Good evening, everyone. As you
remain sitting, let's sing 235, Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior. 235. Pass me not, O gentle Savior,
Hear my humble cry, While on others Thou art calling, Do not
pass me by. Savior, Savior, hear my humble
cry. While on others Thou art calling,
do not pass me by. Let me at the throne of mercy
find a sweet relief. Kneeling there in deep contrition,
help my unbelief. Savior, Savior, hear my humble
cry. While on others Thou art calling,
do not pass me by. ? Trusting only in thy merit
? ? Would I seek thy face ? ? Heal my wounded, broken spirit ? ?
Save me by thy grace ? ? Savior, Savior, hear my humble cry ?
While on others Thou art calling, do not pass me by. Thou the spring of all my comfort,
Lord, that life to me. Whom have I on earth beside thee? Whom in heaven but thee? Savior, Savior, hear my humble
cry. While on others Thou art calling,
Do not pass me by. Thank you. I'd like to read Psalm 46, Psalm
46. Very comforting even with all
the stuff going on in the world today, especially. To the Chief Musician for the
Sons of Korah, a song upon Alamoth. God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble. Therefore, will not we fear,
though the earth be removed and though the mountains be carried
into the midst of the sea? Though the waters thereof roar
and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof,
Selah. There is a river, the streams are of, shall make glad
the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the Most
High. God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved.
God shall help her, and that right early. The heathen raged,
the kingdoms were moved. He uttered his voice, the earth
melted. The Lord of hosts is with us.
The God of Jacob is our refuge sealer. Come, behold the works
of the Lord, what desolations he hath made in the earth. He
maketh wars to cease unto the ends of the earth. He breaketh
the bow and cutteth the spear, and sunder he burneth the chariot
in fire. Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the heathen.
I will be exalted in the earth. The Lord of hosts is with us.
The God of Jacob is our refuge sealer. O Lord God Almighty, we thank
you for allowing us, Lord, to assemble together, whereby, Lord,
we can hear the gospel declared once again. Father, we thank
you for this great blessing. It is so rare that we have this
opportunity. And Father, we thank you for
continuing to have these doors open for us, and you continue
to supply all that is necessary, that we may also have our own
pastor And Lord, will you remember him this evening. Pour out your
grace and spirit upon him. And Lord, will you help him,
Lord, as he declares your glorious gospel, declares your glory.
Give him liberty, Lord, for his soul. And remember us, Lord,
as we sit here and listen. Will you, Lord, separate us out
of the cares of the world and the busyness, and that we may
receive more rest for our souls, that our eyes may be turned to
our only hope the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, we thank you
for all that you continue to supply for us. You have given
us health. And we also think of Brother
Scott and Johnny. Oh, Lord, will you be with him?
Help him this evening where he is being examined once again.
