Let's turn in our Bibles to Isaiah
42. The subject I'm going to preach
on, we looked at this not too long ago, I think probably a
year or two ago, but it's just too important not to look at
it again. and we need to hear it often. Since we're here near Isaiah
43, and it goes right along with that thought, it made me think
about something that happened years ago when I first started
preaching. I had not preached very many
times, and it was long before I was a pastor.
I was up in Rock Valley, Iowa preaching for Brother Joe Terrell.
He was away at a conference. And I had studied Isaiah 43 and
I think verses 1 through 4 or 5, something like that. I was
excited and thought when you're young like that and start preaching,
you think that when you find something that
excites you and you see the Lord in it and you think you've found
something is new or something that the brethren haven't seen
or something is going to really be a blessing to them. So I get
to the building and there was an elder sister there and she
asked me what I was preaching from, what text. She said, I
like to write down the name of the pastor and I write the date
he preached there. This was long before sermon audio,
long before anybody really even had websites yet. They just started having websites
and nobody was posting audio on websites yet. You'd get a
cassette tape if you wanted to listen to something, you know.
But she would tell me, she'd say, if I'm studying and I'll
get cassette tapes. And she said, and if I'm studying
and I look, see the pastor's name beside a text, she goes,
I'll go get the cassette tape and listen to it. And so she
wanted to write down my name by the text, you know. So when
she went to write it down, I looked in her Bible and there was probably
15 names written down beside my text. And I'm thinking, you
know, I'm going to preach something new. And I made some kind of
comment, I'm sure some dumb comment. And she said, son, if my pastor
had preached this last service, and if preachers had preached
it the past four or five services before that, she said, as long
as you preach Christ, I want to hear it again. And she said,
and it don't get old. It's new. And every bit of that
was a good lesson for me. Before I ever even got up to
preach, He ministered to me. And that was a valuable lesson. So yes, we've looked at this
not too long ago, but it's something we need to look at again. Isaiah
42, verse 22, the Lord said, But this is a people
robbed and spoiled. And they are all of them snared
in holes, and they are hid in prison houses. And they are for
a prey, and none delivereth for a spoil, and none saith restore."
That was the sin of the children of Israel and Judah. The Lord
declares this was their sin, none saith restore. Instead, they were all robbed
and spoiled and snared in holes in prison houses. Whenever the
Lord gave the law, knowing all mankind had fallen in Adam, knowing
we were all depraved sinners, to somewhat restrain men is one
reason he gave the law, but knowing how we would take advantage of
one another, he gave a law that provided for victims of robbery. And it required that the victim
be restored, restitution be made to the victim. He said this in
Exodus 22, he said, if a man steal an ox or a sheep and kill
it or sell it, he shall restore five oxen for an ox. and four
sheep for a sheep, he has to make full restitution, God save. And not only that, he has to
make double restitution. He has to restore double, more
than what he took. If a man put his cattle in another
man's field and the cattle ate of the other man's field or his
vineyard, then that man had to take of his very best field and
his very best vineyard and he had to restore double to the
man that he stole from. He put his cattle in his field
and let them graze in his field. If a man caused a fire and it
consumed another man's property, the one that kindled the fire
had to make full restitution. He had to make double restitution. And this went for anything that
was stolen or taken or anything. All manner of trespass, whether
it be for an ox, for an ass, for sheep, for raiment, any manner
of lost thing, which another challenges to be his, the cause
of both parties shall come before the judges. And whom the judges
shall condemn, he shall pay double unto his neighbor. He had to
restore double to his neighbor. But if the thief didn't have
ability to pay, If he didn't have ability to pay, he was too
poor to pay, then he could be sold and he worked off the payment. He could be sold and he worked
off the payment. He made the double restitution
by working for the victim to pay back. It said in Exodus 22.3,
if you have nothing, then he should be sold for his theft. But only for six years. He could only work for six years. In the seventh year he went free.
