Good evening. All right, we're
going to be in Isaiah chapter 6. Isaiah chapter 6. We're going to pick up in verse
9. We should make it to the end of the chapter. And if you remember
now, we looked at the beginning of Isaiah chapter 6 and the Lord
gloriously reveals himself to Isaiah. And Isaiah was humbled
and he confesses that he's a sinner and The Lord provides for him
and he atones for his sins. The seraphim took the live coal
off the altar, which is Christ, his sacrifice and what he did
for Isaiah and what he did for all his people. And he applied
that hot coal to his lips and said, thy sin is taken away,
thy sin is purged from thee. So the Lord accomplished that
and he revealed himself gloriously to Isaiah. The Apostle John records that
Isaiah saw the Lord Jesus Christ sitting enthroned there. When
he saw God, he saw the Lord Jesus Christ risen and seated on his
throne in glory. And this salvation by our Savior,
the Lord Jesus Christ, this is what John was conveying to us. when he said in John chapter
one verses four and five, after he said the word was made flesh
and dwelt among us, he said in him, in the word, the word of
God which was made flesh, in him was life and the life was
the light of men and the light shineth in darkness and the darkness
comprehended it not. So that the natural The effect
on natural man, left in his sin, left in his nature, is that he
doesn't even comprehend the light and the life which is revealed
in the Lord Jesus Christ. He doesn't comprehend even what
it means that Christ should take upon him our flesh, the likeness
of this sinful flesh, and fulfill all righteousness. It doesn't
even enter his mind what that really means. It's declaring
that we're sinners, incapable of redeeming ourselves, incapable
of justifying ourselves, incapable of making ourselves righteous
before God and earning His favor and earning salvation or doing
anything. We can't do that. We have no
part in it and it doesn't even enter our mind. That's why Christ
came. So that when they, even if they
look to Christ and they confess Christ, they still think that
there's something that's just a part of salvation. Now they've
got to do their part. So they don't even see that salvation
is all of Christ. It's all of the Lord. It's something
that he has to do. So remember, in this revelation
that Christ gave to Isaiah, we see here that the Lord's gotta
strip us of our idols the way he stripped Isaiah of his idols. And the Lord has to reveal the
glory of Christ to us and in us and show us that he is the
Lord and that he is salvation. And he shows us our need of him
so that we're brought to confess what we are, that we're undone
and unclean and unable to save ourselves and that we must have
our consciences purged the way Isaiah had his conscience purged,
and we must be called and sent of God, which we'll do according
to the purposes of God that he has for us in his kingdom. Now our title is The Remnant
Seed Saved, and we'll have three divisions. We'll see sent with
a message, then we'll look at the Lord works salvation for
his people, And then, very briefly at the end, we'll see salvation
in the seed. So, let's look there at Isaiah
6, verses 9 through 10. And we see here, Isaiah said,
I'll go. Lord, I'll go and I'll take this
message of substitution out to the people. I'll go. And the
Lord says in verse 9, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed,
but understand not, and see ye indeed, but perceive not. Make
the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and
shut their eyes, lest they see with their eyes, and hear with
their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and
be healed. Now that verse there, those verses
are quoted six times in the New Testament. Six times in the New
Testament. All the four Gospels have it.
