Good evening, let's begin our
evening service by standing and singing 314. I am thine, O Lord,
314. I know, Lord, I have heard Thy
voice, and it told Thy love to me. But I long to rise in the
arms of faith and be closer drawn to Thee. ? Draw me nearer, nearer,
blessed Lord ? To the cross where Thou hast died ? Draw me nearer,
nearer, nearer, blessed Lord ? To Thy precious bleeding side
? Secrete me now to Thy service, Lord ? By the power of grace
divine Let my soul look up with a steadfast hope, and my will
be lost in Thine. Draw me nearer, nearer, blessed
Lord, to the cross where Thou hast died. Draw me nearer, nearer,
nearer, blessed Lord, to Thy precious bleeding side. the pure delight of a single
hour that before thy throne I spend. When I kneel in prayer and with
thee, my God, I commune as friend with friend. Draw me nearer,
nearer, blessed Lord, to the cross where Thou hast died. Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer,
blessed Lord, to Thy precious bleeding side. ? There are depths of love that
I cannot know ? ? Till I cross the narrow sea ? ? There are
heights of joy that I may not reach ? ? Till I rest in peace
with Thee ? ? Draw me nearer, nearer, blessed Lord ? ? To the
cross where Thou hast died ? Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer, blessed
Lord, to thy precious fleeting sight. Thank you. I would like to read from Revelations
21. Revelations 21, starting with
verse 9. you verse nine, and there came unto
me one of the seven angels, which had the seven vials full of the
seven last plagues and talked with me saying, come hither,
I will show thee the bride, the lamb's wife. And he carried me
away in the spirit to a great and a high mountain and showed
me that great city, the holy Jerusalem descending out of heaven
from God, having the glory of God and her light was like unto
a stone of most precious. even like a jasper stone clear
as crystal, and had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates,
and at the gates twelve angels and names written thereon, which
are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel. On
the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south
three gates, and on the west three gates. And the wall of
the city had 12 foundations, and in them the names of the
12 apostles of the Lamb. And he that talked with me had
a golden reed to measure the city and the gates thereof, and
the wall thereof. And the city lieth four square,
and the length is as large as the breadth. And he measured
the city with the reed, 12,000 furlongs. the length and the breadth and
the height of it are equal. And he measured the wall thereof,
and 140 and four cubits, according to the measure of a man that
is of the angel. And the building of the wall
of it was of jasper, and the city was of pure gold, like unto
clear glass. And the foundations of the wall
of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones.
The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, and the
third Chalcedonian, fourth, an emerald, and the fifth, sardonyx,
and the sixth, sardius, and the seventh, chrysolite, and the
eighth, beryl, and the ninth, a topaz, and the tenth, a chrysopressus,
and the eleventh, a jacinth, and the twelfth, an amethyst.
And the twelve gates were twelve pearls. Every several gate was
of one pearl in the street, of the city was pure gold, as it
were transparent glass. And I saw no temple therein,
for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.
And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine
in it, for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the
light thereof. And the nations of them which
are saved shall walk in the light of it, and the kings of the earth
do bring their glory and honor into it. And the gates of it
shall not be shut at all by day, for there shall be no night there. And they shall bring the glory
and honor of the nations into it, and there shall in no wise
enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination
or maketh a lie. but they which are written in
the Lamb's book of life. And he showed me a pure river
of water of life clear as crystal proceeding out of the throne
of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of it, in the midst
of the street of it and on either side of the river was there a
tree of life which bare 12 manner of fruits and yielded her fruit
every month. And the leaves of the tree were
for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse
but the throne of God and the Lamb shall be in it. and his
servants shall serve him, and they shall see his face, and
his name shall be in their foreheads, and there shall be no night there,
and they need no candle, neither a light of the sun, for the Lord
God giveth them light, and they shall reign forever and ever. Our gracious and heavenly Father,
we thank you for allowing us to come together to hear once
again your glorious gospel, the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, remember
us this evening, and will you especially remember Brother Eric
where he hopes to stand before us again. Father, pour out your
grace and mercy upon him and give him freedom, Lord, that
he may declare the unsearchable riches of our only hope, the
Lord Jesus Christ, and Lord, that we may receive comfort for
our souls, for we are so often beset with that, that sin of
unbelief. But Lord, you can dispel all
unbelief and give us a rest for our souls. Once again, father,
turn our eyes upon the Lord Jesus Christ this evening. And we remember
those, Lord, that listen through the Internet also. Remember them,
Lord, where they are. Bless them and comfort their
souls also. Be with those of us, Lord, that
gather here and are struggling with physical ailments and various
troubles and difficulties. Oh, Lord, will you comfort us
and give us strength? to go forward and remember us,
Lord, as a local church here. We thank you, Lord, for allowing
us to have this small corner of this building in this community. And, Lord, will you remember
us both financially and give us strength and wisdom and all
that we need to continue to be with Brother Eric and Michelle.
