Alright brethren, let's turn
to Isaiah chapter 30. As I behold the frailty of my
own sinful flesh, and as I behold the instability of my own thoughts,
so full of flight, How I'm unable even to keep my thoughts on one
thing. And I behold the uncertainty
of sinful man in this world. I realize that believers, myself
included, we need to be reassured of the certainty of God's salvation. The certainty of God's salvation. That's the title of our message
this morning, The Certainty of God's Salvation. In verses 18-26
in Isaiah chapter 30, the Lord declares here 21 times, what
shall and will come to pass. 21 times. And out of those 21
times, not one time is anything that shall and will come to pass
attributed to man. But all 21 times it's the Lord
declaring what He shall and will bring to pass. If you know even
the slightest truth of your own depravity, that's good news. That's good news to know the
certainty of God's salvation. The thing I want you to see here
this morning is that these following verses, Isaiah was sent to declare
what God will and shall accomplish, what He is right now accomplishing
in this gospel age in which we live. That's what's being described
here. And the message is, God shall
and will accomplish His sovereign purpose by His sovereign power
and by His sovereign grace. No maybes about it. Now, we're
going to take these verses, verse by verse, and I'm going to just
make some points as we go. And I've read this passage to
you already once, so I'll just take a few verses here at a time.
First of all, here's the first thing we see. God shall bring
each chosen child into inseparable union with God,
the God who we offended. He will bring each of His chosen
children into inseparable union with Himself. Verse 18, Therefore
will the Lord wait, the people were They weren't seeking God,
they weren't looking to God. In fact, when they heard the
gospel preached, they were saying, no, no, no. God said, in returning in rest
shall you find peace and comfort and quietness and assurance.
And they said, no, no. We're looking elsewhere for salvation. And he said, therefore will the
Lord wait that He may be gracious unto you. We saw last time this
you is that chosen remnant He had amongst them. He says, therefore
will He be exalted that He may be merciful, have mercy upon
you. He's going to wait in order to
be gracious. Instead of consuming us in His
wrath, He's going to wait to save His people by His grace.
And He's going to be exalted that He might have mercy on you.
and for the Lord's a God of judgment. He's going to do what's right.
Blessed are all they that wait for Him. For the people, Now
this is a chosen remnant. There's a chosen remnant in this
sinful world and they're called the people. Now listen to the
certainty of this. The people shall dwell in Zion
at Jerusalem. God is going to perform everything
that He requires of this people and He's going to save each one
of these people and He's going to bring them to His Mount Zion
to His Jerusalem. The people shall dwell in Zion
at Jerusalem. And God will be gracious. No,
not gracious. He will be very gracious. very gracious unto thee at the
voice of thy cry." Will each one of these children cry out
for Him? Are they going to all be made to cry out for Him? They
weren't at this point, they weren't saying, we want Him, we want
Him. They weren't saying, yes, yes,
that's the truth, Lord help us. They were saying, no, no. Is His remnant going to be made
to cry? Look at the next word. He says,
He shall be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry,
when he shall hear it, he will answer thee. It doesn't say,
if he hears it, he will. It says, when he shall hear it,
he will answer thee. You know in the garden, the Lord
didn't say, Adam, if you eat of this fruit of this tree, you'll
die. He said, in the day you eat it. He knows the end from
the beginning. And He says here, they're going
to cry. And when ye shall cry, when He
shall hear it, He will answer them. Now, the reason that this
word is certain, the reason that this people shall is because
God's going to work everything necessary and He's going to bring
His people to see Him and rejoice in Him. That's why this people
shall weep no more. He says here, you shall weep
no more. That's why they won't weep anymore.
