a good many years ago, I think
it was 1994, the year I met you down in Cherokee, John. Yeah,
I'm going to tell a story on you, that's right, so. At any
rate, we spent a good deal of that
time when I was down there in one of the motel rooms, and John
and I, and this woman, her name is Desi Manor, and another fellow,
And several others would gather around and we just sang and sang.
And that was, I of course heard bluegrass before, but never tried
to sing it. And we started singing that song,
Alas and Did My Savior Bleed. And of course everybody around
me was harmonizing bluegrass style. And we were working on
it thinking we'd sing it that night at church, you know, at
the services. Well, I was singing bass, and
I pretty much sang the line I remembered out of a hymn book. And when
we finally got done, John said, would you like me to sing your
part for you? And we used to have that on tape. I really enjoyed
it. I wish we could get together and do that kind of thing again.
I fell in love with bluegrass harmonies that year, and still
like them. Would you open your Bibles to
Isaiah 52? Now, there have been a couple of times that I have
been the last speaker at a conference. And I've always wondered, does
that mean they saved the best for last, or that we've come
to the bitter end? And I'll leave it to you to make
that judgment call. And I also hope you'll keep that
judgment to yourself, because I'm afraid of what it might turn
out to be. Verse 7 of Isaiah 52 says, How beautiful upon the
mountains are the feet of Him that bringeth good tidings, that
publisheth peace, that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth
salvation, that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth. Now, you're
probably aware that in the Greek New Testament, the word translated
gospel, the Greek word simply means good news or good message. A message of good things. And so we have the gospel here. For it talks about how beautiful
upon the mountains are the feet of Him that brings good tidings,
that brings good news. Now this Scripture is quoted
by the Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 10. And you feel free
to go there if you'd like. I'm going to make a few comments
from there. Now Paul is holding forth on
the matter of salvation. And it says in verse 9, that
if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, or confess
Jesus to be Lord, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath
raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. A wonderful Scripture. A Scripture often quoted by those
of a free will persuasion to give the impression that God's
salvation simply awaits our calling upon Him. And as though God has
made all things ready and all things possible, and it's just
waiting for us to call upon him, but that's not what is meant
there at all. But it goes on to say, for with the heart man
believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession
is made unto salvation, for the scripture saith, whosoever believeth
on him. shall not be ashamed. That is,
his faith shall not prove void. His hope shall not be disappointed. You know, there's nothing more
embarrassing than to announce your hope and your confidence
that something will happen and it doesn't. When you tell people, you know,
I'm going to win that prize. And you don't. It's kind of embarrassing. Oh, we're the best team there
is. We're going to win that game. And then you don't. It would
have been better if you hadn't announced your hope, you know? Or you hoped you went to, say,
some fancy place, and you aren't a particularly fancy person,
but you know a fancy person is going to be there, and your hope
is that when you get there, they'll speak for you, and you can come
in, and you get there all confident that, well, I know this guy in
there. I certainly can get in. And then
they won't let you in, and the guy won't speak for you. And
you're all embarrassed. All your friends are standing
there saying, well, you said you could get us in. Well, it says he that believes
in Christ, he's not going to be disappointed like that. He's not going to
get to the door and not be let in. It's not going to be that
he trusted in Christ and Christ won't own him. It's not going
to be that he trusted in Christ and it will be found that Christ
was a failure and can't do what he said he could do. It doesn't
mean that you and I are never going to feel a sense of embarrassment
or something. We're flesh. We're going to feel
a sense of embarrassment and maybe back off speaking about
the gospel when we should have. Kept our mouth shut when we should
have opened it. Unfortunately, all of us are guilty of feeling
embarrassed at certain times when we're surrounded by worldlings
and they're mocking the Lord. But this much we can be sure
of. Whether or not we feel embarrassed
from time to time. when our hope is on the line. And it's going to be proven whether
or not our hope was true. We won't be disappointed. It's
the mockers that are going to be ashamed. And then verse 12, it says, For
there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek. For the
same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon Him. For whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Now if anyone doubts that the
Lord Jesus Christ is Jehovah God, let me tell you that that
Scripture, Romans 10.13, is a quotation from the book
of Joel. And it had already been the habit
of folks that believed in Jehovah God that they wouldn't say His
name. And therefore, the Hebrews, when they would write the word
Yahweh or Jehovah, they would put their vowel points in there
as though it were the word Adonai, Lord. And when they were reading
the Scriptures, And they would come to that word, they were
so afraid of taking the name of Jehovah their God in vain.
