The last hymn? Sounds good. Sounds good, Eric. Let's begin our evening service
by standing and singing 431. I love to tell the story. 431. I love to tell the story of unseen
things above. Of Jesus and His glory Of Jesus
and His love I love to tell the story Because I know it's true
It satisfies my longings As nothing else can do I love to tell the
story, to tell me my theme and glory, to tell the old, old story
of Jesus and His love. I love to tell the story, more
wonderful it seems, than all the golden fancies of all our
golden dreams. I love to tell the story, It
did so much for me And that is just the reason I tell it now
to thee I love to tell the story to tell thee my theme in glory,
to tell the old, old story of Jesus and His love. I love to tell the story, it's
pleasant to repeat. But seems each time I tell it,
? More wonderfully sweet ? I love to tell the story ? For some
have never heard ? The message of salvation ? From God's own
holy word I love to tell the story, tell me my theme in glory,
to tell the old, old story of Jesus and His love. I love to tell the story for
those who know it best. Seem hungering and thirsting
to hear it like the rest. And when in scenes of glory I
sing the new, new song, to tell me the old, old story that I
have loved so long. I love to tell the story, to
tell me my theme in glory, to tell the old, old story of Jesus
and His love. Thank you. I'll be reading from Psalm 121. Psalm 121. I will lift up mine eyes unto
the hills from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from
the Lord, which made heaven and earth. He will not suffer thy
foot to be moved. He that keepeth thee will not
slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel
shall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is thy keeper. The Lord
is thy shade upon thy right hand. The sun shall not smite thee
by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve thee
from all evil. he shall preserve thy soul. The Lord shall preserve thy going
out and thy coming in from this time forth and even forever more. Let's pray. Our gracious Lord,
we thank you that you preserve your people. that You've provided everything
necessary for us in Your Son. Lord, we thank You for Your love,
Your grace, and even every trial. Lord, we thank You, because we
know that this is Your will for us. Lord, keep us ever looking to
Your salvation, Him whom You've provided for
Your people, gloriously, abundantly, wonderfully above all that we
could ask or think. We thank you for your son, Jesus
Christ. Lord, we pray for your people
here. We pray, Lord, that you would be pleased to bless us
this night, that your spirit would rest upon us, that you
would teach us and feed us and nourish us with the gospel of
our Savior. Lord, that you would comfort
our hearts and give us rest in the Lord. Father, we think of
those that are sick, those that aren't doing well. Lord, we pray
that you would help them, comfort them, strengthen them, restore
them to health, restore their strength, and especially above
all, that you would renew their faith and confidence in you in
all things, that they would be strengthened
by your grace, mount up with wings as eagles, run and not
faint, ever looking to the Lord. Father, we pray for those who
speak against us and would sooner see your work fail
than and that it thrive, and that your people be fed and blessed.
We pray for them. We pray that this sin not be
laid to their charge. But Lord, that you would instruct
your people, that you would turn us out of the wrong way, and
that you would turn us to Christ, that there would be peace and
healing in your body, that your people would indeed
be fed by the shepherd and be led by him. Lord, we know that
with men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible. Lord, we pray that you would
comfort your people this night, that you would answer the questions
of their heart, that you would show them your salvation and
your son and give them peace and rest. It's in In the name
of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, that we pray this. Amen. Let's sing 326, more about Jesus.