In some portion of the Gospel that the writers recorded, those
verses are captured. And every time that it's written,
they were speaking to the Jewish people. And then Paul continued
to speak it. And every time he was declaring
this, he was speaking to the Jewish people. It says at the
end of Acts, Acts 28, verses 25 through 28, it says, and when
they agreed not among themselves, the Jews, they departed after
that Paul had spoken one word. Well spake the Holy Ghost by
Isaiah the prophet unto our fathers, saying, Go unto this people and
say, Hear and ye shall hear, and shall not understand, and
seeing ye shall see, and not perceive. For the heart of this
people is waxed gross, it's made fat, it's become fat and heavy,
and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed,
lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears,
and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and
I should heal them. They have no desire for this
salvation. They will willingly and willfully
close their eyes. They willingly have a heavy ear. They just don't care. They don't
want to hear it. It really doesn't mean that much to them. It's
really not necessary. Don't misunderstand this. Every
time it's spoken to the Jews, but don't misunderstand this
and start hating on the Jews because they're no worse than
any of us. We are all just as guilty of
this as they are. In this, we see the total depravity
of men. Every one of us is guilty of
not really caring at all about the true salvation that God's
provided in his son. And we see this with the Jews,
who are very, very religious people, but they still rejected
the salvation. The only salvation that's given
to them is in Christ, and they rejected that salvation. So,
as religious as they were, it didn't help them. But we see
in this rejection that it's all according, we see as we look
through the scriptures, it's all according to the will of
God to push salvation, to send salvation out to all his people,
to all the seed of Christ. It goes out, therefore, because
of this rejection. The Lord uses this and sends
that salvation, that gospel out into all the world. He says,
Paul said there at the end of Acts 28, 28, be it known therefore
unto you that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles
and that they will hear it. as Paul was used to the Lord,
as he's going around and ministering to the Jews, and then as he's
taking this message out to the world, he's grown in the grace
and in the knowledge of his Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, so that
this salvation by God's grace and power by that the Lord saves
by grace and it's not in man. He's shown this over and over
again and he sees it by experience. He knows it in himself and he
sees it in his countrymen and he sees it in everyone that salvation
is by grace. It's by grace. It's by the grace
of God doing the work in the heart of a sinner that that sinner
can't do for himself and won't do for themselves. Because we're
shown this over and over again in the scriptures that it doesn't
matter how the salvation comes, we won't hear it. We reject it.
Turn over to Romans 11. Romans 11. and go to verse six. Go to verse six there. Paul writes, and if by grace,
then it's no more of works. Otherwise, grace is no more grace.
But if it be of works, then it's no more grace. Otherwise, work
is no more work. What then? Israel hath not obtained
that which he seeketh for, but the election hath obtained it,
and the rest were blinded. According as it's written, God
hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should
not see, and ears that they should not hear unto this day. So it's
a work of grace that God must do in the heart of a sinner. And that means that left to himself,
man can't do anything to make himself righteous, or acceptable
or willing before God. It's not in man to do this. And
it's not that God is preventing man from believing on him. He's
not preventing him. Man has no desire, no will to
believe on him. No desire, no hunger, no thirst
for the righteousness that God alone must give. So he remains
in a state of darkness and in nature's death. And so we see
through this, we see through these teachings, God's making
it plain to us that man, when he comes forth from the womb,
he's born dead in trespasses and sins. He's dead in trespasses
and sins so that there's no innocency there, there's nothing that God
is just looks upon and says, that's a good person there, that's
a really good person, I think I'll do something nice to help
them along. That's not how it works. We're complete sinners,
worthy of eternal death and hell, and it's God who must show us
grace and mercy and deliver us from that eternal death that
we've earned because of our sin. So man's not going to hear the
truth of God. He refuses to hear the truth
of God. He's not going to bow to the Christ of God, which he
sent into this world to remove our sin and to remove the stain
and the condemnation of sin. And so that man is so carnal. and so blind in his natural state
that he cannot see the light and the life that is the Lord
Jesus Christ. He just can't see that. Even
though never man spake like this man. That's what the Jewish officer
said. Never man spake like this man. And yet they still didn't believe
him. They still didn't trust in him.
and they weren't turned and they weren't converted. So we have
this example given to us of an extremely religious people who
received the oracles of God, they received the teachings,
and had so many things that were given to them, and it serves
as a reminder to us who profess the Lord Jesus Christ that we
ought to be very thankful, we who have faith, we who believe
and trust, we who have been shown that we're sinners, that we're
worthy of condemnation and death. And we've been converted by the
Spirit of the Lord and caused to cry out and confess that,
Lord, I'm a sinner. I don't deserve your mercy and
grace. The Lord shows his people that. To some degree, you're
going to know and see you're a sinner worthy of eternal hell.
