Good evening. Let's begin our
evening service by standing and singing 140. Behold the savior
of mankind 140. Behold the Saviour of mankind,
nailed to the shameful tree. How lest the love that Him incline,
to bleed and die for me. Her cow he groans while nature
shakes, and earth's strong pillars bend. The temple bell in thunder
breaks, and solid marble rends. has done the precious ransoms
paid. Receive my soul, he cries. See how he bows his sacred head. He bows his head and dies. But soon he'll break this iron
chain, and in full glory shine. O Lamb of God, was ever pain,
was ever love like thine? Thank you. Good evening. Alright, I'm going
to be reading from Matthew chapter 5. We're going to begin in verse 1. And seeing the multitudes, our
Lord went up into a mountain, and when he was set, his disciples
came unto him. And he opened his mouth and taught
them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is
the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn,
for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they
shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger
and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed
are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the
pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are
they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs
is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye when men shall
revile you and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil
against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad,
for great is your reward in heaven. For so persecuted they the prophets
which were before you. Let's go to prayer. Our gracious
Lord, we thank you, Father, for your grace and mercy in gathering
your people here this evening. that we may hear of the glorious
good news of our Savior and what he has accomplished for his people
and how he has glorified your name and how he is worthy of
all honor and praise from your people. Lord, we thank you for
your grace, for your peace, for restoring us, Lord, in grace
and in mercy. in the blood of your son, Jesus
Christ. Thank you, Lord. Father, we thank
you for the work that you are doing here, how you are teaching
us and settling our hearts that we may rest in our savior, Jesus
Christ. Lord, we thank you for your people
whom you've gathered and each one that you are pleased to add
to the number here. Lord, we thank you and Lord,
ask that you would continue to knit our hearts together in peace
and love for our brethren and enjoy and rejoicing of what our
Savior has done for us. Lord, bless your people. Remember
those that are sick and hurting and in pain. We think of Ron,
Lord, and just the difficulties that he has with his hand. Lord, we ask that you would give
him rest from his pain and that you would restore him and Claudia
to us again soon. Lord, we thank you for your mercy
and Lord, all the requests that haven't been made known, Lord,
we ask that you would answer the questions on the hearts of
your people and reveal yourself to them according to that prayer
which you've given to each one, which is burdening their heart.
We pray, Lord, that you would do this in the name of our Lord
and Savior, Jesus Christ, according to your will and purpose. Lord,
we pray that you would be with us this night as we seek to worship
you, and that you would bless the word to our hearts, that
you would indeed be in the midst of your people, teaching us,
leading us, guiding us, keeping us, preserving us, in your salvation. Lord, we thank you. It's in the
name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ that we pray this. Amen. I've got a soft back, okay. We're
singing out of the soft back. 118. And we'll remain sitting. Vast beyond imagination, 118. As beyond imagination is the
host of God's election, more than all the sands of oceans,
more than all the stars of heaven, Here they seem a small assembly,
weak and poor and ever needy. But when all are brought to heaven,
what a mighty congregation. Mighty through the land they
conquer, Lord let me be in that number. Fixed in your predestination,
Savior grant me your salvation. Good evening. Take your Bibles
and turn with me to Isaiah chapter 54. We'll be looking at verses 11
through 17 together. I've titled this message, Founded
Upon Christ. Founded Upon Christ. Our Lord
in our text here, verse 11, He's speaking in very comforting,
gracious words to a people here. He's speaking to a people with
gracious, comforting words. Let's read verse 11. O thou afflicted,
tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I will lay
thy stones with fair colors and lay thy foundations with sapphires."
