Alright, now let's turn to Isaiah
51. Isaiah chapter 51. Now in the
last chapter, it was Christ that was speaking through Isaiah.
It was Christ who was speaking that whole chapter. And He was
showing us in that chapter how that the Father opened His ear
and how that He was not rebellious, he didn't turn back, he served
the Father, set his face like a flint, came and served the
Father faithfully. And he tells us then, he says,
now, you may be walking in darkness, you may be in great trial and
great sorrow as you walk in, and he says, but now you trust
in the Lord God, stay upon me, obey the voice of God's servant. And he was talking about himself.
And he warned those that kindle a fire and walk in their own
fire. And he said, if you go on being
rebellious and walk in that fire, and he said, and of my hand this
is what you'll receive, you'll lay down in sorrow. Now here
Christ keeps speaking. He keeps speaking and he spoke
that last word to those who were being rebellious and he said,
you're going to lay down in sorrow. But now he turns here and he
speaks to us in his church. And he says here to us in verse
1, hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that
seek the Lord. The righteousness that believers
follow is the Lord our righteousness, is Christ our righteousness.
That's who we're following. And that's what he's saying,
follow me is what he's saying, follow me. Those who are carnal,
They turn and try to follow after the righteousness that they think
they can obtain in the law. He's not saying turn back to
that. He's saying you follow Me. Keep following Me. Righteousness
has been freely given to those born of God by the obedience
of Christ. Now three times here He gives
this command to hearken. And each time He gives it, He
says, hearken to Me. All three times, hearken to me.
It's Him that He's commanding His people to hearken to and
to follow. Now, I want to show you here
that the Lord comforts His people. He assures His church right here
that He shall save His people Himself. That's what He's assuring
us of. He's going to use us and He's
strengthening us to be used of Him, but He's assuring us He's
going to do the work. Alright, let's use these three
hearkens in our text to mark our divisions and we'll read
them as we go. Here's the first point. The Lord
assures us that He's going to call, He's going to bless, and
He's going to increase His church. Look at verse 1. Hearken to Me,
ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord. Look unto
the rock whence you were hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence
you were digged. Look unto Abraham your father,
and unto Sarah that bear you. For I called him alone, and blessed
him and increased him. For the Lord shall comfort Zion. Now here, that's his point. The
Lord shall comfort Zion. He will comfort all her waste
places and he will make her wilderness like Eden and her desert like
the garden of the Lord. joy and gladness shall be found
therein, thanksgiving in the voice of melody." That's the
first promise, the first assurance. He's going to increase his children.
He said, don't you fret about that. I'm going to handle that. Here's the second point. The
Lord assures us that from him the gospel shall proceed and
be effectual. That's why he assures us he's
going to provide for us because his gospel is going to sound
forth through his church, through Mount Zion. All right, look at
verse 4. Hearken unto me, my people, and
give ear unto me, my nation, for a law shall proceed from
me. and I will make my judgment to
rest for a light of the people. My righteousness is near. My
salvation is gone forth, and mine arms shall judge the people.
The isles shall wait upon me, and on my arms shall they trust. And so here's the application
he gives. He says, now lift up your eyes
to the heavens and look upon the earth beneath, for the heavens
shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like
a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner. But my salvation shall be forever,
and my righteousness shall not be abolished. All right, now
that's the second point. He says, my gospel's gonna go
forth. You can be assured, and it's
going to be effectual. Now here's the third point. The Lord commands
us therefore not to fear the reproach of men. Not to fear
the reproach of men. Verse 7. Hearken unto me, ye
that know righteousness. The people in whose heart is
my law, and whose heart is my gospel, the everlasting covenant
of grace. Fear ye not the reproach of men,
neither be ye afraid of their revilings. For the moth shall
eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like
wool. But my righteousness shall be forever, and my salvation
from generation to generation. Now the Lord assures us first
here that He shall give the increase in His church. He assures us
of this. He's comforting His church. He's
strengthening us here. You and I, right here, He's strengthening
us. It's easy for us to be discouraged. Easy for us to get discouraged
when we look at ourselves. When we look at ourselves. You
know, for instance, the Kellers and the Dormientos went to Mr. Keller's house to visit this
weekend. And I love it when we're all here together. I'm strengthened
by that, when we're all here together. But any time I see
just one family gone, it makes me realize how small we are. It makes me realize what a little
flock this is, how weak we are. And it's easy to look at things
like that and to get discouraged, to get very discouraged. At the
time that Isaiah was sent here of the Lord with this word, Israel
was in Babylonian captivity. And there they are, and you know,
it's just like in our day, to most of the Israelites, Babylon
was a good place. It was a wealthy place, and they
provided well for the Israelites. They didn't want them rebelling
against them. It's not like what we think of when we think of
slavery and all that. I mean, it was a wealthy place. They had taken away lots of their
privileges, just like Rome had done in the days when our Lord
came. It was the same situation, but they had it pretty good.
