I cleaned that up anyway. Thank
you. Good evening. As you stay sitting, unless you
want to stand, but I feel sorry for everybody, let's just sit,
okay? Let's start with 126, Rock of Ages. 126, Rock of Ages. Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let
me hide myself in thee. Let the water and the blood from
thy wounded side which flow, be of sin the double cure. Save from wrath and make me pure,
Could my tears forever flow? Could my zeal no longer know? These for sin could not atone. Thou must save and thou alone. In my hand no price I bring. Simply to thy cross I cling. While I draw this fleeting breath,
when my eyes shall close in death, when I rise to worlds unknown,
and behold the undying throne, rock of ages cleft for me, let
me hide myself in thee. Thank you. like to read Psalm 62. Psalm
62. To the chief musician, to Juduthon,
a psalm of David. Truly, my soul waiteth upon God. From him cometh my salvation.
He only is my rock and my salvation. He is my defense. I shall not
be greatly moved. How long will ye imagine mischief
against a man? Ye shall be slain, all of you,
as a bowing wall shall ye be, and as a tottering fence. They
only consult to cast him down from his excellency. They delight
in lies, they bless with their mouth, but they curse inwardly
Sela. My soul, wait thou only upon God, for my expectation
is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation. He is my defense. I shall not
be moved. And God is my salvation and my
glory, the rock of my strength, and my refuge is in God. Trust
in him at all times, ye people. Pour out your heart before him.
God is a refuge for us, Selah. Surely, men of low degree are
vanity, men of high degree are a lie. To be laid in the balance,
they are altogether lighter than vanity. Trust not in oppression,
and become not vain in robbery, if riches increase, set not your
heart upon them. God hath spoken once, twice have
I heard this, that power belongeth unto God. Also unto thee, O Lord,
belongeth mercy, for thou renderest to every man according to his
work. Our heavenly and merciful Father,
we thank you, Father, for allowing us once again this evening to
assemble together to hear the glorious gospel declared from
your word. Father, what a great, great blessing
it is that we have this opportunity from week to week. And Father,
we thank you also for saving sinners. We thank you, Lord,
for saving us completely, where there is nothing left for us
to do. You have declared on that cross it is finished, and all
that was required to satisfy the Father has been complete
and finished. Father, we thank you for saving
us. And Father, we also ask your
blessing this evening as Brother Eric stands before us again.
to declare the unsearchable riches of the Lord Jesus Christ to us.
Father, remember him as he stands here. Give him the strength and
pour out your spirit upon him. Give him the liberty, Lord, and
give us rest for our souls as we sit here to listen. And Lord,
that our eyes may be turned to the Lord Jesus Christ, our only
hope. And we also remember those that are struggling, gathered
with us, Lord, remember them in mercy, give them health and
strength that they may once again be with us again to worship our
Savior. Father, remember us as a local
assembly. We thank you, Lord, for providing
in so many ways, and will you go before us All things are in
your hands perfectly. And also we think of our loved
ones, our children, our relatives, our neighbors. Father, open our
mouths that we may declare what great things you have done for
our souls, that you have made a difference where there was
no difference. Father, allow us to speak about your glory
and your graciousness and your loving kindness and your tender
mercies to sinners. Remember us in mercy for Jesus'
sake alone. Amen. Let's sing 259. 259. The rock
that is higher than I. Sometimes the shadows are deep
And rough seems the path to the goal And sorrows sometimes how
they sweep Like tempest down over the soul Go then to the
rock, let me fly ? To the rock that is higher than I ? ? Oh
then to the rock let me fly ? ? To the rock that is higher than
I ? ? Oh sometimes how long seems the day ? ? And sometimes how
weary my feet ? But twirling life's dusty way The rock's blessed
shadow, how sweet! Oh, then to the rock let me fly
To the rock that is higher than I Oh, then to the rock let me
fly to the rock that is higher than I. Oh, near to the rock
let me keep, if blessings or sorrows prevail, or climbing
the mountain way steep. or walking the shadowy veil. Oh, then to the rock let me fly,
to the rock that is higher than I. Oh, then to the rock let me
fly, to the rock that is higher than I. Thank you. Good evening. All right, we're gonna be in
Isaiah chapter 65. Isaiah 65, looking at the first
10 verses. I'd like to say a few things
before we begin there. When John the Baptist began his
ministry and all of Jerusalem and the Jews were going out to
be baptized by him, he said to them in Matthew 3 verses 8 and
9, he told them to bring forth therefore fruits, meat for repentance. And he said, don't think. I actually
said, think not, to say within yourselves, we have Abraham for
our father. For I say unto you that God is
able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. Now in the text that we'll be
looking at tonight, there's a picture here of every man who, every
true man, every sinner that's saved. Truly, every sinner that's
saved. There's a picture here that God
saves sinners. He doesn't save the self-righteous.