Lord, help them in all that they need. Strengthen him, Lord, in
his studies. Pour out your grace upon him.
For Jesus' sake alone, Amen. Our second hymn is going to be
489, down at the cross, 489. Down at the cross where the Savior
died, Down where for cleansing from sin I cried, There to my
heart was the blood applied, Glory to His name! Glory to His name. Glory to His name. There to my heart was the blood
applied. Glory to His name. I am so wondrously safe from
sin, Jesus so sweetly abides within. There at the cross where
he took me in, glory to his name. Glory to His name. Glory to His name. There to my heart was the blood
applied. Glory to His name. O precious fountain that saves
from sin, I am so glad I have entered in. There Jesus saves
me and keeps me clean. Glory to His name. Glory to His name. Glory to His name. There to my heart was the blood
applied. Glory to His name. Come to this fountain so rich
and sweet. Cast thy poor soul at the Savior's
feet. Plunge in today and be made complete. Glory to His name. Glory to His name. Glory to His name. There to my heart was the blood
applied. Glory to His name. Thank you. Good evening. Take your Bibles and let's go
to Isaiah chapter 62. I'll look at verses 5 through
9 with you. Now, our text here begins with
a union. It describes marriage and this
marriage is given here, it's spoken of here to describe the
union that the Lord has with this church and that the Lord
works in the hearts of his people for the church. Let's look at
verse 5. For as a young man marrieth a
virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee. And as the bridegroom rejoiceth
over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee. Now if you remember when we began
this chapter, we saw what our God is doing for the church,
what he promises to do for her because he loves her and he cares
for the church and he's going to provide abundantly for his
church to establish her, to keep her, to save her, to deliver
her from death and darkness and enmity which is in our hearts
by nature. you'll acknowledge that this
world, this world in which we live, this world in which we
were born into, is a fallen world. It's a dark world. It's full
of sin and rebellion and repression and oppression and violence against
men. And so this world is plunged
into sin and darkness, and that by the sin of man. Man did this. When God created
Adam, he gave him dominion over the creation of the world. He gave him dominion over the
creation of God. But man, rebelled against God. Man sinned and transgressed the
law of God and so in that transgression he sold away. He sold it all
away and got nothing in return but death. but death. He sold himself into slavery. And so Paul says in Romans 5,
12, For by one man sin entered into the world, and death by
sin. And so death passed upon all
men, for that all have sinned. We all sinned in Adam, and when
we come forth from the womb, we ourselves are sinners. And we do show and testify by
our words and works and thoughts that we are transgressors. We
are defiled and corrupt sinners before God. But thanks be to
God that He, according to His purpose, has a people whom He
loves. a people whom he cherishes and
loves and provides for and he remembers his people because
he chose a people before the foundation of the world to be
the bride of his son and he committed all our care our life, our keeping
into the hand of His darling Son, so that our redemption,
our deliverance from this death doesn't fall on us. Because we're
incapable of it. We can't deliver ourselves. But
it all falls on Christ. Who was given by God for this
very purpose. To redeem you. His chosen, beloved
bride. And so God committed everything. all your salvation. He committed
it all into the hands of our Savior, the Son of God, who came
as the Christ. He is the one who is the appointed
of God to be the Christ. And what that means is He is
the Savior. He is the salvation of His people. And He has come and rules and
reigns as the true sovereign King, having dominion over all
the creation of God. And that's appointed to him,
as we see in the Ascension, where he now sits at the right hand
of the throne of God, opening the seals of God, spoken of in
Revelation, that is fulfilling and implementing the will and
purpose of God in the earth. And God purposes and intends
to be gracious to you, to be kind to you. because He loves
you, and He remembers you, and He's providing for you, His bride,
who now love Him, who now believe on Him. Again, because of His
manifested grace in you, He testifies you're His by the faith which
He's given unto you. And so we stand amazed when we
come across that scripture and we hear of the love of God, and
we hear it often repeated, but Let it soak in. Rejoice in this
word which your God says to you, where Christ, speaking to Nicodemus,
said in John 3.16, For God so loved the world, Jew and Gentile,
that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. In Adam, we all were perishing
sinners. worthy of damnation, worthy of
the wrath of God. But Christ has come and redeemed
us and delivered us from that wrath and damnation of God, for
the love of God, because God loves you, his chosen people.