326. More about Jesus would I know. More of His grace to others show. More of His saving fullness see. More of His love who died for
me. More, more. More, more about Jesus. More of His saving fullness see. More of His love who died for
me. More about Jesus let me learn,
more of his holy will discern. Spirit of God, my teacher be,
showing the things of Christ to me. More, more. Jesus, more of His saving fullness
see, more of His love who died for me. or about Jesus in His Word. Holy Communion with my Lord,
hearing His voice in every line, making each faithful saying mine. More, more about Jesus. More, more about Jesus. More of His saving fullness seen. More of His love who died for
me. ? More about Jesus on his throne
? Riches and glory all his own ? More of his kingdom sure increase
? More of his coming Prince of Peace ? More, more about Jesus
? More, more about Jesus Thank you. Turn to Isaiah 51. And also, it would be good to
put a marker in Romans chapter 7, 4, Romans 4. Our text is taken from Isaiah
51. And we'll be looking this evening
at verses 1 through 3. Now the Lord here is speaking
to a particular people. He's separating them out and
he's speaking to a particular people and he distinguishes them
from all others and to do that he gives us a description of
them. But before we We see that our
Lord says to this people, hearken to me, hearken to me. And you'll notice as you read
this chapter, if you're looking it over later, he speaks very
gently here to his people. He's speaking very gently to
them and he's encouraging them with his words. Now, to hearken
is to hear. It's largely translated hear,
and then hearken is also used very often, and sometimes it's
translated obey, obey. So that in the context, what
he's saying to his people here is, trust me. Listen to what
I'm saying because it's for your good. It's for your confidence. And what I'm saying to you is
to give you comfort and confidence in your Lord that you are his
people and his promises are for you. And so he speaks here to this
people very graciously. because he intends to comfort
them. They need comfort. He knows they
need comfort, and his purpose is to give them comfort. And the way he does it here is
by making them to know what he has done for them. And then as we go through other
messages through this chapter, we see what he shall do for them. So today's focus, we're going
to primarily be looking at what he's done for his people. And
we'll see that he takes them and shows them Abraham. And Abraham
is a pattern. He's a pattern held up by the
Lord of what he does in all his people. All them that believe
are like Abraham. In fact, Paul when writing to
the Galatians in chapter 3 verses 7-9 said, Know ye therefore that
they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. And the scripture foreseeing
that God would justify the heathen through faith, The heathen, not
the Jews, not just the Jews, but the heathen, that's you and
I, brethren, the heathen, through faith, preach before the gospel
unto Abraham, saying, in thee shall all nations be blessed. So then they which be of faith
are blessed with faithful Abraham. We are children of faith by the
grace of our God. So, like Abraham, what we find
here in our text is that we've been called, we've been blessed,
we've been increased. That's what the Lord did for
Abraham in grace, and that's what he does for his people.
He's saying to them, this is a comfort for you. This is what
I've done for you. You know I'm Abraham's God. I've
done this for you. Now I've titled this message,
Melodious Words of Comfort. And that melody is taken from
the end of verse three, and the voice of melody. And a melody
is the most recognizable part of the song. It's generally what
attracts us to the music that we're hearing because we like
the melody. Well, the Lord gives us a melody
of redeeming grace, of redeeming grace. And so he's using these
words here, called, blessed, and increased, what he's done
for Abraham, so that it plays in our minds as we go through
this walk in this wilderness journey, looking to our God by
faith, coming up against foes and enemies, struggles within,
struggles without, various adversities, always looking to the Lord in
hope, in faith, And when times are dark and times are a struggle
and things get dark and fearful, we remember the melody of our
Lord. He's our God, and He's made us
His people. He's called us, blessed us, and
increased us. So that's where that title, Melodious
Words of Comfort, come from. So let's begin now here in Isaiah
51, verse 1. The Lord says, hearken to me. Ye that follow after righteousness,
ye that seek the Lord, look unto the rock whence ye are hewn,
and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged. Who is the Lord
speaking to? Who is he speaking to? I've already
mentioned that he's speaking to a particular people, and he
distinguishes them with some defining words. He's distinguishing
them saying in this description, ye that follow after righteousness,
ye that seek the Lord. Now to you that know yourselves
and and See in yourselves, we see in ourselves weakness, doubts,
and unbelief. Before you shut off and say,
well, this isn't me. I don't see in myself someone
who follows after righteousness. Let's be sure we understand what
our Lord is saying. I know that there's many who
follow and seek after a form of righteousness. And to do that,
they pursue a form of religion. And by that form, they labor. They labor to make themselves
righteous. They labor to make themselves
of high moral character. And they discipline themselves,
and they work hard to appear righteous to others, and some
even thinking that it's their righteousness, and that that's
