to put my sins upon Him. Those are my sins. Why should
He have them? Yes, but you see, I can't bear
them. But He can. He can and He did. At terrible
cost. Yes. But He can bear them away. His name is the Lord Jehovah. The Lord Jehovah. And when the
Lord Jesus Christ was born, God said, thou shalt call his name
Jesus, for he shall save. And you know what the word Jesus
means? Jehovah is salvation. That's who we trust in. The one
who shall save. The one whose hand is not shortened
that he can't save. The one who when he sets about
to save, he gets it done. Jehovah is salvation. That's
our security. That's the walls and bulwarks
of our city the salvation of our God What's that Jehovah? salvation Jesus Jesus God's Christ
the son of the Living God that was the Apostles Confession when
that was his testimony thou art the Christ the son of the Living
God and He is himself our security. He
is appointed salvation. That word appointed. We'll see
that a little bit in a minute. The one who said in Isaiah 46,
this is who we're talking about. The one who shall save. Jehovah is salvation. Not he brings it. You could say
that, but you'd need to qualify it, wouldn't you? Not he provides
it. Not he gives you a shot at it.
He is salvation. He said in Isaiah 46, 11, I've
spoken it and I will also bring it to pass. I speak a lot of
things that never get brought to pass for one reason or another,
and you do too. But he said, I've spoken it,
consider it done. I have purposed it. I will also
do it. The one whose, as I said, his
hand is not shortened that he cannot save, neither his ear
heavy that it cannot hear. Trust in him. Trust in him who
doeth according to his will in the armies of heaven and among
the inhabitants of this earth. And none can stay his hand, and
nobody can say unto him, what are you doing? Trust ye in the
Lord, the Lord Jehovah. He made the universe now and
everybody and everything in it. And he says to you, have you
ever thought about this? The one that made everything
you see, that made a world and put some people in it, that made
a universe and hung some stars in it and galaxies and planets
and upholds all things by the word of his mighty power. He is the one who says to you,
nobody that puts their trust in me will ever be ashamed. Trust
ye the Lord. Romans 9.33, as it is written,
behold, I lay in sign a stumbling stone and a rock of a fence,
and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. Whoever
shall stand upon that rock upon whom others stumble whoever shall trust in him that
others are offended by. Whosoever the Lord makes willing
in the day of his power will never be ashamed, will never
regret it, will never be confounded. And he hath appointed this salvation.
You see that? He will appoint salvation. And
he did, and he does, and he has. And notice this, he appointed
him. This is God's salvation. David
said in Psalm 51 12, restore unto me the joy of thy salvation
and uphold me with thy free spirit. God has appointed salvation.
God is the one who chose to save and chose who to save. We didn't
choose him, he declared that plainly to his disciples. We love him because he first
loved us. The Good Samaritan came where
we were when we couldn't go where he was. He saw a blind man in
John chapter 9 when that blind man couldn't see him or anything
else. And went where he was and spat
on the ground. and made clay and put it upon
his eyes and said, go and wash. And he went and washed and came
seeing. He came to our grave and said,
live. You see, this is who we're telling
you to trust in. Trust in him. The almighty Savior,
the sufficient Savior, the successful Savior. the sovereign savior,
the one who saves whom he will. He came to my grave. He came
to me when I was in my blood and said, live. He came to my
bed when there were lame people and sick people all around me. He came to my bed and said, rise
and take up your bed and walk. He came to my bed and said, will
you be made whole? This is salvation that we didn't
merit or even seek, much less merit. Are you in that case? Trust ye
in the Lord. Trust in the one. Who am I telling you to trust
in? Trust in the one who. If you ever meet him, Like Nathanael
in John chapter 1, you'll find that he knew you a long time
before you met him. Doesn't that just instill trust
in you? Think about him. He saw you when
you were still under the fig tree. He saw you when you were
still trying to cover your nakedness with your own works. That's what
that picture is. Adam covered himself with fig
leaves. And the Lord saw, he said, I saw you, Nathaniel, when
you were under the fig tree. He saw you then. When you were
still trying to fashion an apron to cover your shame before God,
he saw you then. He may not have revealed himself
to you then yet, but he saw you. He knew you. He said to Jeremiah,
before I formed you in your mama's belly, I knew you and I made
you holy. And he purposed in the time of
love to come where you were and pass by you and say unto you
live. You didn't even know then that
he saw you. But he did. He did. He saw you. You were sitting
in some godless religious club somewhere, weren't you? One day. I bet most of you were. You were
sitting in the wilderness of religion. Hearing somebody brag
on the flesh. Hearing somebody talk about your
free will and how you needed to do something to be saved.