Again, the Apostle John, in his epistle, puts it this way. It's
in 1 John 4, 9, and 10. He said, and this was manifested,
the love of God toward us. because that God sent his only
begotten son into the world that we might live through him. There is a people whom Christ
came to save. They are the church in the wilderness,
lost, wandering, in darkness, in prison, shut up to the things
of God, knowing nothing. And yet Christ came for them
while we were yet enemies of God and laid down His life for
us because she is His bride. He loves her. She is betrothed
to Him by God the Father, giving Him, giving her into His care. And He loves us still, even when
we fell in transgression, He loves His people still, and came
and gave His life for her, that we might live in Him. And so,
finishing up that verse from 1 John 4 verse 10, here in His
love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us. and sent
his son to be the propitiation for our sins. He is the sacrifice,
and by his sacrifice he turns the wrath of God, which was against
us justly, turns it from us and put it upon himself, bearing
our sins, making an atonement for our sins, to cleanse us,
to purge us of all our darkness, of all our iniquity, and to make
us righteous in Him. Christ did that for you who now
believe Him, who trust Him. That's a manifestation that He
did that for you. And so His death, His burial,
His resurrection obtained all this life for us, delivering
us from that death, and we now live because He lives. And so
these verses here in Isaiah 62, they are the love story. They speak of
the love story that our God has for his people, his delight in
you. And we see that delight, we see
that love in his abundance of provision of grace for you. in declaring to you these things,
in gathering you together under this word, under this gospel,
to hear this glorious word, to hear what Christ, the second
Adam, has accomplished for us. and we rejoice in it. So, what
the Lord is saying here in verse five, in the verses that follow,
is that He is providing continuously, exceedingly, abundantly, above
all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in
us. When we look at ourselves, we
don't see much. But if we're being honest, we
know that we're here, this night, we're tuned in, this night, we're
listening to hear this Word because the power of God worketh in you. He's keeping you. He's drawing
you. He's feeding you. And His Word
of promise to feed you and to never leave you is being fulfilled
in your very ears and in your very experience of his grace. And so he's making you his bride,
he's rejoicing in you his bride, the church. Now, how does he
do this? How do we see him doing this?
Well, according to this passage, it's through the preaching of
the Gospel. It's through the preaching of
the Gospel. One of the primary ways that
the Word of God is declared to you, the way you hear it, and
receive it, and are fed and blessed by it, is through the ministration
of the Spirit, the preaching of the Gospel, the making known
the savor of His knowledge in every place. preaching Christ,
preaching our Lord, preaching the salvation which He has wrought
for you, for you. And that's certainly what's in
view here in verse 5 when it says, For as a young man marrieth
a virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee. And as the bridegroom rejoiceth
over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee. In other words, he's saying that
he's going to raise up men, he'll give you men, he'll give you
servants to lay down their lives for the church because they too
love the Bride of Christ. And this is made very plain.