They just plain wouldn't say it, and they'd say the word Adonai,
or Lord, instead of Jehovah. And therefore, when our English
translators Translated the Bible and they come to the name Jehovah
in the Old Testament nearly every time they would translate it
Lord put it all in capitals, so you'd know that it was a That's what they were doing that
it was truly Jehovah there But they wouldn't even write it out
rarely what you find the name of God Translated out like that
now in Joel Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, all
capitals, Jehovah, shall be saved. And we know that means call upon
our Lord Jesus Christ. He is Jehovah God. Now you say, I can't understand
that. Good, because if you ever think
you can, you haven't. You haven't got a clue what it
is. How can the infinite be finite? I don't know. How can the omniscient
say he doesn't know the day or the hour of his return? I don't
know. But I know this. When I call upon the name of
the Lord Jesus Christ, I'm calling on the name of Jehovah. And he
who calls on that name in the day of trouble shall be saved. How shall they call on Him in
whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in
Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent as it is written? How beautiful are the feet of
them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings
of good things." And there Paul has quoted our text of scripture
in Isaiah chapter 52 verse 7. And what that tells us, that
Paul quoted it in this context, is that when Isaiah is speaking,
he's talking about the preaching of the gospel. This declaration
of the gospel or the good tidings, the good news of good things,
the good news of peace that bringeth all these things. Blessed is
the feet of them that bring that news. Now I, or how beautiful
are the feet of those that bring that news. Now this was long
before the days of, well even the telegraph, much less the
telephone and the fax machine and email and all that when messages
got around pretty easy. Used to be the only way to get
a message is to write it down or relate it to someone, a good
runner. And he would run with the message. The other night,
speaking on Habakkuk, it said take the message and run with
it. And so you run. And they would run, and imagine
that a country's at war. And they're wanting news of how
goes the battle. And so they're watching, and
here he comes. And the dust is being kicked
up, and he's running, he's running. What news? Peace. Peace. Oh, it'll be the most
beautiful feat you ever saw. Salvation! The Lord has intervened. We have been saved. That's good
news. That's the gospel. And how beautiful
those that bring it. And I have no trouble applying
that to all these brethren who bring us that good news week
after week and day after day. But let me tell you, there's
another set of feet that brought them. Feet nailed to a tree upon the
mountain of Calvary. How beautiful those feet who
in the day of warfare came into the city of Zion with news of
peace and salvation. No wonder Mary sat at his feet. They were beautiful. No wonder
that woman washed his feet. They were beautiful. The subject this morning is what
is the good news of the gospel. It's called good news. And as
we preach the gospel, we run upon some very good words. We
run upon the words peace. Peace. We live in a troubled
world, don't we? We live in a world that doesn't
even know the meaning of peace. We've got the word, but we never
have the experience in this world, do we? The best we can do is
not establish peace, but simply a cessation of hostilities. Right now, we've got a couple
of wars going on. And it's a matter of how intense
or quiet it may be. But the war continues on. And
someday they may declare a victory. Someday they may say, OK, this
war's over. We have peace. But it won't be
true. We won't have peace. We'll simply have subdued the
enemy to the point that, for right now, he won't fight. It
will be a cessation of hostilities, but there will not truly be peace
because there will not be agreement. There will not be a reconciliation. There will simply be an agreement
not to make war until the defeated side says, thinks that they've
regained enough strength to start over. There is no peace in this
world. In this world, said the Lord
Jesus Christ, you will have trouble. You will have trouble. Period.
Just write it down. And the more perfectly, and I'm
using the word perfectly in the old sense, which means completely.
And the more dedication you give to the pursuit of Christ and
pressing on to Christ, the more trouble you're going to run into. This world hates the Lord Jesus
Christ, and the more obvious it is that you love Him, the
more the world's going to hate you. That's just the way it works. There is no peace. Of course,
the Lord said in this world you'll have trouble, but I've overcome
the world. And my peace I give to you. The only peace that a believer
has is the peace that the Lord Jesus Christ brings and gives. At least here's the way I look
at that. He's not saying that I'm just
going to give you a peace that comes from Me. He's saying, I am at peace. And My peace I give to you. I'm at peace with God. There
is no warfare between the Lord Jesus Christ and His Father.
