Alright, brethren, let's turn
to Isaiah chapter 45. We'll go to the Lord in prayer
before we begin. Our gracious Heavenly Father,
how we thank You for assembling us. How we thank You for keeping
us with hearts that desire to hear Your gospel preached, hear
Christ exalted. Lord, all the glory goes to You.
We're sinners who you have chosen and are saving by your sovereign
grace. We thank you for your dear son. We thank you for free grace,
for continual mercy, for forgiveness of our sin. And Lord, we ask
you today, make us hear the good news one more time. Exalt Christ
in our hearts. Thank you, Lord, for all things.
In Christ's name we pray. Amen. All right, our subject is warning
and assurance. Now, as often is the case, the messages
for this hour and for the next hour just go hand in glove. I didn't plan it. It just, after
I finished preparing, I thought, wow, they go really well together.
And so I'm going to begin with the Old Testament, and then the
next hour we'll be in the New Testament. And here in Isaiah,
we see God say what He shall do through Christ. And then when
we get to the next message out of Philippians, we're going to
see the Lord do what God said He would do. and we'll see him,
Christ, work it through the preaching of the gospel. So this hour we'll
look at Isaiah 45, warning and assurance. And those will be
our two points. First we have God's warning,
Isaiah 45, 9. Woe unto him that striveth with
his maker. Let the potsherds strive with
the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that
fashioned it, what makest thou? Or thy work, he hath no hands?
Woe unto him that saith unto his father, what begettest thou?
Or to the woman, what hast thou brought forth? Then here we have
God's assurance to his elect children, to his saints. Thus
saith the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, Ask
me of things to come concerning my sons, concerning the work
of my hands, command ye me. I have made the earth and created
man upon it. I, even my hands, have stretched
out the heavens, and all their hosts have I commanded. I have
raised him up in righteousness, and I will direct all his ways.
He shall build my city, and he shall let go of my captives,
not for price nor reward, saith the Lord of hosts. Thus saith
the Lord, the labor of Egypt, and the merchandise of Ethiopia,
and of the Sabaeans, men of stature, shall come over unto thee, and
they shall be thine. They shall come after thee, and
chains shall they come over, and they shall fall down unto
thee. They shall make supplication unto thee, saying, Surely God
is in thee, and there is none else. There is no God. Now, first
let's look here at God's warning. God warns sinners not to strive
against God. He warns sinners not to strive
against God. Verse 9, Woe unto him that striveth
with his maker. Let the partridge strive with
the partridges of the earth. God's the maker of all men. He's the maker of all men. All
men are mere earthen vessels. Just like a pot made out of clay. We're just earthen vessels. God
says, let men of the earth strive with men of the earth. Let potsherds
strive with the potsherds. That tells you and me, don't
get into debates about worldly things with people and not even
about spiritual things. Declare the gospel. Proclaim
the gospel. Let the potsherds strive with
the potsherds. Verse nine, shall the clay say to him that fastens
it, what makest thou? All men are made out of the same
lump of clay. God made Adam out of the dust
of the earth. His name means red. That's where
He made him out of the red earth. And we all came out of Adam.
We're all made out of one lump. Shall a man strive with God who
made us? He made Adam. He made man. We're
going to strive with God who made us. Shall we say, what makest
thou? that this is the tendency of
fallen sinners is to blame God. What make us that? Shall we take
issue with his purposes and his decrees that God determined the
end from the beginning, that God beforehand elected to save
a people according to His sovereign grace and mercy, that He chose
His Son to be the Savior of His people and left nothing in the
hands of His people, we'd be a fool to take issue with God
over that. And yet men do. Shall we murmur
against God's providence? Whatever God's bringing to pass
in this world, He's doing it. We're going to murmur against
His providence. Whatever He's doing, it's right. It's right because He's doing
it. The evil of men may appear tragic to us, but God is only
permitting it to come to pass to bring glory to His name and
good to His people. And it shall always work out
for that end. Shall men find fault with how
God saves in Christ and by Christ alone? Are we going to find fault
because Christ came and laid down His life for particular
people and accomplished their justification, that would be
a foolish thing to do. That's what the Pharisees did.