He went free. And a restitution had been made
so he was to go out free. But God declared that the sin
of Israel and of Judah was none saith restore. Nobody obeyed
this law. None said restore. The judges
were corrupt and they took bribes. Thieves were not made to restore
their victims. They didn't make restitution
to their victims. Or if the thief was sold to serve,
when that seventh year came, they made him keep serving and
took advantage of free labor. So nobody was obeying this law
in any regard. And it wasn't only with this
law, but with all the laws of God, None obeyed God. Now, you think about that. If
they had a TV back then, and they had news back then, it would
have been just like it is in our day. Each faction condemning
the other one, that they're the reason why the problems exist
in society, and each one justifying themselves. I saw something just
the other day about prisoners in America having to work in
a prison. Well, that in itself is according to God's law. That's
what it basically was, is if a person stole from somebody,
they had to be sold and they worked it off. But here's the
corruption. Prisons now in our society, they're
providing products for corporations and they're using the free labor
or the cheap labor of prisoners to make it, and they're all making
a profit off of it. When the scriptures, the law
in the scripture was the prisoner worked, he was sold to serve
and he worked, but the money or whatever he did, his profit
went to the victim. It was to make double restitution
to the victim. But the whole nation was guilty
here of not only breaking that law, but of breaking the whole
law of God. And who they were robbing was
God. So they had robbed God, and none
was able to make restitution to God. And none was able to
make double, certainly not able to make double restitution to
God. as God required by the law. And so the Lord sold the whole
nation to be servants to the enemy nations. That's what it
was pictured there in the Lord selling the whole nation into
captivity. And that's what he says in verse
23. Who among you will give ear to this? Who will hearken and
hear for the time to come? Isaiah 42, 23. And then look at verse 24. Who
gave Jacob for a spoil in Israel to the robbers? He said they're
all spoiled and robbed, but who gave them to be spoiled and robbed? Did not the Lord, He against
whom we have sinned, For they would not walk in his ways, neither
were they obedient unto his law. Therefore he hath poured upon
him the fury of his anger and the strength of battle, and it
has set him on fire round about, yet he knew it not, and it burned
him, yet he laid it not his heart. That's what's going on in our
nation today. That's what's going on in this
whole world. Men have not, will not walk in God's law. And God
has sold all to be robbed and spoiled. And men and women are
doing the robbing and spoiling. Robbing and spoiling one another.
That's why it says there in verse 22, this is a people robbed and
spoiled, they're all of them snared in holes, they're hidden
in prison houses, therefore pray and none delivereth for spoil
and none saith restore. But it was the Lord against whom
they had sinned who sold them into that. And it's the Lord
against whom we've sinned that's brought this judgment upon men
in the world. And it's just a picture of the
judgment that's going to come. That is, that final judgment
that will come. And yet, God said, none lay it
to heart. None recognize, you know, everybody's blaming
everybody else and the problem is the other person. And none's
laying it to heart that we ought to each personally realize, I'm
the one guilty before God. sinning against God, robbing
God. But before anybody gets on their soapbox and starts condemning
the other political party, I'm not preaching a political message
here this morning, just about the social wrongs of our country. But before anybody gets on their
soapbox and blames the other political party and starts justifying
their party and condemning this one and that one, remember, God
gave the law to show his elect how we robbed God in the garden,
in Adam, by that one transgression, and to show how we've done it
by our own sins every day. That's why He gave the law, to
shut our mouths, to declare us guilty. So when God declares,
none saith restore, when He says there's none that says restore,
that's what He means, there's none. who restores and makes
this double restitution. What then, Paul said, are we
better than they? Are we better than they? Know
and know wise we prove both Jews and Gentiles, they all under
sin. That's what the law teaches us.
It's written there's none righteous, no not one. There's none that
understandeth. There's none that seeketh after
God. They all go out of the way. They together become unprofitable.
There's none that doeth good. No, not one. I would that we
would consider this. You know, when we get on social
media and we start condemning this political party and that
political party and condemning this one and that one and the
other one, We're doing exactly what the Apostle Paul said in
Romans chapter 2. He said, Thou art inexcusable,
O man, whosoever thou art that judgest. For wherein thou judgest
another, thou condemnest thyself, for thou that judgest doest the
same thing. And that's true of every one
of us. That is true of every one of us. That law, just this
one law of restitution, this one law right here, if that was
the only law there was, we'd all be guilty. But that law and
along with all the rest of the law that God gave at Mount Sinai,
it was to make us know the transgression that we committed in the garden.
We all became guilty in the garden. There's none righteous, no, not
one. None. But God sent Isaiah to
declare the good news. That's why he was sent, was to
declare the good news. And God sends his messengers
today to declare the good news. There is one who says, restore. There's one who has restored.
And that's the Lord Jesus, the Son of God. He has restored and
He has made double restoration. Look over at Psalm 69. Psalm
69 in verse 4. Listen to the Lord. Hear the
Lord Jesus speaking right here. Psalm 69, 4. They that hate me without a cause
are more than the hairs of mine head. They that would destroy
me, being mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty. Then I restored that
which I took not away. That's what Christ came to do.
