Good evening. Our opening hymn will be out
of the hardback, number 235. 235, Pass Me Not. Pass me not, O gentle Savior,
hear my humble cry, While on others Thou art calling, do not
pass me by. Savior, Savior, hear my humble
cry, While on others Thou art calling, do not pass me by. Let me at Thy throne of mercy
find a sweet relief. Kneeling there in deep contrition,
help my unbelief. Savior, Savior, hear my humble
cry, While on others Thou art calling, do not pass me by. Trusting only in Thy merit would
I seek Thy face, Heal my wounded, broken spirit, save me by Thy
grace. Savior, Savior, hear my humble
cry, while on others Thou art calling, do not pass me by. Thou the spring of all my comfort,
more than life to me. Whom have I on earth beside Thee? Whom in heaven but Thee? Savior, Savior, hear my humble
cry. While on others thou art calling,
do not pass me by. Our second hymn will be number
204. 204, Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus. O soul, are you weary and troubled? How light in the darkness you
see! There's light for a look at the
Savior, And life more abundant and free. Turn your eyes upon
Jesus, look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth
will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. Through death into life everlasting
He passed and we follow Him there Over us in a warhead's dominion
For more than conquerors we are Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look
full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow
strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. His word shall not fail you,
He promised. Believe Him and all will be well. Then go to a world that is dying,
His perfect salvation to tell. Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look
full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow
strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. I would like to read from John
4, 1-30. When therefore the Lord knew
how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more
disciples than John, Though Jesus himself baptized not, but his
disciples, he left Judea and departed again into Galilee.
And he must needs go through Samaria. Then cometh he to a
city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of
ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob's well
was there. Jesus, therefore, being wearied
with his journey, sat thus on the well. And it was about the
sixth hour. There cometh a woman of Samaria
to draw water. Jesus saith unto her, Give me
to drink. For his disciples were gone away
unto the city to buy meat. Then saith the woman of Samaria
unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of
me, which am a woman of Samaria? For the Jews have no dealings
with the Samaritans. Jesus answered and said unto
her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith
to thee, Give me to drink, that thou wouldest have asked of him,
and he would have given thee living water. The woman said
unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is
deep. From whence then hast thou that living water? Art thou greater
than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof
himself, and his children, and his cattle? Jesus answered and
said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again,
but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall
never thirst, but the water that I shall give him shall be in
him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. The
woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water that I thirst not,
neither come hither to draw. Jesus saith unto her, Go, call
thy husband, and come hither. The woman answered and said,
I have no husband. Jesus saith unto her, Thou hast
well said, I have no husband, for thou hast five husbands,
for thou hast had five husbands, and he whom thou now hast is
not thine husband, in that saidst thou truly. The woman said unto
him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. Our fathers worshipped
in this mountain, and ye say that in Jerusalem is the place
where men ought to worship. Jesus saith unto her, Woman,
believe me, the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain,
nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. Ye worship ye know
not what. We know what we worship for salvation
is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now
is, when the true worshipper shall worship the Father in spirit
and in truth, for the Father seeketh such to worship him.
God is spirit, and they that worship him must worship him
in spirit and in truth. The woman saith unto him, I know
that Messiah is cometh, which is called Christ. When he is
come, he will tell us all things. Jesus saith unto her, I that
speaketh unto thee am he. And upon this came his disciples
and marvelled that he talked with a woman, yet no man said,
What seekest thou, or why talkest thou with her? The woman then
left her water pot and went her way into the city and said to
the men, come, see a man which told me all things that ever
I did. Is not this the Christ? Then they went out of the city
and came unto him. Our Heavenly Father, we thank
you for keeping us safe up until these very moments and allowing
us to gather together and to sit down for a little while and
to have the opportunity once again to hear this glorious gospel
preached to us. Father, we thank you for having
mercy upon sinners. Oh Lord, we have read that you
must needs go through Samaria and Lord that it may be indeed
the case in this community as well that you may indeed come
through this area and call out your sheep from this community. All things are in your hands
perfectly and on time. Father, remember us as a local
assembly. Continue to give strength and
also the financial wherewithal to gather together. All things
are in your hands. Father, continue to be with our
pastor. We thank you for him. And will
you remember him this evening as he hopes to preach the gospel
once again to us. Father, remember us as we hope
to listen. Give us, Lord, understanding hearts. Remember those among
us and also those that listen regularly on YouTube. and perhaps
are struggling with their health, O Lord, remember us in mercy.