They had it pretty good. And in that day, most of Israel
was saying just what the scribes and Pharisees were saying in
the day of the Lord come. They were saying, don't rock
the boat. Don't get the Romans upset. If you do, they're going to come
and destroy our nation and the Messiah won't come. And so most
people were saying, everything's okay. Don't rock the status quo
here. What's going on? Because we don't
want, you know, we like what we got. At least we got this.
But the remnant in that group, the remnant there, the true remnant,
the true believers, just like today, everybody's looking at
the church visible that you can see, and they're saying, oh,
everything's great. It's just flourishing like never
before, and the gospel's going forth. True believers know there's
a famine in the land. There's a famine of bread in
the land. And those true remnant in that day, they knew there's
a famine in the land. But our head, He sent forth this
gospel to comfort them, and our head right now sends forth the
gospel to comfort us. He's graciously fit us together
in His body, and He's left us in this world to be His witnesses. That's what He's left us here
for, to be His witnesses. Because by the witness that He
bears through us, He's calling out His people. That's what He's
going to do. And you know, people will look at us and they'll reproach
us and they'll say, well, you're not much of a witness for him. I beg to differ. You know why? Because one of the ways in which
his people are witness to him is that he shows through our
utter weakness that all the power is of him. We're witnesses in
that regard, that we don't have any strength in ourselves, that
we don't have any power in ourselves, that we are nothings and nobodies. That's exact. He chooses us foolish
things. He chooses us weak things. He
chooses us base things, brethren, so that through us he can manifest
that the power and the wisdom is Christ our Lord. It's not
us. It's not us. So the Lord tells
us to look somewhere else other than ourselves. Look at verse
1. He says, look unto the rock whence you were hewn, and to
the hole of the pit whence you're digged. Look unto Abraham your
father, and unto Sarah that bear you. I like it when the Lord
tells us to look at a trophy of His grace. That's what He's
doing. He's saying, look at some of my trophies. That's what He's
telling us to do. Look back at them. Abraham's
our father. That's who he is. Abraham's our
father. If you be Christ, then are you
Abraham's seed. He's the father of the faithful.
Abraham's our father. Remember how God promised Abraham
a seed? He said, I'm going to bless you
with a seed, Abraham. And he promised him a seed was
going to be born through that seed. A multitude of children
that no man could number from all the nations of the earth
were going to be born through that seed. Well, that seed was
Christ. And that seed that would be born
through Him was all these select people. Well, God's made the
same... Christ our Head has made the
same promise to us through the Spirit of God. He's written the
everlasting covenant of grace on our heart. the law on our
heart. His law, the words of the gospel,
the laws of the gospel, the promises of the gospel is what He's written
on our heart. And He's promised us that Christ is that seed.
And He's promised us that through Him, He's going to bring forth
a seed. He's going to bring forth His
elect children to life in the light. And He's going to join
them with us. That's His promise to us. I'm
not just preaching to hear myself speak. I want to see, I know
that God builds up you, I know He edifies us sitting here and
increases us sitting here, and that is an increase, and I'm
thankful. I want to see His sheep called.
I want to see sheep called out of darkness into His light to
rejoice in His gospel. Now He may do it in a way that
we don't ever see it. And I'll be content with that,
but He's promised us He'll do it, and I want to see it just
like He promised Abraham. And Abraham wanted to see it.