Some godless religious club that called itself a church. And you
didn't know any better then. He saw you then. And he saw you
when perhaps you began, as you sat there in religion, maybe
you began to think, I don't know about this. This doesn't seem right. He's
contradicting himself. He's talking, he's saying God
is sovereign, but then he's saying you have to let him do things.
He's saying, smile, God loves you, but then he's turned around
and saying he'll put you in hell if you don't live right. I don't
understand that. I'm not so sure about this. This
doesn't make any sense. You know, he's the reason you
were thinking that. He saw you then. You know, I've come to the place
more than once in my life, to where I just about quit any kind
of worship whatsoever, because it just seems vain, doesn't it? I just stay home. I've come pretty
close. Thank God for a place like this.
Thank God. I tell you what, I'm one step
away from it, but I don't think that's a step I'll ever have
to take, because I believe I've found the people of God. I believe
I've found the place where God truly is worshipped. But maybe you were, you know,
like Nathaniel. He's the reason you were thinking
the way that you thought then. Perhaps, you know, you just were
dissatisfied with it. And you began to seek. And like
Nathaniel, you know, you remember him. Maybe God sent one of His people
your way like He did Nathanael. And they mentioned to you that
they had found the Savior. We found the Savior, Nathanael.
And you remember what He said? Maybe you said this. Can there
any good thing come out of Nazareth? Or maybe the equivalent of that
in your case was this. You know, I've been to churches.
I've heard preachers. Can anything good come out of
here in another one? You want me to come here another
preacher? I've had it with preachers. But your friend or your brother
or whoever the Lord sent to you said this, come and see. Come
and see. That's what they told Nathaniel. Come and see. Not come and see
this great preacher. Not come and see all the programs
you know that we have at my church. Come and see the Savior. Come
and see a Redeemer who actually redeems. Come and see the sovereign,
almighty, successful savior of sinners. Come see God's Christ. Come see him of whom Moses in
the law and the prophets did write. That's what Philip said
to him. I have found God's Christ. Come and see. Come and see. That's what we're saying tonight.
This is my appeal to you. Trust ye in the Lord. You've
been trusting in yourself, maybe. How's that working out for you? You know, the Lord pretty much
asked that question, how's that working out for you? He said,
all you that are labored and are heavy laden. He said that
after the great religious feast, when everybody had come from
all around to worship. to observe the big feast day,
you know, the big religious holy day. And he said, how'd that go for
you? In a way, I don't want to put words into his mouth, but
that's what he's kind of saying, isn't it? How'd that go for you?
Are you still burdened? Are you dissatisfied with your
religion? Have you had enough? Are you
tired of carrying the burden of trying to please God by what
you do? By your observances, have you had enough? Come to
me, trust ye in the Lord, and I'll give you rest. Have you trusted in a decision
that you made as a child? Do you really think your decisions
are the solution? Or just maybe, are your decisions
the problem? Are you trusting in your keeping
of God's law? Paul said, by the deeds of the
law, no flesh is ever going to stand before God justified. Is that getting heavy yet? Is
it getting heavy? There's rest from that burden. And I can tell you that first
hand now. There's rest. My Savior's yoke is easy. His burden is light. And you'll
find rest under your souls. I just want to read you, in closing,
the call of the Gospel from the Word of God. With perhaps no
comment at all, I just want to read it to you. Listen, I want
you to turn there with me though, Isaiah 55, 1. Trust ye in the
Lord, I may have to come in a little
bit, but I just want us to see the word of God. Isaiah 55, 1.