Give us strength and health, and go with us into the unknown
future, that we may look unto Thee, that we may turn our eyes
upon the Lord Jesus Christ, and then the things of this world
will grow strangely dim. Father, remember us in mercy.
Be with our loved ones wherever they are. Call them out of nature's
darkness into your marvelous light. For Jesus' sake alone,
amen. All right, good evening. Let's
turn to Isaiah 29. Isaiah 29, and we'll be looking
at verses 15 through 19. In our last message, we had ended
on verse 14, which the Lord says, therefore, behold, I will proceed
to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous
work and a wonder. for the wisdom of their wise
men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be
hid." And so the Lord in this verse, what he's doing is he's
revealing to them that mystery, that darkened mystery that was
kept hidden from them. He's speaking of Christ, the
coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is his salvation. That's the wonderful work that
he is doing in the midst of this people here in Israel and Judah. Our Lord's salvation, as we know,
is a work of grace apart from man's works. Man doesn't understand
grace. Naturally, we don't understand
the grace of our God in salvation. What's beautiful about grace
is that it exposes us. It exposes our folly. It exposes our foolishness because
it shows what man thinks is salvation and how man obtains salvation
through something that he does. That's where we are by nature. It's what we believe and what
we think by nature and so in grace the Lord roots out that
false lie, that lie that we hold on to by nature in thinking that
salvation isn't something that I do. For example, some of these
things that we look to and trust in are our diligent study of
the Word. We look into the Word and try
to know the things of God, and when we see something that we
think we see, we get excited and feel good about that, or
the works that we do, or the religious duties and services
that we do that we think or that we convince ourselves that these
are helping me, that these are good, or these are proofs that
I'm the Lord's. And the Lord strips us of having
confidence in those things, because we do. Naturally, we do have
confidence in those very things. Even, you know, trusting in those
things like the law and and just putting a lot of confidence
in them, rather than having confidence in the Lord, and that these things
are brought out, born in us by the fruit of His Spirit. And
the Lord affirms to us that, He says, my thoughts are not
your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. And so, what the Lord is bringing
His people to see, and convincing us that it is a spiritual work
that He must do, It's a spiritual work, as our brother was reading
in John 4, that the Father seeks his people, they're going to.
It means it's his will, this is his purpose and will, that
his people are going to worship him in spirit and in truth. come
forth of our parents with the Spirit of God, even godly parents. We don't have the Holy Spirit. We don't know the true and living
God naturally. It's a gift of God, which He
gives freely in His grace. And so it's something that He
does for the sinners of His choosing. It's according to His purpose
and His will, and it's not even dependent on man's cooperation.
Because that's a way that man sneaks in his works, is through
his cooperation. He'll teach you that, but you've
got to cooperate with that. You've got to have faith in God. You've got to do something that
will enable God to work salvation for you. And that's simply not
true. No man or woman has faith unless
God has been gracious to them and done a work of grace. He's
the one that gives the ear of faith and the tongue that confesses
and the heart that believes and receives these things. It's His
spiritual work. So I say this and remind us of
this because it's not the world that needs to hear this, though
they do, but it's the so-called church. We need to be reminded
of this constantly because in the church or in the so-called
church, man hears these truths and he says, that sounds right.
