Alright brethren, let's turn
back to Isaiah 66. Isaiah 66. This will be our last message
in Isaiah. I just thought about going back
and looking to see what the date was when we started. And it was
June 15, 2008. This is June 12, 2016. Almost
8 years to the day. And I thought about waiting until
Wednesday, so it would be June 15th, but you just got to preach
it when the Lord gives it. It would probably be gone by
Wednesday, so I figured I better preach it now. Now, our Lord
Jesus came to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And He
began calling out His people from among the Jews while He
walked this earth. And then at Pentecost, He called
3,000. And then later he called 5,000.
And he continued to add to the church daily such as should be
saved. And then he scattered them by
persecution. Remember that? He brought persecution,
he scattered them, and they went everywhere preaching the gospel.
And what I want us to focus on today is we'll see that after
Christ called and established His church among the Jews, He
used them to begin calling out His elect Gentiles. And He shall
do so till every last one are called, and we shall worship
God forever. First of all, we see Christ send
His elect Jews with the gospel to His elect Gentiles. We saw
this morning in the first hour, verse 18, the second half after
He past judgment upon Israel, He said, I will gather all nations
in tongues and they shall come and see my glory and I will set
a sign among them. We saw how He gathered all those
various nations in tongues at Jerusalem and Peter stood up,
preached Christ the glory of God and God set that sign, that
enzyme, that banner in their heart and called many. And then he began sending them
forth with this gospel. And he says here, And I will
send those that escape of them. Those that escape from natural
Israel because they were his true children. They were his
elect. They were called by God and saved by God. And that's
how they escaped. They escaped. And he said, I'm
going to send them unto the nations. Now, these are Gentile nations.
He says, "...to Tarshish, Poole, and Ludd, that draw the bow,
to Tubal and Javan, to the Isles afar off, that have not heard
my fame, neither have seen my glory, and
they shall declare my glory among the Gentiles." Now, God's purpose
of grace has always included His elect from among the Gentiles. It always included His elect
from among the Gentiles, but the Jews out of the Old Covenant
never could see that. Some did, because the Spirit
of Christ spoke and taught them, and they spoke those words in
the prophecies like they did, like Isaiah does here. But for
the most part, they never saw it. They never understood that
His people are an elect people from both Jew and Gentile. From
the Jew and the Gentile. And it took God sending them
forth through that persecution to make them leave Jerusalem
and go into all parts of the world preaching the gospel. And
the scripture says even then when they went forth preaching,
they only preached to the Jews. But then remember Christ sent
that message to Peter. Let down that sheet from the
four corners that had all those unclean beasts in it. He said,
you arise and you eat these. Peter said, Not so, Lord. I've
never eaten anything unclean or common. The Lord taught him
what that law meant. I'm the one that sanctifies.
I'm the one that makes my people pure and holy. Don't you call
that common which I've cleansed, God said. And immediately there
came a knock at the door. And those men arrived that Cornelius
had sent to Peter because the Spirit told him to. They said,
come with us, there's a man who wants to hear the Gospel. And
he went down there to Cornelius, a Gentile, stood up, preached
the Gospel to him. God poured out the Holy Spirit
on them, on the Gentiles, like He did at Pentecost. And he said,
I realized then that God had granted repentance to the Gentiles.
He has an elect people among the Gentiles as well. And then
the Lord called and separated Saul and Barnabas, the Apostle
Paul and Barnabas. He separated them and made them
His ministers to go forth to the Gentiles. And that was Paul's
ministry. He was a Jew called out by Christ
and sent forth to the Gentiles. He was the minister to the uncircumcision,
to the Gentiles. But from the beginning, of this
gospel age until now. Even when he sent the early church,
sent Peter there to stand up in Jerusalem, and then sent them
to the Gentiles, God's always had one means of salvation in
this gospel age. One means. Look what he says
here. It's his report. His report. His gospel. He said,
verse 18, I'll send them to the nations that have not heard my
fame. That word fame means report.
Remember Isaiah, who hath believed our report? It's our gospel. It's our report. And then the
message we report is in verse 18. The glory of God. They've
not heard my report, neither have seen my glory. That's what
he did at Jerusalem. I'll make them see my glory.
Peter stood up and preached the glory of Christ. That's the glory
of God. How's Christ the glory of God?
