It will be in Isaiah chapter
8, verse 9. The believer has always been
the minority in this world. The believer has always been
the true minority in this world. Always looked down upon. Always
mocked by a world prejudiced against the thrice holy God. We live in a day where it appears
that the people of our nation and our nation's leaders are
in covenant agreement with one another to take a stand together. And to stand together for absolutely
nothing but that which shall result in utter destruction.
It's not hard to put ourselves in the shoes of the believer
in Judah during the reign of King Ahaz. Those who yet trusted
God were but a small remnant in the day that we're speaking
of in this text. It's always been this way and
it will always be this way as long as believers are in this
present evil world. While the world delights in the
kings and princes of the earth, the believer delights in the
King of Kings and Lord of Lords. While the world delights in taking
great confidence in peace talks among nations, the believer finds
all our hope in Christ, the Prince of Peace. While this world glories
in another gospel of how man can reform the immoralities of
man, how that man can create a greener earth and a global
community, The believer separates himself from this world unto
Christ, our sanctuary, awaiting for a new heaven and a new earth
wherein dwells righteousness. Yet like that remnant of saints
who was set on the Lord of hosts in Isaiah's day, believers find
ourselves distracted daily by those who would have us to turn
away from God so that we might join in the common cause of humanity. We're troubled on every side,
yet not distressed. We are perplexed, but not in
despair. Persecuted, but not forsaken. Cast down, but not destroyed. The believer says with David,
Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long. We are counted
as sheep for the slaughter. Awake! Why sleepest thou, O Lord? Arise, cast us not off forever. Wherefore hidest thou thy face,
and forgetest our afflictions and our oppression? For our soul
is bowed down to the dust, and our belly cleaveth unto the earth.
Arise for our help, and redeem us for thy mercy's sake. And in the day of King Ahaz,
the Lord had indeed hid his face from Judah. Yet Judah, by God's
sovereign choice, was a land which belonged to Emmanuel. The church of Christ, a people
out of every kindred, tongue, nation, tribe under the heavens,
has been given to Christ. And that people is His land. And though He had hid His face
from Judah for a time, and though He may hide His face from us
for a time, just as He wouldn't utterly destroy that nation because
of that chosen remnant within that nation, even so right now,
because of His chosen remnant, His choice seed that He put in
Christ, the Holy Seed, He will not allow one to perish. Not one. And here's what the
Word of God was delivered to the believer in Isaiah's day. Here was the word. Isaiah 8,
9. Associate yourselves, O ye people,
and ye shall be broken in pieces. And give ear, all ye of far countries,
gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces. And it's
repeated again for emphasis. Gird yourselves. and you shall
be broken in pieces. Take counsel together and it
shall come to naught. Speak the word and it shall not
stand, for God is with us. No enemy can triumph against
those who are in Emmanuel, our sanctuary. That's my subject
this morning, Emmanuel, our sanctuary. This last phrase, for God is
with us, is the reason given why none would prosper against
Judah. The phrase, God with us, is the meaning of the name Emmanuel.
So it can be read this way. Take counsel together and it
shall come to naught. Speak the word and it shall not
stand. Why? Because Emmanuel. Who are those whom the Lord is
not with? Now if you read that passage
in verses 9 and 10, we have to see that there is somebody the
Lord is declaring He's not with. And there's somebody the Lord
is declaring He is with. Who is it the Lord is not with?
Did you know that God is not with everybody without exception? Isaiah couldn't say to the people
of Judah, without exception, God is with you." He couldn't
say that. No more than you or I can make
a blanket statement that God loves you or that Christ died
for you. Can't say that. The Lord had
just promised that he was bringing the king of Assyria, an evil
king whom he had shown no grace, no mercy to whatsoever, who didn't
have the word of God and who did not know God. He was going
to use that king and bring him upon Israel and upon Syria and
then upon Judah. Not for their good, but for their
utter destruction. Does that sound like God was
with them to you? They were those who feared men.
They were those who rejoiced in the power of man, rather than
fearing God and rejoicing in His power to save. And so Isaiah
is not telling all men God is with us. That's not what he's
saying. God is not with those who join together with the people
of this world. Those who befriend this world.
Listen to it. Verse 9. Associate yourselves,
O ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces. The word there
is associate yourselves. Befriend this world. Befriend
one another. Come together. Lock arms together. and associate yourselves, ye
shall be broken in pieces. The Lord spoke through James
and he said, Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that
the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whoso therefore
will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. That's not
who he was saying God is with. And then God is not with those
who clothe themselves for war, or who gird themselves. Read
it there, verse 9. Give ear, all ye of far countries,
gird yourselves, and you shall be broken in pieces.
