All right, thank you, Jeff. Let's
turn to Isaiah 51. Isaiah 51. We finished this chapter,
but there are a couple of verses I just touched on, and I want
to go back and preach on a couple of these verses. They're just
too good to pass up. The verse that I want to preach
on today is verse 3. Verse 3. This verse begins with
the word 4. And it's because the Lord had
just declared what He did for Abraham. He said in verse 2,
I called him alone and blessed him and increased him. And now
let's focus on verse 3. He said, I called him alone and
blessed him and increased him for the Lord shall comfort Zion. That's our subject, the Lord
shall comfort Zion. He will comfort all her waste
places and he will make her wilderness like Eden and her desert like
the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness shall be found
therein. Thanksgiving and the voice of
melody. He said, the Lord shall comfort
Zion. Now let me remind you, if you
want to look with me, Hebrews 12, the church is Zion. The church is Zion. You are come
unto Mount Zion. Hebrews 12, 22. You come to Mount
Zion, unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem,
to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly
and church of the firstborn. which are written in heaven,
to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made
perfect. Everybody in Christ's church
is a spiritual man, a justified man, a man made perfect in Christ. I used to think of that as just
those that are already in heaven, the spirits of just men made
perfect. That's His people on earth, too, that are born of
Him. They have a new spirit, they're just, they're perfect
in Christ, by Christ. You've come to Jesus, the mediator
of the new covenant, to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better
things than that of Abel. See that you refuse not him that
speaketh. Zion is a church and it's made
up of elect Jews that God chose who the Lord redeemed. It's made
up of elect Gentiles who the Lord chose and redeemed and regenerated. There's male and there's female,
there's rich and poor, bond and free, but in this gospel age,
in Christ, there's no room for racism, there's no room for classism,
there's no room for sexism, whatever, any other ism that we use to
try to exalt ourselves over others, there's no room for that because
in Christ, all God's people are one. We are all sinners saved
by the grace of our God, made righteous and perfect in Christ
alone. There's neither Jew nor Greek,
there's neither bond nor free, there's neither male nor female,
for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Now, our Lord makes a
declaration here first, and he says, the Lord shall comfort
Zion. He shall. No ill sins or maybes
about it. He shall comfort Zion. Now, sin causes sorrow. Sin is the cause of our sorrow.
If we're cast down, we're sorrowful, sin is the root cause. You know,
if whatever it is that has happened, if it has caused you to weep
or to be sorrowful or for your heart to be broken, Sin is at
the root of it. You can just be sure of that.
We sorrow when a loved one dies. Why does a loved one die? Sin. If two believers are at odds
with one another, we sorrow. Why are they at odds with one
another? Sin. And if they're each born of Adam,
which they are, you can be sure sin is there with both of them. with both of them. Paul said
it's a standing law, a standing law. When I would do good, evil
is present with me. But where sin abounded, grace
did much more abound. And it does abound. Grace does
abound. God's grace abounds because the
one who comforts his people is the Lord. It's the Lord Jesus
who cannot fail. That's why grace abounds. Because
Christ Jesus abounds in everything that he came to do, everything
he's doing, everything he shall do. He abounds. That's why God's
grace abounds. For the Lord will comfort Zion. He will. He chose us by grace. He chose us to be His own bride. That's what He did. He chose
us to be His own bride. Paul tells us why a man leaves
his father and mother and is joined unto his wife, and they
too shall be one flesh. Why is that? Why is that? He said, this is a great mystery,
but I speak concerning Christ and the church. That's why. That's
why. Our Lord Jesus left his father's
house. And he came down, and he was
joined unto his church. He was joined unto each of his
people individually, personally, and they too became one flesh. That's why the Hebrew writer
said, both he that sanctified and they who are sanctified are
all of one. We're one spirit, one spirit
in the Lord. and therefore he's not ashamed
to call us brethren. And he did that, he came down
and he joined himself to us that he might, as a man, obey God
and then go to the cross and lay down his life for us and
put away our sin and satisfy justice. And by him, scripture
says, by him, all that believe are justified from all things
from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses. Now you
just think about that. All things, that's a lot, isn't
it? All the sins you've ever thought,
all the sins that you've ever committed, all the sins you are,
even the ones that haven't even come about yet, all your sins
justified from all your sin. by simply believing Christ. He did it. He accomplished it.
He came and gave you the faith to trust Him and believe Him.
