Good evening. We're going to
begin by standing and singing. I love to actually let's sing
287 like a river glorious. 287 like a river glorious. Like a river glorious, it's got
perfect peace. Over all victorious, in its bright
increase. Perfect yet it floweth, fuller
every day. Perfect yet it groweth, deeper
all the way. Made upon Jehovah, hearts are
fully blessed, Finding as He promised, perfect peace and rest. Hidden in the hollow of His blessed
hand, Never foe can follow, never traitor stand. ? Not a surge
of worry, not a shade of care ? Not a blast of hurry, touch
the spirit there ? Straight 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 ? If you would turn to page 438,
I'd love to tell the story, 438. Actually, it's 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 notice true. It satisfies my longings as nothing
else can do. I love to tell the story, t'will
be my theme in glory, to tell the old, old story of Jesus and
His love. I love to tell the story, more
wonderful it seems. And all the golden fancies Of
all our golden dreams I love to tell the story It does so
much for me And that is just the reason I tell it now to thee
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, it is pleasant to repeat. What 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 ? ? Twill be 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 ? Team hungering and
thirsting to hear it like the rest. And when it sings of glory,
I sing the new, new song. Twelve be the old, old story
that I have loved so long. I love to tell the story, it
will be my theme in glory, to tell the old, old story of Jesus
and his love. Thank you. I would like to read Revelations
5. And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne
a book. written within and on the backside sealed with seven
seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming
with a loud voice who was worthy to open the book and to loose
the seals thereof. And no man in heaven or on earth,
neither under the earth was able to open the book, neither to
look thereon. And I wept much, because no man was found worthy
to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon. And
one of the elders said unto me, weep not. Behold, the lion of
the tribe of Judah, the root of David, hath prevailed to open
the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof. And I beheld,
and lo, in the midst of the throne, and of the four beasts, and in
the midst of the elders stood a lamb as it had been slain,
having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits
of God sent forth into all the earth. And he came, and he took
the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne.
And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and the four
and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of
them harps and golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers
of the saints. And they sung a new song, saying,
Thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof,
for Thou was slain. and has redeemed us to God by
thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation,
and has made us unto our God-kings and priests, and we shall reign
on the earth. And I beheld and heard the voice
of many angels round about the throne, and the beasts, and the
elders. And the number of them was 10,000 times 10,000, and
thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, worthy is
a lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom,
and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing. And every
creature which is in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth,
and such as are in the sea and all that are in them heard I
saying, blessing and honor and glory and power be unto him that
sitteth upon the throne and unto the lamb forever and ever. And
the four be said, amen. And the four and 20 elders fell
down and worshiped him that liveth forever and ever. O Lord God Almighty, we thank
you for allowing us to gather together as a local assembly.
Father, what a great, great blessing it is that we have this place
of shelter that we can come on a regular basis. And Father,
there is much religion all around, spread around us, but Father,
it is so rare that we can hear your word rightly divided and
your gospel declared unto us. Father, remember Brother Eric
as he hopes to stand before us again tonight. Lord, give him
the words to speak. Pour out your spirit upon him
and also upon us as hearers. Lord, give us an appetite and
for A short time, Lord, give us the ability to concentrate
and that your spirit may enter into our hearts. Remember those
also that are perhaps watching online and listening. Father,
remember them where they are and bless them. You know each
and every case perfectly. And Father, we also pray for
our loved ones wherever they are. You know their situations
perfectly. And Father, nothing is out of
your control. Will you call them, Lord, out
of nature's darkness into your marvelous light. Father, remember
us. And Father, again, we thank you
for your amazing grace. For if it was left up to us,
we would never seek you, we would have no ability or desire. But
Father, we thank you for your effectual call of the gospel,
where you have given us that great gift of faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Remember us in mercy, for Jesus'
