Isaiah chapter 40. This chapter
of Isaiah is the command of the voice. It's the command of the
Lord God. The command of the voice that
walked. I love that. The voice walked
in the cool of the day in the garden. This is the voice of
Him. The Lord God. God's messengers
are sent with a special delivery especially for somebody. He says
here in Isaiah chapter 40 verse 9, O Zion that bring us good
tidings. It might be worded, O thou that
bring us good tidings to Zion. The package God's messengers,
His witnesses are sent to deliver are good tidings. And they're
sent to be delivered to the Lord's Zion, to His church. His people, His bride, made up
of those He everlastingly loved by His own good will and purpose
of grace, not according to any good or evil in us. And the comfort
that His people are to be comforted with are the good things that
our Lord has accomplished for his people. The warfare is accomplished. He's pardoned the iniquity of
his people and he's rewarded us double as choice firstborn
sons with the double portion of righteousness and perfection
in him. But since those God shall save
are sinners. Since they are rebels against
God by birth and by choice, since they're rebels against God whose
mouths must be stopped of boasting, because they're by nature rebels
against God who will take the things of God and turn straight
for hell and run straight for hell with the things of God,
they have to have the gospel declared to them. in truth and
in spirit, that every hand might be emptied, and all the vain
works might become vain before them, and that their bones might
be broken, that they stop walking the way they're walking, and
follow after Him in submission, in submission. So in this chapter,
God actually tells us what to proclaim. As you have opportunity
to tell somebody about Christ, here are the three things that
the voice says cry. He says this to me as your pastor.
This is what I preach to you every time I preach to you. Every
time I preach to you. If you just want to sum up and
tell somebody, what will I hear if I come there? You can tell
them these three things. These three things. My points
may be different, but they're these three things. My points
may be more, but they're these three things. And if you talk
to somebody about Christ, here are the three things you tell
them. These are the three things that you have got to understand.
The first thing is this, in verse 6 and 7, all flesh is grass,
and the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field that
fades. He says there, Verse 7, The grass withereth, the flower
fadeth, because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it. Surely
the people is grass. That's the only way. It's your
grass. Your flesh, that's what you are.
And the only way that my and your flesh is going to become
withered so as to not put any confidence or hope in anything
that we do, is going to be by the Spirit of God's grace. It's
the only way. If there's no seed planted there,
there's no root there, Christ is not there, there'll be only
withering there. But, here's the second thing
we cry, the Word of the Lord. The Word of our Lord, our God,
shall stand forever. That's verse 8. The grass withereth,
the flower fadeth, but the Word of our God shall stand forever. Peter said, this is the word
whereby the gospel is preached unto you. Each one that God has
chosen in Christ, each one Christ has redeemed, even before He
came and performed the work, and actually finished the work,
even before that, from before the foundation of the world,
He has been the Lamb slain. And therefore His people have
been forgiven in Him as the surety of His people. That's how come
Abel was justified and sanctified before as yet Christ ever came
into the earth and finished the work. Because He's the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. And because He is every single
one whom the Word chose, Every single one whom the Word entered
into surety, covenant, engagement for, the Word shall come to through
the Word, and He shall buy the Word in their heart, quicken
them to newness of life, regenerating them, and making them to behold
Christ their all, all their salvation. It's so. The Word of our God
shall endure forever, as long as this earth has existed, as
bad as times may have gotten, and as scarce as God's people
may have been, and scattered throughout the world, and it's
been no worse than it is in our day. More calling on the name
of God, more claiming to believe messages of reformation and things
that are truth in our day, and yet denying the power of God,
Christ the power of God. there shall become a great falling
away. And it's not going to be a falling
away that looks like a falling away, it's going to be a falling
away of self-righteous, self-holy, self-sanctifying, self-justifying
religious impostors. and it'll be a dearth of bread,
a famine of bread. But in every age when it's been
that way, and so shall it be to the end of the world, the
word of our God shall endure forever. He will have a people
to worship Him. He will feed His sheep, and He
will do so in truth and in spirit, and you can bank on it. We can
bank on it. I shall not want. Why? Because
my God's God. He's God. He don't want to do
anything. He does what He pleases. That's
who He is. First point, all flesh is grass. Second point, the Word of our
God endureth forever. And here's the third thing you're
going to hear. Here's the third thing that's important. This
is the issue. Verse 8, Behold, I'm sorry, verse 9. Behold your
God. Behold your God. That's what's
important. For you to behold your God. Mortification
of the flesh through the Spirit is not accomplished by you and
me. It's accomplished by beholding
your God. You want to dispel darkness?