They are at all times reconciled. They are at all times in full
agreement. They said, well I'm reconciled
to God and if you believe, yes you are, but you're not altogether
reconciled yet. Let's face it. If you were, you'd never be upset
about anything. After all, whatever goes on is
the work of our Father and if we were completely reconciled
to our Father, whether it was you'll be rich or you'll be poor,
okay, that's good. You'll be healthy or you'll be
sick. You'll live long, you'll live
short. We wouldn't. We'd be completely reconciled
to whatever's going on. But we aren't. But we're at peace with God being
justified by faith. We have peace with God. We don't always feel that peace.
Our conscience gets troubled. We have to be very careful that
we do not give the impression that the one who believes the
gospel never has any problems with gospel truth. They do. You
say, well, how can that be? Well, I don't know how it can
be, but I know that it is because we sin and we get afraid. We sin and our first response
is it not? Our first reaction is, I've got
to do something good to make up for that so that the Lord
will hear my prayers. Or the Lord won't punish me. That's anti-gospel. But it's
right in here, isn't it? It's rattling around. See, the
flesh, it didn't even sink, much less dead. One of these days
it will be, thank God. But, despite the fact we do not
always experience that peace, or walk according to that peace,
we do have it. God is not at war with His people. At all. He says, there is no
wrath in me. He no longer has an issue with
us. Isn't that a good thing to know?
And the better you know it, the more peace you will experience
in your heart. Peace, what a beautiful word. We have by nature conflict on
the inside and on the outside. But we have this confidence through
Christ that we are at peace with God. And He is at peace with
us. And then there's this word. Oh,
what a sweet word in the Gospel. What a good news word. Salvation.
Now, salvation is only a good word or a joyful word to those
who have some understanding that they're in trouble. You see,
salvation, isn't it amazing how we can turn And I say we, I mean
by that humankind, natural humankind. We can turn grace into works
real easy. We can take the words of the
gospel which are full of the doctrine of grace and make them
somehow or another declare us to be virtuous. A person makes
a profession of faith and they pat him on the back and say,
good boy. Good boy. Faith's all about laying hold
of Christ because we're bad boys and bad girls. Because we're sinners. If the
faith of the Scriptures testifies to anything, it testifies to
this that we are dead in trespasses and sins. Salvation is not a
word of help. Salvation is not a word in which
it is described that God somehow or another supplements the good
that we've already done. We didn't quite reach the goal.
We didn't quite come up to the standard. And so God, you know,
He grades on a curve and kind of makes it so that we get over
the top. Salvation is a word, actually it's best described
as a rescue. A rescue. Now what is a rescue?
You don't rescue people that can take care of themselves.
When a man is drowning, they rescue him because he cannot
rescue himself. He is beyond self-help. Interestingly
enough, one of the things that a lifeguard often has to do,
the hardest part of his job is to convince that man he cannot
help in this rescue. That the job will be much easier
if he quits trying to do his part and he'll just get still.
And I've heard they've even had to knock him unconscious. Because
they thrash about thinking they're helping the situation and all
they're doing is hurting him. A rescue is something that's carried out
entirely by the rescuer. It's not a helping hand. Oh, what good news to those drowning
than the word rescue. Oh, how good. Go be rescued.
Once in a while you hear about people try to climb Mount Everest
and they get into trouble. Snow comes or something. They
get trapped and you know. I almost said I'd give him credit
for bravery, but really, we ought to rebuke him for foolishness,
trying to climb that, but what's up there? But anyway, oh, it
is so bitter. And they can't go up. They can't
come down. There's not enough food. They
can't stay warm. They're dying. And there's absolutely
nothing they can do about it. Their only hope is that someone
with better climbing skills or better equipment or something
can get to them. It can't be that someone climbs
halfway up to where they are and says, I'll meet you halfway.
