Good evening. Let's stand and
sing an opening hymn, The Solid Rock. 272, The Solid Rock. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ the solid rock
I stand, All other ground is sinking sand, All other ground
is sinking sand. When darkness veils his lovely
face I rest on his unchanging grace In every high and stormy
gale My anchor holds within the veil On Christ the solid rock
I stand, All other ground is sinking sand, All other ground
is sinking sand. His oath is covenant, His blood
support me in a whelming flood. When all around my soul gives
way, He then is all my hope and stay. On Christ the solid rock
I stand, All other ground is sinking sand, All other ground
is sinking sand. When he shall come with trumpet
sound, O may I then in him be found, Dressed in his righteousness
alone, All less to stand before the throne. On Christ the solid
rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand, all other ground
is sinking sand. I would like to read from Ezekiel
37. Ezekiel 37. Ezekiel 37, the hand of the Lord
was upon me and carried me up, carried me out in the spirit
of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley, which
was full of bones, and caused me to pass by them round about,
and behold, there were very many in the open valley, and lo, they
were very dry. And he said unto me, son of man,
can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, thou
knowest. Again, he said unto me, prophesy
unto these bones and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the
word of the Lord. Thus sayeth the Lord God unto
these bones, behold, I will cause breath to enter into you and
you shall live. and I will lay sinews upon you
and will bring up flesh upon you and cover you with skin and
put breath in you and ye shall live and ye shall know that I
am the Lord. So I prophesied as I was commanded
and as I prophesied there was a noise and behold a shaking
and the bones came together bone to his bone and when I beheld
low the sinews and the flesh came up upon them and the skin
covered them up above but there was no breath in them. Then said
he unto me, prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and
say to the wind, thus sayeth the Lord God, come from the four
winds, oh, breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may
live. So I prophesied as he commanded
me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood
up upon their feet, an exceeding great army. Then he said unto
me, son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold,
they say our bones are dried and our hope is lost. We are
cut off for our parts. Therefore prophesy and say unto
them, thus say it, the Lord God behold, all my people, I will
open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves
and bring you into the land of Israel. And ye shall know. that
I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and
brought you up out of your graves, and shall put my spirit in you,
and you shall live, and I shall place you in your own land. Then
shall ye know that I, the Lord, have spoken it and performed
it, saith the Lord. Our heavenly and merciful Father,
we thank you for allowing us to assemble together in this
place. What a great, great blessing
it is, Lord, that we have this opportunity in such a dark time
that we live, Lord, and where there is much religion. But Lord,
you have taken reasons out of yourself and you have raised
up a small assembly here locally. And Father, will you remember
us this evening? Each time is a new time, and
will you allow Brother Eric to stand before us again this evening
to proclaim the unsearchable riches of our great Savior, the
Lord Jesus Christ. Father, remember him and continue
to give him strength and courage and all that he needs for his
body and for his health and for his spiritual welfare. Lord,
continue to feed him that he may feed us. Lord, remember us
as we hope to listen this evening. Give us an appetite. And will
you increase our faith and give us rest for our souls? For Lord,
we have that sin that so easily beset us, which is the sin of
unbelief. And we carry around much fear
in our hearts often with the chaos in the world. But Father,
we know that you sit upon your throne as a sovereign king and
that we may be reminded again of this this evening. Father,
we have so much. We have great riches in you that
we may never forget this. And Lord, will you especially
remember those that are ill and sick? We thank you, Lord, for
giving strength once again where it was needed. Remember those
of this assembly, Lord, that struggle from day to day with
chronic health conditions and perhaps other conditions that
we cannot see. Father, give comfort where it
is needed and that we may also be in help to one another Father,
remember us as we continue to gather here from week to week.
Give us, Lord, the financial wherewithal and all that we stand
in need of. We thank you, Lord, for those that support us that
aren't able to be here, but support us through the Internet and the
online ministry. Father, remember us in mercy.