He did it. And He is one with His church
for this reason, that He might sanctify and cleanse it with
the washing of water, that means by the Word, by the Gospel, that
He might present it to Himself, a glorious church, not having
spot or wrinkle or any such thing. Brethren, I want you to think
about this. Our Lord said in John 17, when he's praying to
the Father, he said, Father, I sanctify myself that they may
be sanctified through the truth. Now think about that statement.
Our Lord Jesus set himself apart to be our surety and our advocate
and our sin bearer and the one who would bear the curse for
us. He set himself apart. He sanctified himself. that He
would be the one who would represent us and lay down His life for
us and justify us so that we might be saved by the truth,
that we might be sanctified by the truth, washed with the water
of the Word, washed with the gospel of truth. He sanctified
Himself that we might be sanctified by the truth. Now get that, he
sanctified himself and did all this work for us that he might
be the truth, that he might be the gospel wherewith he then
sends his preacher and speaks into your heart and tells you
what he did for you so that he might wash you by this word and
set you apart. That's what he did, that's an
amazing statement. I sanctify myself that they might
be sanctified through the truth. He's that truth. Everything He
did in saving us is the gospel wherewith He comes and quickens
us and sets us apart and makes us follow Him in true sanctification. That's just an amazing thing. This is the word wherewith He's
going to comfort Zion. The Lord shall comfort Zion.
What's He going to comfort you with? He's going to comfort you
with the gospel of Him and His person, how glorious He is, that
He's the Son of God who came down and took flesh. He's going
to comfort you with the message that He put away all your sins,
that He justified His people, that He fulfilled the law for
us and made us accepted of holy, holy, holy God. That's what's
going to comfort His people. Our Lord commands His preacher.
We saw in Isaiah 40, He commands His preacher, comfort ye, comfort
ye my people. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem.
Don't whip her. Don't come and be over oppressive
to her. Comfort them. Preach me. Tell
them that her warfare is accomplished. Declare to her that the Lord
has rewarded her double for all her sins. She's pardoned by what
the Lord's done. That's the comfort. It's this
gospel. Now we know we're not saved by
our will and our works. We know that. Well, by the same token, brethren,
the preacher, that he says, now you go comfort my people with
this message. We can't make that word affection.
We can't comfort anybody. I can't comfort you. I just come
and preach the word he's given, but I can't comfort you. but
he comes forth as that gospel is preached, and he comforts
you in your heart with his very word. This whole thing's of him,
isn't it? The salvation's all of him, and
he's our comforter. When he said, I'm gonna send
the Holy Spirit, he said, I'm gonna send another comforter.
Why'd he say another comforter? Because he's the comforter. The
Holy Spirit's another comforter that he's seeing, but he's the
comforter. What a Savior! The Lord shall
comfort His people. Now, with that in mind, look
secondly, what does the Lord promise to do to comfort us?
What's He going to do to comfort us? Verse 3, He will comfort
all her waste places, and He will make her wilderness like
Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord. He promises
He's going to comfort you. He's going to comfort all her
waste places. Now you picture Jerusalem after
Babylon had come in and conquered Jerusalem. You picture the walls
around Babylon all broken down, desolated, a desolation. The city all turned into a wilderness,
grown up and just left desolated. And all around is just dry desert
and all in the side of the walls where everything's broken down.
It's just desert, sand, nothing will grow there. Nothing but
weeds, things you don't want to grow. He promises here, He's
going to build up His people and He's going to make us fruitful.
That's His promise. That's what He's going to do
for us. That's only going to be by the good seed. The good
seed. that the incorruptible seed,
Christ the seed. He's the one who's gonna comfort
and he's the one that's gonna enter in in spirit and be the
comforter in our heart. The good seed, the word of his
gospel spoken by him in our heart. We're the waste places, we're
the wilderness, we're the desert. We're the desert. It's the Lord. It's the Lord who's going to
comfort us in our desolate places. It's the Lord who's going to
make us bear the fruit of faith and love and gladness and joy
and all of these things. Long-suffering and gentleness
and temperance. It's the Lord that's going to
do that. He's going to make our sorrow and our mourning flee
away. He declared this. Look at Isaiah
61 and look at verse 1. He said, The Spirit of the Lord
God is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good
tidings unto the meek. This is our Lord Jesus. He anointed me to preach good
tidings to the meek. He has sent me to bind up the
brokenhearted. Anybody broken hearted? He sent
me to bind up the broken hearted. To proclaim liberty to the captives
and the opening of the prison of them that are bound. To proclaim
the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our
God. To comfort all that mourn. To appoint unto them that mourn
in Zion. to give unto them beauty in a
place of ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of
praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they might be called trees
of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be
glorified." That's what he said in our text. I'm going to make
your desert like the Garden of Eden. I'm going to make you fruitful.