And he's got to show us that, and he shows us that in Christ
is all sufficiency of salvation. He's provided everything. He
is the very righteousness of God. He is our sufficiency to
stand before holy God in that day with no fear of condemnation. We know that we who believe on
Christ and trust in Him and made to rest in Him will stand before
Him confident, not in our works, but in the works of another,
the Lord Jesus Christ, and that God will receive us into his
glorious kingdom in that day, all because of what the Lord
Jesus Christ did in putting away our sin and shedding his blood
to purge us of our sin, in redeeming us with his blood, in justifying
us by his death, in establishing our reconciliation with holy
God in his death. He did all that for his people
who weren't worthy of it. So we ought to be very thankful
and continue to remember to pray that the Lord continue to reveal
his light to us, to keep us walking in that way, to keep us hungering
and thirsting for Christ because we see what happened to the Jews,
how their eyes were made heavy and their ears were made heavy
and they couldn't see or hear and their heart was made fat
so that it just became lethargic and asleep and dead and they
didn't care. They just rejected the light
of life. If you're still there in Romans
11, it says in verses 21 and 22 of Romans 11, He says, for if God spared not
the natural branches, take heed, lest he also spare not thee.
He's talking to Gentiles. Behold, therefore, the goodness
and severity of God on them which fell severity. But toward thee,
goodness, if thou continue in his goodness, otherwise thou
also shalt be cut off. And he says this because we know
that the flesh can do a work. The flesh can do things. It won't
lead to salvation. but it can mimic and look like
it's the true thing because we saw that in the parable of the
sowers. We saw that with the seed that fell on stony ground
and the seed that fell on the thorny ground, right? It sprung
up, it appeared to be that which was true, but it died away, it
fell away, and that's what he's addressing. And the Hebrew writer
says it this way in Hebrews 3.13, but exhort one another daily
while it is called today lest any of you be hardened through
the deceitfulness of sin. And that's what happens to those
who are just in a work done in the flesh, they just become hardened
through the deceitfulness of sin. And we don't want that.
The Lord stirs us up. He uses those things just to
stir us up so that We don't want to have that fat heart that doesn't
believe, and so it has an effect on us. It doesn't have much of
an effect on the self-righteous, but they're the ones that really
are supposed to hear it, and yet it doesn't cause them to
hear it. But the Lord does use it. He's
used it to deliver many of his people out from self-righteousness
and self-confidence in their own abilities and their own works.
He shows us that you can do it. All that the Lord gives for salvation,
that's exactly what we need. We need everything, completely,
an entire salvation. done in him because we will stumble,
we will fall, we will come up short if left to ourselves. We're
not going to endure. And then we see it in Mark's
gospel. We were there recently in Mark 4 verses 11 and 12. If
you recall, he said unto them, unto you it is given to know
the mystery of the kingdom of God. Right? They asked him, why
do you speak in parables? And he said, but unto them that
are without, all these things are done in parables, that seeing
they may see and not perceive, and hearing they may hear and
not understand, lest at any time they should be converted and
their sins should be forgiven them. Those are three of those
times where this scripture is quoted in the New Testament.
And then he goes on in Mark 4, verses 23 through 25, if any
man have ears to hear, let him hear. And he said unto them,
take heed what ye hear, with what measure ye meet, it shall
be measured to you, and unto you that hear shall more be given. For he that hath to him shall
be given, and he that hath not, he that's left in the strength
and the power of his own flesh, from him shall be taken even
that which he hath. So these words, they don't They
didn't call into question the doctrine of election, but instead
they showed the necessity of our election all the more, because
this flesh just can't get it over the finish line. We're always
going to come up short, we're never going to endure to the
end. you know, man remaining in nature's
light, he's never going to comprehend the light of men, which is the
Lord Jesus Christ. So he's provoking his people
to understanding. As I said, there are some people
that hear this and the Lord uses it to shake them and to bring
down those lofty thoughts, those towers in which they're trusting
in. He brings those things down by
causing them to hear what the Word is saying and to fear and
to realize, My confidence hasn't been in Christ. My confidence
has been in my profession or in something that I'm doing,
and they're trusting in those things. And the Lord does that.
