If you'll turn with me there
to Isaiah 29. Sometimes we get weary as believers. And sometimes we get discouraged.
But the important thing to remember is every enemy of God that has ever fought
against our God has served His purpose in glorifying His Son
and saving His people. And we see that in our text this
morning in Isaiah 29 in such a way that I am astounded at
the wisdom of God in this. Our text begins here in verse
1, Woe to Ariel, the city where David dwelt. Now this was the
city of Jerusalem. And it was the place that God
placed the temple. It was the place where the Ark
of the Covenant was, where the mercy seat was. It was the place
where He gave His priests and His prophets. It was the place
where the sacrifices were made in accordance with how God went
and how God said they were to be made. This was the place God
had blessed. This was the place where King
David himself, that glorious type of Christ, dwelt in this
land. But the message Isaiah sent to
declare is a message of woe to Jerusalem. Now, I read it to
you before we began here, but in verses 1 through 6, he declares
the wrath of God is coming upon that city, Jerusalem. And he's
going to use, in historical context, he's going to use the pagan army
of the Assyrian to do it. But notice here, God says, I'm
doing it. Look at verse 2. Yet I will distress Ariel, Look
at verse 3. And I will camp against thee
round about, and will lay siege against thee with a mount, will
raise forts against thee, and you'll be brought down. You're
going to be brought down. All the strangers within you
are going to be brought down. Judgment is of God's hand. Our
God is absolutely sovereign over all. He's absolutely sovereign
to use a pagan army to do His bidding and He's absolutely sovereign
to send pastors after His own heart. The same as He does this,
brings this judgment through this nation, He also is able
to send the truth to His people and to keep His people. Now,
in verse 7 and 8, He declares that there's going to be some
mercy though. He said that those that are going to come up against
you, they're going to be mighty, but they're going to be like
a dream in the night. They're going to be like a man that's
dreamed that he's eaten, but he wakes up and he didn't eat
anything. It's going to be like a man that dreamed he drank something,
but he woke up and behold his soul is still thirsty and he's
faint. And he says now there at the
end in verse 8, he says, So shall the multitude of all the nations
be that fight against Mount Zion. Mount Zion is his elect people,
his church. Mount Zion is the church of the
living God. And he says, I'm going to do
this, and I'm bringing this about. But all those nations, every
nation that fights against my church, my people, his son, is
going to be like a dream. They're just going to vanish
away into nothing. Now you see this, that he says
this, what he's telling us brethren, is as believers, no weapon that
is formed is going to be used against you. It's not going to
prevail against you. That's what he said over in Isaiah
54, 7. And he said, He said, this is the heritage
of the servants of the Lord and their righteousness is of me. He said, I'm doing a work of
righteousness here. This is what I'm doing. So when
this heresy is all played out, when it's all done with, the
only ones that are going to be left standing are the ones that
are approved of God and made righteous in Christ Jesus the
Lord. That's so, with this whole nation he's talking about, this
whole people he's talking about, all these nations he's talking
about, in every church in this world, scattered throughout this
world, this is the case. When the heresies are all over,
there must need to be heresies, that they which are approved
may be made manifest, and the ones that's gonna be left standing
are God's people. And they're gonna be left standing
by grace in Christ alone. because God saved them and protected
them and kept them. And the enemies did nothing but
serve the purpose of our God. That's the case every time. Now,
what was the problem? What brought all this rebellion
in the first place? What brought this judgment upon
them in the first place? Look at verse 13. Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch
as this people draw near Me, with their mouth. And with their
lips do honor me. Now that doesn't sound too bad.
They draw near him. And with their mouth they speak
good things about him. And with their lips they honor
him. Here's the first thing I want you to get. A form of religion
without a work of grace in the heart is deadly. It's damning. It's no good at
all. I would rather my children have
absolutely no hope in this world than to get involved with false
religion. It's damning. It's worse. It's
worse than if they never knew God at all. Worse. Now, he's
not talking about irreligious people. He's talking about religious
folks. He's talking about folks that weren't out in heathen nations.
He's talking about folks that were in Judah, in Jerusalem.