Come to the light. Come to the light. domestic troubles,
civil troubles, economic troubles, troubles of every kind that turn
us and twist us and misguide us and would cast us down. All
of them are made calm as the crystal clear lake stream by
beholding our God. Beholding your God. Oh, I pray
this morning that the Spirit of our God would blow and wither
our flesh and cause His enduring Word to spring up within us that
we might truly this hour behold our God. Where and how are the
witnesses of Christ to set forth the Gospel? Verse 9, he says,
Get thee up into the high mountain. Get thee up into the high mountain.
Salvation accomplished by Christ was not done in a corner. It
wasn't done in a corner. And so the proclamation of the
Gospel is not a secret proclamation. It's not something that's going
to be set forth just quietly. It's to be set forth publicly.
It's to be set forth so that everybody can hear, first of
all, in the church. The church is the high mountain.
The church is the pillar and ground of the truth. Get thee
up into the high mountain and declare the truth. And we have
many means available to us in this day. We use newspapers,
we have radio, we have the internet, we have television, we have mail,
we have missionaries, we have town festivals like Pennington
Day, like we went last year to Pennington Day. We need to think
about that again this year, do that again. We have everything
ready to do it. Just go there and hand out some
tracts, invite folks to come hear Christ. Cranberry Day, I
think they have something there. And he says, lift up thy voice
with strength. Lift it up with strength. We
speak with confidence when we speak about that in which we
have confidence. Just in everything that we speak
about. If we have confidence in what we're talking about,
we speak with confidence. Don't we? If we speak plainly
and clearly, it's because we plainly and clearly understand
and believe what we're talking about. If we speak with something
with affection and we speak with it as our constant delight, it's
because we have affection for it and we delight in it. That's
how it is with those witnesses of Christ that He sends forth.
Whether they be the preachers of the Gospel, all His children
called of God are witnesses. Set it forth, not with wisdom
of words. Do you understand this? I'm not
saying that your flesh is a little bit grass, but now there's a
little spark of goodness. If you can just fan the fire,
then you might be able to do something. I'm not saying that.
I'm saying until God does something for you, you can't do one thing,
you're dead. See, I didn't use wisdom of words.
I just said it plainly because I believe what God said. I've
experienced it. I know it. I experience it daily
in my life. I understand it. I know it. Don't
speak with wisdom of words lest the cross of Christ should be
made of none effect. Christ didn't come into the world
to die and redeem every single sinner on the face of this planet.
He came to redeem those given Him before the foundation of
the world and redeem them Him He did and they shall be regenerated
and they shall be saved and it shall be done through the gospel
in spirit and in truth by people who are willing and obedient
by His grace, by His power. Was that clear? Was that understandable? Not with wisdom, plainly. Not
trying to twist things so that somehow, if the person sitting
over here on the right side believes that salvation is by his free
will, and God's want to, and trying to, and pretty pleased
he's begging you let him do something, and the person over here believes
God's absolutely sovereign, I can twist it and word it somehow
to where both people can hear it just like, and it mean the
same thing to both of them. That's what soothsayers and fortune
tellers do who are writing horoscopes. So you can read it, and somebody
sitting in this town can read it, and somebody in that town
can read it, and it means the same thing to both of them even
though they don't know each other and are in totally opposite situations. not with wisdom of words, lest
the cross of Christ should be none effect, not with enticing
words of man's wisdom. I'm not trying to entice you
to do anything. I'm not trying to constrain you
to do anything. I do not want you to do one thing. I don't
want you to do anything because I have compelled you, constrained
you, told you, exhorted you, asked you, made you, anything.
