Good evening. All right, let's
be turning to Isaiah 26. Isaiah 26, and we'll be looking
at verses 15 through 18. Now, as we're going there, let
me remind you that the Lord, we saw last week how that the
Lord has ordained peace for us. And that peace that we have is
in His Son, Jesus Christ. It's in Christ. He has taken
away the enmity that is us by nature. We come forth enemies
of God, hating God, hating the truth, hating His Christ, hating
the Gospel, hating His people. That's how we are by nature. That's how we come forth being
sons and daughters of Adam, but in Christ God has ordained peace
for us with God. We may not have peace in the
world with other people that yet hate our God and hate Christ
and hate the gospel, but in terms of us with God who is holy, our
creator, the judge of all the earth, we have peace with him
in Christ. And he's purposed that, he's
ordained that, purposed, determined that. And so we saw how that
Christ took us out from the dominion of the little L lords. I say
that on purpose, they're just little lords. Christ is the King
of kings and the Lord of lords. He took us out from under their
dominion and we are now strictly under his dominion. under His
dominion to begin with, but no longer are we subject to the
will and the whims of our flesh and sin and Satan. All those
things have been destroyed by Christ in Him. We're under His
dominion so that we know Him. We see the light of God. We see
what He has done for us. He's revealed that to us spiritually. He's shown us what He's done
and accomplished for His people. Now in our text tonight, what
we see here, what we're gonna see is that the Lord has purpose
now to increase his kingdom, to increase his people, to increase
the church. And this is done even in the
midst of all her trials, in the midst of the fact that she's
weak, that she suffers, that she feels pain, has trying times
and troubling times and she sighs and sorrows and feels a heavy
burden. Even in the midst of those trials
and those things, our God brings forth spiritual fruit. He brings forth from his people
spiritual fruit. And we see this in many ways
because the Lord is infinitely greater than we are. He's wise
and perfect and just in everything that he does. And so even in
the midst of chastening, as we'll see tonight, even in what is
called chastening, we see that the Lord brings forth spiritual
fruit from his people. He's doing everything in purpose
to do everything as it pleases him. You know, if you think of,
well, I was thinking about this, and it brought me to consider
Psalm, Psalm 1, Psalm 1, verse 3. And it reads, and he, which
we know is Christ, the blessed man, Christ is the blessed man
spoken of in Psalm 1. He shall be like a tree planted
by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit in his season. So whatever the season is that
you and I are going through, Christ is going to bring forth
his spiritual fruit. He's going to bear fruit in his
people. His leaf also shall not wither. There's never a time when Christ
isn't producing fruit in his people. He's always bringing
forth the fruit that pleases him, that he's ordained and purposed
to bring forth of his people. Because it says, and whatsoever
he doeth shall prosper. It shall prosper. He has a purpose,
he's ordained and doing everything according to his will. Alright,
so we'll see the increase of his church. Our title is Chastened
Fruit. Chastened Fruit. And we'll just
have two divisions. First, we'll see the increase
of our God's kingdom, and then we'll look at this fruit of chastening,
all right? So the increase of our God's
kingdom is what we're looking at now. In the ordaining of peace
that our God did, he ordained peace for us in Christ, through
his son, Jesus Christ. This is for his people. He's
determined, they shall know my peace. They have peace with me
now in my son. He has restored that which was
lost. He's reconciled us to God. He's
brought us near to the Father so that we have peace with him
and we have fellowship with our God. Now we see in verse 15,
Isaiah 26, 15, that our God has increased the nation. Here's what it says, thou hast
increased the nation. Oh Lord, thou hast increased
the nation. Thou art glorified. He's glorified
because he's the one that did it. Thou hast removed it far
into all the ends of the earth. All right, so first we notice
how that God is the one that receives the glory because he's
the one who has purposed and working salvation for his people
He's the one that's expanding and growing His kingdom. It's
all to His glory. It's all His work. Now, historically,
we know that for the Jews, for the Jews, right, in history,
this was a time when they were scattered. They were sent off
into captivity. They sinned against God. They
broke His law. They would not hear His word.