I'm going to make you green. I'm going to make you trees of
righteousness, the planting of the Lord. And He's going to get
all the glory. We're going to give Him the glory.
Now, you know, if you look at the
scripture and you look at the history of the church, there's
been times when it flourished by God's grace. There's been
times when it was diminished. There's been times when it flourished.
There's been times when it diminished. The very context in which he's
speaking to Israel right here in our text is this. They had
been called out of Egypt, they had been made into a mighty nation,
they had flourished in the time when David was ruling and reigning
over them, and then they sinned, and in the days of Hezekiah,
the Lord sent the Assyrian up against them, then he sent Babylon
up against them, and now they're captive in Babylon. Well, the
Lord's saying, I'm gonna bring you out, and I'm gonna make you
flourish again. and I'm going to comfort you.
See, that's so of the Lord's people. He knows to give us just
what we need when we need it. He doesn't let us flourish too
much because we would start ruining ourselves and we'd forget Him.
And He doesn't let us be cast down too much because we'd steal
and rob and forget Him. He's gonna keep you right where
you need to be. And a church can never sink down
so low as she can't be made to flourish again. We see that all
through the scriptures. He tells us in Revelation, the
church is gonna face hard times in the future, but he's gonna
make her flourish again. It's the Lord working these things. We can't sink so low as a church
that he can't build us up again. We've seen it in this assembly.
I've seen this, when I came here, it was just a handful of folk.
I mean, and I'm talking about now, and of them that believed,
probably not very many at all. And the Lord made us flourish,
and it looked like there was a bunch. Now the Lord's whittled
it back down. I've seen that in the church
I came from in Tennessee. I've seen it in other churches
I traveled to. That's the work of the Lord.
That's what the Lord does. And it goes for you individually
too. Your heart. He's not going to
let your heart sink so low and be so broken hearted that it
can't be bound up and healed. He's not going to let that happen.
He's not going to let it happen. You think about Abraham and Sarah
that he gave for the example. There they were. They were childless.
Absolutely no child. And he waited a long time till
they were old. Childless. But then, and when
they tried to produce fruit themselves, they failed, didn't they? They
absolutely failed. But then the Lord produced fruit.
He produced a child, and they rejoiced. They rejoiced, oh how
they rejoiced. He gave them a son who became
their heir. Abraham wanted an heir to carry
on his name. That meant everything to somebody
in that day. And that's what God gave him.
And from Isaac sprang a multitude of people. Nations sprang from
Isaac. and that typifies our greater
joy, the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the son promised. He's the
one who came, the son of promise, and he's the one from whom his
holy nation comes from, the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the giver
of our joy, and he is our joy. That's who he is. Spurgeon compared
these waste places and this wilderness and this desert to believers
who fall into sin. Backslide. That's a good example. That's so. It's true according
to the scripture. If the Lord left us to ourselves,
what are we? If he lets us, when he lets you
see what you are, what are we? Now listen, he doesn't tempt
you to sin. I've never said that to you,
that the Lord tempts you to sin. I've been accused of saying that,
but I have never said that to you. We sin of our own accord. James 1 tells you that clearly.
He doesn't tempt anybody to sin. We do the sinning. We get all
the glory for that. We do the sinning. But the Lord
can bless us though we do sin against Him. The Lord, what I'm
saying is He will use even our sin and our faults to teach us
more of Him and how we need Him. That's what I'm saying. And He
does try us. He's going to try the faith He's
given. But He shows you by that if you were left to yourself,
If you're left to yourself, it's only gonna be the waste place
of your sinful flesh. That's all, just a waste place. If he leaves you to yourself,
you're gonna be the wild wilderness of your works, trying to do all
these works. And if he leaves a man to himself,
that's just the deceitfulness of our heart. We will think that
we have done mighty good works and God's pleased with us. And
we're not like other people and we're better than other people.
