Isaiah 58. I want to read several verses here. Let's begin reading in verse
5 and we'll read down to verse 12. The Lord is speaking here and
He says, Is it such a fast that I have chosen? A day for a man to afflict his
soul? Is it to bow down his head as
a bulrush and to spread sackcloth and ashes unto him? Wilt thou
call this a fast and an acceptable day to the Lord? Is not this
the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness,
to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free,
and that you break every yoke. Is it not to deal thy bread to
the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to
thy house? When thou seest the naked, that
thou cover him, and that thou hide not thyself from thine own
flesh, Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine
health shall spring forth speedily, and thy righteousness shall go
before thee. The glory of the Lord shall be
thy reward. Then shalt thou call, and the
Lord shall answer. Thou shalt cry, and he shall
say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst
of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking
vanity, if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy
the afflicted soul, then shall thy light rise in obscurity,
and thy darkness be as the noonday. And the Lord shall guide thee
continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat
thy bones, and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like
a spring of water whose waters fail not. and they that be of
thee shall build the old waste places. Thou shalt raise up the
foundations of many generations, and thou shalt be called the
repairer of the breach, the restorer of paths to dwell in. Brethren,
sinners without Christ are very dark and cruel, especially in
religion. Religion without Christ is the
worst possible thing you can have. The worst possible thing
you can have. Sinners strive and debate with
one another. Sinners smite one another with
a fist of wickedness, with their tongue and with their hearts
and with their fists, literally. They put heavy burdens on one
another and oppress the weak. They do all sorts of religious
exercises. come to the church and gather
every time the doors are open and go out and try to feed the
hungry and clothe the naked and do all these things that are
listed here and call it serving God. And every bit of it they're
doing, expecting God to receive them by what they've done. And
that's a cruel place to be. That's a dark place to be. When
you're in the presence of a Pharisee, a Pharisee will show up and they'll
tell you everything you're doing wrong. They'll tell you everything
the church is doing wrong. They'll tell you everything,
all that you should be doing. Because such and such church
does this and such and such church does that. And they'll tell you
all these things you ought to be doing. And when they leave
you, you're not comforted. You have a burden on you. and
you're in darkness and you're heavy and it's just oppressive. And they leave just so proud
and so happy. That's their religion. That's
their hope. That's their confidence. They
come and they've yoked you. They've smitten you. They've
disciplined you. And they've done it in the name
of God. They've done it at a church building. They've come and did
their duty. All of those things. And call
it worshipping God. Call it serving God. It's just
an outward form. That's all it is. And now everybody
God saves, everybody God saves, whether we were in religion or
not, that's our heart. That's our heart. That's where
He finds us, right there. Exalting ourselves, smiting others,
building up ourselves, and thinking something we've done is going
to commend us to God. That's where He finds us. But
when Christ comes and He gives you a new heart, when He sanctifies
you out of that way into Him, when He brings you out of darkness
into His light, Christ teaches His child to love one another
as Christ has loved you. And He teaches us to walk from
then on by faith, trusting Him. and his precious promises from
that day forward. That's what I want you to see
tonight, today. Turn to, I'm sorry, let me just
read this to you. This goes with our message. This
is the point I want to make. In Christ Jesus, neither circumcision
avails anything nor uncircumcision. Your doing doesn't have anything
to do with it. Whether you're circumcised or you're not, whether
you have the law or you don't, but faith. That means the object
of your faith. That's who saves. Christ. And
faith which works by love. Does everything by the constraint
of love. Now first of all, Christ brings his child into a perpetual
fast. He said there in verse 6, is
not this the fast that I have chosen? This is the fast I've
chosen, God is saying. That's our message today. God's
chosen fast. And we saw last time that the
latter part of the chapter tells us this fast, God was calling
it a fast because it was the Sabbath day that He was talking
about. They were observing a day and doing all these works in
a day and calling it a fast in their hearts. Because you remember
over in the Old Testament, over in Exodus, they said, we loathe
this light bread. We just loathe this light bread,
this manna from heaven. We loathe it. And what they were
saying in their heart was, to eat nothing but this bread and
stop from our works that we're doing, we might as well be fasting.
