All right, brethren, let's turn
to Isaiah 57. Isaiah chapter 57. Let's read the end of verse 13
and verse 14. God says, He that putteth his
trust in me shall possess the land. He's speaking of Jerusalem,
of Israel, of the land of promise. He says, and he shall inherit
my holy mountain, Mount Zion, where Jerusalem sat. And it should
be said, cast ye up, cast ye up, prepare the way, take up
the stumbling block out of the way of my people. Now, if you
were in Babylon, Let's just put ourselves here now. If you're
one of the children of Israel and you were in Babylon, that's
where they were, it would be just like it is sitting here
in the year 2015 where we are. In Babylon, you had all these
different kinds of ways, all these different kinds of roads
that you could travel. Now, if you're going to go from
Babylon to that land God's talking about, and you're going to go
from Babylon to that mountain God's talking about, you have
to get on a highway to take you from there to that land, to that
mountain. But now, if you're in Babylon
and you're trying to decide which one of these ways is the way
that's going to take me to that land, take me to that mountain,
and you're looking, you've got all these different highways
that you could take. All these different broad ways
that you can go leading out of Babylon. Any which way you go.
And so, the only way you're going to be able to find the right
way, the true way, is if God teaches you this is the way.
But see, we got a problem. We have a problem. We don't want
to go the way God says is the way. We don't want to take the
highway God says is the way. We want to go our way. We want
to go in the way that we think is right, the road we think is
best. That's the road we want to take. And so God has to come
to us and reveal to us that our way is not the way. And when
he does that, he breaks up our way. He busts up our road and
busts up our highway and takes the stumbling blocks out. That's
what God must do. First of all, our way, we're
standing there in Jerusalem. I mean in Babylon. And we're
looking around. And the problem is that in our heart, we're proud. And in our heart, we're covetous. We want to have a part in saving
ourselves. And in our heart, we don't believe
God. This is the three main things
that plague our heart. Pride, covetousness for God's
glory, and unbelief. We just don't believe God. So,
with all our pride, one way we have this, we got all this zeal
in our flesh. We got lots of things we want
to do and accomplish and conquer in the world. We got things that
we want to do. And so we've got idols under
every green tree. Everywhere you look, there's
idols. We've got our idols of pleasure. We've got our idols
of education. We've got our career idols. We've
got our family idols. We've got our stuff idols. We've got all these idols that
we worship and go after. And these are like highways that
we travel, that we take off after, under every green tree everywhere. And then we've got the idols
in religion. our way and our thoughts about God. And all of
it, in every way, our way is an exalted way. Our way is a
high way, we think. We want to exalt ourselves and
lift ourselves up and that's the way we want to go. And then
we prostitute, we spiritually prostitute, commit adultery from
God. We won't speak the truth. We
don't want the truth. We don't want to look for God's
truth. And when we have it by nature, we'll hide that truth
because we think, well, now that's going to I've been I've been
rejected. I've been scolded. I've been
pressed against and oppressed and rejected because of that
message. I'll just tone that message down
a little bit. And that way I get more people to join with me.
That's the point. If we're going to be on our way
to New Jerusalem and the heavenly Mount Zion and to be to God's
holy mountain where God's promised His people He'll give us in glory
to be with Him, isn't the point is to get as many people as we
can get to go with us? But you see, in the process of
hiding the truth, we got a whole bunch of people going with us,
but we're on the wrong road. We're not on that highway going
to Jerusalem. And then we're using all our
political wisdom and we're using all of our, increasing our perfumes
like a harlot does and our methods and our means and all these different
things to attract people to go the way we want to go. But all
the while we're on the wrong highway, we're traveling the
wrong road. We're not even going to, we're going opposite direction.
Jerusalem's north, we're going south. We're going south. And then by nature our ways,
not only covetousness and it's not only pride, it's unbelief.