So he's speaking to a people that are the objects of his grace
and mercy. He means to do them well. He purposes to be gracious to
this people. But when you look at them and
how they're described, they don't seem like a very savable bunch. They seem scattered. They seem
troubled. They're afflicted. They're hurting. They're in pain. And certainly
it's no one that this world prizes. but this is whom the Lord is
gathering together as a body, as a people. They're here described
as afflicted, they're troubled, they're described as being tossed
with a tempest, meaning they're tossed with a storm. If you've
ever seen a picture of a boat in the sea or maybe a show on
TV and you see a boat in a great stormy sea, And you think, I'm
glad I'm not there. I don't want to be there. That
boat's going to get destroyed or capsized or turned over there
in those waves. Well, those are the people that
the Lord is speaking to, those that are being tossed to and
fro, those that are troubled and not in a good situation. They're not strong. They're not
comforted. They're not at peace. And that's
who the Lord is speaking to. So in other words, this is a
broken people. This is a people that need healing. This is a people that needs mercy,
that needs grace. They need a physician. They need healing by the great
physician. And that's whom the Lord comes
to. And when you read the scriptures,
when you see the gospel of our Lord, you see that he's speaking
to a people who aren't at rest. This is a people that aren't
righteous in themselves. They're not comforted by their
works. They're not comforted by their
knowledge of religion, knowledge of doctrine, knowledge of things.
They're troubled. They're troubled and they don't
have strength and wisdom and might. They have sorrow and difficulties
and they're weak in themselves. They're sinners. They're sinners,
they're needy sinners. And that's whom the Lord speaks
to comfortably. That's whom the Lord speaks to
in grace and says kind things, merciful things, encouraging
things, drawing them near to himself that he may be gracious
to that people. That people who don't have anything
to give to the Lord. And our Lord said, I am come
I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. And so those that are righteous
in themselves, those that have what they need to feel sufficient
to stand before God, He's not come for them. He's come for
the needy sinner, the one who has nothing to give to the Lord. Turn over to 1 Corinthians 1. 1 Corinthians 1. Let's pick up in verse 26. For ye see your calling, brethren. This is us who's being described
here. If the Lord will have you, this
is whom he's calling, this is the type of people he's calling,
and these are the people that you will be joined to in his
body. That's who he's speaking to.
You see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after
the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called, but God
hath chosen the foolish things of the world. He does this to
confound the wise, and God hath chosen the weak things of the
world to confound the things which are mighty, and base things
of the world, and things which are despised hath God chosen,
yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught things that
are, that no flesh should glory in his presence." And so, The
Lord brings his people to an end of all confidence in self,
an end of all confidence in our righteousness, an end to the
confidence in our strength and our ability to do the right thing,
to get things done, to do things for his people. Now, the Lord
brings us to nothing in ourselves, to find our all in him and to
lean upon him and to look to Him always. And that's the ones
that the Lord uses, those that aren't strong in themselves,
those that aren't mighty and wise in themselves. So that the
blessing in it is that in all our doing, we don't find peace
in what we've done. And we don't find peace looking
within. Either thinking well of ourselves
or thinking ill of ourselves, there's no peace there in looking
within. but rather we look to the Lord
Jesus Christ and find joy and hope and peace and love in Him. We find it all in our Savior. Man, you know, has many foolish
ideas about God. about what God is looking for
in us, about what God loves and what he appreciates. And it's
wrong according to the word of God. We think that God helps
those that help themselves. We think that God is not going
to help us unless we repent of our bad deeds and turn things
around. Or we think that God is pleased
with our striving and trying to please him. Those that do that aren't looking
to Christ, they're looking to their works, they're looking
to their religion, whether it's the law or the teachings, just
reading the Bible. Man in the flesh doesn't come
to a knowledge of Christ just looking at these things apart
from the Spirit of God. We need the Spirit of God to
teach us and to lead us to the Lord. So he's speaking to a people
that are afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted. They have no comfort because
in all that they've done, everywhere they've turned, every fortress
they've tried to build, every refuge they've tried to stand
up and raise up and run to, it's given them no peace. and no comfort
and no joy in it because it never leads to a reconciliation with
God. because it just works of this
flesh. And yet God says these gracious
words to them. He says, behold, I will lay thy
stones with fair colors and lay thy foundations with sapphires. So we see here the Lord is speaking
of building a people. He's gathering a people and he's
building his church. He's establishing his church
and he's Joining his people. He's calling his people out and