Oh, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters. You know,
I was probably about 22, 23 years old when I went for the first time
to Laird Street Baptist Church in New Caney, Texas. Jack Shanks
was pastor. And I don't know if the Lord
had saved me or not. I was baptized when I was 10
years old in some kind of church, something that called itself
a church. I don't even remember now, honestly, whether the gospel
was preached there or not. I know in many of the places
we went when I was young, it wasn't. And as I've told you
before, my dad would bring me home and he would say, did you
hear when that preacher said this? He said, that's not right. We had
nowhere to go. We thought. We thought. But we were in Pilgrim Bookstore
where the Spurgeon sermons were published. The Metropolitan Tabernacle
Pulpit. If you have that, look who published
it. Pilgrim Bookstores. Bob Ross. We knew him from way
back. And we were there one day and
there was a little page, a little flyer on the bulletin board in
that bookstore that said that Henry Mahan was going to be at
the Bel Air Reformed Church where Drew Garner was pastor at the
time in Bel Air, Texas. And my dad said, we're going
to go to that. And we did. And not only did
we hear the gospel, it was just like, the reason I'm talking
about this is because I know what it is to drink. I know what
it is to be thirsty. And I know what it is to have, to have something to drink when
you're thirsty. I heard there something that
I hadn't heard in a long time, if ever, with any ears of faith. And while we were there, we heard
him preach, you know, four or five times there. And he said,
where are y'all worshiping at? And my dad said, well, we don't
really go anywhere now. We had been going here and there.
The church that we had went to had split up. And he said, well,
you know about Jack Shanks? And my dad said, well, I know
Jack. I know of Jack from way back. But is he around here somewhere?
Yeah, well, he's in New Caney, about an hour, hour and 15 minutes
from where we lived at the time. That's just a short drive. And we went there to hear Jack
for several years before my dad died. And I could go on and on. The week my dad died, he came
to the place where I worked. He was doing some photography
work on the side, and he was doing a job for the company I
worked for, and he came up to there to talk to whoever he was
involved with in that. And for some reason, that Wednesday
evening of that week, I had not been able to go to the worship
services that Wednesday because of work for some reason or another.
And I remember one of the last things my dad ever said to me
was, boy, you missed a jewel on Wednesday night. Brother Jack
had a message from the Lord. I wish you'd have been there.
And then he died that week. But my dad taught me the gospel
years before we ever heard it together. We were able to worship
together there for several years before my dad died. And the first
message that Jack ever preached when we went there, the first
time we went there, he preached that, are you thirsty? from the
book of Revelation, come. Are you thirsty? Let him that's
thirsty come. And take the water of life freely.
And I was. Because, boy, we've been hearing,
we've been hearing everything about it for a long time. And
what a refreshing, wonderful thing it was to get a drink of
water. Oh, everyone that's thirsty.
Come ye to the waters. If you have nothing, if you don't
have a penny to your name, come. If you have nothing to offer,
if you have nothing to contribute, if you have nothing to trade,
if you have no money, come ye and
buy and eat. Ye come, buy wine and milk without
money and without price. Come to the table. You see, this
is our message, that trust ye in the Lord. Come, drink, eat,
come as you are, empty handed. Because whether you know it or
not, you are empty handed before God. Why do you spend money for that
which is not bread, and your labor for that which satisfies
not? You remember when the Lord said,
don't labor for the meat which perisheth? Here you've traveled
miles to follow me, because I broke some bread and some fish and
provided a free meal. He said, don't be so anxious
and in pursuit of just free things that are just going to go in
your body and through your body and aren't going to do you a
whole lot of good. What you need is the meat that
only I can give you, he said. The meat of which, if you'll
eat this meat, you won't get hungry no more. You'll be satisfied. Labor for that, labor for that
meat. And then of course he told them
later, I'm, my flesh is meat indeed, my blood is drink indeed.
Except you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood,
you have no life in you. What this, the food of this world
supplies you is not life. Man can't live by just that bread. Eat, drink, while labor for that
which satisfies not, hearken diligently unto me and eat ye
that which is good. There's Christ. Trust ye in the
Lord. That's what eating the flesh
and drinking the blood of the Son of Man is. Trusting in the
Lord, partaking of Him. and let your soul delight itself
in fatness. You're gonna be satisfied. You're
gonna be satisfied. Incline your ear. You see, he's
saying the same thing in different ways now. This is how it happens.
This is how you eat. This is how you drink. Listen.
Listen. That's how my thirst was quenched
that day. Jack said, are you thirsty? And
I was. And he said, well, come and drink then. And I did. How
did I do that? I heard, I heard and I embraced,
I partook of that water of life, the Lord Jesus Christ. I trusted
in him. And cry in your ear and come
unto me here and your soul shall live. Your soul will have the
sustenance that it needs. There's the eating and drinking
and your soul shall live by hearing. And I will make an everlasting
covenant with you. An everlasting covenant, a covenant
without beginning and end. But I'm fixing to make it with
you. Well, wait a minute, if it has no beginning, it must
have already been made. It was. But he's gonna make it
with you now if you come. Even the sure mercies of David. What's that talking about? Well,
here's what David said about it. Although it be not so with
my house, with my family, God hath made with me an everlasting
covenant. Order in all things, ensure. And this is my salvation. And
all my desire. That's what God says. I'll make
that covenant with you, he said. Turn with me to Isaiah 45 and
I'll be through. Why did I even say without comment?
