Good evening. We're going to
be in Isaiah chapter 7. Isaiah 7 verses 10 through 25. I'll look to finish the chapter
out. What this chapter really is showing
us, what he's revealing to us, is that the Lord is going to
preserve his church. It's really a message to the
elect children of God, to his church, to say, I'm going to
preserve you, I'm going to protect you, I'm providing everything
necessary for your salvation. And we see this, that in the
midst of the Lord bringing woe, because there's judgment spoken
of here in this chapter, but in the midst of that judgment
and woe which comes on the wicked, the Lord is going to provide
and preserve his people. He's going to provide for us
and the Lord tells Ahaz that Judah's not going to be completely
destroyed. They're not going to be overwhelmed. They're going to come into judgment,
as we'll see as we get to the end of the chapter, because the
Lord's going to reveal things to Ahaz and to us through Isaiah,
but he's declaring to us that Judah, the elect, or Judah's
going to be preserved because the Messiah must come through
Israel. They must come through Judah
because he's going to provide and preserve his remnant, his
elect seed that he loves and chose for himself. Our title
is The Sign of Our Preservation. The Sign of Our Preservation. And we'll look at our assured
salvation in Christ and then the signs of the sign. The signs
of the sign that lead up to the anti-type, the revelation of
the sign, which is Christ, as we'll see in this text. Now,
the last time we saw the Lord promised Ahaz, he told him, I'm
going to preserve you, I'm going to protect you. And he said in
verse four, at the beginning, and say unto him, he says to
Isaiah, say to Ahaz, take heed and be quiet. Fear not, neither
be faint-hearted." And that was in response to the news that
they were hearing that Israel and Syria, not Assyria, but Syria,
were in league together. They had made a confederacy to
go up against Jerusalem and to take it, because alone, either
one couldn't take it alone. So they decided to join forces
that they might be able to take it. And the Lord says in verse
7, Thus saith the Lord God, it shall not stand." Our confederacy,
this conspiracy that you're hearing these whispers of and all these
rumors of, it's not going to stand, neither shall it come
to pass. So one thing that we take, one
truth that we take from this is the Lord knows all things.
He knows the trouble, He knows the enemies that we have. And
he assures us here in this passage and throughout his word that
he's going to preserve us. He's going to provide. He's not
going to let us be overrun or overtaken. And so whatever judgment
he's bringing upon the wicked, whatever rumors we hear, whatever
woe we see or hear of or know that's coming upon us, we have
the comfort to know that whatever it is, he's going to provide
for us. And even if we are brought low
in the process. Even if we are stripped down
and brought low or have things removed from the comforts of
this flesh, it's always going to draw us near. The children
of God are always going to be pressed to Christ. They're always
going to be moved near to Him. They're always going to see more
and more their need of Him. And so they're going to go after
Him. And they're going to be drawn
to Him. And it's all working out for
our good. He does it all amazingly. We
can't make it happen. He does it. He does it perfectly.
So it's always for our good. And He always promises, I'm going
to preserve you. I'm going to take care of you.
You don't need to worry or fear about these things. So hear His
word. Just read His word and hear His
word. and venture upon him wholly.