Now we see here in Judah, we see the condition of every sinner
that God calls by His grace. We see the condition of every
sinner period. But this is especially the condition
of every sinner whom God calls and quickens by His grace. Saying
no to God, turning from God, not seeking God. You see, what
he's saying here in this first verse is, when Adam sinned in
the garden, God took Adam and Eve and He took them to the edge
of Eden, the very presence of God, the very garden of God where
God walked in communion in oneness with Adam when He was sinless
and spotless and holy and undefiled, where God walked with Him in
oneness. But after sin entered in and He became that stinking,
wretched, abomination in the nostrils of God, the God who
is of too pure eyes to behold iniquity, the God who will not
commune with sinners. He took Adam out to the edge
of the garden and he kicked him out of the garden. Out of God's
presence. That's why the scripture says,
your sins have separated you from your God that He will not
hear you. That's what Isaiah's message
was. We were separated from Him. Mount Zion. is God's church. Jerusalem is heavenly Jerusalem. It is being brought into the
communion of God, into the very presence of God, accepted by
God, in sweet fellowship and oneness with God. And if that's
going to happen, it's going to have to be because God shall
and will perform all necessary to bring us into union with Him.
You know, I've told you over and over that this Mount Zion
and this Jerusalem, I've shown you from the Scriptures how that
Mount Zion is the church of God. Jerusalem is the heavenly Jerusalem.
You know, Paul bore that out so clearly when he gave that
allegory of Hagar and Sarah. These are two mothers. Hagar,
he said, he said this, Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and
answereth to Jerusalem which now is. It's a type of Jerusalem
which is now in the earth, he said. who is in bondage with
her children, trying to go about to establish a righteousness,
working to try to find acceptance with God, outside of the presence
of God, kicked out of communion with God and yet working and
working, trying to bridge that gulf and get back into God's
favor and God's acceptance. Bondage, bondage. But he said,
Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.
That's who Sarah typified, Jerusalem which is above. Look with me
over at Hebrews 12. I can't pass by without reading
this, and I saw something new in this this time. Hebrews 12,
verse 18. This point has to be made because,
you see, brethren, whenever Christ came the first time, the reason,
the justifying reason that the Pharisees and the Sadducees and
the religious men of Israel gave for rejecting Him was they were
looking for something earthy. Their religion was earthy, their
thoughts were earthy, their sacrifices were earthy, their everything
about them was carnal, and all they wanted was carnal deliverance
and a carnal kingdom and an earthly kingdom. And that's not God's kingdom.
Not in this earth. He's going to make His people
new in spirit. He's going to make us new in
body. And He's going to make us new heavens and a new earth
wherein dwelleth righteousness. It's all by Him, by His blood.
Now look here, verse 18. Ye are not coming to the mount
that might be touched. I can touch every mountain on
this earth. Touch every one of them. He said, you ain't come
to the mountain that can be touched and that burn with fire, nor
unto blackness and darkness and tempest and the sound of a trumpet
and the voice of words. These are all earthy things.
He said, you ain't come to those. Where we come, verse 22, but
you come unto Mount Zion, unto the city of the living God, the
heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general
assembly and church of the firstborn which are written in heaven,
to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made
perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the
blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that earthly
carnal blood of Abel. See that you refuse not him that
speaketh. This is who we're talking about. Now let me ask you something.
Any sinner on the face of this planet can go over to that earthly
Jerusalem in that earthly Mount Zion. Anybody can do that. If
you've got enough money to buy you a plane ticket to take you
from this country, you can bridge that gulf and get over there
and go to that city. You can't get to this one unless
God does the willing and He shall do it for His people. That's
what He's saying here. He will and He shall. Now here's
the second thing. The salvation of each chosen
child of God is a certainty because each shall be born of the Spirit
of God and taught through the Gospel of Christ. Look at verse
20. And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and
the water of affliction, yet shall not thy teachers be removed
into a corner anymore. Your teachers are going to be
front and center. They are going to be front and
center from here on out, the Lord said. But thine eyes shall
see thy teachers, and thine ears shall hear a word behind thee,
saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when you turn to the
right hand, and when you turn to the left." Now God shall give
you the bread of adversity, and He'll give you the water of affliction. The Lord Jesus Christ said, Father,
I pray not that you take them out of the world, but you keep
them from the evil. But you mark here that it is
bread and it is water. It's life. Our brethren down
in Pikeville have been given some bread of adversity and some
water of affliction. Oh, but they're not cast down.
Their teachers aren't removed into a corner. What does that
mean? Yet shall not thy teachers be
removed into a corner, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers.
