Pardon? Do you have 3D? Yeah, you were going to cancel,
right? Yeah, I was going to, yeah. Unless you say otherwise,
but on the phone. I mean, I was canceling. Whatever
you decide, it's fine with us. Because I have a lot of people
coming on Tuesday, so I can't really move to Tuesday night.
Oh, really? That's fine. The rest. Right,
who else? Alexis. Alexis, Addie, and Dan. And Darla. Darla was canceling
on Sunday, actually. He's going somewhere. Oh, he's
going to his daughter. Driving out there. Where's his
daughter? She's now by Gabe. And then his
other daughter is coming there, or vice versa. I think Cindy's
coming into Kentucky to visit the other daughter. That's where
we're going to meet. Thomas? Yeah. I was never over where the church
is, but I went through one. I took a right to the east coast,
I went down that lower end. But it would seem nice in that
area there, but I can't focus north of us. Yeah, Tennessee
especially. I think all of us in Tennessee
really get a pretty mature state. Yeah, we actually ran the length
of it, really. Yeah, we came from the northeast
and going, when we go to Arkansas, we hit the whole country. They get warm of the gulf humidity
in the summer. That makes sense. Kentucky too. You get what? Kentucky too. Oh
yeah. They get snow too. In that one year they got like 8 inches
in the spring. Oh yeah. There were some days I didn't
even want to go outside, and I'm an outside person. I lived
here. Well, we lived at my dad's apartment.
Yeah. Good evening. Let's begin our
evening service by standing and singing 328. Close to the 328. Thou my everlasting portion,
more than friend or life to me. All along my pilgrim journey,
Savior led me walk with Thee. Close to Thee, close to Thee,
close to Thee, close to Thee. All along my pilgrim journey,
Savior, let me walk with Thee. Not for ease or worldly pleasure
Nor for fame my prayer shall be Gladly will I toil and suffer
Only let me walk with Thee Close to Thee, close to Thee Close
to Thee, close to Thee Gladly will I toil and suffer, only
let me walk with thee. ? Lead me through the veil of shadows
? ? Bear me your life's fateful sea ? ? And the gate of life
eternal ? ? May I enter, Lord, with thee ? ? Close to thee,
close to thee ? ? Close to thee, close to thee ? And the gate
of life eternal, may I enter, Lord, with Thee. Turn to page
356, near to the heart of God. There is a place of quiet rest
near to the heart of God. A place where sin cannot molest
near to the heart of God. O Jesus, blessed Redeemer, sent
from the heart of God, hold us who wait before Thee, near to
the heart of God. There is a place of comfort sweet,
near to the heart of God. A place where we our Savior meet,
near to the heart of God. O Jesus, blessed Redeemer, sent
from the heart of God, hold us who wait before Thee, near to
the heart of God. There is a place of full release
near to the heart of God. A place where all is joy and
peace near to the heart of God. O Jesus, blessed Redeemer, sent
from the heart of God. Hold us who wait before Thee,
near to the heart of God. Thank you. I would like to read Psalm 92.