Pharisees found fault with the Lord. When He declared a man
must be born from above, when He declared that He's the way,
the truth, and the life, when He declared He's the light, He's
the manna from heaven, the Pharisees were constantly striving with
their Maker. You know, for a man to question
God who made us, God is saying here that's as absurd as a lump
of clay to find fault with the potter who made it. That's what
he's saying. We'd say that's foolish, that's
not impossible. Well, it's not really possible
for you and me to strive against God. I mean, we can do it, but
it ain't going to accomplish anything. But it's that foolish. When a sinner hears that salvation
is of God's choosing whom He will, they'll strive by saying
that's not fair. That's unrighteous. We do the
same thing every day. We do with our own what we will,
and yet for some reason we're going to find fault with God
for doing what He will with His own. Everything God does is right. And God said to us in Romans
9, He said, Who art thou? Nay, O man, who are you? Who
are you, O lump of clay? to reply against God. That's
what he says to us. The Pharisees, God said in one
place, he said, your thoughts are not my thoughts. You thought
I was altogether such a one as you. He said, my thoughts are
not your thoughts. The Pharisees thought Christ
was going to come. They thought the Old Testament
scriptures, just like what Isaiah was preaching, they thought it
meant Christ was going to come in all this pomp and glory as
a mighty king. Well, he came as the mighty king.
He was born the king. But he came lowly, he came lowly
and in such a way that they despised him and rejected him. They didn't
want him to be their king. He was a man of size and acquainted
with grief and we hid as it were our faces from him. They thought
he'd give them a great earthly kingdom. They thought all these
Old Testament scriptures meant he was going to restore political
Israel to the grandeur they had when David was the king. That's
not what the Lord meant. He said, my kingdom's not of
this earth. He came to restore a spiritual
kingdom. The true kingdom of Israel is
spiritual. That's what he came to establish. Sinners are offended to be told
that we must be saved in Christ alone by substitution alone.
What's the real issue with that? When sinners strive with the
Lord and the gospel over the truth that we must be saved in
Christ as the substitute for chosen sinner, why do men strive
with that? Because men don't know the holiness
of God. That's the first cause. Men don't
know God, and they don't know He's holy, and He requires perfection,
and He will settle for nothing less. He requires perfect righteousness,
perfect holiness, perfect obedience, We have to be holy in our mother's
womb. We have to be perfectly righteous in all our doings with
no sin whatsoever. And because we have sin, we can't
do that. We begin in conception in sin. And that's the other thing that
men don't realize is what we are, that we're sinners. I told
the brethren last night in the Philippines, I said, I don't
know what you've been taught about your sin, but it's far
worse than whatever you've been taught. And I don't know what
you think about your sin, but it's way, way worse than what
you think. And that's true of me and you
and everybody that comes into this world. Men don't understand that there's
a need for us to be justified. Job said in Job 9, 2, I know
it's so of the truth, but how should man be just with God?
If he'll contend with Him, he cannot answer Him one of a thousand.
He is wise in heart and mighty in strength, and who hath hardened
himself against Him and hath prospered? Nobody's ever hardened
themselves against God and prospered. He said in Job 9.30, if I wash
myself with snow water, or I try to sanctify and purify myself
and wash myself with snow water, make my hands never so clean,
yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall
it pour me. For he's not a man as I am, that
I should answer him, and we should come together in judgment. You
see what, this was a man who knew something about who God
is and something about what a sinner he is. He said, I can't make
myself clean. Job 25, 4, how then can a man
be justified with God? Or how can he be clean that's
born of a woman? Behold, even to the moon, and
it shineth not. Yea, the stars are not pure in
his sight. How much less man that is a worm. and the Son of Man, which is
a worm. That's where we have to be brought. We have to be
brought to that understanding, that spiritual discernment, that
the stars are not even pure in God's sight. How much more, how
much less a man that is a worm, and that word worm is a maggot,
just a thing born of death that feeds on death. Man didn't have
the wisdom to make justice and mercy meet in agreement. That
never would have entered our mind. We can't do both. If we show justice, which even
in our courts of law, when we show justice, it's not the perfect
justice God does. But we can't show justice and
be merciful. And we can't be merciful and
be just. We just can't do that. That's the truth. When Pilate
said, what is the truth? That's the truth. How God could
make mercy and judgment meet together in harmony. He said,
the soul that sinneth must die. We all sinned in Adam. We all
must die. And God's just. All shall die. Every sinner shall die under
the justice of God. And yet God chose to show mercy
to whom He would show mercy. How is He going to make us die
and show us mercy? There's only one way. It's in
Christ the Lord. He provided His own Son to bear
the sin of His people and bear the justice of God for His people
so that God is just to be merciful to us. Now, by God doing the
justifying, Scripture says, who shall lay anything to the charge
of God's like? It's God that justifies. He provided
the burn off. And just like Abraham told Isaac,
he said, my son, God will provide Himself a lamb. God provided
the lamb. He didn't desire those sacrifices.
