It may be one of those mornings
where our first message runs a little longer and our second
message runs a little shorter. But I think this would be the
best order to preach these two messages in. They complement
each other. And I think the first message
would be best to hear first. Our subject is the church's travail,
the church's labor. Our text is Isaiah 66, verses
7 through 9. Now, as we read this, I want
you to notice that the church is spoken of as a woman giving
birth. But now, first she's spoken of
as a woman before she travails. And then, she's spoken of as
a woman who has already travailed, as soon as she travails. Now
this is the church's travail, verse 7. Before she travailed,
she brought forth. Before her pain came, she was
delivered of a man-child. Who hath heard such a thing?
Who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring
forth in one day? Or shall a nation be born at
once? For as soon as Zion travailed, she brought
forth her children. Shall I bring to the birth, and
not cause to bring forth or to be born? saith the Lord. Shall I cause to bring forth,
to be born, and then shut the womb? saith thy God. Now Zion here is the church of
God. The analogy is of the church
as a pregnant woman. The church as a pregnant woman.
Before Zion travailed, she delivered a man-child. And then as soon
as she travails, she brings forth her children. Now this man-child
is Christ, and it's all God's elect in Christ. It's Christ
and all his elect in Christ born at once, before as yet the church
labored or travailed whatsoever. And then the children that are
born after she travailed, these are God's elect personally born
again as soon as the church travails. Now here's what God's teaching
us here. God declares He shall save His children by grace apart
from our works. By grace apart from our works.
And He will use the church and He shall lose none. By grace
apart from works. using his church, and he shall
save none." And that's our three points. First, we see salvation
by grace. Secondly, we'll see the means
of grace. And thirdly, we'll see the certainty
of grace. First, we're told that salvation
of every elect child of God is by grace, by God's grace. Before she travailed, she brought
forth. Before her pain came, she was
delivered of a man-child. Who hath heard of such a thing?
Who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring
forth in one day? Or shall a nation be born at
once? God's declaring here that salvation
is altogether beginning to end by His grace, apart from any
work done by any sinner whatsoever. Salvation is all of grace, and
it's all accomplished by Christ. It's all accomplished by Christ.
Before the church prevailed, She brought forth. She gave birth.
And all her children were born. He shows here salvation to be
by grace by comparing the birth of His people to a woman having
a child before she ever goes into labor pain. Before she ever
had any labor whatsoever. Who hath heard such a thing?
Who hath seen such things? No one ever heard of a woman
bringing forth children before as yet she labored, before she
had a single pain whatsoever. And He shows us this is a miracle
of grace. God's grace is a miracle. What
He does in saving His people is a miracle. And He shows it
by saying, shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day?
What if a farmer went out, planted a seed, planted his garden, and
by the end of the day, It was grown up and there it was in
full bloom and it was ready to be harvested. Everything was
done. You say, that's a miracle. God did that. That's a miracle. And then he shows here that God's
salvation is amazing grace. It's a miracle of grace and it's
amazing. Shall a nation be born at once?
What if every citizen in a nation was born just in one day, all
at once. You'd say, that's amazing. Well,
that's the case with God's salvation. It is all by grace, it's all
a miracle of God's grace, and it's amazing grace. Everything
God does. In one day, Christ Jesus put
away all the sin of all God's elect. He did it all by Himself. He tread the winepress alone.
He did it all by Himself. There was none to help. There
was none that even gave a hand. He was all alone. And that's
what God prophesied. He said through Zachariah in
Zachariah 3.9, He said, I will remove the iniquity of that land
in one day. I'll do it in one day. One day on the cross, God took
away the iniquity. of all His people, of all His
people. Not one member of Christ's church
travailed. We didn't labor. We did no work
for that to happen. We didn't labor for ourselves
and we didn't labor for anybody else for that to happen. God
did it all. He came forth, He knew who He would save, He chose
them and gave them to Christ. Christ came forth, the Son of
God, made of a woman, made under the law to redeem them that were
under the law, and He redeemed every one of them in one day.