Father, Will you give him healing for his body and help both of
them, Lord, give them strength and courage. And Father, remember
us also pertaining to our loved ones, our children, our neighbors,
our families, our parents. All things are known unto you
perfectly, Lord. And if it would please you, Lord,
will you open our mouths that we may declare our only hope
of life and death, which is the Lord Jesus Christ, that we may
declare your goodness towards sinners. Father, remember us
in mercy, for Jesus' sake alone, amen. Our second hymn will be 249,
Just As I Am. 249. I think I have all five verses,
if not we'll just do the last one a cappella. Just as I am without one plea,
but that Thy blood was shed for me, and that Thou bidst me come
O Lamb of God, I come, I come. Just as I am and waiting not
to rid my soul of one dark lot, to Thee whose blood can cleanse
each spot, O Lamb of God, I come, I come. Just as I am, though
tossed about With many a conflict, many a doubt, Bidings and fears
within, without, O Lamb of God, I come. Just as I am, poor, wretched,
blind, sigh, richest healing of the mind. Yea, all I needed
thee to find, O Lamb of God, I come. I come Just as I am, Thou wilt
receive, Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve, Because Thy
promise I believe. O Lamb of God, I come, I come. Thank you. That was nice. Nice words. Good evening, brethren. Let's
go to Isaiah 66. I want to look at verses 10 through
14 with you. This passage here is about the
rejoicing of every child of God, the rejoicing of the church who
has been delivered by the Lord Jesus Christ, who's been comforted
and helped and saved from their sin and destruction by the Lord
Jesus Christ, the salvation that God has provided. The language
that's used in this scripture, this passage here, it's describing
great joy. It's describing the rejoicing
of those who delight in the church of God. They delight in their
God and what he has done for his people. It's the way that
you rejoice when someone in your family gives birth. It's rejoicing
at a joyful time when you're happy and thankful that the child
is healthy and has been born well and things are going well. And it's a passage that has illustrations
of our God's comforts. It describes the comforts of
our Lord. And you get the sense when you
look at it that this household, this home, is a blessed home. The children there are well cared
for. and they're happy. And the mother
of this house is a doting mother who does all she can do to make
sure that her children are well nourished and cared for. And she comforts them in every
trial, she takes care of them, she provides for them, and she
ensures that they are healthy and blessed. And so the title
of this message is Faith's Consolations. Faith's Consolations. So the
first word is to you who are joyful, who take great care and
concern for the church, you whose interest is in the church of
God, you care about the welfare of the family of God. And so
I'm going to read verses 9 and 10 because they really should
be read together so that you get the sense and you get the
thrust of verse 10. So let's pick up in verse 9.
Shall I bring to the birth, this is the Lord speaking, shall I
bring to the birth and not cause to bring forth, saith the Lord? Shall I cause to bring forth
and shut the womb, saith thy God? Rejoice ye with Jerusalem,
and be glad with her, all ye that love her. Rejoice for joy
with her, all ye that mourn for her. And so it's speaking of
a time when the birth of the child is at hand. And if something
were to go wrong, it would be a time of mourning. You're emotionally
and mentally vested in the Lord's family. You care about what's
going on in the kingdom of God. And if something were to go wrong,
you would be in mourning. If something were to happen with
the birth of a child of a family member, you'd be sad. You would
feel sorrow for them and you'd be concerned and worried about
the welfare of the mother and the child and that family. But
if all goes well, It's joy. It's rejoicing. There's nothing
to be concerned about. You're just so thankful and relieved
and glad because there's great joy in that family. It's a time
of rejoicing when a child is born and when that child is healthy.
And all those concerns and worries that you had begin to melt away. There's a time of rejoicing.
Instead of that mourning, instead of it not coming to pass, the
child is born, and our Lord tells us that all of His chosen elect
people, you that have loved ones, you that pray for your children
and family members and friends and neighbors and co-workers,
the Lord says, all that are mine, I will bring to the birth. They
shall hear. In the appointed hour, in the
day of His choosing, they will hear this glorious good news
and they shall be wrought or born into the family of God. And so the Lord's telling us
they're not going to fail to hear this word and to live again
from the dead. Turn over to Romans 8. Let's
see this in Romans 8 and we'll go to verse 15. This is just one example of the
life which our God gives to his children when he gives them life. Romans 8 15 for ye have not received
the spirit of bondage again to fear this is not just another
failed iteration of your works in religion where you've tried
again and again to do the same thing this is different this
is of the Lord you've not received the spirit of bondage again to
fear but ye have received the spirit of adoption whereby we
cry Abba father. And so, like a child who is brought
to the birth, and when they are taken from the womb, and they're cleaned up, they begin
to cry, and they begin to breathe and to cry out. And here it's
described as crying, Abba, Father. Whether you're a Jew or Gentile,
the Lord has one salvation, which he brings all his people to.