It's how the Lord first, that's one of the ways that the Lord
reached me and caused me to see that what I was hoping in, my
religious walk in the so-called Arminian gospel was no gospel
at all because I had become a professing Christian because now I had taken
care of certain sins that I thought were egregious, were gross, and
just needed to be put away, and so that now I could walk and
call myself a Christian. And though I wouldn't say those
things, I knew better than to talk like that, that's exactly
what I was hoping in. I was hoping in and trusting
in what I had done, that I could now trust in Christ because I
straightened a few things out beforehand. Otherwise, I was
ashamed. How could I call myself a Christian
unless I had done those things? But the end result was there
was my confidence. So when the Lord destroyed that
and showed me what a vile sinner I was, I was undone. I was brought
to ruin and I thought I was cut off because that was all taken
away. It was kicked out from me and all that was left was,
Lord, if you don't have mercy, if you don't have grace, I'm
a dead man. And the Lord left me there for
quite a while to shake that, because all that which is created
by man, when it's shook like that, falls down. And only that
which God creates will remain and stand in that day of shaking. And there's times when we go
through various times of shaking, and the Lord has to do that to
bring us down in ourselves. So he's provoking his people
that they would start to seek him, that they would see, wow,
all my confidence is in me or something I've done. I'm looking
to the wrong place. It's not fixed in the salvation
that you've provided in your son, Jesus Christ. Paul wrote
in Romans 11 there, verses 13 and 14, he said, I speak to you
Gentiles, and as much as I am the apostle of the Gentiles,
I magnify mine office. If by any means I may provoke
to emulation them which are my flesh, the Jews, and might save
some of them. So these words go out to cause
those that are self-righteous and self-confident in themselves
to be shook, to be shaken, and for their their hopes, their
idol, to come crashing down so that they're left with nothing.
And don't think, I'm cut off. The Lord is finally dealing with
me as I deserve. My sin is caught up with me.
He's destroying me. He's my enemy. I'm undone. And
yeah, while we're trusting in those things, He is our enemy.
But He does that in love and in mercy. When He brings a sinner
out from that and brings them to Christ, that's not hatred. That's love. That's the love
that God has for his people, and he does that. He won't let
us go until he has delivered us from that darkness, because
we see how intense this darkness is. It's blinded the entire world,
that it took the Son of God to come in flesh and do for us what
we couldn't do, and we don't get it. And so that's why he
does it. It's a hard work, but Christ
did it. And he won't let any of us fall away. He won't let
us go or fall away. So this gospel was sent out. It first went out to the Jews,
and then it went out to the Gentiles. And so there are many that do
think that Gentiles are better than Jews, that we're just more
worthy of it. And so now it's come out to us, right? And they
consider Europe and America to be these Christian nations, and
that God is somehow smiling upon us because of it, but we are
no better than the Jews. And in fact, if you look at the
so-called Christian nations, we're just like the Jews now. As an outward-professing Christian
people, which we're not true Christians, but as an outwardly
professing nation of being Christians, we're just like the Jews. And
our eyes have become blind, and our ears have become deaf, and
our hearts have become fat, and we don't hear and believe the
gospel. We are confident and resting
in the things which we've done. And in Romans 10, 16, 17, but
they have not all obeyed the gospel, for Isaiah saith, Lord,
who hath believed our report? So then faith cometh by hearing,
and hearing by the word of God. So these Christian nations, they're
trusting in these things. Either their baptism, or their
christening when they were little, or their walking in the aisle,
or their membership in the church, So they're trusting in these
things, even their faith, the faith that they profess, because
they believe that it's a work which they had to do, and not
the gift of God given to them as a blessing, a spiritual blessing
in Christ that he must give to the sinner. And not all men have
faith, so those that are trusting in their faith, they're not trusting
in Christ, they're trusting in a work that they've done, and
that's not the faith that God gives to his people, because
when God gives it, They know, and they confess and profess,
Lord, this is your work. I'm nothing apart from you. This
is your work. So that's how you know when it's
true faith, because you're not giving any glory to yourself.
You're giving all the glory and the praise to the Lord Jesus
Christ. So are you a sinner? Has he revealed himself to you?
Has he shown you that in yourself? You're undone, as He brought
you to see and confess, Lord, I'm nothing, nothing apart from
you. I desperately need your righteousness and your salvation.