in the next verse. Let's see that verse. I'll read
it, 62 verse 6, but then we'll break it down. He says there,
I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall
never hold their peace, day nor night. Ye that make mention of
the Lord keep not Silence. Alright, let's look at these
three phrases that are in here. Let's begin with the first one. I have set watchmen upon thy
walls, O Jerusalem. Our God calls his prophets here
watchmen. He calls them watchmen. He said
to Ezekiel in Ezekiel 3 17. He said, Son of man, I've made
thee a watchman unto the house of Israel. Therefore hear the
word at my mouth and give them warning from me. the prophets watchmen, but that's
what pastors are called. Pastors are watchmen as well
under the New Testament. They watch for your souls. They watch for the word of the
Lord and what the Lord is doing and preach it and declare it
to you, the people. He says in Isaiah 62, Verse 6,
he says, I have said, watch men upon thy walls, O Jerusalem,
which shall never hold their peace, day nor night. Now, first of all, when you read
this, you're reminded, this sounds like what the Lord said. And
he said this very thing in verse 1. He said in verse 1, look there
at verse 1. For Zion's sake will I not hold
my peace. and for Jerusalem's sake I will
not rest." And we saw when we were looking at that verse that
Zion and New Jerusalem, that's speaking of you, the church. You are precious to the Lord. He will not rest until the righteousness
thereof go forth as brightness and the salvation thereof as
a lamp that burneth. In other words, until the last
sheep is brought into the fold This word will be preached. This
word. God will be faithful to you to
preach this word to you. And he says that he'll be heard. He says to the watchmen, well,
you know, when he was saying there in verse one, he was saying,
I will be heard. I'm not going to be silent. I'm not going to
cease preaching this gospel to you. And so he says here now
in this verse, my watchmen whom I've raised up and given to you
shall never hold their peace day nor night. And that's because
he's raised up men and put it into their heart and given them
a heart to go out and to labor in the field and to preach to
the people of God because he loves the church too. He was
raised in the church. He heard of God's promises in
the church and he goes forth declaring those same joyful promises,
rehearsing them in your ears. Turn over to Jeremiah 3 15. 315, here we see why there are men
raised up, why men have this heart. Jeremiah 315, he says, and I
will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed
you with knowledge and understanding. And the knowledge and understanding
is Christ. We preach Christ because he is
the food which the sheep feed upon. And you know it. You delight
in nothing more than to hear Christ and you're comforted by
the Lord Jesus Christ. And so the pastors whom God has
sent, they preach Christ. They feed you with the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's because through the gospel,
you are grown in knowledge and understanding of your Lord. and you come to hear the preaching
because you want to hear what the Lord has said to his pastors. You know, over in Isaiah 21,
Isaiah 21 verse 11 and 12, We see here, it says, the burden
of Duma, he calleth to me out of Seir. Watchman, what of the
night? Watchman, what of the night?
The watchman said, the morning cometh, and also the night. If ye will inquire, inquire ye,
return come. And so the Lord puts it in the
hearts of his people to inquire of the watchman what's going
on. what has the Lord given to you to say? And so you come,
and that's inquiring of the watchman, you come and you hear the word
of Christ preached. And then he says here, his watchman
shall never hold their peace day nor night. And that means
that we preach Christ in season and out of season. We preach
Christ day or night. Now, why don't you turn over
to 2 Timothy. We'll see this there. 2 Timothy
4. 2 Timothy 4 and look at, we'll
just read verse 2. And then stay there for a moment.
He says, preach the word. This is Paul writing to Timothy.