Go upon him and believe him and rest in him. Whatever trouble
you come into, just remember, Lord, you know what you're doing,
and rest right there. Rest in him. He says through
Malachi 3.6, for I am the Lord, I change not, therefore ye sons
of Jacob are not consumed. And that's a great encouragement
to us, because in this flesh we know the enemy, of our own
flesh. We know the wicked thoughts we
have. We know the folly that enters this mind and the subtleties
and the deceit that enters this heart, even though we know better. We shouldn't do those things,
but we know how the craftiness of this flesh and how it can
be and how it just seeks to be such an enemy and can really
bring fear and consternation upon the believer when they see
just how evil this flesh can be. He promises that He's going
to preserve us. He's going to bring us to the
end. He's done all these things for us. James 1.17 says, Every
good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down
from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither
shadow of turning. He's not going to turn away from
His good purpose toward you, which is in Christ. It's in Christ. He's not turning away from that. And we'll see that tonight. So
because of this faithfulness of the Lord, he sends Isaiah
to the king, to King Ahaz, to comfort him and to assure him
that he needs not worry about what he's hearing about this
confederacy. But Ahaz doesn't believe the
Lord. Ahaz doesn't believe him. He
doesn't have grace in his heart. He doesn't have the spirit of
Christ comforting him and instructing him and turning him to the Lord. And he doesn't have that faith
to believe the Lord. And the Lord said to him in verse
9 at the end, if ye will not believe, surely ye shall not
be established. But one thing that we see, and
this is the comfort for us, is that in spite of Ahaz, and in
spite of Ahaz's unbelief, the Lord is determined to do good
for his people. He's not going to be swayed or
moved by the evil that's in this man's heart. It's not going to
turn him from his purpose toward us. And he says in verses 10
and 11, which begins our text, Moreover, the Lord spake again
unto Ahaz, saying, right? He's forbearing with him. Moreover,
the Lord spake on him. He goes on and declares this
to him. He says, ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God. Ask it either
in the depth or in the height above. And it's a sweet picture
because in spite of the constant display of man's unworthiness,
in spite of his rebellion and his disobedience, the Lord continues
in his faithfulness toward his people, in his faithfulness to
provide an inheritance for his son, in his faithfulness to provide
the son for our salvation and for our hope and our comfort
and our joy. So in spite of this wicked king,
and it's Ahaz who's a wicked king, and yet the Lord declares
to him one of the most beautiful signs, one of the most beautiful
prophecies of our hope and our salvation. He declares to him,
Christ, the seed is coming, the promised seed that I declared
from the foundation of the earth is coming. In Romans 5, 8 through
10, it says, truly God commendeth his love toward us, in that while
we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. much more than being
now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through
him." So our disobedience and our rebellion and the sin that
we have committed and the sin that we do commit and the sin
that we shall commit, it doesn't turn from the Lord. It deserves
to be punished. It was punished. It was punished
in the Son. The Lord punished our sin. He
poured out the wages of our sin upon Christ. And He bore that. He bore that punishment that
we might go free so that in Christ He provides the means of our
forgiveness. And it says there in Romans 5.10,
For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by
the death of His Son, much more being reconciled, we shall be
saved by His life. Now, this response of Ahaz, it's
a picture of a man who's devoid of grace. He has no grace in
his heart, no grace ruling in his heart. He's spiritually dead. He's a picture of every man,
naturally, who comes forth born of the seed of Adam. And it says
in Isaiah 7, 12, but Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will
I tempt the Lord. Now Ahaz is a hypocrite. He's
a hypocrite. He's just lying. He's being deceitful. He's just speaking from a carnal,
natural heart and a wicked mind. And he says, I'm not going to.
Let's do that. I'm not going to tempt the Lord, but turn over
to Isaiah 29. Go to Isaiah 29, and I want you
to see this in verse 13 especially, but we'll look at a couple verses
there from 13 to 15. Isaiah says, Wherefore the Lord
said, For as much as this people draw near me with their mouth
and with their lips to honor me, but have removed their heart
far from me, And their fear toward me is taught by the precept of
men." He's just talking from what he's been taught by others.
Don't tempt the Lord. Don't do anything that will tempt
the Lord. And it's just a very carnal, just a very man-made
religious response. I'm not going to do that. I'm
not going to tempt the Lord. Because there's really, there's deceit in his
heart. He has already determined what he's going to do. And that's
what men do. Men are going to do what they
want to do. No matter how you bind them and constrain them,
and put them in fetters, men are going to do what they want
to do. So when the Lord delivers you from sin, bless Him, glorify
His name, because that's His Spirit, He's doing that, because
He's showing you mercy and kindness, because you know just the feeling
and the hurt that comes upon you when you do commit that sin,
when you do go ahead and do that, but the Lord turns us from that
and brings us back to himself and delivers us so often and
forgives us so often. Therefore, verse 14, Isaiah 29,
14, 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. So we see that Ahaz is a very
religious man and yet he did not believe God, just as when
Christ came in the flesh and came to his people, his own people
who should have received him, the religious Jews, they didn't
receive him and they rejected him and they pushed Christ away. And Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians
2, 6-8, I'll read it, he says, how be it we speak wisdom among
them that are perfect, them that are made perfect by the Spirit
of Christ coming upon them, giving them spiritual life by divine
omnipotence, by His power and His glory. Yet not the wisdom
of this world, nor of the princes of this world that come to know,
but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden
wisdom which God ordained before the world unto our glory. which
none of the princes of this world knew, for had they known it,
they would not have crucified the Lord of glory." So man's
wisdom is never going to reveal to him or lead him to hear Christ's
words and to believe Christ and to rest in him. It's just not
natural to him. So the Lord He knows our hearts
and he knows what man is and he doesn't commit himself to
man because man is wicked and he's not going to do what is
right and what is pleasing to the Lord. And then in Isaiah
29 verse 15, before we go back to our text, he says, Woe unto
them that seek deep 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? Well, God sees, and God knows.