He wanted to see it. So we expect it. And so He tells
us here, but the power that's going to bring that to pass,
it's not us. It's not us at all. It's going
to be Him. The power that brought that to
pass for Abraham and for Sarah, it wasn't Abraham and Sarah.
Abraham was just an old dry rock. And Sarah's womb was dried up. She couldn't have any children.
And it wasn't their wisdom that brought it to pass. On one occasion,
they decided they'd look to their wisdom and see if they could
bring forth this seed that the Lord promised. That's what men
are doing in our day. Men get tired of waiting on God
to do the work, and men say, well, let's just see if we can't
bring forth this seed. So they start having puppet shows,
and they start preaching through TV series and watching shows
and telling moral stories and all that. trying to look at prophecy and
eschatology and end times ministering and all this stuff. People delight
in that stuff. You know why? All that stuff
points us to us. All that stuff points us to the
flesh. All that stuff points us to the earthy. And men love
anything that's earthy. We got deep roots in this ground.
And we love anything that's of the earth and earthy. But he
says, don't you err, don't you turn to your wisdom like they
did. That seed is Christ and the power
and the wisdom is Christ. And so He says to us, look to
Christ the Rock. Look to Him. Look to Him. Christ
our Head, He does use members of His body. For us, it could
just as well be said to us, the same thing, the same pattern
here, it could be said to us, look back to the early church.
Look back. The Lord came. And nobody was
opening their arms for him. Nobody was jumping to jump in
leagues with him and help him in any regard. But he went forth
and he called these fishermen out and called men out with no
reputation about them whatsoever, no form, no comeliness about
them, nothing about them that's going to attract anybody whatsoever.
And he didn't call but 12, just 12. And from that, he began to
call others, and he established his church. By the time he left,
he had established the foundation of his church. And he left, and
within just a little while of being gone, having received the
promise of the Spirit, he shed forth the Spirit, the Holy Ghost,
and they went and preached at Pentecost. And he saved 3,000
there. And a little while later, they were being told, don't preach,
don't preach. They were being thrown in prison
and all these things, and they stood up anyway and preached
the gospel, and the Lord saved 5,000 there. Added 5,000 to the
church. And He just kept doing it, and
kept doing it. Finally, they were so attached to Jerusalem,
He wouldn't leave Jerusalem, so He just let down the walls
of persecution, and they were persecuted, and they were scattered
into all the world, and they just went preaching everywhere
they went. And he just went saving people, saving people, saving
people everywhere he sent them. That's what He did. That's how
He operates. That's how He saves. So He's
telling us here, He's called us and He's united us the same
way. And He's using us the same way. And so He's telling us here
that the power though, don't ever forget, the power and the
wisdom by which this thing's gonna be done is Him. As He said
in Zechariah, it's not by our might, not by our power, but
by my spirit, said the Lord of hosts. That's how this work's
gonna be done. So look at verse 1 again. He
says, I called him alone. I called Abraham alone. The Lord
alone called Abraham. Just like He called His people
in the early church. That's right. He alone, we saw
this morning, He called us from eternity by divine election.
Just like He called you who believe. The Lord alone called Abraham
out of all his idolatry. And when He did it, it was effectual.
He did it. And the Lord called, He called
His early apostles, and He called His, after He went to glory.
He called Lydia, He called the eunuch, He called the Philippian
jailer. We got this picture after picture of Him calling people.