He doesn't save those who in their minds are fit for salvation. He saves sinners. And there are
self-righteous ones who are saved. In fact, we're all self-righteous
by nature. But he brings us to see first
that we are sinners. He makes us to know what we are,
and then reveals grace and mercy to us in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so like stones, we might
as well be stones, because God saves sinners. He saves those
that are not worthy, who are unfit for salvation. And so here
we have the calling or prophecy of the calling of Gentile believers. And it's declared several times
throughout the book of Isaiah and throughout the scriptures.
And this is certainly one of those passages. And also here,
the sins of Israel are recounted to them. It's said to them what
they're doing. and how that the Lord's going
to punish them. And God gives them assurance
that he's going to follow through on his word to leave them desolate,
to leave them desolate. Now in Galatians 6, verses 7
and 8, Paul wrote, be not deceived. God is not mocked. For whatsoever
a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his
flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption, death. But he that
soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting. And so here in this passage we
see the grace of God. We see the grace of God in being
merciful to unworthy sinners, sinners who cannot save themselves,
sinners who weren't even looking for salvation by the true and
living God. But we see that salvation is
by grace, how that he blesses all his people, all the church,
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, let's go to Isaiah 65 and
let's read the first two verses. Here the Lord says, I am sought
of them that asked not for me. I am found of them that sought
me not. I said, behold me. Behold me
unto a nation that was not called by my name. Now Israel had been
called by God's name, but now he's speaking of another people,
a people who did not know him. Now toward Israel, he says, I
have spread out my hands, verse 2, all the day long, or all the
day unto a rebellious people, which walketh in a way that was
not good after their own thoughts. And so here he speaks of Israel. In these two verses, we have
two distinct peoples being described. One are sinners, sinners who
are saved by the grace of God, and the other are self-righteous,
self-willed people who are left to their own devices. The first
were people who sat in darkness. They sat in darkness, not knowing
the mysteries of God, not knowing the works of God. And by their
own works, they couldn't find out God. And they had no interest
to even look for him or ask about him. And yet he says, I'm going
to reveal myself to them. I'm going to do that. I've decided
that I'm going to reveal myself to those people who weren't even
looking for me. That would be the Gentile believers. And the other people are the
Jews, the Jews who had the prophets. They had the laws. They had the
scriptures. They had the miracles. They had
an abundance of blessings, and yet it didn't profit them. What
they had did not profit many of them. The Jews instead were
turning to their own ways, their own works, their own thoughts. And what they were doing, they
were religious in nature. They seemed religious. People
would look at them and say, that's religion there. But it wasn't
pleasing God. God wasn't pleased with what
they were doing. It could be said that with many
of them God was not pleased. God was not pleased with them. The Lord describes them as rebellious
people which walketh in a way that was not good after their
own thoughts. Now let's turn over to Isaiah
55 because there is very similar language here in Isaiah 55. What the Lord is teaching the
people what we should be hearing here is that it's not an hour
coming. It's not what we do or what we
think we should do or the way that we like to think that God
is pleased with us. We put a lot of emphasis on what
I've done for the Lord and the way that I'm doing things for
the Lord. And we content ourselves with
what we have done. And the Lord tells us that He's
well pleased with the Son. When we come, we come in the
Son. We come resting in and trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ. We're
not received of God because of what we do. We're not received
of Him because of what we do. We're received of Him in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now, in Isaiah 55, verses three
through four, The Lord says, incline your ear, listen up,
and come unto me, here in your soul shall live. And I will make
an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of
David. Behold, I have given him for
a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people.
Now, what the Lord is teaching us is that we are mercy beggars.