That's the wilderness that we are if he don't keep us looking
to Christ only. And the desert of nothing but
dead fruit that we produce. That's what Abraham and Sarah
produced when he took Hagar and produced Ishmael. It was just
dead fruit. That's all we've ever produced
in ourselves and by ourselves is dead fruit. But the Lord,
he creates the good ground. And he's the seed that enters
the good ground. And he's the vine that comes
from the good ground. And he produces the fruit that
comes from the good ground. He said, abide in me and I in
you. He said, I'm the vine, you're
the branches. And he said, just like a branch can't bear fruit
except it abides in the vine, neither can you except you abide
in me. And you know what? You can't even abide in him if
he don't keep you abiding in him. But he's going to keep you
abiding in him. See, this is how He's going to
comfort us. He's going to make you fruitful,
number one, by giving you faith and renewing you in faith so
you keep beholding Him and how He's doing this whole work of
salvation for you. That's the number one thing.
He's going to keep you knowing. He's going to keep loving your
heart for Him. And by that, He's going to keep
you trusting your brethren to Him, He's going to keep you loving
your brethren, and He's going to keep you being merciful and
forgiving and long-suffering with Him, because that's what
He keeps doing to you. He's merciful and forgiving and
long-suffering to you, and that makes you want to do it to others.
Thirdly, what does the Lord declare will be the sure result of this
work He does in us? What will it be? Verse 11. Verse
11, he said, therefore the redeemed of the Lord shall return and
come with singing unto Zion, and everlasting joy shall be
upon their head, and they shall obtain gladness and joy, and
sorrow and mourning shall flee away. I, even I, am he that comforteth
you. That's going to be the sure result.
When He comforts our waste places and makes our wilderness like
the Garden of Eden and our desert like the Garden of the Lord,
He said, joy and gladness shall be found therein. Thanksgiving
in the voice of melody. What's our comfort? His eternal
purpose. His eternal purpose is our comfort.
Nothing has ever come to pass in this world that He didn't
bring to pass. Nothing. and everything he's
brought to pass is exactly according to his eternal purpose. Doesn't
that comfort you? That doesn't comfort a natural
man. It doesn't. That offends his will. What's
the first thing you hear religious men, what do they defend when
they hear God works all things together? He's working it all
together for the good of His people. He's called it. He's
made to love Him. What's the first thing they defend?
Well, now we're responsible. Our will. But for you that know
Him, that's comfort. Everything He's bringing to pass
is exactly according to His eternal purpose. Exactly. Here's our comfort. It's His
eternal power to protect us at all times. He didn't tell Abraham,
I'll give you a shield. He said, Abraham, I am your shield.
That's comfort. He's our shield. He is our shield. His eternal faithfulness to renew
us and keep us believing and keep us walking after Him and
looking to Him and trusting Him and keeping this joy in our heart.
His faithfulness, that's our comfort. That's our comfort. And here's what it all amounts
to. The Lord Jesus Himself is our comfort. He's our comfort. This is the work of the Lord
and the inward man in spirit. Let me show you that, Jeremiah
31. It's the work of the Lord and
it's in the heart. It's spiritual. He provides plenty
for us outwardly. He's gonna provide the things
we need in this life. But this blessing is in our heart. Jeremiah 31, verse 12. Therefore, he said, verse 11,
the Lord hath redeemed Jacob and ransomed him from the hand
of him that was stronger than he. Therefore, they shall come
and sing in the height of Zion and shall flow together to the
goodness of the Lord for wheat and for wine and for oil. And
for the young of the flock and of the herd, that means for everything
you need. That's basically what that means.
Temporal and spiritual. He's going to provide everything.
But here's the blessing. Their soul shall be as a watered
garden. This is inward. Their soul shall
be. And they shall not sorrow any
more at all. You know, the sorrow we have
is just fleshly and it's just about things of this world, but
in your new man, even when you have sorrow, are you not happy?
Aren't you joyful even when you're sorrowful? Because you know this,
no matter how painful it is and how sorrowful it is, you have
this assurance, this is going to work out good. He's going
to work it out real good for me. You just know that, because
that's what He's told you. And that's your joy and your
soul. It's like Brother Scott Richardson said, there's been
no bad news since I heard the good news. And he went through
some things that you'd look and say, that was some bad news.