They didn't worship the true and living God, but they were
off doing many wicked things and doing that which was in their
heart to do. And so, just as the Lord said
He would do, He scattered them. He sent them out into all different
parts of the world and they went into captivity for their sin. And that is one of the things
that that word removed means. It means to repel and to thrust
away. So that God thrust them away
and sent them off into captivity. But, As you know, the Lord does
things that we don't understand and see in our natural frame
and what we think and believe to be so naturally when we see
a thing. But that word removed can and
does also mean to send far away, to extend, to push out and to
send it far away so that What we're seeing here is that God
is always bearing fruit. He's always working his will
and purpose in everything that is done. In every season, he
is able and does bear fruit and brings forth that which he is
purposed to do for the glory of his name. And so, what we
can see in that, what we do see in that, is that that strong
city that he spoke of in verse 1, and that righteous nation
that he spoke of in verse 2, he's increasing it. He's expanding
and pushing out the borders of the city. And so, as men, as people of this world,
inhabitants of the earth, as people in the flesh who yet do
not understand or know the things of God, well, that's what the
scriptures say of us, that no man that the things of God knoweth
no man but the Spirit of God. So it takes the Spirit of God
to reveal these things to us and to show us Christ and to
show us the wisdom and the power and the glory of our God to do
his will, to fulfill his will and purpose in the earth. Now,
an example of this, an example of this, you know, before I even
go on, let me just say about the natural man in our flesh. That's all, that flesh, what
we are, that's all the things that we are naturally, what we
think about God, what we learn from our parents raising us,
what we learn on the playground, whatever your dad tried to beat
into your backside for you to learn, what you heard from the
teachers, that's all the things that we come to think of naturally. So that we say, well that's bad
because I know I got spanked for that and I was told that
was wrong and I know this is good because I was patted on
the head for that and things seemed to go well for me when
I did that. And you learn all these things, that's just natural.
That's just of the flesh. And the flesh twists and is in
darkness and doesn't know the things of God. So that we think,
naturally, by the flesh, we think that what we do earns us favor
with God. Right? So that we think our justification
is found and seen in things that we do. And that's where we try
to gain assurance from and try to know whether or not we're
one of the Lord's people. But the Lord breaks us from that. He's taking us from that and
He's instructing us and revealing to us by His Spirit in the new
man the things of God. And that's what He's doing here.
He's revealing these things to us. Now, an example is seen in
what the Lord is doing that we wouldn't understand naturally.
If we just look at it as people, we would say, oh, that's horrible.
That's terrible what's happening. And we wouldn't see what God
is doing. But an example of this, where the Lord takes these trying
times and circumstances, but is working His will, is seen
in Acts chapter 8, where they had martyred Stephen. did good
to the people. He preached the gospel. He declared
the truth of God in the face of his son Jesus Christ and for
that they stoned him. They stoned him, they killed
him, they put him to death for preaching Christ to them. And
we're told in Acts 8 verse 1, at the end, at that time there
was a great persecution against the church, which was at Jerusalem. And they were all scattered abroad
throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except for the apostles. And as this persecution builds
up and is raging on and more people are going out, we're told
in Acts 8, 4, therefore they that were scattered abroad went
everywhere preaching the word. Everywhere preaching the word
because the Lord's hand was in it. He has dominion over all
things and he caused that persecution to rise up. He not only allowed
it, but he determined and purposed for it to be done. And he sent
out all those people scattering out of Jerusalem, but he bore
fruit in them. They preached the gospel. They
preached the word withersoever. they went. And so the fruit that
our Lord bears in us, we see was to, you know, at least in
this church, was to send that gospel out, out further and further
out to the nations so that it reached the Gentiles. It wasn't
just for the Jews, it wasn't just for the Samaritans, and
those of Judea, but it went out into the Gentile nations so that
you and I today even have the gospel thanks to God and what
He did in pushing that gospel out through all manner of times
and seasons and persecutions, but He sent that word out so
that we would have it here for us this day, alright? So, we
can see now how the Lord does through very difficult and trying
times work his will and bears fruit in his people, all right? And we're gonna see that now
in this next point, the fruit of chastening, the fruit of chastening. Now, in the next verse, verse
16, the prophet speaks of trouble and he speaks of chastening,
the Lord's chastening of his people. And he reveals to us
the effect of that chastening, right? So the Lord brings trouble,
chastening, and there's an effect of that chastening. Look at verse
16 with me, Isaiah 26, 16. Lord, in trouble have they visited
thee. They poured out a prayer when
thy chastening was upon them. Now, the first thing that we're
to understand is that our chastening should be understood in the context
of the gospel. Understand this chastening in
the context of the Gospel. This chastening is not because
the people of God are outside of Christ, but this chastening
is because they are in Christ. So their chastening that they're
experiencing is because they're in Christ, not outside of Christ.