Alone. Him doing it alone. And you say,
well, no, He used to preach. No, the Lord alone did it. Paul
said that. He said, I labored more than
they all. He said, yet not I. the grace of God working mightily
in me. He was the one, Christ is the one getting the glory
for that. And he said, and I blessed him. He blessed Abraham with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. And then he
blessed him when he called him. And he circumcised his heart
and he gave him a new heart to follow after the Lord. And he
blessed him with free justification in Christ. He blessed him with
righteousness in Christ. He blessed him with sanctification
in Christ. He blessed him with redemption in Christ. And he
blessed him with all his earthly provisions as well. He provided
for him completely. And then there in verse 1 he
says, and I increased him. Increased him personally in his
heart, teaching him, edifying him, growing him in grace. All
those trials we see Abraham go through, you know what that was
for? To grow him. Together with the Word, God was
increasing him in spirit inwardly. He increased him with spiritual
seed outwardly. He gave him Isaac and Jacob. He gave him, he gave him lot. He gave him some to worship with
him, that believed with him. His wife Sarah. And he's still
increasing him. Every time that he calls one
of his elect out and calls them into Christ, into the light,
he's still increasing Abraham with his children he promised
to increase him with. So he says to us, brethren, when we begin
to feel discouraged, look here at verse 3. The Lord shall comfort
Zion. Zion's his church. That's his
church. The Lord shall comfort Zion.
He will comfort all her waste places. by his spirit, by him
ministering his word to our hearts and blessing us with more grace,
by calling and adding to his church daily, such as should
be saved, by increasing us from our lowest state. Look at verse
three, and he'll make her wilderness like Eden. and her desert like
the garden of the Lord. Where it was dry, wilderness,
He's going to make it like the garden of Eden, like the garden
of the Lord. He's the husbandman. His church
is a vineyard of red wine. He said, I, the Lord, do keep
it. I will water it every moment, lest any hurt it. I'll keep it
night and day. And He says, in joy and gladness
shall be found therein, thanksgiving and the voice of melody. Because
He's doing that. Look over to 1 Corinthians. 1
Corinthians 2. The Corinthians, they were arguing. One would say, well, I'm of Apollos. One would say, I'm of Paul. Some
would say, I'm of Christ. Some of them were saying, put
too much emphasis on a preacher, and some of them were putting
no emphasis. They were saying, we don't even
need a preacher. We were saved by Christ. Christ called us.
And Paul's correcting that all through the first couple of three
chapters of Corinthians. But look at what he says right
here in 1 Corinthians 3. Verse four, while one saith I'm
of Paul and another I'm of Apollos, are you not carnal? Who then
is Paul? Who's Apollos? But watch this,
but ministers by whom you believed even as the Lord gave to every
man. I have planted a pile of water,
but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth
anything, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase. Do you see that? He gives the
increase. Alright, let's look at the second
thing. Now the Lord first, He assured us, He's going to give
the increase. He's going to add, He's going to minister to His
church. He's going to comfort His people.
Now here's the second thing He tells us. He assures us that
His gospel shall be published and it's going to be published
effectually. Verse 4, He says, Hearken unto Me, My people, and
give ear unto Me, O My nation. Remember His people, His true
Israel, His redeemed that have been assembled together? Peter
says, we're a house. We're built up, a spiritual house.
And He called us a holy nation, a royal priesthood that we should
show forth His praises. And it's not like what this world
is saying to go forth in the world and do things to where
everybody's going to see Christ in you. draw attention to yourself,
make everybody say, oh, don't he just look like Christ? If
they do that, they're going to hang you up on a cross. How do
we show forth his praises? We sound forth the gospel. His
church is the platform of the great works which Christ has
done. We show forth what he's done. And he's saying to us here,
that's what he's going to do. And he's going to provide all
things necessary for us so that that happens. Verse four, he
says, for a law shall proceed from me. from me. I just showed
you. Paul said, we planted, we watered,
but it came from him. It came directly from him. This
is not the law from Mount Sinai. This is the gospel from Mount
Zion. This is the gospel he ministers
through his church. Isaiah 2.3 says this, Many people
shall go and say, Come ye, let us go up to the mountain of the
Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. And he will teach us
of his ways, and we'll walk in his paths, for out of Zion shall
go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He
said, I'll give you pastors according to my heart. He said in Jeremiah
23, I'm woe to the shepherds that have scattered my sheep.