If they can get halfway down, they can get all the way down. and some have been rescued. And
how beautiful upon that mountain are the feet of the One who brings
such rescue. Yea, even how beautiful are the
feet of the One who says, Here they are! They're coming! I can
see them! We're rescued! Those are good words. Beautiful
words. But they are not the gospel. Because those words mean nothing
by themselves. What good is it to say peace
if there is no peace? What good is it to talk about
salvation if there is no one up to the task of saving? The gospel is not merely a description
of good things. It is a description of good things
in the hand of Him who can bring them to pass. Here's the Gospel. How beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of Him that brings good tidings, the gospel that
publishes peace, that brings the gospel of good things, that
publishes salvation, that saith unto Zion, God loves you and
has a wonderful plan for your life. Do you know who these words
were being said to directly? Ones whom God was going to send
into captivity. That would have been some He
said, well God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your
life. You're going to Babylon. You're going to be up there for
70 years. Some of you are going to leave Israel and never come
back. He said, well that don't sound like
a very wonderful plan. That publishes salvation and
saith, that saith unto Zion, God's done all He can. The rest
is up to you. that saith unto Zion, you take
the first step, and God will meet you halfway. Here's the
gospel, friends. Here's the good news to them
in trouble. Your God reigns. Because if my God reigns, it
doesn't matter what's happening around me. He's in charge of
it. And He can take care of me in
Israel. He can take care of me in Babylon. and he can take care
of me on the way to Babylon or if I live long enough on the
way back. Imagine you're Snow White. That's probably not the right
one. There's some princess in a tower. I've been keeping up with my
Walt Disney. Some princess held captive in a tower. And suddenly
in burst Prince Charming. And he says, I'm here to rescue
you. And she says, I appreciate the
sentiment, but look behind you. And behind him is a whole army
of the people who have her held captive. Charming boy. Your words, I'm here to rescue
you, would mean a whole lot more if you were in charge of this
situation. But you aren't. And as nice as your words sound,
they mean nothing because you're not in charge. They are. And as long as they are, I'll
be up here on top of this tower. And you know something? This
so-called gospel It says that our Lord Jesus Christ wants to
do this, wants to save you, and will, if you'll let Him, is not
good news. Because it's a Savior who's not
in charge. And if He's not in charge, He's
not a Savior. You cannot rescue a city unless
you can take command of the battlefield. You cannot save a drowning man
unless you can take control of him. You can't do anything unless
you're in control. So here's the good news. Your
God reigns. The one in whom you trust is
in control. People ask the question, and
it's kind of a silly question, it's a useless question, but
they'll say things like, well, does man have to believe in the
sovereignty of God in order to be saved? Well, I can tell you
this, if God isn't sovereign, they aren't going to be saved.
So what difference does it make? Isn't that so? Nobody but a sovereign God can
save. I've heard people say, well, can an Arminian be saved?
And what they mean is, can an Arminian be in a state of salvation? Can an Arminian faith save? And my answer was, well, there's
no kind of faith that can save in and of itself. But the better
question is, can the Arminian God save? Ask an Arminian. He'll tell you no. because they'll
say, God wants to save you, but He can't. And then it's unless
something. Well, brethren, whatever that
unless is, it ain't never going to happen. So that means their
God can't save. He can't save unless you let
Him. If that's true, you will never let Him. And therefore,
He can't save you. He can't save unless you do your
best. Well, you've already done that.
And if you've already done that and you aren't saved, and God
can't save you unless you do your best, well, evidently, it
ain't going to happen. If we are to be saved, and I
believe this not simply because I find it in the Scriptures,
I believe it because I know my own heart, I know my own way
and my own will, and I can tell you this, if God is not the sovereign
God who reigns over every atom in the universe, and most of
all reigns over me, I will not be saved. I will say no. I will say, well, I'll not have
this man to rule over me. until he does. Now every believer is tickled
to death that God is in charge. But they weren't tickled to death
till the God who is in charge took charge. It's that simple. Now, you and I, we are, I would say most everybody
here professes to believe or you wouldn't be here. But we're here and we ain't there. We aren't, for lack of a better
word, completely saved yet. Paul said our salvation's nearer
than when we first believed. Well, if it's nearer, it means
we ain't there yet. Why do I believe? Why am I confident
that even though I'm here right now, someday I'll be there? Because my God reigns. There
is no question that every believer shall someday be in the presence
of God with joy, shall behold their Savior, behold His glory,
and be with Him. Why? Because they believe, I
wouldn't cross a creek on my faith, a bridge made out of my
faith. Because I'm faithful, I wouldn't
trust anything to my faithfulness. To my memory, one of these days,
it may be, I won't remember my own name. And it doesn't seem like it will
be that long. I'm forgetting lots of stuff
these days. But He who reigns has all things
in control, even me. Will I remain faithful? Yes. Why? Because I'm strong? No,
because He is. Will I persevere to the end?
Yes. Why? Because He'll persevere
to the end. Why do I keep coming to Christ?
Because the irresistible call of the Spirit. The Spirit keeps
calling. Thy God Are there any sweeter
words than that? The One in whom we hope is in
charge of all things? We need rescue? We're in trouble
beyond what we're able to handle? Isn't it good to know that the
One who has promised us salvation is up to the task of ruling all
things in order to bring about the rescue that we so desperately
need? I pity those who believe that
God is not really in charge. It's funny, they think that God's
in charge of everything and everybody but them. And they think that
by, and I say they, we thought He said, well I was raised in
a sovereign grace church. It doesn't matter. Until God subdued
you, you thought you were in control. No matter what you said.