He's not talking about folks that were running from Him. He's
talking about folks that were drawing near to Him. He's talking about
folks that were speaking some honorable things about Him. Verse
13, He says, But they have removed their heart far from Me, and
their fear toward Me is taught by the precept of men. Their
heart is anywhere but near me. They're there in body. They're
there in lip service, but not there in heart. Not there in
heart. In our Lord's day, the most religious
men, the most pious of the bunch, rejected Him in favor of the
precepts of men, the traditions of men. The Pharisees and scribes
said, why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of
the elders? They said, they eat bread with
unwashing hands. And he said to them, well, did
Isaiah prophesy of you? He quotes this very scripture
right here. Well, did Isaiah prophesy of you? You draw near
me with your mouth and with your lips you honor me. but you worship
me in vain, teaching for doctrines. As the doctrines of God, the
commandments of men." Things men conjured up. Things men made
up. They appeared to worship Him
outwardly. They appeared to hear His prophets. They appeared to
be going through all the same motions as the elect remnant
amongst them did and believe God. But here's what they were
doing. They were seeking counsel somewhere
else. with their own hearts, seeking a way to save themselves
by their own hands in a way other than in God. Look at Isaiah 30,
verse 1. Woe to the rebellious children,
saith the Lord, that take counsel, but not of me, that cover with
a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin,
that walk to go down into Egypt and have not asked at my mouth,
to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh and to trust
in the shadow of Egypt. That's what they were doing in
Isaiah's day. in the temple, when they were
coming with their sacrifices, they were looking to those sacrifices
just like they were looking to Pharaoh to save them. They were
looking to the works of their hands just like they were looking
to the wisdom wherein they had made some ill-conceived counsel
with Pharaoh to save them. They were looking at the... just
like those men in our Lord's day had said, why don't you wash
your hands up to the elbows like it's been passed down by the
elders? Why don't you do those things? And he told them, he
said, there is absolutely nothing that comes out of a man or that
goes into a man that's going to defile a man. Nothing. It's
that that comes out of his own heart. out of His own heart. Look here in verse 15, Woe unto
them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the Lord, and their
works are in the dark. And they say, Who seeth us? Who
knoweth us? This is this kind of dark we're
in right here, right here, right now. Not darkness in a back alley
somewhere with some harlot, not that. It's this darkness of sitting
in a brightly lit room in the middle of a church congregation
seeking deep to hide the fact that you hate God and don't want
to be in the presence of his people. Trying to look as good
as you can look on the outside because you hate him on the inside.
That's what he's talking about. That's seeking deep to hide their
counsel. Verse 16, he says, Surely your
turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter's
clay. For shall the work say of him that made it, he made
me not? Or shall the thing say of him
that framed it, he had no understanding? You picture this cup right here. Wouldn't it be foolish for this
cup to say, I filled myself. I filled myself with water. I
formed myself and I filled myself. That would be foolish. God speaks
to us in such elementary ways. and really strikes a blow to
any dignity we think we have. You realize how absurd and foolish
that illustration is? That a piece of framed object
made by a potter would have the audacity. First of all, it can't
speak. Second of all, if it could speak,
it's going to say, I framed myself. You had no understanding. You
didn't make me. Men who say, There's a little
goodness in men. There's a little spark if you
just fan the flame. There's a little will in men
if you just got to nurture it and bring it out in them. And
they can make a choice. It's like that cup saying, I
can fill myself. Is that what we're going to say
to God? I did something. I made myself. You didn't have
any understanding. I did this. Well, look what he
says here. Verse 9, back to verse 9. The
Lord, this was what was going on there. Now let's learn from
this. This was what was going on in Jerusalem. In Isaiah's
day, this is what went on when our Lord came in his day, and
this is what's going on in the world today. Now listen, watch. Verse 9. Stay yourselves in wonder. Really think about this now.
Really give this some attention. Cry ye out and cry. They are
drunken, but not with wine. They stagger, but not with strong
drink." He's talking about all these people now. If you read
Isaiah 111, these are people that came to His courts. They
came with sacrifices. They came with offerings. They
stretched out their hands and made many prayers to Him. They
brought incense and burned it. They observed days and seasons
and times and all these things, just as the Lord had commanded. They were drunk with pride. Drunk with pride. Drunk with
self-righteousness. Drunk with self-esteem. Drunk
with self-wisdom. Drunk with self-understanding.
Professing themselves to be wise. They became fools and worshipped
the creature. Man. Free will. Man's will. Man's heart. Man's choosing.
Man's doing. Man's works. Man's sanctifying.
Man's just... justifying instead of the Creator. And what did God do? In that
day, the Lord hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep
and hath closed your eyes. The prophets and your rulers,
the seers hath He covered. They came, these prophets came.