And he said, but in that day I'm going to set up true shepherds
and they're going to feed you because this is what's written
in the prophets. Christ is the one who told these
prophets to write what they wrote. telling us what He was going
to do when He came and took His throne in glory and began ministering
in His resurrection glory to us. That's what He's telling
us. The law is going to go forth from Mount Zion and it's doing
that. He shall not fail until He has
set judgment in the earth. It shall not fail. Paul called
the gospel a law in Romans 8 too. He said the law of the Spirit
of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and
death. It's the gospel of the Spirit of life coming to me,
which is all in Christ Jesus. That's how I've been made free
from the law of Mount Sinai. So this law we're talking about
is the gospel. Look at verse 4 again. He says, A law shall
proceed. The gospel shall proceed. It shall be preached in all the
world. You know how much comfort that
gives me? If he is in this work right here,
I'm like Moses, if you don't go with us, I don't even want
to go forth. So if it comes to nothing, good,
because that meant he wasn't in it. But if he is in it, this
is my assurance, I have. The gospel shall go forth from
this place. It shall proceed. Look at verse
4, from me. From me, he said. The gospel
is proceeding from Christ himself. God gives it to Christ our Head,
Christ gives it to His Ambassadors, His Ambassadors preach it, and
Christ sends the Spirit, making it effectual in the hearts of
His people. That's how it is. Just how it is. And you know
who gets all the glory? God the Father, and His Son Christ
Jesus, and the Spirit of God. That's it. Verse four, and I'll
make my judgment to rest for a light of the people. I love
to hear the Lord speaking, I wills and I shall. I will make my judgment
to rest for a light of the people. Judgment right here, my judgment,
judgment right here means a verdict. That's what it means, a verdict.
Now all judgment has been given to Christ. And this is who's
speaking. And this one who is the judge. This One who has fulfilled all
righteousness, He says, I'm going to make my verdict to rest for
a light of the people. Justice is satisfied for all
God's elect by Christ in Him crucified. That's the verdict.
The work's done. The judge has hit the, he's hit
the The gavel down on the bench and he said, case dismissed. He's justified. Justified. Mercy is justly showered upon
all his elect because they are righteous in Christ by what he's
done. That's the verdict. God is the
justifier because God provided himself a lamb in his son, the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's the verdict. And he says,
and I'll make my judgment, my verdict, my gospel to rest for
a light of the people, for a light of the people. He does so in
the heart that he's quickened and given faith to receive him. He makes his verdict to be settled
in the court of our conscience for a light of the people, to
lighten us, to give us light, to give us his light. That is
spiritual discernment. As Paul said, we have the mind
of Christ. He's given us, he's told us the
mystery. He's revealed it to us. He's
given it to us in our heart, Chris. We got it. That's right. Covenant he's remember. He said
I'm gonna give I'm gonna give Christ for a covenant of the
people for a light of the Gentiles My servant my legs mama uphold
he shall not fail. I'm gonna give him for a covenant
of the people It's Christ formed in you where that everlasting
Covenant is written on our hearts and there we've got the light
and from then on here's how we discern everything He that's
born of the Spirit. He discerns all things he judges
all men and yet he's judged of no man and Here's how we judge. Here's how we have this spiritual
discernment. Does it glorify God and give
Christ all the glory and put man flat-faced down in the dust
and declare that he's nothing? If it does, it's true. If it
doesn't, it's a lie. We got that key of knowledge
now. We got that key of knowledge. Look at verse 5. Here's why he's
doing this through the gospel. He said, my righteousness is
near. Do you remember what Paul said
in Romans 10, 8? He said, the word is nigh thee,
even in thy mouth and in thy heart. That is the word of faith,
which we preach. He said, this is why I'm doing
it, through the Word. Because my righteousness is near.
It comes near. It comes into the heart of His
people. Verse 5, And my salvation is gone forth, and mine arms
shall judge the people. What did Isaiah say over in Isaiah
53? To whom is the arm of the Lord
revealed. That's what he said. I'm going
to reveal my righteousness. And when he reveals the arm of
the Lord, when Christ is revealed, then we're no longer ashamed
of the gospel. For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith. For as it is written,
the just shall live by faith. And then we behold Christ standing
there from His throne in glory with His arms wide open. And
we run into His arms and He receives us and holds us and keeps us
and protects us from then on. Now this is why he said, a loss
won't go forth from me. This is the work he's doing through
it. Our gracious head, so it says to us then, he says, now
hear me and be sure that you know why I'm gonna keep you. Because verse six, lift up your
eyes to the heavens and look upon the earth beneath, for the
heavens shall vanish away like smoke and the earth shall act
old like a garment and they that dwell therein shall die in like
manner. when we're born of the Spirit
of God and made new creatures in Christ, you know what happens?
