Alright, I'm going to ask you
to turn with me to Isaiah chapter 26. Isaiah chapter 26. Isaiah 26 verse 9, With my soul
have I desired thee in the night. Yea, with my spirit within me
will I seek thee early. For when thy judgments are in
the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness. The believer who's been born
of the Spirit of God, has Christ the light. He walks in the day. She walks in the day having Christ
the light. But even as we walk in Christ
the light, we walk in the midst of the night, in a world as dark
as night. and we face many seasons of night,
many tribulations of night, darkness. The days before our Lord walked
this earth and the days after the resurrection of our Lord
Jesus Christ is called in Scripture night. It's called night. But when our Lord walked this
earth, He called it day. In John 9, verse 4, he said,
I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day. The night cometh. The night cometh
when no man can work. What did he mean by that? He
tells us, as long as I am in the world, I am the light of
the world. He is the son of righteousness.
He is the day spring from on high who has visited us. He is
the great and morning star. He is the believer's day in the
midst of a world that's night. The day He brought in righteousness
for His people. is the day to which Isaiah looked
when he says here in this verse, when thy judgments are in the
earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.
That's the day he looked toward, that day when our Lord walked
this earth. The Lord our righteousness walked
this earth. And in our day, we look back
to His day and there we behold and we're told of God and we
learn righteousness. When we see our Redeemer, we
see God our righteousness. When we look to Calvary's cross,
we behold God's righteousness manifest before us in great light. And we behold there on that tree
our righteousness. Our righteousness. Before Christ
came, it was called night because the one nation who was given
the oracles of God thought that acceptance with God was by their
works rather than by Christ Jesus, whom all the oracles of God foreshadowed
to come. That was the night of this world.
Isaiah 8.20, look over there with me real quick. Isaiah 8.20. Isaiah was sent forth to declare
this. He said in verse 20, to the law and to the testimony.
He's speaking of those that peep and mutter and would speak of
seeking God and seeking life, but the place they tell you to
look to is death. It's dead. He says, to the law
and to the testimony. If they speak not according to
this Word, it's because there's no light in them. and they shall
pass through it hardly bested and hungry, fat, full of plenty. And it shall come to pass that
when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, murmur
and complain and grumble, curse their king and their God, look
upward, and they shall look into the earth and behold trouble
and darkness, dimness of anguish, and they shall be driven to darkness. After Christ rose from the dead,
it's called night. Paul, through the Holy Spirit,
called it a great falling away. A great falling away must come. Are you looking for that to happen?
It's already happened. It had begun in Paul's day already. It's been going on for 2,000
years, and it's going on right now, and shall continue to go
on. And what it is, is whenever the Gospel opened up to the Gentile
nations, and God began gathering His elect from the four corners
of the earth, teaching them in the heart, giving them great
light, The multitudes in all the nations did exactly what
the Jews in darkness of night, in darkness of their depravity,
have been doing all along. They grabbed on to the oracles,
to the law, to the doing, and said, we'll take this and we'll
come up to God with this, but we don't need Christ. That's
the great falling away. That's the drunkenness this world's
filled with. Paul said, There'll be some who
will stand and they will call themselves by the name of the
Lord. They'll seek God by their own works. And Paul describes
it as Antichrist. And Antichrist is just men. It's just natural religious men. That's all that Antichrist is.
Natural religious men. who act as if they're God, who
exalt themselves as if they are God, as if they can accomplish
that which only God can accomplish. I saw recently a poll that said
80% of Americans call themselves Christians. 80%. And at the same time, I read
of a plague that's reported that they expect to come, it's gonna
be worse than it was in 1985, of grasshoppers throughout the
middle part of our nation and up through the farmlands of our
country. They're calling, they're saying
that, they said if Mother Nature doesn't help us out and give
us warm weather, or give us cool weather, to kill these nips of
these grasshoppers, then it's going to be warm and dry and
these grasshoppers are going to thrive and they're going to
do billions of dollars worth of damage and deplete the whole
supply of fruits and vegetables in this nation. When I read those
two things together, 80% of Americans call themselves Christians, and
I read of this, and what we accredited to Mother Nature, and if Mother
Nature will help us, God is sending the plague, just like He did
in Pharaoh's day. He sent it already, and He's
sending it again. He sent it in Isaiah's day and
caused a great night. And immediately after religion
took Christ down off the cross, the great night in our generation
began. And it's been going on ever since.