They came in the name of God. They came looking like His prophets. They came It's claiming to speak
in his name They came crying out the name of the Lord Jehovah
But he said Jeremiah 23, but they're really saying bail bail What they really say He said
I didn't send them and his people shall not profit my people at
all He said, here, I poured out a spirit of deep sleep on them.
And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book
that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying,
read this, I pray thee. And he said, I can't, it's sealed.
And it's delivered to the unlearned. And they say to him, read this,
I pray thee. He saith, I'm not learned. The learned and the
unlearned, all men alike are included in this thing. They
had a form of religion. and they didn't believe God.
When Christ came, they didn't believe Him. John said they wouldn't
believe Him, and therefore God poured out a spirit of slumber
on them, and they couldn't believe Him. In other words, if you've
got some light, If you've got a place where the gospel is preached,
get there before God hardens your heart and turns you over
to absolute, utter darkness. And you won't know it. You won't
know it. They didn't know it. They didn't
know it. We'll see in a minute just how
bad they didn't know it. If God's given you His Bible,
don't go home and leave it in the floorboard of the car this
week until next week when you pick it up and walk in here.
Read the thing. This is God we're talking about.
who says, seek deep to hide your counsel. I know the heart, he
said. If you've got access to men who've
truly present the gospel simply and clearly in an understandable
way in books or from a pulpit or wherever, get to it and hear
it and listen and study it and go to God and ask Him, bless
it Lord, bless it to my heart. Cause me to hear, cause me to
know Him. Are you too wise for this? Is
anybody here too wise for this? Oh, he told Jeremiah, don't look
at their faces, just ignore the faces. Just ignore the faces. Well, here's the second thing
I want you to see. A marvelous work and a wonder.
Watch this now. This is amazing. Verse 14. Therefore, behold, I will proceed. I will, God says. I will proceed
to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous
work and a wonder. Now the Lord used this word back
in Hebrews 9.6 when He said, Unto us a child is born, unto
us a son is given. The government shall be upon
his shoulder. His name shall be called Wonderful. It's the
same Hebrew word right here. He said, I'm doing a wonderful
work. It's going to be a marvel and
a wonder to see. Now look back at Isaiah 28 and
look at verse 21. He had just declared that there's
coming one that's going to be a sure foundation, a precious
cornerstone, a triad stone. And he says in verse 21, For
the Lord shall rise up, as in Mount Parazim. He shall be wroth,
as in the valley of Gibeon, that he may do his work, his strange
work, and bring to pass his act, his strange act. The Lord's going
to do something amazing. He's going to do something absolutely
amazing. Turn with me over to 2 Samuel
chapter 5. 2 Samuel chapter 5. Let's go back
and see what happened in Perizim and in Jeba, valley of Jeba,
valley of Gibeon. Let's see what happened there. 2 Samuel 5, 17. It says, this is the work in
Mount Perizim. This is His strange work. This
strange work. When the Philistines heard that
they had anointed David king over Israel, all the Philistines
came up to seek David, and David heard of it and went down to
the hole." Now the Philistines here represent all the enemies
of God. They represent these enemies
of God that were in Jerusalem and Judah. They represent the
enemies of God that were in the nation of Assyria and all the
nations that would come up against his Mount Zion. They represent
all those nations. Now here in this text, David
has been anointed king. He's that glorious, beautiful
type of Christ Jesus. I had Eric read Psalm 2 because
most all the writers think this is where David wrote Psalm 2.
Why does the heathen rage? Why do they assemble themselves
together and encompass round about and say, let us break their
bands and sunder? He said, the Lord God's going
to laugh. He's going to have them in derision. Now, these
Philistines hear that David has been anointed king, and they
all come up and they all surround the place to kill David, is what
they came for. Now, the Lord said, I'm pouring
out the spirit of deep sleep on these people in Jerusalem,
in Judah, and their table is going to be made a snare and
a stumbling block to them. And you know what happened when
our Lord Jesus Christ came? The Scripture says, where is
he? The wise men came in Matthew
2 saying, where is he that's born King of the Jews? Just as
David was anointed King here, Christ was born King of the Jews.
