So you have a new deck? No, I'm going to probably put
gravel there and a fire pit maybe or something. I mean, how are
you getting out of your back door? Well, that's still there.
And I have that big lower one. That's the one that's gone. Yes.
OK. Got it. Yeah. But it's beautiful up there. It burned, too. The fire just,
everything went straight up there. Yeah. It was running all white,
you know? It'd be nice to have a little seating area and fire
pit. Like, that's right there where
you Because you guys are all older now, you can hang out,
you know, with the kids and stuff. They're there and it's just kind
of nice. Anyway, it was tough to get chlorine
probably this year, wasn't it? I mean, they were saying, I was
seeing articles it was tough. So you didn't have to even deal
with it. No. Even now. This would have been a tricky
year, too, more than me. Going live. So you're not on home dialysis
right now? Oh, I am. Oh, they got it all
fixed now? Yeah, just the other day at the
clinic, because I couldn't really trust my arm. Oh. I'll just do
it on the arm. OK. See if that works. It's a
lot of problems. They do a pretty good job when
you fall. I've said it all several times. You just throw your hands
up and say, I'm not doing it today. Good evening. Let's begin our
evening service by standing and singing 351, Near the Cross,
351. Jesus, keep me near the cross
Where a precious fountain Free to all the healing stream Flows
from Calvary's mountain ever. Till my raptured soul shall
find rest beyond the river. Near the cross a trembling soul
? Love and mercy found me ? ? There the bright and morning star ?
? Sheds its beams around me ? ? In the cross In the cross, may my glory ever,
till my raptured soul shall find rest beyond the river. ? Hear the cross, O Lamb of God
? ? Bring its scenes before me ? ? Help me walk from day to
day ? ? With its shadows over me ? In the cross, in the cross, be
my glory ever, till my raptured soul shall find
Rest beyond the river, near the cross I'll watch and wait. Oh, big trouble. till I reach the golden strand
just beyond the river. In the cross, in the cross, You would turn to 129 at the
cross, 129. Wait, do I have that correct?
Oh yeah. Once and did my Savior bleed
and did my Sovereign die? Would He devote that sacred head
for such a worm as I? At the cross, at the cross, where
I first saw the light, and the burden of my heart rolled away. It was there by faith I received
my sight, and now I am happy all the day. Was it for crimes
that I have done He groaned upon the tree Amazing pity, grace
unknown That love beyond degree At the cross, at the cross where
I first saw the light, and the burden of my heart rolled away. It was there by faith I received
my sight, and now I am happy all the day. Well, might the
sun in darkness hide and shut his glories in? When Christ, the mighty Maker,
died, for man the creature sinned? At the cross, at the cross, where
I first saw the light, and the burden of my heart rolled away. It was there by faith I received
my sight, and now I am happy all the day. But drops of grief
can ne'er repay the debt of love I owe. Here, Lord, I give myself
away, tis all that I can do. At the cross, at the cross where
I first saw the light and the burning of my heart rolled away. It was there by faith I received
my sight and now I am happy all the day. Thank you. All right, I'm gonna read 2 Timothy
chapter one. 2 Timothy chapter one. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
by the will of God according to the promise of life which
is in Christ Jesus. To Timothy, my dearly beloved
son, grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ
Jesus our Lord. I thank God whom I serve from
my forefathers with pure conscience that without ceasing I have remembrance
of thee in my prayers night and day. greatly desiring to see
thee, being mindful of thy tears, that I may be filled with joy.
When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee,
which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois and thy mother Eunice, and
I am persuaded that in thee also, wherefore I put thee in remembrance
that thou stir up the gift of God which is in thee by the putting
on of my hand. For God hath not given us the
spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. Be not thou therefore ashamed
of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but be
thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the
power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling,
not according to our works, but according to his own purpose
and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world
began, but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior,
Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death and hath brought life and
immortality to light through the gospel. Whereunto I am appointed
a preacher, and an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles. For
the witch cause, I also suffer these things. Nevertheless, I
am not ashamed. For I know whom I have believed
and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed
unto him against that day. Hold fast the form of sound words
which thou hast heard of me in faith and love which is in Christ
Jesus. That good thing which was committed
unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us. This thou
knowest that all they that are in Asia be turned away from me,
of whom are Phygelus and Hermogenes. The Lord give mercy unto the
house of Onesophorus, for he oft refreshed me and was not
ashamed of my chain. But when he was in Rome, he sought
me out, very diligently and found me. The Lord grant unto him that
he may find mercy of the Lord in that day, and in how many
things he ministered unto me at Ephesus, thou knowest very
well. Let's pray. Father, we come to you again,
thankful for our time together, Lord, for a place to come to
worship, And father, we just ask that you give the one that
you've sent the words that you would have us to hear tonight.