Lord, save me, have mercy upon me, the sinner. And the Lord's
going to do that, just like He did that to Isaiah. He's going
to bring you down to nothing, strip away your idols, strip
away all your confidences, bring you to an undone state to see
and confess, Lord, have mercy upon me. And He will. And he
blesses you to hear that gospel. He prevents the evil one from
stealing that word away. He causes it to find good ground
and to go in. And it lays there until the Lord
is pleased to bring it up and it sprouts up. Though it's a
small thing, none of us here are despising that day of small
things. Because if it's of the Lord, it's of the Lord. It's
a full-grown man, whether it's a baby in the womb or it's a
man out, it's a human, is what I mean to say. It's a human,
whether it's a tiny little seed or it's a full-grown man, it's
still a human. You always know what it's going
to be. So the Lord, he does wonderful things and none of us can despise
the work that he does in the hearts of his people. If you
remember there, in Isaiah 6 verses 5 and 7, let's just read it,
just so we remember. Isaiah is brought to say, Woe
is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and
I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For mine eyes
have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Then flew one of the
seraphims, one of the ministers that the Lord sends unto me,
having a live coal, the gospel in his hand, which he had taken
with the tongues from off the altar, which is Christ. And he
laid it upon my mouth and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips,
and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged." That's what
Christ accomplished for his people. Having been cleansed of his sin
and given life in Christ, he's now sent of Christ. And that
brings us to our next point. Let's look at verses 11 and 12
to see the works of salvation that the Lord does for his people.
But here in 11 and 12, Isaiah asks this question. He says,
Lord, how long? And he answered, until the cities
be wasted without inhabitant and the houses without man and
the land be utterly desolate. and the Lord have removed men
far away and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the
land." So these questions, what he's asking here is how long
is the kingdom of darkness going to prevail over the people? How long is the enemy of souls
going to be allowed to steal away the word that's being preached
and blind the minds of the people lest they should hear the gospel? Again, when we look at the scriptures,
we shouldn't be alarmed by these things. In 2 Thessalonians 2,
3, Paul said, Let no man deceive you by any means, for that day
shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and
that man of sin be revealed the son of perdition. So there is
a day of great falling away, and we already see it. You know,
Gil and Men like Calvin, they already interpreted to say we've
already hit that apostasy because so many have departed from the
true gospel to confessing that their salvation is all of Christ
and they're all just caught up in religion. So we certainly
see that falling away and I think there will even be a day when
carnal professors are going to no longer profess Christ, even
in their carnal false profession. They'll go away. In that day,
the Lord will make known who are His true sheep, and He'll
make His people known because they'll be willing to confess
and stand with Christ, even if others aren't made willing to
stand with Him in that day. And then Paul said to the Corinthians
in 2 Corinthians 4, 3 and 4, he said, But if our gospel be
hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of this
world hath blinded the minds of them, So, it doesn't mean that the
evil one is out of control and that he's getting away with as
much mischief as he can until God catches up with him and stops
him. The Lord's allowing these things
to occur. He's allowing these things to
happen and there's a purpose because it's all accomplishing
the purpose and the will of God in the salvation of his people. He's going to bring his people
to their salvation in the appointed time, the day of their salvation. In Isaiah 55, he says, for my
thoughts, right? We think, well, why do it that
way, Lord? But he says, my thoughts are not your thoughts or my ways,
your ways. saith the Lord. For as the heavens
are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your
ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain cometh
down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but
watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth in bud, that it
may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater, so shall
my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth. It shall not return
an enemy void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall
prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. But it's hard for
us to see and to recognize what the Lord is doing, especially
when we're walking in the flesh and our eyes are set on the things
of this earth and set on these ways and these times and what
we're trying to accomplish or think that we need to do. And
it's hard to see what the purpose of God is, but when He settles
us and He feeds us through this gospel And He just gives us rest
and comfort in Him. Then with the eye of faith, we
trust and say, Lord, You're working all this out perfectly to bring
about the salvation of Your people. As Paul wrote to the Romans in
828, saying that all things work together for good, to them that
love God, to them who are of the called according to His purpose. You know, having that understanding,
it's such a help because it turns that understanding of the four
horsemen, right? In Revelation 6, where you read
the four horsemen, you think, oh man, that's just the evil
one in his kingdom overrunning the kingdom, you know, God's
kingdom and really wreaking havoc. And it turns that thought to
see that's not the evil one's four horsemen. That's the Lord
sending those horsemen out. That's his kingdom. conquering
and destroying the works of darkness and destroying the kingdom of
the evil one. And we see that then in the light
