Okay, we're going to begin. All right, and before I begin,
let me just say that we did reach out to Tom with Nixa Senior Center,
and we asked about being able to meet there, when we can meet,
when they were going to open that up. And we don't have a
definitive answer yet for when we're going to be able to meet,
probably at least middle of May before they open it up to us,
and it might even be June. That being said, Joe and Joanne
have opened a portion of their house to us, the barn, actually,
where there's enough room for us to meet with some good distancing
between us. And so let me just say, and I'll
repeat it again, I'll send out an email, maybe it'll be in the
bulletin or with the bulletin, but that, you know, if you're comfortable,
you can come. It'll be at 11 o'clock. We'll
have just one service for now just to see how things go there. Uh, so it'll be at 11 a.m. there and we'll, we'll meet together,
see how it goes. And then we'll, we'll regroup
and see whether or not we can expand it or when and or hopefully
get into the community center sooner rather than later. Um,
so again, that'll be at Joe's and Joe and Joanne's meeting
in their barn. And so if you're able to, that's
great. We don't necessarily have a great setup for the children
necessarily, but we'll see what we can do there. And I'll try
and give you more information about that. Okay. Now we're going to be in Isaiah,
Isaiah 32. We're going to, let's pick up at verse 15. This
will be our text actually. Verse 15 to the end of the chapter,
and we'll actually read verse 1 of chapter 33 as well. Until the Spirit be poured upon
us from on high. Remember the Lord was talking
about our flesh, how we are dead in trespasses and sins, unable
to please the Lord in anything that we do. the truth of the
Lord, until the spear be poured upon us from on high, and the
wilderness be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted
for a forest. Then judgment shall dwell in
the wilderness, and righteousness remain in the fruitful field,
and the work of righteousness shall be peace, and the effect
of righteousness quietness and assurance forever. And my people
shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in
quiet resting places. When it shall hail coming down
on the forest, and the city shall be low in a low place, blessed
are ye that sow beside all waters, that send forth thither the feet
of the ox and the ass. Woe to thee that spoilest, and
thou wast not spoiled, and dealest treacherously, and they dealt
not treacherously with thee. When thou shalt cease to spoil,
thou shalt be spoiled, and when thou shalt make an end to deal
treacherously, they shall deal treacherously with thee. Let's
pray. Our gracious Lord, we thank you,
Father, for your grace and mercy. Lord, in your kind providence,
you have taken care of your people, providing for them, doing all
things for our good according to your purpose. Lord, we thank
you for your grace which you have poured out upon us in your
Son, Jesus Christ. Though we ourselves are unworthy
sinners, that we have done nothing to earn Your favor or to keep
Your favor. But Lord, we thank You that You
are merciful, that You are kind, gracious, and that You pour out
Your spiritual blessings upon us through Your Son, Jesus Christ.
We pray for Your people. Lord, You know all things. You
know the things that we are dealing with and struggling with. Lord,
even our inability to see loved ones or to go a long time without
being able to see them, we pray that you would comfort your people
and keep them. We pray, Lord, that you would
bless those that are ill, give them strength, restore them to
health, make us to know and to remember
the grace and mercy of our God in His Son, Jesus Christ, and
help us, Lord, faithfully preach and declare this gospel, that
we would indeed sow this gospel word beside all waters, being
liberal with your gospel, casting it forth that your people would
hear and be brought into the fold of your Son, into the sheepfold
of your Son Jesus Christ. It's in his name we pray and
give thanks. Amen. All right, so we're gonna be
in Isaiah 32, and we're gonna pick up in verse 15. And we're
gonna, we should be able to make our way down to 33, verse one. Now, last week we were looking
at the indifference of the flesh. We saw the wickedness of man
in his flesh. And man naturally, the way we
come forth of our parents, naturally we have no interest in the gospel
of our God. That is until the Savior comes,
until the Savior pours out His Spirit upon us. Now tonight we're
going to continue our study to behold the powerful and the living
effects of our Savior, what He works in His people through the
outpouring of His Spirit. Look at verse 15 there. where
it says, until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high. And then, we see all the spiritual
blessings follow on after the Lord gives His Spirit, after
the Spirit applies the blood of Christ to us. It's all according
to God's purpose. And so, this is what the Gospel,
right, in the New Testament, what the Gospel reveals to us. when we see in Ephesians 1-3
where we're told, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings
and heavenly places in Christ. I've titled this message Judgment
in the Wilderness. Judgment in the Wilderness. And
so what we're primarily going to be looking at tonight is the
fruit of the Spirit worked in the Lord's people, the fruit
of the Spirit. Now, before our Lord comes and
reveals His glory and power in us, we're all a dead and an unclean
thing. Right? The Spirit of man celebrates
man's achievements, man's greatness. And what man will do in religion