They clothed themselves, they clothed themselves with all their
carnal weapons, and they were resolute in their determination
to gain the victory by their own hand. And God said, you try
that. The Lord said, try that, you
shall be broken in pieces. In the imagination of many, salvation
is all in their hand. In what they do by their own
flesh, by obedience to God's law, that's not salvation. That's not righteousness and
it's not sanctification. But Christ's obedience, Christ's
obedience, the obedience of the Son of God, the fidelity of the
Son of God, the faithfulness of the Son of God, there is where
God's righteousness is manifest. Without the law, without my obedience
to it or your obedience to it, without the prophets, but it's
witnessed by the law and the prophets. Everything God ever
wrote in his law and everything God ever gave us through his
prophets is declaring There is one coming. His name is Emmanuel
God with us God in human flesh with us and He came because he
could find no man. There was no man that could honor
his law and magnify his law There was no man that could do that.
And so God said I will provide myself I will come myself and
I will be the lamb. I will come myself and I will
justify my people. I will do so satisfying my holy
law. I will do so obeying it and making
it honorable and magnifying it and I will go to the cross and
I will lay the sin of my people on my own son and I will satisfy
my own law and therein my righteousness will be made manifest. to declare
at this time, I say, his righteousness, that he might be just and the
justifier of him that believeth in Jesus. In Romans 8, 17, Paul said, the
kingdom of God is not meat and drink. That's something we do
with our hands, with our mouths. It's not meat and drink, but
righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. It's a spiritual
enjoyment. It's a spiritual salvation. It's not a carnal thing. Meat
commendeth us not to God, for neither if we eat are we the
better, neither if we eat not are we the worse. Be not carried
about with different and strange doctrines, for it's a good thing
that the heart be established with grace. Not with meats which
have not profited them that have been occupied therein. Do you
think that when Paul said bodily exercise profiteth little, do
you think he was talking about you getting your cardiovascular
in? That's not what he was talking about. He was talking about what
you do in trying to bring yourself to God by your bodily exercise
will profit you little. It won't help you coming to God.
It's what Christ has done. Do you trust him? Do you cast
all your care on Him? Do you totally trust Him and
Him alone? Do you look to Him and Him alone
or are you looking to yourself? The hardest thing that a man
or a woman can do, a sinner in this world, the hardest thing
we can do because our natural mind is enmity against God, because
we are not subject to the law of God and indeed cannot be,
Paul said, the impossibility for us to do is to look away
from our bodily exercise. from our doing and just say,
I'm gonna rest in God's Sabbath. I'm gonna put all my care into
his hand and trust him alone. That's what God commands us to
do. That's what all God's commandments given at Mount Sinai was to shut
our mouths and to declare us guilty before God. Not to use
as some kind of measuring stick as to how good we'd measured
up to what God requires. is to shut our mouths and declare
all the world guilty and to cause us to cry out to God that we
need a Redeemer, that we need mercy, that we need salvation.
And God gives us salvation in His Son who who is the holiness
of that law, the righteousness of that law, the very righteousness
of God. And if we're going to be made
the righteousness of God, if we're going to be made holy,
which is what we have to be to come into God's presence, it's
only going to be in His Son. That's why Paul said, I want
to be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness which
is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ,
through the faithfulness of Christ, that which was accomplished by
Christ Jesus the Lord Himself on my behalf, the righteousness
which is of God by faith in Him. That's how I want to come to
God. Therefore being justified, comma,
by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
By whom also we have access into this grace wherein we stand,
and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Gird yourself,
you'll be broken in pieces, he said. Isaiah said, I'll greatly
rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my
God, for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation. He
hath covered me with the robe of righteousness. As a bride
decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself
with her jewels. Paul said, we are the believer
who worship God in spirit, who rejoice in Christ Jesus, and
who have no confidence in the flesh. Gird yourselves and you'll be
broken in pieces, he said. Now, God's not with those whose
purpose and word is together with man, who is in agreement
with man. He's not with those whose covenant
is with man, who speak words of how man wins the victory.