Anybody would try to be saved by those sacrifices or by any
of the laws that He gave. He gave those laws, the moral
laws to show us our sin and shut our mouth and He gave the shadows
and types and all the ceremonies to show Christ the Redeemer.
He's the Lamb God provided. Man can only be justified and
God at the same time show us mercy if God alone does it. And that's what He's done in
His Son. He hath made Him sin for us who knew no sin that we
might be made the righteousness of God in Him. And by this work
of God alone, by the work of Christ alone, he's got a just
God and a Savior. Mercy and truth are met together.
Righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Isn't that
good news? Oh, that's good news. And yet
unregenerate religious will-worshippers strive against their Maker by
saying, but what about my will? What about my responsibility?
What about my works, they say. It was my decision, it was my
works that made the difference. God has no hands but your hands
and no feet but your feet, they say. God says of sinners in Isaiah
45, 9, shall the work say he hath no hands? Shall the work
you and me who he made, shall we say of him he hath no hands?
Woe unto him that saith unto his father, What begattest thou
to the woman? What hast thou brought forth?
We don't strive against our father and mother for making us to be
born without our help. Why would we strive against God
for making us what we are? He's the only one that makes
a child of God to be born again. Of his own will begat he us with
the word of truth. Christ said, except a man be
born from above, be born again, he can't see the kingdom of God.
Not only can he not enter into it, he can't even see Christ
who's the king of the kingdom. That's the entrance, that's the
door into the kingdom. Gotta be born from above. God
says in verse 10, Woe to him that saith unto his father, What
begattest thou? Over in Isaiah 29, 16, look at
what God calls this. Isaiah 29, verse 16. He said, surely you're turning
of things upside down. That's what it is. To strive
with God about how God saves sinners is to turn things upside
down. That's what most preaching is,
is things turned completely upside down. They start with man and
work up to God. The gospel always begins with
man. I mean with God and comes down
to man and teaches us it's all originated with God, all carried
out by God, all worked by God and all glory goes to God. We're
the sinner. Surely your turning of things
upside down shall be esteemed as the potter's clay. For shall
the work say of him that made it, he made me not. For shall
the thing frame say of him that framed it, he had no understanding.
I won't have you turn to Romans 9, we'll go there in a moment,
but you remember Paul said, Nay, but, O man, who art thou that
replies against God? Shall the thing formed say to
him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus? Has not the
potter power of the clay of the same lump to make one vessel
to honor and another to dishonor? Does not God have the power to
take all the one lump of fallen humanity, fallen in Adam, and
to have chosen a people for Himself, a fool prepared unto glory, vessels
of mercy that Christ redeemed and made perfect so God can accept
us, and He just pass by whom He will and harden whom He will?
Does not He have the power to do that? Of course He does. See,
we've got to be brought down to bow to God. We've got to be
made to see God is God. He's not this little helpless,
idle man of preaching. God's God. He does what He will
in heaven and earth and all deep places. Never strive with God. Don't strive with Him about His
purpose in eternity. Don't strive with Him about His
providence in time. And don't strive with Him about
salvation. And secondly, here's assurance. This is assurance for God's children.
He says in verse 11, thus saith the Lord, that's the covenant
Jehovah, all-powerful, all-knowing God, thus saith the Lord, the
Holy One of Israel. There's only one Holy One, and
He's the Holy One of His elect Israel, Christ Jesus. and His
Maker. He's our Maker. He's the one
that creates us entirely anew. This is God's Word to you that's
been born of Him. This is God. God says, you let
men strive with each other. You let them debate with each
other over the gospel, over religious curiosities they have. He said,
you ask of Me. You come to Me and you ask of
Me things to come concerning My sons and concerning the work
of My hands. Command you Me. Ask you Me. God's the author. He's the authority
and the author of salvation. He's the wisdom that arranged
salvation. He's the power that carried out
salvation, governing all things. He's our assurance. Look here
in verse 12. I have made the earth and created man upon it. I, even my hands have stretched
out the heavens and all their hosts have I commanded. God,
when He's giving His children assurance, He always points us
back to creation. Have you noticed that? We've
seen that over and over from Isaiah 40 till now. He reminds
us over and over again, I, even my hands, have stretched out
the heavens. If He was able to do that, don't
you reckon He's able to provide for His people? Don't you reckon
He's able to work things out and take care of our enemies
and provide for us in every way that we need it? He stretched
out the heavens. He says, and all their hosts
have I commanded. He's the authority and wisdom
and power over all the hosts of heaven. He made all men. He governs all men. He governs
all His creation. The seasons obey His command.