And the judgment of God is upon the face of this world. Great
dimness, great darkness, great night. And the believer walks
in the day, in the light of Christ, in the day spring, in the midst
of this night. I want to show you Three things
here tonight, very briefly. I think there's some here who
desire what Isaiah desired in his day, who have this desire
that he had in his day, in the midst of night, the night that
he dwelt in. I want to show you these three
things. First of all, this is a soul desire. Secondly, this
is a desire for Christ. And thirdly, this is a desire
that shall be filled. First of all, this is a soul
desire. He says in verse 9, With my soul
have I desired thee in the night, yea, with my spirit within me
will I seek thee early. Now this is not the desire men
have by nature. This is not the desire of man's
natural state. Some experience fleeting desires. vanishing desires. They get moved
by a sermon. Come in and get moved by a sermon,
and as they hear the sermon, they begin to make resolutions
with themselves about commitment to God. And they might even talk
to one of you about it, about their concern for the commitment
of the whole congregation of God, who, in fact, in truth,
are laying down their lives for the gospel, who have submitted
to God, who are giving themselves to the furnace of the gospel.
And then straightway, right back into the world, and their resolution
proves to be just a fleeting desire, just fleeting. James says, he's like a man beholding
his natural face in a glass, for he beholdeth himself and
goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man
he was. Scripture says, it's the goodness that's as the morning
cloud and as the early dew that just passes away. Clouds without
rain and wells without water. There's no urgency in natural
desire. No urgency in natural desire. James said our will and our life
is like a vapor. And all the plans we make, all
the daily plans we make, we fool ourselves into thinking we got
plenty of time. What's the big deal? What's the
big rush? We got plenty of time. Old vain man. Hear this now. Your time is up. To the vain man, it needs to
be told, your last meal, you've had your last meal. Your last
rites have been read to you. You've been strapped onto the
gurney. The executioner has started the flow, and it's coming down
the tubes, and it's about to enter, the poison's about to
enter into your veins, and you're about to leave this world right
now. And will you have the audacity
to say, when I fit it into my schedule, I'll call on God? That's
the urgency. That's the urgency of this soul
desire. The conscience of nature can
be stirred with desire, but it only goes as far as nature can
go and no further. Scripture says, today, if you'll
hear His voice, harden not your heart. This is the desire which
God gives in the spirit that He's created within the sinner. He said in Ezekiel, a new heart
also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you.
And I'll take away the stony heart out of your flesh, that
heart that's stoned, that stony heart of religion, that stony
heart of self-righteousness, that stony heart of self-will.
I'll take that out of you and I'll give you a heart of flesh,
one that knows and feels and desires God. And I'll put my spirit within
you, he said. And I'll cause you to walk in
my statutes and my judgments and keep them. And you'll do
them. You'll hear the gospel and you'll have the love of God
in your heart. You'll have the constraining
grace working in your heart. And you'll desire to be long-suffering.
You'll desire to be patient. You'll desire to keep yourself
from the spots of this world. You'll have a desire to know
God, to hear His voice, to hear Him speak. You'll have a desire
and you'll walk after Him. Yea, with my spirit within me
will I seek thee early, Isaiah said. Do you know what the word
early means? Diligently. I'll seek you diligently. The
desire of the believer is not a fleeting desire, it's a continual,
diligent desire. This is the hunger and thirsting
which we have to have, which we have to have filled, brethren. That's what this is. Secondly,
this desire is for Christ the Lord. He says in verse 9, with
my soul have I desired thee in the night. Yea, with my spirit
within me will I seek thee diligently. Look back over at Isaiah 6. Isaiah
6. The Lord makes us to desire Him.
Not, as Scott was just saying, not through learning doctrinal
facts, though those facts may be true. Not through learning
a system of doctrine, though that system of doctrine may be
true. Not through reading something in a manual, in a book, in an
instruction booklet of history and what you've heard go on in
the past and seen and never experienced. Oh, I'd be so foolish to come
up to Pete and never having been in his job, never having been
where he is, never having experienced what he's experienced and try
to tell him about his job and about how he ought to be acting
and doing when all I've ever done is read about it in a book.