I don't want you to do anything because I've said to do it. I
want you to do it because God in spirit and in power has brought
in your heart and made you to see your God so that you bow
and serve Him willingly. Because if that ain't the case,
you ain't serving Him. And I ain't serving Him. Lift
it up and be not afraid, he says here. You know, reproaches make
me scared. Revilings make me afraid. They
do. They really do. Will asked me
the other day if I had ever been in a fight. When I was in school,
if I'd ever been in a fight. He said, were you in a fight
in the second grade? I said, yes. He said, what about the
third grade? I said, yes. What about the fourth
grade? Yes. I was. I'm serious about
this. I'm not kidding you at all. I
fought from the second grade all the way up through my high
school years. I fought. Every year, multiple times during
the year, I was in a fight. And I never once was in a fight
where I enjoyed being in a fight. It scared me to death to be in
a fight. The thought of it now scares
me to be in a fight. So how is a sinner going to lift
up his voice in the face of such opposition in this world? Look
at Isaiah 51 verse 7. Isaiah 51 verse 7. Hearken unto me, ye that know
righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law. Fear ye
not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their revilings. Look down at verse 12. Even I am he that comforteth
you. Who art thou that thou shouldest
be afraid of a man that shall die, and the son of man which
shall be made as grass? And forget us, the Lord thy Maker,
that hath stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations
of the earth, and has feared continually every day because
of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy."
The Lord said, why are you afraid of the oppressor? Where is the
fury of the oppressor? The captive exile hasteneth that
he may be loosed, and he that should not die in the pit, nor
that his bread should fail. But I'm the Lord thy God that
divided the sea, whose waves roared. The Lord of hosts is
his name, and I've put my words in thy mouth, and I've covered
thee in the shadow of mine hand, that I may plant thee in the
heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion,
thou art my people. He said, that's why I've sent
you. If He sent us to declare, to sign, to bring this special
delivery to these people, you know what He's going to do? He's
going to protect us and provide for us so that the message gets
delivered to them that He has it purposed to be delivered unto. He shall do that. So be not afraid.
God's preachers as well as every believer is a witness of Christ
and our chief responsibility in this earth is to declare to
sinners All flesh is grass. The Word of the Lord endureth
forever. Behold your God." These are the three things we're sent
to declare. Now this last point is going
to be our focus this morning. Here's my divisions for my message. First thing, Jesus Christ is
God. He is God. Look there in verse
9. At the end he says, Behold your
God. Verse 10, it says, Behold, the
Lord God will come. This is a scripture speaking
of the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he says here,
Behold your God, the Lord God will come. Secondly, Christ our
God is the successful Savior. Look at verse 10. Behold, the
Lord God will come with strong hand, or against the strong,
with strength and power. His arms shall rule for Him.
Behold, His reward is with Him and His work before Him. Now
here's the third point. Christ Jesus is the shepherd
of his sheep. Verse 11. He shall feed his flock
like a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs with
his arm and carry them in his bosom and shall gently lead those
that are with young. Christ is God. Christ is God,
the Son of God. Christ is the successful Savior
and Christ is the shepherd of his sheep. Alright, behold your
God. First of all, Jesus Christ is
God. You remember when Abraham and
Isaac were going up the mountain, and Isaac said, Father, here's
the wood, here's the fire, where's the lamb for a burnt offering?
And Abraham said, My son, God will provide Himself a lamb. God will provide Himself a Lamb. God will provide Himself. God Himself will come. God Himself will be the Lamb. And that day when John was standing
there before a whole host of people, too religious to stand
anybody but themselves. John beheld Jesus Christ coming,
walking in their midst in flesh, and he said, Behold your God. That's exactly what he said.
When he said, Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the
sins of the world. That's who He is. Christ is our
God. Turn over to John chapter 1.