the will of God for them, that they are to strive in works for
their righteousness. And so they labor by the law
of Moses, and they trust in that, and they discipline themselves
under the law of Moses, and they do these things holding themselves
in high regard because they think, my God is pleased with me. for
these works. My God is pleased with me for
doing these things." And yet, all the while, while they're
thinking they're doing works of righteousness, the Lord tells
us it's actually unrighteousness, because they deny the Lord of
Glory in their works, and they're rejecting His word of salvation
in His Son, Jesus Christ. And so, they reject true righteousness
for a righteousness of the flesh. And so the Lord says, that's
not righteousness. That's not who I'm speaking to. When he says, ye that follow
after righteousness, he's speaking of true righteousness and holiness. And Paul tells us in Ephesians
4, 24, that that's the creation of God. This flesh doesn't produce
true righteousness, but God What he does, what he works is true
righteousness and holiness. And so the Lord's people are
seeking after the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Our God here
is speaking to a people in need of righteousness. We're following
after the righteousness of Christ because we have no righteousness
of ourselves. He is our righteousness. We look to Him. We seek Him. We trust Him. And only He can
give righteousness. Like we saw last week in Isaiah
50 verse 10 that we walk by faith because we're in darkness and
we have no light of ourselves. Jesus Christ is our light. We
walk by His light. Same with our righteousness.
We walk by His righteousness. And these seek the Lord, meaning
that we're going to the source of life. We're going to the only
one who can give salvation and does give salvation to his people. He gives it to whom he will.
And these are told, look, look unto the rock whence ye are hewn
and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged. This is the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's pointing us, turning us
to look to Christ, our Savior. He's the rock, whence ye are
hewn, he builds the house. Jesus Christ himself, the chief
cornerstone, in whom all the building, fitly framed together,
groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord. Our Savior is the rock
of ages, and we look to him for strength, for righteousness,
for salvation. Now many liken these figures
which are given to us here to Abraham and Sarah, and that's
because the next verse the Lord tells us, look to Abraham and
look to Sarah. And they see Sarah here, I mean
there's good things that you can see in that comparison. And we can certainly see some
truth there in that. But regardless, it all always
works its way back to the Lord Jesus Christ, our righteousness. We don't look to Abraham for
our righteousness. We see what the Lord worked in
Abraham. We look to Jesus Christ, our
righteousness. And so they see Sarah in this
when it says, to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged. And that's because this word
typically, This pit here is often used to describe a cistern, a
well, where you get water from. And women are likened to being
a cistern in the scriptures, who bear children to their husbands.
You can look at Proverbs 5, verses 15 and 18 if you want to see
that later. And it could also refer here to the church by which
the Lord bears his children, where he brings his children
to a local assembly where the Church, the Bride of Christ,
ministers the sincere milk of the Word to nourish the Lord's
children there. But this word pit here, it can
also refer to the grave. It can also refer to the grave,
and it reminds me of the tomb which Joseph of Arimathea had
built, where he had hewn out in the rock, he hewed out, he
quarried out, and that's the words being used here, to quarry
out of the rock, and he quarried out of the rock to make a tomb
where our Lord was laid. And that pit, or that grave,
That is one enemy that we cannot overcome. We can't overcome any
of our enemies. And that's one of them is the
grave, death. We can't overcome that by the
works of our flesh. But in the Lord Jesus Christ,
He overcomes death. He overcame the grave. And He's
delivered His people from the grave. In Him, we are plucked
out of the death grip of death and delivered from it. Because
when He died, we died in Him. When He was buried, we were buried
with Him. And when He rose from the grave,
we rose from the grave with our Lord. And we're delivered. We're
delivered from death. We are taken out of the pit and
it cannot hold us so that when Christ returns, our resurrection,
he shall raise us up unto newness of life in him. So look unto
Christ, the rock whence ye are hewn. Now, having seen Christ,
to whom we look for life and light, now we can look at these
figures of Abraham and Sarah. And we recognize that what our
God did for Abraham, He does for all His children. That's
what He's working for, all His children. Now the context of
this passage here is the Lord assuring His people that He is
their God. That He's made full provision
for them. That nothing's going to overtake
them. or overcome them, or destroy their souls, or rip them from
His hand. Nothing can take us from the
hand of our God. Nothing can remove us from His
salvation. And so, whatever enemies we come
encounter with, the Lord delivers His people from their designs,
what they would do. only allowing that which is for
our good. And not the least of our enemies
is the deadness of this flesh. As we said, we can't work righteousness. We don't have any works of righteousness
that we do in this flesh. So we follow after righteousness.