He said, it is finished. But He's travailed. We didn't
travail. We did nothing to travail, but He travailed. Oh, He travailed. Look at Isaiah 53. Mark it. I want to show you something
else here in a minute. Isaiah 53. Put your mark there. Verse 10 says, It pleased the
Lord to bruise him. It satisfied the Lord. It made
satisfaction to divine justice to bruise the Lord. To bruise
the Lord in the place of His people. He hath put Him to grief. Everything that transpired on
the cross was God's work. God doing the labor. He did it.
And when thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin, He
shall see His seed He shall prolong days, and the pleasure of the
Lord shall prosper in His hand." That means He finished it. God's
pleasure was that His justice be upheld, His righteousness
be manifested, that He's just and He's the justifier of His
people, and that all His people be justified from all our sins,
made the righteousness of God in Christ. That was God's pleasure.
And it was accomplished in Christ's hand. Now look at what it says.
shall see of the travail of his soul. He did travail. Christ travailed. He labored.
He shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied
by His knowledge. Christ is the wisdom of God.
And the first thing He's going to make you understand, by His
knowledge, by His wisdom. He justified, His righteous servant
justified many, for He bore our iniquities. He did it. And then,
that broken seed. You know, when a seed goes in
the ground, that seed's got to be broken before it can bring
forth a vine, before it can bring forth life. Christ gave Himself
to be broken, and that broken seed was put in the ground. And
in one day, that broken seed arose from the earth. The earth
brought forth in one day, and Christ arose. And when Christ
came forth in resurrection glory, all God's seed, all the children
of God came forth in one day in Christ. And when Christ arose,
God's entire holy nation arose in Him. That was our birthday. That was the day every chosen
child of God was born, was the day Christ came out of the grave.
Turn to Ephesians chapter 2. This was all done before you
and I had... We didn't do a thing. We didn't
do a thing. We were dead. We didn't have
a clue. Ephesians 2 verse 4. Ephesians 2 verse 4, But God,
who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved
us, even when we were dead in sin. We didn't love God. We didn't choose God. We didn't
decide for God. He loved us. He chose His people. He did the work for His people.
Even when we were dead in sins, He quickened us together with
Christ. By grace. That's what we're seeing
here. This is all by grace. By grace, are you saying? This
was done before you were born physically. This was done before
I was born physically. This was done when Christ came
out of the grave. He quickened us together with
Christ. And He raised us up together
with Christ. And He made us sit together in
heavenly places in Christ Jesus. You see what we're saying here?
This was done when Christ arose, His people arose. When Christ
sat down, His people sat down. When He was quickened, we were
quickened. When He arose, we arose. When He sat down, we sat
down. The works were finished before yet you and I ever knew
anything about the works. In Christ we were saved by His
works, by God's grace, raised, justified, born in Him that day. Now, am I sure that's what this
text is teaching us? Am I sure that when He says,
before as yet she travailed, she brought forth a man-child?
All her children were in that man-child and all her children
were born in one day. Are we sure that's what that's
saying? Go back to Isaiah. Remember in Isaiah 53, that whole
chapter is about Christ travailing. It's about Christ doing the work. It's about Christ laying down
His life for His people. It's about how Christ finished
that work with His stripes were healed. He came out of that grave
and all His children were born when He came out of that grave
and sat down. Now look how Isaiah 54 begins. Sing, O barren, thou that didst
not bear. Break forth into singing and
cry aloud, Thou that didst not travail with child, for more
are the children of the desolate than the children of the married
wife, saith the Lord." That wife that appeared married was the
old church, if you can say it that way, through the old covenant. She didn't bring forth near as
many children as that desolate wife, that true wife. that appeared like she was left
alone because Christ died, rose again. It appeared like she was
desolate, left alone. She got many more children. That's
when her children were born. See what he's saying? Now, are
you glad salvation is by grace? Are you? Are you glad? Does it
make you rejoice to know salvation is by God's grace? I'll tell
you what, if you know anything at all about what you are, about the sin you are, and about
the God whom you must face, it'll be the most glorious good news
you ever heard. That's why it's called gospel. It's the good news. It's the
glad tiding. The only reason a man doesn't
rejoice in free, sovereign grace, grace beginning to end, is because
he thinks he's somebody. He doesn't think he's all that
bad. Oh, it's going to be a sad day when you wake up and find
out it's that bad. But those that know what they
are, they rejoice. Listen to this. If through the
offense of one many be dead, much more, the grace of God and
the gift by grace by one man, Jesus Christ, has abounded. unto
many. It's by grace that it might be
sure. It's by grace through faith that the promise might be sure
and certain. Now, let's talk about the means of grace. The
means of grace. Now, he shows us next that he
will use the church as the means through which he's going to spread
this good news of Christ's finished redemption and give his children
life personally. We have to be born personally.