Unbelief. We hear the message preached
and we think this. Man by nature thinks this. Well,
I wouldn't say that I'm holy. I wouldn't say I'm a saint. But
now, I wouldn't say I'm totally depraved. I've done some mighty
good things. You think you're depraved? You
think you're just rotten to the core in God's sight. Man by nature
don't think that. We don't believe that by nature.
Man will hear, we got all these excuses. Man will say, and he's
trying to act like he's so really concerned and all, but then he'll
say, I just don't think I'm one of God's elect. If you really
believe that you weren't one of God's elect, I'll tell you
what you'd do. You'd be on your face at God's
feet, at Christ's feet, begging and just pleading God to save
me if you really believe that. I guarantee it. That's just a
smokescreen of self-righteous unbelief. I don't believe I'm
one of God's elect. The only way you're going to
know if you're one of God's elect is come to God and see if He'll
receive you. Somebody will say, well, if I
believe on Christ, then I'll have to give up my life. Well,
that's another road. That's one of those roads that
it's not leading to Jerusalem. It's not leading to Mount Zion.
That road is just, there's no life on that road. That road's
just death. That road's just, there's no
life on that road. Think I'll have to give up my
life? Well, you've made a covenant with death and with hell, and
what man's saying by that is, I'll have to give up death. I'll
have to give up hell. I'll have to give up everything
God hates if I believe on God. You see what a wrong road that
is? And then there's this road. Folks will say, well, if I believe
on Christ, I'm going to have trouble in my family. People who believe and they all
appear zealous. And you think, boy, the Lord's
got them. The Lord's really done something for them. And then
somebody they love has a problem with what they believe. And all
of a sudden, they got every excuse in the sun for not coming to
hear the gospel. All of a sudden, they got every excuse in the
sun for not worshiping God. God said, Christ said, if you
love son or daughter, mother, father more than me, you're not
worthy of me. He's saying to us, He's not saying
you can't love your brethren, your family. He said, if there's
anything that comes between you and God, if there's something
you love more than God, you're not worthy of God. See, that's
a road that's taking you away from Jerusalem, taking you away
in the opposite direction. And then there's this road. I've
heard this one, too. This road of unbelief. Men say,
well, I don't want to have anything to do with religion. I think
everybody in religion is just a bunch of hypocrites. Well,
most of them are. I agree with you wholeheartedly.
Most of them are. But you know this? There's a
whole lot of counterfeit money out there in circulation, too.
Is that going to make you stop gathering up money and receiving
it? Don't throw out all of all of
the gospel just because there are some hypocrites in the midst
of it. That's a road that's going to
lead you away from Jerusalem. And then the other stumbling
block, this is a great stumbling block that's in the road, is
false preachers and brethren who appear to be true but are
really liars. This is a falsehood. Look over
in Luke 11, verse 52. This is what Christ said about
that. Luke 11, 52. He was speaking to the scribes
and the Pharisees and he said, Woe unto you lawyers. These are
the men who won't come to God in the law. He says, Woe unto
you lawyers. You've taken away the key of
knowledge. That's Christ. He said, You entered
not in yourselves. You didn't enter into the straight
way. You didn't enter into the way that leads to heavenly Jerusalem.
And them that were entering in, you hindered. You caused them
to trip up. You hindered them from entering.
That's a great stumbling block. We saw Thursday night from Ezekiel
14. The Lord says, I'm going to answer
a man according to his idols. And I'm going to speak to his
heart. I'm going to catch him in his heart. I'm going to reveal his
heart. And he says, and I'm going to do it. I'm going to make him
a sign and a proverb cutting that man off. That false preacher
and that false, that liar. He said, I'm going to cut him
off. and I'll make him a sign and a proverb to my people. He's
going to remove that stumbling block. If it's hindering his
child from entering in, he's going to remove those stumbling
blocks that are hindering his children from entering in. So
you got all this road and this way and this stumbling block,
these stumbling blocks before the Lord's people. But now he
said he's going to give this mountain and this land to somebody.