He knows exactly what's in our hearts, and He knows what's in
Ahaz's heart. Now, if you turn over to 2 Kings
16, 2 Kings, which plays in Isaiah 7, because we'll be back there,
but 2 Kings 16, this is what Ahaz was plotting in his heart,
as he's saying, I'm not going to tempt the Lord. This is what
he's plotting in his heart. This is what he is already thinking
to do to deliver himself from the confederacy of Israel and
Syria. And what he did is he turned
to Assyria. He turned to the king of Assyria.
And it says in verse 7, 2 Kings 16, 7, So Ahaz sent messengers
to Piglath-Pileser, king of Assyria, saying, I am thy servant and
thy son. Doesn't say that to the Lord,
I'm thy servant and thy son. He says it to the king of Assyria,
Come up and save me out of the hand of the king of Syria and
out of the hand of the king of Israel which rise up against
me. But what we see if you turn back
to our text is that in spite of this rebellion that's stirring
in the heart of Isaiah, the Lord is still determined to show good
to his people. He's still determined that he's
going to preserve his people and provide And he says in verse
13, Hear ye now, O house of David, is it a small thing for you to
weary men? But will ye weary my God also? So even though Ahaz
slights the kindness that God has shown him and the mercy God's
shown to him and willing to show to him, and for his people that
he might bring forth the Christ. In spite of his slight of God,
God doesn't slight us. He doesn't slight his people.
It doesn't turn him away. It doesn't make him angry. It
doesn't move him off of his purpose to deliver Judah from being swallowed
up and consumed by Israel and Syria. So in verse 14, this is
what he says. Therefore the Lord himself shall
give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive
and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel. And that virgin
is, we know, is Mary. We know who she is. And it says
in Luke 1, 26 and 27, and in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel
was sent from God into a city of Galilee named Nazareth. to
a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house
of David, and the virgin's name was Mary. And then it was told
to her espoused husband, to Joseph, an angel appeared to Joseph so
that Joseph would understand what was going on and not put
her away, that he would go forward and follow through with the marriage,
because they were betrothed to marry one another. And it says
in Matthew 121 through 25, And she shall bring forth a son,
and thou shalt call his name Jesus. For he shall save his
people from their sins. Now all this was done, that it
might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet,
saying, and this is from Isaiah 7, 14, Behold, a virgin shall
be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call
his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is God with us. And that is a fitting name for
Christ, Emmanuel, God with us, because great is the mystery
of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh,
justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the
Gentiles, believed on in the world, and received up into glory. And it's a mercy and a blessing
for us who believe and know this to be true, because we see how
the Lord did this for us, and to believe it and to receive
it is not a work of the flesh. The flesh doesn't receive it,
but it's a work of the Spirit that communicates to us the hope
that we have in Christ, that He's fully God and fully man,
that He is a fit sacrifice. He is fit to put away our sin,
because He's like us, except without sin, because He didn't
come forth of that corrupt seed of Adam, but he came to, you
know, he came forth being born of God. He is the Son of God,
he's fully God, and yet he's fully man so that he could bear
our sins. And he is the very perfection
and the righteousness of God sent to come and bear our sin
and to put it away forever. To satisfy the justice of God,
that we might be reconciled to the Holy God and have fellowship
with him. And that's how the Lord saves
us. And John the Baptist, I'm sorry, the father of John the
Baptist, when he was there, when it came time to circumcise John
and to name him, and he called him the name that he was supposed
to call him, John, so that his tongue was loosed, and he said
in Luke, blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he hath visited
and redeemed his people. and hath raised up an horn of
salvation for us in the house of his servant David, as he spake
by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world
began, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the
hand of all that hate us." So even he's confessing. This promise
has gone forth from the foundation of the world, that God would
provide a salvation for his people, that God would preserve us, that
he has given his word to preserve us. And it's significant because
this is the hope that we have. It's not in our works. It's not
in the things that we do. The Lord's shown us and stripped
us of our self-confidence and our self-righteousness, which
is part of us by nature. He stripped us of those things
that we might have hope in him. hope in another, hope in the
Lord Jesus Christ, as Paul wrote to the Colossians, even the mystery
which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now
is made manifest to his saints, to whom God would make known
what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles,
which is Christ in you, the hope of glory, whom we preach, warning
every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, All spiritual,
heaven-born wisdom that we may present every man perfect in
Christ Jesus. So we have the hope of Christ. We have these promises being
made throughout the scriptures of the salvation that God's providing. He's declaring to us, I'm going
to preserve you. I'm going to take care of you.