That's what He came to do. Christ restored to God all that
His people stole. by our transgression in Adam
and by our own sins. Just like a man would go into
another man's property and transgress and rob him, God said, now that
man's got to make restitution. to the victim. He's got to restore
double to the victim. Well, in the garden, in Adam,
when we sinned, we all robbed God. And we all owe God restitution. We owe Him double restitution,
and ain't no one of us can give it to Him. But God chose a people,
and He gave them to His Son, and that's why His Son came.
His Son came to make restitution. And that's what Christ did. The
Lord Jesus said, I restored that which I took not away. The Lord
Jesus gave God perfect obedience and perfect faith and perfect
righteousness that He never took away. He said, they hate me wrongfully. That's us, brethren. That's our robbery right there.
The Son of God came in human flesh and we condemned Him who
was innocent and crucified him on a tree, calling it justice
and calling it honoring God and calling it obeying the law and
calling it glory to God. That's our form of keeping the
law by nature. And Christ said, and yet I was
giving to God for my people what I didn't take away. I was restoring
to the Father what I didn't take away. For His people, He fulfilled
the law that He never broke. He gave the law the justice and
bore the justice and satisfied the justice of the law on behalf
of His people that He never injured. He made satisfaction for sins
that He never committed. He restored that which He took
not away. He brought in a righteousness
for His people that He had not taken away. He restored that
which He took not away. That's what Christ did. That's
what He accomplished for everybody He represented. But He did more
than that. The law required double restitution
and Christ restored double. He restored to God double. Look
at Isaiah 40. And this is exactly what he's
talking about in Isaiah 40. Look at verse 1. Look at verse
2, I'm sorry. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem,
to my people, that's God's elect he's talking about, cry unto
her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned,
for she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her
sin. He made double restitution. That's
what Christ did. What does that mean, He made
double restitution? He brought in eternal righteousness. He brought in eternal redemption.
He made eternal satisfaction so that there is no condemnation
ever again for those Christ represented. We can never again fall, we can
never again be viewed by God as anything less than perfect
in Christ. Never again. That's double. He gave us more than we lost
in Adam. Then He came to us and He regenerated
us through the Spirit and He gave us life and that life He
gave us is eternal life. We can never lose that life.
I had a birthday yesterday. And I was thinking about that
yesterday, 54, just finished my 54th year, going into my 55th
year. And I thought, but in Christ,
I don't have a birthday. I'm just eternal. I'm just eternally
alive in Christ. That's so of all His people.
And that'll never change. That can't be taken away. There's
nothing you can do to change what God accomplished in His
Son. His Son is that life. His Son
is that life. Listen to Jeremiah 30 verse 17. I will restore health unto thee. And I will heal thee of thy wounds,
saith the Lord, because they called thee an outcast, saying,
This is Zion, whom no man seeketh after. The Lord said, I will
restore health unto thee. And he's made double restitution
when it comes to our health, hackney. We have eternal life,
life that'll never change. We robbed ourselves, brethren.
That's right. We robbed ourselves. And we robbed
God. And the Lord came and restored
that which He took not away. Not only for the elect among
the Jews, He did it for us elect Gentiles too. Look at Isaiah
49 and look at verse 6. Isaiah 49.6, this is the Lord
speaking to Christ. He said, it's a light thing that
thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob. That is to raise up my elect
among the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved of Israel. I will also give thee for a light
to the Gentiles, that they mayest be my salvation unto the end
of the earth." He restored not only His elect in Israel, He
restored all His elect amongst us Gentiles. Aren't you thankful? Aren't you thankful? And Christ
makes His restored child a restorer. When He has come and done this
work in our heart, and made us to see how we robbed God, how
we were trying to steal God's glory, how we never kept the
law, how we sinned, how much we owed to God. And then he shows
you how Christ came, the innocent, Lord Jesus Christ came and laid
down His life and gave Himself to all that He had to bear at
the hands of wicked men and at the hands of unjust kangaroo
court in this earth and then before the holy justice of God
being made a curse for His people. And He makes you see all you
owe and then Christ came and restored double for you to God.
