Brethren, let's turn to Isaiah
chapter 63. We have a lot of trouble going
on in the world right now. And you have something happen
like that Paris attack. A lot of times the attention
is turned to things like that, and messages are preached on
things like that. You know, in Isaiah's day, Isaiah
was preaching to a people who were overrun by an enemy nation,
Babylon. And he was in the midst of this,
in the midst of this overthrow, and all the troubles and trials
they were facing, and yet when he heard that message, of that great conquering king,
that warrior coming from Edom with his garments dyed red who
said, I have trodden down mine enemies in mine anger. And he
heard that message about the free redemption that Christ accomplished
for His people. He said this, verse 7, I will
mention The loving kindnesses of the Lord and the praises of
the Lord. That was his message. The loving
kindnesses of the Lord. God said, I've set watchmen on
your walls, Jerusalem, and they won't hold their peace. And he
said, I've sent them there to make mention. To make mention
of who? Ye that make mention of the Lord,
He said. They're remembrancers sent to
put you in remembrance of the Lord God, He said. That's what
His preachers are. And so Isaiah says here, I will
make mention, I will mention the loving kindness of the Lord
and the praises of the Lord. Verse 7, According to all that
the Lord hath bestowed on us, and the great goodness toward
the house of Israel which he bestowed on them." He said all
that God does on this earth, whether it looks to you and me
like it's good or it looks to you and me like it's bad. He says it's for God to elect
the house of Israel. And he said whether He gives
to us or He takes from us, all includes all. And he says, all
that God bestows upon us is His loving kindnesses toward us. Nothing God does is small. He
says, it's all His great goodness. His great goodness. Verse 7,
according to His mercies, There's no way we earn these things.
There's no way His people earn any of His lovingkindnesses and
His great goodness. It's all according to His mercies. Verse 7, And according to the
multitude of His lovingkindnesses. Oh, this is not just a little
bit of lovingkindnesses. This is a multitude of lovingkindnesses. You can go outside when you've
got a field somewhere and you can see from sky to sky, from
horizon to horizon on a clear night and you look up in the
sky and it's just jam-packed full of stars. And you'd sooner
count all those stars as being able to count the multitude of
the loving kindnesses of God. Multitude. So no matter what
the evils are occurring in this world and no matter what's going
on in this world, The Lord's people want to hear God's messenger
mention the Lord. The loving-kindnesses of the
Lord. That's our subject today. Now,
what is the loving-kindnesses of the Lord? Well, the loving-kindnesses
of God are God's acts of mercy toward His people. God's acts
of mercy toward His people. Now, the Holy Spirit moves Isaiah
here to give seven things, seven loving-kindnesses. And I want
to not be able to speak long on each one because that's a
lot, but we're going to look at each one of them and just
briefly touch on these. And I won't have you look at
a lot of Scripture, but I do want you to see some. First of
all, the first loving-kindness of God is God's sovereign distinguishing
election. He says, verse 8, he said, surely
they are my people. Now this was in answer to when
he said, I'm going to mention the loving kindnesses of the
Lord. And he starts with saying, because he said, surely they
are my people. Now God's election of grace separated
His true, chosen, spiritual Israel from all other people on the
face of this earth. The same way that he took that
political nation Israel and separated them out from everybody in the
earth. There was lots of other nations
then. There was lots of other people on the earth then. Egypt
was a great country. It was a powerful nation. He said, I'm going to choose
Israel. And he set them out. He set them
apart. That's what God did for His true elect people. Even right
there in Israel, that political Israel, they were not all His
people, but there was an elect people right there in that Isaiah's
one. He's telling the truth. He's
one of God's elect people. He was right there in the midst
of a whole bunch of people, just like it is in our day. You had
everybody saying they were God's people, all of them saying they
were God's people, all of them saying they were in agreement,
but some were worshipping over here under this grove, and some
was over here in that grove, and some was on the mountain,
and some was in God's true temple. But there was His true people
that were truly worshipping Him. That was His elect. Now, He said,
surely they're My people. He chose us, and when He chose
us, He bound Himself to us. He bound Himself to us. He bound
His glory and His honor of His holy name to saving this people. Now, turn over to 2 Thessalonians.