Preach the word. Be instant, in season, out of
season. Reprove, Rebuke, exhort with
all long-suffering and doctrine. Christ is the word of God and
therefore we preach Christ crucified. We declare what Christ has accomplished
for his people in his death, burial and resurrection. We declare
the good news that the sins of his people are forgiven. They're
put away and all who trust him, all who believe in him shall
never be ashamed. He has given His word. He shall
return and bless you and raise you up to be with Him forever,
for all eternity. And so we preach Christ whether
it's in the day, when the sun is up, and I'm not talking about
daylight hours, I mean when it's comfortable, when there's abundance,
when there's peace and joy in the land. We preach in that time,
in the day, and we preach at night. When there's great darkness
in the land, when it's not safe to declare the things of Christ,
we're called to preach Christ in every season, in season, out
of season, in the daytime, in the night. Trust the Lord. That's
the whole purpose. He's raised you up. Go forth
and preach the word. Declare what Christ has done. And so, as needed, reprove, rebuke,
exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine through the preaching
of Christ, the word of God. And so, to you that hear the
preacher, he adds this in Hebrews 13. Go there now. Hebrews 13,
verse 17. He says, obey them that have
the rule over you. The rule is the gospel, the law
of liberty. That's the rule, the law of liberty.
Obey them, hear it. Hear it. Believe Christ. Believe
what he's declaring to you concerning Christ and submit yourselves.
Why? For they watch for your souls
as they that must give account that they may do it with joy
and not with grief for that's unprofitable for you. Pastor
wants to stand up and reprove and rebuke and spend his time
doing those things. We want to preach Christ clearly,
plainly, boldly, continuously to the people. We want to stay
right there in the Lord because that is the most profitable thing
for you is to hear Christ and Christ only. And so remember,
he's telling you, you that believe on Christ, you are Zion. You are the heavenly Jerusalem. You are the people of God. And if you look in yourselves,
if you look in your experience for it, you won't see it. But
if you look to Christ, it's because all your hope is Him. It's because
you have no confidence in the flesh. It's because you have
no righteousness of your own. You look to Christ because He's
given you that faith and trust and hope, not in yourselves,
but in the one whom He sent to save you, who came and laid down
His life for you. And so in that pattern, He raises
up men to preach Him, to declare Him, to proclaim what He has
done for you. And so you are the Zion of God. We're told that we have a strong
city. salvation will God appoint for
walls and bulwarks. That is where God has gathered
you in Christ. That's the the sheepfold that
Christ has brought you into. He's taken you out of the the
world's fold where the goats are and he's brought you into
his sheepfold and appointed salvation for your walls and bulwarks so
that you now are in the city of God. And there in the city
We preach, we defend, we declare the gospel. I'll just read a
verse in Philippians 1, verse 7. We see another picture of this
union, this marriage between the church and the pastor to
their God, that love there that God is demonstrating and showing
you. He says, even as it's meet for
me to think this of you all, Paul says to this church, because
I have you in my heart, And as much as both in my bonds and
in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, ye all are partakers
of my grace. And so God brings together a
pastor and his church. He unites them together in that
union, knitting their hearts together. And we see, just as
Paul says, in my bonds, right, we have weaknesses, infirmities
and difficulties in me and myself, right? And you bear with those
things and you still thank God for the preaching of the Word.
You bear with me in my bonds because together we are set for
the defense and the confirmation of the gospel. And of that he
makes you partakers of of that grace. That grace He's given
to that man, He's given you that same grace so that together there's
that fellowship and bond together preaching and proclaiming the
grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. Because that's
where He's bringing His sheep. And we know that as long as we're
preaching this word, there's still more sheep out there. There's
still another one out there. And we're preaching that word
till Christ brings in that last sheep. Till He brings them home. So we are walled about and closed
with the redemption of Christ. We are citizens of heaven, sons
and daughters adopted into the family of our God. And he gives
you watchmen who watch for your souls. He's ordained it. that the preaching go forth for
your learning and your comfort. And we're not to despise the
preaching nor forsake the assembling of ourselves because it's an
ordinance. It was ordained of God. It was
commanded of God to preach the word. He said, it's going to
go forth. I'm not going to cease preaching
my word. And that's what we're called to do because that's how
he blesses his people. Turn over to Ephesians chapter
four. Ephesians 4. You know, sometimes I mean like
live streaming or listening to messages, they can be a blessing. I've been blessed by them. I'm
sure that you've heard messages in that manner and have been
blessed and comforted in your souls. And certainly if you're
shut in or sick, it's a fantastic, great way to hear the word of
God. And let me just read this here,
and then I'll just say a few things on that thought. In Ephesians
4, verse 8, he says, wherefore he saith, when he ascended up
on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. The Lord blesses His church. He blesses that body that comes
together, that labors together, that dwells together, because
we're taught a lot together. We're brought through various
trials and tribulations together to strengthen us, to give us
patience, to give us experience together in those things, because
He's teaching us through those experiences and hearing that
gospel, he's revealing to us knowledge and understanding in
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now he says in verse 11, And
he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists
and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints,
for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body
of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the faith and of
the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, unto the
measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. that we henceforth
be no more children tossed to and fro, and carried about with
every wind of doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftiness
whereby they lie in wait to deceive. But speaking the truth in love
may grow up into him in all things which is the head, even Christ,
from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted
by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working
in the measure of every part maketh increase of the body unto
the edifying of itself in love. This I say therefore and testify
in the Lord that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk
in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened,
being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance
that is in them because of the blindness of their heart. And so The blessing that we have
in coming together as a body is the Lord meets with His people.