So what's going to have to happen? He's going to have to break up
our highway. He's going to have to break our road up, just totally
demolish our road. When I was younger, I grew up
on this road called the Iron Mountain Road. And about four
miles north of where I live and about four miles south of where
I live, this road was treacherous. Three, four people died on it
every year in car wrecks. It was just treacherous. And
so finally, the state decided they were going to replace this
road. So you know what they had to
do before they could do anything to repair this road? They had
to break up the road that was there. That's the first thing
they had to do. They had to make the curve straight.
They had to bring up the valleys up. They had to bring down the
hills. They had to do that before they could do anything else,
before they could prepare this road. That's the first thing
God does when he crosses our path with this gospel. He said
there, it shall be said, cast ye up, cast ye up, prepare the
way, take up the stumbling block out of the way of my people.
Look over at Isaiah 40. I'm here today with a charge
from God, and here's the charge that God has sent me to declare.
Look at Isaiah 40 and look at verse 3. I'm sent to comfort the Lord's
people. I'm sent to comfort ye, comfort ye my people. Tell them
their warfare is accomplished. But before you can hear that
message, and get on the way, the narrow way, the straight
way, the highway, the king's highway. Before we can do that,
we gotta have our way broke up. And look what he says here in
Isaiah 40 verse 3. The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness,
prepare ye the way of the Lord. Make straight in the desert a
highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted,
and every mountain and hill shall be made low. And the crooked
shall be made straight in the rough places plain, and the glory
of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together,
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it. You see there, he's
talking about to prepare this way. You've got to break that
old road up. The crooked's got to be made straight. The valleys
have got to be exalted and the hills brought low. And the rough
place is made plain. This is getting that road ready,
getting it prepared for the Lord to enter in and put you on this
road. And so what do we cry? Verse 6, Isaiah 40, verse 6. The voice said, Cry, and he said,
What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the
goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field. The grass
withereth, the flower fadeth, because the Spirit of the Lord
blows upon it. Surely the people is grass. Now
listen closely. I'm going to try to do what the
Lord said. I'm going to try to prepare the
way of the Lord. And only He can come in and break this road
up in your heart. But I'm just set to declare that
all flesh is grass. And here's what I'm here to tell
you right now. You, me, and everybody else sitting here. If you are
trusting in your will, in your way, in your works, in any regard,
your wisdom, If you are separated from God in your heart, separated
from God in your body, separated from God's people where His gospel
is preached, if you're separated from God by false preachers or
by false brethren, by lies of any regard in your heart, by
other men or whatever it is, separated from God. And if you're
hiding behind all those excuses that we just went over, all those
different roads that lead away from the true way, if that's
your case and that's where you are, God says to you in Isaiah
57, 12, God says to you, I'll declare thy righteousness in
thy works, they shall not profit thee. They shall not profit thee. When thou criest, let thy companies
deliver thee. The wind will carry them all
away, and vanity shall take them. And I pray God to speak that
word into your heart and break up your vain way. Break up every
false road and every false highway. Just demolish it so that you
can't even go that way. The reason that God must do this,
brethren, is because God is holy. God is holy. Look at verse Isaiah
57, 15. Here's our second point. God
is holy. He says, For... This is why I'm
going to do this. For thus saith the High and Lofty
One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is holy. I dwell in
the high and lofty place. And now watch this. with him
also that is of a contrite and a humble spirit to revive the
spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite one.
Now, you try to think of the highest, most wealthy, most powerful,
most admirable king that has ever been on the face of this
earth. Suppose that king called you and said, I want you to come
to my kingdom. Would you go? I mean, just think about it, man.
Consider it's the greatest, most noble, most highly respected
and highly honored dignitary that has ever been in this world.