joining them together in his body for his glory for his dwelling. This is a people that have no
peace, but are tossed with tempest. And yet, being scattered and
thrown about in the storm, the Lord gathers them. And He gathers
them under His wings. He gathers them under the blood
of Christ. He brings us to the Savior. He brings us to see that He's
all our hope and everything we need is in Him. You know, speaking
of stones, our Savior said that God is able of these stones to
raise up children unto Abraham. And so the picture there is that
He's able to take something as dead and lifeless and as unvaluable
as a rock and yet from them he can bring
forth glory and praise to his name. He's able to raise up sons
and daughters unto Abraham, or like Abraham. And so that's how
he makes his temple. He gathers people that are the
equivalent of a stone, that are hard and have no knowledge and
have nothing precious to give to the Lord. Over in 1 Peter
2, 1 Peter 2 verse 5 and verse 9, that's how we're described. We're described as stones. We're
described as the building of the Lord. And so he says there
in 1 Peter 2, 5, ye also as lively stones. as living stones who have been
given life by God Himself, who is the life giver, who in Him
is life, you are built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to
offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Verse 9 says, And ye are a chosen
generation, royal priesthood and holy nation of peculiar people
that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called
you out of darkness into his marvelous light." You know, we're
peculiar because while there's nothing special or boastful in
us, the Lord brings forth from us praises to his name. And don't you find that when
you praise him the most, when you're most Just breathing out
to the Lord, Lord, how glorious your name, how merciful and gracious
you are. It's when we're brought to the
end of ourselves, when we're brought to nothing in ourselves,
when we see his hand and what he's done for us in spite of
ourselves, in spite of our sin, in spite of what we've done or
not done, how the Lord does marvelously for his people and his people
for Jesus Christ's sake, for the sake of your Savior. And
that's where we're brought to praise Him and give Him thanks
for it. And our Lord says of His chosen
people in Malachi 3, verse 17, He said, they shall be mine. Those that were troubled, those
that feared the Lord began to speak with one another in Malachi
3, verse 16. And they were fearful. They thought
they were going to be destroyed. and they began to speak to one
another about the Lord, and encouraging one another about the Lord, and
crying out to the Lord for mercy. And the Lord says, they shall
be mine, saith the Lord of hosts. In that day when I make up my
jewels, I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that
serveth him." Your God says, I will save my people. I'll save
them. And that's our comfort, is that
he saves his people through his son, Jesus Christ. And so these
stones are of the Lord's choosing, and they've been given fair colors. Fair colors. covered, painted,
if you will, with the blood of Christ. We are made His, adopted
by Him through His blood, and we are made precious unto the
Lord by the Lord Jesus Christ. And in Him we see, you know,
that word means glistering stones. They're painted, they're glorious,
and they're glistering stones, and The picture there is what
we see in Christ where all spiritual blessings that we have, the knowledge
that we have of God, all the blessings that we receive of
him, the light that we have, the love that we have for God
and the knowledge of his love for us and for one another, the
joy, the wisdom, the knowledge, the forgiveness, these are all
spiritual blessings which are poured out upon us in the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's how he makes his stones. He paints them with color. He
pours out upon us all the blessings that the children of God, his
body, have in Christ himself. We glory in Him. And then we
see that it's our Lord who is our very foundation. He says,
Behold, in verse 11, I will, back in Isaiah, Behold, I will
lay thy stones with fair colors and lay thy foundations with
sapphires. Now the foundation is Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 3.11 Other foundation
can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. And so
Christ is the foundation that our God has laid because there
is no other foundation. There's no finer foundation.
There is no other foundation upon which we must be founded
and established upon Him. because Christ cannot be shaken. That which is built by Christ,
upon Christ, cannot be removed. It won't be shaken and it won't
be removed. You know, man in this flesh,
he builds his hope by the flesh on sandy ground, on shifting
sands, on things that wash away, on that which changes and is
moved and brought to nothing and comes down crashing when
it's shaken. But on the Lord Jesus Christ,
you that rest all your hope on Him, that which you've built
on Him shall never be shaken." Because it's built in the Lord
Jesus Christ. It's built by His Spirit. And
so, all your hope in Him and laying aside your hope in this
world, your hope in this flesh, that which is laid on Him and
entrusted to Him, that's what's in door. And that's our hope. It's our hope of eternal life
is in Him. That's what we've stored in Him,
if you will. We've committed our very lives,
everything we have, our inheritance, all things to Him. And that's
why we are not in distress and not oppressed by those things
which man fears and is troubled by in this life. So we, in the
flesh, we are afflicted. In the flesh, we are troubled.