Look at verse 10. Take counsel together. Make a
covenant with each other. It'll come to nothing. Speak
the word. Have it all planned out and purposed
just how you're going to bring it to pass. It shall not stand. Look back at Isaiah 7. For one
sinner to declare that he can enter into God's heavenly kingdom
by his own strength is a covenant with man. It is the gospel that
men preach. It is the gospel that man preaches. It is the gospel of man. It denies
Father, it denies Son, and it denies the Holy Spirit. The Father
is perfect, seven. The Son is perfect, seven. The Holy Spirit is perfect, seven.
What's the number of man? Six, six, six. Denies Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit. Denies them all. That's the gospel
that's being declared, the gospel of man. Make a covenant with
me, you preacher. I'll get you to heaven. Make
a covenant with me, they say. I'll tell you how to walk honorably
before God. He'll tell you how to walk honorably
before Him, according to what He says is honorable. And as
long as He can keep eyes on you, and eyes on you having your eyes
on others, and others having their eyes on you, the primary
purpose has been achieved. Keeping your eyes off Christ.
And your eyes off Him. That man's of the devil. Paul
said, if any man come preaching another gospel, let him be accursed. Don't, don't kowtow to him. Don't, the very kindness you
can show him and the graciousness you can show him is declared
to him. Christ Jesus the Lord is the end of the law for righteousness
to all that believe. He is all my salvation. He is
all my hope. He is all my stay. I put no trust
in what I've done. I put no trust in what men have
done. I put no trust in a profession, in a walk, anything I've done.
My hope, my profession is, my testimony is, Christ is all. Now look here, if we say that
we can do something of ourselves, it's the very same thing as what
we see typified here in this covenant. Look at Isaiah 7, 5.
Lord said, Don't be afraid, because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of
Remaliah have taken evil counsel against thee, saying, This was
their covenant. Let us go up against Judah, and
vex it, and let us make a breach therein for us, and set a king
in the midst of it, even the son of Tabeal. Thus saith the
Lord God. Their covenant shall not stand,
neither shall it come to pass. That's the covenant man makes
with man right there. Let us make a breach into heaven. Let us go into God's Judah. Let us go into the Lord's holy
throne room and let us set our king there. And you know who
that king would be if we had our way? Us. Has God said you'll die in the
day that you eat of that fruit? Has God said you'll die in the
day that you disobey him and set yourself up as a God? Oh,
no, you won't die. You'll be as God's knowing good
and evil. And now there's a million little
gods running around on this planet Earth thinking that they're God.
Thinking they know the good and evil. and not knowing who God
is, not able to come to God, not able to even discern that
He is God of heaven and earth, that He is the holy, righteous
judge of heaven and earth, that He is King and Savior of His
people. He's not dependent on us. Well,
let's move on here. Who are the us with whom God
is with? Us are those whom God put in
Emmanuel by His free sovereign prerogative, not based on anything
in us. God is with us because God is
with His Son. They're babes of God to whom
He has revealed Christ. Look at Matthew 11. Matthew 11,
verse 25. At that time, Jesus answered
and said, here's who the us are, here's who this us is. I thank
Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast
hid these things from the wise and the prudent and has revealed
them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed
good in Thy sight. The problem is nobody wants to
be a babe by nature. By the carnal sin that's in it,
nobody wants to be a babe. Everybody wants to be wise and
prudent. Nobody wants to be a dog under
the master's table. Everybody wants to be seated
at the table being served. The us are those for whom Christ
prays. Look at John 17. John 17, verse 9. I pray for
them. I pray not for the world, but
for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine. Look
at verse 24. Father, I will that they also
whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may
behold my glory which thou hast given me, for thou lovest me
before the foundation of the world. That's who this us includes. It's a people that our Lord Jesus
Christ has been the surety of from before the foundation of
the world. God gave them to Christ. He gave this us to Christ, Jesus
the Lord. And He's always been their surety.