I just can't help it. Isaiah 45 to 18. Oh, God, can you imagine this? God
calls sinners to come to himself. If that doesn't amaze you now,
and I'm saying this to myself and you, if that doesn't amaze
us, then we don't know who God is. And we don't know who we
are. God calls sinners to come Come
and drink. Come and let's reason together.
Let's commune together. Come and your soul shall live.
Come and you'll be satisfied. Come and you'll rest. You'll
find rest to your soul. Verse 18 of Isaiah 45. For thus
saith the Lord that created the heaven. Do you remember when
I told you the one that made the universe and upholds all
things by the word of his power, he's the one that says to you,
You trust me, you won't be ashamed. Oh, the Lord that created the
heavens, you see that? It's God himself that formed
the earth and made it and he hath established it. He created
it not in vain. He formed it to be inhabited.
Why did God create a world? Because he has a people. I am the Lord and there is none
else and I have not spoken in secret. Oh this thing wasn't
done in a corner. Isn't that what Paul said? This thing wasn't done in a corner.
Do you believe the prophets Agrippa? I know you believe. I know you
know what they said and you can't deny what they said. I'm not spoken in secret in a
dark place of the earth. I said not into the seat of Jacob.
Seek ye me in vain. You see that? He hath established
the earth. He created it not in vain. And
just a part of that is the rain that he sends down. He said it's
not going to come back up until it does what I sent it to do.
That's my word too. When I've spoken, when I've said
seek ye me, I didn't do it in vain. I said it in power. You see that? I didn't say seek
ye me in vain. I the Lord speak righteousness. I declare things that are right. Assemble yourselves and come. Here's the message of God to
you now. Assemble yourselves and come. Draw near together ye that are
escaped of the nations They have no knowledge that set up the
wood of their graven image and pray unto a God that can't save,
but not you. You come to me, you know better
than that about me. I say, when I say I'll save you,
I'll save you. When I say come and I'll give
you rest, that's because rest is mine to give. Tell ye and
bring them near, yea, let them take counsel together. Who didn't
have declared this from ancient time? Who hath told it from that
time? Paul said, from the beginning.
Romans chapter one. This is the same gospel that
the prophets have been speaking from the start. Have not I the Lord? Hasn't he
been saying, come? And there is no God else beside
me, a just God and a savior. You find another God that's holy
that must and shall punish sin, all sin, every sin, your sin
and my sin, that can save a sinner from his sins. There is none beside me, he said. Look unto me and be ye. Trust
ye. Be ye saved. I can say to you with all of
my heart, forget everything else until this business is taken
care of. Until you do business with God,
right here, right now, forget everything else. It's meaningless. Everything else is vain. Look unto me and be ye saved
all the ends of the earth because I'm God. The clear implication
there is I can save you. Look to me to be saved because
I'm God. Jehovah is salvation. And the reason I'm named that
is because I shall save. Look into me and you be saved. You see that? All the ends of the earth for
I am God and there is none else. I've sworn by myself the word
has gone out of my mouth in righteousness and shall not return. Then to
me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear. Paul when
he preached on that said here's what they're gonna swear that
Jesus Christ is Lord. Wait a minute, I don't even see
the Jesus Christ in this passage. Look again. Isn't that how Paul preached
it, D? He said every tongue's gonna confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord to the glory of his father God. Surely so shall one say, will
it be you? Will it be you? Will it be me?
In the Lord have our righteousness and strength. Even to him shall men come. And
all that are incensed against him shall be ashamed. But in the Lord shall all the
seed of Israel be justified. You're either going to be ashamed
or you're going to be justified. And I'll tell you this, all of
his sheep, all of the seed of Israel, the spiritual Israel
of God, are going to be justified. Now you come. And they're going to glory. And
here's what their glorying sounds like. Not unto us, O Lord, not
unto us, but unto thy name give glory, O Lord. You remember why? For thy mercy and for thy truth's
sake. Are you glorifying Him like that? Come, trust ye in the Lord. Let's pray.