so that you can never again fall away, never again be lost. And
he makes you know that he has shown you this a thousand times
since he called you. And that you have sinned. It's
just what your nature is. And he's shown you your sin throughout
each day. He's shown you there's times
when you have fallen badly. And yet he's kept restoring you. and shown you that you're restored
and that He's given you life and that He's not, that won't
change. His grace won't change toward
you. And by doing that, He makes you a restorer of others. You want to preach this gospel
to anybody who will give ear to it because this is the gospel
through which Christ is going to restore His people and teach
us what He's done. And then if your brother or your
sister has fallen, he makes you want to restore them with this
gospel and see them restored to Christ. Go over to Galatians
chapter 6. Galatians chapter 6. The Galatians were so divided
over this issue of circumcision and the issue the Galatians were
fussing and fighting over was progressive sanctification. I
know that everybody says it's justification by faith, but you
can read Galatians chapter 3 and it's obvious that what the real
issue was progressive sanctification. They were saying it's fine now
that you believe Christ, but now if you want to be made perfect,
you need to get back under the law and keep the law and by your
works you'll become perfect. And Paul said, Are you foolish? Have you been deceived that much
that you think that having begun in the Spirit, hearing the gospel
of the faithfulness of Christ Jesus, and God working this in
you by the Spirit of God, that now you're going to be perfected
by the works of the law? That was the real issue. But
Paul, there they were, divided and carrying on and so at odds
with one another. And he said, do you really want
to keep the law? Are you really concerned? Really,
really concerned about keeping the law of God? He said, well,
God's people are under the law of Christ. We're under the law
of Christ. And if you want to know what
that is, he tells us right here, this is what it is. And he's
saying to them, this is such some irony in how Paul would
write things and how he would, you know, that's what they're
arguing about, about keeping a law. He said, okay, you really
want to keep it? He said, you see that brother
that's fallen? You see that brother that you're
just so determined that now you need to condemn him with the
law and you need to charge him and you need to cast him out
and all this? He said, that's not how you're
going to keep the law of Christ. You want to keep the law of Christ?
Verse 1, Galatians 6, 1. Brethren, if a man be overtaken
in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit
of meekness. Consider thyself, lest thou also
be tempted. Bear ye one another's burdens,
and so fulfill the law of Christ. That's the law of Christ right
there. Faith, trusting Christ is able to make your brother
stand. You know when you're going to, a work of faith is a work
whereby you believe God is able. And I'll tell you where that
work is going to be tested most and where it's going to be proven
most that you really have faith in the Lord is when your brother
falls and he brings you, gives you the opportunity to restore
him in the spirit of meekness, trusting Christ is able to make
him stand. That takes faith. And to do that
is a work of faith. And that's the law of Christ.
Faith. And you know what the constraint is to do that? There's
only one constraint we're under that makes us want to do that.
It's the love of Christ. It's seeing how Christ has restored
you and how he keeps restoring you when you fall. and how he
keeps showing you grace, grace, grace, mercy, mercy, mercy, and
how he will not go back on these gifts of his grace that he's
given to you. He will not change in his love
and his grace toward his people. And that constrains you and motivates
you, and you don't need a legal whip to motivate you to do that.
The love of Christ constrains you in your heart to restore
your brother in the spirit of meekness because you believe
Christ is able to make him stand. You got one master. You got one
master. And he's able to make his servant
stand. Restore such one. Bury ye not
one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. For
for a man think himself something when he's nothing, he deceives
himself. And this restoration of brethren
to Christ, it was typified in the Old Testament whenever the
congregation would restore an offender to the city of refuge. Remember that? The city of refuge
was a picture of Christ. And it said in Numbers 35.25,
the congregation shall deliver the slayer, he slain a man, And this is what people will
say. They'll say, well, that was manslaughter. That wasn't first
degree murder. Well, none of God's people that's
been called by His grace, none of us deliberately want to sin. We don't want to sin. And now
when we sin, we do it willingly. There's just no way around that.
You do and I do too. But in our new man, we don't
want to sin against God. And so it's just the same as
being guilty of manslaughter. You didn't mean to do it. You
don't want to do it. You did it, but you don't want
to do it. And so he said of the slayer,
deliver him out of the hand of the revenger of blood. This one
that's coming to slay him, he's coming to kill him. He's coming
to take revenge. Deliver him out of the hand of
the revenger of blood and the congregation shall restore him
to the city of his refuge, whether he was fled, and he'll abide
in it until the death of the high priest which is anointed
with the holy oil. That's what we're doing when
we're restoring one another to Christ. We're restoring him to
the city of refuge. And how do you do that? How do
you restore your brethren? Well, you and I can't, we can't
restore spiritually. But here's how we're used to
do it. We remind one another of what Christ has done for us. We remind one another of what
Christ has accomplished for His people and how He has put our
sin away. That's what Nathan did to David.