What does that mean? Well, the certainty of this Word, the certainty
of this salvation, the certainty of this truth is because Christ
Jesus, the Son of God, at the time this was delivered, was
coming to this earth. He has now, but He was coming
and He is King. He is King David. that one typified
by King David, the ruler of righteousness, the one who rules in righteousness
and truth, and he has come. And he's not only the high priest
that has entered into the holiest of holies and made full satisfaction
of God for the sins of his people, But this prophet, this priest
and this king is also the prophet. He is the teacher. He is the teacher. He says here,
Thine eyes shall see Thy teachers. God who at sundry times and in
various manner of spoken times passed by the prophets, hath
in these last days, this gospel age in which Isaiah is declaring
here, is coming and now is. He's spoken to us now by His
Son. by His Son. You remember He went into that
temple, the Word was made flesh, and the Word came and He entered
into the temple, and everybody's looking at the letter of the
Scriptures, and everybody's trying to find life in the Scriptures,
and everybody's trying to find life in that temple, and everybody's
trying to find life in those things that they're going through,
all the ceremonies and all those things, and the Teacher came.
The prophet walked into the midst and he opened up the book of
Isaiah and he read, I'm sent to preach the gospel of good
tiding. I'm sent to declare the opening
of the prison to them that are bound. I'm sent to bind up the
breach of my people, to give them joy for mourning, and to
give them the oil of gladness for ashes. I'm sent to do that. And when he got finished, he
said to them, he closed the book. And he said, this day is this
scripture fulfilled in your ears? And it said every eye in the
place was fastened on him. Every eye was fastened on him.
John said this, he said the life was manifested and we have seen. And we bear witness and show
unto you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested
unto us. Who's He talking about? He's
talking about Christ Jesus, the life. He said we saw Him. We heard Him. And we're teaching
you what He's taught us. He's the life. When Christ ascended,
He gave gifts unto men. Turn over to Ephesians 4.11.
This is of utmost importance. Ephesians 4.11. We know here, familiar with this,
I want you to see this again, that when He ascended, verse
11 says, He gave some apostles. You see, the reason that this
word is certain and sure is because this is the king priest, and
he's the prophet, and he's going to send forth his preachers. He is. I said to you, after we
heard that wonderful message, Joe Priest, on the voice of the
Lord and His watchman. He is as successful at sending
forth His preachers in spirit and in truth with the word of
the gospel as He is at redeeming His people on Calvary Street.
We're talking about an earthly king. That's why all this weeping
would go away. The king's coming. And the king
deals in power that no earthly king ever dealt in. And he teaches
in power that no earthly teacher ever taught in. But he gave apostles
and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers.
faithful parents that know the gospel to teach and rule in their
own house, to teach their children. He gave evangelists, those who
travel and preach the gospel, and the help he uses to establish
his churches. He gave apostles and prophets.
When he came, he ordained them and sent them forth working special
miracles that the people might know that he has come and that
it's a new age, it's a gospel age. And he's given pastors. after His own heart, and they
teach His people. And it says this, verse 12, He
gave them for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of
the ministry, for the edifying of His own body. How diligent and how truthful
do you think Christ is going to be with His own body? How
careful and protective are you of yours? His people are His body. And
He gave them verse 14, that we henceforth be no more children
tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine.
Now if they're not speaking the truth, if they're not speaking
the gospel, The true gospel, that ain't going to happen. They're
not going to be established. They're not going to be settled.
They're going to be tossed to and fro. If you can't understand
what his messengers are saying, if they sound like they might
mean this or they might mean that, you're going to be nothing
but tossed to and fro. But if they use great plainness
of speech, which all his messengers do because they're speaking by
his power and his wisdom, then they're going to speak a message
that's going to be plain to you and by that message he's going
to settle you and root you and ground you. That's right. That we be no more tossed about
by every wind of doctrine, by the slight of men and cunning
craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive. But speaking
the truth in love may grow up into him in all things, which
is the head, even Christ, from whom this whole body is fitly
joined together. When he sent his disciples, you
know what he said to them? Lo, I'll be with you always.