And God said, is that the fast I've chosen? Is that the rest
I've chosen? Is that the Sabbath I've chosen?
It's not afflicting the soul for a day. It's not acting humble
for a day and gracing God and His people with your presence
just one day. That's not what God has chosen. The fast God has chosen is a
perpetual fast. It's a spiritual fast. It's a
perpetual rest, a Sabbath rest. He brings us to stop feasting
on our works and our doings and our way and our wisdom and our
will. He brings us to fast from that
earthly, corrupt, polluted bread. and feed upon the bread from
heaven. That's a perpetual fast. That's
the fast Christ brings us into. He brings us from binding and
yoking and working and all that and He makes us to rest in Christ
our Sabbath. That's the fast He's chosen.
And Christ teaches us then when He's called us to deal mercifully
with our brethren and with all men. He teaches us to do it by
teaching us what He's done for us. This is Christ. He's the
Sabbath. He's the one that we're going
to be separated, like a man separated from the world and fast from
the world into Christ. He's the one that we're going
to be separated into when God calls His child. And when that
happens, brethren, here's what He teaches us. He says that He's
the one who loosed the bands of wickedness. Verse 6, He's
the one that undid the heavy burdens. He's the one that'll
let the oppressed go free. He's the one that broke every
yoke. Verse 7, He's the one that deals His bread to the hungry
and brings the poor to His house. They're cast out to His house.
And when He sees the naked, He covers Him. And He doesn't hide
Himself from His own flesh. This is what Christ did for His
people. You want me to show you that this is speaking of Christ?
Turn to Isaiah 61. We'll come here in a few weeks,
Lord willing. You know this is Christ speaking
because this is what He stood up in the synagogue and read,
the first message He preached. This is what He said. This is
fulfilled in your ears. This is me, written of me, He
said. Verse 1. The Spirit of the Lord God is
upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings
unto the poor. That's to feed the hungry with
Christ the bread. That's to clothe the naked with
Christ our righteousness. He says here, He sent me to bind
up the brokenhearted. To proclaim liberty to the captives. That's to loose the bands of
wickedness and set the captives free. That's what He's called
me to do, Christ said. And the opening of the prison
to them that are bound. To proclaim the acceptable year
of the Lord. That means it's not just a day.
It means this is a perpetual, ongoing, everlasting acceptance
that God brings His people into by Christ. He's that one. And
the day of vengeance of our God. It's an accepted sacrifice of
the Lord and it's also a day of vengeance. And it's both in
Christ. Justice and grace. Mercy and
truth meeting together in that one, in Christ. To comfort all
that mourn. to appoint unto them that morn
in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for
mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness,
to clothe the naked, that they may be called trees of righteousness,
the planting of the Lord, that He might get all the glory, that
He might be glorified. You see, Christ came and He took
the place of His people. And when He took the place of
His people, He took our wickedness, He took our heavy burden, He
took our oppression and our yoke and our putting forth of the
finger. He took all our condemning self-righteous haughtiness that
we are. He took it upon Himself. He took
all our filth and our wickedness and our sinfulness and our putrid
vileness and especially that part that we call righteousness.
He became what His people are and stood in our room instead
as that one that deserved to die before God. And God made
Him a curse for His people. God did that for His people.
He said, I've raised Him up in righteousness. He shall let go
my captives, not for price nor reward, saith the Lord of Hosts.
Have you ever done anything that wasn't for a price or for a reward?
We've never. Can you think of one thing you've
ever done that wasn't for some kind of a reward? Christ didn't do it for a reward.
It was His heart to do it. It was His heart to do it. And
if the Son, therefore, shall make you free, you'll be free
indeed. Look down there at verse 12. This is speaking of Christ.