Father, open our ears, open our minds and our hearts to the message
that you're going to bring. And father, we ask that you watch
over all that couldn't be with us tonight. Father, just watch
over their hearts. And father, we ask that you again,
just watch over and care for all of us in Christ's name. Good evening. Turn with me to
Isaiah 48. We'll be looking at verses 18
through 22. Now this word in Isaiah chapter
48, it's from the Lord and he's speaking to his people, Israel. And we know that Israel is a
type of the church. They picture the people of God. And we come now to a portion
in this chapter here where two people, this is a tale of two
people being described here for us. One is a people who will
not hear the word of the Lord. And for them, there's a sad outcome. They're not hearing when the
Lord says, hearken to me, when he speaks, they're not listening.
They're not being turned from their hardness. Then there's
another people and they have that same hard heart by nature. But when the Lord speaks, They
hear grace. They are given grace so that
they are delivered by the Lord from their spiritual bondage. And the Lord blesses his people
with this wonderful knowledge of what that means. It means
that we that are blessed and refreshed with the Lord Jesus
Christ, given his spirit, given life by the Spirit of God so
that we hear the voice of our God who created us we receiving
his word, his life, his righteousness, he says, you'll never thirst
again. You'll never thirst for righteousness. You that believe me and trust
me, you shall never thirst for righteousness. You'll never hunger
for another righteousness. You shall be satisfied in me,
which is wonderful because God is satisfied with Christ and
all who come to the Father, and Jesus Christ, the Son of God. They are received. God is satisfied. Holy justice is satisfied. We are delivered from bondage
and death and delivered unto eternal life in our Lord Jesus
Christ. I've titled this Cut Off for
Jacob's Redemption. Cut Off for Jacob's Redemption. And the first point we'll look
at is this people who will not hear. and you'll recognize there's
some correlation. In fact, it speaks primarily
of the day in which our Lord walked in the flesh, when he
spoke to the Jews and they would not hear him. They wouldn't hear
him. And then we look at this word
about him being cut off. And we'll look at that and what
we'll see is that Christ himself was cut off for his people. He gave his life. He was crucified
to make atonement for the sins of his people. And then we see
the blessings that come upon his people and their deliverance
from captivity and spiritual bondage and death. All right,
so let's begin with this people who will not hear. I'd like to
begin by reading together the first two verses. Isaiah 48,
18. Oh, that thou hadst hearkened
to my commandments. Then had thy peace been as a
river. The picture there being a continuously
flowing river of peace. and thy righteousness as the
waves of the sea." In other words, thy righteousness would never
cease. It would never come to an end,
just the way the waves of the ocean continually roll in upon
the shore. They never cease. They never
go away. Sometimes they're stronger, perhaps
according to our view, but the picture there is it never ceases.
The righteousness of Jesus Christ shall never cease for you. There will never be a breaking
of these waves from resting upon you. Thy seed also, verse 19,
had been as the sand and the offspring of thy bowels like
the gravel thereof. That's a reference to the promise
that God made to Abraham. Speaking of all the promised
seed which the Lord should give to Abraham, who would hear the
Lord and receive him by faith, believe him by faith, his name,
thy seed, should not have been cut off nor destroyed from before
me. These two verses describe a sad
account. It's a sad, sorrowful thing that
we're reading about here. These are people that would not
hear their Lord. They're not receiving the gracious
words, the words of wisdom that the Lord is speaking here through
his prophet in his gospel word. They're not hearing it. They're
not receiving that word. of what the Lord says to his
people. And for their rebellion, the Lord describes the losses
that they would suffer. They do not have peace with God. They have no righteousness with
God. They have no seed, that is, no
fruitful offspring with which to speak of to the Lord. You
that have children, you pray for your children to the Lord.