We follow after him who is our righteousness, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And so he says these words here
to comfort us. Look at verse two. He says, look unto Abraham your
father and unto Sarah that bear you. For I called him alone and
blessed him and increased him. Child of God, we have much in
common with Abraham. regarding what God did for Abraham
and that righteous fruit which he wrought in Sarah. And our
Lord tells us that for Abraham, he says, I called him, I blessed
him, and I increased him. And so I want to speak to you
about these three things because the Lord is emphasizing these
things for us, for our comfort, for our learning and instruction.
for us to remember, to hear the melody, and to remember what
he's done for us. These are given as witnesses
to the children of God who have been made a partaker of his comforting
grace. And he's declaring these things
to us here, saying, look to Abraham, look at Abraham and Sarah, because
in seeing how the Lord has called us and blessed us and increased
us, we're comforted in knowing that all these promises here
that are written here in this chapter, they're my promises. Because God's speaking these
to His people. He's speaking these to those
who follow after righteousness and seek the Lord. Okay, so let's
see these together now. God called Abraham. God called Abraham. When God
found Abraham, you know where he found Abraham? He was spiritually
dead. He was in darkness, blind, ignorant
of the things of God. He didn't know God. He didn't
worship God, not even by accident. He didn't know the Lord. He wasn't seeking the Lord. God
came to him and called Abraham. And the reason he called Abraham
is because he loved Abraham. He chose Abraham before the foundation
of the world and put him in Christ, who provided everything necessary
for Abraham's salvation. And so out of all the families
of the earth, the Lord says, I called him alone. And so, like
Abraham, you, child of God, and every child of God, that is His,
every child of God, are called by the Father. You were chosen
before the foundation of the earth. You were given to Christ. And in the time of His love,
He calls you by His gospel, and you are given life in and by
Jesus Christ. And so Abraham, he was purchased
by Christ's blood. And all we are purchased by Christ's
blood. And by him, we are delivered
from the kingdom of death and darkness and translated, brought
into the kingdom of the light of God's Son. We're in the kingdom
of our Savior. In 1 Peter 2, verses 9 and 10,
Peter tells us, ye are a chosen generation. a royal priesthood,
a holy nation, a peculiar people, that ye should show forth the
praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his
marvelous light, which in time past were not a people, but are
now the people of God, which had not obtained mercy, but now
have obtained mercy. Have you been called by this
Gospel? Has the Spirit shown you your
sin, and that you have no righteousness of your own? Has He broken you
of your self-confidence? and of your self-righteousness,
to see that it's all filthy works, it's rags, it's nothing before
our God. He brings us, the Spirit shows
us that we have nothing to recommend us to God. And as He's shown
you Christ, as He brought you to see the bloody sacrifice that
our Savior made for His people, He wasn't on that cross for His
own sins. It wasn't on that cross for any
crime that He committed. He was there for His people. And the Spirit shows us that.