We're the sinners in need of his grace. We don't reach a certain
point where now we are peers with almighty God. We're mercy
bearers. We need his grace. We need his
love. We need his forgiveness. We need
that fellowship and peace with him in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so he says to us, incline
your ear. He says, come to me, come to
me. We come to Him and He says, I'll
establish with you the everlasting covenant which is witnessed in
and by the Lord Jesus Christ. He is all the salvation of the
people of God. Now let's look at this language
in verses five through eight in relation to what we see in
our text verses one and two. Behold thou shalt call a nation
that thou knowest not and nations that knew not thee shall run
unto thee because of the Lord thy God and for the Holy One
of Israel for he hath glorified thee. Seek ye the Lord while
he may be found. Call ye upon him while he is
near. Let the wicked forsake his way. He's speaking to Israel here. He's saying The Lord has called
you, he's blessed you with these blessings. Seek him while he's
near and he's speaking to Israel saying, let the wicked forsake
his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return
unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God
for he will abundantly part him. For the Lord says, my thoughts
are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith
the Lord. And so What he's saying is that
his grace is going to be witnessed in a people who are ignorant,
a people in darkness, a people who are sinners, a people who
don't know any better. But the Lord's going to be known
in them by His grace and mercy. And He pleads to the people of
Israel by the prophet, revealing to them their faults, showing
them, this is where you guys are. This is what you're doing.
This is where I am. You're not hearing me. And I'm
going to reveal myself to people that will hear me. God says, my thoughts are not
your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, because you are
a rebellious people, he says, which walketh in a way that was
not good after their own thoughts. In other words, it's not God's
ways and not God's thoughts. Now, there's a wonderful example
in Acts 13, but for time's sake, I'm not going to go there, but
it's in Acts 13, 38 through 48, where the Jews wouldn't hear.
And they actually, when they saw the Gentiles lining up to
hear what was being said by Paul and Barnabas, that got them jealous. And they began to contradict
the things being said by Paul and Barnabas. And then Paul and
Barnabas turned from them, declaring to them this word, and turned
from them and said, we're now going to preach this gospel to
the Gentiles. And so for us as Gentiles who
hear and believe, it seems like an OK thing. It seems like a
good thing. We're happy about that. But that
was a smack in the face to the Jews. and it was hard for them
to see what was happening. And they actually didn't see,
they didn't even understand it, even though the Lord told them
repeatedly what he was going to do. But let's go to Romans
10. Go over to Romans 10, and this
is where Paul confirms that this is about the Jews and the Gentiles. I just wanna confirm this for
you. So Romans 10, we'll pick up in
verse 19, Verse 19 being from Moses' writings,
where he said, but I say, he's forewarning Israel, did not Israel
know? Didn't they know this? Didn't
God say this by his prophets many times? First Moses saith,
I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people. And
by a foolish nation, I will anger you. But Isaiah is very bold
and saith, I was found of them that sought me not. I was made
manifest unto them that asked not after me. But to Israel he
saith, all day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient
and gainsaying people. It would be like Even though
we know that it's said that this nation is a Christian nation,
many of us who know the truth say, well, it's what would be
called a nominally Christian nation, people who say they're
Christians but don't even know the true and living God, don't
even know what they believe, they just say that they're Christians
because they were raised that way. But then say the Lord brought
the gospel to Africa or to Asia and it just exploded there. And
it just became apparent that we were a nation of darkness,
by and large, a people who don't know the truth. And it would
become very apparent that way. I think it would actually be
hard for us. I think it would be hard to see the Lord raise
up and bless a whole other continent and to just show, obviously,
how dark we are and how ignorant we are of the truth and how careless
we were with the truth. I think it would be hard. I think
it would be hard, and that's where Israel was. It was all
just leaving them. It was all just being picked
up by the Gentiles, and they were running away with it. So
the Lord, back in our text, in Isaiah 65, I want to look at
these next three verses, three, four, and five, because there's
three things that the Lord says here which describes the sin
of Israel. And even though we're Gentile
believers, And there's nothing in the scriptures I could see
that it's ever the light's gonna leave the Gentiles. But even
though we're Gentiles, I want us to understand that sin insofar
as we believe that and understand that we would understand we are
ever dependent on the grace of God. That we wouldn't become
cocky and think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think.