Some of you here are very familiar with this passage, but I want
our young people to see it. I want those that maybe have
never read it to look at it. 2 Thessalonians 2. And look here, and I want you
to read this verse right here. Verse 11, For this cause God
shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie,
that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but
had pleasure in unrighteousness. Whenever God sends strong delusion,
it's always judged. He did it because they would
not believe. I was talking to a man yesterday, a friend of
mine, and he said, sometimes I just think, you know, he had
family members that don't believe. And he said, sometimes I wonder,
you know, why did you, why do you do this? And I said, that's
not the question to ask. The question to ask is, why do
we do this? There's nothing keeping us from
God. There's nothing barring these
people from believing or anybody from believing the gospel. The
fact is we won't believe it. We hate God. We won't believe
God unless God chose us and had mercy on us. That's the only
way we believe. So it's not God's fault if somebody doesn't believe.
The question is why would sinners hate God and rebel against God
like we do? You see, when He sends reprobation,
it's just. It's because you would not believe.
But His election is free, sovereign election. Now look at this. But, verse 13, we're bound. He bound Himself to us and He
says, now we're bound. We're bound to give thanks all
the way to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because
God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the Spirit and belief of the truth. That's why we believe. He says, whereunto He called
you by our Gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus
Christ. You see there, that's because
it's His loving kindness. He chose us. And He chose us
to sanctify us and to bring us to the belief of the truth. And
He called us there unto the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ by the
Gospel. He said this, "...the Lord hath appeared of old unto
me, saying, I have loved thee with an everlasting love." We're
talking about the loving-kindnesses of God. And He said, I've loved
thee with an everlasting love. Therefore, in loving-kindness,
I've drawn you. I've drawn you. You see, there's
nothing stopping a sinner from coming to Christ but the sinner. We won't come to Him. But if
you do come to Him, It's all to the praise and glory of God's
grace, because He drew you. He chose you and He drew you
to Christ. So that's what He did to us. He chose us before
this world was. The effect and result of that
is He called us. That's why He called us, because
He chose us. Now secondly, look at this. He said, first of all,
they're my people. They're my people. Now look at
this second loving kindness. He makes His people truthful
and honest. He does that. Look at this. He
said, surely they are my people, children that will not lie, so
that... And the word there is, in this
manner, He was their Savior. He said, they're my people, they're
children that won't lie, so that He was their Savior. This is
not Him looking and saying, well, that people won't lie to me,
so they're going to be my people. No, this is all the grace and
mercy of God, the loving kindness of God working in His people
as our Savior whereby He makes us truthful. He makes us truthful. Now to show you and me that He
does this work in us, when He called Israel, that was a covenant
of works. And so when He called Israel,
for the majority of the Israelites, He didn't give them a new heart.
He didn't work in their heart and create them anew and give
them a new spirit. He called them and He gave them
all His oracles All of his gifts, he said, these are children that
will not lie. He gave them all his oracles, his law, his revelation
of his will and everything. All the scriptures, the scriptures
they had at that time, the prophets, what have you. He gave that to
them. And this is what they said. When
he gave them the commandments, they said, all that the Lord
said we will do and we'll be obedient. You think they're children
that will not lie? Without the Spirit of God working
in them, without God doing anything for them, you think the children
will not lie? Scripture says, nevertheless,
they did flatter him with their mouth, and they lied unto him
with their tongues. So he showed us using natural
Israel, he showed us using natural born sinners. That unless he
works the work of grace, all we are in our flesh is liars. All we will do is lie. And we'll
lie about God and His salvation and how He saves sinners. That's
the chief lie that we are. But God sent forth His only begotten
Son. He said so that He was their
Savior. He sent forth His only begotten
Son. And this is what the Scripture
says about Him. This is the God-man, this is the Son of God, and He
took human nature, He took a human body. And the Scripture says
of Him, He did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth. You know where the mouth speaks
from the heart, he said. Out of the abundance of the heart,
the mouth speaks. He had no guile in his mouth.