1 Corinthians tells us He's the glory of God's power and wisdom.
He's the way, He's the power, He's the wisdom and power of
how God can be just. How He can pour out the sentence
of judgment on everybody He saves. Make sure that they all pay the
wages of sin which is death. Make sure they all answer to
divine justice. They did that when Christ went
and said, I'll answer for them. I'll answer for them. Lay their
stripes on me. Lay their judgment on me and
I'll bear it and I'll pay all the debt they owe. That's how
God can be just. His law was not diminished in
any way. That's the power and wisdom of
God, His glory, to be just. And it's the power and wisdom
of how He's the justifier. Because Christ was God in man,
so that what He did had an eternal accomplishment. It was eternal
redemption. It was eternal satisfaction.
It was eternal justification. And He arose and His people justified
in Him. When God justified Him, He justified
His people in Him. That's right. And He's the power
and wisdom of God. He's the power, He's the glory
of God's long suffering. Why was it that God didn't destroy
the world when Adam sinned in the garden? Because Christ stood
as our surety. And God was long-suffering. See,
God's long-suffering is in Christ. He's long-suffering to us-ward
who believe. Why? Because He put us in Christ. He's long-suffering. His love's
in Christ. He loves in Christ. That's why
His love's everlasting love. His love doesn't start today
and end tomorrow. God loves and He saves. His love
is saving love. And that love, the glory of His
love is seen where? In Christ. In this was manifested
the love of God. He sent forth His Son to be our
propitiation. That's salvation. He accomplished
it. He came forth to put away sin,
to be the place God can have mercy with His people. And He
accomplished it. That's where you see the glory
of His love, saving love. There's where you see the glory
of God's Redemption. There was no way we could be
freed. We have to be freed three ways.
Redemption is a three-fold redemption. This is a good outline if you
want to preach this, Eric. Redemption is a three-fold redemption.
Number one, we had to be redeemed from the curse of the law. We
couldn't do that. We couldn't do that. Christ hath
redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for
us. Number two, we've got to be redeemed from the bondage
of this corrupt flesh. We've got to be brought out from
dominion and bondage and prison of this flesh so that we have
liberty from it to be able to worship and serve Christ. He's
that redemption. And then, at last, we need to
be redeemed from this sinful, corrupt earth, out of it completely,
into His presence and glory. We're waiting for the adoption,
to wit, the redemption of our bodies. To enter into that glorious
liberty of the sons of God. Into glory. That's what we're
waiting on. He's the glory of God's redemption.
He's the glory of how God is a holy God. God was holy and
He won't receive anybody except they be holy. And you mark this,
when Christ went to that crow, when He walked this earth He
was holy, that's why He was born of a virgin. He wasn't conceived
of corrupt seed. He's holy. And He came forth
and He's holy. And He walked this earth holy.
And when He was made sin for His people and went to the cross,
the whole time He bore that. And even when He was separated
from God, in His heart He's holy. He's serving God perfectly. That
was obedience, even though it's hard for us to embrace the fact
that He was being judged and separated in judgment. At the
same time though, He never ceased looking to the Father. That was
holy obedience. That was a pure heart serving
the Father. And the only way you're going
to have that pure heart and have that holiness is when Christ,
our sanctifier and our sanctification is formed in you. He's the new
man. He's that inward man. He's that new spirit that's put
within us. He's that holiness without which
no man will see the Lord. That's not by your works and
your acts. That works in your obedience
from a pure heart is the result of Christ being the sanctifier
and the sanctification. Of God is He made unto you sanctification. That's when you quit trying to
perfect yourself by your works. And you realize, I can't get
more holy than Christ is holy. Do you grow in that state of
holiness? Yeah, but you don't grow more holy. You grow in the
wisdom and knowledge and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. By
Him growing you and in the knowledge and grace of Him, from Him. But holy, we're made meek to
be partakers of the inheritance of the saints and light. He's
the glory of God's holiness. You see what I'm saying? Everything
about God's glory is seen in Christ. The fullness of the Godhead
bodily. God's glory is in Christ. So the message is the report.
The means is the report. And the message is God's glory,
Christ the Lord. And the way we report it is by
preaching. Verse 19. They shall declare
my glory among the Gentiles. That's preaching. Preaching.