So understand that. Naturally, by that natural man,
that flesh of ours, we like to misunderstand things and put
things, the things of God, in a bad light through the darkness
of our own heart naturally. But, you know, so that we see
in chastening wrath and punishment, right? That's what we think.
Oh, someone's getting the beat down there, you know? And that's
how we see it naturally. But what the reality is, is that
God has no wrath for his people. There's no wrath for his people
in Christ. The wrath was poured out on Christ. Christ paid the debt of righteousness
that we owed. Everything that we owed to God,
Christ paid that. He took the whole debt upon himself
and put away the sin of the people. He put away the burden of us
in our flesh to be perfect and holy and righteous without fault
ever. Christ did that. He bore that
wrath of God so that we might know that ordained peace that
God had purposed to provide to us, to give to us, that peace
with Him. So, looking at that word chastening,
In the light of the gospel, it may be described as instruction,
correction, discipline, and is a disciplined person. So God,
in the gospel, what it does is He's instructing His people.
He's correcting His people. He's making us to know the things
that we have need of knowing, and He's making sure that we
know them, and that we grow in the grace and the knowledge of
our Lord and Savior. And so this chastening includes
all the things that God does for His children, whether it
be correcting them, or instructing them, or admonishing them. Alright,
if you think about it, do you wait until your kids just went
and wrecked everything before you dealt with them and then
you gave them a serious whooping? No, sometimes, before they ever
even went down that path, you said, here's a good opportunity,
let me explain some things to my child here. Because you don't
want to beat them, you know, you don't want to give them a
spanking, you know, that's what we do, but you don't want to
go down that path. If we think like that, surely
the Lord knows how to instruct us and keep us and guide us and
send us this way as opposed to that way. The Lord does the same
thing in his chastening. Now, chastening, right, it's
not going to be by the law of Moses. It's not by the law of
Moses. That's not our instructing, that's
not our correction, that's not our admonition. It's by His Spirit
that He gives. He gives His Holy Spirit to lead
us, to guide us. He dwells within us and He keeps
us. He keeps our feet. He's the light
of our path so that we see Christ and we're looking to Christ.
and go unto Christ. Now, chastening, it can be harsh. In fact, it often is unpleasant
and may even be painful to the flesh, but chastening always
has the purpose of leading us to the feet of Christ. Chastening
always leads us to Christ. And you can see that fruit produced
here, it's spoken of in verse 16, that's what it says. Lord,
in trouble have they visited thee. They poured out a prayer
when thy chastening was upon them. So the Lord being in it,
used it to bring his people to seek him, to cry out to him,
to sigh. unto him, to seek his face and
to pour out prayers. And I know from my own experience
that when times suddenly turn dark and hard and trying, I'm
keenly aware of my need of Christ. I am reminded I desperately need
the Lord. Lord, have mercy. Lord, keep
me. Lord, save me. Help me, Lord,
as the Syrophoenician woman prayed. Help me, Lord. And so we're brought
to see that and to cry out to Him when those times are hard
like that. It drives the people of God to
Christ. It drives them because it reveals
very keenly and in specific ways our need of Christ and that we
need Him. In fact, turn over to James.