You thought you were in control. And you thought he was impressed
that you were raised in a sovereign grace church and that you knew
sovereign grace doctrine and you even defended it when you
were in high school. Told everybody, I believe in election. And you
thought by all of that God said, well now I've got to have a guy
like that. Can't let that one get away. God is sovereign and that's the
only reason anybody is saved. God reigns. That's the only reason
any of us will persevere to the end. How does God reign? He reigns
over the men He sends to preach so that they tell the truth.
Now you will be saved, but you will not be saved apart from
the hearing of the truth. And it says, Thy watchmen, this
is verse 8, shall lift up the voice, with the voice together
shall they sing, for they shall see eye to eye when the Lord
shall bring again Zion. Now some people say, I want to
listen to several preachers and hear their opinions and come
to my own conclusion. Well, you go ahead with that.
You go ahead with that and see how it works for you. All of
God's preachers preach the same thing. They see eye to eye. That's
why there's no reason getting together and trying to come to
some kind of compromise conclusion of what we're going to say we
believe. God's people already believe the same thing. People
say, well, the church needs to be unified. It is! There is one
Lord and they all worship Him. There's one faith. They all believe
that. There's one baptism. And I don't
think there He means that it's immersion rather than sprinkling.
We believe that, but I don't think that's what Paul's saying.
They're all baptized by one Spirit into one body. They see eye to eye. I hear these
men preach. I can sit there and say, Amen,
Amen, Amen, Amen. I don't say it that much, but
I could and it'd be true. God's sovereign over that. Our
brother preached. Brother Don preached, you know.
And I'm sitting there, I believe that. I'm standing up here, I'm
preaching to you. So far as I know, I'm not preaching
a thing that they would disagree with. They see eye to eye because God
is sovereign over them and He rules them. to tell the same
thing. God is sovereign in His power
to save. Verse 9, break forth into joy,
sing together you waste places of Jerusalem, for the Lord hath
comforted His people, He hath redeemed Jerusalem. The Lord
hath made bare His holy arm in the eyes of all nations, and
all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God. Now he's saying that you're going
to be sent up to Babylon, but I'm going to bring you back out.
I'm going to send you, because I'm the God that reigns. I'm
going to take care of you while you're there, because I'm the
God that reigns. And I'm going to call you back out, and the
whole world is going to see this work of salvation. That's why
the earth will be full of the glory of God, because they're
going to see it. Imagine at the end of all time
when all men stand before God, and the sheep and the goats are
divided, and the goats are going to look over at the sheep. You
say, how'd that happen? Why am I over here and they're
over there? The glory of the Lord has done
it. For He reigns. And all those sheep would have
been goats had not the sovereign, omnipotent God worked His mighty
work. None of the enemies of God or
of the people of God will be able to withstand the salvation
of God's people. Let hell itself open up and release
all of its demons. Let Satan, the accuser of the
brethren, have his day in court to condemn us. None of them will
be able to separate any of us who are his people from his love
which is in Christ Jesus. Why? Because God reigns. Because He's in charge. God is
sovereign and therefore when He calls His people, come. Verse 11, Depart ye, go ye out
from thence, touch no unclean thing, go ye out of the midst
of her, be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord. Now,
we're a kingdom of priests. God's people are. And He's saying
go out of Babylon. Don't touch the unclean thing.
Your own righteousness. and the glories of the flesh
on display in Babylon. Go out. And you know something? They do. Do they do that by their
own will? Or are they sitting there in
Babylon saying, you know, I ought to leave here. Did God stand
outside of the gates of Babylon and say, alright, we're going
to sing five verses of Just As I Am, and is there anybody here
that will come out? He said, Depart ye! And we departed. Come ye out from among them and
be ye separate, says the Lord. And that's why they come out,
because that's the voice of the sovereign King who speaks to
His people, and they do what He says. More than this, He's sovereign
over their hearts to make them depart. And He's sovereign over
their enemies so they don't have to sneak out. Verse 12, For ye
shall not go out with haste. You're not going to have to run.
This is not going to be a retreat. Nor go by flight. For the Lord will go before you,
and the God of Israel will be your guard behind. Brethren, when this salvation
is finished, and God brings us into His presence, He's not going
to sneak us out of earth. We aren't going to have to slink
around in the shadows, lest the devil find us. God will go before
us and He will be behind us. And our enemies on either side
may bare their teeth and growl. It won't matter. We'll just walk.