Be with our loved ones, our children, our relatives. Father, allow
us to open our mouth to declare the great glory of our Lord and
Savior. For Jesus' sake alone, amen. I would like to sing 77, son
of my soul, 77. Son of my soul, thy Savior dear,
it is not night if thou be near. Oh, may no earth-born cloud arise
to hide thee from thy servant's eyes. ? And a soft dews of kindly
sleep ? ? My weary eyelids gently steep ? ? Be my last thought,
O sweet to rest ? ? Forever on my Savior's breast ? Abide with
me from morn till eve, for without thee I cannot live. Abide with me when night is nigh,
for without thee I dare not die. be near to bless me when I wake. There through the world my way
I take. Abide with me till in thy love
I lose myself in heaven above. Good evening. Take your Bibles
and turn to Isaiah chapter 57. Isaiah 57. I want to look at verses 15 through
21 with you. Here in this passage, our Lord
speaks of peace. He speaks of peace that he makes
with a people through the son, through the mediator, in the
covenant of grace. This covenant is established,
it's ratified, it's put into effect by the blood of our mediator,
our substitute, Jesus Christ. And because this covenant is
established by the blood of Christ, and because God is so well pleased
with the Son, with the Mediator who came to establish the righteousness
of the people of God, and to accomplish the salvation that
God wills and purposes for that people, well, just as Christ
receives the blessings and inheritance in that covenant, so those blessings
and inheritance extend to you, whose hope is not in yourselves,
not in your works, but in the very blood of Christ that was
shed for his people. I've titled this message, Christ
Our Peace. Now, one of the other things
that is spoken of in this passage that we can glean from it, or
see that's spoken of here, is there's a chastening that the
Lord brings to his people, so that they are described as being
humble, because they are humbled by the chastening of the Lord.
They're brought low by the Lord's hand, and they are given a contrite
spirit. That means they are made to feel
sorrow for their sin. They're brought to see and to
know, I'm the sinner. I've rebelled against holy God
who did nothing wrong against me, but I've trespassed against
his holy laws. I've rebelled against him. There's
enmity in my heart by nature. Lord have mercy upon me. Well, that's brought by the chastening
of the Lord, by the teaching and the instruction of the Lord
to a living soul, one whom he makes alive by his spirit because
of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. So we see this chastening,
this humbling, this measure of being brought low in self that
we might find our all in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I bring
that up because I want to start at the end of our text, which
is verses 20 and 21. And this chastening, this understanding
of how the Lord deals with his people will help us as we read
these words here in 20 and 21. But the wicked are like the troubled
sea when it cannot rest. whose waters cast up mire and
dirt. There is no peace, saith my God,
to the wicked." And the reason why it's important for us to
understand that believers are chastened of the Lord is because
there are times when believers are severely chastened. Now not
all people are brought to the same depths, not all are laid
as low as another, but the Lord has a purpose in the chastening
he brings upon his people. All the people of God will know
that they are sinners. All the people of God will be
taught their need of Christ and that Christ alone is salvation. All the people of God will know
that. But in measure, the Lord brings chastening upon his people
And therefore, there are times when the chastening is very severe,
when they're brought low, when they see the depths of their
sin, the blackness of their heart, the coldness and the death that
is in this very nature and in this flesh. And so as we read
these words, there's been times I remember there was a time when
I read those words being chastened, being troubled, especially in
the beginning when the Lord is dealing with a sinner who knows
not God. And we read these words in verses
15 through 19, and it's a great comfort. They hear that God dwells
with the humble, that God dwells with those that are contrite
in heart, those that are brought low in themselves and he speaks
peace to them. And then you come to these words,
but the wicked are like the troubled sea. and how troubling that is
to someone who who's being brought to see their sin and they think
well I'm troubled I don't know rest so perhaps I'm the wicked
that God says there's no peace for you but there's a difference
in the chastening that the Lord brings to his people Because
when the Lord chastens its people, it's for their profit. It's for
their good. It's to show them their need
of Christ and to show them the sufficiency of the blood of Christ. But with the wicked, there is
no peace with God. Now let's look at a few scriptures
that speak about our chastening. Turn over to Hebrews chapter
12. Go to Hebrews chapter 12. And
here we find that there's a people who are chastened of the Lord,
who are taught of Him. Now, as the Lord's speaking to
the people in the beginning of the chapter, we find that Christ
Himself, the Son of God, in the flesh, as our High Priest, as
our Mediator, as our Substitute, He suffered He suffered. The scriptures say that the son
learned obedience by the things which he suffered, not because
there was any fault in him, there was no sin, no darkness, no turning
in his heart, but he was chastened of the Lord that he might be
a high priest who is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. He knows our weakness. He knows
the weakness of this flesh. He knows what you have need of
and what you can bear because he himself was chastened of the
Lord. He himself suffered. He suffered
of the Lord. And so we see that the people
of God are also chastened for their good. For their good. Look at verses five through eight.