He says, They that shall be of thee, born of thee, delivered
by thee, they shall build the old waste places. Thou shalt
raise up the foundations of many generations. That's what Christ
is doing. He's our foundation. He's the
foundation of every one of His children in every generation. He's the foundations of many
generations. And look, and thou shalt be called
the repairer of the breach, the restorer of paths to dwell in. That's Christ. That's who He
is. That's why we sing free from
the law, O happy condition. Jesus has bled, and there is
remission. Cursed by the law and bruised
by the fall, grace hath redeemed us once for all. And when He
comes to you, He begins to feed you, and He makes you to see
Christ as our living bread. He's our living bread, our true
bread, and we'll never hunger again. That's what He said in
John 6. I'm the true bread that came down from heaven. God, Moses
didn't give you the true bread. My Father from Heaven's given
you the true bread. And He said, I'm the true bread
that came down from Heaven. That bread that you can eat,
that bread that you can find a full supply of so that you
can rest the whole Sabbath day from all your works and rest
in Him knowing God has provided and shall provide. He's the bread.
He said, He that believes on Me, he'll never hunger and thirst
again. You and I might hunger and thirst
in this life. Though David said, I have never seen that. Never
seen the righteous forsaken or his seed begging bread. But he
said this too. He said, you'll never hunger
and thirst for wisdom. Spiritual wisdom. You'll never
hunger and thirst for righteousness. You'll never hunger and thirst
for sanctification. You'll never hunger and thirst
for redemption. Everything we need is in Christ and we accept
it in the beloved. That's the gospel. And then Christ,
when he does this, he writes this law of faith and grace and
love on our hearts. And when he does that, then he
says to his child, now child, see what I've done for you. Look
in and behold in me. Now you go forth and you loose
the bands of wickedness. You undo the heavy burdens. You
let the oppressed go free. You break every yoke. He teaches
you, you go deal your bread to the hungry. And you bring the
poor that are cast out to thy house. And when you see the naked,
you cover him. And don't hide yourself from
your own flesh. First of all, deal your bread
to the hungry by telling others how Christ is your bread. Deal
your bread. Who's your bread? Christ is my
bread. Deal your bread to others by
proclaiming to them how that Christ is your bread. How that
He came and fed you. How that He came and broke the
yoke off of you and set you free from the yoke of the law and
that free will formalism of outward worship that you were in. Tell
them how God saved you from that. And bring the poor to your house
right here. Is this your house? Where two
or three are gathered together in my name. There I am in the
midst of them, the Lord said. And he said, he called us out
and separated us so that we're no longer strangers and pilgrims,
but we're fellow citizens and of the household of God. He says,
bring them to my house. Bring them to your house. This
is your house. Bring them to your house. Bring them in so
that they can hear. This is the means he's chosen
to reveal this good news to his people. And then seeing what
great things He's done for you, seeing what Christ has done for
you, seeing how He's shown you so much mercy and so much grace,
rejoice to show mercy rather than judgment to men. to those you come in contact
with. Rejoice to deal with them with mercy instead of harshness. That's what He's teaching, teaches
His child. He makes us merciful. Because
how could we be anything but merciful? He's constantly, continually,
all the time showing His child mercy. And we see, we look there
on that cross and see Him bleeding and dying for His people. How
could we be anything but merciful? Walk around pointing a finger
at people and blaming folks and accusing somebody else. That
ought to just crush that finger and just melt that whip into
nothingness. He's had mercy on us. That's
all the way we were saved is mercy, mercy. And that's what
He teaches you. And it's difficult to do. It's
difficult to do. I got my daddy's blood running
through my veins all the way back to Adam. And I'm telling
you, it's hard to do. I'm a self-righteous, condemning
Pharisee in my old man. That's all I am in my old man.