I want you to see something. Will ask me this question, a
very honest, good question. He said, if the Lord Jesus came
into this earth at a certain time and was born, I'm giving
you this in a little more elaborate fashion. I wish I could say it
just as simply as Will said it, but his point was this. If Christ
was born in time and He was a baby come forth, how is it He made
the world and everything before there was anything? That's a
good question. That's a good question. How did
He? Well, look at John 1.1. In the beginning was the Word. That's before there was a beginning
as me and you know it. That's when there wasn't anybody
but God. In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was God. Same was in the beginning with
God. Now, here comes the beginning as we know it. All things were
made by Him. And without Him was not anything
made that was made. Look down at verse 14. And the
Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld His glory,
the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth. Look down at verse 18. No man
hath seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, which
is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him. when a
sinner beholds God in saving faith. When a child of mercy
sees God in saving faith, he sees God looking squarely in
the face of the man, Christ Jesus, who is the Son of God, the only
begotten of God. What does that have to do with
my salvation? Well, because Christ is God, because everything He
did in the flesh and everything that He accomplished in His flesh
is not like our flesh. It's not fading. It's not temporary. Because He is God. Everything
He accomplished for God, for Himself and for His people is
everlasting, it's eternal, and it shall have no end. None at
all. Christ Jesus is wisdom. He is wisdom. He is the wisdom
by which everything was made. He is the wisdom who upholds
all things by the word of His power. And He is the wisdom by
which God designed, purposed for Himself how He would be just
and the justifier of a sinful, wretched race of people. He's
that wisdom. And if you're going to behold
that wisdom and have the mind of Christ to know the things
that are freely given to you of God, it's going to be when
you behold the wisdom of God in Christ Jesus and Christ becomes
unto us of God wisdom. Wisdom. We'll quit talking about
ours and start talking about His then. Christ Jesus is righteousness. He is the essential righteousness
of God. God is righteous and He is essentially
righteous without doing anything. But as the mediator of His people
come forth, Christ Jesus fulfilled all righteousness. He fulfilled
everything that the righteousness of God requires. He fulfilled
all righteousness. His righteousness is everlasting
righteousness. And He is all the believers righteousness. Because He is indeed the Lord
our righteousness. Never ending righteousness. Christ
Jesus is sanctification. He is the holy thing conceived
in the womb of a virgin. I told you this morning, holiness
has to do with the heart, with the motive, with the nature,
with the character. Holiness. Holiness. If you have
any fruit unto holiness, it's not that that fruit is going
to result in you being holy, it's that fruit came from that
which has been made holy. That's where it came from. Christ
is that sanctification. He's the sanctifier who made
Himself one with those that He sanctifies when He came in the
flesh. And He is the sanctification
of all who are made partakers of His divine nature by the Holy
Spirit working in our hearts. And when He does so, we behold,
by one offering, He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. And holiness is perfected when
we truly cease from trying to make ourselves holiness, and
come out from the unclean, and no longer be joined with that
idolatry, and no longer try to clean a dirty floor with a dirty
mop, and behold, we are holy in Christ. And that happens when
God makes us, when He corrects us from that which is false,
that we might be made partakers of His holiness. Of His holiness. Of His holiness. Christ Jesus
is redemption. He is the Redeemer. He paid the
full price with His own blood through the eternal Spirit so
that the redemption of His people is eternal redemption. eternal
redemption. And because He is God, His redemption,
our Redeemer and our redemption is eternal. We're brought out
of bondage, never again to return to it. Sin shall not have dominion
over you, for you're not under the law, but you're under grace,
led of the Spirit of God, protected by the hand of God, ruled by
the hand of God, walking with God. You see, When God made Adam
and breathed into his nostrils the bread of life, the voice
walked with Adam in the garden. And he had communion with God
in the garden. He walked with him. He talked
with him. He had communion with him. There was one law in the garden. One law in the garden. But Adam
didn't have to look at that law and say, now how am I going to
worship God today? I need to know how to worship
God today. He was walking with God. He was walking with God. You know why that law was put
there? To make it known you're not walking with God anymore.
You're fallen. You're dead. You're defiled.
You're ruined. We walk truly with God when we're
led of the Spirit of God working in our hearts, directing us by
His Spirit. And the law does what it always
did. The law simply lets us know you're not walking with Him.
You're not walking with Him. But we don't have to, we don't
focus our attention on the letter of the law. We focus our attention
on Christ whom we're following and whom we're walking and whom
we're drawing near to. All right? This is what he tells,
behold your God. He is God, whether you own Him
to be so or not. He is your God. And you're going
to find out, He is your God. But behold Him now in faith.
Look to Him now with a believing heart. Do you believe what I've
said to you today? What is faith? It's not, well,
God said it and I believe it and that makes it so. No, it's
just so because God said it. Whether you believe it or you
don't, it's so. But when you hear what God says and you say,
I believe God, that's believing God. I believe him. And I cast
all my care into His hands and trust that all my salvation,
all my security right now and for all eternity is in His hands
and He will save me. He is my salvation. You trust
Him. You trust Him. This is what He says to you who
believe Him. Thy Maker is thine husband. The Lord of hosts is
His name. Thy Redeemer, the Holy One of
Israel. The God of the whole earth shall
he be called. That's who Christ is. Behold
your God, the Lamb of God. Behold Christ Jesus. Secondly,
this is what I want you to see. Jesus Christ is the successful
Savior. He's the successful Savior. Verse
10, Behold the Lord God will come with strong hand. and his
arm shall rule for him. Behold, his reward with him,
his work before him. Behold, the Lord God will come. with strong hand, and his arm
shall rule for him. His reward is with him, his work
before him." I always like to point out the shalls and the
wills which describe our Savior. There is no place in Scripture,
no place at all in Scripture where our God, where Jesus Christ
our God and our Savior is spoken of as anything less than accomplishing
exactly what he purposed before the foundation of the world to
accomplish. At no point. He's never been
surprised. He's never been thrown off guard.