And ye have forgotten the exhortation, which speaketh unto you as unto
children. My son, despise not thou the
chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him. For whom the Lord loveth, he
chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye
endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons. In other
words, if you are enduring chastening, God is dealing with you as his
child. He is dealing with you as his
own darling child. You that endure chastening. For
what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be
without chastisement, you're not brought to see your need
of the Lord where of all our partakers then are ye bastards
and not sons. God is not your father." That's
what he's saying there. Turn over now to 2nd Corinthians. 2nd Corinthians, well hold hold
Hebrews 12 because we will be back there in a moment, but 2nd
Corinthians 4 and Here we're given to see that
believers do go through difficulties. In fact, Paul brings up the point,
the fact that we are, we have this treasure of our God in earthen
vessels. clay pots that are easily broken,
that return back to the dust from which they were formed in
the first place. And he says, we have this great
treasure. What's the treasure? The gospel
of Jesus Christ, the knowledge of our God's will toward us,
that he will be gracious to you in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's
the will and purpose of your God to be gracious to you. to show you kindness, to heal
you and heal your infirmities, and to deliver you from your
diseases, your sin disease, your sickness, your eternal death,
to give you life in himself. And so we have this weakness
of frame in which we carry this excellent treasure of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now, Paul describes these troubles
that we go through. I'll just say the positive side
of it in verses eight and nine, where he says, we are troubled
on every side. We are perplexed. We are persecuted
and cast down. These things are brought to the
people of God in measure according to the purpose of God. He says
all these things are brought to us and he says in verse 10,
always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus,
that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. We who are born originally of
the corrupt seed of Adam and having this weakness of our flesh
are blessed by the Spirit of God to be born again having that
new man of the seed of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we do suffer
persecutions and we do have troubles and sorrows and perplexities
that this flesh would be delivered unto death, that this flesh would
not soar and do great things of this flesh and by this flesh,
but this flesh is killed daily, that we might manifest, bear
witness to the life of the Lord Jesus Christ in these earthen
weak vessels. Verse 11 For we which live are
always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, because Christ is
our Savior, and He lives in us, that the life also of Jesus might
be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So then death worketh
in us, but life in you. So that, brethren, there is a
dying this flesh, a dying to self, a dying in this flesh in
order to work good in the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, in
and among his people, serving one another, serving our God
in thankfulness for what he's done and accomplished. Now back
over in Hebrews 12, Hebrews 12 in the middle of verse 10, We
are told that our God chastens us for our profit, that we might
be partakers of His holiness. Our God's will for us is that
we would be partakers of His holiness. where he brings up this point
that God says, be ye holy for I am holy. And the world hears
that and takes it to mean, oh, get working in your flesh, do
better. You better get working to make
yourselves holy before God because he's holy. And they don't hear
it as you hear it, which is my God's will for me. is that I
should be made holy in Christ. His will is that I should be
made a partaker of His holiness, to know the true and living God. And it's all through the Lord
Jesus Christ. So God's making known to you
what His will is. And if God wills that you be
holy, you shall be holy in the Lord Jesus Christ. And He shall,
in measure, in perfect measure, according as it pleases Him and
how He'll use you in the body of Christ, He'll bring chastening,
He'll bring afflictions, He'll bring trouble to strip you in
this flesh, to strip you of your pride, to bring us low in ourselves,
to humble us and to chasten us for our good and for the good
of the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he says in verse
11, Hebrews 12, 11, we see here that fellowship that we have
with our brethren, because we all go through it. He says, now
no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous. Nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth
the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised
thereby. And so when we go through the
chastening of the Lord, there are times where it is made severe
to us, and so severe sometimes that we feel ourselves to be
cut off from the Lord, worthy of death. justly condemned to
die and to be cut off from the Lord." And what it does is it
brings us to mourn for our sin, to cry out to the Lord for mercy,
to beg Him for forgiveness. for Christ's sake, for the blood
of Christ's sake. Now I say this because that is
very different from what is described and who is described in verses
20 and 21. The wicked are like the troubled
sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith my God,
to the wicked. So while the believer is brought
low in their selves, and made to feel their shame and their
guilt, their unworthiness of the Lord's favor and mercy for
them, that for the Lord to forgive them would be certainly unmerited
favor on his part. Well, the wicked, they're not
worried about their standing before the Lord. The believer
is. The believer's very troubled
that God has cut them off and cast them out from his presence.