There's no law of gravity. The law of gravity is God. When He ascended, what did He
do? Did the law of gravity stop Him? He just ascended up into
the clouds. He's God. Now, He's going to show us a
type of Christ again using Cyrus. And this is the assurance we
have if it's in Christ His Son. Look here, he says in verse 13,
I've raised Him up in righteousness and I will direct all His ways.
He shall build my city and He shall let go my captives, not
for price nor reward, saith the Lord of Hosts. God raised up
Christ in righteousness. I've raised Him up in righteousness.
Just like He raised up Cyrus. That's the one He used here to
picture Christ. But it's God our Father who raised
up Christ in righteousness. I will direct all His ways. God
was in Christ. He accomplished everything God
sent him forth to accomplish and God did it in the person
of his dear son. God was in Christ reconciling
the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses to them. He's
committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Christ is the
builder of God's city. He said, he shall build my city
and shall let go my captives. Cyrus went down to Babylon and
he delivered all God's, you know, I love this, don't you? He'll
let go my captives. Yeah, we were captives, captives
of the devil, captives to our sin nature, captives under the
curse of the law, but we were God's captives by divine election.
And just like he sent Cyrus, and Cyrus went down there and
delivered them out of that Babylonian captivity, and he delivered them
all the way back to Jerusalem, and then Cyrus gave the proclamation
to rebuild Jerusalem. That's what Christ has done for
His people. Look with me over to Ephesians
chapter 2. Ephesians chapter 2, in verse 16, He came and and put away the
enmity between us, having fulfilled the law for us. Verse 16 says,
And that he might reconcile both, that is, his elect Jew and Gentile,
he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross,
having slain the enmity thereby. And then he came and preached
peace to you that were far off, you Gentiles, and to them that
were nigh, his elect among the Jews. And for through Him we
both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Now therefore
you're no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens
with the saints and of the household of God, and are built upon the
foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself
being the cheap cornerstone, in whom all the building fitly
framed together groweth to a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you're
built together for a habitation of God through the Spirit. You're
fellow citizens with the saints. He's built this city He's built
the house. He made you the citizens of the
city and the living stones in the house. And He dwells in His
people. Any self-righteous man that wants
to strive with God for a reward, that's what men are doing. Men
are being bribed to do good works and told, God will give you a
reward. That's not what Christ did. Christ came forth and did
what He did. He came forth made of a woman,
made under the law, Went to the cross, made sin for His people,
made a curse for His people, and He did it all willingly. Willingly. In love to God His
Father and love to His children. He laid down His life. If He
wasn't doing it for a reward, not seeking a price that you
had to pay Him, nor that God had to pay Him, He did it simply
because He was willing and loved His people and loved His Father.
Look here. Not for price nor reward, saith
the Lord of hosts. You see that there in Isaiah?
Not for price nor reward. He came and laid down His life
and built the city and He didn't do it for price nor reward, God
said. I want you to think about this.
Isaiah has preached this same message since Isaiah 40, since
chapter 40. He has preached the same gospel
over and over and over and over. Do you reckon there were any
men in his day that were striving with Isaiah? Do you reckon there
were any men in his day that were striving with their Maker? That's how men strive with their
Maker, is they strive with the preacher he sent, because he's
just a messenger delivering God's Word, God's message. You reckon
there was any there that said, Isaiah, preach some smooth things
to us. Tell us about the works we must
do to be saved. Preach some smooth things to
us. All you do is preach how sovereign God is. He's preached
that over and over and over. All you do is preach that God
saves only in and by Christ Jesus the Lord, the coming Messiah.
You preach it over and over and over. All you do is preach Christ
and His victory over sin, death, and hell. That's all you preach.
Why don't you preach to us what we need to be doing to save ourselves
and make ourselves holy? That's striving with your maker.
I said, I kept right on preaching the Lord's Word. That's obedience
to the Lord. When you submit yourself to God's
Word, that's what God's telling us to do here, all through this.
He preached God's Word because Christ was his assurance. And
Christ is our assurance that Christ shall provide all we need
and call all His sheep through the preaching of the Gospel.