They have no seed to speak of and pray to the Lord about or
to speak to him of. Now, all of God's people, all
of us by nature are a hard-hearted people, a stiff-necked people,
a people with a brow of brass, and we're disobedient to the
Lord by nature, every one of us, until he's gracious to us,
until His grace is poured out upon us by His Spirit, giving
us a new heart, a new heart, and raising up, giving life to
that new man, making us born again by the Spirit of Christ,
so that we have life in Him. He gives us a regenerated heart
that now loves the Lord and seeks to do his will. He gives us a
heart that would do his will and desires to hear his word
and be pleasing to him. But the Lord's describing a people
here that hear what others hear, that there's a body here in this
passage, and they're all hearing the same thing, but there's a
people that will not hear what the Lord is saying. They're fine
and content with the things of religion, but they're not pleased
with the gospel. They're not pleased, they're
not hearing what the Lord is saying to his people for their
good. If you look down at verse 22, you see that there is a wicked
people that's in view here. Look at verse 22 of Isaiah 48.
There is no peace, saith the Lord, unto the wicked. So there's definitely a people
in this body that are just not hearing what the Lord's saying. They have no heart for the words
of our God. and they're not looking to Christ.
Now history's full of the sons of Adam, both Jew and Gentile,
that have no heart to hear the Lord, they have no ear for the
words of his spirit. Our Lord, when he was in the
flesh, he was speaking to Jews, he was speaking to Pharisees,
he was speaking to well-trained, well-educated scribes. And he
said to them, ye will not come to me that ye might have life. Though Christ himself spoke the
words of life to his people, those others that heard it, they
would not come. They had no will, no desire,
no decision to make for the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not in our
nature. It's not in our nature. Until
the Lord is gracious, we won't hear his words. Even we that
now believe, until the Lord showed us grace and mercy, we would
not hear his words. The Lord says, had you hearkened
to my words, then had thy peace been as a river. In other words, those who hear
him have that continual peace as a long, ever-flowing river. That doesn't mean that we're
not troubled by our sin and what we see in us, in this flesh,
but the Lord blesses his people to look away from the flesh and
to look to Christ, who has established our peace, in whom we have peace
with God. Then the Lord says, had you hearkened
to my words, thy righteousness had been as the waves of the
sea. In other words, their righteousness
would never have ceased. All who believe the Lord Jesus
Christ have no cessation, no end of righteousness in the Lord
Jesus Christ. So continuous peace and never
failing righteousness are the blessings of God's people that
they have in the Lord Jesus Christ. Because in Christ, mercy and
truth are met together. Righteousness and peace have
kissed each other." All the blessings of God are met in the Lord Jesus
Christ. In him, God is both just to forgive
and the justifier. He justifies his people in the
Lord Jesus Christ. But this people spoken of here,
they refuse to hear the words of the mediator that's speaking
to his people in this chapter. You think about the solemnity
of this, the Jews as a body, as a whole body, they all heard
the same things. They all received the law. They
all received the oracles of God. They had the same prophets sent
unto them. They had the same scriptures,
which testified and bore witness to what the people had experienced
when the Lord delivered them from Egyptian darkness and Egyptian
bondage. They heard those things. They
heard They heard how the Lord had delivered the people time
and time again as he led them through the wilderness. And they
all were promised one Messiah, one salvation by the Lord Jesus
Christ. They heard these things, they
had these promises, and many, many did not believe. Many did
not believe. Now in that body there were some
who did believe, but What we see in this is that none of us
believes until the Lord is gracious to us. None of us receives his
word, hears his word, rejoices in his word until the Lord is
gracious to us. Now, our Lord, he describes his
church as a field, a field of we. Turn over in Matthew 13,
we see this. Matthew 13 verse 29, we're described
as a field of wheat, but the enemy has come in and sown tares
in that field. And the Lord tells us we're not. to appoint ourselves or take
it upon ourselves to root out the tares, to pull out those
tares by our hand, by our labor, by our work, or our sniffing
it out. He says, don't do it, lest, verse
29, while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with
them. That's because we don't see the
heart. And religion is very crafty. Religion is very good at appearing
religious, at appearing righteous, at appearing good. And so the
Lord says don't pull them out because oftentimes those that
the Lord is being gracious to, they're honest. They're made
honest and they don't always appear to be the best of the
people. And so they're the ones that get rooted out and the ones
that put on a good show. They're left remaining because
we can't judge the heart only the Lord can judge the heart
and and he he knows Instead he says in verse 30 Matthew 13,
30, let both grow together until the harvest, and in the time
of harvest, I will say to the reapers, gather ye together first
the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the
wheat into my barn. And so you that trust the Lord,
believe him, believe him. If you would do the judgment
of God, then do nothing. Wait upon Him to do it because
He alone is God and judges perfectly and does that which is right
and perfect in Himself. Now, when you read these verses
from our text, you see there's a sorrow there. There's a sorrow
spoken of in these verses because we see that the darkness of man
is such as that He's not going to come to the Lord. He's not
going to believe. And the Lord is showing us that
in the scriptures, that man left to himself is unable to secure
his own deliverance. He cannot deliver himself. He can't provide a righteousness
for his own. He can't atone for his sins. And there's no desire to do those
things anyway. He does not believe the Lord.