I'm giving you everything necessary that you need for salvation. And it's that we might have hope
in Him. It's that we might have hope
in Him and not look to ourselves. He delivers us from that. So He shuts us up to this life
and to the salvation which He's provided in the Son, Jesus Christ.
Now Peter says it this way in 1 Peter 1, 10 through 11, speaking
of God's gracious salvation which is provided in the Son, Jesus
Christ, he says, of which salvation the prophets have inquired and
searched diligently who prophesied of the grace that should come
unto you. Searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit
of Christ, which was in them did signify, when it testified
beforehand the sufferings of Christ, that's when He purged
us of our sins, when He did that faithful work on the cross and
purged us of our sins, and the glory that should follow. That
we might be made the righteousness of God in Christ and know that
He's going to finish this work, He's going to raise these dead
bodies up from the grave and give us that glorified body in
the likeness of the Son of God himself. So we see this when
he spoke to Adam, right? When he was there speaking to
Adam and Eve that they might hear it when he said to the serpent,
and I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between
thy seed and her seed, it shall bruise thy head and thou shalt
bruise his heel. And then to Abraham when he told
them that This one, this seed is gonna come from your house
and from your lineage. He said, as for me, behold, my
covenant is with thee and thou shalt be a father of many nations. And then he says a little later,
and I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed
after thee and their generations for an everlasting covenant to
be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee. And then he
spoke to Jacob and Jacob confirmed for us that it would be through
his lineage and through the house of Judah, through his son Judah,
that the Christ would come in Genesis 49, 10, the scepter shall
not depart from Judah nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh
come and unto him shall the gathering of the people be. And to David,
he also communicated to him so that David prophesied of Christ
in many ways, of him being the prophet, of him being the king,
of him being our priest and in Psalm 16 verses 8 through 10
he speaks of the eternality of Christ. It says, I have set the
Lord always before me, because he is at my right hand, I shall
not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad and
my glory rejoiceth. My flesh also shall rest in hope. for thou wilt not leave my soul
in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption. And the apostles rightly interpreted
that he spake not of himself, but of Christ. Because David
died and buried and he had his grave there, but Christ, he was
raised from the dead. And then to Micah, it was given
to him that he should declare the place of Christ's birth when
he said, but thou Bethlehem Ephrata, thou be little among the thousands
of Judah yet out of these shall he come forth unto me that is
to be ruler in Israel whose goings forth have been of old from everlasting
and to Daniel it was given to him that he should declare the
time when the Christ should come Daniel said or they said to Daniel
that the angel said to Daniel Know therefore and understand
that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and
to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks,
and threescore and two weeks. And then to Isaiah it is declared
to him that Christ should be born of a virgin. So you can
just see how throughout the scriptures there's this constant bringing
to our understanding, bringing to our remembrance, and showing
us that Christ should come. And we have the joy and the benefit
of knowing that Christ has come. So that we can see these promises
are all being fulfilled. And in verse 17, he begins uh... verse seven i'm sorry verse
fifteen if we then look now at the signs of the sign we look
at the sign now he begins to speak of signs that are going
to be coming to pass before the sign comes before the fulfillment
of of christ comes and he says in verse fifteen butter and honey
shall he eat that he may know to refuse the evil and choose
the good that's speaking of christ and we'll come back to that verse
in a few minutes but In verse 16 he says, for before the child
shall know to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land
that thou poorest shall be forsaken of both her kings. Now this,
that part there deals very specifically with Isaiah's son, Shear-Jashem,
because it was very early in Ahab's reign as king. This is very early. His dad is
probably still alive. according to the scriptures,
at the time when he begins to reign and take over the throne. And so, this is going to be an
immediate fulfillment of what the Lord is saying, to verify
that what God has said declaring the Messiah shall come to pass,
because he begins to fulfill these things all leading up to
the coming of Christ here in this chapter, verse 7. And so
in terms of that fulfillment, it says, the land that thou poorest,
that's Israel and Syria, they shall be forsaken of both her
kings. Now listen to these scriptures.