Old things pass away. Behold, all things become new. When our high priest writes the
everlasting covenant on our hearts, he makes the first old. Now that
which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away. And
Christ becomes the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believes. And all those old things, they
vanish away. This is how Christ is going to
make his people join with us. He's going to create them anew
in the heart. And they're not going to speak of that ark anymore.
They're not going to speak of that law anymore. They're not
going to speak of their works anymore. They're not going to
go around bragging about everything they've done anymore. All those
old things are going to pass away. And when we're born of
that Spirit of God, the Kingdom of God is within us. There's
a new man created in righteousness and true holiness so that we
never vanish away. We never pass away. We need to
stop saying that about people. I say it. He passed away. We
don't pass away. All the earth and our flesh and
all the things that are under the curse, they all pass away.
But we don't pass away. Look at verse 6. My salvation
shall be forever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished. Look
over at 1 Peter 1. I'll show you how Peter put all
that. 1 Peter 1, 23. He was quoting from another scripture
in Isaiah, but it's the same statement that's being made.
1 Peter 1.23, You see what He's doing? This
is why now. Because it's through His bride
that Christ our Husband births His seed into newborn babes with
the incorruptible seed, the Word of God by which the Gospel is
preached unto His people. Our Lord assures His church,
He shall provide for us. This word shall go forth till
we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of
the Son of God to the fullness of His body, which is the fullness
of Him, the completeness of Him. Now who's sufficient for these
things? Our Prophet gathers us together. He strengthens us with
each other. That's why He gathers us. That's
why he says he ministers effectually in every part and strengthens
the whole body thereby. I need that. I need that. I need that from you. I need
to hear you Not bragging on me, I need to hear you bragging on
my Redeemer. I need to hear you rejoicing
in these things, rejoicing in Him. That's what I need to hear.
And He knits us together for that purpose because I need to
hear it because this gospel is offensive. It's so offensive. When it crosses a person's false
refuge, it becomes very offensive. And when it does, a drowning
man is so dangerous. He's so dangerous. He's lashing,
he's fighting, he's striving to stay afloat, he's striving
to hang on, and he's striving for anything he can to try to
keep afloat. You just think about how offended
men were when Paul preached the gospel. Just think about it.
Here they were, sure, as sincere as anybody could be, that they
were saved, that they knew God, that they were the elect of God,
they were the people of God, just sure of it. And Paul comes
along telling them that circumcision avails nothing. Uncircumcision avails nothing.
And when he did that, he took their theology, their whole system,
their dead letter system of theology, and took it upside down and dumped
it on its head and poured it out like a bunch of toys poured
out on the floor. And they, they, he's telling
them, you mean all my works that I've done? You mean the fact
that I've been circumcised in the flesh and I've been keeping
the law all my days? You mean I'm a, I'm a, I'm a
Hebrew of Hebrews. I'm of the tribe of Benjamin.
I'm a Pharisee of the Pharisees. And you mean to tell me none
of this counts for anything? Paul said, nothing, nothing. And they said, and you mean to
tell us those Gentile dogs out there, those uncircumcision,
those ones out there that are not even fit to come into our
holy presence, you mean to tell me that they can be saved? And Peter said, not only can
they be saved, we believe us Jews are going to be saved in
the manner in which they are saved. You talk about wreck somebody's
theology. And they got so mad and they
got so offended, they were so angry about everything he was
saying. Why make a bunch of helpless
people who have no power in us, why make us unite together? And
why make us bear that suffering? Why make us bear that reproach? It has to do with the servant
not being above his master. That's why. It has to do with
suffering with Christ. That's why. Here comes the Incarnate
Word. The Incarnate Word. The essential
Word was made flesh. And here He comes. Now He walks
into our midst. And he comes into a synagogue
and he stands up and he reads the Scriptures. Why didn't he
just read them and just sit down? Nobody would have ever been offended.