Guile means deception, fraud, deceit, lies. He had no guile
in his mouth because there was no guile in his heart. Because
he's holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners. So that
he was fit to go to the cross and the scripture says, Peter
said, who bear our sins in his own body on the tree, And He
said that we now, by what He did, being dead to sins, should
live unto righteousness by whose stripes you're healed. That righteousness
we're living unto is Him by whose stripes we're healed. And it's
not a should as if it'd be a good idea if you did it. It's a should
as if shall. He shall make you live unto Christ. And when the Holy Spirit enters
in us, that's the Spirit of Christ entering in you. This One who
came and redeemed His people, who perfected the Law, who perfected
His people forever, who put away the sin of His people, who brought
in an everlasting righteousness for His people, He did that for
His people before the Law of God, making us the righteousness
of God in Him. And then He comes, and when the
Spirit of Christ enters into us, that's the Spirit of God.
That's the Holy Spirit of God. Anything God ever made in the
first creation that He didn't look at and say, that's good.
Anything? When He makes a new creation
in us, it's Christ in you, the hope of glory. And He makes that
new nature. And that new nature is holy and
righteous within. And now, indeed, this old fleshly
man is sinful. He's sinful. The old nature is
a liar. Our old nature. But there's a
new man He puts in you and there's no guile. There's a new spirit
and there's no guile. Because God fills His people
with Christ the truth. And He gives you, in that new
man, He gives you unfeigned faith. Blessed is the man unto whom
the Lord imputeth not iniquity. Some would have you stop right
there. I'm so thankful for that. Blessed is the man unto whom
the Lord will not impute iniquity, because there is none to impute.
Christ took the iniquity of His people, and He bore the sin of
His people, and He put that away. But it doesn't stop there. Blessed
is the man unto whom the Lord will not impute iniquity, and
in whose spirit there is no guile. Children, they will not lie.
How can that be? You say, well, I don't want to
tell him a self preacher, but I have told some lies. I know
you have, but I'm talking about if you took away that old man
of flesh and it was nothing but the spirit that God's put in
you, that's the man I'm talking about. That man. Because Christ
is in that man. These were redeemed from among
men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb. And in their
mouth was found no guile, because they are without fault before
the throne of God. Revelation. Jesus saw Nathanael
coming to Him and He said, Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom
is no guile. Now, when a father has taught
his child, and instructed his child, raised up his child, and
taught him in the way he should go. The way that father shows
loving kindness to his son is he entrusts his son with some
responsibility. And he doesn't hold him suspect.
He's not suspicious of him. He's got confidence in him that
he'll honor him and he won't lie. Well, After our Savior makes
His child truthful, when He makes His Son truthful, creates a new
man in Him, you know what He does? He entrusts His child with
His gospel. He gives Him His gospel. Trusts
Him with His gospel. And this is what Paul said. Look
at 2 Corinthians 4. And this is true of his preachers.
This is true of all his people. Look here. He makes a child that won't lie.
Your inward man that's born of God, your desire is, I want Christ
to have all the glory. I want Him to have the full glory
of being the wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption
of His people. I want God the Father to have all the glory.
I want God the Holy Spirit to have the glory. And so, when
it comes to this gospel, and declaring this gospel, this is
what He creates. 2 Corinthians 4.1, Therefore
seeing we have this ministry, As we have received mercy, the
same way we receive mercy by God's power and grace, we faint
not. but have renounced, what, the
hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, not
handling the word of God deceitfully with guile, but by manifestation
of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in
the sight of God." God's people are truth-tellers. Their heart's
desire is to declare to you what this book says. And I can't,
can you do otherwise? Can you? It's all God's grace,
but I'm being honest. I could not stand here and intentionally,
purposely tell you lies about Christ. I just can't do that.
Now, I might say something that's an error and God correct me,
but I just can't intentionally stand up here and mislead you
and tell you lies. I don't want to do that. Oh God,
help me. Please help me not to do that.