And so that's because he's dead in trespasses and sins, and he's
bound in iniquity. And by nature, he loves every
evil thing. Let's read this once more, Isaiah
48, 18. And then we're going to go over
to Luke after that. He says, oh, that thou hadst
hearkened to my commandments. Then had thy peace been as a
river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea. Thy
seed also had been as the sand, and the offspring of thy bowels
like the gravel thereof. His name should not have been
cut off nor destroyed from before me." Now turn over to Luke 19
and you'll recognize that these words, these sorrowful words
that are spoken of here about the loss of these people and
how they don't have peace and righteousness with the Lord,
Look at Luke 19 verse 41 and 42, speaking of the Lord Jesus
Christ. It says, When Christ was come
near, he beheld the city and wept over it, saying, If thou
hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which
belong unto thy peace, but now they are hid from thine eyes. And when the Lord came to them,
they crucified him. They put him to death. They did
not hear him. They didn't believe him. They
did not receive his word. And they perished, many perished
in their sin without a righteousness to speak of before the Lord.
Now turn over to Luke 13. Luke 13, verse 34 and 35. Here the Lord says, O Jerusalem,
Jerusalem, which killest the prophets and stonest them that
are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children
together as a hen doth gather her brood, or little chicks,
under her wings, and ye would not. That's the response of man
to the truth of God. Ye would not. left to himself,
man will not come to Christ. Behold, he says, your house is
left unto you desolate. And in our text, he says, thy
seed also, back in our text in verse 19, he says, thy seed also
had been as the sand and the offspring of thy bowels like
the gravel thereof. His name should not have been
cut off nor destroyed from before me. In a physical sense, there
were many children that were never born to these Israelites. When their city came under siege
and it was under attack and then they were led astray in captivity,
there was children that were never born to them in a physical
sense, in a physical sense. But in a spiritual sense, what
the Lord is saying is you're bearing no fruits of righteousness. There's no fruits of righteousness.
The fruits you're bringing forth are fruits unto death. And that's what the Lord's pointing
out to them. They're not bringing forth anything fruitful. And this brings us to our second
point. about Christ being cut off for
his people. Because something amazing is
declared in verse 20 of our text. It goes from this very sorrowful
account of how these people in themselves have nothing. nothing. They would not hear.
