May it please God to bless us
together this morning as we consider his word. Let us turn to the
prophecy of Isaiah, chapter 54, and we'll read verse nine. The prophecy of Isaiah, chapter
54, and reading verse nine. For this is as the waters of
Noah unto me. For as I have sworn that the
waters of Noah should no more go over the earth, so have I
sworn that I would not be wroth with thee nor rebuke thee. The people of God, the Church
of God, are so thankful that we have so many sure and certain
evidences that the Word of God is true and that we can rely
upon it for our soul's salvation. We live in a changing world. but we have an unchanging God. That is surely a great comfort
and a great blessing to us when we see so many things to dismay
us outwardly and also perhaps in our own hearts inwardly. and
yet to realise the great truth that the Lord God omnipotent
reigns. And we have before us here in
the prophecy of Isaiah very many encouraging words and very many
encouraging statements which support the people of God as
they journey on. And here in this verse, Isaiah
directs us to that wonderful occasion when, of course, Noah
and his family were delivered, when that flood came upon all
the earth and destroyed everything else. How many people today do
not believe in that great truth, and yet we're thankful to know
day by day and week by week we find more evidences proving that
the flood did cover the whole earth and it did come about when
the Word of God tells us. And we're thankful therefore
that there are such references as we have in the Word of God
to this, not only in the Old Testament but also in the New
Testament, to confirm us That did occur and so We have as well
the wonderful evidence of that when Sometimes we see the rainbow
in the sky well over the last week We I've seen rainbows on
two occasions two different days once in Scotland and once in
England and with lovely rainbows they were and how confirming
It is, as the Lord placed that bow in the cloud. Remember, before
the flood there was no rain, so there wouldn't have been any
rainbow anyway. And now, after the flood, there is that glorious
picture that we see, and how wonderful it is and how confirming
it is to our faith to believe that, as the Lord has promised,
never to flood the world again, not in totality in local areas,
but not in totality. So we have the evidence and the
promise set before us with a rainbow. And may we therefore, as we see
that, be encouraged to know that not only is that true, but also
all God's promises are sure and certain. not one thing fails
of all that God has said. So may we be thankful to have
such a God, and to be blessed with the Word of God, which gives
a wonderful record of so many instances of God's faithfulness,
of his mercy, of his great grace and of his love. And this chapter points it out
to us really so very wonderfully and very clearly. And the earlier
verses before this ninth verse, it tells us, fear not, verse
four, fear not. Well, that's A word which is
appropriate to us, isn't it, in our lives, perhaps every day. Fear not. And Isaiah says, for
thou shalt not be ashamed, neither be thou confounded. We will not
be confounded. We will not be put to shame if
our belief is in the Lord Jesus Christ and what he has done. in that great and glorious finished
work, and that he is indeed, as we come down here later, as
our Redeemer. Now if the Lord is not our Redeemer,
then it will not be so. We will not have comfort, we
will not have hope, we will not have assurance. But if we have
the evidence that the Lord is our Redeemer, then we will have
confidence. And we will have a good hope
that through his grace it is well with our souls. And so the Prophet tells us,
For thou shalt not be put to shame. For thou shalt forget
the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of
thy widowhood any more. No doubt there are things that
we are ashamed of. When we were young, foolish things
we did, foolish things we said. And perhaps we truly repent for
those things and are sorry for them. I hope we are. That indicates
the Lord's goodness and the Lord's grace toward us. And then he
tells us, for thy maker is thine husband. The Lord of hosts is
his name. And thy Redeemer, the Holy One
of Israel, the God of the whole earth, shall he be called. Well, that's a very comprehensive
and full statement, isn't it? To know that we're thankful today
that we worship this same God, who is the God of the whole earth.