And he calls you at your house and he calls you on your cell
phone, says, Will you come to my kingdom? Were you going to
tell him no? What then if you go to his kingdom
and when you get to his kingdom, this high and noble dignitary
tells you, I want you to come and sit at my table. You going
to consider that one of the rarest privileges that anybody could
ever have? And then while you're at the
table, he leans over to you and he says, I'm going to tell you
one of the greatest mysteries that this world has never known. But I'm going to tell it to you.
You going to listen? You going to listen? Brethren,
God. God is the high and lofty one. Scripture says He is the most
high. He's the most high. It says He inhabits eternity. Eternity. Not finite. Not these little temporary places
we dwell in. He dwells in eternity. God lives forever. His dominion
is an everlasting dominion. If you look at the greatest powerful
man that there ever has been in a little while, His dominion
faded and somebody took His place. God's dominion is an everlasting
dominion. His power never fades. It's the
same as it has always been and it shall be. His kingdom is from
generation to generation. His name is holy. Holy. There's none holy as the Lord,
Scripture says. There's none beside Him. There's
not about anybody on His level because He's holy. And there's
nobody else that's holy. He's holy. And the scripture
says there's no rock like our God. He's the rock. There's rocks. You go over to
this quarry right here, and there's some rocks there that are big
rocks. They used to call this right
here the devil's feather bed. Did you know that? Because of
the rocks. Now they changed it to Rocky
Hill. But you know these rocks are not as stable and as lasting
and as eternal and as solid to stand on as our God. There is no rock like our God. He's glorious in holiness. He's
fearful in praises. He's doing wonders. He's holy
and reverent. That's His name. God says, I
dwell in the high and holy place. Thus saith the Lord, The heaven
is my throne. The heaven is my throne and the
earth is my footstool. Where is the house that you build
under me? Where is the place of my rest?
The Lord's high above all nations and His glory above the heavens. You know why some people, that
just does not faze them when they hear this. They're on that
road of unbelief. Can't see it, can't believe it.
That's a pitiful person that can't see something, can't believe
it. Now that's who God is. And you
know what Scripture says you and I are? Dust and ashes. Just dust and ashes. pick you up some dirt out there
on the ground and just let it run through your fingers and
know that's what you were made from and that's what you're going
to return to. You're dust in your ashes. You're dust in your ashes. That's what you are and that's
what I am. We are the un of everything God
is. We're unholy We're unrighteous,
we're unjust, and we're unworthy. We're transgressors against God. We're trespassers on God's property. We're robbers of God's glory. We're haters of God's goodness. We're an abomination to God. And yet, yet this holy king,
this high king, this most holy God in pure sovereign and free
grace calls sinners like us into his kingdom to sit at his table
and reveals to us the mystery that this world has never ever
known. Isn't that amazing? And you're
going to sit there and tell me, I'm going to refuse. I'm not
going to his kingdom. I'm not going to his table. I'm
not going to hear this mystery that he has to tell me. We do
it for an earthly king, but we won't do it for the high and
holy one. You know why? Because we're on our way. We're
on our highway, we're on our Broadway, and we are proud and
covetous and unbelieving, and we can't be turned out of that
way. That's why. By nature, we just
won't. We just won't. We'll believe
a flimsy, finite puff of air which cannot save, but we won't
believe God. And so God has to break us, He
has to cast us down, He has to break our way and break our will
and overpower us and for we'll ever look to Him and believe.
Now, in Scripture, Egypt and horses and chariots were pictures
of our sin. They're pictures of our pride
and our covetousness and our unbelief. You know, in Israel,
they never had horses. If you read scripture, they didn't
have horses in Israel. Why? Because Israel was a picture
of God's kingdom where everybody depends on God and not horses
and chariots and those powerful allies. We depend on God. But
the children of Israel, who God told this and taught this to,
they rejected that high and holy king. They rejected that holy
one, just like men today are doing, just like some here are
doing. They rejected him. They rejected his kingdom. They rejected his table. They
rejected his gospel because of their pride and covetousness
and unbelief. But you know what they did instead?
They look to Egypt and to their horses and to their chariots.