They refused to hear. They were ruined in their unbelief,
and everything that they brought forth of themselves in their
flesh was cut off. All their fruit was cut off. And that's the truth of all our
labors in this flesh. All our works of iniquity and
sin, those things are cut off. They come to nothing. Even our
righteousnesses, he says, are filthy rags. They're cut off. They have no merit with the Father. They have no merit with God. Our works don't please God. because they're full of sin and
darkness. And so we, like Israel, in this
flesh have no fruit to speak of before the Lord. No peace
with him, no righteousness, no fruit. And yet look at this glorious
declaration. This is grace, verse 20. He says
to them, Go ye forth of Babylon. Flee ye from the Chaldeans. With a voice of singing declare
ye, Tell this, utter it even to the end of the earth. Say
ye, The Lord hath redeemed his servant Jacob. What happened? What change what happened here
that that the Lord did for these people because they were not
Hearing his word. They weren't hearkening to the
Lord. They weren't weren't seeking him or believing him or hearing
what he was saying they rebelled and they had a sad sorrowful
life laid out before them of what was to come in their rebellion. So what happened to accomplish
this great deliverance? Because this deliverance exceeds
what the Jews did when they were let out of Babylon. He says there
in verse 20, he says, utter it even to the end of the earth. When the Jews were let out by
Cyrus, they didn't go into all the earth. They went back to
the land of Israel. They went back to Judah and especially
to Jerusalem where they went to rebuild the city. And so they carried that news
of being released from Babylon, from their captivity in Babylon,
back to Jerusalem and to Judea and maybe to some of the surrounding
areas to say, hey, we're back here, don't bother us. We've
been given a right to come back here. But they didn't take that
word to the ends of the earth. not Israel when they were released
from Babylon, what happened is God found a ransom. God found a ransom for his people. As is described in Job 33, when
a man's going down to the pit to die, having nothing, when
it's told that there's someone to speak for him, an interpreter,
someone to intercede for him, to declare his righteousness.
And for us, that's Jesus Christ. He's our righteousness. The Lord
says, deliver him from going down to the pit. I have found
a ransom. I found a deliverer. And that's
what the Lord provided for his people. Us hard, ruined, sorrowful,
sad people, the Lord found a ransom. in His Son, Jesus Christ, whom
He purposed to deliver His people from the foundation of the world. So there was a cutting off of
the Lord Jesus Christ. He delivered up His precious
darling Son to redeem His chosen elect people from their spiritual
bondage. From our spiritual bondage. If
we were righteous in Adam, if we had never sinned of Christ,
it could be said His name should not have been cut off nor destroyed
from before me. but our God purposed to glorify
His Son before the foundation of the earth, before the foundation
of the world, and to redeem a people, to make a people for Himself
that would rejoice and sing and declare of His grace and mercy
to us in His Son. For the wicked, unbelieving Jews,
their children, yes, their children were cut off. But for the beloved
children of God, his son was cut off out of the land of the
living. For the transgression of God's
people was he stricken." Isaiah 53, verse 8. Christ was cut off. He was removed. from the land
of the living. He died that death on the cross,
not for his own sins, but for the sins of you and me that now
believe, that hear his word by his grace, that have been called
out of darkness, released from that spiritual bondage, that
spiritual Babylon to hear him. Christ was cut off to put away
your sin. that you should have life in
him and hear his voice and be delivered from your captivity. Daniel confirms this as well
saying Messiah shall be cut off but not for himself. Daniel 9 26 and in Romans Paul
says he was delivered for our offenses and was raised again
for our justification. Our God has provided all this
for us brethren. He was right to ask up there
in verse 14 when he asked, which among them hath declared these
things? Not us, not us, never entered
our mind. We thought that we had to provide
a righteousness, that we had to show and demonstrate to our
God that there was something worthy in us, something redeemable
about us, whether it was having the right feelings, the right
worries, the right fears, the right works. We looked to everything
but to his son, even though it was declared right there in his
word to us, even though sometimes the preacher said the right things,
but we did not hear it. We didn't hear it and we didn't
believe him. So that we ourselves were weak
and without strength and had no ability to hear and to believe
his word. We're that people of God's purpose
for whom he sent his son to glorify his name and to purchase a people
by the blood of Christ for himself. Turn over to Romans 5. Romans
5. And look at verses 8 through
10 with me. But God commendeth His love toward
us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more than being now justified
by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if
when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death
of His Son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And this brings us to our third
and final point, to see the blessings that we have in Christ, which
are witnessed here to us in this text. Look again back at verse
20, Isaiah 48, 20. The Lord tells his people, Go
ye forth of Babylon. Flee ye from the Chaldeans. With
a voice of singing declare ye, Tell this, utter it even to the
end of the earth. Say ye, The Lord hath redeemed
his servant Jacob. This, through the redemption
of his people, Christ's blood justifies us with our God. His
death is why we are reconciled to the Father. It is through
his death he had to die to put away our sins, to die our death,
and to deliver us from a just God and a just punishment. In
Christ we are told in 2 Corinthians 5 verse 19 that God was in Christ,
reconciling the world unto himself, not the Jews only, but Gentiles
as well, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath committed
unto us his church the word of reconciliation. Verse 21, for
he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might
be made the righteousness of God in him. so that by our Lord,
that spiritual bondage that we were held in by spiritual Babylon,
he's destroyed that bondage, he's broken that, so that we
are now free from the fear and the guilt and the working in
works of righteousness and religion to try and reconcile ourselves
to God, to try and make a peace for ourselves with God by our
works. He's caused us to cease from
trying to make a righteousness for ourselves by our works, by
our begging him for forgiveness in the ways that we were told
to do in religion. But now looking to his son, we're
delivered from all that rubbish, all that garbage, all that, those
things that only heaped on and piled on more fear and worry
and shame upon us. Christ has delivered us. And
so he tells us then, flee from the Chaldeans. When he opens
that prison door, and releases us from spiritual Babylon, sends
us out, he says also, flee ye from the Chaldeans. He's speaking
about those sins which are so prevalent in our sinful nature,
this old man of sin, he says, flee from those things. They
don't rule you anymore. You're not in subjection to them.