We don't want to do that, lest, as the Hebrew writer said, any
of us be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. All right,
so let's see these next three verses. Verse three, a people, these
are, he's speaking now to Israel, a people that provoketh me to
anger continually to my face, that sacrificeth in gardens and
burneth incense upon altars of brick. Now, the thing that jumps
out to me in that verse was the word bricks, upon altars of bricks. Because that word signifies that
they were making those bricks. They were forming that altar
with their own hands. And we know from the law, it
said, don't lift a tool up on the stone and start hacking away
at that to chisel it away. Because once you do that, you've
defiled it. Because it's a picture of us.
making a righteousness for ourselves by our own hands, at the strength
of our own hands, the wisdom of ourselves. And so these bricks
pictured that what they were doing, they were coming in their
own works, in their own strength. And that word brick is the same
word that's used to describe what they were making when they
were slaves in Egypt. They made bricks for the Egyptians
in bondage. In bondage. And that's a picture
of when we are laboring in the law, laboring to work a righteousness
for ourselves, laboring to please God with what we've done. The
scriptures tell us that's bondage. because we do it in fear. We
do it to earn God's favor and then we find ourselves doubting
and in worry and in fear of death and the judgment because we're
looking to what we're doing and of course when we're honest we
say, I haven't done enough. We'll never, never do enough
to please and satisfy Holy God. There is one who has done enough,
who has satisfied God wholly. That is the Lord Jesus Christ. And in Him, His people are righteous. And please God well. In Him,
through faith in the Son whom God has provided to bless His
people. And so, that's the point. Don't
labor for your own righteousness. That's bondage. That's death
and bondage. Next, verse 4. It says, which
remain among the graves, and lodge in the monuments, and eat
swine's flesh, pigs' flesh, or pork, and broth of abominable
things is in their vessels. So we know that there's no dietary
restrictions upon believers. We can eat ham sandwiches. We
can eat pork. That's not the issue here. The issue is that they were looking
to the ways of death for life. They were looking to dead things
to find out things about God and have understanding of God
and His Word and the Lord tells them you're feeding upon death
and upon that which is abominable. It's not going to help you. It's
not going to give you wisdom. They're just fleshly things rather
than spiritual things. Rather than looking to what the
Lord says, because He's provided everything necessary for us here. And we don't need to look to
dead things, because there's no life in it. It's the way of
death. It leads to death, and it's of death. Just like Paul
said, if you sow to the flesh, you'll reap corruption. That's
what you're going to get. Verse 5. says, which say, stand
by thyself, come not near to me, for I am holier than thou. These are smoke in my nose. They're
just smoke in my anger, a fire that burneth all the day. So these men believed that their
works made them holier than others. It was like progressive sanctification. They thought that by their labors,
by their works, they were progressively getting holier and holier. There was degrees of righteousness
and holiness in their mind. Now, this word holier, used in
that way, holier, is apparently the only time it's used in the
scriptures in that way. Only when man is using it. I'm
holier than thou. When he's comparing himself to
others. That's the only time that it's
used in scriptures. It's never said that. In fact,
when the Lord says, be ye holy, He says, as I am holy. You're either holy or you are
not holy. There's not degrees of holiness. And we're told in the scriptures
that when the Jews would go to market, because they were so
holy and they had attained to a certain level of holiness,
when they got back to their place with their stuff, because they
had rubbed elbows with unwashed common people, they would bathe
themselves. They would dip themselves in
bath water of some sort before they would eat. They had to clean
themselves off because they were made filthy by the filth of the
other people who weren't as holy as they were. They would rub
off on their holiness. So we can see certainly how fleshly
that really is, how fleshly it is and it's not the truth. And so we see there that man trusts
in his righteousness, but in doing that, in looking at ourselves
and what we're doing, we're taking our eye off the righteousness
of our God. We're not beholding Him who is
the righteousness, the Lord Jesus Christ, and not seeing how offensive
that is to God. And saying, Lord, the one whom
you sent That's nice, but that's not salvation. That's not righteousness. That's not sufficient for me.