I'll be with you always. As far as I can tell, in what
I see in this book right here, when Christ walked this earth,
He spoke nothing but the truth. That's all He spoke. And according
to this word, He's not with the prophet that tells lies. He's
not with the free man that's telling you salvation is by your
free will. He's not speaking through the
man that's telling you Christ died for everybody when the word
of truth is He died for a particular people. He's not with the man
who's telling you that if you believe, you can make Christ's
blood effectual and therefore salvation is absolutely, totally
dependent upon you. That's a lie! And He's not with
that man. If they speak not according to
this Word, it's because there is no light in them. But He said,
I'll be with you always. And every one of His apostles
that went forth, every one of His disciples that went forth,
everybody He used to pen the book, everybody He used to preach
the gospel in this book, spoke the truth. Did they not? They
did, didn't they? This is the One who reigns. That's why this is certain. And
He promises not only that, but here in verse 21, He says, Thine
ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way,
walk ye in it when you turn to the right hand, and when you
turn to the left. Do you know who receives the
glory for not only sending forth His pastors, but do you know
who receives the glory for sending forth the Holy Spirit through
whom this gospel is going to be made effectual? Do you know
who receives that glory? He says, when the Comforter is
come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit
of truth which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify
of me. Do you see how certain this salvation
is? How successful he is at sending
forth his messenger with his gospel, sending forth his Spirit
and making it effectual? He says, Thine eye shall hear.
We're not going to hear until He makes us hear. He says, you'll
hear a word behind thee when you turn to the right hand or
to the left. That's a description of us. We turned our backs to
God and we walked away from God. We're constantly trying to turn
from the right and to the left, but He's constantly coming to
where we are and speaking into these hearts affectionately and
saying, this is the way. This is the way. What's that
way? It's the way that we walk in. It's Christ the way. It's
Christ Jesus, the prophet, the priest, the king. It's Christ
the way in whom all spiritual blessings were given to His people
in heaven and places according as God chose us in Him. It is
the way by whom God has declared before this whole world to be
just and to be the justifier of everyone that will be brought
by His grace to believe on Christ Jesus. This is the way in which
we've been sanctified, made holy before God. This is the way in
which we've been justified with God. This is the one who is the
wisdom by His knowledge, shall my righteous servant justify
me. This is the way in which we have full, complete, total
redemption. You're bought with a price. You're
not your own. This is the way where we're restored
into communion with God. This is the way by which we're
revived and refreshed through the preaching of the Gospel.
This is the way in which we're kept. This is the straight way. This is the way that leads to
eternal salvation. Christ Jesus the Lord, and He
will not, shall not, will not, shall not allow His people to
turn to the left or to the right, but He will keep His people in
the way. For the people shall dwell in
Zion at Jerusalem." No doubt about it. No doubt about it.
And He says, "...and thy teachers shall not be removed into a corner
any more." In this day, in Isaiah's day, they were being scattered
and they were being removed into a corner. But now, brethren,
their princes were, those that were leading them in that city-state
they were in, their rulers, their prophets, their priests, they
were scattered, they were removed. But now, thy teachers won't be,
because we have Christ the Prince of Peace seated on the throne
in the city of Jerusalem. in the holy mountain of God.
And He's ruling, and He's reigning, and the government is completely
at His disposal. And He shall not fail nor be
discouraged till He has set judgment in the earth. He shall not fail.
This one shall not fail. He dwelleth with you, He said,
and shall be in you. He won't be removed. Your teachers
won't be removed. Here's the third thing. The third
thing. God shall grant repentance unto
each of his elect, turning us from our false gods to the true
and living God. Look at verse 22. Ye shall defile
also the covering of thy graven images of silver, and the ornament
of thy molten images of gold. Thou shalt cast them away as
a mistress' cloth. Thou shalt say unto it, Get thee
hence. Now I want you to consider something.
What do you think about when you hear about these idols of
silver and gold that they worshipped? You think of some idol that they
made that wasn't, that God never commanded them to make and that
they bowed down and worshipped. And they had plenty of those.