Now look at verse 8. The last phrase in verse 8, As
soon, for as soon as Zion travailed. Now here she's labored. Here
she travails. As soon as Zion travailed, she
brought forth her children. Zion's the church. It's those
gods already called out and regenerated by His grace. Christ came and
He assembled His apostles. And He called out some people
when He walked this earth. That was the beginning. That
was the beginning And those, he started using them, and he's
used his church all through the ages. Zion, the church, is Christ's
bride. It's Christ's bride. A woman is going to marry a husband.
She learns how to be a bride by looking at the church. The
church is Christ's bride. She's the mother. She's the mother
of his children. And we look at the church to
see how the church doesn't tell Christ what to do. The church
submits to Christ in everything. That's how a wife learns how
to be a wife. She submits to Him in everything.
Just like the husband learns to be a husband by looking at
how Christ gave Himself for the church. Christ gets all the preeminence
in marriage. So the church here, she's the
woman, she's the mother of all Christ's children. Now, each
elect child is born the first time of a man and a woman. Every
elect child that comes into this earth the first time was born
of a man and a woman. Each elect child is going to
be born again by Christ the husband, through Zion the woman, through
His church. You see, God made a man and a
woman, this thing of marriage, He made that to picture Christ
and His church in every way. So for this birth to take place,
there's going to be a man, Christ the husband, and a woman, His
church, His bride. Now that's not earthly Jerusalem.
That's not earthly Zion. Jerusalem which is above is free,
which is the mother of us all. And then each elect child is
born the first time by corrupt seed. You were generated, natural
generation by corrupt seed. Well, every elect child is going
to be born again, born a second time, born anew, in the new birth
by a supernatural regeneration by Christ, by the Holy Spirit,
by the incorruptible seed. Christ said in John 3, He said
in John 3, 3, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man
be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. He's got
to be born again. He said in verse 5, Verily, verily,
I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit,
he cannot enter the kingdom of God. He's got to be born of the
Word, he's washed in the Word, he's got to be born of the Spirit,
or he can't see the kingdom of God, he can't enter. He said
in verse 7, Marvel not that I said unto thee, you must be born again.
He just keeps saying it, you must be born again, you must
be born again, you must be born again. Nicodemus said, what,
am I supposed to crawl into my mother's womb and be born a second
time? Smart aleck. Christ said, don't
marvel. He said, you must be born again. And the wind blows where it listeth,
and you hear the sound of it, but you can't tell whence it
comes and where it goes. So is everyone that's born of
the Spirit. You can't make the wind blow. You can't make it
stop. You can't resist it. You can't
tell where it's going. That's the Holy Spirit of God.
And He's going to save when it pleases God. He's going to make
us be born again. And Nicodemus, he didn't understand
this. And let me read this. I want
to show you this. I just saw this this morning.
John 3. We're talking about our labor
here. Our travail. Listen to what I'm talking about
this miracle of grace. And the Lord said, Nicodemus answered him in verse
9 and said, How can these things be? Isn't that what our text
said? Who ever heard of such things?
Who ever heard of such things? Jesus answered and said unto
him, Art thou a master in Israel and you don't know these things?