And somebody says something against me, somebody cheats me, somebody
does something to my family, my wife, my kids, something like
that, my first impulse is, I'm going to get them. I'm going
to show them. How dare they do something like that? This is
what the Lord tells us. Be ye kind one to another. Tenderhearted. forgiving one
another. Here's our motive. Even as God,
for Christ's sake, has forgiven you. He says, forbear one another
and forgive one another if any man have a quarrel against any
in the house of the Lord or out. Any. Even as Christ forgave you,
you do also. Doesn't that melt your heart?
That makes you say, Oh Lord, make me merciful. Make the new
man to reign. Don't let the old man reign.
That old self-righteous Pharisee. And then also, literally, literally,
take the burden off of men any way you can take it off of them.
Any way you can take it off of them, take it off of them. If you can put food on their
table, if you can clothe them, if you can do whatever. Preacher,
I don't have anything. Turn to Luke 12. You don't have anything but what
God gave you. Luke 12. He gives us bread, and
He clothes us, and He feeds us, and He guides us. He does this
for us every day, brethren. He's telling us, believe me,
and love one another. Look here, Luke 12, 29. Seek
not ye what you shall eat or what you shall drink, neither
be you of doubtful mind. He's saying don't make that your
preeminent purpose in your life. And that's what we do. That's
why we pay exorbitant prices for college and why we set out
trying to do this and that all our days and work to build our
career and all this and just aren't content to It's just why
we do it. But he says here, don't make
that who you are. Don't make that who you are.
Seek an earthly bread, an earthly drink, and don't be doubtful
that God will provide for you if you don't make that your preeminent
concern. Don't be of a doubtful mind.
Look at the last part of verse 30. Your Father knows that you
have need of these things. Art, have you ever deliberately
not fed any of your children. You got the biggest family here.
Well, if an earthly father will give bread to his family and
won't withhold bread from his family, do we think our heavenly
father will withhold bread from us? He knows what you need. He
knows what I need. Look here. But rather make this
your preeminent purpose. Seek ye the kingdom of God. That
means Well, if I'm going to work a secular job, the reason I'm
doing it is for God's people, for the cause of Christ, for
the gospel of Christ. If I'm going to teach my children
to raise up and get a job, the reason I'm doing it is not so
they can have a big house and a bunch of all this stuff and
have a big legacy in the earth. It's so that to teach them that
because the only thing important in this world is to support the
preaching of the gospel so that because God's calling his people
out by it. And when he's done, we're going to the house. That's
the only thing that's important. The rest of this junk is going
to be burned up. Period. He says, and all these other
things that you need as you're doing that, he says he'll add
them to you. Look at verse 32. Fear not, little flock. It's
your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell that
you have and give alms. He's saying, don't hold on to
the things you have and hoard it away and let it rust and corrupt. He says, sell it, whatever you
have and whatever you get, give it to the needy. Give it to those
who need it. And he says, provide yourselves
bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not,
where no thief approaches, neither moth corrupted. You see there,
that's what he's going to bring his child to do. It doesn't mean
that go out now and feed everybody and clothe everybody and do all
this so that you can be made righteous and come to God. That's
that day of afflicting your soul that God didn't choose. No, this
is a delight. This is the way of life for the
believer. This is trusting God's going
to provide for me. So that I don't have to have
all my thoughts all day long. How am I going to eat? How am
I going to dress? And how am I going to feed my family and
all that? I can know God's going to provide it. God's going to
provide it. And by God's grace, Christ's
child, He's going to do these things. We're going to do these
things because when He said there in Ephesians 2 that He foreordained
it, it doesn't mean He just said, now here's some works you ought
to do. It means He's predestinated you to Him and you're going to
do them. You're going to do them. Just like faith, just like repentance,
you're going to do these things because He's brought His child
to Him. And we're going to do them, but we're going to never
see ourselves as having done them. Look at Matthew 25 and
verse 34. I mentioned this this morning
in the message, but look here. He says he's going to come and
gather the sheep and the goats, and he says, verse 34, Then shall
the king say unto them on his right hand, Come ye, blessed
of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation
of the world. For I was hungered, and you gave
me meat. I was thirsty, and you gave me
drink. I was a stranger, and you took me in. I was naked,
and you clothed me. I was sick, and you visited me.