Psalm 92. A psalm or song for the Sabbath
day. It is a good thing to give thanks
unto the Lord and to sing praises unto thy name, O Most High. to
show forth thy lovingkindness in the morning and thy faithfulness
every night, upon an instrument of ten strings and upon the psaltery,
upon the harp with the solemn sound. For thou, Lord, hast made
me glad through thy works. I will triumph in the works of
thy hands. O Lord, how great are thy works,
and thy thoughts are very deep. A brutish man knoweth not, neither
doth a fool understand this. When the wicked spring as the
grass, and with all the workers of iniquity do flourish, it is
that they shall be destroyed forever. But thou, Lord, art
most high forevermore. For lo, thine enemies, O Lord,
for lo, thine enemies shall perish. All the workers of iniquity shall
be scattered. But mine horn shalt thou exalt
like the horn of a unicorn. I shall be anointed with fresh
oil. Mine eye also shall see my desire on mine enemies, and
mine ears shall hear my desire of the wicked that rise up against
me. The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree. He shall
grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those that be planted in the
house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. thou
shalt still bring forth, they shall still bring forth fruit
in old age. They shall be fat and flourishing
to show that the Lord is upright. He is my rock and there is no
unrighteousness in him. Our heavenly merciful father,
we thank you for allowing us to come together again. Father,
we thank you also for your grace that you have shown unto poor
sinners that can't do anything for themselves. For Lord, thou
has called us out of nature's darkness and you have given us
that gift of faith whereby we can have at times peace for our
souls. Father, we thank you for your
full salvation. And Father, allow Brother Eric
in this evening to declare it once again to us. We thank you
for him and Michelle. Father, continue to go with them
and grant them, give them the strength that they need to continue
to labor amongst us. And Father, be with him this
evening. Allow him to declare the glorious
gospel, the Lord Jesus Christ to us. Give us hearts and give
us an appetite to hear. Remember Lord Johnny and Scott
as they sit home. You know their situation perfectly.
Comfort them, Lord, where they are, and bless their souls. And
Lord, could it be in the future again that they may be able to
worship with us here? Remember, Lord, all our loved
ones, wherever they are. You know all the situations perfectly. Continue, Lord, to bless us as
a local assembly. And Lord, could it be that this
gospel may be heard by others in this community? Continue,
Lord, to supply all our needs. For Jesus' sake alone, amen. Isaiah 43 and we're going to
look at verses 8 through 13 together. And in this chapter, we left
off last week where the Lord calls his people from all the
nations around, the North, the South, the East and the West,
wherever they've been scattered, because the Lord's people are
a scattered people when he calls them and gathers them to himself.
And the reason why the Lord is pleased to call these scattered
people of whom nothing good can really be said that is concerning
righteous or spiritual things. The reason why he calls them
is because he saves them by his grace. He's revealing to them
salvation by grace. And we saw that earlier, a couple
weeks ago, where we saw him creating his people and forming them for
himself. We saw as a result of him redeeming
them and then he called them. And what we saw is that these
are all the spiritual blessings of God which he pours out upon
us abundantly and freely in Jesus Christ. That's why we're blessed
with all spiritual blessings. It's because of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And so This evening what we see
is the Lord is pleased to not only save us spiritually and
gather us by his spirit and his gospel, but he makes us to grow
in the wisdom and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ,
whereby we are made witnesses of God. And that's what I've
titled this, God Makes Us Witnesses. And one verse I didn't quote
there, but about regarding our knowledge growing, it's in Philippians
1.9, where Paul says to the brethren, This I pray, that your love may
abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment. The Lord
calls us and he grows us in love and increases our knowledge and
our judgment, our sense of what the Lord is doing here and we
fall in love with him and we're made witnesses of our God who
has saved us freely by his grace. So I'm going to begin reading
with you in Isaiah 43 verses 8 and 9, but as we read it, I
want you to understand that there's two predominant views on this
verse. One supposes that the Lord is
challenging the worshippers of idolatry, those that worship
vain, false idols. And the Lord's calling them to
task here and challenging them to bring forth their witness.
And then the other view is that the Lord, what he's doing here
is gathering his people. Just as he says he's calling
them out from the nations, he's calling them now before him and
he's speaking to those that he's performed the operation of grace
in them, where he's given them life to see and to understand
him. they'll confess him by the grace
that he's given them. All right, so let's see this,
verse eight and nine. Bring forth the blind people
that have eyes, and the deaf that have ears. Let all the nations
be gathered together, and let the people be assembled. Who
among them can declare this and show us former things? Let them
bring forth their witnesses, that they may be justified. Or
let them hear and say, it is truth. And so, as we read these
verses, we can actually see that both are right, and to a certain
degree, both are right and correct. And that's because what were
we when the Lord called us? But heathen idolaters, dead in
trespasses and sins. Now, in the context of the chapter
the Lord had just said, look at verses five through seven
with me, And as you get towards the end of verse five, he says,
I will bring thy seed from the east and gather thee from the
west. I will say to the north, give
up, and to the south, keep not back. Bring my sons from far
and my daughters from the ends of the earth. Even everyone that
is called by my name, for I have created him for my glory. I have formed him, yea, I have
made him. And so, We see there the Lord's definitely
speaking of his people. He just said, I'm going to gather
and call my people out from all these nations, right? And then,
but the Lord called us, not because of any goodness, not because
of any righteousness, not because of anything that we can boast
in, that the Lord said, wow, look at that one over there.