You're instructing sinners and you don't know this? You hear
a man stand up and say, let me tell you how you, what you can
do to be born again. That man's got no business preaching,
because he don't know these things. He don't know them. Listen to
what he said. Verily, verily, I say unto thee,
we speak that we do know. We preach what we know. We testify
what we've seen. There's our labor. That's how
we travail. We preach what we've seen. We
testify what we've seen. You receive not our witness.
Now, over in 1 Peter 1, I said to you, you've got to be born
of the Spirit of God. You've got to be born of incorruptible seed. Look at 1 Peter 1, verse 21.
He spoke of Christ who was that Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world, but was manifested in these last times for you.
And it says in verse 21, who by Him do believe in God. See, we're going to be born of
Christ. We're born of Christ, the husband. Look down at verse
23. Being born again, not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible. A nature that can't be corrupted
because it's from seed that can't be corrupted. It's a holy nature. It's a pure nature. Being a partaker
of the divine nature. Being born of incorruptible seed
of Christ by the Word of God. which liveth and abideth forever."
Look down at verse 25 at the end. And this is the word which
by the gospel is preached unto you. Now we come into our travail. Here's our part. Here's how he's
going to use his church. Every elect child of God was
born the first time through the travail of their mother to some
degree or another. Every elect child was born a
first time through the travail, the labor, the pain of your mother
in some degree or another. Some degree or another. Well,
every elect child is going to be born again through the travail
and through the labor of Zion, the church of Christ's bride.
As soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children. In
the garden, God told Eve, remember when sin entered in, God told
Eve in the garden, you're going to have much travail in childbirth. Why did God make it so that a
woman has much pain in labor when she's giving birth to children?
Why did He do that? Did He just do it to make you
suffer? God does everything to glorify
Christ. He's showing by your travail
in childbirth how his bride is going to travail to bring forth
his children, his spiritual children. It's going to be pain, it's going
to be travail. What is this travail? What's this labor? Well, it's
the labor of her preachers. It's the labor of all her born-again
children. It's already a symbol that makes
up this bride, this mother. We travail in prayer to God for
His people. We travail in preaching. We travail
in spreading the gospel throughout all the world and all the labor
that's involved in that. We travail in the rejection of
sinners because the natural mind's enmity against God. Paul said, though you have 10,000
instructors in Christ, you've got a lot of folks who want to
be preachers. You've got a lot of people who want praise from
men stand and be glorified by men, but you don't have many
fathers. Paul, you didn't call yourself a father. He did. You have not many fathers. You
know why he called himself that? A father loves his children. A father cares for his children.
A father is in pain for his children. You have not many fathers, for
in Christ Jesus I've forgotten you through the gospel. Paul,
you didn't begot them. You know you didn't have any
power. He knew that. You know that. But he was used
of God. And through him, Christ made
them to be born again. And you know, you say, well,
there's no travail. We don't travail. If you don't
have a heart of travail, You're not being used of God. If you
don't have a heart prevailing for sinners to be saved, you're
not being used of God. Listen to this. Mr. Spurgeon
said on this, I put it in the bulletin, on this passage, as
soon as Zion prevailed, she brought forth her children. He said,
if any minister, and this includes all the witnesses, we're all
witnesses of Christ, His whole church, preachers and everybody.
He says, if any minister can be satisfied without conversions,
he shall have no conversions. God will not force usefulness
on any man. It's only when our heart breaks
to see men saved that we will likely to see sinners' hearts
broken. What did Paul say when he had
preached the gospel and God had saved a multitude at Galatia? And here comes these men and
they're preaching free will works religion, telling them, you've
got to be circumcised, you've got to go back to the law of
Sinai now and keep the law or you can't be saved. Paul said,
my little children, my little children, those born
again through the gospel he preached, my little children, of whom I
traveled in birth. I'm in pain like a woman having
a child till Christ be formed in you again." He was in pain. He suffered.