Everything is under his control. Men and women don't like to acknowledge
it, but it's true that our God is in control of the whole earth. Every little bit, everything
that occurs, God is in control. For the Lord hath called thee
as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit And a wife of youth,
when thou wast refused, saith thy God." And of course, although
it's speaking here as perhaps we might think a wife, but it
actually of course refers to the Church of God as indeed the
Bride of Christ, who is of course in that female sense that we
speak of and read of so beautifully in the Song of Solomon. And so
then he tells us, for a small moment, Have I forsaken thee? But with great mercies will I
gather thee. Now it may seem in our lives
perhaps that God has forsaken us. He hasn't forgotten us. In actual fact it only seems
like this. For a small moment have I forsaken
thee but with great mercies will I gather thee. In a little wrath,
you see, we have a small moment and we have a little wrath. And
if you and I look into our lives and see what we're really like
before the great and the holy God, we deserve, do we not, to
be totally Forsaken and Indeed to endure the great wrath of
God But here we have this wonderful
position to the living Church of God For a small moment in
a little wrath I Hid my face from thee for a moment And then
we have this great and wonderful statement But with everlasting,
that's not a small moment. That's not just a little time. But with everlasting, and everlasting
has no end. But with everlasting kindness,
Will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer. So if God speaks a word like
that into our hearts, surely that is a wonderful indication
and a wonderful comfort and a wonderful evidence that the Lord has loved
us with an everlasting love and has with loving kindness drawn
us to himself. But, there's many buts in the
Word of God, aren't there? And as we look at this and we
think, well, perhaps the Lord has hid his face from me. Sometimes we do need God to hide
his face from us. You may say, well, why do you
say that? I say that because then we appreciate,
firstly, why God has hid his face from us, because we deserve
it, And then we realised the amazing goodness and love of
God in revealing Himself unto us as our great Redeemer. Now, if we were not therefore
left for a little moment or endure a little wrath of God, the things
of grace, the things of His favour would not be precious to us. They would not be very real to
us. They would just be things that we would accept as a matter
of course. But when the Lord deals with
us in love to our soul, He deals with us in such a way that when
the Lord speaks to us to encourage us, we really appreciate it. And it really comes and has a
good effect upon us. And it really touches our heart. And it really makes us bow down
before a great and holy God. And we don't stand upright and
rebellious and hard and proud. We bow down before the ever-living
God because of his love and for his mercy. And so to think then
of this tremendous statement, which it is, but with everlasting
kindness. How kind the Lord is, isn't he?
We don't deserve God's kindness, do we? And yet it's not a kindness which
is just for a moment, it's everlasting kindness. And he says, his loving
kindness will have mercy on thee, saith the Lord. Thy Redeemer. Yes, it's the Lord Jesus speaking. When we think of Him as our Redeemer,
isn't that so wonderful and so amazing to think that Almighty
God, in the form of the Lord Jesus Christ, so willingly came
into this earth to quicken us, to make us spiritually alive,
to instruct us, to show us what we are by nature, how wretched,
how sinful, how undone we are, how undeserving of any favour,
and how deserving we are of endless punishment, and yet he The great
Redeemer bore the punishment due to you and me instead. What a great God we have. What
a compassionate God we have. And so how true this is when
he says, everlasting kindness, and because of that, he will
have mercy on us. Mercy is welcome news indeed. to those who guilty stand. You and I would not appreciate
mercy unless and until the Holy Spirit has brought us into a
condition of realising our need we have because of our sinful
condition before a holy God of his mercy. But when our state
in measure, in a small amount perhaps, is revealed to us before
a holy God, then how we will rejoice to know that there is
mercy with God. And this is true. with everlasting
kindness, will I have mercy on thee? And it comes in a personal
and direct way to each one of God's children individually.
We each need to know this mercy ourselves. It's not satisfactory
to have a general statement because we might be omitted, we might
be missed out. We need to have the Holy Spirit
apply his word with power to our hearts so that we know that the God of the whole earth, the
great and glorious Redeemer, is the one that is having mercy
on us. Well, we all need mercy. We must
have mercy. Without mercy, we are eternally
lost. And so may we know the wonderful
favour and the wonderful blessing of Almighty God toward us. And then you see, the Prophet
goes on then to speak of the evidence that we have to believe
in this great God. And now he takes us back to the
days of Noah. He takes us back to the time
of the flood. And this is the wonderful evidence
we have of the greatness of God, who has always ruled and reigned
and always will do. For this is, as the waters of
Noah unto me, for as I have sworn that the waters of Nile should
no more go over the earth, so have I sworn that I would not
be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee." What is that? It's a promise. If God gives you and me a promise
that he will not be wroth with us, and he will not rebuke us,
and by that of course that means Eternal situation we are of course
corrected in our lives About and the Lord as we read there
is this wrath upon us in a small moment But here we have this
relating to our eternal state And I would not be wrath with
thee nor rebuke thee and the reason I The reason is, of course,
that the Lord Jesus Christ has taken our sins and washed them
away, washed them all away. What a mercy it is to know that. The psalmist encourages us with
regard to the loving kindness of the Lord. And it's a beautiful
theme to think upon and to rejoice in. And he says in the 89th Psalm,
nevertheless, nevertheless, and you might say, well, what does
that refer to? Well, it refers to previous verses where the
Psalmist says, if his children, forsake my law and walk not in
my judgments, if they break my statutes and keep not my commandments,
then will I visit their transgression with the rod and their iniquity
with stripes. We don't like being, well, children
don't like being told off, don't they? They don't like to be reprimanded.