No, the Lord called us while we were yet in darkness. when
we were as yet shut up in the prison, when we were bound in
the shackles of our sin and iniquity and separated from our God. And so we came forth dead in
trespasses and sins, but God quickened us. He gave us life. And so he's pleased now, having
done all this spiritual work of grace for his people, he's
gathered them through the calling of the gospel, through the preaching
of the gospel, he's calling them and revealing faith in them,
whereby they hear and they do show and testify, Lord, this
is true. This is right. What you've done,
what you've said, this is true. So when the Lord says in verse
8, bring forth the blind the blind people that have eyes and
the deaf that have ears, well by nature we know we are blind
and we are deaf. That's the description of scripture
for sinners. We are blind and deaf and you
can tell a self-righteous religious person very easily in declaring
that and preaching that when they justify themselves and they
make excuses to say that they're not blind and they're not deaf.
They have some knowledge or some kind of hidden knowledge, whether
it's considered religious or not, but they're trusting in
their wisdom and in their smarts and intelligence. And we see
that more and more today when you speak to people, maybe they're
not very religious, but they have a good understanding of
things that are going on and they're so certain of those things
and they won't hear the truth of God. They won't hear the gospel
because they're so confident in their education or their knowledge
of things. It's always some secret knowledge
man thinks he has, but we who are born of Christ's spiritual
seed, we're given eyes and we're given an ear that we may see
hear what he says. And that's why the Lord would
often say, he that has ears to hear, let him hear. Because the Lord is going to
distinguish between his people and those that are passed by,
those that are left to their own wisdom and the strength of
their own flesh. He's going to pass them by, but
those to whom the Spirit ministers are this word. They are given
ears to hear the ear of faith whereby they do hear what the
Lord says and they're going to receive it because he gives it
to them and they hear and they believe and they follow him.
And so when it comes to the believer, our confession is that Lord in
my flesh dwelleth no good thing. The Lord teaches us that. He
separates us from from boasting of ourselves. Out of our mouth
comes the confession that how to do that which is good, I find
not. I don't know how to be righteous
before God who is holy and perfect, in whom is no darkness nor shadow
of turning. I don't know how to worship God
who is a spirit and is truth. But being born of Christ's seed,
Though we see in ourselves weakness and failure and the inability
to do that which is spiritual and holy before God, we are brought
to confess, I thank God through Jesus Christ my Lord. We understand I'm the wretched
man. Who's going to save me? I can't
save myself. and the thanksgiving comes because
God reveals that to his people. He makes them to know that our
salvation, the hope of our salvation is in Jesus Christ. So we were
dead to his word, but now we hear him. And now hearing him,
we are led in paths of righteousness by our great shepherd, the Lord,
who calls us and we hear him and we're brought to know him
in spirit and in truth. All right, Isaiah 118 says, come
now and let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins
be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they
be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. And so this here in verse eight
and nine is a call that goes out to a scattered people. And it's the Gentiles, right,
those that were spiritually dead heathens caught up in idolatry
and scattered throughout Gentile lands." And this, that confirms
what the Lord has already said to us over in Isaiah 42 verse
1. We've been hearkened back to
that verse numerous times. Isaiah 42 verse 1 where the Lord
said, Behold My servant. look to him, look to my servant,
and he says at the end of verse one, he shall bring forth judgment
to the Gentiles. And so, when we hear this gospel,
and the Spirit is pleased to attend the preaching of that
gospel to give us light and life, we're gonna hear it, and we're
not gonna gainsay it for long. I mean, some hear it and the
Lord delivers them, and others hear it for a time, and a time,
and a time, and they gainsay against it, meaning that they
contradict it, they speak against it, they say it's not true. That's gainsaying, right? We see that now in the news,
really on social media a lot. If you're on social media, they
flag things now and they tell you this is disputed. Official
sources don't say that. But then you go to their official
sources and it's just another news site repeating what they've
said. So there's really nothing official about it. It's just
that they're gainsaying what's already said. That's a form of
gainsaying, right? Someone's speaking something.
And someone's just contradicting it and coming against it. Well,
that's what men have done against the gospel throughout all the
ages. Against the prophets whom the
Lord raised up, against those who spoke the truth, men and
women came up and gainspoke or gainsaid against it. They were
gainsaying, meaning they were contradicting it or speaking
against it, saying it's not true. We may do that for a time, until
the Lord comes with power and causes us to hear the truth,
and then we cease to gain say. against it and so eventually
we're going to give up our false witness right our confidence
and and the witness that that we've held to and we're going
to give that false witness up because our mouths are going
to be shut right we're going to cease to bear witness of my
righteousness or bear witness of why I'm justified or bear
witness of false things and our mouths are going to be shut to
those things because we're going to hear, and as the Lord said
at the end of verse 9, and say it is truth. We're going to be
brought to declare what God has said concerning me and concerning
his salvation, it is truth. And we'll take sides with God
even against ourselves in judgment against Ourselves in declaring
he's just he's he's what he says is true. Not what I say, but
what he says is true All right. So in the next point picking
up in verse 10 I want to look at our witness and well if if
our witness was false and we we no longer We're not standing
in that witness, right? The lord's brought us to see
that's not the the truth. We we cease with with that witness
Well, what does the Lord do? Well, through his grace, we begin
to declare, we begin to bear witness of him, of our God, of
our Lord and his glory. And so he says in verse 10, ye
are my witnesses, right? We're gonna hear and say it is
truth. And he says, ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and
my servant whom I have chosen. Meaning, we're the witnesses
of our God, and we bear witness of His servant, whom He's chosen. That ye may know and believe
me, and understand that I am He. Before me, there was no God
formed, neither shall there be after me. And so, we bear witness
of what our God has confirmed to us in His word. And that's
very different than what the wicked confirm, right? They don't
bear witness, they don't testify to God and His Word. Peter tells
us that in the last days there's gonna come mockers and scoffers
saying, where is the promise of His Word? For since the fathers
fell asleep, all things continue as they always have, right? And
Peter tells us, but they're willingly ignorant of the fact of the flood
that killed all men, saved Noah and his family, eight souls being
saved there in the ark. And so the Lord has promised
in His word and confirmed the promise of His word in many ways.
So His written word, it bears witness, it bears witness of
the truth of God, that He's the Lord, just as He declares that
He's the Lord. He spoke of, for one example,
he testified of his promises to Abraham. And he foretold Abraham
and his seed that they were going to go down into Egypt, that they
would be enslaved there. They would become a people who
were enslaved there, but that the Lord would deliver them.
he would visit them and deliver them and eventually he did. He
raised up Moses and he delivered the people out from their enslavement
in Egypt and we see this numerous times where he sent prophets
who told the people what should happen if they continued on in
their rebellion against God, that they would go into captivity,
and they went into captivity, but just as God also raised up
prophets to declare their deliverance, so they were delivered. And then
they were foretold of John the Baptist, and then John the Baptist
came and spoke of the coming of Christ. we see this where
the Lord promises in his word in numerous and all throughout
the scripture he gives us the promise of his word and declares
the truth to us and we have the benefit of having seen his promises
fulfilled and so when he testifies that The end is coming and what
shall be, we see those things. We have that testimony that everything
else he said up to this point has come to pass, just as he
said. So we believe him and we trust
him. And by his grace, we endure to
the end, whatever the end may be. And so we have those promises. Then God brought forth his Christ,
the promised seed, even as he promised. He sent prophets to
testify of Him. I'm going to read several scriptures
from the New Testament, so if you want to go there, it'll be
easier for you to get to these. In Luke 24, we'll primarily be
around the Gospels there and Acts. But in Luke 24, verse 25 through
27, on the road to Emmaus, Christ is speaking to two disciples. And he says, verse 25, then he
said unto them, O fools and slow of heart to believe all that
the prophets have spoken. Ought not Christ to have suffered
these things and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses
and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures
the things concerning himself. And so we see that Christ could
go to any scripture and reveal how it testifies of Christ, how
it spoke of his coming, the promise of his coming, that he should
suffer, right? And we too, right, if we go through
hard times, if we come into times of tribulation and hardships
and difficulties against ourselves, right, that come against our
confidence, our hope in Christ, we've already heard in his word
it's been promised that those who will live godly in this this
life will suffer persecution Paul told us that so it will
come as no surprise and from the testimony of his scripture
but Christ here could go to any scripture and declare the glory
that it spoke of him And he said that to the Pharisees in John
5.39, telling them, you search the scriptures, for in them you
think you have eternal life, and they are they which testify
of me. So all the scriptures testify,
they bear witness of Christ. And so the son himself is a witness,
and he's a witness of the will of God. He said in John 17, verse
4, there he is preaching, praying the high priestly
prayer and John was near enough to hear him and was blessed by
the Spirit to hear what Christ prayed and remembered that prayer
when he was writing his gospel. In John 17, verse 4, he heard
Christ say, I have glorified thee on the earth, I have finished
the work that thou gavest me. to do. And so everything that
Christ accomplished here in the flesh when he was here including
going to the cross all the miracles but especially going to the cross
and being buried and rising again it declares to us what the will
of God is. and that it testifies of His
will towards His people and the hope that He gives to us in His
Son. And Christ is confirming that,
I've done everything you gave me to do. In other words, this
is the will of the Father, that we should believe the Son, that
we should look to Him for life and trust Him. And then the Spirit,
the Spirit bears witness of the Son. And the Spirit's given to
his people to bear witness to us the truth of these things
and to bring to our mind in the hour of need the witness that
God has given to us, to affirm to us the hope that he's given
to us in Christ. John 15, if you're still there
in John, John 15, 26, Christ says to his disciples, But when
the comforters come, whom I will send unto you from the Father,
even the Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father, he
shall testify of me, or bear witness of me. And that's always
a good way, when you're speaking to religious people, because
especially with the things going on now, they get very religious. There's a lot of religious people
now. It's not hard to be religious,
but oftentimes most people are religious in the flesh. They're
not really looking to Christ and trusting him. And so they
don't bear witness of Christ. They bear witness of other things
and things not spoken of in the truth, or they twist scriptures
of the truth. And so the spirit will testify
of Christ. The spirit testifies of the Lord
Jesus Christ and so we know when it's the spirit speaking rather
than the spirit of the flesh speaking. And then over in Acts,
Acts 5, I'm going to come back to Luke
24 at some point, but Acts 5 verse 30, this is where the apostles
were bearing witness of Christ. They were told and forbidden,
don't speak in this name anymore. You're going to bring his blood
on our heads in the eyes of the people, don't speak in his name
anymore, and yet they were heeding the will of God to preach Christ
instead, even though the government said not to preach Christ. All
right, verse 30, the God of our fathers, they said, raised up
Christ, raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree.
Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a prince and
a savior for to give repentance to Israel forgiveness of sins. Now look at verse 32, Acts 5
32, and we are his witnesses of these things and so is also
the Holy Ghost whom God hath given to them that obey him. Alright, so we bear witness,
we're given this same witness, we're charged to bear witness
of Christ. Now that he is died for the sins
of his people, how he accomplished our redemption, and all who believe
on him have hope and confidence in him." Because we'll never
be ashamed trusting in Christ. We preach Christ and his accomplished
salvation. We're not here just to preach
church, to be moral, or to be good churchmen, or to be good
religionists. We preach Jesus Christ. He's
our hope. He's our confidence. And we trust
him to lead us and to teach us and to feed us by his own flesh
and his own blood. We are confident in our Lord. And so we bear witness of him.
Now back over in Luke 24, if you go there, Luke 24, we see
that this is exactly what our Lord reveals to us. This is exactly what he tells
us that we're to bear witness of. Luke 24, verse 44 now. So now this is after the road
to Emmaus, and this is where they've gone back to Jerusalem
and told the other disciples, the 11, that they've seen the
risen Christ. And now Christ enters that room
and he says to them, these are the words which I spake unto
you, verse 44, while I was yet with you, that all things must
be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses and in the
prophets and in the Psalms concerning me. Then opened he their understanding
that they might understand the scriptures. Right? we're encouraging
someone to read the scriptures, we probably oftentimes tell them,
look for Christ. I don't understand the scriptures.
I don't know what I'm reading when I read them. I don't understand
what they're saying. Look for Christ. They're all speaking
of Christ. They're all declaring Christ,
our need of him, who and what he accomplished for his people.
Look for him. And when the Lord opens our understanding,
we see him right even when we don't see it we believe that
it's speaking of him i don't know what it's saying except
that it's definitely speaking of christ there lord help me
to understand it and to see my savior and how he's fulfilled
all his word there all right and so he says verse 30 46 Verse
46, and said unto them, thus it is written, and thus it behooved
Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day,
and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in
his name among all nations beginning at Jerusalem. And then verse
48, and ye are witnesses of these things. This is what the Lord
calls us to be witnesses of, to preach Jesus Christ. right, to declare Him. And, you
know, even if we speak of things or things that we're seeing that
look concerning to us, it's never for the sake of those things,
but rather to show and reveal the urgency to look to Christ,
to behold Him, to seek Him, because He is salvation, right, not the
knowledge of the Bible, right, not the knowledge of the Ten
Commandments, not the knowledge of religious order, or not the
knowledge of good churchmanship, not the knowledge of morality,
not the knowledge of end times. We could be exact and right,
we could call things right about the end, but that's not salvation,
and we know that. Christ is salvation, because
we can be wrong on those things, and yet be covered by the blood
of Christ. And we have a good hope in Him. And we can be right about those
things. And if we're not covered by the blood of Christ, have
no hope. And come to nothing in ourselves. So our confidence
is Christ. And that's why we preach Him,
because He's our hope. And our confidence, right? He's
the witness. that we are called to bear witness
of. It doesn't mean that we don't give instruction on those things,
but we're bearing witness of these things because of Christ,
and we're always looking back to Him and trusting Him for His
salvation. Alright, and so Paul even said,
I'll just read this one verse, in Acts 20 verse 24, Paul said, we've been given his spirit to
declare this thing right here, to testify the gospel of the
grace of God. That's why we have his spirit.
That's why we're here, to testify of the gospel of the grace of
God. We're declaring Christ. That's
Acts 20, 24, if you want to look at it later. So, back in Isaiah
now, Isaiah, let's just look at verse 10 once more. Our God
has provided us with the witnesses, right? He's given us that which
we bear witness of. And he says that ye may know
and believe. This is what he's saying to you,
his church, whom he loves, whom he purchased with his own blood.
He says that you may know and believe me and understand that
I am he. Before me there was no God formed,
neither shall there be after me." No idol God that was formed
of man is ever going to prove to be God. None of the imagination
or the works of man is going to prove to be God. Only the true and living God
declares Himself from the beginning, from the very beginning, and
so we're witnesses of Him. We continue to be witnesses of
Him. We don't get off track and look to the gods of men. We continue
to bear witness of the true and living God. Now he further confirms
to us in verse 11 and 12, he says, I, even I, am the Lord,
and beside me there is no Savior. I have declared and have saved
and I have showed when there was no strange God among you.
Therefore ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord that I am God. So we bear witness of him because
he's the one who saved us, right? John 3, 16. tells us, for God
so loved the world, we Gentiles that were scattered throughout
the world, whom he has now gathered from the north, the south, the
east, and the west, God so loved the world that he gave his only
begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish
but have everlasting life. He's our Savior. He purchased
us, we that have no hope in this flesh, we that were idolaters
and have been given His Spirit whereby His power and grace,
we've forsaken those things and turned from those dead idols. And we now look to and believe
and confess the true and living God and His salvation. If there
was some other way, God would have spared His Son and He would
have given us that way whereby we could have been saved. Galatians
3.21 and 22, Paul says that there had been a law given which could
have given life fairly, righteousness should have been by the law.
And I would say that includes all other religions. If there
had been some other religion, some other path, some other way
that could have given life, then God would have given it. But
there clearly is no other no other means of obtaining eternal
life and acceptance with God. But the scripture hath concluded,
Paul said, all understand that the promise by faith of Jesus
Christ might be given to them that believe. And so man continues
in his paths, continues in his false religions, thinking that
these things give him life and hope with God. But we, hear the
word which says neither is there salvation in any other given
among men whereby we must be saved. There's no other name
under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. We must be saved by the blood
of Jesus Christ. Alright, then in verse 13, our
Lord declares to us, Yea, before the day was, I am he, and there
is none that can deliver out of my hand. I will work, and
who shall let it? Well, the day there is just like
what we saw when we were looking at our first study in John 1. in the beginning was the Word. And that day is also that first
day of creation. In the beginning, God created
the heavens and the earth. And what we saw there in the
study of John in 1.1, we saw that the beginning that he speaks
of isn't the beginning of eternity. It's the beginning of when God
purposed to manifest Himself in grace to His people by the
Lord Jesus Christ. In that beginning, when God determined
to be gracious to a people, He created the heavens and the earth,
and He created man upon it. And this was all done by the
Word who did this for His glory, honor, power, and praise. And so that's why That's the
day he's speaking of here. Before the day was, I am he. Before he ever began, he's eternal.
He's always God and never shall be. And he does not change. He
alone is God. We didn't create God. That's
a popular teaching. Men do create gods, right? They
create idol gods. But we didn't create God. God
created man for his own glory and power. So since the dawn
of day God has declared his glory and his creation. Paul had mentioned, because that
which may be known of God is manifest in them. For God hath
showed it unto them, for the invisible things of him from
the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood
by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead,
so that they are without excuse." And so our God is telling us,
as our Creator, He's giving us his word. He's bearing witness
of his word. And he raises up his church and
he gives them the gospel whereby they go out and they bear witness
of God among the people out in the world. And so he as our creator
is telling us these things because we're all going to stand before
him in the day of judgment. Romans 14.10 Paul says, We shall
all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written,
As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every
tongue shall confess to God. And that's what our Lord said
earlier in verse 9 of our text. Bring forth your witnesses. Testify. You know if and and you'll be
justified if you can bring forth your witnesses that will speak
for you All right, and what but but the Lord's people Who are
we going to testify of our works? things that we've done No, we're
gonna testify to our God and Savior of his righteousness. We're gonna stand before him
confessing Christ and we're gonna declare its truth and that's
why even now we are witnesses of Him, because man's either
gonna stand in the righteousness of Christ, in His hope, or they
stand before Him in that day in their own works, in their
own righteousness, so they think. And so the Lord says, there's
none that can deliver out of my hand. Right? There's wicked people in this
earth, and they seem to get away with many things, many wicked
things. But there is coming a day of
judgment for the wicked. And the Lord says, none can deliver
out of mine hand. And that's why we don't dare
come before the throne of God in our own robe of works. We
come in the righteousness, the righteous robe of Jesus Christ
dipped in his blood because we know he's testified to us. He's
holy, perfect. there's none like him and we
must be holy and perfect and without blemish without spot
and so we come before our God in the blood of the Lamb of God
so verse 13 then it says I will work and who shall let it all
right he's saying none's going to turn it away I'm going to
do exactly what I've determined and purposed to do, and none's
going to change my purpose and my will. Christ has fulfilled
all the will of the Father. Even Christ the Son didn't change
the will of God. It's been purposed since in eternity. God determined within Himself,
God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, what shall be,
and that's exactly what shall be. And so he's proved it, giving
us testimony in his word by the prophets, fulfilling that word,
declaring the end from the beginning by his son, by his spirit, by
giving this word to his apostles and the church who are witnesses
of our God. And so who's going to prevent
it from coming to pass? when God is purposed to do it.
None. So, I say these things to encourage
you, brethren, who believe God. Continue in that faith. Continue
looking to Him. Trust Him. Believe Him. For He
shall do it. He shall fulfill His Word. He's fulfilled everything up
to this point. He's going to fulfill it all the way to the
end and receive all the glory and praise. Every knee is going
to bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. And so we can be certain of it,
but those who don't believe are going to have an awful, awful
day on the Day of Judgment because none can deliver out of God's
hand but Christ. And Christ delivers His people.
righteousness and so we praise his name glory in the Lord Jesus
Christ and I pray he comfort your hearts with that word of
grace amen all right let's pray our gracious Lord we thank you
father for your grace your power your glory Lord we are so thankful
that you have done all the work that you have purpose to save
your people in your son, Jesus Christ. And Lord, we see that
all the glory goes to your name. For we were but idolaters, lost
in sin and in darkness, but Lord, you have delivered us in the
light and life of your son, Jesus Christ. We thank you, Lord. Help us. Indeed, fill us with
your spirit. and reveal this word in our hearts,
giving us ears that hear and eyes that see. Lord, though in
nature we're blind and deaf, we trust that you are able to
give your people life and that you deliver us from the snare
of the evil one and that we shall be safe in your arms. For Lord,
we trust not in our own righteousness. We want We trust nothing of our
own righteousness, but we trust in the Lord Jesus Christ alone.
So Father, we ask that you would watch over us, keep our hearts. We pray that you would bless
your people. Lord, you know our struggles, you know our sicknesses
and our weaknesses. We pray that your spirit would
overcome these things. And Lord, that you would bless
us to see how that you have already overcome the world that we may
have confidence in you to the end. It's in the name of Jesus
Christ that we pray. Amen. Okay, brother. Let's stand and sing a closing
hymn, 288. Wonderful piece, 288. And we're only going to sing
the first four verses. Away in the depths of my spirit
tonight grows a melody sweeter than song. In celestial-like strains it
unceasingly falls, o'er my soul like an infinite calm. Peace, wonderful peace, coming
down from the Father above. Sweep over my spirit forever,
I pray, in fathomless billows of love. What a treasure I have in this
wonderful peace, buried deep in the heart of my soul. So secure that no power can mine
it away, while the years of eternity roll. Peace, peace, wonderful peace,
coming down from the Father above. Sweep over my spirit forever,
I pray, in fathomless billows of love. I'm resting tonight
in this wonderful peace, resting sweetly in Jesus' control. For I'm kept from all danger
by night and by day, and His glory is flooding my soul. Peace, peace, wonderful peace,
coming down from the Father above. sweep over my spirit forever,
I pray, in fathomless billows of love. And methinks when I
rise to that city of peace, where the author of peace I shall see, That one strain of the song which
the ransomed will sing, in that heavenly kingdom shall be. Peace, peace, wonderful peace,
coming down from the Father above. Sweep over my spirit forever,
I pray, in fathomless billows of love. Thank you.