No, he had joy though. That's what the Lord said. Their
soul shall be as a watered garden. They shall not sorrow any more
at all. Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, both young
men and old together, for I will turn their mourning into joy.
and will comfort them and make them rejoice from their sorrow,
and I will satiate the soul of the priest with fatness, and
my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, saith the Lord."
What's this world satisfied with? Their own goodness, they think,
their so-called goodness. The Lord's people are satisfied
with His goodness. That's everything He's working
for us. Now go back with me to Isaiah. I just want to turn through
some scriptures here, and what I want to show you is how many
times the Lord has given us this same word through Isaiah. How many times He's told us the
same thing He's telling us in Isaiah 51.3. We've seen it over
and over. Go back to Isaiah 35. We didn't
go back this far when we started this time going through Isaiah.
We started at chapter 40, but look back here in Isaiah 35.1.
He said, the wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad
for them, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly and
rejoice even with joy in singing, and the glory of Lebanon shall
be given unto it. Oh, I want to know what that
is, don't you? The glory of Lebanon. The excellency of Carmel and
Sharon. What's that? The excellency of
Carmel and Sharon. And they shall see the glory
of the Lord. and the excellency of our God.
That's the glory of the excellency, is our God, our Lord. Strengthen
you the weak hands and confirm the feeble knees. Say to them
that of a fearful heart, be strong, fear not, behold, your God will
come with vengeance, even God with a recompense. He will come
and he will save you. That's what the Lord said. Go
back, go to Isaiah 41, 17. Isaiah 41, 17. When the poor and needy seek
water and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst,
I, the Lord, will hear them. I, the God of Israel, will not
forsake them. I will open rivers in high places
and fountains in the midst of the valleys. I will make the
wilderness a pool of water and the dry land springs of water.
I will plant in the wilderness the cedar and the chita tree
and the myrtle and the oak tree. I will set in the desert the
fir tree and the pine and the box tree together. You know what
all those have in common? They're evergreens. Evergreens. And He said, that they may see
and know and consider and understand together that the hand of the
Lord hath done this and the Holy One of Israel hath created it.
You see what He's doing? That's how He's keeping us evergreen,
making us see what He's doing. Look here in Isaiah 44. Just
the same message over and over. I was telling somebody this week
that Brother Fred Evans, he's going through, he started looking
at Isaiah 50 and 51. He called me and told me and
I said, I just got through preaching on Isaiah 50 and 51. So we've
been just talking about it back and forth. But I told him, I
said, this is the same message the Lord has declared over and
over and over through Isaiah. We just have one message. Last
time I was down in Danville, I was struggling, you know, trying
to pray and trying to get the message in my room, working,
trying to get the message. And Regina brought me a cup of
coffee and she said, I don't know what you're struggling for.
She said, ain't but one message. You preach the same type thing
every time. That's true. That's true. Isaiah 44, 26. Look
here. Isaiah 44, 26. He said, he's
the Lord that confirmeth the word of his servant. He said, I'm the Lord thy redeemer
who confirmeth the word of his servant and performeth the counsel
of his messengers. All right, here I am. I'm preaching
to you now. Look what he said there. He confirms
the word of his servant and he performs the counsel of his messengers. Well, I'm sitting here telling
you what he said he's going to do. He says to Jerusalem, Thou
shalt be inhabited. and to the cities of Judah you
shall be built. That's what I'm preaching to
you, and what does the Lord do to confirm our message? He said,
and I'll raise up the decayed places thereof, that saith to
the deep, be dried. He said, and I'll dry up the
rivers. They say, they speak of Cyrus, we speak of Christ.
And he said, he's my shepherd, and he shall perform all my pleasure,
even saying to Jerusalem, thou shalt be built, and to the temple
thy foundation shall be laid. You get what he's saying? He's
saying, my servant's gonna say this, he said, and I'm gonna
do it. They're gonna tell you what I'm gonna do, and then I'm
gonna do it. That's what we're doing. Isaiah 49, look here.
Isaiah 49, verse 19. He said, for thy waste and thy
desolate places and the land of thy destruction shall even
now be too narrow by reason of the inhabitants, and they that
swaddled thee up shall be far away. He said, I'm gonna produce
children. And he said, and your enemies
are not gonna touch you. That's the Lord speaking. That's
what the Lord said. Look at Isaiah 52.9. We haven't
come to this yet, but we will soon, Lord willing. Isaiah 52.9.