Go to James chapter 1 because we see this And what James says,
James actually brings that out. I didn't notice it until I was
seeing it in the light of this, but James chapter one, verse
two. James one, verse two. He says,
my brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into diverse temptations. knowing this, that the trying
of your faith worketh patience." Sounds to me like the Lord is
in this, that the Lord has a purpose in this, and the Lord has brought
this upon his children. Verse four, but let patience
have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire wanting
nothing. He's saying, let it be so. Let it be so because through
this Christ is being formed in you. He's teaching you. He's
instructing you. He's correcting you, admonishing
you. He's the one who's doing the
teaching here. He's the one making you to see and to know what things
you have need of seeing and knowing. At that time, in that season,
what he's purposed to do for you. And so he's using that time
of chastening, that trouble, whatever it might be, to bring
you to Christ, to fall before Christ. Now, here's what I saw
that I never really saw before, but look at the next verse, how
we're driven to prayer seeking God here. It's what James says,
1-5, if any of you lack wisdom, don't you realize how how unwise,
how foolish, how unlearned we are and the strong need we have
of Christ and knowing him and being near to him and just fellowshipping
with him rather than being so troubled and scared and nervous
about the trouble we're in. If any of you lack wisdom, he
says, let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally and
upbraideth not and it shall be given him. That's what our text
said. In trouble have they visited
thee. That's when we poured out our
prayer. We saw, wow Lord, I need you. I need you for this. I can't
do this. I can't save myself. I can't
provide for me. I don't know what's going to
come of this. Lord have mercy. He brings us to fall down before
him and cry out to him. Thinking of Paul, Paul, you know, he had preached.
He went around with Barnabas at the time. It was in Acts 14,
and he was, they're going through the cities, and they had come
through Iconium, and now they're in Lystra of Lycaonia, and he's
preaching the gospel to these people. And the Jews come down
there from Antioch and Iconium that were all upset with Paul,
and they convinced the people to stone Paul. So Paul gets a
beat down with rocks. I mean, they beat him down with
rocks for preaching the gospel, for declaring Christ to them.
And as they go away and the brethren are standing around them, Paul
gets up. And Paul and Barnabas go right
on back to the work. And they begin to go back through
the cities that they had gone through before and were told
that Paul said in Acts 14.22, as he went through those cities,
It says, they were confirming the souls of the disciples and
exhorting them to continue in the faith and that we must, through
much tribulation, enter into the kingdom of God. That's fruit
born of chastening, right? He was chastened, he was born.
You say, well, how's Paul chastening that? What'd he do wrong? I don't
know, maybe he didn't do anything wrong, but the Lord was teaching
him. And I don't know what it was for him, but I know what
it is for me when I read that. I'm chastened, I'm instructed,
I'm taught and shown, hey, This world that I'm hugging up against
and getting all cozy with and thinking, this isn't so bad.
What's wrong with this place? Everything seems to be pretty
good. We have a pretty good now. We're all pretty wealthy and
things go. It's a little weird at times,
but whatever. It's all good. I'm reminded and chastened here
in seeing what happened to Paul that no, this world doesn't love
you. They don't love God. They don't
love Christ. If you just shine that candle
brightly, if you shine that light of Christ, if you shine that
light, the gospel light, they might beat you down too with
stones. All right, that's what I see in it. That's the chastening
that the Lord shows me in that and so it's wisdom and understanding
that the Lord is revealing to us. You know, over in Proverbs
3, Proverbs 3 verses 11 through 13, this is Solomon, and Solomon's
writing to his children. You know, especially in the beginning
of Proverbs, he's writing to his son. And he says in Proverbs
3.11, My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord, neither
be weary of his correction. For whom the Lord loveth, he
correcteth, even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.