Look here in Isaiah 45, verse 14. Thus saith the Lord, the
labor of Egypt... These are elect Gentiles God's
talking about. redeemed by Christ. He's saying
through the preaching of the gospel, this is what's going
to happen. Thus saith the Lord, the labor of Egypt, and the merchandise
of Ethiopia, and of the Sabaeans, men of stature, shall come over
unto thee, and they shall be thine. They shall come after
thee, in chains they shall come over, and they shall fall down
unto thee. They shall make supplication unto thee, saying, Surely God
is in thee, and there's none else. There is no God. That's
a description of converted elect Gentiles out of every nation
under the sun. They're going to come to Christ
through the preaching of this gospel and they're going to fall
down and make supplication to Him, begging Him for mercy, declaring
God is in thee, there's none else, there is no God but thee.
And they're going to come in and unite with God's people under
the preaching of the gospel. That's the assurance we have,
God declared it. We're going to see in a second
hour how He works it. Those that are redeemed by Christ,
they'll not only be provided for, but we have. He gave us
all righteousness, all holiness, full redemption. He's our wisdom. He's provided for us all spiritual
things, accepted in the beloved, complete in the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's going to provide all lesser things for us so that we can
preach the gospel because He's got elect He's calling out. And He's going to call them out
and unite them with His people. They shall fall down unto thee.
God said. Remember Romans 9.22. I do want you to turn and see
this. Romans 9.22. I'm convinced that Paul preached
out of this passage when he wrote Romans 9. It's what he was looking
at. He looked at Isaiah and he was looking at the Gospel of
Hosea. Isaiah and Hosea. And he says
right here in Romans 9.22, he had just gotten through quoted
the scripture that's in our text. We saw that last time. But he
says here now in Romans 9.22, What if God, willing to show
his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much long-suffering,
their vessels of wrath fitted to destruction." He's saying
God is simply putting up with those that strive against him.
Their vessels of wrath fit for destruction because they receive
not the love of the truth that they might be saved and so God's
just to send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie.
He's just putting up with them. But why is he doing that? He
said, and that he might make known the riches of his glory
on the vessels of mercy which he had aforeprepared unto glory,
even us whom he called, not of the Jews only, but also of the
Gentiles." That's what he's declared in our text. It's not just my
elect among the Jews, it's my elect among the Gentiles also. Verse 15, concerning those that
are fit for destruction, Here's what God does. This is what He
did to Pharaoh when He hardened his heart. This is what He does
to reprobate men. Verse 15, Verily, thou art a
God that hidest thyself, O God of Israel, the Savior. They shall
be ashamed and also confounded, all of them. They shall go to
confusion together that are makers of idols. Oh, but that's those
people, that's the Catholics, that's the folks who carve out
statues and have all their pictures and all their crosses and all
that stuff. Well, yeah, that's them too,
but that's not just them. That's men who would never have
a carved idol. But they look into the work of
their hands to make them righteous or to add something to their
sanctification, something to redeem themselves, something
about salvation. They look into their hands and
that's an idol. That's an idol. It's self-sanctification,
self-righteousness, self-redemption, self-wisdom. They shall go to
confusion together that are makers of idols. Why? God said He's
a God that hides Himself. But Christ called the lost sheep
of the house of Israel. He came first to the lost sheep
of the house of Israel in these last days. In these last days,
God spoke to us by His Son. He began with the house of Israel. He came to the lost sheep of
the house of Israel. And He called out His elect among
them. And He established His apostles
as we just saw. Built on the foundation of the
apostles, Jesus Christ being the chief cornerstone. He's the
head. And He called His apostles. And
He sent them preaching the gospel. And then he told the children
of Israel, he said, how often I'd have gathered you as a hen
gathers her chickens and you would not. He said, I stretched
out my hand all day to against saying people and you wouldn't
come to me that you might have life. It's not his fault. He
said, therefore your house is left to you desolate. I tell
you, brethren, if he's given the gospel in a place and men
won't walk in the light he's given and come and hear Christ
speaking. And that's who's speaking when
the gospel goes forth. God will take it away. He'll hide himself. And he said
that's what he did in Jerusalem. And then he sent Paul to the
Gentiles. And he started calling out his
elect from among the Gentiles. And 70 years later he destroyed
Israel. He destroyed Israel. And right
now He's calling out His elect from the four corners of the
world, gathering them from among the Gentiles. And He says in
verse 17, concerning each of His elect that He redeemed, Israel
shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation. You
should not be ashamed or confounded well without end. He said, those
that go to confusion, makers of idols, they'll be confounded,
but you won't. That's by his grace. He said, for thus saith
the Lord that created the heavens, God himself that formed the earth
and made it. He hath established it. He created
it not in vain. He formed it to be inhabited.