I was in prison, and you came unto me. Then shall the righteous
answer him and say, Lord, when saw we thee a hungred, and fed
thee? Or thirsty, and gave you drink? When saw we thee a stranger,
and took thee in? Or naked, and clothed thee? Or
when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And
a king shall answer them and say unto them, Verily I say unto
you, Inasmuch as you have done it unto one of these, of the
least of these, my brethren, you have done it unto me. And
then shall he say also to them on the left hand, Depart from
me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil
and his angels. For I was a hunger, and you gave me no meat. I was
thirsty, and you gave me no drink. I was a stranger, and you took
me not in. Naked, you clothed me not. Sick, you didn't visit
me. Prisoned, you didn't come to me. Then shall they answer
him, saying, Lord, when do we see you hungry, or thirsty, or
stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison? And we didn't,
did not minister unto you. for as much as you came to my
house and you had yourself on the back for coming to my house,
for as much as you came in and on one day pretended like you
was all humble and you believed the doctrines of grace, because
on one day you came in and graced my people with your presence
and all that, and then you went out because you did these works
thinking you were going to bring yourself to God. And he said, but the truth is,
you hoarded up everything for yourself. I'm going to tell you
something about a Pharisee. I'm going to tell you something
about a wheel worker. He will make you think he's giving and
providing and feeding and clothing everybody. And when he leaves
the congregation, the financial statement won't change one iota.
I guarantee it. I've seen it happen. He'll be
the loudest one in the bunch shooting his arm. And when he
leaves, you won't even notice he's even done a thing. That's
right. All right. Now, what I'm saying
to you is this, brethren, to rest in Christ from all our works,
to use everything He's given to promote His gospel, to sacrificially
seek the good of His people, all the while trusting that Christ
has and He shall provide everything we need here and hereafter, that's
living by faith, Motivated only by Christ's love. That's what
he's saying here. Alright, now look. Secondly,
let's go back. He doesn't just give us this,
this word, and leave it there. He tells us that for all who
take up the banner of Christ, there are some exceeding great
and precious promises that we have. Here's what he promises
for the believer. First of all, he promises to
be our light and our health. Look at verse 8. Then shall thy
light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring
forth speedily. I like the words there, break forth as the morning
and they'll spring forth speedily. I like those words. You look
at the morning when the sun comes up in the morning and it's just
twilight and you can't make out things, it's hazy, you can't
see very well. And just like that. You just, it's like you blink
and you look and all of a sudden you see. And the morning breaks
forth. And when it comes forth, man,
it just, it don't stop, it don't stop breaking forth. It just
gets brighter and brighter and brighter and you just see that
sun come up. That's what He says will happen. When the glory of
God shines forth into the heart and shows us the glory of God
in the face of Christ Jesus, just like that sun coming up,
you have light and you have health. You're whole just that fast. And the moment He makes you willing,
you turn to Him and you cast all your care into His hands.
The light of His joy and the light of His comfort and the
light of His peace and the health of His righteousness and His
holiness and all of it, it just fills your heart like the sun
just breaking forth in the morning. Isn't it so? You spend all that
time You're wrestling and struggling and under the yoke and oppressed
and in darkness and pointing a finger and trying to exalt
yourself and crawl up on the backs of others. And then one
day He brings you to that place of rest. And it's just like a
peaceful morning sun, breaking forth, and you're just having
wholeness, completeness of health in Him. That's what He does.
And He says to us in the Scriptures, He never says He'll take His
light from us. He never mentions taking His light from us, ever.