He's promised, He said, when you gather together for this
purpose, in my name, or two or three are gathered together in
my name to hear and worship the Lord and to hear His word, He's
there in the midst of you. And He blesses that word. Going back to what I was saying
before, how we hear audio messages on Sermon Audio, and sometimes
we partake of live streaming when we're sick or unable to
be there. And that's not what I'm speaking
to, but to willfully not go where the gospel is preached you're
missing out on a blessing because what I've experienced when you
go even when a pastor goes to a conference or goes to a congregation
and when he's at home in his home church when we're preparing
messages we're praying and we're thinking of you the congregation
our heart is upon you and so we're preparing things and asking
the Lord to give us words for you And when you're just hearing
a message from say 20 years ago or something like that, though
great, though wonderful, that man wasn't preaching that word
with you on his heart. But when he's preparing it for
the congregation, the Lord's laid you on his heart because
the Lord delights in you and that's a gift that he's given
to you. And so there's a lot of times
where you know, we're preaching the
word and you'll come and say, that was, I needed to hear that,
or that was very timely or appropriate, or that really blessed me. I
didn't even want to be here today, but hearing that word was such
a joy and a comfort. It really blessed my heart. And
the Lord does that. And there are times when he does
that through streaming or through an audio that wasn't intended
for you. That can happen, but It's so
easy sometimes, and I know this from sitting there in the pew
myself, that sometimes you hear things that you don't want to
hear. And you go home because this is your body, and that's
your pastor, and this is the word that God has given to you.
He's given it to him and he's preached it to you, and you wrestle
with it in prayer before the Lord. You wrestle. Lord, help
me to hear that. Or, Lord, why did he say that?
Or what have you. And the Lord teaches us because
you're that congregation. You were there and meant for
that word, whereas others just tuning in who aren't part of
that congregation, who aren't on that man's heart, they don't
have that. It's so easy to just click it
off and say, well, I don't know what they're going through, but
that ain't me. And you just click it off, and you just put it behind
you. And you don't really have that
experience and that going through that together as a body. And
there's a real blessing in that. And I know that because that's
what he says here in his word. He does that purposely for the
body. It's to make increase. It's to
bring that effectual working. And that's where those fruits
of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, temperance. And
so that's where those things are worked out with one another.
And that's where we seek the Lord for one another. And there's
a real peculiar blessing that we don't want to miss, especially
when you go through those night seasons, when you go through
dark times. The Lord has prepared his people
for that day, for that day, to go through those difficulties
together. So we never want to miss out
on those things. And I think those that would
only do that are denying themselves the blessing which God promises
to give in his word. And so I don't want to see anyone
do that, especially a believer. And so finally, he says to his
watchman here in verse six, ye that make mention of the Lord.