They did. But you know there were many vessels given by God
as the means to foreshadow Jesus Christ the Lord which were made
of gold and silver. Did you know that? There was
a golden censer, there was the Ark of the Covenant overlaid
round about with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna,
and Aaron's rod that budded in the tables of the Covenant. All
these things. They were graven images. They
were made at God's command. They were made for the purpose
of teaching His people about Christ Jesus. And you know that
in the depravity, the multitude in Israel and in Judah worshipped
those as idols, as lucky rabbit's foot's feet just as much as those
idols that they made which God never commanded to be made. The
same holds true for religious unregenerate people in our day.
Men, men would take this book and put it on a coffee table
and they wouldn't allow you to set a glass, a Coke on that book. Because they worship the book. They worship the book. They look
into this book and they see the means God has given to teach
us of our utter, absolute, helpless, wretched, depraved condition
and the things that declare to us the life is in Christ Jesus
alone and they ignore Christ Jesus the Lord and latch on to
these things wherein men think His life and tried and worshiped
those things. Find holiness in coming to a
church building. Find holiness in learning a system
of doctrine. It doesn't matter if it's Armenian
free will doctrine or if it's the five points of Calvinism.
They'll worship those things as much as they worship an idol. But you can have those things
and not have Christ. You can worship those things and not
know who Christ is. That's what was happening in
Judah. That's what was happening in this day, in Isaiah's day.
They had those things. They declared God. But they worshipped
the things and not God. That's right. That's right. Turn over here
to Jeremiah 3, verse 15, and I want you to see what God said
He'd do. In this gospel age, when Christ
was risen and seated at the right hand of God, this is what He
promised He'd do. And this will be the sure result of it. He
says, verse 15, I will give you pastors according to mine heart
which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding. And it shall
come to pass when you be multiplied and increased in the land in
those days, saith the Lord. He's talking about the gospel
age. He's talking about when he Baptized the church in the
Holy Ghost and began to teach people affectionately in the
heart through the Spirit of God, through the Spirit of this gospel.
It's the same way as I always say, but it's more evident now
in this gospel age that Christ is risen and the works of the
Old Covenant are finished. The veil's been rented too. But
he says when he does this, look what's going to happen. They
shall say no more the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord. That
ark is going to be gone. That gold trinket that they worshiped,
they are not going to worship that anymore, he said. Neither shall it come to mind,
neither shall they remember it, neither shall they visit it,
neither shall that be done anymore. You know what is going to happen
when God saves a sinner by grace? The free will Armenian a religionist,
a universal redemption religionist that's worshiping the idol god
of his imagination, he's going to leave that behind. He's going
to be turned from it and say, that's hidden things of dishonesty,
and he'll leave it. You know what's going to happen
to the five-point Calvinist who's worshiping John Calvin and worshiping
the five points of Calvinism? He's going to leave all that
and he's going to worship Christ of that doctrine. Now, the Lord's
speaking in wills and shalls. And he said, that's going to
happen. It's certain to happen. And it always does. And we have
some examples of it. We have some examples of it.
The Apostle Paul was worshipping the Ten Commandments. When he was Saul of Tarsus, if
he would have lived in our day, he would have been the first
one up there marching and saying, I want the Ten Commandments in
the courthouse. Because he was bowing down and worshipping that
graven image. That's right, that was his God,
his self, himself. But you know what happened when
God called him by his grace and took him off his high horse and
put him in the dust? He said, I count the blood of
my family's heritage that I look to, dung. He said, I count the
will of my father and my mother who circumcised me when I was
eight days old, I count all that dung. And I count the will of
my own flesh and all my works in religion, dung. Count it all
done. You know what happened to the
prodigal when God called him by his grace? The prodigal realized,
I've been eating husks this whole time. And he came to himself.