But He does say this, as He makes us to walk in His light, He's
going to give us more and more and more light. Listen to this
scripture. The path of the just, the path
of those he's justified by his grace, the path of those he's
caused to walk in him, confessing God to be just and ourselves
to be worthless. That one who walks, wanting to
do justly towards others because he's seen how justly God's dealt
with him. He says, the believer is as the shining light. I'm
sorry, the path of the just is as the shining light that shineth
more and more unto that perfect day. It just shines more and
more. And not only does he promise
us spiritual light and spiritual health, and we just saw, he said,
I'm going to give you the other things you need in life too.
But we're talking preeminently here of what we really need.
Spiritual light and spiritual health. When you turn from all
that stuff and believe on Christ who's loosed the bands of wickedness,
then you're going to have light and health. Not only that, He
promises to lead us. Look at verse 8. And thy righteousness
shall go before thee. You don't dare think that I'm
talking about your righteousness, do you? Any righteousness of
your own? I'll show you who this righteousness
is. Look back at Isaiah 57 verse 8. He says, well, where did I say
it? 57. Let me see. Hold on. Hold
on. Look at verse 17. I'm sorry.
Verse 18. I've seen his ways and I will
heal him. I will lead him also. God said there's our righteousness. It's going to go before us. He
said, I've seen your ways. You were you were rebelled against
me. He said, but I'm going to heal him. And I'll lead him also. That's what He said in our text.
When this moment He brings you to turn to Him, you're going
to have health, you're going to be healed. And I'm going to
lead you also. Your righteousness is going to
go before you. Think about how Christ has gone
before us. In eternity, before us, in eternity,
when God the Father would make this world and make a people
to serve Him, He coveted with Christ that you go forth and
you make this people righteous and you make this people holy
and you reconcile this people to me. And Christ entered the
covenant with him. He went before his people and
became surety for us. And a surety, not like our surety,
not like I'm going to sign for it if I'll sign it and I'll pay
the debt if they can't pay it. A surety like this. When Christ
entered into suretyship with God, God never even looked to
his people. He looked to Christ only. Christ
only. He's always only looked to Christ.
He went before us. And then Christ came to where
we are and He went before us to the cross. He went before
us establishing righteousness for His people. And now He's
entered into glory, into heaven itself to claim heaven for His
people as our mediator and as our forerunner. And He promises
us this. In my Father's house are many
mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you. I go to prepare a place for you. That's what He tells
His child. I'm going ahead of you to prepare a place for you,
and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and
receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also."
And you know how else he goes before us? He goes before us
as our example. He really does. You won't find
a... We don't preach Christ as just
merely an example, because He's our Redeemer. He's our substitute.
He's our righteousness. He's our all. But you won't find
a better example I guarantee you that. Remember that night,
those disciples, they were arguing with one another, who's going
to be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And there they are
arguing. There they are. What they're
doing is they're just sticking their feet in mud and manure
and dung and wallowing them around and slinging it on one another
and throwing it all over and smearing it all over each other
like that. And the whole time they're doing that. Christ is
stripping Himself. And He humbled Himself down to
their feet. And He took some water and He
washed them. Because they need to be washed.
We need to be washed, don't we? We're constantly exalting ourselves,
constantly getting manure all over us and slinging it all over
one another. And Christ said, when He got
through doing that, He said, now, I've given you an example.
You do what I've done to you. Do that to one another. Next
time somebody says, well, I'm better than you are, you take
that place at their feet. Pray to the Lord. Lord, wash
them. Wash their feet. That's how you
wash their feet. Lord, wash them. Wash them. Lift them up to God. Beg God.