And when we're looking at the things that we do and the things
of this life, they are troubling. But our hope, our steadfast hope,
our anchor of the soul is Jesus Christ himself. And when our
eyes are set there, that's when we have peace. And that's where
we have peace. You know, I was thinking about
our peace, and I find that when there's something I can yet do,
that's when I'm still troubled. When there's something that I
can do, some wisdom that I can rely on, some strength, some
good move that I can make, I'm still troubled, trying to execute
them and worry about them coming to fruition and how I can get
it done. I find that when everything's
stripped away and there's nothing left that I can do except lean,
hug, just hang on the neck of my Savior, be carried by Him,
and there's nothing I can do, that's when I find the most peace,
honestly. That's when I'm most at peace
and most comforted is when I have nothing else to turn to but Him.
As long as I have something to turn to, there's always some
trouble, there's always some worry, but when it's all taken
away, there's peace. Because he cannot fail, he does
not fail, and he will not leave his people. He keeps His people. Our Lord also says in Isaiah
28 verse 16, He says, Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold,
I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone, a tried stone, a precious
cornerstone, a sure foundation. He that believeth shall not make
haste. The context that Isaiah was writing
in there in Isaiah 28, we see the contrast to that is man's
confidence. They were saying we've made a
covenant with death. We've got this. We've made lies
our refuge and falsehood as our refuge. Now they didn't use those
words. They spoke of other things, and
they were confident in those things, but the Lord shows us
exactly what he sees. He sees that what you're trusting
in is by the flesh, your works, your righteousness to save you,
your law-keeping, your piety, those things that man trusts
in. The Lord's saying that's a covenant with death. because
you're going to stand before me in your own righteousness,
and you're going to see in that day that it's nothing more than
fig leaf religion. That it's nothing more than shoddy
clothes. You know, when Adam and Eve,
when they ate of the fruit, it says, and their eyes were open,
and they saw that they were naked, they then sewed fig leaves together
for aprons to cover their nakedness. we read that they heard the voice
of the Lord walking in the garden and that's when they ran and
hid. while they were clothed with their own works. And it
tells us that in that day, you that are trusting in your own
works, when man trusts in his own righteousness, it may seem
like a great covering now, but when we stand before holy God
on his throne, that's when man will know that his covering is
shoddy, it's full of holes, he's still as naked as he ever was
before. And that's too late. That's too late. Hear what the
Lord is saying today. Today is the day of grace. Today
He declares the blood of Christ, the salvation of God and His
Son, Jesus Christ, and all that look to Him and flee to Him shall
find a gracious Savior who speaks words of comfort and that He
gathers them together to Himself. Then he says that he'll shine
his light into our hearts. He'll declare his wisdom to us. He'll speak and show forth true
knowledge, true wisdom, that which is spiritual and born of
him. Look back in our text, Isaiah
54, verse 12. He says, and I will make thy
windows of agates and thy gates of carbuncles and all thy borders
of pleasant stones. Now that word for windows, that
agates, that's really not a translucent stone. It doesn't
let in a lot of light, but in other places it's been translated
jasper or even crystal. And so what the Lord is saying
is, I'll make your windows to be clear so that the light shines
forth. You know, in Revelation 21, I
think it's verse 21, it describes the gold streets that pave the
city there. And it says that they are, they're
like glass. They're transparent glass. That's how clear it is, and that's
what the Lord is saying to us, is that His light shines into
the hearts of His people, so that we know Him who is life. We know Him who is the truth. We see the way. Our way is given
light in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's how we know Him. And so
our Lord, through his word, declares all that he's done. That's why
we don't speak about all the things that we're doing. We're
speaking of the things that Christ has done and what he has accomplished. We quote this, or I quote it
kind of often, but 2 Corinthians 4, verse 6 says that, God who
commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in
our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. So that Christ is all our light. He's all the light that you need.