I don't want to do that. I want him to have honor, and
I want you to be instructed." And there's something else he
entrusts his child with, his name and his honor. Peter said,
you're a holy people. You're a royal priesthood. You're
a peculiar people. Why? Why has he called you and
done this for you? That you should show forth the
praises of Him who's called you out of darkness into His marvelous
light. We're children. We're wearing His name. When
the children leave the house, and they will or Emma want to
do something with one of their friends, I tell them everything
you do is a direct reflection on my name and on this church. Everything. This world's just
waiting on my children to mess up. They're just waiting on God knows we're dust. He knows
we're dust. You say, how does He entrust
us with that? He knows we're dust and He's upholding His people
and making His people truthful. I tell you this, the more He
gives you some light by His grace, by His Spirit, His child is truthful
with that light. We want to know more of Him.
So we walk in the light He gives us by His grace. And He keeps
giving you more responsibility. He gives you more light, more
light, more light. And the more He gives you light
to see His loving-kindnesses, the more you want to be found
faithful, don't you? That's right. Alright, now let's
look at the third thing. His loving-kindnesses manifest
by His union with us. Verse 9. In all their affliction,
Isaiah 63, 9, in all their affliction, He was afflicted. This is His
loving-kindnesses. In all their affliction, He was
afflicted. Now, I was looking at Mr. Spurgeon's outline on
this passage, and he said, he called this his sympathy with
us. And I'm calling it his union with us. And here's why. This
is not sympathy like, you know, you stumped your toe, and, oh,
man, I know that hurt. I'm sorry I hurt you. It's not
like that. This is, I hit my finger with
a hammer, and my whole body hurts. Because that's my member. It's
just that real. It's that kind of union between
God and His people in Christ. We're members of His body, of
His flesh and of His bone. So that when one member hurts,
our head hurts. Christ our head hurts. Listen
to this passage. Listen to this now. This is talking
about Israel, his people, spiritual Israel in the midst of Israel
back there when they were in bondage. Listen to this scripture.
His soul was grieved for the misery of Israel. That's talking about God. It's
talking about Christ. His soul was grieved for the
misery of Israel. Thus saith the Lord of hosts,
After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled
you For he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye
Just like poking him in the eye for you to be touched better
he is And notice this he said in all their afflictions. He was afflicted it doesn't matter
if it's a It don't matter what trouble it is, what trial it
is, what affliction it is, what suffering it is, in all the afflictions
of His people, He's afflicted. Remember what He said, The King
shall say unto them, Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as you've
done it unto the least of these My brethren, you have done it
unto Me. When Paul was on the road to
Damascus and he arrested Paul, Paul was going to persecute the
saints. Paul was ISIS. He was going to
kill believers. That's what he was doing. Can
God save a member of ISIS? He did on the road to Damascus.
And when he knocked him off his high horse in the dust, he said,
Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? Because that's how one he
is with his people. We have not a high priest which
cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in
all points tempted like as we are yet without sin. And for
in that he himself had suffered being tempted, he's able to succor
them that are tempted. He's able to comfort his people.
He knows what we need, when we need it, and he knows how to
comfort us. That's his loving-kindness. All
right, fourthly, His loving kindness is manifest in our salvation.
Now look at all what's included in our salvation. He said, in
their affliction He was afflicted, and the angel of His presence
saved them. In His love and in His pity,
He redeemed them, and He bared them, and He carried them all
the days of old. He heard the cries, it says,
of the children of Israel when they were in bondage in Egypt.
And he came down. He sent his messenger and he
came down and he delivered them out of that bondage. He delivered
them across the Red Sea. But he didn't stop there. He
promised them, he was taking them to a promised land, to Canaan. And he kept leading them wherever
they went. He was before them and he was
behind them. Now the first thing he says here
is, he speaks of that sin atoning, that picture of that sin atoning
sacrifice our Lord accomplished, our redemption. He says, in His
love and in His pity, He redeemed them. That's the chief thing
in His loving kindnesses, is the redemption of His people.