sake alone, amen. Okay, turn with me to Isaiah
44. Isaiah 44, and we'll be looking
at verses 24 through 28. Now, We've been seeing many comforting
words since we came into chapter 40 and in the 40s, there's been
many comforting words spoken in these chapters. And then we
come to chapter 44 and it's been a little different. I doubt anyone
would say that it's their favorite chapter. of in the Bible or even
in Isaiah because it hits that spot where then it starts breaking
down and detailing the idolatry of man and what he does. What we see, however, is that
it's actually a very helpful chapter when you understand it,
right? Because the Lord is declaring
to us who he is, that he's sovereign, almighty God who saves his people
by grace in sovereignty. And he's doing all things necessary,
all the work for us. And then we see that And then
we see that the idolater is distinguished from what he believes is distinguished
from the true and living God in that he attributes his salvation
to his works and or his will. He's looking at his own works
and his own will and the formation of his own God. And so this chapter
is helpful when you see that distinction being made because
then when you are speaking with another person and they're declaring
to you their God, and what they think, you know, their opinion
of God and who God is and how he saves, and they're using lots
of Bible verses and, you know, speaking, you know, using buzzwords
that you're familiar with, you could say, wait a minute, I can
hear this one is speaking of their works and their will. They're
speaking of themselves. They're boasting in something
of them. rather than giving glory to God,
and therefore, you can rightly discern and say, all right, well,
they're an idolater, basically. They're declaring man in his
works, and they're exalting man. And so, that's why I think this
chapter is a great help to us, because it shows us that distinction,
all right? And you're reminded, God declares
who he is, and if they're not speaking according to this word,
They're just an idolater. They're speaking according to
idolatry. And then you can, as the Lord enables you, preach
the gospel in love and kindness and in patience, especially if
they're not aware of what they're saying. Because many people aren't
necessarily aware. They're not necessarily trying
to fight you. They may say, I don't agree with
you. But they may be willing to hear the truth. And if they're
willing to hear it, preach it. declare it faithfully, as faithfully
as the Lord has enabled you to. So these last few verses here,
what they do now is they speak of the things that only God can
do. An idol god can't do these things. And in fact, the Lord does certain
things to frustrate and expose idolatry. He makes it known because
only God can do the things that are spoken of here. What we see
is some beginning points here of what Isaiah is declaring that
Judah is going to go into captivity. They're going to go into captivity
in Babylon. And there's going to be a day
when they come out of captivity. And so he begins to touch on
these things. And really what we see is that like Israel went
into captivity because of their sin and idolatry. So we all in
Adam, because of our sin and our idolatry through the enmity
that's in us by nature, we went into captivity. We're taken captive
in darkness by our sin, and so the Lord draws us out of that
idolatry. He brings us out of that captivity
to himself, all right? And he does this sovereignly.
He's the sovereign God who saves his people by Jesus Christ according
to his grace and mercy. So, I've titled this Formed by
Sovereign God. Formed by Sovereign God. So,
to begin, our Lord in Isaiah 44, verse 24, He says, Thus saith
the Lord, Thy Redeemer. Thy Redeemer. So, first off,
what we see is that He's speaking to a particular people. He's
speaking to a particular people. He's not saying, I'm thy redeemer
to the Egyptians. He's not saying that he's the
redeemer to those of the Assyrians, or of the Babylonians, or of
the Medo-Persians, or any kingdom that's to come, the Grecians,
and the Romans, and all the others. He's not saying that I'm your
nation's redeemer, but I'm the redeemer of my nation, my people. my people and the Lord Jesus
Christ." So he's speaking to his people who were taken captive,
who were led into captivity. He's letting them know, I'm your
Redeemer, and I've purchased you, and I'm going to bring you
out of your captivity, all right? And so This redemption therefore
is important because he's made it known to us a lot in these
chapters. He spoke of our redemption quite
quite a bit and so the scriptures, the apostles spoke a lot of our
redemption. They speak of how that we are
made the people of God by the blood of Jesus Christ so that
we know and understand the reason why we are children of God, the
reason why we have a hope in the promises of God spoken through
his prophets and his apostles. is by the blood of Jesus Christ,
because we've been purchased by Him, laying down His life
for ours, that we should go free from the punishment of God for
our sins, because He bore the punishment of God for our sins,
right? He took our place. And so Ephesians
1.7 says, in whom, in Christ, we have redemption through His
blood, the forgiveness of sins. Not the working off of your debt
by your good works. That's not how we are redeemed.