He had a heart for sinners. Listen to this. I say the truth
in Christ. I lie not, Paul said. My conscience
bears witness, me witnessing the Holy Ghost that I have a
great heaviness. I have a continual sorrow in
my heart, for I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ
for my brethren." Let me tell you something, that is travailing
for your brethren. I could wish myself accursed
from Christ if it meant they'd be saved. That ought not be a
strange saying. That's what Christ did for us.
Christ came and made a curse for us that we might be saved.
And Paul said, I'd be willing to lay down my life for them.
That's the only kind of man God's going to use. If it's all about
me and mine, what can I get? What can I gain? How can I do?
God's not using that man. Brethren, my heart's desire and
my prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. So
our text declares salvation is entirely by God's grace alone.
Entirely. Our works are not going to contribute
to make us righteous and holy and redeemed and accepted of
God one bit whatsoever. And our text also declares that
when God saves His people, He's going to unite us together and
He's going to bring His children to this new birth through His
gospel, through our labor and our travail. Now understand,
we're not as vain religion. They ain't religion. I was on
a sales call one time and I was in a man's house and I could
tell something was bothering him. He really wasn't listening
to anything I said. Because he was thinking about
what he was about to say. And he got more nervous the more
he thought about it. And finally he just broke forth
and he... Let me tell you about Christ.
What do you know about the Lord Jesus Christ? And he didn't want
to. I felt so sorry for him. He didn't
want to be talking. He was so embarrassed. And he
didn't know anything. He didn't know what he was talking
about. He just was doing what somebody had told him he had
to do. He was trying to bear witness. And he didn't even know
what he was talking about. He really didn't. We're not like
that. The Lord said of the Pharisees
and the scribes, He said, Woe unto you. He said, You cop a
sea and land to make one proselyte. All you want to do is make Pharisees. We're not trying to make Baptists.
We're not. We're not trying to make people
members of Sovereign Grace Baptist Church. That's not what we're
trying to do. We want Christ to be glorified. We want Christ
to be honored. in the salvation of all His redeemed
children. We want to see all God's elect
brought to faith in Christ and rest in Christ. That's what we're
looking for. And so we preach Christ and Him
crucified. We tell sinners the truth about
God. And we're not like those that
are making prostitutes. That's what vain religion does.
It's all about, let's see if we can build a church, let's
see if we can get more in the pew and, you know, numbers. But
God does use His church. And God will have us laboring
for His people. Now let us ask ourselves this
question. Do I have a heart that yearns to see God's people saved? And am I laboring? Am I travailing
to do what God's given me to do? to see sinners saved. Emma? To see the gospel preached
in truth. Emma? And if I'm not, why am
I not doing it? He said, as soon as Zion travailed,
she brought forth her children. There's never been a child brought
forth without some labor pain. At Pentecost, there was all his
little number that he had assembled, there they were in that upper
room, travailing, praying, asking God to come and bless them and
do what He promised to do, waiting on Him. And He poured out the
Holy Spirit and gave them the ability to preach in languages
they had never even learned before. And they stood up, preached the
Gospel, and He saved 3,000 that day. What came first? They travailed. And then there
was a birth by Christ's grace. Later on, Peter was arrested. Remember that? He was beaten.
And they told him, don't preach in his name anymore. And they
let him go. And he left rejoicing that he
suffered for Christ's sake. He labored. He was in pain for
Christ's sake. And he went, told the church
what had happened, and they prayed, and the Holy Spirit was poured
out, and God saved 5,000 more after that. Paul labored. He went to Corinth
and he labored, physically labored in pain, building tents and supporting
himself and preaching the gospel and enduring a contradiction
of sinners against himself and being a man of sorrows, likened
to his Savior. And after he labored a while,
what happened? Christ brought forth some children. There's
going to be some labor. There's going to be some pain
involved. A preacher of the gospel, and this is true of all his children,
our Savior is a man of sorrows acquainted with grief. That's
who He is. Rejected of men, despised of
men. You're going to be that too.
He said, is the servant greater than his Lord? If they've rejected
me and despised me, they're going to despise you. You're going
to bear some of that too. And He's going to have you bear
some of it to see what He bore. That's right. Now, let me move
on here. Why does he do that? Why does
he do that? This is going to be our second
message, but let me just hint on it right now. God's so wise
to do it this way. He's so wise to do it this way.