Now that redemption out of Egypt was a picture of it. But Christ
heard us. He heard His people. And He came
to where His people are and Christ Himself went to the cross and
He redeemed us from the curse of the law. Listen to Romans
5, 6. You can turn there if you can get there. Romans 5, 6. When
we were yet without strength, that means we were dead in trespasses
and sin. In fact, most of us sitting here,
all of us sitting here, weren't even around. When we were yet
without strength, in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous
man will one die, yet perventure for a good man some would even
dare to die. But God commendeth His love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
We're talking about the loving kindnesses of God. This is how
God manifests His love for His people. When we were sinners,
He died for us. Much more then, being now justified
by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. John
said it this way, In this was manifested the love of God toward
us, because God sent His only begotten Son into the world that
we might live through Him. Herein is love, not that we love
God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation
for our sins. That's what God did. He loved
His people and sent His Son to be satisfaction for our sin. And He accomplished it. All the
love and kindnesses of our God was manifest When He came and
bore all the sin of all His elect people, and put them all away,
and made us all the righteousness of God in Him, there is where
you see the mercy, the loving kindness of His redemption. And
Christ's name in verse 9 tells us what He will be to us, what
He is and shall be to us. Verse 9 says, the angel of His
presence saith, The children of Israel were led through that
wilderness by Christ. That's what Paul tells us. That
rock was Christ. That cloud was Christ. That pillar
of fire was Christ. He went before them. He went
behind them. He covered them. The angel of the presence was
always with them wherever they went. He led them. And the angel
of His presence is with us, with His people. We saw it Thursday
night. The Spirit of God dwelleth in
you, in His church. We talked about that Thursday.
It's His church He's talking about there, in that passage.
That's why Paul over there in Philippians said, My beloved,
you've always obeyed in my presence. He said, now I'm going to be
absent, and much more in my absence. He said, there's going to be
somebody present though. So, you work out all these mundane
details that's got to be taken care of in the church, from the
sweeping of the floor, and the putting out the tables, and the
straightening up the chairs, to the meeting over here when
the firehouse is busy, to looking for buildings, to whatever needs
to be done. You work out all these things
with fear and trembling. Respecting one another, and helping
one another, being encouragement to one another, never being a
hindrance to one another. Why? Because it's God that's
working in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure,
right there in your presence. That's what He said. He said,
I'm with you. What about our trials? What about
all the sufferings we go through? Look back at Isaiah 43. Verse 1, 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. I will be with thee. That's what
he's saying. When thou walkest through the
fire, thou shalt not be burned. Why? Didn't we throw three men
in that fire? I see a fourth man in that fire.
I'll be with thee. That's what he's saying. I will
be with thee. I'm the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel,
the Savior. I'll give men for thee, people
for thy life. Look at verse 5. Fear not, I'm with thee. I'm with thee. That's what he's
saying. His care is constant too. Look at this, back in our
text, verse 9. Isaiah 63, 9. He bared them and
he carried them all the days of old. Did He say He was going
to deliver them into Canaan? That's what He promised them.
Did He? He delivered them right into
Canaan. Christ stood in the Jordan. You say, when did Christ stand
in the Jordan? When those priests stood in Jordan and they held
up that ark. And they told them, you just look at that ark. And
they just stood there and they didn't do anything. They just
stood there and looked at that ark. And He dried up that river and
they went across on dry ground right into Canaan. You know what
He's going to do for us one day? He's going to lead us from the
day He calls us through every hill, every valley, every shadow
of death in this life, till we come to that last shadow of death. But who's scared of a shadow?
It's just a shadow. He says, you just look at Christ,
I'll draw up that river and I'll carry you right across. He shall
feed His flock like a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs with
His arm and carry them in His bosom and shall gently lead those
that are with young. That's what He'll do. Alright,
here's the fifth lovingkindness. It's His faithful, loving, chastening
correction. Verse 10, But they rebelled and
vexed His Holy Spirit. Therefore He was turned to be
their enemy and He fought against them. Verse 11 says, Then he
remembered the days of old. God's chastening rod might bring
us to think that He's our enemy. Sometimes. You find scriptures,
you know, when our Lord hung on that cross, separated from
the Father in the place of His people, bearing the sin of His
people, justice being poured out, separation from God, bearing
the hell His people deserved, that separation from God and
from the glory of His strength, He cried out, My God, My God,
why hast Thou forsaken Me? And you hear him again in Psalm
77, but you read it and you hear the psalmist there too, the believer
there too, and he's saying, Lord, have you forgotten to be merciful? Is your mercy clean gone forever?