The wicked isn't. Don't get me wrong, they want
peace. They want to have ease and comfort in this world. But
it's not according to the will and purpose of God. They're not
looking for and crying out saying, oh, that the blood of Christ
would be applied to my wicked heart. But you who know the Lord
and know that his salvation is found in one. the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ in him and him only, you cry out for his
blood. You cry out for the mercy of
God. They're troubled, yes, they are
troubled. The wicked are troubled and they have no peace because
all they do is walk in wickedness and unrighteousness, and they're
troubled and fearful of many things, but they don't desire
the peace of God according to God's will and purpose in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Their walks, their works are
continually in darkness and depravity. And so when it says, there is
no peace, saith my God, to the wicked, he means they have no
interest in the blood of Christ. Christ is not in their thoughts.
His blood is not in their thoughts. Yes, they want peace. Yes, they
want rest and ease and comfort because of all the trouble that
they have. but it's not found in Christ. They're not looking
for that peace in the Lord Jesus Christ. His blood is neither
their hope nor their trust. That's why they're described
here as wicked in having no peace. And so the believer mourns for
how they have offended God, for how careless they've been, how
foolish we are. The believer is made to feel
their their undoneness and to feel the chastening, the severe
chastening of the Lord. And so that's the very evidence
of the Lord. Because you desire, Lord, apply
that blood of Christ to cool my fiery conscience which is
raging against me, showing me my sin and unworthiness. Lord,
have mercy upon me so that the chastening is for our profit."
It's worked for our good that we might be useful in the body
of Christ. Now, while the natural man has
no desire to make peace with God on the Lord's terms, the
Lord is willing to make peace, and He is able to make peace
with a peculiar people, a particular people of His choosing, and He
accomplishes His will in them. He will show them peace. He will
give them peace in their hearts, not based on man's works, not
based on him setting things right and doing things better in and
of himself. No, but for this, that God will
be gracious to you for Christ's sake. And so the Lord makes his
will known to us in his word. And he says now in Isaiah 57,
verse 15, For thus saith the high and lofty
one that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is holy. I dwell in
the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite
and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and
to revive the heart of the contrite ones. And so the Lord here is
giving us an undergirding principle of truth. This is a universal
truth by which he deals with all his people. So we take here
from this universal truth that God, what our Lord is showing
us is that he is our provider, He is our sustainer. He is our
shepherd. And we see that the Lord is our
friend. And I don't say that in the careless
way that the world says it, but He is your friend. You that trust Him, just as Abraham
was the friend of God. So it is that your God has established
peace and reconciliation in the Lord Jesus Christ so that we
know Him and have fellowship with Him and hear His Word and
are comforted by His Word and His promise to us in His Son. And so we see this in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now, I wanna give you two things
here, two things in this part of these scriptures here, verses
15 through 19. First, we see here what he does
for you, his people, what he does for you, his people. And we'll see it in the light
of these blessings that are described here. in this text. And then
second, we see why does he do this for you, his people? And
we find that it's for Christ's sake. He does it in grace in
the Lord Jesus Christ. It's for his sake that God is
gracious and blesses his people. Alright, so two things. First,
the Lord who's holy and righteous and majestic and all-powerful,
he condescends. We see him stoop to dwell with
his people whom he's created and prepared for himself. Verse 15, for thus saith the
high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity. whose name is holy,
I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is
of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble
and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. Now this is speaking
of holy God, that one of whom we read in Habakkuk 113, where
it says that he is of pure eyes, then to behold evil and he cannot
look upon iniquity. He's not going to dwell in the
midst of iniquity and the people full of iniquity and sin. In
other words, He makes His people holy. He makes them righteous
in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. He puts that sin away
so that this people, He may dwell with them who are humbled and
contrite. Our Lord tells us in his word
that he dwells with his people, those whom he saved by the blood
of Christ, he dwells in them and with them. First Corinthians
3.16 says, know ye not that ye are the temple of God and that
the spirit of God dwelleth in you? And the you there, these
are described as being made humble and contrite. Now they're humbled
because God's hand has brought them low. The Lord brings his
people low with purpose and they're bruised and they're chastened.