In 2 Kings 15.30, it says, and Hosea, the son of Elah, made
a conspiracy against Pekah. That's the son, that's the one
who's ruling in Israel. against Pekah the son of Ramali,
and smote him, and slew him, and reigned in his stead." So
there's the one king, he goes down and he's killed and he's
eliminated. And then in the next chapter
of 2 Kings, chapter 16 verse 9, this would be now after Ahaz
sent, you know, reached out to Assyria, now Assyria
would go and take out Rezan, which is the king of Assyria.
And it says, the king of Assyria hearkened unto Ahaz, for the
king of Assyria went up against Damascus, and took it, and carried
the people of it captive to Kir and slew Rezan. So those two
kings were eliminated, just like the Lord said. These guys are
going down very, very quickly. And then the Lord begins to speak
of troublesome times that are coming upon Israel. He's declaring
to them all these things that are leading up to the ultimate
provision for the people, the coming of the Son of God, the
coming of Christ being born of a virgin. And it says in Isaiah
7, verse 17 through 20, it's a little long, but I'll read
it. The Lord shall bring upon thee and upon thy people And
upon thy father's house days that have not come from the day
that Ephraim departed from Judah, even the king of Assyria. And
it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall hiss
for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt and
for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. So he's gonna call
one from Egypt and he's gonna call one from Assyria and he's
gonna bring them there to that place. And they shall come and
shall rest all of them in the desolate valleys and in the holes
of the rocks and upon all thorns and upon all bushes. In the same
day shall the Lord shave with the razor that is hired, namely
by them beyond the river, by the king of Assyria, the head
and the hair of the feet, and it shall also consume the beard."
So this all started, right? This all began with Ahaz's unbelief,
right? He's the one reaching out to
Assyria and he starts to bring all this trouble now into Judah
and into Jerusalem. And it says in 2 Kings 16, 8,
And Ahaz took the silver and gold that was found in the house
of the Lord and in the treasures of the king's house, and sent
it for a present to the king of Assyria. So he's begun this. He's already begun to set this
thing in motion. But this hissing for the flag
from Egypt, that's That's the pharaoh that he brings there.
And then the bee would be the king of Assyria. And it says
later on in 2 Kings 23-29, I apologize for all the history, but it's
just good to see that the Lord's showing these are all steps that
are going to come to pass before the Christ comes, before that
fulfillment when the Virgin shall give birth to the Son. And it
says, in his days, Pharaoh Necho, king of Egypt, went up against
the king of Assyria to the river of Euphrates. And King Josiah,
this was now later on in the timeline after Ahazad died, he
went out against him and he slew him at Megiddo when he had seen
him. And what it's saying is that
that's how Josiah was killed. Josiah was a good king, actually,
was killed and removed, which was actually probably a mercy
to him because he didn't see the coming pain and suffering
that was coming on Judah later on. And all that, that fighting
between Assyria and Pharaoh Necho, that would all begin the power
and the rise of Babylon, which should come upon the land of
Judah. And it would be a hard time for
them when many in Judah would perish from sword, and from famine,
and from disease, and there would only be a very small remnant
of the people left there in that land. And that's what the very
last part of this chapter is talking about in verses 21 through
25. It says, it shall come to pass
in that day that a man shall nourish a young cow and two sheep. And what he's saying is all these
great herds that are now abundant in in Jerusalem or in Judah there,
they're going to be eliminated. All the armies are just going
to consume them and eat them when they come through, and they're
going to be gone. So a person's only going to be
left with a cow and a couple sheep. That's all he's going
to have is a cow and a couple sheep. Verse 22 says, and it
shall come to pass for the abundance of milk that they shall give,
he shall eat butter, for butter and honey shall everyone eat
that is left in the land. the cattle are going to be left
out of the best of the land that they can have so they'll be able
to produce abundantly and because there's so few people left, there's
so few left that that cow and those few sheep are going to
be sufficient to supply everything that they need and they'll be
able to eat the butter and the honey and they'll have abundance
for that little remnant that's left there behind. 23. And it
shall come to pass in that day that every place shall be, where
there were a thousand vines and a thousand silverlings, it shall
even be for briars and thorns. The best of the land is just
going to go untilled. And with arrows and with bows
shall men come thither, because all the land shall become briars
In other words, there's no husbandmen left to really till the land,
so they're going to have to hunt for their food. They're going
to have to forage and hunt for their food the way a hunter would