Have you ever been there to that point? Sometimes that chastened
rod feels like he's your enemy. You lay there in bed at night,
you can't get any comfort, you can't get any sleep, you just
can't. And you're laying there thinking,
is this what it's like to die? And it's a chastening rod, it's
meant to be a chastening rod. But you know what? He's not our
enemy. That's love. That's love. Listen to this.
Whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth. Now, I don't believe in chastening
a child. You're going to give a child
defects. Go to hell with the rest of the world with that.
Whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth. And scourgeth every son whom
he receiveth. If you endure chastening, God's
dealing with you as with sons. Why does He do that? Because
the littlest child's disobedience, the littlest child's disobedience
that goes uncorrected will turn into a grown man's out and out
rebellion and crimes. If you start off the mark, off
the line here, and you're trying to get to that dot right out
there, and you're just off just a little bit, it's just a little
bit here. By the time you get out there, it is way off the
mark. When does God start chastening
His child? When He starts chastening you.
That's how He brought you to the feet of Christ, isn't it?
Starts immediately. Starts immediately. And He measured
it just like it needed to be measured. You don't give a baby
the correction you'd give a 15-year-old. You measure it. You measure it.
And it's always for our good. The psalmist said, before I was
afflicted, I went astray. Well, I just love him too much
to correct him. If God said that, me and you'd
all still be going astray, wouldn't we? We'd never be at Christ's
feet. We'd never be bound to Him. Before
I was afflicted, I went astray, but now have I kept Thy Word. Thou art good and doest good. Teach me Thy statute. It's good
for me that I've been afflicted, that I might learn thy statutes.
That's right. That's loving kindness, to be
afflicted. Well, here's the sixth loving
kindness, though. When He does chasten His child,
He always remembers His everlasting covenant mercies. He always does. It's never as an enemy. It's
never in anger, like it is toward His enemies. We're not to chasten
our children that way. If you're angry, you've waited
too long. Cool down. Now you've got to
wait a little while. Cool down and then go do it.
And always do it reminding them of your relationship between
God your Father and how He chastens you. Teach them that because
make it a spiritual thing. Teach them why you're doing it. Why you're doing it. And then
the sixth love and kindness is God's everlasting covenant mercy.
He always tempers His chastening with mercy. Verse 11 says that
He remembered the days of old. And I'm not going to read it
for time's sake, but it goes through the next three verses
there, talking about how He delivered them out of Egypt, how He carried
them through the wilderness, and how He buried them, and all
those things. He remembered the days of old.
You know, God remembered. I like that. God doesn't remember
our sin anymore. He doesn't remember the sin of
His people. He said, I've forgotten it. It's gone as far as east
is from the west. And yet, He remembers His covenant
mercies. He remembers everything His Son
has done in redeeming His people. He remembers how His Son has
carried us. He remembers how His Son found us and brought
us out of darkness. He looks at His Son and remembers
everything His Son has done for His people. You know what that
tells me? You know what we ought to remember?
We ought to remember everything His Son's done. Well now, you
need to remember your past sins. Quit listening to preachers that
try to make you remember your past sins and pay for your past
sins. You can't pay for them. Christ has paid for them. They're
over with. They're done. He says, forgetting those things that
are behind, press towards the mark. But here's something you
can remember. Remember everything Christ has
done for you. That's something good to remember. That's what
God remembers. Remembering the days of old. He's put down the
mighty from their seats, and He's exalted them of low degree.