He brings us to the obedience of Christ, to behold the work
of our Savior, the successful Savior, the glorious Savior,
the wonderful, beautiful Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Has He
shown you? your salvation because God calls
his child in Christ. He leads them to Christ and not
another. He leads them to Christ alone. Then we see God blessed Abraham. God blessed Abraham so that Abraham
by the blessing of God believed God. He believed God regarding
the promise that God would give him an heir, an heir that should
come forth out of his own bowels. God said in Genesis 15, if you
want to see that later, out of his own bowels, that it wouldn't
be a servant in his house, but this would be his son and Sarah's. This would be a child from their
loins. And this is what Paul speaks
to us about over in Romans chapter 4. We turn in there. Romans chapter
4. Paul, like Isaiah here in chapter
51, Paul also reminds us of what God did in Abraham, what the
Lord did in Abraham. So Romans 4, 17. As it's written, I have made
thee a father of many nations. before him whom he believed,
even God who quickeneth the dead. Meaning that it's God who gives
life to them that are spiritually dead. And God calleth those things
which be not as though they were. Our God speaks of what shall
be as though it is. Because when God wills to do
a thing, it shall come to pass as he's purposed it to come to
pass. And that's what faith lays hold
of. The faith which he gives to his
child lays hold of the promise of God. We believe God. Faith is the substance of things
hoped for. It's the evidence of things not
seen. And your God gives faith. You that believe Him, you that
believe the promise of God in Christ, that faith is not of
this flesh. It's of our Father in heaven. Then in verse 18, we see this
faith working in Abraham, who against hope, believed in hope
that he might become the father of many nations. According to
that which was spoken, so shall thy seed be. Which God said to
him in reference to the multitude of the stars that he had them
look up into the heavens and see. Not the number of stars
that we see when we're looking in a city or even in a town,
but out in an Arizona desert, far out in the middle of nowhere,
when you look up and there's no lights and you see how many
stars are there, that's what the Lord was referring to, to
Abraham. In verse 19, being not weak in
faith, He considered not his own body now dead, when he was
about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb. And he staggered not at the promise
of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory
to God, and being fully persuaded that what God had promised, he
was able also to perform. And therefore God imputed it
to him for righteousness. And so our God is putting our
minds here on what He did for Abraham, saying that He blessed
him. God blessed Abraham, and what
He's showing us is that He's blessed you that believe with
faith. He's called you like He called
Abraham. And he's blessed you with faith
as he blessed Abraham with faith, whereby we lay hold of the promises
of God in Christ. And Paul continues saying that
very thing. Look at verse 23. Now it was
not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but
for us also, to whom it shall be imputed if we believe on him
that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered
for our offenses. and was raised again for our
justification. And so you that believe, you
that by faith believe the promises of God aren't being turned away. to labor and strive and beat
yourselves to work a righteousness by yourselves, but you believe
that Christ is all. He is sufficient, whereby you
stand complete right now before the throne of God and are accepted
of Him. You believe Him. That's a blessing.
That's the blessing of God upon you, whereby you believe Him."
So like Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him for
righteousness, He's given that blessing to you as well. And
you believe God. And so, our God has graciously
provided everything for you in Christ. And that's what He's
showing you. That's the melodious sound He's singing in your ears.
He's showing you what he's done. Then we see that God increased
Abraham. God increased Abraham. Now, how
did God increase Abraham? Well, more than the riches that
he gave to Abraham and more than the increase in flocks and herds
and having to expand his tents and the men servants and maid
servants that he had, God increased Abraham by giving him a son. a son, Isaac, the son of promise. It's the fruit which God wrought
of his dead body and which God wrought of Sarah's dead body. This flesh can produce nothing. It can bring no increase. It
brings nothing to the table for righteousness at all. But your
God is able to bring forth an increase for his people. And
so the Lord God, he called Abraham and blessed him and increased
him with fruit, with the fruit of his son Isaac. And Isaac is
a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. In many respects, he's a type
of Christ. And here, Isaac is that son of
promise which God made to Abraham. And he pictures that promise
which was made to the woman, that promise given to all the
church back there in the garden when he promised a seed, the
seed of woman that should come and crush the head of the serpent
and destroy him and set us free and give us life and peace and
joy in the Holy Ghost and fellowship with our God being restored by
him. being reconciled to our God by
the death of Christ, being justified by our God, by the shedding of
His own blood. And so, we that have been increased
with this seed of Christ in us, whereby we believe, whereby we
receive the promises of God, it testifies that we are born
again. We've been born of that holy
incorruptible seed of the seed of promise, the Lord Jesus Christ. So we're increased, brethren.