God, wash them. That's washing one another's
feet. He's our example. Then look here. Christ promises
this. He's going to be our light, our health, and He's going to
be our righteousness going before us, and He's going to be our
rear guard as well. Verse 8. The glory of the Lord
shall be thy reward. It's rear ward. It's the rear
guard. It's the one who comes along
behind, and when the stragglers are straggling behind, He picks
them up and carries them because they can't They can't go. And
if anybody comes up from behind like Amalek did, he's there to protect them. Just like He came
between the children of Israel at the Red Sea and Pharaoh's
army and they couldn't come near each other. He said, I'm going
to be your rear guard too. I'm going to protect you. Listen
to Isaiah 52.12. Isaiah 52.12 says, You shall
not go out with haste, nor go by flight. That would be dishonoring
to God if you and I Had to run and be scared. You remember what
he told them at the Red Sea? They had Pharaoh's army bearing
down on them. He said, you just stand still and see the salvation
of the Lord. You have something coming in your life, some obstacle,
and it's just all this mess, and you think, I don't know how
in the world I'm going to get through this. But you know what? I can't wait to see how God does
it. Because he's going to do it. Look here. You won't go out
with haste, nor by flight, The Lord will go before you, and
the God of Israel will be your reward too. He's going to protect
His people on every side. Look at Psalm 20. I just want
to give you two verses out of this, but I can't help it. Go
over here and let's look at this. Psalm 20, verse 1. The Lord is my shepherd,
I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green
pastures. All the green fields just lay down under a bluebird
sky. He leads me beside the still waters, deep waters, waters where
you can drink. He restores my soul. He leadeth
me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake. There he
is. He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name's
sake. Yea, though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death, I feel no evil. That's where
we are right now, brethren. I've been here since February
10th, 1970. Walking through the valley of
the shadow of death. The day of your birth, when you start
walking through it. And it's going to be a valley full of
death till we get there. But you notice it's only the
shadow of death for his people. A shadow can't hurt you. A shadow
can't hurt you. Look here. For thou art with
me. Thou rod and thy staff they comfort
me. Thou preparest a table before
me. He going before me. In the presence
of mine enemies you do it. You anoint my head with oil.
My cup runs over. Now look at this. He said he
leads us and then he says here, Surely goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days of my life. And I'll dwell in the house
of the Lord forever. You know what he's saying? He's
saying to us, I give unto them eternal life, and they'll never
perish. They'll never, no man will ever
pluck them out of my hand. That night Hurricane Sandy came
through here, I'm gonna tell y'all something. If we get a
bigger hurricane than that, I'm going high ground. Because we
had, it was 70 mile an hour winds, sustained for a long time. And
Pennington looked like a tornado, everywhere it did. Looked like
a tornado came through. But we were in the basement that night
of the house, and my little ones were scared. And I kept saying,
don't fear, don't be afraid. That wind's controlled by God.
It's controlled by God. And I'll tell you how much it's
controlled by God. I had a big pin oak right there at the edge
of that deck, leaning on the wife's house over there, ready
to fall on their house. I needed to get it cut that spring. And that wind came between my
house and their house and laid it down just the opposite, just
right behind our house, away from both of them. And it wasn't
by accident. It's God's finger. I kept telling
them, don't be afraid, don't be afraid. That's what God constantly
assures His child. He says, fear not, fear not,
fear not, fear not, fear not. I want to encourage you not to
fear. I want to encourage you, don't be afraid. If you trust
Christ, if He's your all, His constant care is for His child. And He's going to provide, He's
going to provide for the weakest and the most feeble that put
their trust in Him. It's not the strength of your
faith, it's the object of your faith who does the saving. Have
you noticed, you go through the Scriptures, you're going to find
folks in the Scriptures that thought themselves to be the
weakest, the most feeble, the most useless there was. And those
are the very ones God records in the scripture and He's ministering
to us today, still using them to minister to us today through
them. That poor widow that doesn't
have but two mites to bring to the offering, do you think she
thought, she's watching men put in what they're putting in and
she just brings these two mites thinking, what good is this going
to do? She's still ministering to us
today. That harlot that came into that
dinner that night and she came in there with that alabaster
box of ointment? She's a harlot. Just a harlot. And she came in
there and broke that box open and poured it on the Lord's head,
anointed Him for His burial. She's still ministering to us
today. Some little thing that other men didn't even acknowledge. And the Lord recorded it and
said, this is a good work. The only one he ever said it
about, this is a good work she's done. And wherever the gospels
preached, her name's going to be mentioned. Naaman's little
maid. Remember her? There she is down
there, taken captive as a maid. She's a slave girl. What can
a slave girl do? She can't possibly serve the
Lord. And she just overhears them complaining about Naaman's
leprosy and she says, There's a prophet in Israel. There's
a prophet in Israel, isn't there? Christ the Lord. And He can heal
the lepers. He can heal the lepers. So, if
a brother or sister stumbles, if they fall into sin, don't
encourage it. Don't encourage the sin and don't
excuse the sin. Don't do that. But pick them
up and wash their feet and remind them that God says to the weakest
and to the most feeble and to the most fallen, the glory of
the Lord shall gather you up. That's what he said. The glory
of the Lord shall gather you up. Lot lingered. God gathered him up, didn't he?