Wouldn't that be foolish? This is how He does it. He reveals
a glorious person. Isaiah said, In the year that
King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord. That's who I saw. And I saw Him sitting upon a
throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple.
Above it stood the seraphims. Each one had six wings. With
twain He covered His face, and with twain He covered His feet,
and with twain He did fly. And one cried unto another, and
this was their cry, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The
whole earth is full of his glory. He reveals He's the King who
reigns in sovereign power and whom you can trust. Faith sees
Him a King sitting up on a throne. Hold your place, keep your place
there a minute. I'm going to go further with this. He reveals
His excellency and His beauty. You see Him high and lifted up. You see that His train, that
beautiful garment of His righteousness fills the whole temple. You behold
that His purpose in all things is that all praise and honor
and glory might be to His name. Even the seraphims praised His
glory." That's what Isaiah saw. He reveals His glory unto you. Holy, holy, holy, they cried. Our God is holy. He's holy. He's holy. He's thrice holy. He's thrice holy. And everything
He does is holy. His love is holy. His mercy is
holy. His judgments are holy. His ways
are holy. His dealings with His people
is holy. His dealings with those that
He passes by is holy dealings. And the whole earth is full of
His glory. And through His gospel, through this glorious gospel
of His grace, through the gospel that praises His works and His
person, He enters in. He creates a new spirit within. He puts His spirit within you. And He joins Himself in vital
union with us, brethren. And when He does that, the posts
of the door move at the voice of Him that cries. And just like
smoke, He fills the whole tabernacle. You know, in the Old Testament,
when that glory filled the tabernacle like smoke, you know what it
did? It sanctified the whole tabernacle. That's what it did. That's what His very presence
does in His people. And then He makes us to desire
Him because when we see Him, He makes us to see Him, we see
our desperate need of His mercy and His grace. Look at verse
5, Then said I, Woe is me, for I am undone. I am a man of unclean
lips. I dwell in the midst of a people
of unclean lips. I am in darkness. I am in night,
and it is night all around me. And what did it make Him do?
My soul desires You in the night. He said, mine eyes have seen
the King, the Lord of hosts. And He makes us to desire Him
by revealing that in this perfect holiness, in this just way, our
Justifier has purged that sin. Isaiah says, verse 6, Then flew
one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand,
which he had taken with the tongues from off the altar. And he laid
it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips, thy
iniquities taken away, and thy sin is purged. And when He makes
you do this, when He makes you to behold His person, when He
makes you to behold His work on your behalf, He establishes
your mind in Him to stay on Him, and in Him you find perfect peace
for your soul. And when He says to you, who
shall I send? Who will go? You don't confer
with flesh and blood. You don't look around to mom
and daddy and make sure their doctrine lines up with your doctrine.
You don't look back and hold on to some profession you made
when you was a silly little boy trying to do what mom and daddy
wanted you to do. You don't, you don't hold on, you don't,
when you realize who he is, you don't hold on to your works of
righteousness anymore. You say, here am I, send me. I'll bear the affliction. I'll
bear the cross. I'll bear, because I won't deny
the testimony of the one I just saw. I can't. That's what power and wisdom
makes us to do. Isaiah was overjoyed when this
Lord, when he came to know this, and he was thrilled with this. And you know what happened very
soon, very quickly? He experienced something else.
Night. He experienced night. Some of
you sitting here now, you know Isaiah's cry, his desire. You know it right now. You started
out in great peace, in this perfect peace, and very soon you experience
night. You experience this trouble.