He's never been out of control. He's never been out of absolute
power and dominion over all things, whether good or evil. He's over
all of them. He doesn't commit the evil. There
is no evil in him, and he is not the author of sin. We are
that. me and you. In following Satan
and his corruption in Adam, we're the ones who get all the glory
for sin and rebellion against God. We get that. That's all
we get. That's all me and you get the
glory in. We are We are the sinners. That's all we get to glory in.
But everything our Savior did, He does successfully when He
will, how He will, according to His own holy character. And He does so in perfect righteousness. You know what righteousness is?
What's right? It's right. He does it in a right
way because it's His holy character. That's His holy who He is. Everything
He does is right. And He does it how He will and
when He will. Look, it says, Behold, the Lord
God will come with strong hand. That means great power. His arms
shall rule for Him. I want you to look at two scriptures.
Isaiah 59, verse 16. Isaiah 59, 16. He saw that there was no man,
wondered that there was no intercessor. Therefore His arm brought salvation
unto Him, His righteousness it sustained Him. He put on righteousness as a
breastplate and helmet of salvation upon His head. And He put on
the garments of vengeance for clothing and was clad with zeal
as a cloak. Look at Isaiah 63 verse 5. And I looked, and there was none
to help. And I wondered that there was none to uphold. Therefore,
mine own arm brought salvation unto me. My fury, it upheld me. And I will tread down the people
in mine anger, and make them drunk in my fury, and I will
bring their strength to the earth." This is the Lord God we're talking
about. Now when we talk about men who
have a form of godliness and deny the power thereof, we're
not just talking about some thing they deny. We're not just talking
about some thing that people deny. We're talking about the
strong hand. We're talking about God who is
the power. Christ Jesus who is the power
and wisdom of God. That's who men deny. That's who
men deny. It's not because they have a
seal for God's holiness. It's not because it may come
across and be that it's in the name of God being holy, in the name of
God being righteous, in the name of God being loving, in the name
of God being kind. A God who can't save as he purposed
to save, how he purposed to save, when he purposed to save, whom
he purposed to save, in the power of his own hand, is not a loving
God at all. It is as empty and as vain as
if I went over here and I spun that wheel and I said, bow down
at it, that's your God. Every idol that man makes with
his hand don't start in his hand, it starts in his heart. And that's
where the defilement is, that's where the idolatry is. And the
idol, the idol, the idol is not that thing. That thing is empty
and dumb and can't be moved or carried or have anything done,
do anything because it has to have everything done for it.
And if you want to see who the idol really is, go home today
and look in the mirror, and you'll see the idol staring back at
you. That's the idol. And that idol can't do one thing,
and that idol's God can't do one thing, and that idol's God
is not at all the God of this Bible. As Arthur Pinck said,
the God of this modern generation resembles the God of this Bible
like a candle resembles the noonday sun. He is the power to fulfill all
righteousness, all the righteousness of the whole law of God. He is
the power who came and fulfilled all that was written of Him in
the prophets, because He's the power that moved the prophets
to write what they wrote. He's the power to resist every
fiery arrow of Satan who resisted all His charms, all His temptations,
without sin, perfectly in thought, word, and deed, because He is
the power to do so. He is the power to silence all
those who attempted and still attempt to entangle Him in His
words. And He just told us, don't you
be afraid of men, because although they may attempt to entangle
you in their words, they're going to be the ones who are going
to be entangled. You're not. Because this One
who has power to do so is going to do it for His people. He is
the power who came and bore the sins of His people in His own
body on the tree. He's the one who had power to
take all the sins of all the elect of God from beginning to
end, all into Himself, all upon Himself, and bear that awful,
shameful, agonizing, despised and wretched thing that this
Holy One hated with a holy hatred. and yet buried in his own body
on the tree. This is the one who had the power
to be made a curse for us. This one who knew no sin, who
was made sin that his people might be made the righteousness
of God in him. He is the power to do this, to
accomplish the salvation of his people, Christ and Christ alone. Christ is the power who dissatisfied
divine justice. Christ is the power who made