He tells them, break forth into joy. He tells us, break forth
into joy. Sing together, ye waste places
of Jerusalem, for the Lord hath comforted his people. He hath
redeemed Jerusalem. The Lord hath made bare his holy
arm in the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth
shall see the salvation of our God. You see that over and over. It's the same message. Comfort
what the Lord will do. He never tells us that we shall
not sorrow. The Lord never tells us we shall
not sorrow. He never said that. He told us
we must, through much tribulation, enter the kingdom. And He told
us in Isaiah 43, He said, when you pass through the waters,
when you pass through the fire, there's going to be some trouble.
There's going to be some sorrows. And as long as sin's in this
world, you can mark it down. There will be. As long as you're
in a body of death, there will be. But this is what He tells
us. But I will comfort you. I will strengthen you, I will
keep you, I will save you. That's his promise. The psalmist
said, Psalm 1611, thou will show me the path of life, in thy presence
is fullness of joy, at thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore.
His anger endureth for a moment, but in his favor is life. Weeping
may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. That joy
is Christ. He's the Lord our righteousness,
the Lord our peace, the Lord our banner, the Lord that healeth
thee, the Lord that sanctifies thee, the Lord who is there.
He said, in thy name shall they rejoice. That's his name. All
those things I just said, that's his name. And in thy name shall
they rejoice all day, and in thy righteousness shall they
be exalted. He promises this, those that
sow in tears shall reap in joy. That's what he promises. I'll
clothe our priests with salvation and our saints shall shout aloud
for joy. He said with joy shall you draw
water out of the wells of salvation. He said, the ransom of the Lord
shall return. They'll come to Zion with songs
and everlasting joy upon their heads and they shall obtain joy
and gladness and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. I think our
Savior loves His people. I think from these texts what
I'm showing you, He's gonna make sure that His people have joy.
And He's the joy. You know, when He interceded
in John 17, you know what He, He was praying to Father that
His joy might be in you, His joy. and that he is the joy. He said, I've spoken unto you
these things that my joy might remain in you and that your joy
might be full. Now he's born the fury, he's
born the justice, and so that means he's never going to come
to you with a menacing scowl, threatening us and oppressing
us. That's not what the Lord's gonna
do. That's not what his messengers are gonna do. He said, you've
not received the spirit of bondage again to fear. You have received
the spirit of adoption. You're my child, he said, so
you can cry out to me, Abba Father. We come into contact with many
scorners, many that are scowling just like Simon the Pharisee.
Oh, if he knew what kind of woman this is, he wouldn't have anything
to do with her because she's a sinner. Oh, he knows. He knows. He chose us. He redeemed us. He come and called us. He knows
what we are. He knows exactly. It was his
forgiveness of her that made her love much, he says. She was
forgiven much, that's why she loved much. And she's sitting
there washing his feet with her tears and drying them with the
hair of her head while Simon's scowling and making his face. And you can mark this, when you
face Grimacing gargoyles like that. You ever seen a gargoyle
on a building that got that old ugly drooping face? That's what
their face looks like when they start scorning you. Well, He's
going to speak in your heart when you're bearing that. And
He's going to do just what He said right here in our text.
He's going to say, hearken unto me. Stop listening to them. Hearken to me. You know I'm your
righteousness. I've made you seek the Lord your
righteousness. Fear ye not the reproach of men,
neither be afraid of their revilings. The moth shall eat them up like
a garment and the worm shall eat them like wool, but my righteousness
shall be forever and my salvation from generation to generation.
And he turns your heart to him and you have comfort because
you know that joy. You know this is going to turn
out for my good. It's going to turn out for my
good. The kingdom of God is not meat and drink. It's Christ coming
to you and making you see He's your righteousness and He's your
peace and He's your joy in the Holy Ghost. That's what the Kingdom
of God is. Hearken to me, He said, you that
follow after righteousness, you that seek the Lord. He said,
look back there to Abraham. I called him. I blessed him. I increased him. And he said,
and I'm telling you this because I'm going to comfort you. I'm
going to comfort you in all your waste places. I'm going to comfort
you in your wilderness. I'm going to make it like Eden.
I'm going to make your desert like a garden of the Lord, and
you're going to have joy, and you're going to have gladness,
and you're going to thank me, and there's going to be the voice
of melody where my people are. That's his promise. That's what
he's going to do. You can mark that down. Mark
it down. Brother Adam. Oh, we're going
to observe Lord's Table.