By this, He makes us see the importance of the preaching of
the gospel of Christ. You see the importance of it.
for ourselves, for our children, and for all His people. We see
the importance of the Gospel. If you hadn't been saved through
the preaching of the Gospel, you don't know what I'm talking
about. You can take it or leave it. But if you've been saved
through the Gospel, you know the importance of the preaching
of the Gospel of Christ. And that's why He does it. You
know, when a man and a woman have a child, why is it important
to have a husband and a wife in a home? It teaches that children
how valuable that husband and that wife are. That's what I'm
talking about. This teaches you the value of
having Christ as our husband and His church as His bride,
that we might have this gospel preached to us. And by this,
He unites us. He cements us together in a common
cause. We have one charge, that's to
preach the gospel. And He's united our hearts for
that common cause. Is everybody preachers? No. Can
everybody bear witness? No. Some people are painfully
shy. They couldn't walk up to anybody
and speak of Christ at all. But they can transcribe what
other people have written. They can transcribe what other
people have said about Him and put it on the Internet. That's
just as much bearing witness of Christ as preaching Christ.
Or maybe they've been given the gift to be able to be successful
in business, and the Lord's enriched them in temporal riches, and
He's given them a heart to give of that to support the church.
That's labor and travail for the church, for His children. Or some maybe, maybe all some
can do is just show up and feed upon the gospel. That's as much
a bearing witness of Christ as the man who's preaching the gospel.
You know what he said? Don't forsake the assembling
of yourselves as the manner of some is, but exhort one another
the more. How? You know what it does when
you show up? It exhorts me. It tells me the
importance of assembling at the feet of Christ. And you know
what happens when you don't show up? It really disturbs me. It breaks my heart. It makes
me unsettled. What if one day, you know, you
were the only one that showed up? What if all at once everybody,
including the preacher, said, it's not going to hurt today
if I don't show up. And everybody had that same thought
and you were the only one that showed up. Oh, you'd be rejoicing,
wouldn't you? No, your heart would be broke.
What happens? That's how it is when one's not
there. Don't think little of it. Man can't be used to preach
the gospel if he thinks little. If you can't exhort people with
his attendance at the ministry of the gospel, how's he going
to exhort them from the pulpit? And by this he gives us a love
for those who minister to us and to those that he saves through
us. I remember when the Lord first gave me a heart to believe,
I can remember, I began to see how much the church had prevailed
to have a preacher and to have a building and to pay all the
bills and to do everything necessary that I might have the gospel.
I saw how other churches had labored to put out tapes. Those brethren that, through
Brother Henry, that sent those tapes out around the country,
I'm so thankful to them. I'm indebted to them. I heard
the gospel through those messages. And you began to love them more
and more and more for what they did for you. And then when He
uses you to save others, don't you love these children that
have gotten through the gospel? You don't want to see anything
happen to them. They're like my children. You that God has
saved through this ministry, you're like my children to me.
I'm serious about it. See, He's so wise to do this.
Now let me show you this lastly. And I'll be very brief here.
I'll give you something to read. Go home tonight and read 1 Thessalonians
2 verses 1-8. You'll see Paul's desire and
love for those children. That's a good passage to read.
Let me lastly though, let me get to this now. We see the certainty
of God's grace. The certainty of it. God asked
two rhetorical questions. They don't need to be answered.