They don't like to be corrected. But they need to be. And the
children of God need to be also. And these words are very direct,
aren't they? And he tells us, if we forsake
my law, that means if we turn Back upon the things of God that
means if we follow our own way our own inclinations And we don't walk in accordance
with God's will and God's judgments We walk in the way that we want
to walk in how sad it is when when we just are Convinced that
our way is right and we're going to stick to it and we're not
going to budge from it Well, what a mercy. God doesn't deal
with us in our rebellion, which it really is. And he says, if
I break my statutes and keep not my commandments, then will
I visit their transgressions with the rod and their iniquity
with stripes. We should not think that God
ignores the wrong things that we do, the wrong things that
we say, the wrong things that we think. We should not think
that God doesn't know all about us. In actual fact, he knows
everything about us. And how ridiculous and foolish
and stupid it is for us to think somehow that God doesn't know
and God will forget and he'll pass over. Well, you and I may
have known sometimes what it is when the Lord does visit us. with stripes and with a rod. But let's remember this. It's
done for our good. You see, if children are not
corrected, they become totally unruly. We see it today, don't
we? We see children, young people today, you're not allowed to
correct them. And we see we're living in an
unruly society. It's a tragic condition. that
our nation has got into. And that's naturally and is exactly
the same in the spiritual life of the children of God. If we
are not corrected, we become very unruly, we become very sinful,
and we just follow our own inclinations. Well, having said that then,
the Lord then comes and speaks like this when he says, nevertheless,
And what's he going to say? What's the word going to say?
This is what it says. My loving kindness will I not utterly take from
him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. My covenant will I not
break, nor alter the thing that has gone out of my lips. Once have I sworn by my holiness
that I will not lie unto David. Well, we have evidence of God
saying these things and swearing these things which are true. When God speaks, he never tells
any lies. When God speaks, it is true. What a mercy for you and me today. to be able to rely therefore
upon the promises of God. And here is a wonderful promise. My loving-kindness will I not
utterly take from him. So although there have been those
things that we've done contrary to the will of God and we may
be fearful of the outcome, It's good sometimes when we do tremble
because of the sins that we've committed. Sometimes we might
think that we've sinned against light and knowledge. We may sometimes
think that we've committed the unpardonable sin. What a blessing
it is to read then words like this, nevertheless, my loving
kindness will I not utterly take from thee. And so this is true. So have I sworn that I would
not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee forever. There will be those
times of corrections, but there will be those times when the
Lord sets before us his wonderful love. And you see, the next verse,
the 10th verse, really confirms this. I've only read the ninth
verse, but you'll realize this passage really flows together.
And the tenth verse tells us, four, the mountains shall depart. Well, can you imagine mountains
departing, moving? Just very occasionally, we read
in history and have seen great earthquakes and great volcanoes
which have caused great destruction and sections of mountains to
move but here the word of God tells us for the mountains shall
depart and the hills be removed but my kindness his loving kindness my kindness shall not depart from thee Neither
shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord, that
hath mercy on thee." We can't really expect a more positive
statement than that, can we? To encourage us as we press on
through life. And we need an encouragement
to press on through life. Because our lives are filled
with difficulties and temptations and trials. Just thinking of
those words which we thought upon on Friday evening in our
prayer meeting. The words of the Lord Jesus in what we term
the Lord's Prayer. And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil. Oh, how needful such words are. How needful it is that we understand
these great and wonderful words that the Lord speaks and leaves
on record for our encouragement. And of course, coming back, you
see the Aizah is speaking to us so positively about the fact
that The Lord promised to Noah that there wouldn't be a flood
again and we can rely upon it because there it is so clear
and so evident before us. But also the Lord spoke about
the signs, the certain signs, the things that will occur, which
we need to be very aware of when he comes and he says, Heaven
and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. We can perhaps imagine, can't
we, in something, the earth, great and big as it is, passing
away. But God's words will not pass
away. But that day in our nose, no
man not the angels of heaven, but my father only. And then
he tells us, referring again to Noah, and it's important for
us to realize the situation which existed in the days of Noah,
because we're fast hastening to a similar situation in the
world in which we live today. And the Lord tells us here, as
the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of
Man be. For as in the days that were
before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying, giving
in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark and
knew not, until the flood came and took them all away." What
a day that was. What a terrible day. All those
millions of people carrying on in their own sinful way. There
was the testimony of Noah building an ark over all those many, many
years. No doubt many, many people belittled
it and mimicked and mocked him, but Noah pressed on. And now
today, we don't have an ark being built, But we have plenty of
evidence that there is a God in heaven still, and men and
women will not believe. They will not believe. They will
not hear the word of the Lord. They turn away from it. They're
not interested. And what does the Lord say? So
shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. Don't doubt that
truth. Don't think it won't happen.