A lot of times when they hear the doctrine of the grace of
God, he or she will say, that actually sounds true. I can see
that in the scriptures. And they accept that doctrine,
but then they go right on past Christ, right on back into their
new works of religion, just under a different name. They just adjust
some things and they now do those legalistic things or do things
differently than what they used to do. So the Lord is constantly
showing us this in the scriptures. We're constantly seeing this
pattern even in the people that were called the people of God
who should have known the Lord. They should have understood the
things of the Lord and yet we have these prophets and it's
recorded for us for us so that we see this people and we see
what we are by nature lest we should grow proud and haughty
and confident in our own hearts and minds and so this is a good
point because this is what Israel was doing in our text this is
exactly where where Israel was in in our text so that when man
is left to himself He may be very religious, but there's only
one outcome, death. When he's left to himself, if
God leaves us to ourselves, we will die. We don't have the spirit
of ourselves. We need him every hour. So Paul
had said in, now, you know, it's no mystery why this is. We understand
why it is. you know, why there can be a
religious people who hear and yet don't trust Christ and don't
believe Christ and rest in Christ who is the rest that God has
provided for his people. He's provided his son, Jesus
Christ. And Paul tells us in Romans 9, 6, not as though the
word of God had taken on effect. for they are not all Israel which
are of Israel." And so God does this and he teaches us the truth
because it's going to deliver his people from death. They're
going to see, wow, I was really trusting in my works or my righteousness. And we hold on to all kinds of
baggage. And I remember very vividly how
I knew certain truths to say, I could say them, I would say
them to other people and yet still have a confidence because
I was making adjustments in my life and I was doing things that
I thought, not that there's anything wrong with doing, you know, being
done away with sin, but I was really trusting those things
and saying, the Lord will hear me now because I'm doing this
and I'm doing that. And the Lord strips us of those
confidences in the flesh. And he delivers us from that.
But the one who trusts, who's arrogant and carnal, they go
away angry, right? They hear this, they hear the
grace, the grace of God, and they get angry and they go away
in a huff saying, I don't need to hear this. sadly they die
in their sins, they perish him in their sins because they won't
hear what the Lord is saying. So the Lord is glorified in his
saints and what we'll see here in this text is that they will
bloom and bring forth fruitful, there will be a fruitful field,
right, full of good works and fruits of the Spirit and glorify
the name of the Lord and thanking Him because of His wonder and
grace and power. So tonight's passage, it reveals
to us the foolishness of man who thinks that he can outsmart
Almighty God. We know these things and man
still thinks that, wait a minute, I'm going to do what I'm going
to do. I'm going to do it my way and God will be pleased with
it and He'll accept it even though He knows better. even though
he knows better. And so what the Lord does here
in judgment is he takes that gospel from Israel and he declares,
I'm going to give it to another, another nation, another people. I'm going to remove it from Israel,
who's trusting in themselves, and I'm going to give it to a
people that sit in darkness, that know not the truth, that
aren't even seeking after me. All right? The Lord, he shows
us that even man with all the benefits that he can have, the
law, the ceremonies, the prophets, the testimony, all these things,
they could have it all and yet still not have the truth. And
so that's what he's been showing us throughout chapter 28 and
into this chapter 29. And then the fruit of it was
that when Christ came, when the Messiah came in the flesh, He
went to the people, declared the truth, worked his works among
them, and they rejected him, even unto crucifying him, and
putting him to death. They didn't receive him. And
yet in that, in their works, in their rebellion, God still
used it all to work his purpose of salvation. He actually wrought
salvation for his people in the midst of their very rebellion
and hatred of God. And so, Our title is The Lord's
Will Always Prevails. The Lord's Will Always Prevails. Alright, now we know that the
Lord here in this passage is dealing with religious men and
women because Isaiah is prophesying to the people of Israel. He's
prophesying to the Jews. And the first thing that we see
in verse 15 is that these people are doing things and they think
that they're able to hide it from the Lord. Look at verse
15, Isaiah 29 15. He says, woe unto them that seek
deep to hide their counsel from the Lord. And their works are
in the dark. And they say, who seeth us? And
who knoweth us? And so here's their folly. They
think that they're able to hide their works from the Lord, that
they can cover their own works from the Lord. And that is the
delusion of man. Our Lord brought this up in John
chapter three. He said in verses 19 and 20 that
this is the condemnation, that light is coming to the world.