is he'll He'll dig deep, right? He'll go into and recognize what
a sinner he is, and how wicked he is, and how corrupt he is,
but where man stumbles is that man still thinks that there's
something he must do, something that he can do in order to correct
his sin, in order to help himself and to make himself acceptable
with the Lord. And what the Lord is showing
us in the scriptures is that man will never arrive to a knowledge
of God. He's never going to come to know
the true and living God. And man is happy in his religion. He's happy in that state so long
as he's able to find something that he thinks will help himself. Something that will approve him
to God. Something that will gain him
favor with the true and living God. And so man's happy to hear
about that so-called salvation, so long as it's something that
man can do for himself. But that's not salvation. That's
not the salvation of our God. The salvation of our God declares
what God has done for sinners. What He Himself does for His
people. Alright? It might appear, right,
what man does might appear to be redemption for the flesh,
but it's a lie. Cannot save him when it comes
down to what man must do to make himself acceptable to God. All
right, the Lord delivers us from that. In fact, actually, Isaiah
tells us Isaiah 64 6 he says we all are as an unclean thing
and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags and we all do
fade as a leaf and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away
and so the What the Lord tells us is that there's no goodness
in us. If you noticed what Isaiah said
there was that our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. Not our wicked
deeds, we know those are filthy rags, but even our goodness,
even our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. Yet our God is
a God of grace and there's a people to whom our God shows himself
gracious. And that's what we come to in
our passage tonight. That though man be utterly dead
and indifferent to the things of God, we see that it's our
God who, in grace, turns the heart of wicked man to Himself. And that God, in grace and mercy,
blesses sinners to know Him, to have peace with Him, to find
quietness and rest with Holy God in the Son of God, the Lord
Jesus Christ. And so, that which will stop
the raging of sinners, trusting in their works, committing all
manner of sin and iniquity, even in the name of God, though he
thinks it's goodness, the thing that will stop a sinner from
their wickedness and their evil ways is the Spirit of God being
poured out upon a sinner. and turning them from darkness
to the true and living God. And that's what we see in verse
15. Until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the
wilderness be made a fruitful field, and the fruitful field
be counted for a forest. So, before Christ comes, we in
ourselves, in this flesh, with our thoughts, our deeds, our
heart, what we think is good and right, we in ourselves are
rightly called a wilderness, a wilderness. We're unfruitful,
we're a barren land, there's no good that comes from us. But the blessing of Christ is
life by His spiritual seed, so that by Christ He makes us alive
spiritually, He brings forth fruit of us, making us profitable,
making us to bear fruit, making us to do that which is well-pleasing
to our God. Things like being thankful, being
thankful to God, giving Him thanks for His kindness and His grace
and His mercy toward us. For He gives us fruit such as
having a hope in God. We hope in Him and trust in Him.
He works the fruit of love in us, love toward our God that
was not there. Not of fear of working after
our salvation, but of love and peace and rest in God our Savior. So it's Christ himself that comes
and leads us out of darkness. He's the one that takes us out
of bondage, bringing us into his marvelous light where we
see and know I'm the sinner. And we confess our sins and we
confess Our need of God have mercy on us, and we see the salvation
that God Himself has provided in His Son, Jesus Christ, so
that by the working of the Spirit, working this in us, we find forgiveness
with God through His Son. We discover the salvation by
the power of God making known to us, we come to know the salvation
of God in His Son, Jesus Christ. and so these once barren fields
We that could only bring forth under the curse of our father
Adam, and we cursed in him, who could only bring forth briars
and thorns and thistles, all marks of the curse, all marks
of sin and death through sin, all we could do was work under
sin, work in death, trying and laboring under fear and under
the threat of punishment. That's all we could do, but by
the regenerative work, regeneration, by the regeneration of the Spirit
making us born again, we are made alive by the Spirit of Christ. We are made alive by His seed
so that we come forth now in Christ our Savior. His creation,
not the creation of Adam anymore. Not the creation of our works
or our fruit. We that were once a wilderness
are made into a fruitful field, and as the Lord gathers in his
people, we are made into a forest, a forest of people bearing much
fruit unto the praise and glory of our God. What the Lord does here, now
as he gathers his people, he's forming his body, he's forming
his church, in local churches, and he's giving them the ministry,
a ministry of the gospel. Our God gives this ministry of
reconciliation in Christ to the church to preach this word. And that's how you see the wilderness
becoming a fruitful field and a fruitful field becoming a forest,
if you will. So it's all the Lord that's doing