I'm the Lord and there's none else. I've not spoken in secret
in a dark place of the earth. I said unto the seed of Jacob,
seek ye, I didn't say seek ye me in vain. I, the Lord, speak
righteousness. I declare things that are right.
You see, this is God declaring what shall be. those that reject
Christ. He said, I'll just hide myself,
and they'll go on and be confounded, but not my people. He said, I'll
reveal myself to my people, and you'll never be confounded. You'll
be saved with an everlasting salvation. That's the grace of
God. That's the power of God. That's Him being able to bring
His gospel, give His people life in the inner man, give you faith,
repentance, and keep doing it to the end. Now listen to the
application. You know, you preach for a verdict.
Well, here's God's application to us. It don't get more plain
than this. You want to talk about something
God gives you to do? Here it is. Listen to what He
says. Verse 20, Assemble yourselves
and come. Draw near together, you that
are escaped of the nations. You have escaped from the nations
of this world, brethren, by God's grace. You that are escaped of
the nations, they have no knowledge to set up the wood of their graven
image and pray unto a God they cannot save. Tell ye, Speak this
gospel, bring them near, yea, let them take counsel together.
Who declared this from ancient time? Who hath told it from that
time? Have not I the Lord? There is
no God else beside me, a just God and a Savior. There is none
beside me. And here's His word. Now listen,
look unto me. Just to look, that's salvation. Look unto me and be you saved. all the ends of the earth. It
doesn't matter who you are, what your background is, how sinful,
wretched, or how self-righteous you were. He said, you look to
Me wherever you are on the earth. For I am God and there is none
else. I have sworn by Myself, the words gone out of My mouth
in righteousness and shall not return that unto Me every knee
shall bow and every tongue shall swear. You're going to do that
in grace? All these people are going to
do that in grace. And in the last day, those that were makers
of idols, they're going to do it in judgment. But all are going
to do it. But this is what His people shall
say, In the Lord have our righteousness and strength. It's all Him. Even
to Him shall men come. And all that are incensed against
Him shall be ashamed. Now listen, this is what is going
to be a guaranteed fact for all God's people, in the Lord shall
all the seed of Israel be justified, and in the Lord shall all the
seed of Israel glory. You see that? Is there any here
striving against the true and living God while praying to a
God that cannot save? Are you a child of God's grace,
chosen redeemed, regenerated, called by God, given faith to
trust our sovereign, omnipotent Father and His dear Son. Let sinners go on striving with
their Maker. That, God is saying, that don't
concern you. Let them strive with one another.
Stop trying to correct and debate and that's just our flesh trying
to make somebody believe something. If you can make them believe
something else, come along and make them stop believing. Stop striving. preach
the word, attend the word, draw near to Christ, trust Christ,
look to Christ and be saved. Here's the song of the child
of God. Here it is. This is an old hymn from Isaac
Watts. Behold what wondrous grace the
Father hath bestowed on sinners of a mortal race to call them
sons of God. A hope so much divine May trials
well endure, for we, as sons in Christ, are made as pure as
He is pure." That's good news, brethren. Now, next hour, we're
going to come back and see, and the Lord's going to show us an
example of Him accomplishing what He just declared He would
do. Let's go to Him. Our great God and Father, we
thank You for Your Word. Lord, we pray You bless it to
our hearts this day. Make us to hear and believe and
trust Christ. Lord, turn us from the works
of our hands. Make us to see we've been justified
and made pure in Christ. And make us rest in Him, look
to Him and be saved. Make this Gospel vital in our
hearts. Keep us coming to hear and worshiping
only Thee. Lord, forgive us of our sins.
Forgive us of our unbelief. Forgive us for looking to ourselves.
And we pray, Lord, that as you've promised, you'll work this very
work in the hearts of your people everywhere. Lord, we've often
went astray and looked like we didn't know you, looked like
we was reprobate men, and yet you had mercy and called and
saved. You overruled our sin for your
glory and our good, and we pray, Lord, that any that may have
departed, we pray you do the same thing. We pray, Lord, that
you call out your lost sheep, wherever they are, and bring
glory to your name alone. Make us bow, make us just fall
down and thank you, Lord. How we do, we try to, we try
to thank you. Thank you, Lord, for mercy. Thank
you for free salvation in Christ who paid it all. In his name
we ask it. Amen.