We're increased with this righteous fruit brought in us by the workmanship
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now we, brethren, as Isaac was,
are the children of promise, Paul says. Galatians 4.28. So
we're born of that same seed. We're children of faith, children
of promise. So we're increased by this fruit
of the Lord. And whereas our God overcame
the deadness of Abraham's flesh and the deadness of Sarah's flesh,
that's exactly what he did for his people. He overcame this
dead, weak, corrupted, vile, filthy flesh that can do nothing. Yet God overcame it all and brought
forth righteousness through his son, just like he did there with
Abraham. So Romans 7.4 says, wherefore,
my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of
Christ. Meaning, we had to die to the
law because we can't keep the law. We're not perfect. We can't
bring forth anything good from this barren, dead, fruitless
flesh. We can't do it. So we had to
die with Christ under the law, that ye should be married to
another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should
bring forth fruit unto God. And He bears that fruit in us.
So we're increased in that regard and we're increased with eternal
life and inheritance in In Christ, He is our inheritance, and we
are His inheritance, and we are promised that we shall live with
Him forever. He is our God, and we are His
people. We were poor. We had nothing
to bring to God, but now we are made rich by His grace, and we
have a glorious inheritance in our Savior who has increased
us with eternal life. So we see there, you hear that
melodious, comforting words, like Abraham, who undoubtedly
is his child, he testifies to it. Well, he testifies to you,
his children, who have been called by his grace, who have been blessed
to believe him with the faith he's given, and you've been increased,
whereby he's brought forth that fruit, and you are born again,
whereby you look to him and trust him and stay upon him, looking
nowhere else. So now I want to show you something
about these three blessings here, called, blessed, and increased.
Turn to Romans 8. Look at Romans 8. Paul speaks of these. He uses
a different word sometimes, but he speaks of these three here
in Romans 8. And we're going to start in verse
29, but you'll see them beginning in verse 30. Romans 8, 29. For whom he did foreknow, he
also did predestinate. There we see our God electing
a people. He chose a people and predestinated,
ordained their walk, that they should come to a knowledge of
their salvation, of what Christ has done for them. He also did
predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that
he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom
he did predestinate, them he also called. God effectually
calls all his children in Christ. He cannot fail. They are effectually
called in him. And whom he called, them he also
justified. He justified them. This is the
blessing of faith by which faith lays hold of the blessings of
Christ. It's not our faith that justifies
us, but by faith, that's where we see what God has done in justifying
us by our Savior, Jesus Christ, who was delivered for our offenses
and raised again for our justification. We're justified by Christ, and
he gives us faith to see it, to believe it, to lay hold of
what he's done. And even since we're there in
Romans, look at Romans 4. David describes this faith, this
justification by God, he describes this justification as a blessing,
as a blessing. So Romans 4, look at verse 6. Even as David also describeth
the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness
without works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are
forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. So this is our blessing. Our
justification in Christ is our blessing. And He's given us faith
to see it, to believe it, like Abraham believed God. And whom
He justified, them He also glorified. There's our increase, brethren. As sons of God, born of the seed
of promise, we have an eternal inheritance, life in the Savior. You have it, brethren. And He's
given you a spirit, which is the earnest, or the down payment,
the promise. that you know He's coming for
you again. He's not going to leave you.
He's not forgotten you. He is your God. You are His by
blood redemption. He's purchased you. He's coming
back for you. He's coming back for you. You
believe Him. And then Paul goes on, saying
what we'll see in the rest of this chapter, what shall we then
say to these things if God be for us? Who can be against us? What enemy is going to stand
opposed to you? They can't stand before God.