He's always been their sure, ordered and sure reason that
they cannot be lost. Their ordered and sure reason
they shall be saved. He's always been that. Look at
Ephesians 1. Ephesians 1. This is why Isaiah
was sent with a gospel that said, associate yourselves, O ye people. Guard yourselves, all ye nations,
from afar. The whole world, all of you,
get together and huddle up and join together and make a covenant
agreement with one another. Be one big global community against
God's people. It won't help. God's with us. God is Emmanuel. Now look, this
is who this us is. Verse 2. He's speaking to believers. Look at verse 1. Paul, an apostle
of Jesus Christ by the will of God. Now look who he's speaking
to. To the saints. You know what a saint is? People
say, well, I'm not holy. You're going to have to be. You're
going to have to be to enter into God's presence. Saints are
those that he has made holy. They've been sanctified. And
he said, that's who I'm writing to. It's the us. And he says,
which are at Ephesus and to the faithful in Christ Jesus. Grace
be to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus
Christ. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ. That word all means
he didn't leave out one spiritual blessing. Not one. They were
all given to us when He gave us to Christ. Every one of them. According as He hath chosen us,
elected us, by His sovereign right as God to do with His own
whatsoever He is pleased to do. I have chosen us in Him before
the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without
blame before Him in love. having predestinated us unto
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself according to
the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of
His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved. It's
in Him we have redemption. It's in Him, by His own blood,
we've been bought, we've been purchased. Through His blood,
the forgiveness of sins is through this One who when He died. These are the us that He died
for. These are the ones He died for.
Those whom God gave Him. And dying for them, He bought
them. And He totally put away their
sins. He didn't sit down at God's right
hand until He had purged our sins. He purged the sins of this
us that He was given to purge. And it says, He did it according
to the riches of His grace. wherein he hath abounded toward
us in all wisdom and prudence. If he hadn't come to us through
his messenger, through his gospel, and abounded toward us and made
Christ our wisdom, we would have never understood this. We would
have never bowed to him. We would have never worshipped
him. But he, verse 9, made known unto us the mystery of his will. Do you know this mystery? Do
you know the mystery of His will? I'm trying to tell it to you
this morning. Isn't it amazing? The amazing thing is that this
mystery is declared by God's messengers every time they stand
in a pulpit. And yet people sit and listen
to this mystery declared as plainly and as simply and as straightforward
as it can be declared and walk out and it's still a mystery.
because He has to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence
before He makes known this mystery unto us. But He's made known
unto us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure
which He hath purposed in Himself. That means He didn't look to
you to help Him plan this. He didn't associate with men
like men, say, teach each other to do. He did this on His own. He did this totally independent
of men. He's a solitary God. When He
saves His people, it don't add anything to Him. He's God. If He didn't save anybody, it
wouldn't diminish anything from Him. He saves because He's going
to have a people, according to His own purpose and His own grace,
behold His glory and behold who He is and how glorious He is. And the way He's chosen to do
it is through a sin-cursed world and a Savior, His own Son, coming
into that world and redeeming us and through His gospel revealing
this mystery to us. And He's going to bring us to
Himself and make all these things clear in that day so that we
behold His glory and who He is. Now look here, "...that in the
dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together
in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and
which are on earth, even in him, in whom also we have obtained
an inheritance." Everything that God has given to His Son, He's
given to us. to this us, we've obtained and
inherited, made joint heirs with Christ, being predestinated according
to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel
of His own will." How many things does He work after the counsel
of His will? All of them. All of them. That we should be to the praise
of His glory who first trusted in Christ. You know who first
trusted in Christ? God, the Father. He first trusted
in Christ and His people are going to be to the praise of
His glory. He gave them to His Son and said,
I entrust them to you. And they're going to be saved
and they're going to be saved praising His glory for trusting
us to His Son and not leaving it in our hands. Well, this us, all things, he
works all things after the counsel of his own will. There was a
girl back in Tennessee and I can remember she was talking to some
friends of hers and they were talking about God predestinating
his people and how that he works all things after the counsel
of his own will. And she was talking and she said,
you know, not like Stuff like where we're going to go tonight
to go out to eat. Not stuff like, you know, my
dog doing this or that. He said, a sparrow. How many
sparrows are there in this world? How many tiny little sparrows
do you think there are on this earth? You see them fly into
a tree sometimes, and those little bitty ones, you know, they fly
into a tree and there's just so many of them, it sounds like
the tree is just making all kinds of noise, you know, because it's
just alive with them. And you can't hardly discern
the leaves from the sparrows. They're just all in there, you
know. Think of all the trees in all the world that's full
of sparrows like that. And he said, not one of them,
not one of them falls to the ground without his consent. And
he says to this us, Are you not of more value than many sparrows?
The value that his sparrows are, the value that his us has is
due to the unsearchable riches and the preciousness and the
valuableness of the blood of his own son. His blood Purged
his people of their sins. He took he took the sin of his
people upon himself and he Stood in the gap between us and God
and he bore God's wrath on our behalf So that God first and
foremost so that he might be just to say you're justified
I've been merciful to you And so his blood is so precious to
God the Father that God is not willing. Now let me tell you
something. That's been preached so much
over the years that they make God out to be some little impotent
beggar who's just, he don't want you to die. He don't want you
to perish in your sin. He's not willing that you perish.