And that light is the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the one that the
Father sent into this world. He's the light that the Father
spoke of from the beginning of the book, declaring to us that
he would send the light, that he would send salvation. And
men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were
evil. For everyone that doeth evil,
hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deed should
be reproved." And so the folly is that we know better. We know that God knows all things. We're taught that from our youth,
right? That's one of the first things
usually that you teach. Your children, when you're reading
the Bible, you share with them, God knows all things. He sees
all things. He knows what you think in your
heart and in your mind, even though you don't say it, the
Lord knows all things. And yet here, they think that
they can hide it. And the way they were hiding
it is they would do works and do good works and that somehow
they felt like they were tricking God, or at least convincing God
that, yeah, I'm a righteous person. I do what's required of me. I
do what's right. And so we see how man, maybe
he knows that God knows his heart, but the way he covers it and
does his works in darkness is, yeah, I do my sin over there,
but then I come over here and I do my righteous works to make
up for that. and to cover that. So see, I'm
still righteous. And so it's almost like he's
doing penance, right? I'm paying for my sins. I'm doing
some things to make up for my sins. And while we condemn one
group of people for doing that in religion, we do the same things
ourselves, just under a different name. And we don't see the hypocrisy
in it. Turn over to Ezekiel 8, because
the prophet Ezekiel saw this 3 different ways in Ezekiel 8,
the Lord showed him in verse 12, he tells Ezekiel look, peer
through this wall, look what's going on behind this wall with
these people doing and he said unto me son of man this is a
Ezekiel 8 12 son of man hast thou seen what the ancients of
the house of Israel do in the dark these are the wise elders
what they're doing in the dark every man in the chambers of
his imagery for they say the Lord seeth us not the Lord hath
forsaken the earth and that's really where where a lot of people
are today even in our nation and around the world and you
see things and you hear what people say and a lot of it is
just foolishness. They're trusting in all kinds
of weird things more and more and more. People aren't even
grounded anymore in the truth. They're now searching out many
mysterious things and getting back into all kinds of weird
stuff. You could turn on the History Channel and see all sorts
of weird programs that people are really into and think that
this is really, really real. And they get caught up in that
and they think, well, you know, I haven't seen or heard from
the Lord in a long time. And so it's like, you know, someone
just came and opened up the furnace of hell and just opened up a
great mist of fine darkness where people are just choking on all
kinds of lies and rumors. And then the Lord shows them
the women in verse 14. At the door of the gate of the
Lord's house, there sat women weeping for Tammuz. And Tammuz
was a pagan god. And they're supposed to be the
people of the Lord, and here they are weeping over another
idol, a false god. All right, verse 16. He takes
them to the inner court and we're told that there's men there with
their backs toward the temple of the Lord and their faces toward
the east and they worship the sun toward the east. You see, this is the religious
people of the day. These are the people that are
supposed to be the worshipers of the true and living God, and
they're mixing in all their hope and their faith with lies and
false religion. And they're just taken away with
these things. And so the Lord said, he was
right in Isaiah 28 and 29 when he said, these people have a,
they're drunk. They're intoxicated with strong
drink, only it's not with wine or strong drink, it's with a
false spirit. It's a lying spirit that's in
them. We need to be aware of that. The Lord tells us that there's
times when there is a strong delusion out there that the Lord
will send out there and allow the people to come under just
a cloud of strong delusion. And so let us ever be grounded
in the Lord. Let us ever look to the Lord
because that is our hope. That is the foundation. If the
foundations be destroyed, then the people will be destroyed. But whatever comes to rock our
world and to shake, you know, our very, you know, what we've
known, we're not moved if we stand on the foundation, which
is the Lord Jesus Christ. So just remember those things
and see how this is examples of religious people getting caught
up in the idolatry of the day. All right, then we read in verse
16. Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed
as the potter's clay. So the Lord is addressing His
people and He's saying, your ways are backwards, your ways
are upside down. What you say is evil is good,
and what you say is good, that's evil. You've got it all backwards
and mixed up, and He calls them potter's clay. Four, shall the
work say of him that made it, he made me not? Or shall the
thing framed say of him that framed it, he had no understanding? And you see that even in false
religion or even in some places where they depart from preaching
the gospel of Jesus Christ. There's supposed to be a Christian
church and they'll depart from preaching the gospel of Jesus
Christ and they'll fill their time together with the people
with programs and things to engage people at different stages of
their lives and promote a lot of activities and things to attract
and retain people. but they're passing by the thing
most needful, which is the Lord Jesus Christ. And they're not
exalting Him and preaching Him and trusting that our Lord and
Savior saves His people as He promised to save them. So we're
to be faithful in preaching the Lord Jesus Christ. And so What
the Lord is going to do is he's going to show that they don't
have control over the Lord. They think that they can manipulate
and change what the Lord's going to do, right? They think that
they can, that they have power over him, but he's going to show
you don't, you're not the one making the decisions here. You're