Look over at Isaiah 31 and look at verse 1. This is that broad way, that
false highway. Look here, Isaiah 31.1. Woe to
them that go down to Egypt for help. This is God speaking. And
stay on horses and trust in chariots because they are many. And in
horsemen, because they're very strong, but they look not unto
the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the Lord. Look at verse
3. The Egyptians are men and not
God, and their horses are flesh and not spirit. When the Lord
shall stretch out His hand, both he that helpeth shall fall, and
he that is helped shall fall down, and they all shall fail
together. Now that's what God says. Why
are sinners sitting here right here this morning making the
same mistake that the children of Israel made in Isaiah's day? Why is that? Why is that? It's because sinners right here
are just as proud and just as covetous and just as unbelieving.
That's why. Now, if you were traveling from
Babylon, I think this is a beautiful picture. God did this. This High
and Holy One did this. If you were traveling from Babylon,
Eventually, you're going to come to what's called the King's Highway.
And when you're on the King's Highway, that leads you into
Jerusalem, to that literal Jerusalem, that literal Mount Zion of the
earth. It leads you in there. But they
say when you got closer, started getting a little closer to Jerusalem,
that there was so many stumbling stones in that highway that the
mighty horseman, he had to get down off his horse. And the privileged
man that rode in his chariot had to get out of his chariot.
And a lowly servant went before them and picked the stones up
and threw them out of the way so they wouldn't stumble over
them and they had to walk into Jerusalem. God did that. Why did he do that? He did it
to show us a picture of what he's declaring right here in
this word, brethren. He's the High and Holy One, and
He only dwells with those who are of a contrite spirit. He
only dwells with those that are of a humbled spirit. And so God
sends forth His Gospel, and through His Gospel He makes the strong,
proud, covetous, unbelieving sinner come down off his high
horse. He makes him come down out of
his chariot. I'm that lowly servant going
before you this morning, pulling the stumbling blocks out of the
way, and getting them out of the way, so that you can walk
into holy Jerusalem, heavenly Jerusalem, heavenly Mount Zion.
God's presence. And only God can make that word
effectual. But brethren, isn't that a beautiful
picture? It shows us our need. If He makes
this word effectual in your heart, you're going to come down. You're
going to come down. When He's entered in, He said,
I dwell in the holy and high place, and I dwell with those
who are of a contrite and broken heart. When He dwells in you,
the first thing He's going to do is break break your heart,
make you contrite and bring you down. That's the first thing
he's going to do. And then this is the next thing
he's going to do. He says in verse 14, And I dwell
with him also to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the
heart of the contrite one. You see, when he's given you
a new spirit, it made you humble. And he's given you a new spirit,
it made you contrite. Then, Now, when you're so low
that you think He's just going to destroy you, and you're so
broken that you think He's going to just break you to pieces,
then, by that same Spirit dwelling in us, He revives the contrite
and revives the humble. This is what He does. And He
does it for this reason. Jeremiah 42.3 says that the Lord
thy God may show us the way wherein we may walk. and the thing that
we may do. Luke 1 and verse 79 says to give
light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death to
guide our feet into the way of peace. That year they worked
on that highway in front of my house after they broke everything
up broke down the, broke down, made the hills low and the valleys
higher and straightened out the curves and made the rough places
plain. After they did all that work, then they started laying
the foundation and putting down the new highway, building a new
road. And this is what God does. After
He's broke your heart, He revives you in spirit by laying this
new foundation, showing you Christ is the way, the only way, the
way into God's heavenly presence, into heavenly Jerusalem. Out
of this Babylon, into His presence. Turn over to Isaiah 35, in verse
8. Let's begin up in verse 3. Strengthen
ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees. This is his
word to his preacher. This is how you prepare this
way. Now you're broken. You've seen your flesh is grass.