The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the
children of God. And if children, then heirs,
heirs of God, and join heirs with Christ, if so be that we
suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. And so our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ has triumphed gloriously and he has wrought this salvation
for you his children, you his people whom he loved, whom the
Father gave to him and committed to his care. He has redeemed
his people by the death of himself, and now, having risen from the
dead, in the appointed hour of his grace, he gives life with
power. He delivers you from darkness.
He delivers you from death. He delivers you from trusting
false ways and polluted works and things of this flesh that
cannot save. And so we live by the life and
power of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so the church here, her rejoicing,
is as our Lord describes in scripture. And I'm gonna be reading from
a few verses in Luke 15, but for example, he gives us a number
of examples here in Luke 15, and when a shepherd, we read
of a shepherd who has lost one of his sheep, and we're told
in verse six that when he cometh home, he calleth together his
friends and neighbors, saying unto them, rejoice with me. for I have found my sheep which
was lost." Or there is a woman he speaks of down in verse 9,
a woman who has ten pieces of silver and she loses one piece. And if you had 10 pieces of silver,
and you dropped one, and it rolled away under the counter, you would
search for that one. You wouldn't be discontent with
the nine. You'd want all 10 pieces. And it says, when she hath found
it, she calleth her friends and her neighbors together, saying,
rejoice with me, for I have found the piece which I had lost. And then, down in verses 23 and
24, regarding the prodigal son, who was brought to himself by
the grace of God, who caused him to see, what am I doing here? How did I get here? Let me return
unto my father. And when he does, the father
joyfully, gladly receives his son, saying, bring hither the
fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and be merry, for
this my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found
and they began to be merry. Well, Christ has secured your
salvation. He's brought you out of the grip
of death. You were dead in trespasses and
sins. You were under the spell and the power of the evil one
following the course of this world. And that's where every
one of us would be were it not for the grace of your God and
Savior, who by His grace called you, who separated you unto this
gospel by His Spirit, and called you under the true and living
gospel, the gospel of God, the true and living God, who wrought
marvelously in your hearts. and delivered you from dead things
that cannot save. And so the Lord's people rejoice. We rejoice in our own salvation.
We rejoice in the salvation of the Lord's people. We're thankful,
we're happy for it. In verse 10 of that same chapter,
Luke 15, likewise I say unto you, there is joy in the presence
of the angels of God over one sinner that repented. And so there is great joy. There's
great joy and we shouldn't seek to mitigate that because it's
a wonder of grace when the Lord saves his people. It's a wonder
of grace that he saved me. And I'm sure when you think about
it, it's a wonder of grace that the Lord should save you and
reveal His mercy to you and give that to you with clarity. and
understanding and settle your hearts in Christ to keep trusting
Him, not looking to self anymore, not looking to experiences, not
looking to mourning or to times where you feel up, times where
you feel down, not trusting the feelings and the flesh and the
mind and just all that we are by nature, but looking to Christ. hearing his word and believing
that word and it's not that we're saved by our knowledge we're
saved by his power and he reveals this to us by his grace by his
spirit and so the next verse that we come to back in Isaiah
66 verse 11 Here, we're taken from being
rejoicers regarding the family, regarding those who are saved,
and now we're described as being partakers ourselves. We're now, we see ourselves now
as the children, as those babies. those babes in Christ, those
children in God's family, as the Lord tells us that he's predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself and
that according to the good pleasure of his will. God has done this. Now let's look at verse 11. He
says, that ye may suck and be satisfied with the breasts of
her, the church's, consolations, that ye may milk out and be delighted
with the abundance of her glory. That's quite a word, to milk
out. And having seen mothers nurse
their children, Mothers are not happy if they don't think their
children are receiving enough nutrition and milk. But they
are delighted when they think, I think she or he got a full
amount tonight. I think it went really well.