gather his food. And on all hills that shall be
digged with the mattock, there shall not come thither the fear
of briars and thorns, but it shall be for the sending forth
of oxen and for the treading of lesser cattle. So basically
what he's saying is this whole land is going to be made desolate. It's all going to be emptied
out and become desolate. And it's a judgment upon the
land. It's a judgment upon the people, therefore they forsook
the Lord. They went away from the Lord. But what I want you to see here
is the judgment that's coming upon those few that are there,
where it says that they eat butter and honey, shall everyone eat
that is left and the land, and that's their judgment, those
that are left behind, those that are that remnant, they're left
behind to eat butter and honey. But do you remember in verse
15, where it says in verse 15, speaking of Christ, butter and
honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil and choose
the good. And what we see there in that
is that the Lord preserves, he's provided Christ to bear our judgment. We're that remnant, those who
hope and believe in Him, those who remain looking steadfastly
upon the Lord. Unlike this whole world, which
is going towards its woe and its misery and its punishment
and its judgment, Christ was sent to bear our judgment. And just as those people were
left to eat butter and honey, which doesn't sound bad, but
it's a picture of the judgment that came upon the land. We see
that Christ himself will eat the butter and the honey, so
that he was the one who was given of the Lord to bear that judgment
in our place, to bear our punishment, to bear the justice of God that
should rightly have been poured out upon us for the sins that
we committed, but Christ was given. He was sent to preserve
the seed, to preserve the remnant, to ensure our salvation. Turn
over to Isaiah 53, and we see this. Isaiah 53 verses 4 through
6. It says, Surely he hath borne
our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem him stricken,
smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep
have gone astray. We have turned every one to his
own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." The Lord has promised, Brethren,
to preserve us and to provide for us. Every trial, every woe,
every suffering and difficulty that we go through, it's always
for our good. The Lord has promised, He's provided
His Son, and He's been speaking of this promise since the foundation
of the world as we heard all these men quoting and saying
it's been since the foundation we saw it's been since the foundation
and many of those scriptures were from Genesis from the beginning
and then Christ came and Christ accomplished salvation and we
know that Christ was raised from the dead and so the hope that
we have brethren is don't don't get bound up and your eyes taken
off of Christ know that He's given His word. He's done all
this throughout the ages and provided the salvation for the
people. Trust Him. Wait upon Him. Whatever
comes upon us, wait upon Him and look to Him and believe Him. Are you going to be like Ahaz
who heard the word and said, no, I don't believe it. I'm going
to take things into my own hands. Or are you like a child of God
who can't look anywhere else but to His Father and look to
Him alone for salvation, for deliverance. Just know that Christ,
is the Lord going to just give up and say, you know what, I'm
done with it, I'm not returning, I'm not following through on
this. He's already done everything, He's done the whole work already.
He's going to return again. He said that the Son of Man is
as a ruler who's gone off on a long journey. but he's going
to return. And when he returns, will he
find us watching and waiting and looking to him? Or will we
have given up and just gone off with the rest of the world, just
eating and drinking and being drunken with the rest of the
world? So look to him. He was given for our preservation. He was given to do this work.
He's going to see it through. You can depend upon it. So I
pray the Lord will bless that to your hearts and help us to
keep believing him and looking to him. Let's pray. Our gracious
Lord, we thank you for your promise of salvation, your promise of
preservation, and Lord, help us. Lord, we believe help thou
our unbelief. Help us, Lord, to keep looking
to you and to know that you shall indeed return just as you promised.
And Lord, in spite of all the things that are going on, the
confederacies and the conspiracies and all the different things
that are that men say are coming to pass or whatever. Lord, help
us to fix our eyes upon Christ Jesus our Lord. Let us see as
the apostles on the Mount of Transfiguration, Jesus only.
And Lord, let us rest in Him and rejoice in Him and be glad
and speak of Him often. And Lord, call out your people.
Call out your people from this neighborhood. We pray, Lord,
that the word would get out and that the word would go forth
and that you would begin to call in more of your sheep here, Lord. But regardless, we're thankful
for the work that you're doing. We thank you for the sheep that
are here. Lord, we just rejoice and bless
your name for you are good and kind and merciful and gracious
in spite of our unworthiness. We thank you, Lord, for this.
In Jesus' name,