this work for his people. Now, Isaiah 32 16 shows us this. Then judgment, that's what he
says, then judgment shall dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness
remain in the fruitful field." Now when you see that word judgment
here in our text, it's speaking of the gospel. It's speaking
of the gospel. That's the gospel that our God
has given to the church, where we preach and proclaim and declare
the good news in the wilderness. Right? We're preaching to dead
sinners. dead in trespasses and sins,
who have no life. We're preaching to them, trusting
that our God is gathering His people, giving them life by His
power and His word. Paul would say this in 2 Corinthians
4 verses 1 and 2. He said, therefore see that we
have this ministry. Therefore seeing we have this
ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not, but have
renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness,
nor handling the word of God deceitfully." Sounds like man's
religion, doesn't it? Walking craftily, walking with
deceit, mishandling the word of God, applying it completely
wrong putting salvation in the hands of the sinner, giving him
something to do. That's not how we walk, but by
manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience
in the sight of God. So that by the power of God working
in us and declaring his gospel, giving us this ministry, we have
a ministry of reconciliation. declaring to sinners the remission
of sins in Jesus Christ, the forgiveness of sins through the
blood of Jesus Christ. That's the promise of our God.
To all who believe on Christ and call on Him, believing that
He is the salvation God has sent, they find peace and forgiveness,
reconciliation with Holy God. I'm going to be reading a few
verses from 2 Corinthians 5, if you want to follow along.
Picking up in verse 17. 2 Corinthians 5, 17, Paul says,
If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things have
passed away. Behold, all things are become
new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself
by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us, the ministry of reconciliation,
to wit, or to make known, to make known to you that are gathered
to hear his word, to make known that God was in Christ, reconciling
the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and
hath committed unto us, the church, the word of reconciliation. Now then, We as ambassadors for
Christ, as though God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ's
stead, as though Christ was speaking to you, be ye reconciled to God. For God hath made him to be sin
for us, Christ, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. That's so amazing, and I know
that there are some that stumble, that are looking to something
that we must do before we can have a hope in Christ. But that's not the Word of our
God. He's saying, you that are gathered here, you that the Father
has gathered together to hear His Word, knowing that you're
sinful, knowing you have no other hope of salvation. You that have
nothing in yourselves, but know that it's only in Christ that
we are accepted of God. It's only by His blood that we
find forgiveness and remission of sins. That's who this word,
this sweet, this sweet, kind, beseeching word comes to. It
doesn't go to those that have no ear to hear it. but you that
have nothing, that God has revealed your sinner, and you have no
hope outside of my Son, Jesus Christ. He says that, I'm speaking
to you as though God Himself to beseech you, be ye reconciled
to God. It's through the Son. That's
why He made His Son. That's why He sent this word
to you. He's not sending this word to those that aren't hearing
it. He's gathered you together to
hear this blessed word. So, hear Him. Why should you
perish in your sins when God Himself has provided His salvation
according to His good will and pleasure in His Son Jesus Christ
and sent this word to you to hear it, that you should be delivered
from your prison and bondage in sin. So, hear what Christ
has done. Believe Him. Call upon Him. You
have no other hope call upon Him, trust Him, believe Him,
venture upon Christ wholly, because there is no other salvation for
sinners but in Christ. And so, this is the Gospel of
our God, and it's called His judgment. His judgment. It's the will of God revealed
in the wilderness, sent to those who dwell in the wilderness.
Now, turn over to Isaiah 51. Isaiah 51, and we'll pick up
in verse 3. Our Lord says, for the Lord shall
comfort Zion. He will comfort all her waste
places, and He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her
desert like the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness shall
be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody. And
so He says to all who call upon His name, verse 4, hearken unto
me, my people, and give ear unto me, O my nation, for a law shall
proceed from me, and I will make my judgment to rest for a light
of the people." You see that, how the Lord uses that word judgment
to mean his gospel, and his gospel is sent forth to rest, to be
upon his people. so that they hear Christ and
they believe Him. Their hope is fixed in Him, not
in something they do. We're not looking for some mystical
light in us. We're not looking away from Christ
to find something in us. I think that some who seem to
be so close with the truth, but they turn you away from Christ
as though you must find some righteousness in yourself before
you can hope in the righteousness of God. All right, you've got
to find something that gives you hope in yourself before you
can hope in Christ. And our God doesn't do that.