That's not how we are made God's people. We're made the Lord's
people through the shed blood of Jesus Christ that obtained
remission of our sins, that covered our sins with his blood. And
it's all according to the riches of his grace. It's of grace,
not of works, brethren. All right, so he goes on in verse
24. So thus saith the Lord, thy Redeemer,
and he that formed thee. All right, he that formed thee
from the womb. And so the Lord is making known
to us. When he says these words, if
you're reading these at night or in the morning or whenever
you read your Bible and you come across these words where he's
using them, he's telling you that he's your Redeemer and that
he's the one who formed you and that this is how you are made
his children. This is how you are made his
child. This is how you become a child of God. It's not by your
works and not by your will, Those are fruits which are products
of His grace. You will believe, you will serve
the Lord, but that's all the fruit as a result of what He's
already accomplished in you by redeeming you and forming you,
by creating you and making you His child. Then all those other
fruits come. And so to help us understand
this truth of being formed by the Lord, he tells us in several
places in scriptures, he speaks according to this language of
being formed of God, even from the womb, even from the womb.
An example is in Jeremiah 1. Turn over there in Jeremiah 1.5,
it's not that far from Isaiah 44. Jeremiah 1.5, here the Lord is
speaking to Jeremiah the prophet, and he says, before I formed
thee in the belly, I knew thee. And we see this is drawing on
the likeness, this is a type of picture of our very salvation. Before we were ever conceived
in our mother's womb, the Lord knew you that are His people. He knew you. He loved you. He
chose you in Jesus Christ. And before thou camest forth
out of the womb, I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet
unto the nations. So what we see there is Jeremiah,
his actions, right? His character, his moral fiber
and character and how he carried himself. That's not why Jeremiah
is a prophet, right? That's how we think, oh, he's
a good man. He made good choices, good decisions
in life. And therefore God, wow, took
notice of him and said, I gotta get this man in my service. He's
a good guy. He's a good man. I'm gonna bring
him into the church of God, right? That's how the religion of man
thinks it works. That's how man talks. Even to
this day, men speak like that. But what the Lord's saying here
is the reason why you're a prophet, Jeremiah, is because I knew thee,
I formed thee, I ordained thee. I sanctified you for this work.
I chose you out for this work. And that's why you're the person
you are. That's why you've been led down
the paths you've been led. That's why you've made the choices
and decisions you've made, because I formed thee. I made thee. I prepared you for this very
work. Now, we may not have as dramatic
of a calling, necessarily, as Jeremiah, who was made a prophet
of the Lord. We're husbands and wives, we're
brothers and sisters, we're parents and workers, right? We may not
be prophets of the Lord, but every one of us is a believer
of the Lord Jesus Christ because God has ordained it to be so.
He sanctified you. He chose you for himself. And as we see in Acts 13, 48,
that as when the Gentiles heard what was being preached, as many
as were ordained unto eternal life believed. All right? They were ordained unto this.
God's purpose. He brought them there that day.
He caused that word to go forth and enabled them by the power
of the Spirit to hear that word and to rejoice in it, to believe.