And the only thing I want to really say on that is that another
way of saying that, the way that is worded in the scriptures is,
we are the Lord's remembrances. We're not to keep silence, but
to bring remembrance of the Lord to you. his people. To remind
you of God's goodness for you in the Lord Jesus Christ. To
remind you that he's given promises in his word and fulfilled them
in Christ. And there's promises given to
us by Christ who says, I'm returning again, I'm going to raise you
up. As we were looking at the characters in Judges 4 of Sisera
and Jabin. Christ has destroyed the battle
array. He's destroyed Sisera. Those
weapons which are formed against you shall not stand. They're
already destroyed. And it says of Jabin that he
was defeated that day. But then you read the next verse
and it took some time for him to ultimately be gone forever. And the same thing, the enemy
of our souls is defeated. His battle array has been destroyed. And yeah, there's still some
lobs and various darts that get lobbed and there's difficulties
and trials, but his days are numbered. His days are short. And when Christ comes again and
raises us up, we shall be raised incorruptible. This mortality
shall put on immortality. And that's a promise that we
rejoice in and look for that day. Maranatha, come Lord Jesus,
come. We pray and look for that day
and so there's victories and we remind you, we remember what
the Lord has said to us to hear him, to feed upon him, to fill
our hearts with peace and rest in him. He says it this way,
Isaiah 52, eight, thy watchman shall lift up the voice, with
the voice together shall they sing, for they shall see eye
to eye. when the Lord shall bring again
Zion. And so we preach Christ crucified
because he is the power of God. We remind one another of his
word and what he said. You know, even sometimes after
the message, sometimes you, when we speak together, you're reminding
me as well. And we speak of the things of
the Lord. We speak of the things that we've heard and have delighted
our hearts and comforted us. And we, minister and nurture
one another in the Lord Jesus Christ. Because that's the power
of His salvation. It's Christ. And we preach the
Word because that's the power of His salvation. He uses that
Word to raise us up from the dead, to raise us up from darkness,
to bring us out of the darkness into the light, and confess,
Lord, you have done all this work. And so I'm going to stop
there after verse six there, and we'll pick up more the next
time that we're here. So I pray the Lord bless that.
But in closing, let me just say rejoice in the Lord, bless his
name and rejoice in what he's done for you and for us. And remember, remember one another
to pray for one another, in the spirit and to give God thanks
for all his mercies and kindnesses toward his people. It's a blessing
and it's good when we delight in his people, as he delights
in his people, that when we delight in what he's done for us here. So I pray the Lord bless that
word to your hearts. Amen. Our gracious Lord, we thank you,
Father, for the promise of your word. how you demonstrate repeatedly,
how you delight in us and provide it richly and abundantly for
us in your Son, Jesus Christ. In Him, Lord, we see your love.
We see how we are undeserving sinners, but you're so gracious
and so kind and so merciful and compassionate to us in our Savior. Lord, help us to ever rejoice
in Him to give thanks in Him, and to continually grow in this
love that we have for Your people, and for Your Word, and for our
Savior above all. Because we're not saved by the
things that we know. We're not saved by the things
that we do. We've come to Christ, who is
the salvation of His people. And Lord, we have no hope but
Him. And Lord, we pray that you ever
keep us in Him, looking to Him alone, rejoicing in Him with
one another, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves as the
manner of some is, but in being drawn together to labor, to fight,
to continue in this until the last sheep is brought into the
fold and you finish the work. It's in Christ's name we pray
and give thanks. Amen. Our closing hymn will be 287,
Like a River Glorious. 287. The river glorious is God's perfect
peace, over all victorious in its bright increase. Perfect yet it floweth, fuller
every day. Perfect yet it groweth, deeper
all the way. State upon Jehovah, hearts are
fully blessed. Finding as he promised, perfect
peace and rest. Hidden in the hollow of his blessed
hand Never foe can follow, never traitor stand Not a surge of
worry, not a shade of care Not a blast of hurry, touch the spirit
there ? Made upon Jehovah, hearts are fully blessed ? ? Binding
as He promised, perfect peace and rest ? ? Every joy or trial
falleth from above ? ? Traced upon our dial by the Son of Love
? We may trust Him wholly, all for us to do. They who trust Him wholly, find
Him wholly true. State upon Jehovah, hearts are
fully blessed. Finding as He promised, perfect
peace and rest.