They said, where is the King? And listen to this word. When
Herod the King heard these things, he was troubled in all Jerusalem
with him. There can't be but one King over
Jerusalem, over true Jerusalem, and that's Christ the Lord. But
these Herod and all the other nations and all the multitude
of nations were drunk in their religion, drunk and staggered
in that deep sleep God had poured out on them, and they gathered
around Christ the Lord in the mount to break their bands asunder,
to break the bands of God, to put aside, to turn aside His
people, to turn aside His Christ, to take God off His throne so
they could go on in their form of religion. Verse 18, the Philistines
also came and spread themselves in the valley of Rephium. That
means the valley of giants. That's what they thought they
were. And David inquired of the Lord saying, shall I go up to
the Philistines? But thou delivered them into
my hand. You picture the Lord Jesus Christ in the garden of
Gethsemane praying before he went and turned himself over
to his captors. Father, glorify thy name. He
said, I've glorified it and I'll glorify it again. Look here. And the Lord said unto David,
Go up, for I will doubtless deliver the Philistines into thy hand.
And David came to Baal-perazim, and David smote them there, and
said, The Lord hath broken forth upon mine enemies before me as
the breach of waters. Therefore he called the name
of that place Baal-perazim. David came head on to these enemies
and he conquered them. Christ our Lord conquered His
enemies by having the wrath of God poured out on Him in the
place of His people. That's a strange work. That is
a strange work. Christ our King conquered his
people by being made sin for us, this one who knew no sin,
that we may be made the righteousness of God. And he cried out from
the cross, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? God forsaken
God, that's a strange word. And he said, as David said, he's
broken forth on my enemies as a breach. When the wrath of God
opened up and he poured out the wrath of justice and Christ Jesus
the Lord was swallowed up in that judgment of God and consumed
the wrath. A breach was made. A breach was
made. A way was made through all the
enemies. A way was made through the law
that veiled rent from top to bottom. It opened up and the
law was fulfilled. He said it's finished. There
was a breach made in the midst of all His enemies. He goes through
His enemies and plows through everything that would keep us
from God and He's the way. We follow Him. We walk in His
steps and He'll bring us up to God victorious in Him. And Isaiah
says, and he did something in the valley of Gibeon. He's not only going to do a strange
work, but he's going to be wroth so he can bring forth a strange
act too, a very strange act. In the valley of Gibeon, the
valley of Jeba, look there at verse 22. Oh, let me read this
to you. Verse 21. And there they left
their images, and David and his men burned them. I looked at
that, and looked at that, and looked at that, and I said, how
in the world? I know the rest of this is talking about what
Christ accomplished on the cross. How does that tell me what Christ
accomplished on the cross? That was the law. That was God's
law. Break their images. Break down
their altars. Destroy them. You shall have
no other gods before me. Christ fulfilled the law. He
fulfilled it just like David fulfilled it. And now here's
this valley of Gibeon, verse 22. And the Philistines came
up yet again and spread themselves in the valley of Repha. No sooner
had Christ put in the tomb, had taken that off the cross and
put it in the tomb, come to His disciples, rose again, ascended
to the Father, and they all came back to Jerusalem and gathered
up and went right on in that drunken, staggering vomit of
religion, that form of religion. Just like these all came back
again to the valley of Rephraim. What happened then? Verse 23. And when David inquired of the
Lord, he said, Thou shalt not go up. But fetch a compass behind
them, and come upon them over against the mulberry trees. Now
watch verse 24. And let it be, when thou hearest
the sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry trees, that then
thou shalt bestir thyself, for then shall the Lord go out before
thee to smite the host of the Philistines. Our Lord, before He ascended,
He said, don't leave this room right here. Don't go up to Jerusalem
yet until God fulfills His promise. And the Scripture says they were
all with one accord in one place. And it says, a sound from heaven
came as a rushing, mighty wind. And it filled all the house where
they were sitting, and they appeared unto them cloven tongues like
as of fire, and it set upon each of them, and they were filled
with the Holy Ghost. And they began to speak with other tongues
as the Spirit gave them utterance." In other words, they could speak
languages they had never learned before. And they went up to Jerusalem
now, to all that host of people that was scattered out in that
valley, spread far and wide. And they went up there, each
one of them, preaching the gospel to this man from this Gentile
nation, and that man from that Gentile nation, and this one
from that Gentile nation, and this one from that Jewish people. And all the tongues of the people,
they could preach the gospel to each of them in that tongue.