He calls us to look to his son, Jesus Christ. And he says, verse
five, my righteousness is near. my salvation has gone forth,
and mine arms shall judge the people. The isles, right, the
nations of the Gentiles shall wait upon me, and on mine arms
shall they trust." And that's exactly showing us that we are
trusting in Christ, the right arm of God, on the right hand
of God on the throne, it's Christ Jesus. All right, so the gospel
also reveals that there is, you know, that reveals this judgment
to us, because it reveals the hatred of God against sin as
well. We see, in looking at Christ
in the gospel, we see how our God deals with our sin, how our
sin had to be punished in Christ. And so, this is why the gospel
is such a blessing to us, and why we declare it, because we're
making known to the elect. We're seeking out the lost sheep
of God, declaring the gospel to all, knowing that those who
have, who are given an ear to hear it, they will hear it. And
it'll land in that good ground, prepared of the Lord to receive
his word. Paul said, I'm not ashamed of
the gospel of Christ. He's saying, I know I'm declaring
I'm a sinner in this gospel. I know I'm declaring to you that
my flesh is weak and that I can't work a righteousness for myself
in the law of God. I'm not ashamed of the gospel,
though. For it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone
that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For therein
is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is
written The just shall live by faith. So we need to stop looking
for some twinkling of a righteous hope in ourselves. Stop looking
for something in you that gives you a hope to believe that Christ
died for you, and just look to Christ. If you know that you're
a sinner and have no hope, look to Christ, for he himself is
salvation. You're not going to find any
righteousness in you first to give you hope in Christ, because
then your hope is in what you have. It's in something you've
done and not Christ. Look to Christ and believe Him,
because that's a sin of hoping in Christ. You that are fearful,
you that find nothing in yourself to hope in Him. No reason to
believe that He should have mercy on you. And he says, believe
on Christ. Believe on my son. Believe on
him. You trust him and you shall find
forgiveness for your sins. You shall find rest for your
souls. You shall find quietness in the
storm. You shall find a safe hiding
place in my son Jesus Christ. So believe on Christ. That's
hoping in him. That's truly hoping in Christ.
You have no goodness in you and no reason to think that he should
die for you. He's all your hope. He's the only thing that you
have to come before holy God. And so we preach salvation because
the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness
and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness. But now this word goes forth
to the elect of God who hear the word by His grace and believe
Christ unto salvation. And now back in our text, in
verse 17, Isaiah 32, 17, we see the fruit of reconciliation that
Christ produces in His people. He says, in the work of righteousness,
now this is Christ's work, not our work of righteousness, but
the work of Christ on the cross, his work shall be peace. Peace
because the death of Christ reconciles sinners to holy God through his
sin atoning sacrifice on the cross. And the effect of righteousness
is quietness and assurance forever. In other words, Christ's work
of atonement never fades. His blood will never fail. It
will never cease to cover our sins. It's forever, brethren. Trust Him forever. In Psalm 103.12
it says that our sins are as far as the east is from the west,
so far hath God removed our transgressions from us. So, while we look to
Christ, we know the peace that our God has toward us. We know
His forgiveness and peace in His Son. And even though in our
flesh we look away, and in our flesh we seek after other things,
it's at that time when we grow afraid. We, in ourselves, when
we're foolish and look away, or begin to doubt and become
we become afraid and fearful at those times. But, thankfully,
our God isn't looking where our eyes are looking. Our God looks
ever at the sin-atoning sacrifice of His Son. He doesn't see what
we see. He sees His Son. He sees the blood of His Son.
When He looks at His children, the children of God, He's looking
at the blood of Christ. He sees and smells Christ and
rejoices in Christ his son who is ever faithful to him. And so he deals kindly with us.
Paul said that to Timothy, saying, if we believe not, yet he abideth
faithful. He cannot deny himself. So remember that. Christ, our
God, isn't looking to where our eyes are looking. Our God is
looking to Christ. And he's the one who turns our
eyes to Christ, our Savior, as well. Now back in our text in
verse 18, Isaiah 32, 18. He says, And my people shall
dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in shore dwellings, and in
quiet resting places. See that? So the inheritance
of the Lord's people in Christ is peace, shelter, and rest. Peace, shelter, and rest. My people shall dwell in a peaceable
habitation, and in shore dwellings, and in quiet resting places."