They can't whip you and beat you anymore. Look to me. Look to me. You're not in bondage
to those things anymore. That old man of sin, Christ has
put him to death. And those sins are in subjugation
to Christ. He rules over our sins. It says, his arm shall be on
the Chaldeans. It shall be on them. Meaning
that our Lord delivered us from those things. That just doing
those things the way we did in the world. He gives us a heart,
a desire, a will to be free to those things. This old man of
sin doesn't get any better. He doesn't get any better. He
still tries and he still would bring us into subjection, but
the Spirit of God gives us a heart to cry out to him, Abba, Father,
have mercy on me. Deliver me, Lord, from this bondage. Cause me to look to you and to
believe you. And so our Lord has done this
work in us. We are forgiven. We are his people. We are under grace and not under
the law. I'm not speaking by law of these
things. I'm declaring we are forgiven
in grace by the Lord Jesus Christ. And because we are under grace,
believe him that he has put to death this old man. Trust him
and seek him for that heart to not be subjected to those sins
of this flesh. His spirit gives us life and
leads us in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Turn to
Romans 6 and we can see this there. Romans 6 and we'll pick up in verse 6
and verse 7. Let's read a couple verses Romans
6. Paul says, knowing this, that
our old man is crucified with Christ, that the body of sin
might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin, for
he that is dead is freed from sin. In other words, he's given
us his spirit, he's given us a desire and a will to know our
God, to walk before him in in that peace and righteousness
which he has established for us in the Lord Jesus Christ. Down in verse 11, Romans 6, 11,
he says, likewise, reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed
unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. In other words, you are alive
in Christ. It's not a matter of whether
you're saved one moment and now you're not saved because you've
sinned. That's not what's at stake here.
You are alive in the Lord Jesus Christ. You believe him because
he's given you his spirit. He's given you the new birth.
He's given you life in him by his grace. And He's keeping you
and teaching you through these things. He's revealing to you
His life, His power, His grace, His forgiveness, His kindness,
His love, joy, peace, faithfulness, gentleness. He reveals these
things in the hearts of His people that we might see Him and glorify
Him. Now watch verse 14. He says, Romans 6, 14, for sin
shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under the
law, but under grace. In other words, you're under
Christ's dominion. You're under his rule. When we
sin, we have a faithful advocate with the Father, who is our very
peace and righteousness and acceptance with him. And what he's saying
there is, When we didn't rest in Christ, when we sinned, we
turn back to the flesh to try and fix that and undo it by works
of religion and righteousness. That's the dominion. That's being
under the dominion of sin with fear and torment and worry and
anxiety. We don't have that now. We are
saved by grace and the Lord Jesus Christ. And so you turn to him. When you sin, you look to Him,
confess to Him, and say, Lord, have mercy. We believe Him and
trust Him. So that dominion is not over
us anymore. We trust Him. His blood washes
us from all sin. And so we walk in faith now,
by faith, in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so he says, flee from those
Chaldeans. Flee from those sins that troubled
you and worried you and in the flesh would bring you back into
bondage to them, you're set free from that, all, all of it. You're
delivered because Christ has accomplished our salvation and
redemption. All right, now verse, in 1 Corinthians
1.23, Paul said, we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling
block and unto the Greeks foolishness, so that we now have a theme to
our psalms. It's grace. It's the grace of
our Lord Jesus Christ. We sing of His redemption, which
has delivered us from Babylon's spiritual captivity. In Christ,
we declare Him. His salvation, that's what we
tell of. And it's this full, free redemption
that we utter to the ends of the earth. This is what was carried