Peter, he denied the Lord. The Lord gathered him up. David
fell. The Lord gathered him up. The
Lord, He doesn't cut off. He will correct, but He doesn't
cut off. He will discipline, but He won't damn. Because Christ
has already borne it away. Christ has paid the justice.
And He says, now, I'm never going to turn away from you to do you
good. That's His promise. Okay, look here. One more thing.
In Christ, God promises His constant communion with Him. Verse 9,
Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer. Thou shalt
cry, and he shall say, Here I am. Now in the beginning of Isaiah,
all those folks who were coming to the Lord's house, and they
were offering their sacrifices, and they were spreading out their
arms and praying, and they were doing all these things to be
seen of men. The Lord told them, when you
spread forth your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. He said,
when you pray, I won't hear you. Your hands are full of blood.
You're killing everybody around you and you're trampling underfoot
the blood of Christ because you think you're so damn righteous. That's what he said to them. And they were damned. There's
no doubt about it. But he says of that broken and
contrite child, he says of that needy sinner, too dependent to
rail on another, too dependent on Christ to exalt himself over
another, too dependent upon Christ to be haughty and arrogant, just
needy sinner. He said, before you even call,
I'm going to answer you. Before you call, I'll answer
you, he said. Do you understand the meaning
of this text? It's not the outward formalist, it's not the self-righteous,
it's not the self-exalting, the unbelieving, the condemner that
God saves and delights in. That's not who He enlightens
and leads and protects and has communion with. It's the sinner
who He's brought to see their only hope is Christ our All. They're the weakest, the feeblest,
the most undeserving of the whole lot. The chief of sinners. And God says, I delight in them.
He's made them righteous in Christ. That's the text. Our God is the
God of mercy who saves sinners who are oppressed in sin to save
themselves. That's who He is. Let's read
this out. He hates the self-dependent.
He hates the self-made religious hypocrite. Verse 9. If thou take
away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the
finger, speak in vanity, if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry,
and satisfy the afflicted soul, Then shall thy light rise in
obscurity. Those are all things that recognize repentance and
faith. That's what he's saying. When you repent, believe Christ,
your light will rise in obscurity, your darkness will be as the
noon day. The Lord shall guide thee continually, satisfy thy
soul in drought, make fat thy bones. Thou shalt be like a watered
garden, like a spring of water whose waters fell not. And they
that shall be of thee. Just like this is true of Christ.
Those fruits that Christ is going to bring forth through His people,
His church, They're going to build the old waste places. And
thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations, and thou
shalt be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of
paths to dwell in. Now brethren, I've tried to show
you that God, what he says about himself in this text, I've tried
to show you God delights in mercy, not sacrifice. He delights to
save sinners, not righteous folks. This is not a hospital for well
people, it's a hospital for sick people. And the physician loves
to do the healing, and he's the only one that can. And when we
say we follow Him, believe in He's our righteousness, motivated
only by love, only by his love for us, and our love for our
brethren, and one another, and for him. Because in Christ, circumcision
doesn't matter, and uncircumcision doesn't matter, but faith which
works by love. I pray God a blessing. Amen. Brother Eric, will you close
in prayer when you finish?