of what he's doing and say, Lord, you know exactly what you're
doing and your kingdom is advancing and you're establishing your
kingdom. And so we come to Revelation
6, 9 through 11, it says, And when he opened the fifth seal,
right, that's after the four horsemen, he opened the fifth
seal in Revelation 6, 9, And I saw under the altar the souls
of them that were slain for the word of God and for the testimony
which they held. And they cried with a loud voice,
saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge
and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And
white robes were given unto every one of them. And it was said
unto them that they should rest yet for a little season, until
their fellow servants also and their brethren that should be
killed as they were should be fulfilled." So like these brethren
were to be satisfied with the righteousness of the Lord Jesus
Christ and what he's doing, knowing Lord you're bringing about the
salvation of your people. You're establishing that and
pushing out that gospel till every single one of your people
are brought into this kingdom and brought under the blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ and brought under His rule and dominion and
salvation and have peace with God through the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. So, remember that sweet promise
in 2 Peter 3, verses 7 through 9. It says, but the heavens and
the earth which are now by the same word are kept, they're kept
in store, reserved under fire against the day of judgment and
perdition of ungodly men. But, beloved, he says, be not
ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a
thousand years, and a thousand years as one day, and the Lord
is not slack concerning his promise as some men count slackness,
but is long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any of us should
perish, but that all of us should come unto repentance. So it pleased the Lord to do
it this way and this is going to be kept and it's all going
out the way it's going out until every single one of his people
are brought in. When he brings in that last child
and they've produced the fruit that he's purposed for them to
bring, then as we saw in the last couple weeks, the Lord will
put in his sickle and he'll harvest up his people and bring them
home to be with him. But before that, our Lord's still
gathering up the inheritance of Christ our Savior. Turn over
to Isaiah 49. Isaiah 49. Verse four, it says, then I said I have labored
in vain. I spent my strength for naught
and in vain, yet surely my judgment is with the Lord and my work
with my God. And you can see this one, Israel
rejected Christ when they crucified him with wicked hands, but it
was all according to the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God. Verse five, and now saith the Lord that formed me from
the womb to be his servant. to bring Jacob again to him.
Though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the
eyes of the Lord, and my God shall be my strength." So that
we see his glory that in his weakness, he made his people
strong. In his death, he gave his people
life. And when he was lifted up, just
as he said, he drew all men unto himself and gave them eternal
life. in himself, and he gathered together
and won all his sheep and lost none of them. And he said, verse
six, here's why it all happened the way it does. It is a light
thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes
of Jacob and to restore the preserved of Israel. I will also give thee
for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation
until the end of the earth. Thus saith the Lord, the Redeemer
of Israel, and His Holy One, and to Him whom man despiseth,
to Him whom the nation abhorreth, to a servant of rulers kings
shall see and arise. Princes also shall worship because
of the Lord that is faithful, and the Holy One of Israel, and
He shall choose thee. Thus saith the Lord, in an acceptable
time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped
thee, and I will preserve thee and give thee for a covenant
of the people. Here it is, to establish the
earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages. And so that's
why it says there in Isaiah 6, verses 11 and 12, he said, how
long? And the Lord answered, until
the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without
man, and the land be utterly destroyed, and the Lord have
removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst
of the land. So all this forsaking and all
this moving away, all this rejection of the Lord, it must come to
pass. And this world is going to be
stripped and laid bare and brought to desolation and brought to
ruin. But through it, the Lord is conquering
the hearts of his people. He's sending out that gospel.
He's bringing them to nothing. He's bringing us to have no confidence
in the flesh. that all our confidence might
be found in the Lord Jesus Christ and what he's done. It's going
to be well for the righteous, woe for the wicked, but it shall
be well for the righteous. And there's a strong delusion
coming upon the earth. It's already, the spirit of Antichrist
is already there. That's what John said, that the
spirit of Antichrist is already working. And so it's no surprise
to us that all these things are coming. Paul said to the Thessalonians,
he said in 2 Thessalonians 2, 5, through 14, remember ye not
that when I was with you I told you these things? And now ye
know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.
For the mystery of iniquity doth already work. Only he who now
letteth will let until he be taken out of the way. And then
shall that wicked be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with
the spirit of his mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of
his coming. Even him who's coming is after the working of Satan,
with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness
of unrighteousness, and then that perish, because they receive
not the love of the truth that they might be saved. And for
this cause, God shall send them strong delusion that they should
believe a lie. that they all might be damned
to believe not the truth, but at pleasure in unrighteousness."