Alright, that doesn't necessarily mean that you are off doing what
you shouldn't be doing, but the Lord is constantly teaching us
and constantly placing our steps and providing that wisdom that
we have need of and drawing us near to himself and keeping us
near to him. All right, verse 13. Happy is
the man that findeth wisdom and the man that get it understanding. All right, so his chastening,
the Lord's chastening is produces that spiritual wisdom and that
spiritual understanding, not in the flesh, the flesh doesn't
understand it, but the spirit does, the spirit in the new man
that he's teaching us and instructing us that we see, it's Christ. Everything we need is Christ.
He's provided everything for me in Christ. We're reminded
things like No, I'm not going to be justified by the works
of the flesh. No, I'm not going to be sanctified by my actions
in the flesh. I need Christ. He's constantly
teaching us and reminding us of that because in the flesh
we have that Arminian heart and that Arminian thought and those
thoughts that I've got to work my way out of this and fix that
now and correct this behavior here and get straight with the
Lord. rather than drawing near to the Lord, crying out to Him
and seeking Christ who straightens us out and who teaches us and
gives us a heart and a desire to hunger and thirst for Him
and being filled with His righteousness. So the Lord does that. So there's
never a hint of wrath in it. We shouldn't see wrath in it
because Christ bore that wrath. for us. It's just meant to reveal
our weakness in self and reveal to us our need of Christ so that
we're driven to the feet of Christ. Alright, now looking back in
our text in Isaiah 26 verses 17 and 18. Let's look at this
for a little bit. Like as a woman with child that
draweth near the time of her delivery is in pain, and crieth
out in her pangs, so have we been in thy sight, O Lord. We
have been with child, we have been in pain, we have, as it
were, brought forth wind. We have not wrought any deliverance
in the earth, neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen. Well, one thing that we see in
that is that apart from Christ, in this flesh, in what we are
naturally, we can bring forth no fruit, no spiritual fruit,
nothing excepted of God the Father. That's one thing that we see
here in those verses. And then the second thing that
we see is no matter how much chastening we go through, no
matter what We're taught, you know, no matter how many hours
you spend on the playground and learning from your friends, no
matter how many hours of TV you watch and movies, and no matter
what your parents say to you or how many times they whip you
for doing something wrong or making you stand on the grate
in the floor, you know, or put you on your knees on the grate
of the floor to teach you a lesson and make it real hard for you,
no matter how much, the flesh is never improved. The flesh
never changes, right? The flesh is still dead. The
flesh is still weak. The flesh is still foolish. The
flesh still does, I mean, I know as a boy, I just, I'd get a whooping
and go right on back to what I was doing because I had no
clue what I was getting whooped for anyway. It just didn't make
any much sense to me. So, yeah, I mean, the flesh is
never improved and it's even so for us that our believers
this flesh isn't improved I mean we may you know remember some
smarts you know that you know got pain for and not touch it
again because of is still there, and the desires are still there,
and all the passions are still there. It's only in Christ that
we bear fruit. Only by Christ our husband that
we bear that precious fruit unto the Father. Only He bears that
fruit in us. But I want to look now for a
moment at that phrase that says, we have, as it were, brought
forth wind. Wind. Now, Again, like the word
we saw earlier, removed, it has some meanings in there. Well,
one of the meanings of the word wind here is a vain and empty
thing. Vanity, right? We've brought
forth vanity. That's what we are in the flesh.