He made Nathan to see, you're the man, David. And he said, but your sin's forgiven.
You're going to be chastened, but your sin's forgiven. Because
Christ put it away. And then you pray to the Lord
to bless that heart, to bless that message to the heart of
your brethren. And you believe. See, why this is a work of faith
is you have to believe Christ is able to do it. And you have
to trust Christ. And receive your brethren without
doubtful disputing, Paul said. And that's the spirit of meekness.
The spirit of meekness is the spirit of bowing to Christ and
trusting Christ. Moses was the meekest man on
this earth because whenever he was opposed and confronted by
the children of Israel, he hid his face and begged God to do
the saving. And so that's the spirit of meekness.
And this is what the Lord said in Isaiah 57, 18. He said, I've seen his ways and
will heal him. I will lead him also and restore
comforts unto him and to his mourners. I create the fruit
of the lips. Peace, peace to him that's far
off and to him that's near, saith the Lord, and I will heal him.
That's the Lord's promise. That's what He's done for us.
That's what He does in us. That's what He keeps doing in
us. That's how we truly manifest that we know what great sinners
we are and how greatly Christ has truly restored us is when
you're able, in a spirit of meekness, to restore your brethren, to
restore your brethren. When God has truly sanctified
us, and separated us apart. Made you fast from the vain carnal
bread of false religion. Made you fast from that. Made
you not feast on that anymore. That's when you'll restore one
another with the good news of Christ and trust Christ to do
the restoring. Look at Isaiah 58 verse 6. He declares there the way of
the world's religion. They smite with the fist of wickedness
and they take account of every man's labor and if he's not resting
on the Sabbath day, they're going to keep up with his sins and
they're going to just keep account of everything. Because you've
got to be serving God now and if you don't now, we'll smite
with the fist of wickedness. The Lord said, verse 6, is not
this the fast that I've chosen? When I say, I'm using that illustration
of fasting because that's what He does. When He makes you stop
feeding on this world's carnal bread and using their tactics,
this is the fast He'll bring you into, right here. to loose
the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let
the oppressed go free, that you break every yoke. Is it not to
deal thy bread to the hungry?" Who's our bread? It's Christ. And if you've got physical bread
to give somebody that's hungry, give them their bread. But Christ's
what he talked about here. and that thou bring the poor
that are cast out to thy house, when thou seest the naked, that
thou cover him." What do you have to cover the naked with?
We got one message. We got the message of Christ
Jesus who covers us in the robe of his righteousness. That's
what you cover. If you got a coat, cover them
with a physical coat, but that's right there is what they need
to hear. and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh.
Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine hail
shall spring forth speedily, and thy righteousness shall go
before thee. The glory of the Lord shall be
thy reward coming up from the rear and keeping you from the
back and the front and all around. Go over with me to Jeremiah 34.
Jeremiah 34. Now you're going to suffer tribulation
in this world as a child of God because the world is still going
to do exactly what they did right here in Jeremiah's day. And the
Lord's doing what He did to the whole political nation of Israel.
And He's not going to stop. One day He's going to destroy
this whole world. But this is what happened in their day. Look
at this now. Tell me this doesn't describe
carnal, vain religion, Will Works religion. Jeremiah 34, 8. This
is the word that came unto Jeremiah from the Lord, after that the
king Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people which were
at Jerusalem to proclaim liberty unto them, that every man should
let his manservant and every man his maidservant, being a
Hebrew and a Hebrewess, go free, that none should serve himself
of them to wit of a Jew his brother." That is, when the sixth year
came and they had worked off their debt, they were supposed
to let them go free. They weren't doing that. And the Lord sent
Jeremiah and they said, okay, we're going to do it. We're going
to let them. We're going to set them free like we're supposed
to. We're going to obey God. We're going to restore them.
Now, verse 10, when all the princes and all the people which had
entered into the covenant heard that everyone should let his
manservant, everyone is made servant go free, that none should
serve themselves of them anymore, then they obeyed and they let
them go. But afterward, they turned and caused the servants
and the handmaids whom they had let go free to return and brought
them into subjection for servants and for handmaids. That's exactly
what religion does. They preach liberty to you until
they get a man to make a profession of faith and then they bring
him right back into the servitude of the law and put him in bondage. And they do it for personal profit.