He's filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He's sent
empty away. He hath opened His servant Israel in remembrance
of His mercy." Remembering His mercy. And He always remembers
it. It's of the Lord's mercies that were not consumed. Because
His compassions fell not. They knew every morning, great
is Thy faithfulness. I knew every morning. Look at
this seventh loving kindness. The rest that He gives us. The
rest. Rest. Perfect, peaceful rest. Verse 14. He says, As a beast
goeth down into the valley, the Spirit of the Lord caused him
to rest. So didst thou lead thy people
to make thyself a glorious name. Pitcher cattle going down in
the valley, coming off of one of those plains and those terraces
where they've been up there plowing, you know, on this side of this
hill and making this place where you can garden and all, and they're
tired, they've been yoked together, and they're pulling, and they're
tired, and they come down into the valley now, into the green
pasture, and it's cool, the cool of the day, and the yokes off
of them, and they're not bound, they're free, And they got cool
water to drink down there in the river. It's a time to just
rest. That's what God did. Our Savior,
when He finished the work, He ascended to the Father, and the
work was finished. So what did He do? He sat down.
He rested. And this is what He gives His
people. He leads us. He corrects us. He has mercy
on us. And He brings us to Christ. He brings us to the green pasture.
He brings us to the deep water where we can drink without that
running, scary, noisy water. He brings us to that still water
where we can drink in peace and rest. And that rest, brethren,
that rest is the rest of the complete, full forgiveness of
our sin. It's the rest of our complete
acceptance in Christ. It's the rest of contentment.
Are you content? Are you content? He said, what
more could I give you than I've done? What more could I do than
I've done in Israel? I get discontented with this
life and thing. I'm flesh. I'm sinful. But you
know, when I think about Christ and what He's done, I can't think
of anything that could be done better. I can't think of anything
to be added to it. I'm content with what He's done.
I can't wait to the day that I'm in His presence fully content.
Fully content. This is the rest of obedience.
Don't you children, let me just ask you this on a natural level. Isn't it much more pleasant when
you're obeying your mother and father and they're happy with
you and your brothers and sisters are happy with you and the whole
house is happy and everything's happy. Isn't that a more peaceful
time than when You know you've broken the rules, and you know
that you're liable to get caught at any time, and you're just
right on the verge of just getting that butt tore up. Don't you
know? Which one's better? Honestly. I know. I was a teenager once,
and you just can't be honest when you're a teenager. But I
know which one's better. It's the peace. And that's the
rest of obedience. Following the Lord and wanting
to obey Him, desire to obey Him, that's much better than disobeying
the Lord. Much better. And this will be
eventually eternal rest. We have eternal rest now, but
I mean it's going to be that eternal rest fully forever with
Christ. Oh, this is why he said, I will
mention the loving kindnesses of the Lord. and the praises
of the Lord according to all that the Lord has bestowed on
us and the great goodness toward the house of Israel which He's
bestowed on them according to His mercies and according to
the multitude of His loving kindnesses. We just looked at seven. There's
a lot more. A lot more. Let's stand together. Father, thank you for this word.
Thank you for reminding us once again of the great things you've
done, the great and glorious person you are. Lord, ever take
our minds off this world and the troubles of it. Make this
an oasis. Make this that peaceful valley
that we can come into and find rest. by looking to Christ, by
looking to remembering all the things you've done for us. Lord,
that gives us confidence and refreshment knowing tomorrow
you're going to continue to do what you started. Lord, thank
you. We pray that you would bless
people that are hurting and got bodily infirmities and bless
those that are sorrowing and those that are in troubles with
those they love and that they do anything in the world to have
it just be at peace. Lord, make them Make them see
You and make them rejoice in You and make them know that You're
more important than any fleshly disagreements or any fleshly
problems whatsoever. Oh, our peacemaker, make us make
peace, Lord, for Your sake, for Your honor, for the glory of
Your name that You've entrusted to us. Forgive us now, Lord,
as we leave here and we forget these things and we're just so
apt to just Let it go in one ear and out the other. Keep it
lodged in our heart. Keep us feeding on this all day
and night and tomorrow and the next day. We ask it, Lord, in
Christ's name. Amen.