And he said, the servants in my father's house eat better
than I do. And he went home. He went home. He said, you shall
defile the covering of your graven images. You won't want anymore
to be covered by that covering of your making. You won't want
anymore to be covering with that covering that's not of God's
Spirit but of your own evil, depraved spirit. You will take
that like a mistress cloth and you'll say, it's as nasty and
defiling and as vulgar as that and I don't want to have anything
to do with it anymore. Paul spoke of those two men that
were saying that the resurrection was past and was overthrowing
the faith of some. And he said, nevertheless, the
foundation of the Lord standeth sure. He knoweth them that are
His. And he said, be purified from these fellows.
Wash your hands of these fellows and don't be joined to them anymore.
Don't have anything to do with them anymore. And when God speaks
that through the Gospel, through His Messenger, into the heart,
through the Spirit, you know what He says they'll do? You
shall defile that false covering. Not a possibility it won't happen.
Here's the fourth thing, and we'll be done with this. God
shall feed His children with the pure bread and the pure water
of our Lord Jesus Christ through this Gospel I'm declaring to
you right now. Look at verse 23. through 26. Then shall he give the rain of
thy seed, that thou shalt sow the ground with them, and bread
of the increase of the earth, and it shall be fat and plenteous
in that day. Fat and plenteous in that day
shall thy cattle feed in large pastures. Let me say a word about
this right here before we go further. The seed is Christ. He is the incorruptible seed. The incorruptible Word of God
by which the Gospel is preached unto you is the seed by which
we're born of God. That's what Peter said. We're
born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by
the Word of God which liveth and abideth forever. For all
flesh is grass, and all the glory of man is the flower of the grass.
The grass withereth, the flower falleth away, but the word of
the Lord endureth forever. And this is the word by which
the gospel is preached unto you." That's what he said. The mouth
of God's teacher is going to drop like rain, like dew upon
the tender herbs, the scripture says. God promises the reign
of the Gospel in spirit and in truth. We plant, we water. God's message to you. We plant,
we water. But God gives the increase. The bread of the increase of
the earth is of God. And it shall be fat and plenteous,
He said. We're not talking about you having a good garden next
year. We're talking about this Gospel
right here. We're talking about this seed
being fat and plenteous through what God will do. Believers are
cattle. Did you know that? He says here,
in that day shall thy cattle feed in large pastures. Believers
are cattle. Not bulls and steers as we know
cattle, but in that day you're called sheep cattle. And that's
what the believer is, he's a sheep. David said, he maketh me to lie
down in green pastures. You know what he said here? That
day shall thy cattle feed in large pastures. It's His pasture. And the oxen and the asses, look
here in verse 24, the oxen likewise and the young asses that ear
the ground shall eat clean provender which hath been winnowed with
the shovel and with the fan. Who's the oxen and the asses?
These are the workmen. These are the ones that work
the ground, where the seed's being sown, where the rain is
falling. This is God's messengers. This
is God's ambassadors. Paul said that. Listen. It's
written in the law of Moses, thou shalt not muzzle the mouth
of the ox that treadeth out the corn. He says, does God take
care of oxen? Is he talking about oxen? Or
saith he it altogether for our sakes, for the gospel preacher's
sakes, Paul said. Which ones he talking about?
These oxen. You don't muzzle their mouth.
For our sakes, no doubt, this is written, that he that ploweth
should plow in hope, and he that thresheth in hope should be partaker
of his hope. That's what he said. God's teachers
feed on the same clean provender as God's sheep feed on. We sheep
feed in the same green pastures as God's sheep feed in. That's
right. That's been winnowed with the
shovel and with the fan. Through God's providence, through
His teaching, through the chastening hand of our Lord, we've been
winnowed with the shovel and the fan and made to eat of this
clean provender. Not any more husks mixed with
the corn. That was unclean provender. That
was to make it go further. You put a little husk in there
with the corn, grind it all up together, and you get little
more husk and corn and the oxen can't tell if they're eating
husk or corn. They're getting a little corn, but well, no more
of that, he said. Now they're gonna eat clean progeny.
The husks are gonna be taken out and it's gonna be clean food. That's what I feed upon by my
Lord and what I bring to this pasture to feed you with. And
we eat the same spiritual meat. Same spiritual meat. Look at
verse 25. He says, And there shall be upon
every high mountain and upon every high hill rivers and streams
of waters in the day of the great slaughter when the towers fall.