And they're delighted over that. And that's what the Lord is saying
what the church is saying. We're delighted when the Lord
is blessing his people, pouring out his spirit upon his people,
comforting them, teaching them, settling them, answering their
questions, providing for them, delivering them. We're thankful. We're glad. We rejoice in that. And it's that we may suck out
the milk of consolation, that we may be partakers. of those consolations which comfort
the church. And that's what the word consolation
is. It's our comfort. It's those things which the Lord
has made known to us that give us comfort in the midst of a
perverse generation, in the midst of a world full of sin and death
and commotion and calamity and all kinds of crazy stuff going
on. But in that, in the home, of the Lord, of his people, there
are consolations and comforts for you, his people. And so these are, these consolations
are sucked out by the mouth of faith. They are received by the
mouth of faith. so that we receive these consolations
and understand these by that faith. So first, Christ is the
consolation of his people. Reading from 2 Corinthians 1
5, he says, for as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our
consolation also aboundeth by Christ. We've been made sensitive
and concerned about things that we see in the earth. things that we see in our own
lives, things we feel in our own hearts and minds, and yet
even as there is suffering in the flesh, where is our consolation
but in the Lord Jesus Christ? and looking to Him, and hearing
His voice, and remembering what He's done for us. Paul said in
Ephesians 2.14, He is our peace. He's our peace. He's our mediator. He's the mediator of the grace
and the salvation of God, meeting it out to us, delivering it to
us, having accomplished it, provided everything for us as our substitute,
so that He spilled His precious blood to wash away our sins,
to deliver us from that bondage and fear of guilt and shame and
nakedness and not knowing how we were ever going to fix ourselves,
to make things right between us and God. Christ has put all
that away. He settled all that by His blood
and the giving of His Spirit to reveal it to us. It's His
perfect righteousness that He wrought in obedience to the Father
and going to the cross for us. That's our robe of... His righteousness clothes our
nakedness and our shame so that now, whether we die tonight or
we die 50 years from now, will stand before our God in perfect
righteousness, accepted of Him, for Christ's sake." In Colossians
3, 3-4, Paul writes, "...for ye are dead, and your life is
hid with Christ in God." So that the law has no condemning power
over you or me anymore. He can't touch us. The law cannot
touch us there. The accuser, the brethren, can't
touch us there so that we might be affected or troubled at times
or persecuted at times, but nothing he can do can rattle or destroy
that bond that we have with the Lord Jesus Christ. We're in His
family. And when Christ, who is our life,
shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory, in
the brightness of His glory, shining as the bright stars will
shine in Him. Now, one more scripture, 2 Thessalonians
2, verse 16 and 17. 2 Thessalonians 2 16-17 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, and establish you in every good word
and work. And isn't that true when, brother,
when you're speaking to patients and people you meet with in your
business, how you can just speak the grace of God. You can speak
peaceably, declaring what the Lord has done for you, because
it's not you that convinces them. It's not you that has to get
them to agree with you. You can speak it with grace in
your heart, knowing what the Lord has done for you, and you
can just speak that truth and exalt the Lord Jesus Christ,
knowing that He does what He will in the hearts of His people,
delivering them from death as He pleases, as it pleases Him
to do. A second consolation is the Holy
Spirit, who in scripture is called the Comforter, the Comforter. And so reading from John 15,
verse 26, but when the Comforter is come, When the Comforters come, whom
I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of Truth,
which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me." And
so we're comforted and consoled by the Spirit who takes the things
of Christ and lays them to your heart, makes them effectual to
you, effectual to your understanding, and you receive them in grace
by the Spirit giving them to you because you are a new creature
in Christ. You're born again of the seed
of Christ, that incorruptible seed whereby you hear and you
believe the things of your God. He applies those promises of
our God to us in Christ. He cheers our heart with the
hearing of the gospel. He applies the blood as we have
need of it. He teaches us, He reminds us,
and He remains with us. He never forsakes us, never leaves
us, not even in our sin, He never leaves us. But He's always doing
that which the Father and the Son have sent Him to do, which
is to deliver His people and bring them into the kingdom and
to teach them and keep them. Third, we have the consolation
of the scriptures. And the scriptures reveal to
us the testimony of our God concerning what we are, our sin, what our
works are, so that we have no confidence in this flesh because
we see the Lord doesn't save us because of our works. He saves
us for Christ's sake. We have the consolation of the
promises of God in these scriptures. Just as we were looking at last
week and the week before in Genesis 3.15 where the Lord promises
that by the seed of woman he shall crush the serpent's head. He shall bruise his head. And
we see that worked out. in the Scriptures, the Lord giving
us His promises, and we see the promise of His accomplished redemption.