We're just lighter than air, just vanity. And, you know, as
I was looking at that brought forth wind, it made me think
of as, you know, it's like being pregnant, and you begin to go
into labor and you have the contractions and the pains and you go to the
hospital because you think that the time of your delivery to
deliver the baby is now, only to have the doctor send you home
because you just passed a big gas bubble, you know, and it
was just gas. It was just vanity. It wasn't
the time. You didn't bring forth anything
and that's what we are in the flesh, right? That's all the
flesh brings forth is vanity. But the word wind here can also
mean the spirit of a living soul, or even the Holy Spirit, the
Holy Spirit, right? So that through the pain and
the suffering, through the chasing, right? We're looking at the trouble
and the chastening of the child of God. These things have a way
of bringing us to the end of ourselves, to the end of our
own strength, to the end of our confidence and to the end of
our ability so that we're left with nothing but to cry out to
the Lord for help. Because we have nothing in ourselves.
We need the Lord. We're brought to see our need
of the Lord and so we begin to pour out our prayers and breathings
and sighs and groans and spiritual things that we don't understand
in the flesh. Things that cannot be uttered.
And that's what Paul was speaking of if you turn over to Romans
8. Romans 8, and we'll look at just three verses there. First
go to Romans 8, 8, 18, 8, 18. All right, so speaking of chastenings, he
says, for I reckon that the sufferings of this present time, these things
that we have need of learning or that the Lord is pleased and
purposes to do, The sufferings of this present time are not
worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed
in us. 23 And not only they, but ourselves
also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves
groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the
redemption of our body. Likewise, the Spirit also helpeth
our infirmities. For we know not what we should
pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession
for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. So this breathing,
or this wind here in the new man is also a picture for us
of that breathing, that spirit, that sighing and groaning of
the new man, that new creation in us, of Christ, that's his
work. cry out in prayer that we confess our need of the Lord,
we confess our sin to Him, and we ask, Lord, have mercy on me.
Save me, Lord. Deliver me. Have mercy, Lord.
And so the Lord, you know, He knows how to train us. He knows the darkness of the
world that we're in, the valley of the shadow of death that we're
in 24-7-365. And we don't know what lies before
us, but the Lord knows, and He knows what we have need of. He
knows the fruit He's purposed to bear in us, and so He's going
to place our steps and bring us down that path before Him. And therefore, He is to us a
schoolmaster that trains up His children, that teaches the children
what they have need of knowing and how we need to learn it.
And He's going to do all that. You know, Paul, himself, when
he wrote to the Corinthians, he said, we had the sentence
of death in ourselves. God permitted that. God brought
that. That sentence of death in themselves,
that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God that raiseth the dead. You see the fruit that God brought
there. He allowed that. He put that
sentence of death that they wouldn't have any confidence whatsoever
in their own strength and in their own wisdom and their own
abilities. but in God who raises the dead, right? Who delivered
us from so great a death and doth deliver in whom we trust
that he will yet deliver us. So that we see and know our God
has delivered us from spiritual death. And it's wicked. I mean, if we're honest and we
really think back, we didn't save ourselves, right? We know
that. We know that doctrinally or in
the head. But there's times where he brings us to see, yeah, it
really does take the grace of God to save a wretched sinner
like me. I'm vile and wicked, and he brings
us to see that, to know and be reminded, yes, I was saved from
so great a debt, because here, Paul's preaching to people the
truth of the gospel, and they stone him for declaring the truth,
for bearing the light of Christ, they stone him. as if that's
worthy of death for being honest and being caring enough to preach
and to speak the truth of God to them, because that's the only
way that any of us are going to be saved. So we know the heart
of man, that's the heart of every one of us, and that is what we
were delivered from. So instead of you and I beating
down the person that declared the gospel to us and hating them
and running them off, no. Our mouths were shut, and we
said, Lord, I need to hear this. I've never heard nothing like
this before. And Lord draws us out and causes us to see our
need of Christ. And he continues to do that.
He continues to place our steps. He continues to bring us down
that path, ever and always, because it never ends. We're left to
ourselves. This flesh hasn't gotten any
better. It's not like we ever get to a point where we're so
good and strong that we don't need the Lord anymore. We ever
need the Lord, more and more as we grow, in fact. Alright,
so, Israel, you know, they suffered under the Law of Moses, and they
looked to the Law of Moses, and yet, in all that, they never
brought forth any fruit, right? They never brought forth one
single bit of spiritual fruit in looking to the Law of Moses.