The high mountain and the high hill are a description of God's
local assemblies. It's a place where God promises
rivers and streams of water. He says His people are trees
of righteousness planted by rivers of living water, streams of water.
He says, He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said,
out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. You need water
to grow. You need water for life. You
can soon perish without eating food than you can without having
water. Water's life in the scriptures. Water's life. And he said, in
my high mountain and on every high mountain and every high
hill, there's going to be water. Going to be water. Going to be
plenty of water. This is certainty, brethren,
because Christ the King is the one who's in sovereign. Do you
really believe God's sovereign? Do you? I'll tell you what, men
who say He's sovereign, and who stand up and say, they've come
to the, quote, doctrines of grace, and stand up and say, free will,
Armenian, universal religion is a lie, but I saved under it. They ain't come to Christ. If God's sovereign, he sends
this gospel, he sends this message, and when he speaks this truth
in the heart, they shall defile that covering. They shall. And there shall be clean provender,
and there shall be waters and streams. They shall. Oh, but if I'm going to try to
defend my mama and my daddy and that lie they believed, because
I love them more than I love God, if I'm going to try to defend
my profession I made way back there in false religion and hang
on to that tooth and nail, I'll take everything I could find
that Charles Spurgeon said to support it, everything John Gill
said to support it, everything John Owen said to support it,
and I will hang on to the precepts of men as if they're the doctrines
of God, rather than believe the word of God himself. Is that
not so? But I won't after God speaks.
He said you'll defile that covering. And that's so. That's so. Either he's sovereign or he's
not. Oh, listen to this. He says here about this gospel
light. Moreover, the light of the moon
shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun
shall be sevenfold as the light of seven days in the day that
the Lord bindeth up the breach of his people and healeth the
stroke of their wounds. Christ is the light. He's the
light. He is the Son of Righteousness. The S-U-N of Righteousness. He's
the day star that arises in the hearts of His people like that
sun comes up every morning. He's the light. He's bound up
the breach of His people by the sacrifice of Himself. He's healed
the stroke of our wound. He was wounded for our transgression. He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was laid upon Him and with His
strength we're healed. And Christ Jesus, the Son of
Righteousness, has risen to the right hand of the Father in perfection. Shining sevenfold as the light
of seven days. Perfection. Now the moon has
no light in itself. It gets its light from the sun.
It's given light by the sun even as the believer has no light
in himself. But it's given light of Christ
the light. Now look here at this word and
see what shall be for every one of these children. This glorious
oneness that I just can't get over. That I just marvel in.
This glorious oneness here. Listen to this. The light of
the moon shall be as the light of the sun. What's that mean? This is how
the psalmist put it. Blessed is the people that know
the joyful sound. They shall walk, O Lord, in the
light of Thy countenance. There'll be one with Him. They'll
always have the light. In the light of the King's countenance
is life, and His favor is as a cloud of the latter rain. This
is, brethren, the certainty of God's salvation. What I just
declared to you is the voice of Christ. It is the voice of
the watchman. It is, thy God reigneth. Thy God reigneth. Now, Isaiah
was looking forward to it. It has begun. Christ is at his
throne. In this gospel age, this is taking
place. And this light is going to grow
more and more and more until we're brought finally into that
complete salvation in His glorious presence and know Him as He knows
us right now. Now that's certainty. So next
time you're looking at yourself and you see just so much uncertainty,
and you're looking at this world and you see so much uncertainty,
I pray God give you repentance to turn from those things and
look at Him. And you'll see the certainty
of God's salvation. Certainty of it. And you who
have not yet cast your care on Him, hear this word. I pray God give you ears to hear
and speak to you this hour and say, this is the way. Walk in
it. Walk in it. When He does, you'll
defile your covering. And you'll walk in this way.
And there'll be clean providence Streams of water, good light
to walk in all the time. No more weeping, he said. You
know what Scott Richardson used to say? Ever since I heard the good news,
there ain't been no bad news. That's right. He'll give you
more good news even in the midst of the worst news. And there
won't be any bad news. Just won't be. All right, I pray
God will bless you.