And you know what God did that day? He did the same thing He
did right there in the valley of Jeba. From Jeba, from Gibeon,
all the way to the uttermost parts, He smote them. And you know what God's been
doing ever since He poured out the Spirit on His church and
baptized His church into the Spirit and has been sending forth
this Gospel? You know what He's been doing
ever since then? Right there that day, He slew 3,000 who were
enemies in their mind by wicked works, who considered God their
enemy. He slew them with a gospel sword. Slew them and healed them
all at the same time. That's what this two-edged sword
does. And He's been doing it from Jerusalem all the way through
the uttermost parts of the earth, just like He told them before
He left. You're going to be witnesses unto Me throughout the whole
host of the earth. Now, that's a strange act. That's
a strange act. Now turn back there to Isaiah
29.14 and catch this. He said to them, I'm going to
do this marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous
work and a wonder. And when he did this, he said,
here's the other thing that's going to happen. The wisdom of
their wise men shall perish and the understanding of their prudent
men shall be hid. Now look over at 1 Corinthians
18. 1 Corinthians 18. 1 Corinthians 1.18. The preaching of the cross has
a two-fold effect. This strange act God does has
a two-fold effect. Verse 18. The preaching of the
cross is to them that perish foolishness. It's death unto
death to them. And God said, that's what I'm
going to do with it. By this strange act, I'm going to make
the wisdom of their wise men perish, and the wisdom of their
prudent men is going to fade into nothing. But unto us which
are saved is the power of God. This is that spirit, that power,
for it is written. This is right there from our
text. I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and will bring to
nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where's the wise
man? Where's the scribe? Where's the disputer of this
world? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For
after that in the wisdom of God, this is God's wisdom We're looking
at in Isaiah 29 after that in the wisdom of God the world by
wisdom knew not God He gave him all the light they he could give
him without breaking a stony heart and they knew not God and
he said I'm gonna do a marvel a marvelous work and He poured
out the Spirit of deep sleep on His people so that they would
do what His hand had determined before to be done in crucifying
His Son at Calvary's tree and thus breaking the yoke off His
people, fulfilling the law of God for His people. And thus
He turned in and poured out the Spirit and He's been quickening
the hearts and calling out His sheep throughout the nations
ever since. It pleased Him by the foolishness
of preaching to do it. And you know what these wise
men said? These wise men said, verse 22, give us a sign. Show us something you're going
to do so we'll believe you. You don't see it. You don't see
it. You don't see what he's done.
What more sign do you need? And the Greeks seek after wisdom. But here's the sign and here
is the wisdom. We preach Christ crucified unto
the Jews a stumbling block and unto the Greeks foolishness.
That's one aspect of the work. Marvelous work that we wonder
about. Here's the second part. But unto them which are called
both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom
of God. This is the work he did. Ah,
look now now, verse 17 in our text, Isaiah 29, 17. Israel didn't obtain what they
sought for, but the election did, and the rest were blinded.
They gave them the spirit of slumber that they shouldn't see
and ears they shouldn't hear into this day. Now look here,
this also meant grace to the Gentiles. Look at verse 17. Is it not yet a very little while,
the Lord said, and Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field?
Lebanon represents the Gentiles. Lebanon, he says, is going to
be turned into a well-cultivated, fruitful field. And the fruitful
field, that is Jerusalem right here, where I've been blessing
this whole time, he said, it's going to be turned into an uncultivated
forest. And that's what he did. That's
what he did. Now who are these elect that are saved? How do
I know if I've been saved? How do I know if the Lord's done
this work in my heart? Look at verse 18. In that day,
shall the deaf hear the words of the book." Is that you? These are God's witnesses. The
deaf that He makes to hear the words of this book. Those wise
men, they were wise in their own estimation. The best they
could come up with was they walked up to Christ face to face and
they said, there's something more than you. There's something
more to this gospel than you. There's something more than Christ. And he said, he laughed. He just laughed and had them
in derision. They didn't do anything but accomplish his purpose. That's
all they did. And he poured out his spirit
on the death and he made them hear the words of this book.
And the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out
of darkness. You remember when that blind
man was healed and afterwards the Lord came to him and when
the wise and prudent kicked him out of the synagogue? They said,
do you know who we are? You gonna try to tell us something
about who God is? You know who we are?" And they
kicked him out. And the Lord came to him. And he said, do
you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? And he said, who is your
Lord that I might believe on Him? He said, it's me that's
talking to you. And he said, Lord, I believe. And he said,
you see, because you were blind, now you see. And those wise men
standing by, they said, are we blind also? And He said, if you
would have said you were blind, you'd have sight now. But because
you say we see, you're yet in your blindness. I'll just leave
you right there where you're at. This is who the elect are, verse
19. The meek that shall increase
their joy, where? In the Lord. In the Lord. Look, and here they are, the
poor among men that rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. That's
who His elect are. Here's what they rejoice in as
well. Verse 24, the terrible one is brought to nothing. That
word terrible means violent. This is describing those religious
men. The scorner is consumed. They mock God, they mock His
messenger, they mock the Gospel, and they're consumed. All that
watch for iniquity are cut off. that make a man an offender for
a word." You know who this applies to first and foremost? The man
here that they're talking about? Christ the Lord. They sought
how they might entangle Him in His words. Because everything
He said reproved them. Light came into the world. And
this is the condemnation. Men love darkness rather than
light because their deeds are evil. They didn't want to confess
who He was. They'd have to confess who they
were. and he says they're cut off.