I can get there myself by degrees, by the things that I do. I can
do these steps. And so that's why it's so offensive
to our God. Looking to our own righteousness,
our progressive sanctification, is just like those Jews in Romans
10, 3, and 4 who did not submit themselves to the righteousness
of God. And they were still trusting
and teaching what they did. And it's harmful to the people. It's damning. to the people and
it hurts those who do know the truth. And it's not helping the
people, it's turning us from Christ. And so the Lord delivers
us from that. And so if you think about it,
what did the leper cry out? If we're anything, We're like
the leper who was told, when you go down the street, you cry
out to everybody, unclean, unclean. Not stay away from me because
I'm holier than thou. Stay away from me because I'm
unclean. I'm the wicked one here. I'm
the worthless one here. Beware. Beware of me because
of the plague in my heart and the filth that's in me and what
I am in myself. But we do know, thankfully, we
know the Savior. And we can tell others of the
glorious Savior who loved me and gave himself for a leper
like me, an unclean one, and washed me in his blood and made
me clean. And that's what he gives to his
people. And that's why you love him. You that are sinners, you
love him because he loved you. And you're faithful to him, and
you want to be faithful to him because he's so faithful to you.
And when we're not faithful, we cry out because we want to
have fellowship with him. We want to know him. And thankfully,
he's the one that turns our wicked hearts and keeps us ever looking
to him. So if there's any degrees, it's
what Paul said when he said, Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners of whom I am chief. There's only degrees of
how wicked I am in the eyes of other men. I'm only more wicked,
never better. And so our Lord says, now in
verses six and seven, behold, it's written before me, I will
not keep silence, but will recompense, even recompense into their bosom
your iniquities and the iniquities of your fathers together, saith
the Lord, which have burned incense upon the mountains and blasphemed
me upon the hills. Therefore will I measure their
former work into their bosom. And the Lord did that. He did
that when he came into Jerusalem and he said, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem,
I would have gathered you, I would have gathered your children,
but now you're getting all that that was said is going to be
fulfilled upon you. And they were brought to desolation
because they would not hear the true and living God. Now, we're
familiar with these scriptures. We know these verses trace out
Israel's history from their when they began to worship Baal, their
idol worship of Baal. And it led to the captivity of
Assyria, and then for Israel, the northern tribes, and to Babylon
for the southern tribes in Judah. And then when they returned,
they became Pharisees. When Christ came, we see how
their religion predominantly was Pharisees, was I'm holier
than you, I'm better than you, stay away from me, and they trusted
in themselves. But it describes what we are,
these verses describe what we are in this flesh's ways, in
this flesh's thoughts, and what our Lord delivers us from every
day. That's what we see. We see that,
yes, that's a history recounting hundreds of years, if not thousands
of years for these people. But all that history is bound
up in this wicked heart right here. And I need the grace of
God every day. to deliver me from everything
from ignorant idolatry all the way up to self-righteous Phariseeism.
The whole thing is present right here in this heart of flesh. And what the Lord delivers His
people from, what He's forgiven us from, forgiven us by His own
blood, by His own blood. He's put all that away. We don't
want to stand before God in our righteousness because it won't
be pretty. It'll be judgment. But we come
to Him in the righteousness of Christ, and there will be fellowship
and rejoicing and peace and gladness in the Lord Jesus Christ. We don't heal ourselves of this
plague that remains yet in this flesh. We're forgiven for Christ's
sake. You that believe Him are forgiven
for Christ's sake. And He's the one that makes us
hunger and thirst for His righteousness, crying out to Him, Lord, save
me. Lord, cleanse me. I'm the leper. Lord, feed me, not with things
of death, but with the things of life. Let me feed upon the
Lord Jesus Christ and drink His blood. Turn me, Lord, from my
wicked ways. And that's what the Lord does
for His people. So the reason is because we're not under the
covenant of works. we've been put into the covenant
of grace established fully by Christ Himself. Fully. And so the Lord determined to
save a people and that He did. We read it often where it says
in Ephesians 1 verses 4 through 5 that it's according as He hath
chosen us in Christ 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. And when
it says that we should be holy, we are. That is the will of God. That's the will of God. Be ye
holy, for I am holy. That is God declaring to you
his will, meaning he brings it to pass by his grace, glory,
and power. and turning you from the flesh
to look to Him and to keep on looking to Him. And you that
look to Him from the first hour to the last hour, it's all by
His grace. And you were saved from the first
hour just as you are in the last hour, all by His grace. You are
as fit to stand before God, accepted of Him, right now. Right now. And if you live another 10 years,
you'll be just as fit as you were right now. In the Lord Jesus
Christ, by the grace, by the grace of your God. And so, though
Israel at various times during its history looked like a dry,
dead vine that could bear no fruit, like something that should
have been plucked up and thrown in the fire, we see that the
Lord preserves His people, preserves His elect. Look at verse 8 now.