Nobody would have ever said anything. Everybody could have decided
it means what I want it to mean. And if I don't like it, I can
turn the page and read something else that means what I want it
to mean. Why didn't he just read the Scriptures and sit down?
He didn't do that. He said to them, he said, this
day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. He said, I'm the
one that God has anointed to preach the gospel to the broken
hearted. And you know what they did? They
said, don't listen to him. That fellow that was in here
preaching yesterday, now he was preaching, that was a message
from God for us. This is Joseph's son who we know. Don't listen to him, this is
just a man talking. And he said to him, why didn't
he just walk away? Why didn't he just quit preaching? Why didn't he just not say anything
else? He went on preaching. He said,
you know, Elias the prophet was sent. And he said in the day
when he was sent, there was a whole bunch of widows in Israel. And boy, they perked up and listened.
We're of Israel. We're the sons of Abraham. We're
of the law. Let's hear what happened to them.
And he said, and to none of them was he sent. None of those fine,
proud Jews. None of them. Instead, he was
sent to a widow down in Sarepta, a town in Zayden, a Gentile woman. And by that He told them, salvation
is by grace. By that He preached to them and
said, God's salvation is sovereign. He gives it to whom He will and
He passes by whom He will. By that He said, it's not of
Him that willeth nor of Him that runneth, but of God that shows
mercy. By that He said, you're not born of blood because you're
related to the Israelites. It's not of the will of man.
It's not of the will of the flesh. God! That's why he said it. That's
why he preached it. That's what he preached. He said,
God saves by sovereign, divine, electing grace. And you know
what they did after he said that? They got in such a rage, they
took him and they took him up to the brow of a hill, up on
a cliff there, and they were going to throw him off of there
and kill him. And he passed through their midst
and went on, and he went to another place and preached. And they
were astounded that he preached with power, authority, authority. So why is it then that he sends
forth us? Why didn't he just send us forth
to just read the Scripture and not say anything? It has to do
with suffering with Christ. It has to do with being rejected.
It has to do with bearing His cross. That's why. He's manifesting, as Paul said
in Ephesians, He's manifesting, through this means, His manifold
wisdom. by the church, by what he's doing
with his people in his church. He's manifesting the manifold
wisdom of God to angels and powers and principalities in heavenly
places. They're looking in on what he's
doing with us here and learning the manifold wisdom of God. That
tells me that this thing God's doing and how he's doing it has
a very important purpose. It's according to the wisdom
of God. So the Master keeps on giving us His Word. And He'll
give you this Word. He'll give you this Word. And
He'll put it on your heart in such a way. And you think, that's
going to be offensive. That's going to be offensive.
I don't want to offend anybody. I don't want to offend anybody.
And He keeps laying it on your heart, laying it on your heart.
He won't let you leave this word. You turn over to another scripture,
there it is. You turn over to this other scripture,
there it is. You got three or four books you've
been going through, just going verse by verse. And you go to
each one of them, there it is. You go to the next one, you're
right at that spot. You come to the next one, there's
that word in that one. You come to the next one, there
it is in that one. And He makes you to understand, you're going
to preach this word. You're going to preach it. And
He makes you to realize, should I be the servant of men? Should
I please men or should I please the one who sent me? And so you
go forth and you preach it. and he allows men to reproach
you, and he allows men to walk away, and he keeps showing you
by all that, you are utterly weak, utterly incapable of making
this word have any effect in the hearts of anybody. He keeps
breaking your heart, breaking your heart, breaking your heart
by this forsaking of those that you thought by now would know
you and walk with you and stay with you. He keeps breaking your
heart to show you how His heart was broken when He walked this
earth. And to show you to heal your
heart. To show you that all the power
and all the wisdom is of Him. What the Lord does between Him
and those who hear, that's His business. You're just sent to
tell the truth. That's all. But isn't our Lord
gracious to give us these assuring promises? In chapter 50, he said,
my ear was open. I didn't rebel. He said, I set
my face like a flint, did what the Father sent me to do. He
says, now you do that. And then here in this chapter,
he says to us, he says, now look to Abraham and Sarah. He said,
I called them, and I blessed them, and I gave them the increase.