not the ones that are determining what's going to happen in the
world and how all my will and purpose is going to be rolled
out for my people and for my glory, so that the Lord does
as he pleases. Turn over to Psalm 2, and we
see this in Psalm 2. Psalm 2, verse 1, we'll just
look at a first couple of verses there, first few. He asks, why
do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing? People imagine a vain thing,
either that there's no God or that they imagine that somehow
God is an incomplete and utter control of all things here. Now, some of the foolish things
that we've heard ourselves is things like God, the one that
I think is just the carnal doctrine of man, which is that man has
a free will. I think that's the biggest bunch
of foolishness going. That man has a free will. Especially
as we've been seeing in Romans 6 that we're servants. We're
either servants of the living God, the true and living God,
we're servants of His righteousness, servants as He pleases, or we
serve that body of sin and we serve the evil one. We serve
the lusts and the passions of the flesh, sin and death. So
we're servants of one or the other. We're not free to just
do as we will. We think that we are, but it's
a lie. We're not free will. We're servants
of the Lord or of that body of sin. And so it's the Lord in
grace that saves his people. And so man thinks that he can
thwart God's will or that the devil can thwart God's will or
that people can come together. And as we'll see that people
might be coming together to do wicked things in the earth, right? He speaks of them that destroy
the earth. There might be people plotting
you know trying to do things but always as we saw at the height
of man's wickedness when they colluded together to crucify
Christ that was the most glorious effectual working of the Lord
in saving His people and delivering them once and for all from death
and sin's dominion from them. I mean, He did everything in
that very hour, in that moment, our Savior wrought salvation
for us completely, alright? So, the heathen can rage, and
look verse 2, the kings of the earth set themselves and the
rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against
His anointed. And they said, let us break their
bands asunder and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth
in the heavens shall laugh, the Lord shall have them in derision."
Alright, so in spite of all man's wicked works, you know, sometimes
I look at just the whole weird things, you know, with transhumanism
and how they're just constantly trying to change things and get
out from under the hand of the Lord by doing various oddities
and you wonder but you can see they are literally trying to
to outsmart God and to try to get away from Him. But the Lord
says, you can do what you're gonna try and do, but it's all
going to work for His glory, and He's going to destroy men. They're not going to have their
will and their way. And so, again, I alluded to it,
that we see that when they crucified Christ. They crucified Christ,
and yet in that, the Lord fulfilled His will. And He says in verse
six, Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion." And that's
our hope and our comfort, brethren, is that whatever's going on,
whatever thing comes and rocks economies or sicknesses or anything
like that, whatever's coming or going or even on a local scale
or us individually in our lives, whatever is coming, upon us,
we know, and it's a comfort to know that Christ is risen, He
is the Lamb of God, He has the book of God in His possession,
and is opening those seals and implementing the will of God
in all things. And that's our comfort. Even
when it looks bleak and it looks dim or it looks bad, that's our
comfort. You just remember that Christ
is in control of all things. And don't be moved from that
hope that we have, and cry out to him. When you're scared or
nervous, cry out to him. He tells us to cry out to him.
Cry out to him and trust him, believe him. We see an example
of it over in Acts 4, when they told Peter and John, in Acts
4, 19 through 21, they told them, you need to stop speaking in
the name of Christ. and they were emboldened by it. I mean, these were the enemies
of God that had just crucified their Lord, and now they're emboldened
having the Spirit. And Peter and John answered them
back saying, whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken
unto you more than unto God, you judge it. You judge it. That's for you to decide, but
we already know what we're gonna do. And verse 20 says, we cannot
but speak the things which we have seen and heard. So when
they had further threatened them, they let them go. They still
did the will of God. They had them right there. They
could have persecuted them right there, but they spoke the truth
and they let them go. Why? Because who's overruling
the hearts of men? The Lord himself. The Lord himself
is doing it, so we can trust him that that he's going to deliver
us, right? Until that hour and that day
when he's purposed and fulfilled us to lay down our lives, the
Lord will provide and he'll give his grace and deliver his people
even in the face of persecution and various trials that we go
through, right? There may come a final trial
for us, but I believe the Lord will give us grace. I pray the
Lord will give us grace in that hour if it comes to such a thing. So man is nothing but the potter's
clay. He's nothing but clay that is
molded in the hands of the living God to do as he pleases, as he
purposed. They couldn't lay a hand on Christ
until that appointed hour. They couldn't touch him until
that very hour. And they couldn't touch Peter
until that very hour. Peter ministered for many years
before they touched him. And John died of old age. And
all the others ministered until the Lord purposed for them to
lay down their lives and give their lives for the furtherance
of the gospel. So Paul, remembering these words,
said in Romans 9, 21, he said, Romans 9, 21 through 23, hath
not the potter power over the clay of the same lump to make
one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor? What if God, willing
to show His wrath, and to make His power known, endured with
much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction?