what God had said. And so the Lord said, before
thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee. And I just want to emphasize
this because the way religious men and women speak, who don't
have a confidence in the Lord Jesus Christ, the way that they
speak is they're looking at their works and saying, this is what
sanctifies me. To varying degrees, they're boasting
of the things that they're doing. And they think that what they're
doing is improving their standing and recognition by God. Just
a little bit more by some of the things that they're doing
and the choices that they're making. And really what they're
doing is boasting. They're boasting in their works
of sanctification as opposed to what you're not doing. It's very subtle. It can be very
subtle, I should say. Sometimes it's not so subtle,
but it can be very, very subtle. And the Lord, what he instructs
us is that we do works because he has sanctified us to these
works, right? So you read the scriptures, you
pray to the Lord because he's sanctified you and brought you
to do that. You come to services because
the Lord has brought you to do that, and you help your brethren
because of it. And so the reason why we have
an interest in those things is because the Lord is sanctifying
us, right? In Hebrews 10.10, we're told
that it's by the witch will, by God's will in Christ, we are
sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once
for all. We aren't sanctified because
we do those works. We do those works because we
are sanctified by the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we do them because
before we came forth out of the womb, the Lord says, I sanctified
thee. Now, if you do those things,
that's great. Keep doing them. I'm not at all
discouraging you from doing them, even if your motive has been
wrong, right? Thinking that if you do those
things, the Lord will bless you, right? That shouldn't be our
motive. And if now you see you have had
a wrong motive, don't stop doing those things. Sometimes we do
those things because we want to, or we feel we should do them,
and we should, right? And we don't always have a right
heart about it. And I wouldn't say don't do it,
therefore, just because your heart isn't always right. I would
encourage you to do it, but you're praying through it, Lord help
me, because I want to have a heart to do these things. I know I
should do these things. I know I should seek you in your
word and pray and seek to be a help to my brethren. and go
to services, I know that that's important because it's good for
me to be there. It's good for me to partake of
these things. But when we see we don't have a heart for it,
pray and confess it to the Lord. He knows, confess to the Lord
and say, Lord, I'm doing this out of a discipline or out of
rote, but help me, give me a heart for these things. So keep doing
them if you're doing them because really, we find like what was
said to the church at Ephesus, right? Thou hast left thy first
love. And the best understanding I
heard about that was actually was a Darwin Pruitt who pointed
out, you know, that's not necessarily the first, he's not talking about
the first person you fall in love with, right? That's probably
your mom, you know, or your dad, you know, when they're raising
you and taking care of you, you love that person, right? They
would really be, in a sense, your first love. And, you know,
we, as we grow though, you notice that the love you have for your
parent, that your parents that can grow cold, you know, then
you love your friends, you know, your close friends, and then
you love, you know, people that you admire and things like that.
Your, your love changes, right? As you get older and, you know,
you grow to love your, your, you know, the spouse that you
marry, the person you marry, you love them. And they surpass
all other loves, right? And you love your children. And
so we see these loves and they're all competing. And what the Lord
is saying is, by your first love, by Him being your first love,
it means that He surpasses. It's a love in degrees. He surpasses
all other loves. And we know in our flesh It's
very easy to allow other loves to surpass the love of Christ. And we know that that's not what
should be. So that's what the Lord is saying
when he says, you've left your first love. You've lost your
first love. He's no longer the first priority
in our lives. And so we should seek him. But
when we do, we give him thanks because it's by his sanctifying
power. It's because he's ordained us,
right? And he teaches us. He reminds
us and shows us our weaknesses, right? We go low in self and
we see, yeah, Lord, I'm the sinner here. And you've remained gracious
and faithful to remind me and to draw me to yourself. So that's
what I'm showing you, right? So we do these because we are
sanctified. As Ephesians 2.10 said, for we
are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works,
which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. All right, now another example
of God's forming us, turn over to Romans 9. Romans 9, and we'll
look at verses 11 through 13. Romans 9. Speaking of being formed in the
womb. All right, Romans 9-11, for the
children being not yet born, neither having done any good
or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might
stand, right? And that we would be able to
see it, recognize it much more readily, right? Because we're
so hard and we don't see that it's God's work and not ours.
But that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not
of works, but of him that calleth, it was said unto Rebekah, the
elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have
I loved, but Esau have I hated. And so the Lord, he loved Jacob. He chose Jacob out of the two
sons. He chose Jacob unto salvation
apart from any works, apart from any will. He did that on purpose
and calls our attention to it so that we see it was done in
the womb. They hadn't done any works. They
hadn't made any decision. And yet, one believes and one
doesn't. In the time of God's love, one
confessed the Lord, one believed on the Lord because he was a
chosen child of God who ordained this for Jacob. And so he passed by Esau, leaving
Esau to his own natural faculties, his own natural abilities, which
in Adam is enmity against God, a deep rooted hatred for God. He's always a good guy, right?
As far as we're concerned, he was a good guy and did things
that pleased his dad a lot, but he wasn't a child of God. And
so that's where we all are until the Lord calls us. We all come
short of the glory of God until the Lord calls us out of that
darkness. So the idolater, he forms his
God as he will, and the Lord, contrary to the idols of man,
he forms his people as he will. See that there? And so that word
form, too, just to help you understand, that's why in Romans 9 it talks
about the potter, but that forming is just like a potter, right,
who takes that lump of clay that they've made or gathered, and
then they throw that thing on the wheel, and then they start
forming it and shaping it and pressing it and squeezing it
and putting it through various things, you know, the fist going
in there and, you know, hands and palms and fingers and smoothing
out. That's all the potter, right?