Look at 1 Corinthians 1. I want you to see this now. This
is brought out to me very clearly right here. In this gospel age,
this is God's ordained means to call out His people. He made
Israel, He showed from Adam to Abraham's day, He showed that
man by his wisdom couldn't know God, couldn't come to God. He
showed from Abraham's day to the forming of Israel that men
couldn't do it on their own. He showed all through the age
of the Old Covenant unto Israel that men in their wisdom couldn't
do it. And then look what it said. Verse 21, After that, in
the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased
God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. What's
included in that word preaching? The report. The substance of
the report, which is Christ, the glory of God, Christ whom
He crucified, and the means of delivering it, preaching. That's
all included in that preaching. And God has this one means and
this one message, whether it be for His elect among the Jews
or His elect among the Gentiles. He stood up at Pentecost. Peter stood up. What did he do?
He delivered the report of Christ, the glory of God, through preaching.
That's how God saved His people. He sent Philip out there in the
middle of the desert, off of the main road, out there in the
middle of a back road somewhere, and there is the Ethiopian eunuch.
Why did He send him out there? Because that is how God chose
to save His people. Lydia is down at a river, and Paul wants
to go to Asia, and the Lord's Spirit said, No, you can't go
there. You have got to go down here to this river. Why? There
is an elect child down there, and He sent him down there to
preach. Find me one person in the New Testament saved any other
way. Even the apostle Paul, who was called by Christ because
he was an apostle, even him the Lord sent Ananias to it. But
I'm saying, this is how He saves, brethren. Why? God is so sovereign
He can. God is absolutely sovereign.
He's not dependent on you or me. Well, those people I think
are saved another way. Are they the standard? Are you
holding them up now and making them the standard? Or is this
Word right here the standard? This is how God said He does
it. That means men need to come to
this Word and bow to it and say, yes sir, that's how He saved.
That's how He saved me, that's how He saves His people. Look
here, one message, verse 23. We preach Christ crucified unto
the Jews a stumbling block and unto the Greeks foolishness,
but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ
the power of God and the wisdom of God. Now go back to Isaiah
66. So God promised to send His gospel
to the world, to the Gentiles. Christ said, you go into all
the world and preach my gospel. Sent His Jewish church there
and they began to preach and He called out His Gentiles. And
God did it through the gospel and God promised to make that
word effectual. He promised from the beginning
to make that word effectual so that His church won't fail. You
see, I wouldn't go forth preaching if I thought it was up to me
to make the Word effectual. If I thought it was up to me
to try to get sinners to make a profession, or if it was up
to me to build a church, or up to me to plant a church, or up
to me to keep the church, or anything else, I'd just stop
it. I'd just stop it. I see, when I look around the
world, I see what that produces. I don't want that. But He has
the power to do it and He said He would from the beginning.
Look at verse 20. They shall bring all your brethren. They shall. Not one is going
to be left out. They shall bring all your brethren.
When Peter preached to Cornelius, you know why he baptized everybody
in that house? Because Christ had blessed the
gospel effectually to their hearts and brought them to faith in
Christ. That's why. That's why. Why did he baptize
them at Pentecost? Because he pricked their heart
and gave them faith to believe. And that's what he did there.
Peter said that later. He said, God has purified their
hearts through faith. That's what he said. That's why
he baptized them. Because he's effectually working
in his people. You see that picture there? He
sent this message, a spirit to Cornelius and gave him a heart
and he said, you send some messengers and get Peter. And while he was
doing that, Christ sent a message to Peter and He taught him that
I have some people that are among the Gentiles and if I've cleansed
them, you go preach the gospel to them and you leave it to Me. He prepared the people and the
preacher. And then He put them together.
And then He blessed the Word. And Cornelius and his house believed,
Peter baptized. This is the sovereign Christ. That's what it means to say He
is Lord and Christ. He's the government's on his
shoulder. He's really working this in the hearts, in this world,
in the hearts of his people. Look here. Paul and Barnabas
preached. Remember they went forth and
preached. They went in there, Cornelius there, there's people
making a living off of making idol gods. That's how they're
making a living. They don't want to see, you know
in this world right now, it's so sad. And you see this happen
a lot of times where it's just so apparent that this needs to
stop because it's harming people. But people will object to it
being stopped. They come up with every justification
for it not being stopped. Why? The love of money. The love of money. That's the
root of all evil. And they didn't want that to
stop in Corinth. But you know what the Lord did?