They're bruised through their chastening of the Lord so that
we're humbled and we're brought to know our great need of the
Lord. He delivers us from our pride
and our arrogance and our self-confidence and our self-righteousness by
bringing us low in ourselves to see His greatness and His
glory, His patience and His kindness toward us. We see all that because
we see what we are in ourselves. And Peter says in 1 Peter 5,
6 and 7, humble yourselves therefore, under the mighty hand of God,
that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon
Him, for He careth for you." The Lord cares for you. He's
doing this because He cares for you. He's doing this because
He loves you. He sent His Son and spared Him
not in love to deliver you and me by the blood of Christ, to
deliver all his people by the blood of Christ. And so they're
also described as being contrite. That is, they're given a heavy
heart. They feel distress in their heart
because they see how they have offended God. They're made to
feel sorrow and remorse for their rebellion, and their walk in
rebellion, and their foolishness, and their unbelief, and their
denying and doubting of the Lord. And so they're made to feel that.
They're made to see how unworthy we are in ourselves. Now this
word contrite, it can literally mean to be made dust, to be broken,
to be ground into powder so that it's returned to dust. And God
is able with any one of us to bring us back to dust, to kill
the body and cast the soul into hell. And so it can literally
mean being brought to dust. And it can also mean figuratively
to be made contrite, to mourn for one's sin, to sorrow for
one's sin. So that through that we see,
well, God is fully capable of grinding us to powder, but he
brings the chastening and he teaches us by his spirit. with such precision so that it
is for your good. And it testifies, yes, Lord,
just like you say in your word in Hebrews 12 and in 2 Corinthians
4, we see, Lord, how you in wisdom and in compassion and kindness,
you bring that chastening in measure so as not to grind me
to powder, but to bring me low in myself and to humble me under
your hand to make me to see my need of you and to see and to
behold how kind, how lovely, how patient, how gracious you
are to your people. So see that in precise measure
because it's according as God will use you in his kingdom.
and he doesn't use everybody in the same way. And so not everybody
has the same pressures and the same troubles applied to them
because it's according to the will and purpose of God as he
will use you in his body to bless and serve and do good for the
body of Christ. Now, Psalm 34, 18 and 19 says,
the Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart and save
it such as be of a contrite spirit. Many are the afflictions of the
righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of them all. And so he promises that in precise
measure, he'll not give you more than you can bear, but he always
provides the way, which is the Lord Jesus Christ to his people,
by which we go and are delivered from being destroyed and overtaken
by our faults and sins. Isaiah 57 verse 16 The Lord says,
I will not contend forever, neither will I always be wroth or angry,
for the Spirit should fail before me and the souls which I have
made. So the Lord is saying I have
a purpose in what I'm doing. I'm not doing anything more than
is necessary I'm doing only that which is right only that which
which serves my purpose for my people and in my Kingdom and
so the result is that it's always going to be profitable for us
And it means that it results in him dwelling with his people
who are made holy and righteous by Him. And so what the Lord shows us
is in verse 17 What he brings each one of his
people to see is their need of Christ. And when you forget,
you'll be given, again, he'll make you to see your need of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And he'll continue to cause us
to find I need the Lord Jesus Christ to find my all in him,
Lord. And so he says, verse 17, for
the iniquity of his covetousness, man's covetousness, was I wroth
and smote him. I hid me and was wroth, and he
went on forwardly in the way of his heart. That's key there. He went on forwardly. He continued
on in doing his rebellious way according to the will and desires
of his own heart. Now, that scripture which was
given for our instruction, we're reminded in here, we see that
God, he gathered that people Israel, he gave Moses the law
and the people the law at Mount Sinai and established that religion
there of the Jews which gave us types and shadows and pictures
of the Lord Jesus Christ. But these people, they had the
law, and they were made into a nation of like-minded people
under that law, and the Lord drove out nations before them
so that they had that perfect setup, if you will, where if
man could have kept the law of God perfectly, if he could have
done what God purposed for him to do through that law, if he
would have been able to do the righteousness of the law, then
man would have been righteous. He would have been well, things
would have been fine. But what it actually showed us
is that man's heart is wicked. And man goes right back to sinning. Man goes right to doing what
is in his heart to do, which is sin and evil. Man isn't righteousness. There is no law given that could
make man righteous, else Christ would not have come. And it's
not only there at the law there, but we see Adam, who was made
upright. There was no other sinners around
him. There wasn't even sin in the world when Adam sinned. And
yet he sinned, and sin entered into the world through that one
man's sin, and death through that sin. And even if you look
at the flood, where the Lord saved Noah, and a total of eight
souls were saved in that ship. And just as man's heart was exceeding
and abundantly wicked before the flood, so it was when man
came out of the ark, he was still wicked." He was still full of
sin because sin then just unraveled and just flooded into man's heart. when he came out of the ark.