That's exactly right. to benefit the church. Therefore
the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying,
Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel, I made a covenant
with your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out
of the land of Egypt, out of the house of Bondman. saying,
At the end of seven years let ye go every man his brother of
Hebrew which has been sold unto thee. And when he hath served
thee six years, thou shalt let him go free from thee. But your
fathers hearken not unto me, neither incline their ear. And
you were now turned and had done right in my sight in proclaiming
liberty every man to his neighbor. And you had made a covenant before
me in the house which is called by my name. But ye turned and
polluted my name. and caused every man his servant
and every man his handmaid, whom you had set at liberty at their
pleasure, to return and brought them into subjection to be unto
you for servants and for handmaids. Therefore thus saith the Lord,
you've not hearkened to me in proclaiming liberty, every one
to his brother and every man to his neighbor. Behold, I proclaim
a liberty for you, saith the Lord, to the sword and to the
pestilence and to the famine, and I'll make you to be removed
into all the kingdoms of the earth, and I'll give the men
that have transgressed My covenant, which have not performed the
words of the covenant which they had made before Me, when they
cut the calf in twain and passed between the parts thereof, the
princes of Judah and the princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs and
priests, and all the people of the land which pass between the
parts of the calf, I will even give them into the hand of their
enemies, into the hand of them that seek their life, and their
dead bodies shall be for meat unto the fowls of the heaven
and to the beasts of the earth. And Zedekiah king of Judah and
his princes will I give into the hand of their enemies, and
into the hand of them that seek their life, and into the hand
of the king of Babylon's army, which are gone up from you. Behold,
I'll command, saith the Lord, and cause them to return to this
city, and they shall fight against it, and take it, and burn it
with fire. And I'll make the cities of Judah a desolation
without inhabitant." And God brought that full to a full completion
in 70 A.D. when he totally destroyed political
Israel. But you see, brethren, Christ,
you know how they killed that calf and they passed it between
them, and that's how the covenant was made through this innocent
victim slain? That innocent victim that was
slain is Christ Jesus the Lord. And He don't put the covenant
in your hand to make part of a covenant that you have to fulfill.
He fulfilled it our part as a man, and he fulfilled God's part as
God, and he's brought us together in him, and now he's restored
us fully. And by his grace continuing to
make you know this, he keeps you being a restorer. But now
you're going to suffer in this world because this whole world
is operating on that same principle of not restoring, trying to take
advantage of one another, and all the things that they were
doing initially, that's how the world operates. So we're going
to suffer as we go through this world. But here is the Lord's
Word. I am not going to preach from this, I am just going to
read it for now. Look at chapter 43 verse 1, Isaiah 43 verse 1.
But now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he
that formed thee, O Israel, fear not, for I have redeemed thee. I have called thee by thy name,
thou art mine. When thou passest through the
waters, I will be with thee. And when you go through the rivers,
they will not overflow thee. When thou walkest through the
fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle
upon thee. For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel,
thy Savior. I gave Egypt for thy ransom,
Ethiopia and Sebia for thee. Since thou wast precious in my
sight, thou hast been honorable, and I have loved thee. Therefore
I will give men for thee, and people for thy life. Fair not,
I'm with you. And he said, and I'll call your
seed from the north, south, east, and west. I'll bring all them
that I have saved and redeemed. I'm going to call them all into
the flock. And so he's teaching you and me, brethren, if you
know this, if you know the Lord's done this for you, then, you
know, we're going to have trouble. We're going to have trouble.
We're going to have trouble amongst each other. What are you going
to do? What does the Lord command you
to do? Remember, He's restored you to God. He has restored you
to God and forgiven you all your sin. So what are you going to
do to your brother and your sister when they sin against you or
offend you or when they fall? You're going to restore them.
Well, I didn't take it away. I'm not the one. He restored
that which He took not away. Now He says you restore. And
that's what He makes His people do. That's how we continue together.
Because He makes you a restorer, beholding how He restored you.
Alright, let's go to Him. Our Lord, we thank You for this
Word. We thank You for teaching us and keeping us. Thank You
for restoring us, making double restitution so we never fall
away, never be lost again. Thank you for eternal righteousness,
eternal redemption, eternal salvation. Lord, when we fall in this world
and we stumble, ever remind us, ever restore health to us, and
help us, Lord, to restore one another. Keep us always remembering. We're saved by grace, by mercy,
by your free forgiveness, by the price of your precious blood.
Let that be our constraint, Lord, to believe that you're able to
save your people and to constrain us to restore one another and
love one another and continue together. We thank you for these
mercies. For Christ's sake, for his glory,
for his honor, we ask it. Amen.