He made the word effectual and He called some people out of
there and saved them and planted a church there and kept the gospel
there. The Lord did that through Paul.
Everywhere they went, He did that. He kept preaching the gospel.
In our days, doing the same thing. That's why we won't fail. And
when He finished the work of redeeming us, that's why He's
given the reins now to make this work effectual. You know, we
preach Christ on the cross and it's so important. We don't want
to ever not preach Christ on the cross. I'm going to stand
here and I'm going to try to declare Christ just. In Him God's just and justifier
every time I stand here. That is the gospel. The righteousness
of God. I'm going to tell you something
else. As equally important is Christ's glory in working this
work of sending this gospel and blessing it in the heart of His
people, praying the Father who sends the Spirit, who gives you
life, who forms Christ in you, who makes you to be born again,
that's His glory too. And we don't want to diminish
one because we want to exalt the other. We preach both because
it's all of Christ. It's all of Christ. Other sheep
I have, he told the Jewish folk. Other sheep I have which are
not of this folk, them also I must bring. Why? Because he justified
them. He reconciled them. He redeemed
them. They must be called. And they
shall be called. They shall be called. Look at
Ephesians 2. Ephesians 2.15. Don't you see that it's Christ
that does this work? Ephesians 2.15. He does this
whole work. Every bit of it. having abolished Ephesians 2.15,
having abolished in His flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments
contained in ordinances, that's what He did on the cross. Why?
For to make of Himself of two, one new man, so make in peace.
He has to elect people among the Jews and elect people among
the Gentiles. In order to bring them together as one people,
he had to totally fulfill that old covenant law so that Jews
couldn't use that to distinguish themselves from the Gentiles
anymore. Don't ever use the law of Moses to try to set yourself
above some other sinner. I guarantee you're not, before
God, you're not setting yourself above some other sinner using
the law. You're condemning yourself further. He said in Romans 2,
You that judge others, you do the same thing. You do the same
thing. That's not what the law was giving.
But he says here, He came and fulfilled it. Took it out of
the way. Now we can't use... That law
doesn't distinguish. Race doesn't distinguish. There's
not Jew and Gentile anymore. He made His people one in Him.
That He might make us one. Now look here. and that he might
reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain
the enmity thereby." Now, that's his cross work. Now, here's his
work from his throne in glory through the gospel. And he came
and preached peace to you which were far off and to them which
were nigh. He preached to the Jews and he
preached to the Gentiles. That was Christ preaching at
Pentecost. Peter said, He hath shed forth
this which you now hear and see. And that's Christ preaching through
Paul to the Gentiles and He's preaching to the Gentiles now.
He's preached to them far off and to them that now for through
Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father. See that? That's His Word, both of them.
Now, and those He calls, those He called from among the Jews
and those He's now calling from among us Gentiles, we're brethren. He said there, He's going to
bring all your brethren. He was speaking to the Jews there.
He said He's going to send Zion the Deliverer. And He says, Arise,
your light has come. He's speaking to the Jews, those
He had called. And He said, Now the Gentiles
are going to come flowing to you. And that's what He's doing
through the Gospel. They said, Where did all these
children come from now that these others have been cast off? It
comes from the Lord. He makes His church fruitful.
He brings forth His children. It comes from the Lord. And they're
your brethren. God's our Father. Christ is our elder brother.
We're born of the same Spirit. Taught the same Gospel. Given
the same promises. The church above, the heavenly
Jerusalem, the universal church over all His people is the mother
of us all. because that is where Christ
is sending forth this gospel, out of Mount Zion, out of heavenly
Jerusalem. Zionism, saying that that Zion
over there in Israel is the church and is where we are going to
be drawn to, that is false, brethren. Christ is seated in Zion. He is in Jerusalem. And the temple
is a spiritual temple, and the priesthood is a spiritual priesthood,
and the kingdom And the nation is a spiritual kingdom and nation.