And so what the Lord is showing us there in verse 17 is that
even with all the smitings and those chastenings, that wasn't
enough to save man. That wasn't able to do it. Man
still wouldn't be instructed. He doesn't learn of the Lord.
He goes on forwardly doing the will of his own heart. And so
verse 18 and 19, man himself won't be instructed, but he says
this, I have seen His ways and will heal Him. I will lead Him
and restore comforts unto Him and to His mourners. I create
the fruit of the lips. Salvation is of the Lord, right? I create the fruit of the lips.
And what the Lord is saying is, I'll declare grace. I speak peace
into the hearts of my people. I'll be gracious to them. This
is the fruit of my lips. I'm declaring grace, I'm declaring
peace to my people. He won't be instructed by many
stripes, he won't be instructed by punishments and chastenings,
I will be gracious to him, I will heal my people. So he says peace,
peace to him that is far off and to him that is near, saith
the Lord, and I will heal him. So when he says there, I create
fruit of the lips, the Lord's saying, you're not seeking me.
You're not going to turn and change your ways. You're not
going to earn my favor. I am declaring right here and
now that I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious. And so this brings us to our
second point. We see our need of the Lord and
what the Lord does for his people. Now we see why the Lord is gracious
to his people, why he blesses his people, why he establishes
and fills our hearts with peace between us and our God through
the mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ. It's all for his sake. The Lord chastens his people.
He does chasten them, and he makes us to see that truth described
in Romans 3.20, that therefore by the deeds of the law there
shall no flesh be justified. For by the law is the knowledge
of sin. We have the law, we have the
scriptures because we see the exceeding broadness of our sin. We see just how wicked the sin
and rebellion of Adam, which is exploded, made known to us
in abundance in the law. It makes it plain to us how exceedingly
sinful we are. And so we see that the law and
the terrors, they're not salvation. I like that Joseph Hart hymn
that says, law and terrors do but harden, all the while they
work alone, but a sense of blood-bought parting soon dissolves a heart
of stone. And so it's not by law and terrors
that we are changed, it's rather that the Lord is gracious to
us through the blood of His Son, making us to know our need of
Him, making us to cry out to Him and to hear the voice of
the Son of God, to follow Him, to be led of Him so that we are
no longer walking in darkness. but that we are walking in light
being led of him because he himself is the light of the world. Jew and Gentile, all his people,
there is one salvation, there's one name under heaven given among
men whereby we must be saved, and it's by the Lord Jesus Christ. So he makes us to see, I need
a savior. And so we need that salvation
which is provided in Christ. The law showed us that we cannot
save ourselves by the law, that how wicked our sin is, and the
law shows us that without the shedding of blood there is no
remission of sins. There's no remission of sins.
And so the Lord reveals that to his people in his word through
the law there. And so we see that our Lord is
revealed to us. Now go back to verse 15 again. Look at verse 15 once more with
me. And we'll see Christ right here.
For thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity,
whose name is holy, I dwell in the high and holy place with
him. with him also that is of a contrite
and humble spirit. So I say to you that can hear
it, that him with whom God dwells, that one in whom God will meet
with his people is the Lord Jesus Christ. And what is God's purpose
to do? To, at the end of the verse,
to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the
contrite ones who have been humble. and made contrite by the hand
of the Lord, teaching them, instructing them, stripping them of self,
stripping us of vain false confidences and pride and arrogance. And
so our Lord, whose will and purpose is to be gracious to his people,
he sent his son, Jesus Christ, who took upon him the humility
of this flesh who came in the weakness of this flesh who was
conceived in the womb of Mary when she was overshadowed by
the Holy Spirit and Christ was formed in her womb. And He, being
born in the flesh, went to the cross, having fulfilled all the
will and purpose of God, having fulfilled everything that was
written of Him, He went and sacrificed Himself as our substitute. so that the Lord Jesus Christ
was humbled and he, brethren, was made contrite. His body was
crushed. He did die your death in order
to deliver you. God in measure deals with you. God in measure chastens his child,
but he crushed Christ. squeezing out His blood, if you
will, so that Christ's blood was shed for the remission, the
forgiveness of our sins. You know, when you see that word
bruised, In Isaiah 53, turn over to Isaiah 53 in verse five and
10, it uses that word bruised and bruise. That is the exact
same word as humble in our text in Isaiah 57, 15. But he was
wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him and with his stripes we are healed. And then in the
beginning of verse 10, Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief, when
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. He shall see his seed,
he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper in his hand. So it's for Christ's sake that
we are not ground to powder by the chastening of the Lord because
he was crushed by the Lord. He died. He perished as the substitute
of his people. so that none of his bones are
broken. We being flesh of his flesh and
bone of his bone, being the bride of Christ, not one is broken.
We're delivered in the Lord Jesus Christ. So because Christ died
under the wrath of God, for you, his people, to deliver you, we
go free. He died that we should go free. Verse 15, he dwells with him,
with Christ, and for that purpose to revive the spirit of the humble
and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. But He was made
contrite, and He was made humble in doing that will and purpose
of our God. And so we have the blessings
of our God being given the Holy Spirit, being made born again,
born of the Spirit, born of the seed of the Lord Jesus Christ,
given life and hope in Him, and we are made to trust in His blood. And that's where God meets with
you, His people. That's where He dwells. in the
midst of his people in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's where he
meets with his people. So that's how God, who is holy
and perfect, dwells with his people forevermore in Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily, and ye are complete in him, which is
the head. of all principality and power. Now, for this cause, Christ is
our peace, and that's what our Lord says in verse 19. I create
the fruit of the lips, and this fruit is God's will being declared
to us, that he will be gracious to you in Christ, not for your
righteousness or your good works or mine, but for Christ's sake. Therefore, peace Peace to him
that is far off and to him that is near, saith the Lord, and
I will heal him." All your sin, all your iniquities, all your
trespasses are put away and forgiven in the Lord Jesus Christ because
He is our peace. Amen. All right, brethren, let's
pray and then we'll close with a hymn. Our gracious Lord, we
thank you, Father, for your grace, for the fruit that you declare
this night to us, that you establish peace for us in the blood of
your Son, Jesus Christ. Lord, thank you. for your grace.
Thank you for your mercy to us in Christ. Lord, thank you for
coming as our substitute, dying our death, putting away our sin,
delivering us from condemnation and the damnation that is coming
upon the wicked who have no peace. with God in the blood of Christ
because they have no interest in it. They have no part in it.
But Lord, we do thank you. We know that no chastening in
the present time as we're going through it is seems it's not
welcome or we don't we don't seek it. We it's hard on us and
we We confess that it's hard on us, but we know, Lord, that
you do everything in measure, in perfect measure, and what
you do is right and perfect, and it's according to your will
and purpose. Lord, we thank you for this.
In the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, it's in his name
we pray. And Lord, we pray for your people
that you would Continue to heal them that are sick and even as
they're getting better that you would continue to heal your people
and bless them and help them Lord who are struggling with
with continued sicknesses and diseases Lord have mercy upon
us keep us fill our hearts Lord with The grace of our God in
Christ and help us to love one another it's in the name of our
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ We pray amen Our closing hymn is 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 trade
or stand. Not a surge of worry, not a shade
of care. Not a blast of hurry, touch the
spirit there. State 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 fully, all for
us to do. They who trust Him wholly, find
Him wholly true. Stayed upon Jehovah, hearts are
fully blessed, finding as He promised perfect peace and rest.