We'll go in in peace. We'll take a leisurely stroll
into the presence of God. I know that all of us probably
by nature somewhat fear death. And that's because our flesh
Still reads, it's appointed unto man, wants to die, and after
that the judgment. It's only by faith we realize
it's appointed unto us, wants to die, and then there'll be
no judgment. Because that's already been taken care of. But our brain
pays attention to what the flesh says. We're kind of afraid of
it. And it may be that as we approach
it, there'll be much struggling. There'll be fears and tossings,
but let me tell you, the moment it is done, the moment it is
done, all is peace and safety. We're kind of like, was it Elisha's
servant? All he could see was the enemy. And the prophet prayed and said,
let him see what's really going on. And then they saw all those
that were there for the sake of the people of God. And He
said there's more for us than there is for them. And right
now our eyes, our natural eyes are blinded to the host of the
Lord which has been sent by God. to assure our salvation and our
deliverance into His presence. We can't see Him, but I suppose
the moment it's done, just like that servant, we'll see Him.
And though it seems like we're surrounded with an innumerable
host of enemies, we'll find out that God's army is bigger than
theirs. And they may stand there and
look fierce, but that's all they're going to be able to do is stand
there and look fierce. Not one sword shall be drawn
against the people of God. Not one arrow. No one's going
to stick his feet out and trip you. But in peace, you will enter
into the presence of God. God is sovereign. And I could
keep going, and I will for just a few more minutes, but we'll
wrap this up. God is sovereign in the workings
of His Son. Verse 13. Behold, My servant
shall deal prudently. He will prosper. That's a whole
lot different than that Jesus where they say, you know, Jesus
wants to save you if you just let him. I've heard of people
talking about Jesus, really, literally crying on the banister
of heaven as he realizes that his efforts are, for the most
part, coming to nothing. Well, there's Jesus. I suppose
he has the right to do that. that God says, My servant will
deal prudently. He will prosper. The will of
Jehovah will prosper in His hand. He shall be exalted and extolled
and be very high. As many as were astonished at
Thee. Speaking of Christ, His visage
was so marred more than any man. And His form more than the sons
of men. And as many as were astonished
at that sight, so shall he sprinkle many nations. The kings shall
shut their mouth at him. Why? Because he's the king of
kings. For that which had not been told
them, they didn't understand he was the king. Pilate said,
don't you realize that I have power over you, over your life?
The Lord said, you won't have any power but the one heaven
gives you. And what did the Lord say? All power has been given
to me in heaven and in earth. For that which had not been told
them, shall they see. And that which they had not heard,
shall they consider. And even though most who heard
that report did not believe it, there were some to whom the arm
of the Lord had been revealed, and they believed it. They believed
it because God caused them to believe it. They were wandering
sheep, but their wandering was laid upon Him, and they were
brought back. Their sins were laid upon Him,
and He put them away. He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
yet He overcame. and they overcame in Him. He
made His grave with the wicked, but He came out of it. It pleased
the Lord to bruise Him, but He survived it. And He shall see
of the travail of His soul and shall be satisfied." Three who
see that travail and are satisfied. Now I believe that the reference
here is to the Lord Jesus Christ. He shall see the result of the
travail of his soul and he will be satisfied with the result. He's not going to be crying about
it. I tell you, the Father, the Judge of all, saw the travail
of his soul and was satisfied. He said, that's enough. That's enough. And in time, everyone
chosen by God and redeemed by the blood of Christ shall see
the travail of his soul and be satisfied." I tell you this,
faith is nothing more and nothing less than seeing Christ the same
way the Father does. He committed His people to the
care of the Son. And when we believe Him, that's
exactly what we've done. We've committed the care of our
soul unto Him. We have beheld His sacrifice
and said, that's enough, even for a sinner like me. I hear people say, I'm just too
much of a sinner. What you're saying is Christ
is not enough of a Savior. That's what you're saying. Well,
I'm a pretty bad sinner. But He's a greater Savior than
I am a sinner. And that's saying a lot. That's
saying a lot. I appreciate y'all having me
up here. I've been so blessed to hear these men preach, to
see your love of the gospel. And I pray that the Lord will
continue His work here among you and that you'll have many
years of rejoicing together in this life until we enter those
eternal years when we'll rejoice together around His throne. The
Lord bless you. Oh, that was good.