It's a holy nation that He's made holy and righteous. It's
all the work of His hand. He sends this gospel. Now you
take Israel out of it where there was just Abraham before Israel
even was made. Everybody He saved out of Israel
and all the Gentiles He saved out now were all sons of Abraham. We're those sons of Abraham He'd
been talking about where He promised Abraham, I'm going to bring forth
the seed. All the nations are going to be blessed in your seed.
In Christ your seed, I'm going to call out my people out of
all the nations. Galatians 3, 7 says, They which are of faith,
the same are the seed of Abraham. If you be Christ, enter your
Abraham's seed. Heirs according to the promise.
What he's saying is it's not by the law. I wish people could
understand Christ is our rule. He has left us an example that
you should follow His steps. You want to see the law, the
personification of the love of the law, the righteousness of
the law, the holiness of the law, everything the letter was
teaching you, you want to learn it? You want to follow Him, you
want to see where it's fulfilled for you, where you have all righteousness
and all holiness, and you want to see who you're to follow and
how you're to walk in this world? Don't go back to Moses and dig
up Moses' bones. In the law, look to Christ who
fulfilled it. He gave it and He fulfilled it
and He calls you to Him and He says, follow Me. I've given you
that example before. My daddy used to give me this
long list of chores to do around the house when he was gone. And
he'd give me a list so big there's no possible way I could do it.
No way. And that's what the law is. You
can't do it. You can't do it. But when he
came home, he went around and started doing all those chores
I couldn't do. And you know what I did? I followed
Him. I followed Him. I knew where
to go by following Him. I knew what I was supposed to
be doing by following Him, and listening to Him, and hearing
Him. I didn't divide my time between my father and that list.
I didn't turn from my father back to that letter. I followed
Him. And that's what He said. He's
fulfilled that law that you might be sons of God, following God,
trusting God, worshiping God. led of the Spirit of God. Walk
in the Spirit and you will fulfill the lust of the flesh. Christ now, how does He do this
work? He makes His people holy through this Gospel. He makes
us holy. Look here now at Isaiah 66, 20. It is through this Word, through
Christ being formed in you, He makes you to receive the righteousness
that He has accomplished for His people. And He makes you
holy in your heart by His indwelling presence. He does it through
this gospel. Look, verse 20. He says, they shall be brought,
now look there, as an offering unto the Lord out of all nations. As an offering unto the Lord.
He's talking about the people being brought, His people. And
look at the end. As the children of Israel bring
an offering in a clean vessel, a clean vessel, into the house
of the Lord. He is showing you there a picture.
There was these priests that went out and they got the offerings
and they brought them into the house of the Lord in a clean
vessel. Into that physical temple in
a physical vessel and brought it in there and upon that altar
it was offered up to God and it was accepted of God. Everything
about it pictured holiness. being made accepted. It has to
be perfect, God said, to be accepted of God. It doesn't mean you just
give it your best shot and God will receive you. It's got to
be as perfectly holy as God is holy. Only one way that can be
of you and me. That's in Christ, with Christ
in you. That they may be made perfect
in one. Christ said, I in them, thou
Father in me, that they may be made perfect in one. Alright,
look here. It says, it's told us over in
Ephesians 5.25, Christ loved the church and gave himself for
it that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of
water by the word. So he sends this gospel forth.
And this is how he's going to wash his people. This is how
the Spirit's going to apply that blood in your heart and wash
your conscience. And this is how he's going to
make you be born of that incorruptible seed. Christ is going to be formed
in His people. This is how we're going to be
washed and cleansed and made holy. Through this Word. Through
this Word. Look at Romans 15. Romans 15. And He calls us an offering to
the Lord. An offering to the Lord. Isn't
that strange? He calls us an offering to the
Lord. First, His people ourselves are made an offering to the Lord.
A holy offering to the Lord. presented by Christ our High
Priest to the Father, an offering to the Lord. So Paul says, we're
at Romans 15, look at verse 14, Paul says here, at the end of
verse 14, by the grace that is given to me of God, He's made
me that I should be the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles. You see it? Romans 15, I'm sorry,
Romans 15, 14, Romans 15, 15. At the end of Romans 15, verse
15, he says, The grace that is given to me of God, verse 16,
that I should be the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles,
ministering the gospel of God, preaching His glory, that the
offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable, being sanctified
by the Holy Ghost. You see, religion speaks of you
accepting God. of the sinner accepting God.