He's all our salvation. He's all our acceptance with
the Father. You know, before our Lord in
mercy gave us, showed us Christ, revealed Christ to us by faith,
we groped about after God, didn't we? We stumbled about in religion,
we did our best to read our Bibles, we tried to understand, we tried
to do what we were told to do, but we were just stumbling and
groping about in the darkness. But then one day, He blessed
His Word, and He blessed us to hear the Gospel. and caused us
to hear it, and gave us faith to receive it and believe Him,
and rest in Him, so that the groping and the stumbling ceased
in Him. And that's where religion is,
ever learning and never able to come to a knowledge of the
truth. They know so much, and yet, without Christ, we know
so little. And so, we know what our Lord
has done, And, you know, the fear comes when our focus is
on what we need to be doing to shore up, to firm up our salvation. That's where there's nothing
but fear and trembling and worry. And that's where man is. When
he thinks that there's something he can do to save himself and
needs to do, there's fear and worry and trembling. But when
we see how the Savior has done it all, that's where the fear
disappears, because He takes it away in His Son, and He gives
His Spirit, whereby we are born again, not of this flesh, not
doing things according to carnal ways, and not trusting in good
works, and in the knowledge that man has, we trust in what our
Savior has said, that all who look to Him, shall find salvation,
shall find peace and forgiveness through the blood of Christ.
And so our Lord, he gives knowledge to all his children. And he says
now in verse 13, Isaiah 54, 13, and all thy children shall be
taught of the Lord and great shall be the peace of thy children. These were the words that our
Lord said in John six, verse 44 and 45. Why don't you turn
there, John six, I'll pick up in verse 44. We're looking at our Lord teaching
His children. He said, No man can come to me
except the Father which hath sent me draw him, and I will
raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets,
and they shall be all taught of God. That's taken from Isaiah,
verse 13, 54, 13. They shall be all taught of God. And every man, therefore, that
hath heard, those that have heard and learned of the Father, cometh
unto me. And what our Lord is saying there
is that when God teaches His child, you'll know when you're
taught of the Lord. Because it's not what He's teaching
you, but who. And He shows you Christ. He brings
you to Christ. So that we find in Him that He
is our very light and life. He is all our hope. He's everything
that we need to stand before God faultless. And so the Lord
leads us to the Savior. That's where He brings us. That's
true knowledge. It's not a knowledge of things.
It's a knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's known that
He's everything. And that's where peace is established
between men and God is in the Lord Jesus Christ. And then he
comforts our hearts saying in verse 14, In righteousness shalt
thou be established, thou shalt be far from oppression, for thou
shalt not fear, and from terror, for it shall not come near thee.
And so we're brought to see that's our comfort, that's our hope,
that it's not about how good I'm keeping up with what I need
to be doing. That's trembling, that's fear,
that's a heavy yoke that we can't bear because now it's just making
things a law and that we're condemned by that law if we don't keep
up with it. And so that's where fear comes. We're comforted and
delivered and given peace and established by the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Why are we righteous in Him?
Well, man can't save himself. Man can't do works that please
God. We know that. The Lord teaches
us that in His Word. So how then can a man be just
with God? How are we justified by holy
God? God sent His Son. The Son of
God took upon Him flesh, and He came to do that which we cannot
do. He was born under the law, made
flesh, and kept that law of God perfectly. on before God and
before men. He did all that was required
and necessary of him so that he is the spotless, perfect,
blameless Lamb of God, fit to be the sacrifice for his people.
And as the surety of his people, he took their place, bearing
their sins in his own body, and put it away on the tree, bearing
the wrath of God for what we deserve. And he put that sin
away. and obtained eternal forgiveness and eternal life for His people,
so that in Him we're righteous. And that's being established
in righteousness, because nothing can alter the righteousness of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And nothing's going to move His
people out of His hand, and so we're established in Him. You
know, Oftentimes in religion, man is taught that once he makes
a profession in Christ, now there's all these things that he needs
to start doing and changing and adjusting in his life. And it
isn't before long before man forgets about Christ and that
which he's doing to validate his profession, that becomes
his righteousness. That becomes his hope. That becomes
his worry when he's not doing it and his joy when he is doing
it. He starts looking at it that way. And so Christ fades off
into the background and just becomes a little entry point.