Now he says, Strengthen the weak hands, and confirm the feeble
knees. Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear
not. Behold, your God will come with
vengeance, even God with a recompense. He'll come and save you. Then
the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf
shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap
as a heart, and the tongue of the dumb sing. For in the wilderness
shall waters break out, and streams in the desert. And the parched
ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water.
In the habitation of dragons where each lay shall be grass
with reeds and rushes." What does that mean? It means he's
going to revive your spirit. That place where dragons dwell
is in you. That place that was a desert
was you. And this is His reviving. Him making the water of life
spring up into you. And then here's what He does.
And a high way shall be there. A new way, a new highway shall
be there. And a way, and it shall be called
the way of holiness. This is what it is to be sanctified
by God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. This
is what it is when He breaks you in your heart so that you
can't lift up your eyes to heaven, so that you can't look to your
vain way anymore. You see it's worthless and nothing. And that's what you are. And
then He revives you in your spirit, in your heart, because He dwells
in you. There's a way now. In your heart,
through faith, and you see Christ is the way, and that's the way
of holiness. You've been sanctified when that
happens. He's taken you out of your false way and put you in
the way of holiness. Now, if He's taken you out of
that false way and put you in that way of holiness, are you going to be in that way more? No, you're in that way. It's
done. You're in the way. You're not
going to be in the way anymore than you're in it now. You're
in that way. And you're not in that way and in this other way.
You're in that way, the way of holiness. That's what it is when
He sanctifies you. You're sanctified. You're sanctified. And you're in the way of holiness
now. You're in this highway that's leading to heavenly Jerusalem
and new Jerusalem. Look here. And He says, "...and
the unclean shall not pass over it." Nobody that's unclean, nobody
that's unsanctified, nobody that's still wanting to be in that other
way are going to be able to get in this way. You see what I'm
saying? This is a new man that's in this
way. Yeah, you got that old man of
flesh and he's still, all he is is the old way. And that's
all he'll ever be, till he dies. But this new man's who we're
talking about, and this new man, he's in Christ's way. And this
new man's not unclean, he's been, he's pure, he's created by God.
And look at this. It shall be for those the wayfaring
men. Though fools, they shall not
err therein. You see, there's another scripture. He says, when you turn to the
right hand or to the left, you're going to hear a voice saying,
this is the way, walk ye in it. And that's from the day he begins
this work in his people. He doesn't turn you to the right
or let you turn to the right or the left. He doesn't let you
go back to those false places. He keeps you in this way. in
Christ the way. Because Christ has died for His
people. Christ has redeemed His people. Christ is our wisdom,
our righteousness, and our sanctification. Christ is everything we need
in our redemption. He's everything we need to come
into God's presence. He's the way. When He says He's
the way, it means just like that door right there is the way you
walk into that room right there. Christ is the door. He's the
way that you enter into God's presence. You can't enter any
other way. Look at this now. He says, And
no lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereof.
It shall not be found there. God's going to say He's going
to preserve His people in this way. When you're in Christ and
hedged about, nobody can touch you. What's going to separate
us from the love of God that's in Christ Jesus? Nothing. Nothing. No lions in this way. You won't
have any beasts come up on this highway all of a sudden and snatch
you and drag you out into the forest. That's not going to happen.
He's going to keep His people in this way. And look here. But
the redeemed shall walk there. The redeemed shall walk there.
Those whom Christ has bought with His own blood. You walk
up to this highway, it's like the Pennsylvania Turnpike. You
walk up this highway and they say, I want to see your ticket.