And then fourth, we have the consolation of the covenant of
God's grace, which has been established in the blood of Christ, not by
our works. Therefore, this covenant does
not change. what God has done for you will
not change. It is fixed and certain in the
eternal purpose of God's good pleasure, fixed for us in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Fifth, we have the consolation
of the ordinances of the gospel. We've been baptized into Christ,
we take of the Lord's Supper once a month and we come together,
we have the consolation of hearing the gospel preached. We have
the consolation of public worship. And we have the consolation of
fellowshipping with the saints so that we rejoice with them.
We rejoice in the word of God. We rejoice how that the Lord
answers our questions, how the Lord settles us, how the Lord
puts our focus on Christ once again. And we look to Him, and
so God has revealed faith in your hearts, and it's by this
faith that we draw out these consolations with understanding. By this faith which He's given
us that we hear and receive and believe the things of our God
in Christ, rather than just dismissing them and thinking lightly of
Christ, or nothing of Christ. And so having provided all these
comforts to us in our Lord, let's look at Isaiah 66 verses 12 and
13. For thus saith the Lord, Behold,
I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the
Gentiles like a flowing stream. shall ye suck ye shall be born
upon her sides and be dandled upon her knees as one whom his
mother comforted so will I comfort you and ye shall be comforted
in Jerusalem and so he's saying that every soul whom Christ has
died for and laid down his life for they shall be comforted right
we have a city where the Lord makes us glad. We have that peace
of like a river and the Lord draws his people. We have the
assurance and comfort to know that our God draws us to Christ. He's drawn us to Christ. We see
Christ as the Savior, as our salvation, as our righteousness,
which means God has done that. God has drawn us to him. God
has made us to hear him and to believe him. Reading John 6,
44 and 45, no man can come to me except the Father which hath
sent me draw him. And I will raise him up at the
last day. It is written in the prophets,
they and they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that
hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me. And so that's a great comfort. that the hope you have in Christ
is given to you of the Lord. It's not of the flesh. The flesh
is always looking to the flesh. The flesh is always looking to
what we're doing or not doing and putting trust and confidence
in those things. But the Lord in grace and mercy
turned your eye back to Christ to see that He's done everything.
And you that see Him and hope in His righteousness, that is
of the Lord. And I can think of no greater
consolation than to know that God has given you that hope and
put that hope in you so that you're looking to Him and saying,
Lord, if I'm to be saved, if I'm going to cross this river
Jordan in that day of death and stand before your throne, accepted
of you, it's going to be only by your grace. Only by your grace. For Christ's sake. For Christ's
sake. For what He's done, Lord. Because
I know what I am in this self. I know what I am in my flesh.
I know my works are not good. I know I'm a sinner. I know I'm
the worst of sinners. And so, that hope that you have
in Christ, is of the Lord, it's of Him, it's not of this flesh.
And so this is the extension of our God's promise of peace
to His people, to His church like a river. And so the gospel
of Christ comes to you as good news, as good news, as peace
for sinners condemned to die under the curse of the law who
cannot deliver themselves. And we see in these verses how
that it's a blessed home. There's a picture there that
this is a joyful home. Oftentimes we can remember how
there's been times in our homes when we were younger and things
weren't always joyful. Things weren't always perfect.