And that He might make known the riches of His glory on the
vessels of mercy, which He had aforeprepared unto glory." And
so that's what the Lord did. He took this little people, Abraham
and Isaac and Jacob, and preserved them. and preserved those sons,
those 12 sons. He preserved them, and when they
should have been destroyed and wiped out like other nations
around them, the Lord preserved them and brought forth the Messiah
just as He said He would. He preserved His people to that
point, and He brought forth the Messiah that He had promised,
and then He saved Israel. That was Israel within Israel.
He saved Israel out, and then at the appointed time, He sent
that gospel out to the Gentiles, which is how you and I have heard
this glorious gospel, and give thanks to the living God for
it, because Christ said, I have other sheep that are not of this
fold. They're not of the Jews, but
I have other sheep that are those Gentiles out to the aisles, the
ends of the world, and them also I must bring in. So he did that
very thing. And so the Lord here, back in
our text in verse 17, He's saying that whatever this people here
in Israel thought would occur, that's not, whatever they were
working towards and trying to affect and trying to do and were
so confident would happen. The Lord says, I'm gonna do the
opposite. You think you know and you think
you're in control and you think you can affect what your will
and your way and your purpose, but I'm the true living God.
And you can rage all you want, but I'm going to do what I'm
going to do. and this is just how it's going
to be. So he says in verse 17, is it
not yet a very little while and Lebanon, which is a forest, a
thick overgrown forest of trees, Lebanon shall be turned into
a fruitful field and the fruitful field shall be esteemed as a
forest. And so God flipped it. He took
Israel, which was that once fruitful field, and he turned them into
an overgrown, uncultivated forest that wasn't bringing forth fruit
unto the living God. And then he took that overgrown
forest and he minored it with the gospel and thinned it out
and did his work in their midst and they became a fruitful field. And that's what the Lord does
to his people here. We preach the gospel, that's
the manure and the Lord waters it and gives his seed and he
strips us down of all that thick trunk and bark and worthless
things and stems and strips it down and brings us down to a
little tender vine connected, you know, branch connected to
the vine, which is Christ. And then we become a fruitful
field, right? We're grafted in to Christ our
Savior. And it's by his spirit and his
power that we that were just a thick, uncultivated forest
are now a fruitful field. We're his vineyard, right? And
that's what the Lord speaks of. And that's what we'll be, right?
We'll be those other, we're those other husband men which shall
render him the fruits in their seasons." And the very people
that the Jews hated were the ones that our God sent the gospel
to. He sent that gospel to them,
right? And it'll be that way until the times of the Gentiles
be fulfilled, whenever that is. The Lord knows it's His purpose.
So the Lord sent the word to the Jews. by faithful witnesses,
by the apostles who were made faithful witnesses that brought
light to that mystery and that hidden word for so long, but
when the time came, they left. Paul and Barnabas said it was
necessary that the word of God come to you first to have been
spoken to you first, but seeing ye put it from you and judge
yourselves unworthy of our everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles."
And so, you know, I'm just, you know, thinking of this and looking
at this passage here and how the Lord did that with the Jews,
right, until this gospel's gone out to the Gentiles. And I just
think, you know, you look at the church and how confident
they are. themselves now and how confident
they are in the law and how confident they are in their works and how
little they think of Christ and it just makes me think don't
don't let I pray that we don't have a hard indifferent heart
all right for the people that you talk to I look out and at
you, my brethren, and we have such a hope that the Lord has
his people here and that many more will hear this and be brought
out from just dead-letter religion. And when I say dead-letter, I
don't mean that they're not active. They're active. They're out there
doing things, and they're very, very active in their behaviors
and what they do, but do they know the true and living God?