full propitiation, full satisfaction to God for the sins of His people. Christ is the power who has the
power to bruise the strong man. The power who came against the
strong and comes against the strong and enters in to you who
are bound and entangled and in darkness and don't even know
you in darkness. And He binds the strong man and
He casts him out and He not only bruises Satan's head for you,
He bruises Satan's head in you and He makes you a child of mercy
so that you follow Him. Now look at this. Behold, verse
10, His reward is with Him. and His work before Him. This
word reward and this word work is two different Hebrew words,
but they almost have the exact same meaning. Let me just give
you a simple understanding of this, as simple as I can state
it. His reward, His wages, that which He came to earn for Himself,
is His own glory. It's His glory to do so. It's
His glory for which He did it. And it's His own glory with which
He rewarded Himself. In other words, me and you ain't
giving Him nothing. Nothing. Nothing. And His children
for whom He served are His reward. That's why He served as He did,
for His own glory and for His children. And they are His workmanship. They are His work. And He is
raised victorious in His glory. We can't even scratch the surface
of the wisdom. When Christ prayed in John 17
and said, Father, I have glorified Thy name in the earth. And then
He said, Glorify Thou me with the glory which I have with You
from before the foundation of the world. Glory upon glory upon
glory. It's His own, performed by Him,
for Him, and that's what we're going to behold, His glory. And
His children, every one of His flock that He redeemed, they're
with Him. His glory is with Him, and His children are with Him.
They're before Him, They are with Him in glory, seated in
glory. They are in His presence before
Him, whether they are in glory with Him or in the earth below.
He is not bound by time. He is not bound by space. He
is not bound by anything that we are bound by. He is God. His
reward is with Him and His work before Him. Now, look at Isaiah
62 real quick. This finishes out this statement.
Isaiah 62.12 finishes out this statement. I'll read verse 11
just so you can see it. Let's read verse 10. Go through,
go through the gates. Prepare you the way of the people.
Cast up, cast up the highway. It's what I'm trying to do for
you here this morning. Cast up the highway. Gather out
the stones. Lift up a standard for the people.
Do you see it? Do you see the flag? Do you see
the banner? Do you see the ensign? Do you
see Christ? Lift it up for you. Behold, the Lord hath proclaimed
unto the end of the world, Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold,
thy salvation cometh. That's who He is. Behold, His
reward is with Him, His work before Him, His glory It's with
Him. His wages are His, and His work
is before Him. His work is what He glories in,
what He's accomplished, what He's finished, what He delights
in, and His people are His workmanship. Now, what's the result of all
that? Verse 12, And they shall call them the holy people, the
redeemed of the Lord. And thou shalt be called, sought
out, a city not forsaken. How's that going to happen? How's
that going to happen? Here's the third point. Christ
Jesus, the Son of God, our Savior, is the shepherd of His sheep.
That's how it's going to happen. Verse 11. He shall feed His flock. Isaiah 40, 11. He shall feed
His flock like a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs with
His arm and carry them in His bosom and shall gently lead those
that are with Yah. Our Savior. is as victorious
as the shepherd of his flock from his throne in glory right
now as he was successful in the redemptive work that he finished
on this earth. Just as successful. Not hindered,
not thwarted at all. He shall feed his flock. He said, I'll bring them out
from the people. He said, I'll gather them from the countries.
I'll bring them to their own land, feed them upon the mountains
of Israel. You're on a mountain this morning.
Did you know that? We're on a mountain right here,
a fat pasture, deep waters. And he said, I'll feed them there.
I'll bring them out and I'll feed them there. And he said,
a good pasture upon a high mountain shall be their foal, and they
shall lie in a good field and a fat pasture, so they feed upon
the mountains of Israel. He said in the New Testament,
and there shall be one foal and one shepherd. He's that shepherd.
He's that shepherd. And he'll feed them, you know
why? For it's his flock. It's his by the gift of the Father.
It's his by purchase of his own blood. It's his flock. He shall
feed them. And He's our shepherd. Look here.
It says, He gathers them to Himself. He gathers them to Himself. He'll feed His flock like a shepherd. He'll gather the lambs with His
arm. That same strong arm that said, I wrought salvation myself. I upheld my own righteousness.