Thus saith the Lord, as the new wine is found in the cluster,
and one saith, Destroy it not, for a blessing is in it. So will
I do for my servants' sakes, that I may not destroy them all. God has purposed to glorify his
Son by giving him a people. for His own glory, for His name. God purposed to save a people
so He wouldn't destroy Israel. Though Israel had this history
of filth and just wickedness and paganism and idolatry, God
never destroyed it because He had His eye on His Son and His
people in His Son. He loved you. before the foundation
of the world, and so that nothing was going to derail His purpose
of grace for you this day. He preserved Israel all that
time to bring forth the one who would redeem His seed, save His
seed, save His people, before and after, all in the Lord Jesus
Christ. All right, Isaiah 49.6, says,
it's a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise
up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved of Israel.
I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles that thou mayest
be my salvation unto the end of the earth. And so if he destroyed
Israel at any point in that time, what would have happened to the
preserved of Israel, Jew and Gentile? What would have happened
to us? God would never let it happen.
It was impossible. He wouldn't do it. He wouldn't
destroy it. He preserved it. I'm reminded, I think I told
you an illustration about my curry tree that I have in my
yard and how it went through the summer in a pot outside because
they don't keep it inside in the summertime. I have to bring
it in in the winter. But that thing, when I finally
noticed that thing, it was dead. All the leaves were brown and
dead and they were still there, but they came right off when
I touched it. And I thought, I mean, thankfully there was
little shoots out the bottom, so it was still going to be okay
there. But the nice three and a half foot tall tree was dead. And I thought, am I going to
have to cut this thing down with big loppers? And I looked and there
was just a little tiny bud on the one of the branches. I thought,
well, maybe I'm not going to do anything. I'm just going to
give it water and treat it nice, and then maybe it'll come back.
So we'll see. It still has its little buds there, but we'll
see if it comes off that main tree. But that's what it is.
Don't destroy it. There's something there. There's
something living there. There's something precious there
that I'm keeping, the Lord says. And so he preserved Israel in
that way. And the church sings of Christ
in this way. In Song of Solomon 114, it says,
my beloved is unto me as a cluster of campfire in the vineyards
of Angeti. Jesus Christ is the new wine.
He's found in the cluster. Christ has come in the flesh
of his fellows to do for them what they cannot do for themselves.
We'd have been destroyed if it was us, but because of him, for
his sake. He comes forth. He's that new
wine that gives life to his people in him. And by him, we live by
him. He makes us partakers of his
life in the new man. He's called the lamb slain from
the foundation of the world. Therefore, the Lord says, for
Christ's sake, destroy it not, for a blessing is in it. Unto you, therefore, which believe.
He is precious. Our God has made him precious
to you. Now for Christ's sake, our God says in verses 9 and
10, And I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob and out of Judah,
an inheritor of my mountains, and mine elect shall inherit
it, and my servants shall dwell there. And Sharon shall be a
fold of flocks, and the valley of Achor a place for the herds
to lie down in, for my people that have sought me. Now the
Valley of Achor is the first place that was, the first battle took place in
that area when they came in over the Jordan into the land that
God gave them for an inheritance. And God gave them the victory
of the battle there. But there was a man of Israel
named Achan. And Akin saw he came across some
of the treasure, some of the booty that was there, and he
took it. They weren't supposed to take
it. And he took for himself, I think it was a gold wedge of
50 shekels weighed and 200 shekels of silver. And he saw a Babylonian
garment that looked like it was in pretty good shape. And he
took them and he went off with them and hid them in his tent,
so that when the Israelites went out to battle again, the Lord
didn't give them the victory. And they knew something was wrong.