Do they know the Lord Jesus Christ? You know, it just seems so prime
for the Lord to judge the people, to wake them up, to shape them
and show them just like Israel here. You know, I can't help
but just see and draw the parallels that our day is just like the
day of Israel. And there's just a remnant, just
a small little remnant that the Lord has saved and that He always
has a remnant throughout. And we're thankful for that.
but let us be faithful that the Lord will bring in his people
and cause his people to hear the gospel of Christ. Now verse
18, this is the fruit here which is born in that once wilderness
land, it says verse 18, and in that day shall the deaf hear
the words of the book and the eyes of the blind shall see out
of obscurity and out of darkness. Because it's a spiritual work.
It's a spiritual work. It's not a work of the flesh.
We can't force people. We can't go to our favorite friends
and family members and say, hey, I need you to hear this and touch
them and then they receive it. It's a work of the Lord and it's
a patient work and pray that the Lord help those that we love
and those that we speak to. customers and things like that,
that the Lord opened a door of opportunity, that we are enabled
to speak, and that when we speak and glorify the Lord, that He
blesses that word to their heart, and that He opens the ear, and
that He softens the heart his people and that sinners will
hear and receive the word and believe it because it is a spiritual
work and so he gives sight to the blind and what he does is
he removes that veil that we come forth with right that that
veil of flesh that's over the heart that only the Holy Spirit
can go in and and cut out that flesh and remove that veil so
that we see and we see the light that the Lord speaks of and declares
and we see the truth of that mystery which is Jesus Christ.
Paul said, for God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness,
God who created the heavens and the earth hath shined in our
hearts. to give the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And as long
as we have that veil over our hearts, we don't see it, and
we don't hear it, and we don't believe it. We might like the
sound of the doctrine of the things that we hear, and we might
follow after the doctrines of those things, but never seek
Christ, and never love Him, and fall down before Him, and rejoice
in Him, and worship our Savior. but our Lord said in John 9 39
for judgment I am come into this world that they would see not
might see and that they would see might be made blind and so
you brethren who see You see and know, I'm a sinner. We're
sinners who cannot save ourselves. That's why God sent the Messiah,
the Christ, down to this earth. And He is perfect and holy and
just. He is the sent Lamb of God who
laid down His life for His people and shed His blood to wash away
the sins of His people and to deliver us from that body of
sin and death and out from the power of Satan and to deliver
us by His grace and glory to put away our sins that we might
know Him as He has been raised by the power of the Spirit that
we too have the promise of God that we in Him are raised even
now and have His Spirit. Believe Him, believe Him and
seek Him to walk in the Spirit and not in the flesh. Because
it pleases the Lord. That's His promise to us. That's
His will. That's His promise and His will
to us that we shall walk in newness of life by His Spirit. We'll
still feel the flesh. We'll still feel the lust of
the flesh. But pray the Lord help you to just know, Lord,
I don't want to do those things. Deliver me from them. Keep me
from those things. Keep me from the evil and keep me ever looking
to Christ and seeking to serve Him, right? And that we yield
our bodies as members of righteousness, as instruments or weapons of
righteousness, right? And we saw on Sunday that, I'll
repeat it again because I think it's such a help, that to yield
yourself is to stand at the ready, right? To present yourself to
the Lord. We can't run off and do anything. But just say, Lord,
here am I. Like Isaiah, here am I, Lord,
send me. Send me, Lord, help me. Because
if he gives us that grace, we'll do it. And if he doesn't give
us that grace, we're nothing. We'll fail. So, but all who humble
themselves under the hand of the Lord, he'll raise us up.