It will. And the day hastens on when that time will come. And what does the Lord tell us?
He gives us some good instruction. Watch therefore. Well, I wonder
today, are we watching? Are we expecting the return of
the Son of Man? I wonder if we ever get up in
the morning Or if we ever go to bed at night and wonder whether
the Lord will return today or tonight. Well, the words to us
today are very clear. Watch therefore, for you know
not what hour the Lord doth come. And he goes on to say also, Therefore
be also ready, for in such an hour as you think not, the Son
of Man cometh." If I was to ask you this morning, if the Lord
was returned today, are you ready? Are you ready for that return? And you might
say, well, how am I to know that I am ready? You'll only know if you're ready
if you are washed in the blood of the Lamb. And that presupposes
that you realise your great need of a saviour. And the need you
have to be washed, to be cleansed from all your sin. But it is so important for all
of us because we refer here to the end of the world. But none
of us know how much longer we have to live on this earth. And so this word is true whatever
time we have left therefore be also ready ready when the lord
shall come when the lord shall call well the evidence is here
of the lord speaking in this way to through the prophet to
the church of god we should be very thankful that we have such
words of encouragement and yet really also words of warning
to us. It's very easy to settle down
in our lives and to be very concerned about what we're doing and what
we're going to do and what we want to do and we spend our time
on all these things which will, without any doubt, perish one
day. How needful it is then to know
that the Lord has sworn, the Lord has promised, there will
come an end of all these things, and that we are to be found ready,
as he says, the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed.
Yes, everything will disappear. You and I may be on the earth
when that comes, we don't know, do we? What a wonderful day for
the Church of God that will be, when time shall be no more. What
a terrible day that will be for those who are out of Christ,
those who do not know the Lord Jesus Christ as their Saviour,
those who do not know that it's well with their soul. We do need
to have that evidence. We do need to have that confidence. We do need to have that assurance
that it is well with our soul. Now the devil will tell you to
put these things off. He'll say it's not very important.
And he also is a great tempter to say, well, don't expect to
have any assurance. My friends, you should expect
to have assurance. The assurance is spoken of clearly
in the Word of God. The Apostle Paul tells us, I
know whom I have believed. He did have an assurance. The
Church of God do have an assurance. They do know it's well with their
soul. Don't be taken in by the devil to say, well, it's not
very important, and you probably don't know. You need to know.
You need to be ready when that great call will come
to deliver you. to bring you out of this time
of darkness, this time of spiritual darkness, into the glorious light
of the everlasting Gospel. We refer already to that 89th
Psalm further on, but it's good to also remember how it commences. This is what the psalmist commences
with, and it would be good for you and me today if we could
have the same hope in our hearts. He says, I will sing, what's
he going to sing of? The mercies of the Lord forever. If the Lord has blessed our souls
with his mercy, we have something to sing about, don't we? We have
something to praise God for. We have something to thank him
for his great mercy. With my mouth will I make known
thy faithfulness to all generations. For I have said, mercy shall
be built up for ever, thy faithfulness shall be established in the very
heavens." Well, it would be a wonderful blessing for you and me today
if as we meditate upon these few verses that we've thought
upon this morning, and the great favour of being blessed with
the everlasting kindness of the Lord to us, so unworthy as we
are, and it's only because the Lord says it himself. The Lord
thy Redeemer. Again, it's a personal application. It's not just a generic term.
It's a personal statement. The Lord thy Redeemer. And as we know, the flood occurred. And as we know, the Lord's promises
are sure and certain. So may we also bless God for
the truth of his word, for the faithful word of God, and for
the promises which in him our yay and amen. There is nothing
false with our God. There's nothing false in the
word of God. Every word is true. My friends,
may we really rely upon it. May we really have all our trust
and may we have that good hope through his grace and know something
of his wonderful love which has touched our heart. touched our
heart. And you see, when the Lord bless
us with his love, it touches our heart and we bow down before
our God. What is it really? We're submitting
ourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt us
in due time, casting all our care upon him, for he cares for
us. Amen.