But the true gospel speaks of God having to make his people
to be accepted by God. It's not God that has sinned
against us, it's we that have sinned against God. So we have
to be made acceptable to God. And Paul says, he made me a minister
to preach this gospel To preach Christ. That's the message. To
preach Christ. To preach Christ. To preach Christ.
Everything's got to be in the context of Christ. Everything.
And He says that through that, He's going to sanctify His people
by the Holy Spirit so that they can be offered up and accepted
of God. Accepted of God. Just like that
offering brought in a clean vessel into the house of the Lord. We
are brought into the house of the Lord, into the true temple, the
spiritual temple, into heavenly Jerusalem, into the presence
of the Lord by Christ our high priest, through this gospel,
sanctified by the Holy Spirit, acceptable to God. And then when
He does this work, look at Romans 12. When He does this work, He
makes you give yourself as an offering to the Lord. Lock, stock,
and barrel. Look here, Romans 12, verse 1.
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God. He doesn't
say, I command you. He doesn't say, I demand of you.
Because that's not grace language. He doesn't threaten them. He
doesn't promise them a biscuit if they do it and a whip if they
don't. He says, I beseech you by the mercies of God. that you
present your bodies a living sacrifice and offering unto the
Lord, holy. How? We just saw how we made
holy. By Christ, by the Holy Spirit, by the sanctification
of the Spirit. That you may be presenting your
bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God. We don't
make ourselves acceptable unto God. He does. That's what Paul
just said. But He does make you present
yourself and say, I'm His now. I'm His. Which is your reasonable
service. Isn't that just reasonable? When
you look at what Christ did for us and continues to do for us,
what is not reasonable in the service of Him? Would you tell
me if there is anything unreasonable? To give yourself been made holy,
been made righteous by Christ, been made accept of God by Christ.
Now, if that doesn't give you a willing heart to give yourself
to Him, nothing will. Because that's the only thing
that does. And it makes His people say, Lord, this is reasonable.
I'm yours. I'm yours. You're not going to
be free to be your own man. You're going to be somebody's
servant. You're going to be the servant of sin unto death or
you're going to be the servant of Christ to righteousness and
eternal life. But you're going to be somebody's
servant. That's right. When you were the servant of
sin, you were free from Christ and free from righteousness.
That's a play on words. You weren't free at all. You
was in bondage. But now that He's made you truly
free, now you're free from sin to serve Him, worship Him. Isn't
that wonderful? To be free, redeemed by Christ.
Alright, now look at this next thing. I'm going to hurry. Christ's
blood, God's grace, His gospel is able to carry all His people
into His house, into His church, no matter how feeble, no matter
how far away, no matter who we are, no matter what our need
is. His grace, His blood, His gospel, His working is able to
get us into His house and bring us into His house no matter what
our problem is, where we are, who we are. Look here at verse
20 again. Isaiah 66, 20. He says this. He says, They are going to be
brought out of all nations on horses, and in chariots, and
in coaches, and upon mules, and upon swift beasts to my holy
mountain Jerusalem, saith the Lord. Now just stand back and
look at that. What are those things? What do
all those things have in common? You come to a scripture like
this, how do you understand it? Well, let's look at it like that.
What do all those things have in common? They're all modes
of transportation. They're all modes of transportation
to carry somebody. What's Paul talking about? What's
the gospel? Isaiah is talking about here. The Lord is talking
about here in the context. He's talking about how His people
are going to be carried into His house. This gospel is the
mode of transportation. God's grace is the mode of transportation. Christ's blood is the mode of
transportation. His effectual power is the mode
of transportation. That's how He's going to bring
us in. And then look at this. These are all various kinds of
transportation. And you know who would ride in
these different kinds of transportation? Various kinds of people. Right? Horses. Horses are strong. Horses are strong. You know who's
going to need a horse? Somebody who's weak. A chariot,
that's for battle. Go into battle. You know who's
going to need a chariot? Somebody who's in the midst of the heat
of battle. They're going to need a chariot. You know what a coach
is for? That's for comfort. You're riding
in style if you're riding in a coach. That's comfortable.
Some people are so feeble and can't stand, they need comfort.