Only those who who heard and looked to Christ. That's where
the fruit was born, was in Christ, in Christ's people, but not in
looking to the law. And, you know, we're brought
to see that in any other religion, right, it's all the same. You
can go to every man-made religion and they're gonna you know, just,
oh, well, trade in that set of rules, take that, you know, that
ceremony out of the way and do what we tell you to do and everything
will be good. And you get bored of that, you go to the next thing,
well, here's the new set of rules, you know, just do this, and that
means that you're a Christian or you're a Buddhist or you're
this or that. But it's all just man-made, dead-letter
religion. that only, you know, that God
won't accept because He only accepts that which is in Christ.
We need Christ in us. We need the power of the gospel
of God to reveal that to us because that's how great the death is. It's only in Christ. So then,
what made the difference, right? What made the difference for
you that are His, that you that have a hope in Christ? The difference
maker is Christ himself. Christ is the one that made the
difference. He's the one that makes the difference in his people.
Turn over to Isaiah 53. Isaiah 53 and look at verse 5. Here we see the difference is
Christ. Isaiah 53 verse 5. But he, Christ was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities, and look at this, the chastisement
of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed. What did Christ do wrong? Christ
didn't do anything wrong. Christ was perfect and spotless,
without blemish, holy, kind, generous, loving, faithful in
everything that he did and yet he went as our substitute and
he bore chastisement for his people that we might be delivered
from that great spiritual death and darkness. That's what he
did. He was chastised for his people
and so you remember that ordained peace that God has for you, his
people that believe and hope in him and have no confidence
in the flesh. You know, we were talking, the
brother and I were talking about assurance, just very briefly,
but as long as we're looking to our works, we don't have any
assurance. But you that have no confidence
in the flesh, but see God's acceptance and love provided for His people
in Christ, what more do you need? You're looking to Him who is
the very righteousness of His people. That's our hope. That's
our confidence. Are we ever going to feel 100%
all the time and confident? No. Looking at our works, we
shouldn't be ashamed. When we're looking at our works,
when we're looking at Christ, there's no shame. There's no
guilt. There's nothing because Christ
paid that debt of righteousness that we owe. We accumulated nothing
but a big fat debt of righteousness. Christ didn't accumulate any
debt of righteousness, he paid righteousness with everything
he did faithfully to the Lord. We accumulated the debt and he
paid it in full with his blood. And so, our God did that for
us, resting all our hope and all our need on his Son, Jesus
Christ. Now look at verse 11. Isaiah
53 verse 11 says, He shall see of the travail of his soul and
shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities. So we can't bring forth any good. We don't bring forth anything
acceptable to God. All we bring forth are vain things,
were vanity. But Christ, who wrought all our
works in us, what it says back in our text in Isaiah 26, 12,
he wrought all our works in us. He's the one who labored under
the travail of his soul, bearing the sins of his people before
holy God, knowing and trusting God faithfully, believing that
he would raise him from the dead, because he did the work that
God sent him to do in putting away the sin of his people. So Christ, by his death, accomplished
our salvation and he gives us a spirit whereby now, not in
the flesh, but in the spirit, in that new man we seek our God. We're brought to the end of ourselves
through the chastening, through the difficulties, through the
trials. Whatever season it is, Christ always bears his fruit
because he's never out of season. His leaf never withers. It never
dries up. He's always bearing fruit. He's
an ever fruit-bearing tree. All right? Let's see another
example in 1 Peter 1. This will be the last place I
have you turn. But in 1 Peter 1, look at verse
5. Peter here has assured the brethren, reminded the brethren
of the hope of the resurrection that we have because of Christ.