You experience this soul trouble. And the tribulation that you've
encountered after your conversion is far worse than what you experienced
before. Far worse. Every believer personally
has great night seasons. I just read Psalm 77-2 with you. In the day of my trouble, I sought
the Lord. My sore ran in the night and
ceased not. My soul refused to be comforted. The psalmist said, As the heart
panteth after the water brook, so panteth my soul after thee,
O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for
the living God. When shall I come and appear
before God? My tears have been my meat day
and night while they continually say unto me, where is thy God? We experience temporal trouble.
We've had three Brethren in this place lose their jobs. Others have been concerned about
their jobs. We suffer spiritual trouble. As soon as Isaiah realized that
the Lord, first thing he realized, he went to King Ahaz, and he
realized, the king said in his piety, in his form of religion,
he said, I'm not going to hear your gospel Isaiah. He rejected
Christ and wouldn't even hear Him. And Isaiah discovered real
fast the Lord has a very small remnant. And the first thing
a believer beholds in this world is the Lord has a very small
remnant. The Lord said this, Broad is
the way, wide is the gate, and many there be that go in the
way of destruction, and few go in the straight gate. Few. And yet, men in religion
walk around in the night, shaking hands with men of the night,
embracing men of the night, harlots of the night, prostitutes of
the night, saying, brother and sister and brother and sister,
and everybody is a brother and a sister. in the midst of a world of tribulation,
on top of the audacity of religion, on top of the thriving fatness
and plenty of men who butcher this gospel of our Redeemer.
Melinda told me on the way over here about somebody that's having
a passion play this weekend. What would you think if your
son had been beaten and murdered and hung up on a cross, and I
gathered together a bunch of people and said, we're going
to have a play and act it out? if it was your son or your daughter,
huh? But in Isaiah's day, as in our
day, just like him, in the midst of all this trouble, in the midst
of the night that we're in, we have personal nights, we have
tribulation in our souls, our own sin and corruption, our own
pride and our own selfishness, our own self-will. Your heart
aches within you. You're unable to comfort yourself. Your soul refuses to be comforted. You look to this way and to that
way. You even wonder if you're really
a child of God. Isaiah said, With my soul have
I desired thee in the night. With my soul have I desired thee
in the night. Would it give you any comfort
if you knew that I suffered the very same thing? In my lowest season, it never
seems to fail, in my lowest season, somebody always lets me know
they don't appreciate my ministering, the way I'm ministering, or the
gospel I preach. And then I go on carrying their
burden that they don't even know they have, in addition to the
one I already have. The soul suffering of brethren
who I speak with that I know is suffering in ways they can't
control. The jobs and the sickness and
the things like that. And when your brethren hurt,
you hurt. When you injure a part of your
body, your whole body hurts. And that's how it is with us,
brethren. When one of us suffers, we all suffer. When one is injured,
we all injure. And we have this trouble It's
soul suffering. But there's a third thing here.
This is a desire that shall be filled. This is a desire that
shall be filled. Concerning God's saints, Scripture
says, her ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace.
We read in Isaiah 26.3 here. He says, Thou wilt keep him in
perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusteth
in Thee. Well, how then is it that you
find all this trouble within you? How is it you find this?
How is it Isaiah could say, my soul desires Thee in the night? I'm longing for Thee with my
spirit within me. I'm desiring Thee. How could
the psalmist write, Lord, will you ever comfort me again? Has
the Lord forgotten to be gracious? Why would we experience such
things? Why would we experience such trouble? Where then are
the ways of pleasantness and the paths of peace in these night
seasons? Turn with me over to John 16,
verse 33. John 16, verse 33. The Lord was describing the night to His disciples before
He departed. He was describing to them the
works of religious men and how they would be, what to expect
from this world. And he said this in verse 33,
These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have
peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation. Be of good cheer, I have overcome
the world. Turn over with me to John 17.
He keep us in this peace. He says, I've told these things
to you. I've told you about this tribulation.
I've warned you about it that in me you might have peace. How
does He keep us there? John 17, 15. He says, I pray
not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that
thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the
world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through
thy truth. Thy word is truth. Now turn back
over to Isaiah 26 with me. Be sure you get this now. Christ
our peace. The one who said that in me you
might have peace. He is our peace and Christ our
peace prays the Father to keep us from the evil. To keep us
from the evil in the midst of the evil. In the midst of it.