They answer themselves. Now watch this. Verse 9, Shall
I bring to the birth, shall I bring you to travail, and not cause
to bring forth, saith the Lord? Shall I cause to bring forth,
shall I cause to be born again, and then shut the womb, saith
thy God? Now, this right here is our encouragement
for travailing, right here. This is it. This is what keeps
us from boasting. This is what keeps us from glorying
in us. This is what keeps us looking to the Lord, right here,
and makes us be encouraged to minister and labor in the cause
of the gospel, right here. We can't fail. No possible way. Watch this. Shall I bring to
the birth and not cause to bring forth? He's saying, shall I bring
my church into travail and to labor and not cause my lost children
to be born again? You know what he's saying? He's
going to use his people. And though he's using his people,
we can't boast at all because when we travail and when we labor,
when you have a heart to do anything for the cause of Christ, It did
not come of you. He said, I caused you to travail. Shall I cause you to travail? Shall I cause to be brought to
these labor pains? Every door that's open, God opens
it. Every prayer, God puts it in our heart. Every word preached
and witnessed, God gave it. Every bill that's been paid,
God provided. Everything. He said, I'm causing
this labor to come forth. See, we can't boast in the labor.
Not at all. Everything about our travails
of God. And likewise, the birth of these children is all of God.
He says, I'll cause you to labor and I'll cause those children
to be born again. Shall I not do it, He said? Of
course He will. And then be sure to get this
second question. He says, shall I cause to bearing forth and
then shut the womb, saith thou God? God's saying to you, I'm
not going to save just one elect child, and then stop my bride
from bringing forth children. He's saying, I'm going to bring
forth this lost elect child that I've redeemed, and I'm going
to bring forth that one, and I'm going to bring forth that
one, and I'm going to keep using my bride to bring forth my children
until I've called every single solitary one of them to faith
in Christ. I'm not going to lose one of
them. I'm not going to lose one of them. But that's our confidence,
the certainty of grace. Now what we've seen here is salvation
is all of grace. Before we labored at all, God
saved us all. He saved all His elect people
before we did one thing, by Christ's finished work. He showed us here
the means of grace. He's going to use His bride,
the woman to bring forth his children. He's going to use us.
That's the only reason we're still here on this earth, brethren,
is to preach his gospel for the salvation of his people, for
his glory. And then thirdly, he shows us
this grace is sure and certain because I'm the one causing my
people to labor, I'm the one making those children be born
again, and I'm not going to stop till all my house is full. My
quiver's going to be full, he's saying. My quiver's going to
be full. They're mine. and I'm going to
have them all. Now, I pray God will use that,
brethren, to put a burden on your heart and on my heart to
truly, truly travail in prayer, in the support of this gospel,
in preaching this gospel, in bearing witness to this gospel,
whatever God has put in your hand to do. What's God put in
my hand to do? Where are you right now? What
is it that you... Well, all I do is I go to a job Occasionally
I can talk to people at work about Christ. Every now and then
you come across somebody that has an interest, don't you? Who
opened that door? He did it. Well, and then I come
to the service and I support the gospel, but I just don't
feel like I'm doing very much. If you're doing what God's given
you to do, He said that's all He's required of you. He's not
required of you to do what He hadn't given you to do. Just
what you can. She's done what she could, He
said. You see, that's wherever He put me. He put me here to
preach to you. That's what I'm supposed to be doing. So whatever He's given you to
do, travail, labor for it. Pray for me. I'm so, oh, I'm
a wretched sinner. I struggle. It's like a dishrag
being wrung out from week to week. I need you to pray for
me. And I want you to pray for Christ
to bless it. I want to see sinners saved and
kept. And I want to see Him get all
the glory in it. Labor for that. Alright. Let's stand together, brethren. Father, we thank you. We thank
you that you show us these pictures. You make things so simple for
us feeble-minded children that we can understand. that this
thing is sure and certain. It's all by Your hand and Your
power. Lord, take these earthen vessels
who are nothing and manifest Your glory and Your power through
us. Show the world. Show Your people and show Your
enemies, Lord. that you are the ruling, reigning,
supreme God of heaven and earth. You will do as you please and
you will save all your people by grace and you will not lose
one. Lord, how you can magnify that using sinners that are just
unable to even hold a single thought. And yet you use us to
preach this word and bring this message forth and save your people. That's a testimony to your grace,
God. Thank you. We thank you for that.
Forgive us, Lord, for not being more zealous for your honor and
your glory, for the salvation of your people. Make us so. We
ask it in God's glorious name, Christ Jesus the Lord. Amen.