that we shall be raised to our inheritance in heaven. This place
is not our inheritance, Christ is our inheritance, and we have
that inheritance now seated with Christ in the heavens. And Paul
tells us, writing to us in verse 5, he says, you who are kept
by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed
in the last time. And he joins it right up to this,
verse 6, wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need
be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations. At the
trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that
perisheth, the hope he tried with fire might be found unto
praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. So, remember that whatever season
you're brought through, whatever trying times and difficulties
that you're brought through, the fruit is always going to
be that you're driven to the feet of Christ. You're always
going to be crying out to the Lord. You're going to see more
and more your need of Him. And that's good. We don't ever
grow up so that we see less and less of our need of Him. We don't
grow more holy in ourselves and more sanctified in ourselves.
Not at all. As He grows us, we see more and
more our need of Him. And we hunger and thirst and
desire Him more and desire to be out of this wicked, fallen
world and with our Lord, where we already are with our Lord,
seated with Him in heavenly places. So remember, brethren, When you
read these scriptures, and you see his word, and you see Christ
in it, remember, and then you go out, and you experience the
truth of these words, and the Lord teaches you these words,
and he's showing you these things, remember what he said in Timothy,
2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17, that all scripture is given by inspiration
of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction,
for instruction in righteousness, All through that chastening,
that instruction, that training up of his children, that the
Lord is doing for his people. That the man of God, that new
man created in us of Christ, may be perfect, thoroughly furnished
unto all good works. So remember that. When the Lord brings you into
a place, you that are a candle lit with the gospel of Christ,
remember that. When the Lord brings you into
a place and you're tempted to protect yourself, and to get
out of there without harm, and you think to put that candle
under a bushel, or hide it under the bed where it's not so bright. Just remember, the Lord brought
you and me, wherever we're brought to, he brought us into that room
for the people out of there in that room to see that light,
to have the light, and to see what God has done for his people. Because you don't know who's
sitting there is one of his sheep. It being under a bushel where
you can't see any light, that's not gonna help the people that
are there in the room. And if you stick it under the bed where
there's a little bit of light, you don't do that with a candle,
right? If you light a candle and put it in a room, it's to
light the room, not to make it diminished and kind of dark down
and not really seen or helpful. But the Lord, if he brings you
into that room, It's for a purpose. And so remember, even though
we may feel the chastening and we may be rejected by this world,
the Lord knows what he's doing and he brings forth that fruit
in its season, in its time. So I pray the Lord will bless
that word and comfort your hearts in it to know that he's just
bearing his fruit and he's driving you to his son, Jesus Christ.
So, all right, let's pray. Our gracious Lord, Father, we
thank you for your infinite wisdom, for your purpose of grace, that
you have established peace for your people in your Son, Jesus
Christ. And Lord, that you pour out all
your spiritual blessings upon us in Christ. Lord, keep us right
there in Him, in seeing our need of Him ever being driven to the
feet of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Lord, though these things, these
thoughts be unpleasant in our flesh, and it's really easy to
talk about them here, Lord, in the comfort of the fellowship
of our brethren, which is how it should be. You've given us
one another to comfort each other. Lord, help us to be faithful
to you. And Lord, that whatever season it is, Lord, you would,
we trust and know that you will ever bear your fruit and bring
it forth. And we just pray that you would
help us, help us to be faithful to you, even as you are faithful
to the Father in all that you've done, and faithful in saving
us from so great a death. Lord, we thank you that you've
done everything necessary for us in salvation. Pray, Lord,
that you would bless this people, that you would pour out your
Spirit upon us, that you would indeed teach us in all things,
instructing us, correcting us, admonishing us, leading us unto
Christ our Savior, that we would ever see Him and seek the glory
of our God in the face of Jesus Christ. Lord, help us. Help us in our need. Help us
as a people. Lord, you know our weaknesses
and our infirmities and the troubles and the sorrows that we have.
Lord, we ask that you would comfort us in Christ. It's in his name
that we pray and give thanks. Amen.