I'm going to do the same for you. And then he says to us,
he says, don't ever imagine this verse returning to me void. He
says, it's a saver unto me. It's a saver unto me. In them
that perish and in them that are saved. It's accomplishing
my work in them that die and rebel and go to hell and it's
accomplished my work in them I saved. It's never returning
to me void and therefore I'm going to keep you and I'm going
to hold you and I'm going to strengthen you because my word
is going to go forth of me. And then lastly, He gives us
this command in verse 7, hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness. The people in whose heart is
my law, don't listen to men. Hearken unto me, he said, fear
ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their revilings. They're going to do it. They're
going to do it. But he says, don't be fearful. He says, one
of these two things shall be the end of all who hear. For
those who revile, verse 8, the moth shall eat them up like a
garment, the worm shall eat them like wool. That's exactly what
he said in the chapter before this when he said, who's going
to contend with me? He's near that justifies me and
he's saying to you and I, speak the Word, speak it in truth,
speak it in love, but speak the Word, speak the Word, preach
it in season and out of season. And He said, because I'm near
that justifieth you, and those that want to reproach you, He
said, the moth's going to eat them up, and they're going to
perish like the wool before the worm. And He says, because I'm
standing with you, I'm blessing you. And for those that He creates
anew, He says, my righteousness shall be forever. my salvation
from generation to generation. And so knowing that he still
has some lost sheep that he's going to do this for, knowing
that it won't happen through a lie, it's only going to happen
through the truth, that's the assurance and that's the boldness
to just keep on declaring the truth. That's it. Christ is our
sufficiency. He's our sufficiency. Isaiah
heard that and he did what I did when the Lord made me see what
this text means. I did something immediately.
And when the Lord showed this to Isaiah, he did the same thing
immediately. Look at verse 9. I won't preach
on it. I just want to read it to you.
He broke out into prayer and said, Awake, awake! Put on strength,
O arm of the Lord! Christ Jesus, put on strength,
my mediator! Awake, as in the ancients of
days, in the generations of old! Art thou not it that hath cut
Rahab, Egypt? Art you the one who wounded Pharaoh,
who wounded that dragon? He who dried up the sea and the
waters of the great deep and made the depths of the sea away
for the ransom to pass over, therefore the redeemed of the
Lord shall return and come with singing undesigned and everlasting
joy shall be upon their head. They shall obtain gladness and
joy and sorrow and mourning shall flee away. He just went to begging
God, please come Christ and do it. And he said, because I see
it's going to happen. You're going to do it. Ah, great Redeemer, great arm
of the Lord. Oh, what an assuring word you
give us. Oh, nobody's sufficient for this. You are our sufficiency. Only
you can break through those fighting hands and those self-justifying
words that makes a man want to forsake his own mercy. and make
Him let go of it, and see that You showered Him with mercy freely
by Your grace. Oh, give them something better,
Lord. Give them something better and make them let go, make them
let go, make them let go. You will do it. You said You
will, and You will do this, Lord. We have this comfort and this
assurance. the increases of you is gonna
be by your word effectually wrought. And Lord, we believe you. Help
us not to fear those that reproach us and revile us. Help us not
to fear even when they're our closest loved ones and our dear
brethren and those that we esteem greatly. Help us, Lord, to just
set forth your gospel and come forth and do this work that you
said you'll do. We depend entirely upon you.
And Father, forgive us. Forgive us for our unbelief.
Forgive us for our doubting. Forgive us for our hesitancy
not to just preach your word in truth and in spirit. Oh Lord, help us not to fear.
We ask these things. in your conquering name, in the
name of the King of kings and Lord of lords, in the name of
the prophet, priest, and king, in the name of him who's the
head ministering his covenant of grace in the hearts of his
people, surely and steadfastly, who shall not fail. Father, we
ask this in the name of your dear son. Please come forth and
do this. We thank you, Father, for what
you've done so far. We're thankful, so thankful for
it. Keep your people today wherever they are. Bless them by your
word. We ask it, totally dependent
upon you. In Christ's name, amen.