That same strong arm gathers these little lambs. He gathers
them. He gathers them. Well, He's way
up in glory. He's got a long arm. It's a long
arm. And He gathers them. Look here, He says, and He carries
them in His bosom. You know what the Scripture says?
Scripture says when He came in flesh and was in this earth,
it says, it doesn't say it was as if He was in the bosom of
the Father. It says He was in the bosom of the Father. And
you know where His sheep are right now? Though He's in glory
and we're in the earth? In His bosom. In His bosom. That's where He carries them.
In His heart. In His bosom. And not a one shall
be lost. Look at here. He shall gently
lead those that are with young. Where does He lead them? I read
Psalm 23 to you. He leads them in the green pasture.
He leads them beside still waters. He restores our souls. He leads
us into paths of righteousness for His namesake. He leads us
through the valley of the shadow of death. His rod and His staff
comfort us as He leads us. He anoints our head with oil
and He fills our cup to overflowing. He goes before us just as a shepherd
leads his sheep But mercy, capital M, and goodness, capital G, shall
follow us too. He is the shepherd who leads
and he's the rearward who protects. Any little sheep that's coming
along and got a little suckling that's just barely being able
to understand, barely being able to comprehend these things, but
is still desiring the sincere milk of the Word, lest they fall,
lest they fall behind, lest they be weary, lest they... He comes
along and gathers them up in His arm and mercy and goodness
follows them, the rearward. Keeping His flock together in
the midst of a bunch of wolves that would come in and just destroy
them. He keeps them together. So He'll lead us. He'll lead
us all the days of our lives and He'll lead us right into
glory. right into glory. I like that
song, that He leadeth me. I was asking Eric if he knew
that. He leadeth me. It says when we
come to death, He'll take us by the hand and He'll lead us
right through the Jordan. Being everything He has been
to us and for us before even we knew who He is and what He
is to us. Protecting us and guiding us.
Well, if you use a true preacher, sin of him, you know what you
do right now? You give the folks some real practical application
so that they could understand, have something now that they
could take and walk around in. All right, I'll do that. I'll
do that. Is this word of comfort to you?
Is this all your hope and all your stay, all your comfort,
all your salvation? Is Christ all your salvation?
Is He everything to you? Alright then, here's the first
thing I'm going to tell you. Behold your God. Go now and behold
Him. Look squarely in the face of
Christ Jesus the Lord with the eye of faith and behold your
God. It don't get more practical than that. All the stuff men call practical
religion is everything they can use to distract you from doing
this very thing. And everything God gives us that
is practical to us is to turn us from all of men's vain, religious,
imposterous distractions to cause us to behold our God in the face
of Christ Jesus. All right, here's the second
thing. When you behold Christ Jesus with the eye of faith,
Behold Him who is the successful, victorious Redeemer. He's not
wanting to do anything. He's not trying to do anything.
He has done it. He is doing it. And He's ruling
now. When He was the baby in the manger,
He was the King of glory. That's right. giving the life,
causing all the miraculous operations to ensue that brought forth milk
in His mother's breast so He could nurse at her breast. That's
who He is. That's just how powerful He is.
Even if you don't perceive Him to be that way, even if all you
see is a little baby, that's who He is. Victorious. And here's the third thing. And
I know you rejoice in this, I know you rejoice in this. You know
when you preach, I know the Lord says, regard not their faces,
and He's telling us, don't put any stock in scowls or smiles
or anything like that. It does, it does radiate though
on a person's face when they delight in what they're hearing.
You know that? You can't help it, you delight
in it. And the opposite of that is true,
too. If a person doesn't delight in
it, they just can't hardly make themselves delight in it. But
as you behold Him, God your Savior, and as you behold this successful,
victorious Redeemer, in the face of every opposition, in the middle
of this valley of death we're walking through, remember this.
Remember this. He's the Good Shepherd that laid
down His life for the sheep. He's the Great Shepherd who leads
His sheep as a shepherd. And He is the Chief Shepherd
of His flock. We looked this morning at all
the powers are of God. He's the Chief Shepherd. He's
the Chief Shepherd. And He says this, Ye were as
sheep going astray, but now are returned unto the shepherd and
bishop of your soul. I pray God this morning that
he blow upon our old grassy flesh, plant this word in our heart,
make us behold our God, and make that scripture true for everybody
that hears this word. Amen.