Forming that object for his own purpose, for his own use, through
different techniques and what he does, and that's what the
Lord is doing. He's forming us as it pleases him, all right? And so, verse 24, it concludes,
I am the Lord that maketh all things, that stretcheth forth
the heavens alone, that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself, And
so God does it alone and by himself apart from the input of man. He doesn't need to see what we're
going to do. He's not putting us through little
tests to see what we will do because he doesn't know. He'll
prove us, he'll prove his people so that we know who he is and
what he's done in us by his grace and mercy. Okay. Next, the Lord, well, one thing
about that creation is man, he does, he invents things, right?
But all man's doing is taking that which God has created and
manipulating it for his own will, right? So like when God created
the tree and the whole Workings of how a tree is grown from a
seed and how it all comes forth and happens That's of the Lord
and man just takes you know that tree and then he creates Creates
with you know with air quotes. He's not really creating anything
He's just manipulating or forming it what God has made all right
now the Lord he displays his power over all creation All right,
he's not the Lord of just his people He's the Lord over all
creatures. He's God and creator of all of
creation. And that's why it's silly for
people to say, make Jesus Lord of your life. Let Jesus be Lord
of your life. Jesus already is the Lord of
your life, whether you've asked him to be or not, he is. He's
Lord and God over all of creation. And so we just are coming to
knowledge of it when he gives us an ear to hear what the Spirit
saith unto the churches and so he says in verse 25 that he's
the one that frustrated the tokens of the liars and make it the
viners mad that turneth wise men backward and make it their
knowledge foolish right and so the wise men of this world, they
have their plans, and they think they understand things, and we
do it too all the time. I do it, and you know, I think
I see how things are going to happen, and I'm wrong. And the
Lord does that, right? And for His people, it's a mercy
so that we see He's God, and we can't tell what shall be. We're ever dependent upon Him
and leaning upon him, but there are those that have no hope in
God that are frustrated and angry and upset because things don't
go according to their will and how they've divined it, you know,
planned it so to be. And so he says he's frustrating
the tokens of the liars. Well, tokens are signs, miracles,
banners, flags, signals, right? That's what a token is. It's
like a signal. It's proving what they're saying
will happen. You'll see this token will happen.
It's going to be like this. And then the Lord says, no, it
isn't. No, it's not going to be like that. And some men have
said, you know, everybody has a plan until your plan meets
the enemy, the one you've come to oppose against. And as soon
as you meet the enemy with your plan, your plan has to immediately
change because We're men. We're susceptible. We don't control
the wills of others. We don't have that kind of power
and authority. We can manipulate to a degree,
but we don't have the ability to do much. And we can do nothing
except the Lord allows it and except he allows it. This word
is even used in the New Testament. It's spoken of in second Thessalonians
2.9 of the Antichrist saying even him whose coming is after
the working of Satan with all power and signs, tokens, flags,
miracles, and all signs and lying wonders. And so the evil one
will be allowed to do what he does for a season until the Lord
destroys it and ends it all once and for all when the Lord comes.
So man, he's met and frustrated by the Lord all the time. I remember
I used to be more into football than I am now, really, a lot
more. And I would read the website
and I'd read, you know, you know, write ups on the team or something
like that. And I remember there was my team wasn't very good
that year as they're often that way a lot of years, but they
weren't that good. And they had a game coming up. And I remember
someone writing in the comments saying there is no way that they're
going to beat this team. It was a really good team. I
think they were like, you know, had won every game up to that
point, or only lost one. And it was like, there's no way
that they're going to win this game. And someone replied to
that comment and said, then why did they play the game? If it's
guaranteed that they can't win, why do they even bother playing
the game? And they played the game. And sure enough, my team
won. They actually did beat the other team. And it just showed
that. We can't tell even with the greatest
of odds because there's so many factors that the Lord controls. He directs all things as it pleases
Him and according to His will. And so we do well to learn that. I do well to learn that and to
see that my God is Almighty Sovereign God and He's in control of all
things. Whether I like it or not, whether
I thought it should be that way or not, that the Lord is able
to do whatsoever pleases Him. All right, and so we see this
even in 1 Corinthians 1, 18 and 19. Paul says, the preaching
of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. And it is,
it seems silly that the Lord would save His people through
preaching. And people don't even want to
hear preaching. But unto us which are saved,
it is the power of God. All right, because we know that
when you're sitting under the preaching. Now, when you're in
a conversation, you're often just ready to, you know, you're
thinking about what you want to say back, right, to them,
and you're hardly listening to what the other person's saying.