Where you started there with Christ, but now you've gone on
to religion. Now you've learned the Bible
stories, and you've learned morality, and you learned the law of God,
and you learned what the church says to do, and that becomes
your righteousness and the hope of your righteousness, how well
or how poorly you're doing that. But that's not salvation. You've
left. You've fallen from grace. You've
left Christ. And so Christ is the righteousness
of his people. When we're trying to validate
our profession by something we're doing, that's when people become
dishonest and insincere. Because if a brother sees you
in sin, that's when we start making excuses. Oh, no, no, I
wasn't doing that. It wasn't what you saw. And we start lying
and putting on a show. But it's not that we're looking
to use our hope in Christ as a cloak for unrighteousness. But when we sin, we seek the
Lord for forgiveness. And if our brother sees us, we
say, brother, I'm sorry, I did stumble. I did fall. I did sin
against you or against the Lord. And we don't, but you don't have
to be dishonest. We are sinners. We are weak in
the flesh, but our hope is in Christ and He teaches us so that
as we see more and more that this flesh is more wicked than
I thought it was. I find myself to be more wicked
than I thought I was when I began because we see the heart, we
see the foolish thoughts, we see the unbelief and we begin
to see just how weak we are and how needy we are of our Lord's
mercy and grace, so that through faith, through His teaching and
leading, we continue to keep coming back to Christ. And it's
a walk of faith. It's a constant breathing out,
Lord, have mercy on me, Lord, keep me. Lord, don't let me depart. Don't ever let me stop looking
to Christ for all my hope and for all my righteousness. And
so, He works, He teaches His people. That's how He leads us
ever looking to Christ. If you ever are getting to the
point where you don't need the Lord Jesus Christ to help you
and to hold you up, you've gone away from Christ. Because we
never outgrow Him. We never outgrow the need for
our Savior. And when we get too high in ourselves
and too big for our britches, as they say, the Lord in grace
will humble us and bring us low to see again our need of Him.
And He keeps us. He keeps the heart and keeps
us looking to Him. As John wrote, if any man sin,
we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous,
and He is the propitiation, the means of our forgiveness for
our sins. And so, our Savior is the one
that silences the accuser. He's the one that silences the
troubled heart. He's the one that silences the
troubled conscience, because He turns us away from dead works,
away from filthy works, away from works that cannot save and
that do not make us righteous. He turns us from them and turns
us once again to our Savior, Jesus Christ. Now, Oppressors
they will come it says there in verse 14 that that will be
far from oppression for thou shalt not fear so There's a there
there are oppressors that come there are troubles and difficulties
and hard Times that that try us and that that put us into
very difficult and trying circumstances but it's in Christ and It's that
knowledge that he is sovereign, that he has everything under
his control, that no amount of our worrying and no amount of
our striving to do different is going to make it better. The
Lord Jesus Christ has everything in control, in His hand. And
so, that's why we preach Christ. Even for our walk and for keeping
our heart, we preach Christ in all things. Because He's the
one that teaches His people. He's the one that shows us how
far we fall. He's the one that shows us how
sufficient He is in our need of Him, and so we preach Him,
because He's the one instructing and teaching His people. Paul
said in 2 Corinthians 3, verse 4 and 5, such trust have we through
Christ to Godward, or such trust have we through Christ toward
God. We're so confident that we are
accepted and received by holy, righteous God, that we are made
to stand before him in Christ, that that's our hope. He's whom
we preach. He's all our confidence. And
he said in verse five, not that we're sufficient of ourselves
to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God. Your God has provided everything
you need his son Jesus Christ. And so we preach him that's how
we walk by faith ever looking to him knowing that he's all
our provision and all our preservation in the Son. Now speaking of oppressors
of the Lord's people he says in verse 15 behold they shall
surely gather together and but not by me, whosoever shall gather
together against thee shall fall for thy sake. And what he's saying
is they'll gather themselves together and come against you,
but I'm not gonna bless them. They're not gonna prosper in
their work to hurt you, to harm you, to do anything that is not
for your good. I won't allow it. It'll fail.