Sometimes there was fighting. Sometimes there was hard, difficult
times. Some people only had very difficult
childhood, but The Lord, you see that, what the Lord has done,
how that he's made it a house of peace, and a house of prayer,
and a house to comfort you. When we come here, it's not to
ruffle you up or to scare you or to frighten you, but to turn
your eyes once again to Christ, to see what he's done for you.
And so the Lord gathers his people in and encourages them with this
good news. As one whom his mother comforteth,
so will I comfort you. And so turn over to Isaiah 40.
Let's look at Isaiah 40, a few verses there. You know, religion has us often
thinking of God as an austere figure, one who's ready to strike
and to hit us when we step out of line and to correct us. And
that's often from religion and how they speak of the Lord. And in the flesh, when we would
come to God, he is a holy, holy, Holy God he is perfect in all
his ways and to come to God without the blood to come to God in our
own works He is he will meet us an angry God will meet an
angry God in that day But you that come in the blood of Christ.
It's like going to a It's comforting. I just remember
going to my grandmother's house, my mom's mom, especially. Well,
I love both my grandmothers, but I remember my mom's mom especially
because that's the only place we ever got soda and candy and
cookies. It was, I liked going there because
it was so comforting. And I knew I could open up the
freezer and just take out an ice cream sandwich. And if my
mom said anything, grandma would say, you let him have it. He
can have it. And it's not that God is a, you know, old, daughter
and grandfather but in the sense of peace in the sense of this
one loves me and they're gonna take care of me and provide for
me in that sense we come into the home and that's what the
Lord says here in in Isaiah 40 verse 1 and 2 comfort ye comfort
ye my people saith your God speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem,
and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity
is pardoned. For she hath received of the
Lord's hand double for all her sins. And so the comfort that
we have, there's still a warfare, we know that there's still trouble
and persecutions and difficulties and trials, but the comfort is
the one thing needful. The most important thing, it's
settled. It's settled. You're not still
striving for justification. You're not striving for righteousness. That's been given fully in Christ. The victory is accomplished.
The warfare is over. You have eternal life in the
Lord Jesus Christ and He says, I will raise you up in the last
day when I return. You are mine. You are mine. So that's a great comfort. Look
at, drop down to verse 27, Isaiah 40, 27. Why sayest thou, O Jacob,
and speakest, O Israel, my way is hid from the Lord, and my
judgment is passed over from my God. All right, that was when,
like in religion, when we're looking at our works and we're
thinking, if I do this and this, then this is gonna improve my
standing with God. And then maybe God will hear
my prayers and bless me. That's dead religion. That's
dead things that cannot save. You're not looking to Christ.
You're looking to your works and what you're putting together
to try and obtain favor from God. That's why, when that's
our focus, we think our way is hid from the Lord. And we felt
ourselves cut off from the Lord. There's no peace in that. but
in Christ. That's not what your God gives
you. He's not giving you a map how to save yourself and a pattern
for you to follow after in order to gain a righteousness and acceptance
with God. That's provided. So look at verse
28 now. Hast thou not known? Hast thou
not heard that the everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of
the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? There
is no searching. of his understanding, you keep
your eyes on him, not on yourselves. He giveth power to the faint,
and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even
the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall
utterly fall. In our works, if you are coming
to God in your own works of righteousness, in your religion, in your law
keeping, you will stumble and fall and come short of the finish
line. You will not reach the mark.
You will not obtain that which you seek. You shall come short
of it like Israel did. because they sought it not by
faith, but by the works of the law. And what the Lord is saying
is, hear, hear the good word. that He has provided salvation. He has accomplished it already
in His Son. And those whose eyes are not
on their works, not on the law, not looking to what they need
to do to please God. Because in Christ we are pleasing
to God. So those who look away from self
and look to the salvation that God has provided who behold the
servant of God who faithfully came the Lord Jesus Christ fulfilling
all the will of God perfectly you that look to him he says
but they that wait upon the Lord you whose whose hope of righteousness
is in looking to Him, waiting upon Him, believing His word
of promise, they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength,
they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and
not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint. And so your God is saying, come. hear the word, feed upon the
gospel word, as newborn babes desiring the sincere milk of
the word, that ye may grow thereby. And so in this gospel, in this
house, you shall be dandled upon the knees, enjoying all the consolations
that God has given to the church in his son. You'll want for nothing
more. You'll thirst for no other righteousness,
because you'll be satisfied in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's
what he makes his people to do. When I was reading this, I'm
reminded of another verse in Isaiah. Go over to Isaiah 60.