He said he works all things after the counsel of his own will. All things after the counsel
of his own will. So he's not, when it says he's
not willing that any perish, it's not that he's frustrated,
it's not that he's seated on his throne with his hands tied,
hoping you'll let him do something. It means that those he put in
Christ, those he's everlastingly loved, those who have always
been the apple of his eye, shall not perish until they're brought
to repentance and faith in his Son. He's not willing that any
should perish, but that all should come to repentance. And they
all shall come to repentance. They're going to all be made
to see that they've been associating themselves and being a friend
of this world. That they've been trying to gird
themselves and put on their own weapons by their law obedience
and by their works of righteousness which they've done. I want you
to walk honorably before God's law and a believer will. This
one who works all things after the counsel of his own will,
he works that purpose and his will in his people and they'll
be obedient. His people are obedient. I want
you to evangelize. I want you to go out and tell
people about this one that you know, this one that's done such
great things for you. I want you to pray to him, to
cast all your care on him. Because He has drawn you to Himself
so that you know that all your hope is in Him alone. And you
pour out your heart to Him to have mercy and be gracious to
you and to keep you. Because you know you can't keep
yourself. I want you to pray to Him continually and for your
brethren. I want you to come to this place and sit down and
hear the Gospel of His salvation preached to you. I want you to
hear Christ exalted before you continually so that you can walk
through this world of people saying, now come now, there's
a wizard over here, he's peeping, come over here and hear him preach.
There's one over here, shouldn't you seek unto God? He said, should
the living seek unto the dead? I'm not going backwards. I'm
not going back to death now to hear death preached. I'm not
going back to hear the covenant of man preached No, I shouldn't
seek unto God if you mean to go back to the God of this world.
But don't think brethren. I don't want you to do this.
I don't want you to look at those things as some work of righteousness
whereby you're going to be made more accepted with God. We can
take the works of righteousness. We can take the works of the
believer. We can take the faithful walk of a believer and make it
into a law of Sinai just as easily as we can take the very letter
of the law of Sinai and do it. We can start looking at how much
we've witnessed, how much we've read our Bible, how much we've
prayed, how much we've attended a church service and think that
we're more righteous by those things. That's not so. All our righteousness is in Christ,
every bit of it, every bit of it. Well, now look here with
me, Romans 8. Those, the us spoken of here,
are those whom God has gifted with faith to trust Him alone.
In spite of the enmity that filled our heart, in spite of the fact
that we were spiritually dead in trespasses and sin, God's
revealed His Son in us, declaring Emmanuel. And He's with us. We believe Him. We take Him at
His word. We take Him when He says, God
is with us. We believe Him. That's His message
to us. He's promised that none can deliver
us out of His hand because God is with us. Look at Romans 8,
28. And we know that all things work
together. Now how do these all things work
together? We just saw that He works all
things after the counsel of His own will. Not the counsel of
men. That's what He was saying when
He said, Council together make say the word it won't come to
pass because this is the council that's coming to pass He works
all things together for good to them that love God to them
who are the called according to his purpose For whom he did
for know that's not that word is for ordained that word is
not that he is looked down through time and saw who would believe
and who wouldn't believe. It's not that he looked down
through time and saw some good work or some bad work. He foreordained. The apostles said as many as
were ordained to eternal life. They believed. That's who believed.
Whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate, conformed to
the image of his son. That he might be the firstborn
among many brethren. that His Son might have the preeminence. Moreover, whom He did predestinate,
them He also called. And whom He called, them He also
justified. And whom He justified, them He
also glorified. What shall we say to these things?