They need much comfort. Then you got mules. A mule is
slow and steady and there is nothing appealing about a mule.
Some people are running in this world, want to be seen, they
want to be praised, they want to be glorified, they are running
fast for this world to get everything. This gospel, God's grace, Christ's
blood, His Spirit is able to slow you down and is able to
make that which is not appealing to this world be appealing to
you. Like an old mule. And then swift beasts get you
there real quick. Some people are lukewarm. Some
people are slow. Some people you couldn't build
a fire under them if you built a real fire under them. But God's
gospel can. He can get you there quickly. He can take you and get you there
quickly. Some people in the later part
of their life don't have a lot of time. This gospel will get
them there quickly. You see everything. He can fight
the battle. He is strong like a horse to
come in and carry you if you are weak. He is a chariot. If
you are in the midst of battle, He can come in and carry you
and fight the battle. He is the captain of our warfare. He is
comfort. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people,
saith your Lord. Tell them their warfare is accomplished.
Mules will slow you down and swift beasts will get you there
quick. This is our gospel. He is abled by His grace and
His gospel. Whoever you are, whatever you
need, wherever you are, whatever kind of person you are, He is
going to bring you. Listen to this, Isaiah 56, 7. Isaiah 56,
7. He says, Even them will I bring. to my holy mountain. That's what
we see here. This mode of transportation,
you're not walking here. You're being carried in all these
modes of transportation. No matter what, we're being carried.
God said, I will bring them into my holy mountain. And He's talking
about in the glory with Him where He is. Watch this. And I'll make
them joyful in my house of prayer. The work's finished. You're not
having to carry the load. Somebody else is carrying you.
And their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted
upon mine altar. All your praise and your worship
and your obedience is accepted in Christ our altar. For mine
house shall be called a house of prayer, praise, worship for
all people." There was all those different kinds of modes of transportation
for all different kinds of people. Not all people. He is not going
to save all people without exception. But He is going to save all kinds
of people. All kinds of people. Alright, now let's look at this. God is going to make His people
a new order of priests. He says there in verse 21, I
will also take of them for priests and for Levites, saith the Lord.
You know what? I'm going to preach this Wednesday.
I think we've reached it. I'm going to rush to preach this
point and the next point. So I'm going to preach it Wednesday,
Lord willing. So we'll have one more. We'll
finish her up, Lord willing, on June 15th. How's that? Alright, let's stand together. Lord, thank you for today. We know that no matter what you
do, it's good, it's right. Like we've seen here in salvation,
you are absolutely sovereign. And Lord, we know that if you're
absolutely sovereign in salvation, then you're absolutely sovereign
in every other thing. Because every other thing is
lesser. Lord, we pray for families of
those that were hurt in this new attack by terrorists. We
pray for your church there in Orlando, for our brethren there,
that you keep them and bless them and protect them. Lord, we pray that you would
do as You've promised, that You would glorify Your name in it
as You bring good to Your people. We know all things do work together
for good because You work them together. You work them for those
that love You according to Your purpose. Lord, we trust that
You can do that even with that which is tragic and appears so
evil. Lord, we pray that You would
bless this word now This is how you're going to save and preserve.
Lord, bless the gospel. Bless it now. Bless it as you've
promised to do, Lord. You said you would, and you said,
I'll be inquired of for this. And Lord, we are asking you,
according to your mercy, according to your grace, according to your
word, we ask you, Lord, bless this word. We pray Christ our
head would come forth and rule and govern in the midst of His
people right now in our hearts. Set this sign in our heart. Show
us your glory. Make us follow you. Lord, forgive
us our sins. Forgive us for doubting. Forgive
us for murmuring. Forgive us for complaining and
thinking that somehow something is left in our hand. There's
a work for us to do. Make us earthen vessels. Make
us puppets. held by You, moved by You, controlled
by You, work in us Your will and Your good pleasure, Lord.
We have no strength but Your strength. We are able to do nothing
but what You make come to pass. Lord, make us know that and make
us willing to run, make us willing to preach, make us willing to
give and spend and be spent for this gospel, knowing that we
shall not fail because You are the sovereign Savior. Lord, thank
you. We ask now that you'd forgive
us and keep us as we go forward. In Christ's name, amen. All right,
brethren, we'll sing a closing