to the ends of the earth. The Jews, when they were delivered
from physical Babylon, they went to Jerusalem and stopped. But
when Christ came and he died and put away our sin and rose
again and gave gifts to his people, They went forth preaching the
gospel by the wisdom and power of the Holy Spirit in them, declaring
that word, uttering that word to the ends of the earth. That's what the Lord has in view
here in this passage, not just a deliverance of the physical
Jews from Babylon, but of his people's spiritual deliverance
from spiritual Babylon and captivity in that death. And so as Israel
of old crossed through the wilderness when they were delivered from
Egypt and then when they were going back on that voyage back
to Jerusalem, they were provided for. The Lord kept them and sustained
them as in the day when they went through the wilderness from
Egypt and were given water, refreshing water from the rock. It says
in Isaiah 48, 21, and they thirsted not when he led them through
the deserts. He caused the waters to flow
out of the rock for them. He claved the rock also and the
waters gushed out. These are the waters of grace. And so the power and life that
we have is in the Lord Jesus Christ through the gift of the
Holy Ghost. turning us from self, turning
us from all those dead works that could not save, that were
dead fruits. And he gives us life and hope
in the Lord Jesus Christ, who has accomplished our redemption. He was cut off for his people. And he's the one of whom we speak
and sing and rejoice in, even to the ends of the earth. and
having His water, the water from the rock, from the Lord Jesus
Christ, He's all we need. He's all we need. And He's the
one that we trust in and are satisfied by Him. So Christ is
our continual river of peace. He's the ways of our righteousness. He is the seed that we speak
of and rejoice in and boast in, the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Let's close in prayer. Our gracious
Lord, we thank you, Father, for your grace and mercy to your
people. Lord, we see what we are in self,
now that there's no good thing in this flesh. There's nothing
that we could, can step upon and have confidence in, in this
flesh. But Lord, you provided, richly,
freely, fully, the Lord Jesus Christ, We thank you for your
grace and mercy. Lord, we thank you for the righteousness
that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ. Help us, Lord, to continually
walk by faith in our Savior, looking to him alone, knowing
that he's provided everything for us. May we rejoice in him
and speak of his glory. May we utter this song of grace
to the ends of the earth. Lord, we pray that you watch
over your people, keep our hearts. Lord, those that are suffering
and from loss, we pray for our brother Ron and Claudia, Lord,
that you would give them peace and comfort and comfort their
hearts, Lord, at the loss of his brother-in-law. And Lord,
help him to minister the gospel to his sister in this time. Lord,
we pray for your people and all the things that the fears and
the worries that we have in our hearts. We pray, Lord, that you
would arise for us and that you would declare Christ in our hearts
and let us see him by faith. It's in the name of our Lord
and Savior, Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen. Let's stand and sing a closing
hymn, 488. I will sing of my Redeemer, 488. I will sing of my Redeemer, and
His wondrous love to me. On the cruel cross He suffered,
from the curse to set me free. of my Redeemer, with His blood
He purchased me. On the cross He sealed my pardon,
paid the debt, and made me free. I will tell the wondrous story,
How my lost estate to save, In His boundless love and mercy
He the ransom freely gave. Sing, O sing of my Redeemer,
With His blood He purchased me, on the cross He sealed my pardon,
paid the debt, and made me free. He's my dear Redeemer His triumphant
power I'll tell How the victory He giveth Over sin and death
and hell Sing, oh sing of my Redeemer With His blood He purchased
me On the cross he sealed my pardon, paid the debt, and made
me free. I will sing of my Redeemer and
His heavenly love to me. He from death to life had brought
me, Son of God, with Him to be. Sing, oh, sing of my Redeemer. With His blood He purchased me. On the cross He sealed my pardon,
paid the debt, and made me free. Thank you.