You're just ready to jump in there. But when you're sitting
under the preaching, there's nothing to say. You're just listening
and able to take it in. And, you know, even if it hits
you funny or you don't think that's right, you're sitting
on it and listening and then going to the scriptures that
the preachers you know, taking you to, right? And the Lord does
this because he says, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise
and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. And aren't you
thankful that he took you and I who were wise and, and, and,
you know, something in our own flesh, but the Lord brought us
to nothing that we should be something of him, become nobodies
in the Lord Jesus Christ and happy with that, thankful for
what he's done for us. So in spite of the enemies that
we have in the world, the Lord gives his people success. He
overcomes their enemies by his power and grace. We're not destroyed
when the world's destroyed. we are kept faithful, looking
to Him and rejoicing in Him. Verse 26, Isaiah 44, 26. He's
he that confirmeth the word of his servant and performeth the
counsel of his messengers, that saith to Jerusalem, thou shalt
be inhabited. And to the cities of Judah, ye
shall be built, and I will raise up the decayed places thereof. All right? Our Lord, His pastors are declaring
to His people the promises of God. That's what we're declaring. When all the world is frustrated
and made a mockery of, showing that they can't do their will,
yet the Lord's people are hearing the promises of God through the
faithful preaching, and then they're comforted. even in the
midst of high waves and stormy seas, right? They're comforted
in Christ. You know, even Paul recognized
this when he was in Macedonia. He says, he had no rest in his
spirit because he found not Titus, his brother, but taking my leave
of them, I went from thence into Macedonia. I'm sorry, he went
into Macedonia. you know, he was looking for
Titus, you know, he couldn't, he was trying to text him, but
he wasn't getting any cell phone service where he was, you know,
and so he couldn't reach Titus and couldn't find out where he
was. And it just shows that, yeah, even we get frustrated,
you know, even we, you know, don't, don't see things working
out how we think they should. But the very next verse, he says,
now, thanks be unto God, which always causes us to triumph in
Christ. and maketh manifest the savor
of his knowledge by us in every place. And so the Lord, he's
able to make his word stand in triumph even in the day of adversity
and difficulty. And that's our comfort and joy
that we have. Like Tim James said, He worded
it this way, he said, what we do is we rehearse the promises
of God. We're just rehearsing the promises
of God to you. We're just declaring to you what
he's promised and shall fulfill, has fulfilled and shall fulfill
before your very eyes what he's promised in Christ Jesus, all
right? So we're confident of him who
made these promises to us, all right? He's almighty sovereign
God, he's not a weak, impotent stump. He's your God and he's
almighty and he's sovereign and he's doing his will and purpose
according to his pleasure and he's showing it to your eyes
and you see it and shall see it as well, all right? So our
God has promised our redemption and that means that he will return
to claim what he's purchased. Sometimes the word redemption
is used for that. When you return, he's already
purchased it, and that's the redemption, but he's also coming
back to redeem it, to actually pick it up for what he's already
paid. He's redeeming his purchased
possession. And it says in Ephesians 1, you
have verse 13, in whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard
the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and whom also
after that ye believed ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit
of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the
redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of his glory.