How are you getting on this highway? You say, the only right I have
to enter onto this highway is my Lord Jesus Christ and His
precious blood because He redeemed me. And God says, come right
on the way. Enter into the way through faith
in Him. Look at this. And the ransomed
of the Lord, those that have been purchased and ransomed,
the ransoms have been paid. You were held by Satan for ransom,
like a kidnapped child. And Christ paid the ransom, the
price of His own blood. The ransomed of the Lord shall
return and come to Zion. with songs and everlasting joy
upon their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. You know why they're
going to do it? Go back to our text. Back to
our text. Isaiah 57. And look at the end
there of verse 13. Or let's just read 13. He says,
When you cry, you that are trusting in a vain way, let your company
deliver you. But the wind shall carry them
away, all of them, and vanity shall take them. But here's why
the ransomed are going to return to heavenly Jerusalem, to His
holy mountain. Because God said it from the
beginning. He that putteth his trust in
Me shall possess the land and shall inherit My holy mountain. God took us out of the vain way
and God put us in the right way. Christ the way, and God's going
to keep us in Him, and lead us, and guide us, and preserve us,
and He's going to bring us to that mountain. Because before
the foundation of the world, before He ever even let us know
He existed, He said, those that trust in Me are going to inherit
this land. They're going to inherit My holy
mountain. He gives us, He takes us out of the false way and puts
us in the new way. He gives us, breaks our old spirit
and gives us a new spirit. He gives us the faith and the
repentance to turn from that vain way and get in Christ the
way and follow Christ the way. And He preserves us in that way
and brings us that way. And He says now, you possess
this, this is your inheritance because you trusted in Me. Because
you trusted in Me. And He did it all and does it
all. Isn't that wonderful? Next time we're going to look
at the next part of it. Let's just read this out and
then we'll come to it next time. He says in verse 16, For I will
not contend forever, neither will I be always wroth. For the
spirit should fail before me, and the souls which I have made."
When he's doing this work, it feels like he's going to contend
with you forever. It feels like he's so angry with you, and it
feels like that you're going to just fail. Your spirit and
your soul is going to just perish. That's what it feels like. Look
at this, verse 17. He says, For the iniquity of
his covetousness was a wrath. He says, And I smote him, He
talked about you he dealt with. I hid me and was wroth. And he
went on forwardly in the way of his heart. You see, just God
smiting you and correcting you, chastening you, that wouldn't
correct you. We went on in our pride of our heart. Look at this. I've seen his ways. I've seen
his ways. And I will heal him. I will lead
him also. Lead us in this way, and I'll
restore comforts unto him and to his mourners all our fellows
You know why he doesn't spite us like we deserve and like when
we think he's Smitten us as hard as he could but he didn't you
know why he smote his son He smote his son in our room instead
so he just turns us into the way And it comes to us is chastening
and hard and we think our souls gonna perish because we don't
like to be corrected But He makes us like it. He makes us like
it. And look at this. He said, and
I'm going to comfort him in his mourners. I create the fruit
of the lips. I put that fruit on your lips. And here it is. Peace, peace
to him that is far off and to him that is near, saith the Lord,
and I will heal him. Now, sinner, let me tell you
something about this. This is all grace. All of this is grace. You know why? Because there we
were in Babylon with all the other children of Israel or everybody
else in this world. There we all were together in
Babylon. There we all were looking at all our ways and rejoicing
in all our ways and just ignoring God's way. And yet God healed
us and put us in this way. But now look what He says. This
is what would have been the case if He had left us to ourselves.
But the wicked, but the wicked, are like the troubled sea, when
it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There
is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked. You see what grace
that is? He did this for somebody. They
went on forward, we went on forwardly in our heart, in our pride, in
our covetousness, in our rebellion, just like the wicked did. The
difference is, God saved us. by His grace. Was it His fault
that the others were like the troubled sea and have no peace? Not His fault. He left them to
themselves. They do what they will. But thank
God He didn't leave us to ourselves. Thank God He put us in the way
and broke up our old highway. Aren't you glad? I'm so glad. I go home to see my parents now.
I pull onto that highway. Man, it's a smooth highway. It's
new. You don't hardly ever feel a
curve. You don't get on any blind hills
anymore, go down any deep valleys anymore. It's just a smooth ride. And you know what it does? When
I turn onto that road, I don't stop on that road till I pull
up and I'm at my father's house. And we're not going to leave
this highway till we're at our father's house. Amen.