They knew something wasn't right there. And so they sought the
Lord, and Achan was taken. It was found that he had done
this thing. And so he and his family and
all that he had was put to death and burned with fire in the Valley
of Achor, in the Valley of Achor. And that place reveals the covetousness
which is in our own heart. It reveals the covetousness in
our own heart. Maybe you're not taken with gold
and silver, but there's something there. There is something there
in every one of us is covetousness. There's covetousness of something
in this world that's in our own heart. But God says in that place,
where I destroyed the sin of that man before you all, in that
very place, I'm going to be gracious to my sheep. I'm going to bless
my sheep, both Jew and Gentile, for Christ's sake. Because even
now at this time, there is a remnant according to the election of
grace. The only reason why God hasn't
returned is because he has a people here. a people that He will yet
be gracious to. And He's going to bless them,
though when you look at us, we look like a dry, dead, fruitless
vine that should just be ripped up. The world seems like it's
crazy, but God has a people that He will be gracious to. And so We keep serving the Lord. We keep waiting on Him, preaching
Christ, feeding upon Christ. That's what He's given to us
to do, to be here so that when He brings in the sheep, when
He brings them in, they have a place where they are fed and
comforted and find rest for their souls. And so I'm thankful. I'm thankful for the grace of
God. because I don't see any difference in my flesh to those
Israelites. And I know that I'm worthy of
destruction if you look at my works. But I'm so thankful for
the grace of God and because of Christ, for Christ's sake.
And I know you are as well, brethren. So give God thanks every day. Amen. Let's pray. Our gracious Lord, we thank you
for your grace. We thank you for your mercy to
us and your son. Lord, bless this word to the
hearts of your people. Comfort your people. Lord, we
know what sinners we are. Lord, help us to see Jesus, to
behold him, the beauty of him. Lord, the preciousness of what
he is to us. Lord, help us to walk as a thankful
people. Lord, you know we have cares
and worries and burdens. But Lord, let us always be mindful
to bring them to you, our God, knowing that you care for us,
that we may cast all our care upon you because you care for
us. And Lord, help us to lay them down at your feet, seeking
your face and seeking for your glory, your praise, your honor
in all things. Lord, I think of Brother Ron,
who asked for prayer just last night. Lord, struggling to get
to sleep and to stay asleep, and he's so tired. So tired. But Lord, he just wants to be
faithful to you. Uphold him, bless him, Lord.
Comfort his heart. Give him peace for his worries.
And give him rest, Lord. Especially the rest for his soul.
Lord, we pray this for Brother Scott. We know that he As many
health issues as well, we ask, Lord, that you would indeed bless
him, hold him up, comfort him, comfort Johnny. Lord, help us
to minister to each of our brethren, others who have other mental
challenges and difficulties and worries and doubts, Lord, that
you would bless them. that you would comfort them,
that you would fill us with your spirit, help us to walk in the
new man, in the paths of righteousness which you've provided for us
in Christ. And Lord, that we would walk
that walk in faith, trusting you. And Lord, all the unspoken
things, you know our cares, you know our worries. We pray that
you would help your people and bless them. We're thankful for
our visitors. We're thankful for our recent
visitors. Those that have been coming now a long time, we pray
that you bless your people, settle us, knit our hearts together
in love and in fellowship, and in the Lord Jesus Christ, we
bless you for it. Help us, Lord, to be here indeed
for those sheep that you bring in that need a place to rest,
that need a place to be healed and comforted in Christ, for
Christ's sake, in Christ's name. We thank you for the help that
we've received from the many churches and those still helping. We thank you for that and pray
that you bless them richly and abundantly. That you would establish
the work here for the praise and glory of your name's sake.
It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. Let's all stand and sing a closing
hymn, 332. My Jesus, I love Thee. 332. Jesus, I love Thee, I know Thou
art mine. For Thee, all the follies of
sin I resign. My gracious Redeemer, My Savior
art Thou. If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus,
tis now. I love Thee because Thou hast
first loved me. and purchase my pardon on Calvary
Street. I love thee for wearing the thorns
on thy brow. If ever I love thee, my Jesus,
test thou. I'll love thee in life, I will
love thee in death, And praise thee as long as hell and this
may breath. And say when a death do lies
cold on my brow, If ever I loved thee, my Jesus, tis now. In mansions of glory and endless
delight, I'll ever adore thee in heaven so bright. I'll sing with the glittering
crown on my brow. If ever I loved thee, my Jesus,
this now. Thank you.