They might take us out in the flesh, but they can't take God
down. God overcomes them. So be comforted by your Lord's
grace. Verse 32, he that spared not
his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not
with him also freely give us all things? He's your God. Be comforted. Be comforted by
this melodious song of grace. So hearken to the Lord, ye that
follow after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord. Look at what
he's done for you in setting you free, delivering you from
darkness and the dungeon, and made you alive in the Lord Jesus
Christ, in the light of him. Trust him. Trust Him, the hymn
writer says, 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. trust him brethren take great
comfort in your Lord who gives you this melodious these melodious
words that he speaks to comfort you he's giving you the testimony
of his grace in you whereby he's called you blessed you and increased
you he means to comfort you and to assure you that He is your
God, He's your righteousness, He's your salvation, and therefore
the promises are yours. You that believe Him, these promises
are yours. Now look at verse 3 back in our
text. Isaiah 51, verse 3. For the Lord
shall comfort Zion, as that's His eternal purpose for you.
He's comforting you because that's exactly what He's purposed and
willed to do, to comfort you. He will comfort all her waste
places and He will make her wilderness like Eden and her desert like
the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness shall be found
therein. Thanksgiving and the voice of
melody. So our God has done this for
His church by His Spirit separating you out calling you and leading
you to Christ, to behold your Savior, to let go of all the
filth, of all the false vain works of self-righteousness,
to behold the righteousness of Christ, who is your righteousness,
who is your peace and salvation. And He's made us to hear our
Savior's glorious, beautiful, melodious voice and live. And so He brings us to that garden
oasis. And He heals us. And He teaches
us and grows us in grace and the knowledge of our Savior.
And we rest upon His breast, hearing Him who teaches us the
song of redemption, who sings to us the song of redemption,
saying, I've called you. I've chosen you. I've called
you. I've blessed you. I've done everything
for you, and I've blessed you to see it. I've blessed you to
believe me. I've brought forth life in you
and light in you. You're my child, born of my seed,
and what's mine is yours. You are my inheritance, and I
am yours, and He rejoices our heart and what He's done, and
teaches us that song of redemption. As I said there, the melody,
that is the most recognizable part of the song. That's why
we love the melody of the songs that we love, and we love this
melodious sound of redeeming grace, of our God who did everything
for us. So you remember that. You remember
that He called you. You remember that He blessed
you. You remember that He's increased you with every enemy you face,
with all the distractions that come up in life, all the trials
and the tribulations and the frustrations. Remember that sound,
that melodious sound. My God has saved me. I am His
and He is mine. Nothing can take that away from
you. You're His, so be comforted by those words, you just keep
following after righteousness, which is the Lord Jesus Christ.
You just keep seeking him and trust him and believe him. It's
all of his grace. So I pray, bless that word to
your hearts, brethren, and that you be comforted to be comforted. Amen. Let's close in prayer. Our gracious Lord, we thank you,
Father, for your words of grace. We thank you for the melody of
The grace we hear sung in our ears, how you've done everything
for us and provided all in your Son, Jesus Christ. Lord, thank
you. Thank you for your salvation,
your perfect salvation. Thank you for showing us what
you've done for us. Keep reminding us of these things,
of these truths. Rehearse them in our ears, this
melodious sound the voice of our Savior. Help us to see this
and hear this and believe this more and more, growing in your
salvation. Not more saved, but just growing
in the grace of it and the knowledge of what you've done, that we
be settled and rest in Him and comforted as we go through various
tribulations and trials. We pray this in the name of our
Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. Thank you, brother. Let's stand and sing a closing
hymn, 287, like a river glorious, 287. Like a 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, Binding 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 State upon Jehovah, hearts are fully blessed, Finding as
He promised, perfect peace and rest. Every joy or trial falleth
from above, traced upon our dial by the sun of love. We may trust Him wholly, 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. Thank you.