Isaiah 60 verse 16. One more encouraging word. Thou
shalt also suck the milk of the Gentiles, and shalt suck the
breast of kings, and thou shalt know that I, the Lord, am thy
Savior and thy Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob." And the
beauty here is that what the Lord is saying is you don't need
to be a rich, wealthy influencer in the world, a mighty man, a
noble man, a noble person. You don't need that. You don't
need to be rich in religion and be a priest and be full of pious
works. You may be the poorest of the
poor, a nobody of nobodies, a base, mean, low person. But God has
sent this gospel for such as they, for those who are the lowest,
those who are sinners, those who are base and poor and have
nothing to give to God. As we sang that hymn, just as
I am, I've got nothing that I can bring to holy God. Lord, I come
in the hope that you give to your people the Lord Jesus Christ. That's all I can come in is what
he has done. And trusting your word which
says that I receive all those who come to me in the blood of
the son resting upon him. So in Christ there's neither
Jew nor Greek, there's neither bond nor free, there's neither
male nor female for you're all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye
be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to
promise. It doesn't matter who your parents
were or your family, what background you are, what you've done in
religion, and what you've done in the world and in this flesh.
You that come in Christ are Abraham's seed. You that come in the promise
of Christ are just like Abraham. Father of faith, you come in
faith, believing just like he did, and you're children of Abraham.
All right, and so it follows back in Isaiah 66, verse 14. And when ye see this, your heart
shall rejoice, and your bones shall flourish like an herb,
and the hand of the Lord shall be known toward his servants,
and his indignation toward his enemies. And so when faith reveals
Christ in the heart, there's rejoicing. At the beginning we
rejoice at the birth of our brethren, of others who hear. And the Lord
reminds us that we were born the same way. If you weren't
joyful before, when you see how the Lord's done it for you, then
you're made joyful and rejoicing in yourselves and in what the
Lord has done for his people. And the enemies of the Lord,
they tremble. They tremble because they know their time is short.
Because when the last sinner is saved, the Lord's returning.
The Lord's returning and then he'll judge them. So rejoice,
brethren, in Christ your Savior. Be consoled. Enjoy that milk. Being consoled of what your God
has done for you in Christ. Amen. Let's pray. Our gracious Lord, we thank you
for your grace and mercy. We thank you for these comforts,
for this consolation, for your blessings in the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, help us, keep us looking
to him, hearing this word, rejoicing in this consoling word of grace,
rejoicing in the house of our God, in the fellowship of our
brethren, hearing this word and being fed and nourished, comforted
and settled in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Lord, help us to
hear these things and to rejoice in them always. It's in Christ's
name we pray and give thanks. Amen. Our closing hymn will be 256.
It is Well With My Soul, 256. When peace like a river attendeth
my way, When sorrows like sea billows roll, Whatever my lot,
Thou hast taught me to say, It is well. It is well with my soul. It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. Though Satan should buffet, though
trials should come, let this blessed assurance control, that
Christ hath regarded my helpless estate, and hath shed His own
blood for my soul. It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. My sin, O the bliss of this glorious
thought, my sin not in part, but the whole, is hailed to the
cross, and I bear praise the lord praise the lord oh my soul it is well with my soul it is well it is well with my
soul And, Lord, haste the day when my face shall be sighed,
the clouds be rolled back as a scroll, the trump shall resound,
and the Lord shall descend even soon. It is well with my soul. It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul.