Yeah, I guess so. Yeah, I guess you will. Just give it,
you got about a minute and a half. That was an excellent tomato.
Oh, you want some more? That was good. That was good. That was excellent. Yeah. It's
been a long time since I had a tomato Yeah, that's pretty
good. It tastes better than mine. Yeah, those are terrible. This one I just picked today,
and I got more than I can really handle. Thank you. This is mine. Thank you. I got mine. Yeah,
OK. Let's see if I can share with you. I got one slice. Did you get one slice? She has
what? She has one slice. Maybe. Maybe. We'll have to see.
Are you OK with this one, Scott? Oh, yeah. It looks pretty. OK.
OK. No, it looks fine. You can keep that big one. No, no. OK, it's the little one.
All right, Scott, we're ready. We're ready? Good evening, everybody. Eric
just asked me to read some scripture before we get started, so bear
with me, my eyesight's not so great, so just bear with me here. I'm gonna read Galatians chapter
six. So turn with me to Galatians chapter six. And we'll read the entire chapter. Brethren, if a man be overtaken
in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit
of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou be also tempted. Bear
ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing,
he deceiveth himself. But let every man prove his own
work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and
not in another. For every man shall bear his
own burden, Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto
him that teacheth in all good things. Be not deceived, God
is not mocked. For whatsoever a man soweth,
that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh
shall of the flesh reap corruption. That he that soweth to the spirit
shall of the spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be
weary in well doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint
not. As we have therefore opportunity,
let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are
of the household of faith. You see how large a letter I
have written unto you with mine own hand. As many as desire to
make a fair show in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised,
only lest that they should suffer persecution for the cross of
Christ. For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the
law, but desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh.
But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and
I unto the world. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision
availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. And as many
as walk according to this rule, peace be unto them and mercy,
and upon the Israel of God. From henceforth, let no man trouble
me, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. Brethren,
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen. Let's pray. Father, Come to you again. Thankful this evening for our
time together. To be with brethren. Either in person or online father. Father, we're thankful that we
have the time together to hear. Your message, the message you're
going to bring to us tonight. Father, we ask that you watch
over. The pastor, the one that you've sent to bring that message.
Giving the words that you would have us to hear. And father,
we ask that you open our eyes, ears and hearts to hear the message. And Lord, we just ask that you
watch over and care for us in Christ's name. Thank you, brother. All right, it's good to have
you here this evening. Our text is in Isaiah 40, and
this evening I wanna look at verses 25 through 31 with you. Now this is a continuation of
the Lord's comfort to his people, those that are in captivity,
those that are in exile, those that are in the wilderness, if
you will, and they need the comfort and the help and the strength
of their God. And so this is to the elect people
of God, his people, he's comforting them, and we're to receive it
as we've been seeing the last few weeks in the context that
he says to behold your God. Look to your God, behold him
who is your salvation. And so the Lord's words here
tonight are meant to take our eyes off of ourselves, off of
our weaknesses, off of our infirmities and our struggles and our sorrows
and the heaviness of that burden. He's comforting us and he's calling
us to look away from self and mourning under the heaviness
of that burden and look to him, behold him, trust him, believe
him because he's promised us many great things in his son
Jesus Christ, and he shall fulfill all his promises to his people,
so that in our circumstances and situation, in the heaviness
that we feel and the burden that we have and the infirmity, the
sickness, the weakness of this flesh, even our sin, he says,
look to me, behold me, I've titled this message, The Faith of the
Stars. The Faith of the Stars. Now, at this point that we come
to, I wanna begin with verse 25, and we see that there's a
change. There was a verse similar in
verse 18, when we heard the prophet speaking, and he asks, to whom
then will ye liken God, or what likeness will ye compare unto
him? And what the Lord does is, at
this point, we no longer hear the voice of the prophet, but
now we hear the voice of our God, our God who says, look to
me, behold, your God. Look at verse 25. It's just like
what we saw in verse 18 when Isaiah was speaking, but now
here's the Lord, verse 25. To whom then will ye liken me? or shall I be equal? Sayeth the
Holy One." So you can see this isn't the prophet speaking, this
is now the Lord, or rather that we now hear the Lord's voice. When Isaiah was speaking, the
Lord had his preacher stripping down his hearers, right, stripping
us of any confidence in this flesh. He just sketched out the
whole glory of man and showed it to be nothing. and of no consequence
in the power and the glory of our God. He took his works and
showed them to be nothing, and he showed man to be an idolater,
right, who tries to save himself by his own creations, so that
all the works of man come up short, and the Lord showed us
there's no law that can be given to man that he can keep, He said,
Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, meaning there's not a sufficient
enough sacrifice or sin atoning sacrifice that we could make
with the things of this earth and this flesh that will satisfy
and appease the holy wrath and justice of our holy God. And so we're not gonna work our
ways out of this. We're not gonna make up a righteousness
by our own works and labor under the law. We're not going to be
able to save ourselves. And what the Lord is showing
us is that our works are not only insufficient, but they're
evil in God's sight. And so he teaches us that, stripping
us down from a hope and a confidence in self to behold our God, and
now we hear his word which says to us, to whom then will ye liken
me, or shall I be equal, saith the Holy One. We stop hearing
just the voice of a man, and we receive it as it is in truth
the word of God himself. We've heard him, we've seen him
now, and beheld his glory, and behold his glory, and bow before
him, and so what we actually see there in that transition
of phrase there is that the hearers who hear now the Lord, they've
been delivered. We've been set free from that
bondage that we are in this flesh. We're delivered and we now hear
his voice. And so there's none like our
God and there's none that we can liken him to. There is no
other God on this earth and it's certainly not us. And we know
that and willingly bow before him and accept it. Yes, Lord,
you. our God, and there's none like
you. Thank you, Lord, for what you've done in delivering me."
All right, and we see him then as the sovereign Lord. The Sovereign
Lord who saves us by His glory and power as it pleases Him,
as we hear in His Word, according as He hath chosen us in Him before
the foundation of the world, in Christ, that we should be
holy and accepted of Him in Christ, being cleansed by His blood. And this Sovereign Lord says
to us in Isaiah 44 6, I am the first, and I am the last, and
beside me there is no God. And so, in our text here, this,
our sovereign God, the only God who is, he directs us to look
to the sky in verse 26. So, Isaiah 40, verse 26, he says,
lift up your eyes on high and behold, who hath created these
things, that bringeth out their hosts by number, he calleth them
all by names, by the greatness of his might, for that he is
strong in power, not one faileth. Now there's a purpose here, which
we're gonna look at here in calling our attention to this. And we'll
probably come back to this, well we will, we'll come back to this
verse a little later, but at this point, He's speaking of
the host, which are the stars of heaven, and the point that
I want you to take at this point in time is that the stars are
fixed in their movement. If you've been looking at the
stars throughout your life and you go out on a dark evening
and there's not clouds and not a lot of light pollution from
the city, you've noticed that at certain times of the year
there are certain constellations in the sky, right? Whether it's
Orion's Belt or the Big Dipper or some other constellation,
Leo or something. Well, you know that these stars
are visible and they're always there in their season. You can
depend upon it. It's a constant. It's something
that the Lord has made to be very constant and something that
you can depend on. And all the stars, they do move
in their seasons except for one star. There's one star that does
not move, and that's the North Star. It sits over the North
Pole, and so all the other constellations move around that one star. And that North Star, Polaris,
they call it, it doesn't move, it doesn't change, it's fixed.
And so there's a certain constancy that we see in looking at the
stars and we see the order and the power and the glory of our
God who created the heavens and calls us to look to them to see
their constancy, to depend upon it, to know that it is just as
he's laid it out, just as he spread it out, that's how it
is. For all mankind, all our ancestors, they all saw the same
stars and the same constellations that we see today. After thousands
of years, we see the same constellations. And so it's a constant that we
can count on and not one faileth, he says. That's just what I want
us to see at this point of that verse. And so seeing that our
God, when he lays out a thing, when he's purposed to do a thing,
and then calls our attention to that, and we see its perfection
and its consistency and how it's not moved or changed, and he's
saying, that's how you look to me. I don't change. That's why
you sons of Jacob are not consumed, because I don't change, and I've
promised my mercy. and love and grace and tenderness
to those whom I love, to those whom I've cleansed for myself
with the blood of my own Son, with the blood of Jesus Christ,
shed for you to take away your sin, to make you righteous before
me and accepted of me, and I don't change. And so therefore, he
says in verse 27, now this is This reveals the infirmity of
our flesh, right? Because we know this and we can
relate to this next verse here. Isaiah 40, verse 27. Why sayest
thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, my way is hid from
the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God? That's what we say in exasperation
and in desperation, wondering, where's the Lord? Why am I going
through that which I'm going through? Why is this so heavy
and so hard, and I'm trying to do what is right and acceptable
to the Lord and pleasing to Him, and yet I'm always brought to
the end of myself, and it doesn't work out the way I think it should
work out. And it would be excellent if it worked out the way I think
it should work out, but it doesn't. And why is this, right? And so
it reveals the infirmity of this flesh. We know our God is faithful,
we've heard his gospel word, and we believe him. And yet we
don't believe him, right? We doubt, and we struggle, and
we fear, and we're afraid often at many things. And he's saying,
why do you doubt me? Why do you doubt me when you
see how faithful I am? And so it exposes the bondage
and the infirmity of this flesh. And it shows us, it shows us
that this flesh isn't getting better, this flesh isn't progressively
improving or getting better. We grow in the spirit, we grow
in grace and in the knowledge of our Savior and we see by His
experience and bringing to light what we're going through according
to His Word, we grow in Him, and we grow more confident in
Him. But this flesh is still ever
a birder, and it's always trying to do what the flesh will do.
The flesh is is a deceitful working, it's a deceitful thing, and it's
no friend to the believer, it's an enemy to the believer, and
it works all manner of evil, except that the spirit, we're
the spirits now, we have the new man by whom we walk and look
to and pray, Lord help me, don't let me be that, what I would
be in Adam, if it were not for your grace and mercy, Lord keep
me serving and walking in faith, looking to you, and so he's exposing
to us the bondage, the infirmity of this flesh, the weakness of
this flesh, and what we are in Adam, right, and showing us that
it's not by our works of righteousness that we're saved, it's really
truly by his grace and mercy to us abundantly shown according
to his riches in Jesus Christ. Because we see that we are all
sinners, dead in trespasses and in sins, right? That's us naturally
and that's this flesh until Christ returns and redeems that which
he's purchased and raises us again, giving us a new body,
right? To stand and worship him in. But until then, this body's decaying
and it's corrupt and it's a trouble. It's a trouble, right? And we
see it in the weaknesses of the body and how it breaks down,
which is just a picture of what we are in our thoughts and natural
heart and just our deeds and what we would do if God doesn't
constrain us and cause us by his spirit to walk in paths of
righteousness for his name's sake. And so it's in Christ that
we're a new creature, a new creation, right? Born again of his incorruptible
seed, right? That which cannot be corrupted
the way Adam was corrupted in all his seed in him fell in him. not in Christ. His seed is incorruptible
so that in the new man, we cannot sin. The new man doesn't sin. This flesh sins, but the new
man is perfect and ever believes God and ever trusts Him and ever
looks to Him. It's this flesh that's weak and
sinful and deceitful. But we walk by faith. That's why we, that the just
shall live by his faith, Habakkuk said, right? The just shall live
by his faith because when we look here, we're gonna see felons. We're gonna see how we stumble
and how we've sinned against our brethren. By the light of
the spirit teaching us, we'll even see where there's self-righteousness
and deception of our own selves and thinking that we're something
when when we're really nothing before our God. So we see how
constantly the Lord's delivering us to walk in a right spirit
toward our brethren and in love and to not be hard and judgmental
of our brethren because we need that same grace and mercy that
they need. And so the Lord shows us and
he teaches us that as well. The weakness of this flesh, the
point that I'm getting at is that the weakness of this flesh,
when we're murmuring and complaining under the trial of faith that
we're going through, or the fiery trial, or the affliction, or
tribulations, or sufferings and sorrows, the weakness of the
flesh is to look at the flesh, to look at itself and to look
at its circumstance and say, Why is this happening to me?
And what's going on? And why is it so painful? And why does it have to be this
way? And so we're looking at ourselves
and our situation, and that in and of itself just becomes a
burden and a sorrow. But the Lord has a purpose in
it. And when we're going through
those difficulties, like Judah and Israel who were in captivity,
Israel first went into captivity with Assyria, and then Judah,
and probably those in Assyria, went into captivity into Babylon
as well. And so he's saying to them, don't
look at this, trust me who's promised deliverance to you,
that I am your God, that I love you, and that I'm working in
this. He's purposed this trial that
you're going through, and the heaviness of the burden in measure
according to the faith which He's given you. And though it
feels heavy, and it causes you to look to Him in faith, trust
Him because that's why He's given it to you, to keep you ever looking
to Him, lest we begin to think, I got this, I got this now, I
got this holiness thing down now, and I know how to walk before
the Lord and do what I'm supposed to do. Oh, do you? And then we
see, again, something comes in, and by the grace of God, we see,
being stripped, when the Spirit bloweth upon it, and it withers
this, the flower of this flesh, like the flower of the field,
right? Because the Spirit of God bloweth
upon it. It's in His mercy, in His gospel,
He's blowing upon it and teaching us and stripping us down of those
things which puff us up in knowledge and puff us up in the works that
we think we're doing that are so good. And so he calls us,
don't look to self, don't look at the heaviness of this burden,
you look to me who promises your deliverance, who's promised you
already that you have in my son eternal life and you shall never
perish. You look to Him and trust Him.
So that's why He asks us, Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest
thou of Israel? My way is hid from the Lord,
and my judgment is passed over from God. And so the reality
is that these trials shall indeed work good for us, they work good
for us, right? All things work together for
good to them that love God, to them who are the called according
to his purpose. And so we have a confidence in
him that these trials and afflictions that we go through are indeed
appointed of God. They have a purpose, whether
we come to see them or not, they have a purpose which glorifies
him. Paul writing to the Thessalonians,
said in the first letter to them, chapter three, verse three, that
no man should be moved by these afflictions, for yourselves know
that we are appointed thereunto. All right, we're appointed to
these things. Each one of us are appointed to them, and the
Lord teaches each of us as he's then using us in the body, right,
to minister and to comfort and to help one another, even as
we've been comforted by the God of all comfort. And so the Lord's
lifting up our eyes off of self, and off of our circumstance,
and what we're experiencing, and reminding us that the one
who created the stars, and you see the constancy of them, and
how they don't change, that's the one who's promised us in
his word that he is in control of all things, and ordered, just
as he's ordered all those things as they happen, So he's ordered
everything in our life and appointed these things unto us for his
purpose. All right, and so Paul would
say to the Corinthians, 2 Corinthians 12, 10, he said, therefore I
take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities,
in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake. For when I
am weak, then am I strong. All right, so Paul learned that
through the teaching of the Holy Spirit, he learned that and was
given a spirit whereby to believe God, right? He trusted and believed
the Lord and that's why he saw that and why he wrote that under
the power of the Spirit, which we now read and are comforted,
because where would we be if all we saw was the perfection
of the apostles and the early church? We'd really be frightened
then, but now we see that they too were weak and infirmed with
many sorrows, and yet they trusted the Lord, and they were weak,
and they saw how infirm they were, and yet they were made
to, through the preaching of the Word, made to look away from
self and trust. Lord, you know this, you know
what you're doing, and this is appointed, and it has a purpose,
which is unto your praise and glory and honor. And that's hard
for us, especially, I think, as the younger generations go
especially I think it's hard for us you know as everything
comes to our hands so quickly you know today and things just
get faster and faster and faster and we want to have what we want
sooner because we get so used to that and yet when we don't
find that deliverance there's patience that we're learning
in that and that's a good thing for us to learn. Alright so after
asking after asking us, why don't you believe me? Why don't you
trust in me, look to me? He says in verse 28, he asks,
hast thou not known? Hast thou not heard that the
everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth,
fainteth not, neither is weary? There is no searching of his
understanding. And so he asks these questions,
the one from verse 27, why are you doubting? And then asks us,
you know, haven't you heard? Haven't you heard my voice? Haven't
you heard my gospel? And so through these questions,
he's provoking us to thought, to step back and consider and
to take that time to think upon the Lord and to pray to him,
right? To cry out to him and to pray
to him because When we are humbled, we do pray. When we have no way
out, that's when we begin to cry out to Him for mercy and
for help. I find in myself that as long
as there's something I think I can do, I do it. Until I find
there's nothing more I can do and I come to myself as the prodigal
son, came to himself and realized, what am I doing here? Why am
I... living like a slave to my sin
and my flesh when my father is the king. And he'll nourish me
and feed me and strengthen me. And so that's what he's doing.
He's bringing us to see our nothingness in ourselves, all right? And
so the Lord ministers to our heart with power and grace through
the Spirit of God, and he's the one that then makes it effectual
in our hearts that we do hear it, and that we, like Paul, learn
to appreciate what the Lord is doing. Even though it's painful
to the flesh, I can't think of any trial that my flesh was rejoicing
in, but in the new man I was made to see how the Lord, in
that humbling, stripping time, was delivering me from the love
of this world and bringing me to the love of the Father, causing
me to see my need of Him and to not be blessed in the world
and to gain riches and successes in the world. I'm thankful for
all those shut doors and closed windows and delivering me, causing
me to fall and to stumble in many ways, all to deliver me
and bring me to nothing in this world, that I might not have
my part and inheritance in this world, but find my hope and my
joy and peace in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what he's
doing. That's why he's He's teaching
us through His Word, and He does that. That's why we gather together,
and why we spend so much time hearing the Word of God, because
we need to hear the Gospel. And we see and understand how
we need to hear the Word preached, because it's through that foolishness
of preaching, when we're silenced and still, And not just running
and doing, but when we're sitting and hearing what the Lord is
teaching us, and what He's showing us. Because we do have questions,
and we do have doubts and fears, and I trust that a lot of you
oftentimes are praying, Lord, what do you want me to hear in
this? What are you teaching me here
through this trial? And then you come and you hear
the word, and you're comforted again. You know, there's been
times, I know for myself, so I believe it's true of many brethren,
many of my brethren, if not all, that, you know, we're in the
world and we're so busy and caught up, and like, ah, gotta go to
services now, and gotta stop everything, and your mind's racing
and busy, and yet how many times has the Lord then in that stillness,
in the preaching of the gospel, used it so that you're brought
to see, ah, this is exactly where I need to be. This was good for
me to be here, and Lord, I don't know how you did it, but you
took my mind off of that stuff, and you set it upon Christ, and
thank you, Lord, thank you. So we're, he does it through
the preaching of his word, and he's the one that sends it to
the people, to his people, to declare to them again who he
is and what he, has done for them and what He is doing for
them in Christ according to His Word and the promises which He's
given to us freely and abundantly in Christ Jesus our Lord and
Savior. And so it brings us to stop praising
and glorying in self or in this world and to praise His name
and glory in Him and honor Him in our thoughts toward Him and
as we think of things ourselves. And we want to then glory and
praise Him when we're speaking to one another, and then even
when we're dealing with friends and family who don't believe,
or other acquaintances. When our hearts and minds are
taken up with Him, there's a readiness to speak to others of what Christ
has done. And we ought to always be ready,
in season and out of season, to give a reason for the hope
that we have. When we're fed and nourished and strengthened
in the new man, then we're willing and ready to speak to others
of what Christ is doing in us and in his kingdom and establishing
it here in the earth, that is to bring in his people, to gather
them in before the great and final day of judgment. He's delivering his people to
himself. By this word and work, the Lord
is defeating his enemies and the enemies of his people. And
what I mean by that is, the evil one, the enemy, the serpent in
the garden, he deceived Adam. He tried to tell Adam that he
would be free, that he would be like God, and he could cast
off his bondage of being a servant of righteousness and of God. But what happened? He was deceived,
and he became the servant of sin. He became in bondage to
sin and death, and he died spiritually and died. That fellowship with
God was severed, and he died spiritually in that very moment
that he rebelled against God. And so, that's where many people
are, right? They reject the Word of God.
They've heard, but they don't believe it. because they think,
well, I don't want that, and they think that they're choosing
freedom and liberty to do what they want, when they want, how
they want to do it, and they don't see that they're actually
embalmed. I mean, all we do is just look
out in the world. I mean, I don't know about you,
but I've seen just things the last few days that it's just,
it's so violent and so, just so wicked that what people are
doing to one another, even in our own country right now, and
killing and harming innocent people. Innocent, you know what
I mean, like people that didn't do anything to provoke them,
and yet they're harming them, and that's bondage. That's just bondage to sin and
death, and that's what we've become in Adam, and that's not
liberty. That's not liberty at all, right? That's the sin of which entered
into the world by one man and death by sin. And so death passed
upon all of us because all have sinned." We've all sinned in
Adam, Romans 5, 12. And so this is that death and
that bondage and that destruction which our God is saving us from
because he's going to punish sin. He's going to deal with
it and all things will justly be paid. The debts will all be
paid out. justly and perfectly, and so
he's saving us from bearing that penalty in our Savior. He has saved us and is saving
us, and Christ himself bore that penalty, and that's why all who
believe in him have the remission of sins, the deliverance from
the penalty of sin, because Christ, and I know it's hard to believe,
but Christ paid that penalty. He bore that wrath of God that
was due to each of us for our individual sins, many sins, and
he bore them in the room instead of each one of his people, cleansing
them and delivering them so that we are now spotless before our
God, and faultless before his throne, he tells us. And so,
the Lord is delivering us, from that, and that's why in his wisdom
he continues to allow us to go through the trials that we go
through. Through those exiles and the
captivities that we come into in our flesh, even our sins,
he allows these things and brings us into those things all in display
of his power and of his wisdom. when we see Him delivering us
from those things, and how even in spite of those things, right,
because we don't always get delivered out of some of the infirmities
and the burdens that we have, and yet we're delivered in Him
through a peace that we have, that our God is in control, and
that He's given it, and that His grace is sufficient for us,
right, and it's hard. but we know how he's able and
he does that. So we're thankful and he does
it to display his power over the bondage that we're in and
sin, which is pictured in the physical trials and infirmities
that we have in our lives. And so we're brought by power
into his light to behold his glory and his deliverance and
what he's done for us in Christ, right? Because it's our standing
in him seated in the heavens with Christ, not here. This is
as though. Why as though still living in
the world are you subject to these things? We're in the presence
of our God in Christ even now. And so it's in the light and
glory of our Savior and revealed in the face of Jesus Christ.
And so then we become his willing servants, even in the midst of
the trials. And I like what Paul said in
Romans 6, I'll look at, it's four verses, so if you wanna
turn there, Romans 6, verse 20. All right, Romans 6, 20 says, for
when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.
For what fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now
ashamed? For the end of those things is
death, right? If we were to continue in those
things, if the Lord left us there in that darkness, that's death,
right? And what the world is fully steeped
in, right? They don't, they look at the
adulterous whore, the false church and all the sins that this world
loves and delights in, and they don't realize that the inhabitants
of her house are dead. They're in death. They're in
hell right now, you know, and they don't see that, but we see
that, and so we're thankful to be delivered from that. But now
being made free, verse 22, being made free from sin and become
servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the
end is everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death,
but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our
Lord." All right, and so in this mystery of godliness, which is
revealed to us in Christ, that's where the mountains, right, as
we saw earlier in Isaiah 40, the mountains of our pride are
brought low in Him. In our sorrows, the valley the
depth of the valley of our sorrows and suffering, that's all raised
up when it pleases the Lord. And Him, He raises us up. He
lifts up our head to behold Him and to look to Him. And our crooked
ways, our crooked sins, they're made straight in Christ. And
the rough places are all made smooth in our Savior. Even those rough places and difficulties
are made smooth in Christ. And so we see the grass withereth,
Isaiah 40 verse 8, the grass withereth, the flower faded,
but the word of our God shall stand forever. And so he says,
behold your God, because all these things are all ordained
of our God. Every weakness we see, every
sorrow we endure, every burden we bear, it's all of our God
working together for our good, making us to know our deliverance
in Christ, and that it's all by His hand. We're not going
to see ourselves. That's why oftentimes as we grow
in experience and in the grace of God, the trial seemed to go
on much longer than they used to, right? Because he's showing
us beyond a shadow of a doubt, you didn't do this to deliver
yourself. I did it, I did it. And where those things don't
go away, it's because his grace is sufficient for us. And we
see that, right? So we're brought to see, Lord,
I know you've got this all under control. Just like you've ordered
everything, you've ordered even the fine details of my life,
and it's all to your glory and praise. And He makes us to bow
in our hearts, as well as our physical need, before our God
and give Him all the glory and praise for it, right? Sometimes
it's just with a careless mouth we say that, but there are times
when He brings us by the Spirit to say it, right? And confess
to Him, Lord, You're God, and I'm nothing. And we're thankful
to him for that, ultimately. Even though it hurts in the flesh,
we thank him for it and praise him for it. All right, now verse
29. We see this. He giveth power
to the faint, and to them that have no might, he increaseth
strength. All right, and this verse is
just affirming what we just talked about. You know, in this flesh,
we don't see, we don't hear, we don't know. We don't know
these things, but his spirit reveals them to us so that it's
not by the spirit of this world, but the spirit of God that he's
given to us, whereby he reveals the things of God to us. And
so, in his wisdom, he strips down that rebellion and that
self-righteousness and the haughty spirit that's in our flesh, right,
and what we are in Adam, He strips it down and makes us weak in
the flesh, makes us nothing in ourselves. I mean, there's times
when we're so ashamed just in things we've done and do and
brought to nothing. And it hurts, but the Lord's
doing it for us. for His glory, praise, and honor,
and it's gonna be to our glory, right? For us to behold Him and
to worship Him. He's gonna deliver us from this
death, just as He has delivered us from this death, and He's
gonna bring us to Himself. And so when we faint there in
self, we're made to know, all right, this is what I've done,
but behold, my God, what He has done in mercy and in grace, all
right? He giveth power to the faint,
and to them that have no might he increaseth strength." So that's
why we see when I'm weak, when I'm weak, when I'm stripped down,
like Paul said, that's when I'm strong. We begin to delight in
those things because we see again and again, Lord, you're delivering
me, you're delivering me from this death in this world. This is the proper frame of mind
that we're to have, right? This is our God bringing us to
this by his spirit. And go over to Ephesians 3. I
wanna read this with you. Paul, again, who we know had
this spirit, he writes this in Ephesians 3, verse 16. We'll read down to verse 19 together.
This is after he's shown us that it's the spirit, it's Christ
that's removed that middle wall of partition between us and the
Gentiles and the Jews that we could fellowship together because
we're all saved one way. We're all sinners saved by his
grace in Christ. And he says in Ephesians 3.16
that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to
be strengthened Just as we're seeing in our text, to be strengthened
with might by his spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell
in your hearts by faith, that ye being rooted and grounded
in love may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth
and length and depth and height and to know the love of Christ
which passeth knowledge that ye might be filled with all the
fullness of God. And so, I really believe that's
what Paul is saying is what we're seeing in our text, that yeah,
we're stripped down, yeah, these trials and afflictions are heavy
to the flesh, but it's passing, through Christ is passing that
knowledge by His Spirit whereby we know in glory in our infirmities,
knowing that when I'm weak, then I'm strong, that I'm not some
mighty warrior of the earth, but that we are made faithful
to Christ as his servants in love and in service to one another
and seeing how we make serve others to minister this gospel
and not fight as this world would fight and does their thing and
so full of hatred now and coldness. And so we don't want to go down
that road. And I know in the flesh we get
provoked, but the Lord delivers us and says, look to me, behold
me, these things must be, these things that you see out there
and the sin against Man against man, these things must be, it
must be so, but you look to me and minister my gospel just as
it's been ministered to you, right? And then he says in verse
30, even the youths shall faint and be weary and the young men
shall utterly fall. And so he's assuring us that
all that strength that you see in this world, all the enemies
of God, their strength's gonna fail, especially in that day
of judgment. And they're going to melt away
and they're gonna tremble and be afraid and God will deal with
them in that day and they will not stand. But verse 31, they
that wait upon the Lord, shall renew their strength, they shall
mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary,
and they shall walk and not faint." Now, this waiting upon the Lord
is a continual waiting, right, and it's an unnatural waiting,
meaning it's not of this flesh, it's of His Spirit, and it comes
by revelation and the quietness of the Spirit, so that we're
waiting upon Him. We're breathing out prayers,
Lord, please deal with this wickedness in the earth. Bring justice.
Don't let the foundations be destroyed. Bring your justice
or deal with these things and cause those that are committing
crimes against people so carelessly, without punishment, with impunity. Judge them, Lord, and cause this
to stop here and for innocents to be hurt in this way. were to wait upon Him, right?
The Lord's the one that's gonna strip down the youth and the
vigor of this world, and He's going to deal with them, but
you wait upon Him, and the Lord will refresh you and comfort
your hearts, right? As James would say, I'll read
it, let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect
and entire, wanting nothing. James 1.4, right? this weight upon the Lord, it's
a constancy, it's a constant weighting, it's a continuous
weighting, looking to Him, beholding your God, right? And so, what
the Lord by His Spirit is doing is He's making us, He's giving
us a constancy, He's making us to constantly look to Him, right? It's a constance in our faith
and in our hope of Him. And I don't mean that we're never
weak, or unbelieving, but what I mean, we see the shame of our
own faithfulness toward Him who is unfailingly faithful to us
in all things, right? When we look to us, we see with
shame our unbelief and our doubts and our fears. But what I mean
is that we'll never succumb to death. We'll never be overcome
by the evil ones that we fall away. and die in our sins, meaning
that no one will take us from Christ. We're Christ's, and we're
his sheep, and he will keep us. Though we feel it in ourselves,
very close to death, but the Lord delivers us, and he sustains
us, and keeps us. John 10, 27 and 28, he says,
my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, continually
they follow me, and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall
never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand."
Now, this constancy is something that's given to us, right? The
Lord teaches us this constancy, He reveals it to us by His Spirit,
and this brings us back to what we saw earlier in verse 26. I didn't say a lot on it there,
I wanna see it now, just with that constancy that we saw in
the stars, and now we're talking about that constancy with which
we wait upon the Lord. And he said in verse 26, lift
up your eyes on high and behold, who hath created these things
that bringeth out their host by number, right? This is a reference
to the stars in heaven, right? He calleth them all by names
by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power,
not one faileth." And so what I would have you see there in
this passage is that those stars in heaven, they're a metaphor,
they're a picture of us, brethren, the church, the bride of Christ,
those who are ordered by the Lord, those who are fixed of
him there in the heavens, shining brightly, ever looking to the
Lord himself. And so he's calling, he's saying
to you that are down here, he says, lift up your eyes, look
up to the heavens and look at the stars there. Behold, the
stars there, right? And what does that remind us
of? He did the same thing to Abraham, right? He did the same
thing to Abraham. Actually, it's in Genesis 15,
If you wanna see it with your own eyes, I'll let you get there.
Genesis 15, verse five and six. All right, so in Isaiah 40, verse
26, he says to us, lift up your eyes on high. And then in Genesis
15, five, he brought Abraham forth abroad and said, look now
toward heaven. All right, Genesis 15, verse
five. Look now toward heaven and tell
the stars, if thou be able to number them. And he said unto
him, so shall thy seed be. And Abraham believed in the Lord,
and he counted it to him for righteousness." And so we are
those stars, right? The constancy of those stars
is a picture, both the stars and the constancy of them, is
a picture of us who, like Abraham, who are his seed, look to the
Lord and believe Him, are waiting, a constancy, a waiting, a continual
waiting upon the Lord, which we're not taken from. We continue
to wait upon Him who has promised in His word that we are indeed
His people. And so He says, they that wait
upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up
with wings as eagles, They shall run and not be weary, and they
shall walk and not faint." So that this work of faith is of
the Lord. He's given it to us. That fruit of righteousness is
a gift of God by the Spirit, whereby we believe Him, just
like Abraham. And it's accounted unto us for
righteousness, not our faith, not of the flesh, but of his
spirit, which looks to him who is our righteousness, the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's our righteousness, and it's
by that that gift of faith that we behold Him, behold our God
and trust Him and believe Him in spite of what we see and the
weakness of this flesh. And so we behold our Savior who
died for me, right? For each of you on the cross,
seeing you and doing that work for you and giving up the ghost,
shedding His blood, and bearing the wrath of God in your place,
in my place, to make us clean before the Lord, to make us faultless
before our God, to stand before His throne in that day, faultless
and cleansed, and to have no judgment and condemnation, which
the sons of Adam will have. We're the sons and daughters
of Christ, and so in Him, we have His inheritance, and so
we look and understand, He died for me. He was buried for me,
and He was raised again for my justification. That's His promise
to us. Believe Him. And so, that's where
we're looking, is Christ ever waiting, trusting, knowing He's
given His word. He says, I'm coming again for
you, and we believe Him, that He shall return and save us.
That's the faith of the stars, right? That's the faith of the
sons and daughters of Abraham, just like Abraham, given that
faith of God to look to him and to believe him, who is our righteousness
himself. And so all the host of heaven
believes Christ and the promises of God in him. And so these are
the many that are made righteous, right? Romans 5, 19. These are
the many that were ordained to eternal life and believe. Acts
13, 48. The many for whom Christ gave
his life a ransom for. Matthew 20, 28. And so I pray
the Lord take this word and that he renew your strength, right? That he enable you to mount up
upon the wings of his faith, right? And the spirit and his
faith are given to us, right? Isn't that how Revelation 12
describes that the church was given two wings with which he
fled into the wilderness, and we're in the wilderness now.
We have the Spirit and the faith which He's given to us, and it's
for our nourishment and preservation and comfort here in this wilderness
till the Lord return for His bride. So believe Him, wait upon
Him, wait upon Him, keep looking, keep hoping, keep believing,
keep trusting Him, and in your constancy and waiting upon your
God, that the Lord would enable you to run to Christ and not
grow weary. You won't grow weary and fall
short of the promise. You'll run and reach the end,
which is Jesus Christ, in that we even now walk in paths of
righteousness and not faint. So I pray the Lord, bless that
word and comfort your heart, because that's what this chapter
is. It's a word of comfort to you here in this captivity, in
this exile, in the flesh, waiting and looking till our God and
Savior returns for us. So, amen. All right, brethren,
let's close in prayer and then we'll be dismissed. Our gracious Lord, we thank you,
Father, for your tenderness and kindness that you should comfort ones such as us who have nothing,
no righteousness of our own to give or offer to you. But Lord,
we come with no righteousness of our own, but the righteousness
of Jesus Christ alone. He's our all. We believe you,
Lord, that he is sufficient to save us to the uttermost, that
he has sanctified us and justified us and made us pure in your sight,
even as he is pure in your sight and perfect and holy. And Lord,
help us be our strength, Lord, when we have need of it, Lord,
don't let us be built up in pride and arrogancy in this flesh,
but Lord, keep us. And we pray for your grace, for
your mercy and patience, and that you would teach us by your
spirit and cause us and enable us to keep hearing your gospel
and to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ. And Lord, We are troubled when
we see the things that are currently going on in our country and just
the coldness and the violence of man. And Lord, we
ask that you would keep your people, that you would protect
us, put a hedge about us, keep us in Christ. And Lord, help
us to minister, grow us in your grace and help us to minister
this gospel and to call out your elect, which are yet in darkness,
and see them brought into the light. Lord, because we pray,
we want to see you come again soon. It's in the name of our
Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, that we pray this, amen.