How so? He said through the word of truth. Through the gospel. Some of you
came here tonight. And you came here with this soul
desire. You came here desiring to know
Christ, desiring to behold Christ, desiring to hear of His works. Like the psalmist who came to
the point there where he said, this is what I'm going to do.
I'm going to meditate on Your works, Lord. I'm going to remember
all your works of old. I'm going to remember how when
you brought your people out of Egypt, how the waters stood up
before you and listened to you. I'm going to remember how you
wrought salvation with your right hand, with your right arm, with
the power. I'm going to remember that. And
some of you came here tonight with this desire. And I'm trying
to set forth to you His works. I'm trying to remind you of His
works. I'm trying to remind you that
this One that is of old, of ancient times, He's faithful and He's
true. He will accomplish the thing
He says He will accomplish. And as this Gospel goes forth,
our Lord, just as we just read in John 17, says, Father, I pray. that you wouldn't take them out
of the world. Don't take them out of the night, but keep them
from it, from the evil of it. Sanctify them through Thy Word. Thy Word is truth. They're not
of the night. They're not of the world, as
I'm not of it. But sanctify them through Thy
Gospel, through Thy Word. Thy Word is truth. And the Holy
Spirit comes forth into the spirit He's made, and He comforts you
with these things. Read Isaiah 26.3 again, and this
time I want you to take out the italicized words. They're added
by the translators. If you have a King James, take
out the translated words and listen to this. Isaiah 26.3, Thou wilt keep. Thou wilt keep in perfect peace. Mind, stay. because He trusteth
in thee. Thou wilt keep in perfect peace
mine stayed established because He trusteth in thee. Through
this gospel of Christ, God our Savior will keep our minds stayed
on Christ our peace. He'll establish our minds in
Christ our peace. Because through the faith He
gave us, through the very gift of faith He gave us, and He sent
forth this gospel to edify and to strengthen and to grow, that
very faith we possess causes us to entrust Him to do this
very work. To keep us in Christ and to keep
our minds established on Christ and settled on Christ. With my
soul have I desired thee. This is our song. I need thee
every hour, most gracious Lord. No tender voice like thine can
afford, peace can afford. Temptations lose their power
when thou art nigh. Come quickly and abide, for life
is vain. I need thee, oh, I need thee
every hour. I need Thee. Oh, bless me now,
my Savior. I need Thee." James said, and whosoever looks
into this perfect Word of perfect liberty, and he continues in
it, He continues looking for this peace, this one place. He
continues trusting God to establish his mind in this one place. He
being not a forgetful hearer, but that man's a doer of the
work. And that man shall be blessed in his deed. Our Lord said, blessed or they
which hunger and thirst after righteousness. This soul desire
is for Christ our righteousness. It's for Him who is the peace
we have with God, who has justified us, who has sanctified us, who
has made us complete in His glorious person by His glorious work. This is the peace we seek. This is Him who we seek. And
He knows. And He knows our frame. And He
will not allow us to be tempted longer than we're able to bear
it. He knows it. And He says, happy are you that
hunger and thirst after righteousness, because you shall be filled. That's exactly what James is
saying when the man continues in this word. and doesn't forget
it. He's a doer of the work and not
a hearer only. And he shall be blessed in his
deed. He shall be filled. Thou wilt
keep in peace the mind stayed because the faith you've given
We've entrusted all our hope that You'll do this for us, Lord.
We're continuing in this perfect Word of Liberty that You've promised
to keep us separated from this world and stayed on You, and
we're continuing in it, and we trust You to do it, Lord. And
He says, You'll be blessed. And the Lord said, and that blessing
is, You shall be filled. You shall be filled. And Patty
and Cheryl, and every other soul in here, because you have entrusted
your soul to Him. And because you have entrusted
Him to keep your spirit within you established on Him. He promises to do just that.
Not on yourself, not on me, your preacher, not on these brethren,
not on the waves and the storm, but on Christ Jesus our peace. He does it like He did Isaiah
in the beginning. Just like He did for you in the
beginning. Like He's done for you time and time again. He reveals
His glorious person to you. And you see the King seated on
His throne. And you behold His glory and
His train perfect garment. It's all your perfection, all
your peace filling the temple. And He causes you to hear the
angels singing unto Him in that great chorus and that mighty
anthem. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. the Lord of Sabaoth,
to whom your cries have come up into his ears, the Lord who
controls heaven and earth, who holds everything in his hand,
who is himself the law of gravity, who is himself the law of physics,
who is himself the one who controls the famine and the feast, the
one who himself promises you shall be filled. You hear the
cry and praise unto him, Glory, glory, holy, holy, holy. And it makes you to see, oh,
all I've been doing is looking at myself. All I've been doing
is looking at the sin I am. What in the world have I been
thinking to even try to trust in this bunch of rags? And He sends forth that seraphim
with that coal from off the altar, and once again, He touches your
tongue with it, and He says, oh, your sin's forgiven you. Your sin's forgiven you. Let me ask you something. Give
you a few answers to a question that you might be asking. Why does He make me wait so long
sometimes? I'm going to give you these answers
because I need to be reminded of this. When God makes us wait,
we can be sure it's for our own profit. A long wait makes us see our
need. A long wait makes us see our
need. Our need of wisdom. Our need of faith. I need a patience. It does us good to learn not
to trust this deceitful, deceivable, wicked heart that's yet with
us. And another thing is a long way
grows us in our desire for Him. Mercy that's long sought for
is mercy that's well cherished. And another thing Right now may
not be the time for Him to fully show you the riches of His grace, but He has a time appointed when
He's going to make you see, just like He did Job, that He's full
of pity and tender mercy. But He's going to do it in His
time. In His time. I told you that story before,
the father walking along in the mall and I was watching him and
his son was kind of like that one. And he was getting a little
full of himself and going out ahead of his father and running
ahead and lagging behind and looking at this and that, distracted
by everything. And the father just, he just
stepped behind a pillar, a post there in the mall and hit himself.
And man, in a minute, that little fellow went to looking and he
looked around and all he saw was strangers. All he saw was
a world of people that didn't care anything about him. Just going right past him, doing
their thing. And just when he looked like
he's about to bust out in tears, that father stepped out from
behind that post And that little boy ran up to Him and just threw
his arms around Him and held on to Him like he'd never held
on to Him before. And when He does that, when He
makes us see Him, this is where we rest. Look there in verse
12, Isaiah 26-12. Lord, Thou wilt ordain peace
for us. You will because you've brought
all our works in us. You're the one that chose us.
You're the one that sent forth your son who lived and died for
us. You're the one who sent forth
this spirit to quicken us. You're the one who's provided
drawn us together, provided us a place to hear this gospel where
you keep continually refreshing our heart. You're the one that's
done all this and you're the one who continually works in
me to make me see your glory, that you won't leave me or forsake
me. And you know what he does when he does that? Just like
he did the first time, just like he does all along, he says, now
then, Who will go forth for me and bear testimony in my name?
And that one who was beaten down and afflicted and weeping and
sorrowful in the midst of this night will say, here I am, Lord. I can go now. I'll go now. By your grace, I'll go. You're
going forth to a people that's going to be heavy. Their eyelids
are going to be heavy. They're going to shut up their
ears against you. They're going to be telling you in their great
zeal how they're so concerned about the work and the works
of righteousness and getting the congregation to be committed
to the work. Now you better, you better be aware of that.
Lord, you keep me proud in my tongue. You give me a word of
grace and season. And you'll bless this word to
their hearts. And I'm going to ask you to do it. I'm going to
trust you to do it. Lord, by your grace, I'll go
for you. I'll go. That's the gospel of
the God that does this work. and how he does this work and
how he makes sinners committed in a way that the religious nominal
professor of religion can't get from any book he reads and don't
have a clue about. And don't recognize it being
works of righteousness. But these are the works that
he's ordained that his people walk in and he will see to it
you walk in them. And you will. And you will rejoice
that He made you to do so. That's right. Be patient, therefore,
brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Establish your hearts
for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. Amen.