And so he keeps us looking to him until he returns to redeem
his purchased possession. Now, he says back in our text
in verse 27, he shows us what he's accomplished. It says, that
saith to the deep, be dry, and I will dry up thy rivers. And what I believe what he's
saying there, the picture there, I'm sure there's something there
when Cyrus released the people from Babylonian captivity, there
was something there perhaps, you know, by giving them that
free passage over the rivers that they traveled to get there
in the first place. But the spiritual picture there
is that that great chasm that great gulf of sin which we cannot
cross to be with the Lord he's filled that in for his people
he's brought us to himself and and delivers us over that great
chasm right he's delivered us from that which separated us
from our God and brought us near to him now he continues in verse
28 that saith of Cyrus he is my shepherd and I shall perform
all my pleasures even saying to Jerusalem, thou shalt be built
into the temple, thy foundation shall be laid." Now Cyrus, I
believe it's that he was the king of Persia at the time when
he released the Israelites from Babylonian captivity, right?
So this was after Babylon had been conquered, who conquered
Jerusalem and Judah, right? And yet this prophecy was written
about 210 years before Cyrus was ever even born. It was written
long before. They say, Josephus says that,
the historian, the Jewish historian says that he actually read the
prophecy. They showed it to him, that he
did read the prophecy and was moved to release the people according
to the word of the Lord. But what Cyrus is, is he's a
type of Christ. Some say it's the word for son,
which would be a picture of the son of righteousness. And others
say it's a Persian word for food, showing that he's the shepherd.
He's like the shepherd of the Lord who feeds his sheep there. But either way, he's a type of
Christ. And Christ himself is the shepherd,
and he is our righteousness. And he feeds his people. He gathers
his sheep together. in one flock and leads them home. He brings them to be with him.
And so Christ is our foundation. He's the foundation laid for
us, right? Which it says there in verse
28, thy foundation shall be laid. And we're told that Christ is
that foundation. Other foundation can no man lay,
then that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. And so he's the foundation,
and the apostles preached him and declared him to the people,
writing in Ephesians 2, 19 through 22. Now therefore, ye are no
more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the
saints, and of the household of God, and are built upon the
foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself
being the chief cornerstone, in whom all the building fitly
framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord, in
whom ye also are builded together for inhabitation of God through
the Spirit." And so what he's saying to us there is that, brethren,
we are the building of the Lord. He's the one who created us.
He's the one who formed us for himself and sanctified us, right? Determined even before we came
forth, determined who we are in Him, and our hope in Him,
that we should know Him and hear Him. And so He's building up
you, His people, as a spiritual household for His glory, praise,
and honor. And so rest in Him, trust Him,
believe Him, because everything you see coming to pass is according
to the will of your Heavenly Father, and it's perfect in Christ. So I pray, bless that word to
your hearts. Let's close in prayer. Our gracious
Lord, we thank you, Father, for your great mercy and grace toward
us and your son, Jesus Christ. Lord, we thank you for this word
that you show us who you are as opposed to the works of man.
We thank you that your almighty God doing as it pleases you according
to your goodwill and pleasure. Lord, we ask that you would bless
this word to the hearts of your people. and that you would send
forth your gospel to deliver your people who are yet in darkness
and in the bondage of sin, that you would open the prison door
and that you would call them forth and release them, set them
free from their death and darkness to behold the light and the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Lord, we ask that you would watch
over your people those who are sick and suffering, those who
are wounded and hurting, Father, that you would have mercy, that
you would heal their bodies, heal their minds, make us strong
in the Lord Jesus Christ, settle us in him, Father. Lord, we pray
that you would bless your people, that you would provide for us,
help us to provide one for another, and that you would keep us in
the arms of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. That we would see
your work in us, Lord. And even when we don't, even
when we don't see rightly and are faithless, we pray that you
would remain faithful toward us and that you would keep us
and restore us in your Son. For it's in the hope of your
Son, Jesus Christ, that we pray. believing that he is able to
do all things for us. Amen. Let's stand and sing a closing
hymn, 291. Guide me, O Thou Great Jehovah.
291. O thou great Jehovah, pilgrim
through this barren land. I am weak, but thou art strong. Behold me with thy powerful hand. Bread of heaven, bread of heaven,
feed me till I want no more. Feed me till I want no more. Open now the crystal fountain
whence the still extreme doth flow. Let the fire and cloudy
pillar lead me all my journey through. Strong deliver, strong
deliver, be thou still my strength and shield. Be thou still my strength and
shield. When I tread the verge of Jordan,
did my anxious fear subside? Bear me through the swelling
current. Thank you.