If God be for us, if Emmanuel, if God be for us, He did everything. He foreknew us. He predestinated
us to be conformed to the image of His Son, that His Son might
be the firstborn. He predestinated us. He called
us. He justified us. He's going to
be the one that's going to glorify us. What shall we say then? If
He is for us, who can be against us? If He is for us, who can
be against us? He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all. Every one of this us I've been
talking to you about. He delivered his son up. I can
say now of this us, he died for all of them. He died for every
one of them. He delivered him up for us all. How shall he not with him also
freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifieth. Who
is He that condemneth? It's Christ that died, yea, rather,
that's risen again and who is even at the right hand of God,
who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us
from the love of Christ? Tribulation? Distress? Persecution? Famine, nakedness,
peril, sword, as it is written, for thy sake we are killed all
the day long. We are counted as sheep for the
slaughter. Do you ever feel like that? But
nay, these things won't separate us. In all these things, we are
more than conquerors through Him that loved us. For I am persuaded
that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height,
nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us
from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Now
you be sure you get this. The love of God. The love of God is in Christ
Jesus the Lord. This is how He saves. This is
the one in whom He saves. And he does it that his son might
be the firstborn among many brethren. He's going to be the first. He's
going to be the preeminent one among all his brethren. You see,
the reason I tell you, I can't say God loves everybody. The
reason I tell you, I can't say Christ died for you. The reason
I tell you that Isaiah didn't stand up and say, everybody,
God is with us. The reason He didn't stand up
and say that is because it's not that I want to offend you. I don't want to offend you. But
this Gospel is going to be offensive. And if we take the offense out
of the cross, that it's all of God, and you're not offended,
God's going to be offended. Somebody's going to be offended
here. Either you or God. The sinner that saves is going
to be offended. or God's going to be offended. God is going to have His Son
preeminent. And because He put Him in His
Son, and because His Son entered into covenant agreement, and
because His Son laid down His life, and because His Son really...
He didn't make salvation possible. He really didn't. He didn't make
you acceptable. He didn't go part of the way,
99.9% of the way, now you just got a little portion to do. He
didn't do that. He brought in everlasting salvation. He obtained eternal redemption.
He purged the sin of His people. He brought in a better hope.
He is that hope. So then, what I do tell you is
this. I speak of things from God down
to you and me. And I say this. Associate yourselves. Befriend this world. It won't
stand. It'll come to nothing. Gurgle
yourself. Try to put on your own garment.
Try to clean up your act. Try to come to God. Try to make
yourself acceptable to God. Try to make your covenant with
your flesh. You'll be broken in pieces. And
at the same time that I say that, just like Isaiah, at the same
time he said that, there was a people who heard him preach
that gospel, and they heard No enemies can conquer. No enemies
can come against. All the nations far and wide
can come against us. They will not prosper because
God is with us. And just as it was a saver of
death unto death to some, and they hated it and they rejected
it to some that were sitting there, they said, that's all
my salvation. That's all my hope right there.
And they were delighted. And you know what? God saved
them. And the others died, perished. They're in hell right now, as
we speak. That's just how it is. You and
I aren't God, and you and I aren't going to receive the glory, not
in one-eyed order, not for having done anything. His Son is going
to be the firstborn, the preeminent one, the one in whom all fullness
dwells, because it pleased God to make it so. And we're going
to come satisfied with the one that God is satisfied with, or
we're going to come into His presence finding out that God's
not satisfied with us. That's just how it is. And I
pray, I hope and pray that God will be gracious to you. It's
through this gospel that He reveals the mystery of His will, that
He abounds in wisdom and prudence. Christ said, I'm thankful, Father,
that you hid these things from the wise and prudent. Paul said
there's not many wise men after the flesh, not many noble after
the flesh. He didn't say there were any.
He makes even the wisest and the richest and the most prudent.
He can make them into babes. He can make them behold that
they're just a dog under the master's table and make them
happy to be eating of his crumbs from his table. And I pray that
through his gospel, he does that for you. I pray that he does
that for you. If you don't know him, I pray
he'll do that. You won't worry about the economy. You won't
worry about all the people around you. Just think there in Ahaz's
day. Those believers sitting there
in that day. Let's just listen to this picture now. See if this
sounds familiar. They saw a world that just seemed
like it was just run amok. They saw a world that seemed
like nobody cared anything about God whatsoever. They saw a world
who stood for everything as long as you didn't really stand for
anything. The only thing we stand for is that nobody can tell us
what we have to stand for. Nobody can tell us we're going
to be our own God. And their economy was failing.
Their ruler made a covenant with enemy nations to attack their
own people. And this remnant sat there beholding
all this, and all this tribulation, and all this persecution, and
all this turmoil in the world. And they heard this message,
and this was all their peace and all their hope. And the only
thing that kept them waking up the next morning and walking
down the line was, God's with us. And if He'd be for us, who
can be against us? Let them have it. Let the pot
sherds of this earth strive with the pot sherds. Take a piece
of broken glass. Let the pieces of broken glass
strive with the pieces of broken glass. It don't matter to me.
Let worms strive with worms all they want to. Fight over who's
going to be the king of the dung heap. That's fine. God is with
us.