So, our dwelling in Christ is peace with God. We have peace
with God. Christ is our shelter from the
storm of God's wrath. So that while the wrath of God
rages against the ungodly, the child of God finds peace in Christ
as Savior. Whatever providence is blowing
around us and coming down around us, we have peace with God in
Christ, knowing that our God is in control of all things. And not only this, but the blood
of Christ makes for peace within the dwelling place of God's people.
Alright, so even in the church, it's the blood of Christ that
establishes us in peace and works peace for us so that we are at
peace with God and made to be at peace with our brethren. And
so, you know, whatever the background of our cultures are, we're all
different people, but our God gathers his people together in
the church. He did that first with the Jews
and then the Greeks, right? And he brought together all those
different cultures in Asia Minor and in the Middle East there
and then all the way over to the Greeks so there's a great
variety there and so we even see that here in America and
in the churches throughout the world that the Lord himself brings
together his people even those who have very different backgrounds
we learn to live with one another and so also in Christ we find
peace with God and protection from the storm and We saw this
earlier in Isaiah 32 verse 2. Isaiah 32 2 says, And a man shall
be as a hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest,
as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock
in a weary land. So whatever you're coming from,
whatever land you're coming out of, Christ is all to all his
people. Christ has made all things to
his people. That verse, in one sense, is
just a variety of different lands and places that we're coming
out of that the Lord's gathering together and bringing together.
But we also see in this that apart from Christ, we have no
hope. We have nothing apart from him. but we have everything with God
in Christ. And now, also looking at that
passage, Isaiah 32, 2, we see another comparable passage to
this in the New Testament. Over in 1 Corinthians 1, verse
30, it's a relatively familiar one, it says, but of God are
ye in Christ, wisdom, Christ is made unto us wisdom and righteousness
and sanctification and redemption, so that Christ has made unto
us wisdom, so that we're directed by Christ where to hide when
the winds are blowing. When the winds of God's wrath
begin to blow, we know that Christ is our hiding place. He's the
man that God has provided to be the hiding place for his people.
And Christ is our righteousness, in that he himself is our justification. a covert from the tempest of
God's judgment. And then Christ is our sanctification
in that His Spirit is as rivers of water in a dry place. That is, His Spirit flows within
us, sanctifying us and sanctifying the works which He has ordained
for us to do. And Christ is our redemption
so that as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land no matter
what the trials are, no matter what trials he brings to pass,
or what hardships or afflictions we go through, we're comforted
with the rest of Christ. We're comforted by the peace
and the quietness and the rest that we have in Christ. And so, this is what we see here
in our next verse in the text, Isaiah 32, 19. He says, when it shall hail,
coming down on the forest, and the city shall be low in a low
place. Now, hail in the scriptures signifies
the judgment of God. Hail signifies the judgment of
God, which shall fall upon all men for their iniquity, all those
outside of Christ, rebelling against the truth of God, trusting
in their own works, and thinking the things of God are but foolishness
to them. But if you notice, the passage
says that the hail shall come down on the forest, on the forest. And we saw back in verse 15 what
the forest is. It says, the spirit would be
poured upon us from on high and the wilderness be a fruitful
field and the fruitful field be counted for a forest. And
so we saw there that was the growth of the church. being called
in from the wilderness, made into a fruitful field, made into
a forest. So this wilderness becomes a
forest through Christ's righteousness, through His blood applied and
made effectual to them. But you see, our peaceable habitation
and our shore dwellings and our quiet resting places are found
in Christ. because Christ bore the wrath
of God for his people, because Christ died the death of his
people, and putting away their sins by the sacrifice of himself,
making them righteous, putting away their sin, purging their
sin, so that we are righteous before God, so that God imputes
righteousness to us, because Christ has made us righteousness. And so we see that the church
is put into a low place, into a safe place, where we died with
Christ. Our old man is crucified with
him. We died with Christ, and we were
buried with him in a low place, and now we are risen with Christ. When he rose, we arose in him. So brethren, Our God has done
this for us, and so the wrath of God will come upon the wicked,
but we've already been judged in Christ, and we have nothing
to fear. We're safe in Him, in Christ. Now, upon the wicked,
the judgment of hell shall fall. It says in Revelation 16, 21,
that there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven. Every stone
about the weight of a talent and men blasphemed God because
of the plague of the hell, for the plague thereof was exceeding
great. Now then, knowing this, knowing
the wrath of God, that we must all appear before the judgment
seat of Christ, that everyone may receive the things done in
his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good
or bad, which simply means you that have no righteousness of
your own, But trust Christ, your works are good, good in Christ. You that have a righteousness
of your own works according to the law, in your flesh your works
are bad. You shall perish in your sins.
Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. we declare the gospel of Jesus
Christ, the good news of God, found in Christ, who has made
sin a sacrifice for his people to put away their sin once and
for all, making us righteous before God, righteous in himself,
that we may be accepted of him. And so we declare the gospel
which is brought to the church, given to the church as her ministry
to preach and declare in this wilderness where we speak the
judgment, the gospel, the mind and the will and the purpose
of God for his people and the earth. We're declaring the judgment
of God, the gospel to all them which dwell in the wilderness.
And the Lord tells us, verse 20, Isaiah 32, 20, Blessed are ye that sow beside
all waters, that send forth thither the feet of the ox and the ass."
Meaning that we do this blessed work which our God has called
us to do. We sow, which is we preach or
declare the Gospel of God, the salvation God has provided in
His Son, Jesus Christ, and we declare it beside all waters. And we know from, especially
from Revelation, that the waters means peoples, all peoples. And so he's saying, blessed are
you that sow this gospel beside the waters, all people. Cast
it forth to as many as the Lord God shall bring your way or send
you to. Now previously, The Lord told
the Jews, thou shalt not plow with an ox and an ass together. Thou shalt not plow those two
together. But here we're told that we send
this gospel forth by the feet of the ox and the ass. So here
they are plowing together. Here they are sowing the seed
together. And so the Lord here by his prophet
shows that he's abolished that law through the gospel of Christ. That the salvation of our God
has come to all people, both Jew and Gentile. And now Let
me just bring us to verse one of the next chapter, verse 33,
and then we'll close. We read, woe to thee that spoilest,
and thou wast not spoiled, and dealest treacherously, and they
dealt not treacherously with thee. When thou shalt cease to
spoil, thou shalt be spoiled, and when thou shalt make an end
to deal treacherously, they shall deal treacherously with thee. So concerning those wicked who
have no part in Christ, our God assures us, assures His church,
that they shall be judged, they shall be dealt with. God will
deal with those wicked ones. And so this judgment is witnessed
in Revelation, in chapter 11, verse 18. He says, the nations
were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead
that they should be judged and that thou shouldest give reward
unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that
fear thy name, small and great, and shouldest destroy them which
destroy the earth." So, fear not brethren, the Lord is going
to deal treacherously with those that dealt treacherously, and
those that spoiled his people, they shall become the spoils. And so, our God makes all things
right. He does everything right and
everything that is perfect and well-pleasing. And He makes it
pleasing to His people. I pray that that word would be
a comfort to you that are His people, you that hope in Him
and trust in Him, that you would find comfort there. I pray that
word would be comforting to you that struggle and are afraid
and wonder if Christ died for you, but you have no hope in
yourselves, I pray the Lord would cause you to find comfort in
Christ, that you would not be looking for something in yourself
to give you a reason that you could hope in Him, but that you
would simply hope in Him and trust Him and call upon Him,
believing that Christ was sent to save sinners, even the chief
of sinners. And trust that our God shall
put all things right and dealing with the wicked of this world
and dealing with those that refuse Him and trust in their own works.
Our God will deal with them. And so you flee to Christ. You seek Christ and flee to Him
and trust Him that He has provided salvation perfectly, fully in
His righteous Son, Jesus Christ. And I pray that He blessed that
word to your heart. Let's pray. Our gracious Lord,
we thank you for your word, for your gracious, kind gospel of
reconciliation, declaring what you've done for your people in
Christ. Oh Lord, that you would make
your word effectual in the hearts of your people, giving us deliverance
from the blindness that is upon this flesh, calling us out of
darkness, releasing us from the prison of sin, and calling us
into the light of your Son, Jesus Christ, that you would bring
us into that light and reveal faith in us, faith in your Son. For Lord, we have nothing in
ourselves. We have nothing to bring you. But Lord, that which
you have given to us in your Son, Jesus Christ, He is our
hope. He's our all. We have nothing
else but Him. Receive us in the blood of your
Son, Jesus Christ. Be with your people. Comfort
them. Cleanse us of our sin. Heal us
of our sicknesses. Lord, set our hearts and minds
free that we would be made to rest in Christ and find comfort
and peace in Him. It's in Christ's name we pray
and give thanks. Amen. Thank you.