They won't prosper in their way. So the Lord is your keeper. The
Lord is your sustainer, the Lord is your provider, and he's given
you everything in Christ. Now he says in verse 16 and 17,
and we'll close this, let this be a comfort to your hearts to
see that your God is sovereign, there's nothing outside of his
control or his eye. He says, verse 16, behold, I
have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire. and that
bringeth forth an instrument for his work. And I have created
the waster to destroy." All the machines of war, all the weapons
of war, God's the one who's created it. It's all in his control. No weapon, verse 17, that is
formed against thee shall prosper, and every tongue that shall rise
against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage
of the servants of the Lord. and their righteousness is of
me, saith the Lord. I pray the Lord bless that word
to your hearts. Amen. All right, let's close
in prayer and then we'll have a final hymn together. Our gracious
Lord, we thank you, Father, that you are sovereign, that you're
in control of all things, that nothing is outside of your knowledge,
outside of your hand, Not a speck of dust can fly through the air
and land in our eye except by your will and purpose. Lord,
we thank you that you control all things and that you've made
perfect provision for your people in the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord,
we thank you for your love, for your tenderness and mercy to
us in Christ. Lord, keep teaching us of him. Keep revealing His sufficiency
to our hearts, lest we should think anything of ourselves and
think that we are sufficient of ourselves. Lord, keep us stayed
upon our Lord and Savior. We thank You for Him, for His
authority, His perfections, His holiness. Keep us ever loving Him and loving
one another and serving one another in the hope that you've given
to us in your Son. Lord, again, we ask that you
would bless your people, that you would call your people out
from the areas around us and that you would bring them into
the building of our God and that you would bless and establish
your people in the blood of Christ. It's in His name we pray and
give thanks. Amen. Let's all stand and sing a closing
hymn. Complete in Thee, 133. Complete
in Thee. So... Complete in Thee, no work of
mine may take, dear Lord, the place of Thine. Thy blood hath
parted and bought for me, and I am now complete in Thee. Yea, justified, O blessed thought! And sanctified salvation wrought,
Thy blood hath pardoned, bought for me, And glorified I too shall
be. I plead in thee, no more shall
sin thy grace hath conquered, reigned within. Thy voice shall
bid the tempter flee, and I shall stand complete in thee. Yea, justified, O blessed thought,
and sanctified, salvation wrought. Thy blood hath pardoned but for
me, And glorified I too shall be. I plead in thee, each want
supplied, And no good thing to be denied, Since thou my portion,
Lord, wilt be. I ask no more, I plead in thee,
Yea, justified, O blessed thought, and sanctified, salvation wrought,
thy blood hath pardoned, bought for me, and glorified I too shall
be. Your Saviour when before Thy
bar, O'er tribes and tongues assembled are, Among Thy chosen
will I be, At Thy right hand complete in Thee, Yea, justified,
O blessed Thou. And sanctified salvation wrought,
Thy blood hath pardoned but for me, And glorified I too shall
be. Thank you. So, I know I have
hypertension. And this is possibly a hypertension
related problem, but I haven't had anything major in years.
I was 17, my right foot stopped working, and then I was diagnosed
with hypertension. Whatever. Monday night I go to
get in bed and as I'm turning into my bed, literally my... I'm serious. Just so much pain. I couldn't
do it for like two hours. Like my mom put heat on it. I
have like hyper blood pressure T. I drank some of that. And
then it hurt the next day too, but I just kind of like... It runs down to here, and it
kind of snaps over the greater trochanter, which is the hip
right here. So it kind of bowstrings over
the top of that bone, and then you feel it, and there's a burst
of that. It's a lubricating sac, and you
can get a little inflammation in that. So that's probably what
it is. Now, what do you do about it? elongate this, so you just, here,
so you see how this is stretching? So right now I feel a really
nice gentle pull on my hip, and then what you could do is sort
of point back a little bit, and you'll find different tight fibers.
So I probably wouldn't have tagged it right now, but maybe in a
day So that's probably what happened
is that you've been in that position for a while before that, and
then all of a sudden you got up and off. It was tight. And
then I literally, I'm laying down, I'm just like in my bed. And then I hold it like this,
I turn it. Yeah, and where is that? Forsyth, Missouri. No, that was
today. That was today? Yeah, it was
today. A Jewish deli? Well, no. Oh, okay. No, they had ham and
sausage and stuff, but he is Jewish, so it's not so strict
at it. It wasn't like good bagels or
anything. You know what I didn't see?