They lay a snare for him that reproved within the gate and
turn aside the just for a thing of naught. Isn't that a contrast
to sinners saved by grace is meek? These wise men are violent
scorners, mockers. The believers poor in spirit,
these self-righteous men watch for iniquity. They look for something
they can say, yeah, I told you, I told you. The believer rejoices in the
Lord, rejoices in the Holy One of Israel. Those men lay a snare
for Christ and His people because they're reproved by Him. They
turn aside those that have been judged. Christ the just One.
They turn Him aside in their Gospel. They turn aside those
that have been justified by Him. For what? Nothing. For nothing. But here's the truth. The meek
and poor shall increase. But those with this form be cut
off. Isaiah said in his day, they
are. They already are. They already are. And you know
what? In our day, they already are.
They already are. Now look at verse 29, chapter
29, verse 22. Therefore thus saith the Lord,
who redeemed Abraham concerning the house of Jacob, This is the
Lord's house concerning you who are worms, you who are the meek
and who have been saved, just as Abraham was redeemed. What was the gospel Paul preached? Those that come to Christ in
faith, there's neither Jew nor Gentile, neither bond nor free. We're all one in Christ Jesus.
We're the house of Jacob in Christ Jesus. Therefore, when all this
tribulation came upon that nation, He says, know this concerning
the house of Jacob, Jacob shall not now be ashamed, neither shall
his face now exhale. I'm going to reserve mercy for
my people. All this is to purge, devour from those that I've made
righteous in my Son. That's what it's for. But when
he seeth his children, when Jacob sees his children, when the Lord's
people see the children, the work of mine hands in the midst
of them, they shall sanctify my name. You know why? Because he's the only one who
could do this work. He's the only one who could work
this salvation in his people. And they're going to sanctify
the Holy One of Jacob. Christ Jesus, the Holy One. And they're going to fear the
God of Israel. The God of His church. The God of our salvation.
And those that murmur, He said, that erred in spirit, they're
going to come to understanding. They're going to learn doctrine.
They're going to learn it. I'm going to close with 2 Thessalonians
2. Turn there with me. 2 Thessalonians 2. Verse 10, with all deceivableness of unrighteousness
in them that perish. Verse 3, the last part there,
because they receive not the love of the truth that they might
be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion
that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned
who believe not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
But, here's that second purpose, But we are bound to give thanks
always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord. Because
God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the Spirit and belief of the truth. Whereunto He called you
by our Gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Where is Christ right now? He's
in glory. He's glorified. The Father glorified
Him just as He said He would. You know what you've obtained
by being called by His grace, by this Spirit coming forth and
giving you a new heart? You know what? The glory of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Where He is is where the believer
is. Right now. Therefore, brethren,
knowing this, brethren, stand fast. Stand fast and hold the
traditions which ye have been taught. Who taught them? What did He
just say? You were chosen to salvation
through sanctification of the Spirit. God taught you. God taught you. Hold to the traditions
which you've been taught, whether by word or our epistle. whether by word, by our preaching,
or by the gospel, his messengers he sent. And now, our Lord Jesus
Christ himself and God, even our Father, which hath loved
us and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through
grace, comfort your hearts, establish you in every good word and word. I use this illustration for you
sometimes because I just it's like that illustration of that
potter's vessel speaking back to the potter bragging about
what all he did. But just go down there. Next
time one of those big nor'easterners coming, or hurricanes coming
up the coast, and just stand down at the shore down there,
stand on the beach, and you just spread back, fill your lungs
as full as you can fill them, and you just blow as hard as
you can and try to turn it another way. That's the foolishness you're
in. If you don't flee to Christ right
now and beg Him for mercy, you're blowing against a hurricane.
This is the God we serve right here. But brethren, if you can
bow and ask Him for grace, it's because the hurricane has blown
against you. And He'll bring us down. He'll
bring us down and cause us to worship Him. I pray He will do
that and comfort us and make us stand. Make us stand. Alright, amen.