That unrighteousness, whether it's that carnal lust of the
flesh that this flesh just lusts for and goes after, or it's that
self-righteous religion that men delight in and glory in what
they do. But here we see the gospel in
2 Thessalonians 2.13, but we are bound to give thanks always
to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath
from the beginning chosen you unto salvation through sanctification
of the spirit and belief of the truth. So we see that it's God
that puts the difference between his people. It's God who separates
his people and causes them to hear, otherwise, all the people
would go off like all the other people and not believe the truth. Whereunto we called you by our
gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. All right, now very quickly,
the third point, salvation in the sea. Look at that last verse,
we see the remnant shall be saved in Christ, Isaiah 6.13. But yet
in it shall be a tent, right? And that was always the inheritance
of the Lord. The Lord always spoke of a tent, and that picture's
the remnant that he'll save. But yet in it shall be a tent,
and it shall return and shall be eaten as a teal tree and as
an oak, whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves,
so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof. And so we
see this beautiful picture of this seed and the whole land
being sustained because of that seed. And that seed is Christ,
right? And the oak, the acorn of the
oak tree is a beautiful picture of our Savior because in that
acorn, if you lost every single oak tree and all you had was
that one acorn, you could fill the entire earth with oak trees
just from that one acorn because we just grow propagate and drop
more seeds and grow, they will all grow and propagate and drop
more seeds and we just continue on and that's exactly what we
have of Christ, that He is the seed and in Him is life and He
gives that seed of life in every single one of His people and
every one of His children. So Christ is that seed, in Him
we are the remnant seed and we're preserved in Him and we do come
forth from Him in the time that He appoints. And that's what
we'll close with in Ephesians 1, verses three through seven,
we see this where he says in Ephesians 1, three through seven,
blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ, according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
him in love. having predestinated us unto
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ unto himself according
to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of
his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved, in
whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of
sins according to the riches of his grace. So with all this
falling away of the wicked, brethren, look to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Stay upon him because You hoping Him are that His remnant seed. He's given you that hope. He's
shown you that there is no salvation in any other. It's in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And no matter what delusion comes
upon this world and the wicked all go after it, don't look to
it. You continue to look to the Lord
Jesus Christ and hope in Him to the end and you shall be saved. Let me just also say a word to
those who are awakened, who know that they're sinners and see
that they're in need of Christ. I would just encourage you, don't
delay. Look to Him, cry out to Him,
confess your sin, confess your need of Him. If He's shaking
you, that's a blessed thing. We fear and get afraid when we're
shaken. But don't stop there and just
become complacent in it and then go back into the world. But if
it's of the Lord, He'll shake you, He'll bring you to the end
of yourself and you'll continue to cry out to Him and look to
Him and seek Him and He'll bless the Gospel. He'll reveal this
Gospel to you. He promises that all who seek
Him with the whole heart, they shall find Him. They shall have
eternal life and trust in Him. So continue in Him and look to
Him and He'll establish your hearts and settle you in Christ
and the peace and the joy and the forgiveness and the reconciliation
that we have with God in the Lord Jesus Christ. I pray the
Lord will bless that to your hearts and cause you to not be
complacent, cause you to look to Christ and come to Him. Alright,
let's pray and then close this. Our gracious Lord, we thank you,
Lord, and confess that we don't understand all things or know
all the things that you're doing. But Lord, we see that you've
always worked salvation for your people, and that through the
rebellion and the rejection and what evil, wicked men have done,
to Christ and to your servants, the apostles, and to anyone who
brings the gospel. Lord, it always works in causing
the gospel to go out further and to reach your people and
to call them out of darkness and to bring them into the beloved
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, we thank you for this
and pray that you would help us to stand in the day of adversity
and that we would stand in the Lord Jesus Christ. trusting in
Him, resting in Him, made to see Him rise glorious for us. We pray that You would bless
this people, cause Your Spirit to rest upon us, call us out
of darkness, bring us out of darkness, deliver us out of the
darkness that is upon all this world, Lord. Let us not stay
there, but bring us into the light of Christ, help us to see
Jesus only, and that we would have that light and life We pray
this in the name of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.