He'll raise you up. You that humble and say, Lord,
you know. You know him. You know what I
am in the flesh. You know that I can't do anything,
Lord. Have mercy upon me. Use me, Lord. Keep me. Deliver
me from this death and use me in your kingdom to glorify your
name, Lord. Help me. Give me the grace and
the strength to do that and to have that desire, Lord. And he'll
raise him up and he says in verse 19, the meek also, right? Those
who are made willing to obey Christ, to hear his voice and
to believe him. That's what it is to obey righteousness,
to believe Christ. They shall increase their joy
in the Lord and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy
One of Israel, right? And so that's what the Lord has
called us. That's why he's put the church
together. When he saved Paul and he gave
Paul that commission, he went out preaching the gospel, and
he was said that the Lord sent him to open their eyes, right,
which is done through the preaching of the gospel, and to turn them
from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God,
meaning he bore witness of Christ. That's what we're witnesses of,
preaching repentance and remission of sins, right, repentance from
dead religion, turning to Christ, looking to him, believing on
him, for therein is our remission of sins." That's where the Lord
forgives us and put away our sins once and for all by His
Son, Jesus Christ. So, our Lord who is salvation
is the one that we preach, that they may receive forgiveness
of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified by
faith that is in Christ. I pray the Lord will bless you
with that. I was thinking just seeing the
things that are going on and what not the people are worried
about and even I get caught up in myself sometimes and think
about those things and it's a pattern of sorrows. It's like the beginning
of sorrows. There's just all kinds of weird
stuff going on and the people are just I don't know, it's like
no one's grounded anymore in the truth. And it was just interesting
because I had preached one year ago, on the 20th of February,
it's the 19th of February now, but last year I preached a message
titled, The Pattern We See. The Pattern We See, and it was
actually on the same stuff that shows that wicked man does what
he's gonna do, he rises up, he gathers himself together, and
rebels against the Lord and tries to affect his will, and the Lord
shuts it down. The Lord just destroys it, all
their works, and brings it to nothing. And I just thought it
was interesting that we would see, you know, be in a passage
where we see the same thing, that man in the pattern looks
to do his own will and his own work, but the Lord shuts it,
shuts it down. And so, you know, the Lord said
back there, it was in around Isaiah, I think it was, 9 verses
11 and 12 but one of the verses I was looking at was from Isaiah
8 12 and 13 where it says neither fear you their fear nor be afraid
but sanctify the Lord of hosts himself and let him be your fear
and let him be your dread so just remember the Lord he's in
control of everything all things and he's working his will so
whatever it is whatever it is that man has connived up and
schemed the Lord knows it and he's working his will and so
I say that to myself as much as I say that to you brethren
because I'm comforted by it as well when I remember whatever
it is the Lord knows and he's doing his will just like he affected
salvation through his son Jesus Christ. All right brethren let's
pray. Our gracious Lord we Father, we confess that we are weak and
frail. Lord, we're fools. I'm a fool,
Lord. And Lord, I'm nothing apart from
you and your grace and your glory. But Lord, you're everything. You're the Lord. You are God,
and you are sitting on the throne even now, working your will,
implementing the very will and the purpose of our God. Lord
we pray that you would keep us faithful, faithful to the Lord
Jesus Christ, that whatever comes, whatever trials we face, whatever
things we see, Lord that you would reveal to us that undoubtedly
beyond a doubt, Lord, that you are indeed God and that you are
ruling and reigning and controlling all things and working all things
to the praise and the glory of your name. And Lord, we simply
stand at the ready, Lord, presenting ourselves, knowing that we have
no power or ability of ourselves to do anything. We can't even
of this flesh produce any fruit, But Lord, you say by your spirit
you've promised to produce fruit in your people, which you've
ordained. And Lord, we ask that you would indeed do that work
among us in our midst. Lord, that your name would be
glorified and exalted in the hearts of your people, and that
you would draw your people out of darkness into the light of
your son, Jesus Christ. It's in his name we pray and
give thanks. Amen. Our closing hymn will be number
118. 118, When I Survey the Wondrous Cross. When I survey the wondrous cross,
On which the Prince of Glory died, My richest gain I count
but loss, And pour contempt on all my pride. Forbid it, Lord, that I should
boast, save in the death of Christ my God. All the vain things that charm
me most, I sacrifice them to His blood. See from His head,
His hands, His feet, Sorrow and love flowing all down. Is there such love and sorrow
need, Or thorns composed so rich a crown? were the whole realm
of nature mine, and were a present far too small. Love so amazing, so divine, demons
my soul, my life, my all. Can you bring your own Bible?