I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. To give to a future run down. Trust in the Lord. And do not rely on your own insight. But in all ways acknowledge him, and he will direct. I know the plans I have for you, says the love. Plans for good to give to you a future run of old. Amen. your way to the Lord. Trust in Him and He will guide you. Still before the runaway, patiently for he ? Know the plans I have for you ? ? Says the Lord, plans for good to give to you ? He knows the plans he has for you. Plans for good to give to the future and the home. The future and the home. A future. Let's go to God in prayer again. Remember those who have needs in the body and sicknesses. Many are troubled, grieved, vexed. It's the lot of the believer in this life. Our Lord says, I've chosen you in the furnace of affliction. Paul even says that our suffering, just as our faith, is a gift of God. But pray for those who are in afflictions and troubles. I ask for your prayers for me. I desire to preach this message to you. I long for it to come directly from the Spirit of God to you. I long for you to be able to identify with the things that are written in this section, because this is dealing with God's people, God's elect. And I pray that the Lord will bless it to you. Pray for those churches without pastors. Don't forget them. I'm so thankful that God has given us a place. I'm thankful for you. I'm thankful God has given you such a heart to believe the gospel, but not only to believe, but to be faithful to it. If you have any of this, all of this is a gift of God's grace to us. It's not natural that we desire to hear the gospel. work of the Spirit. So we should be thankful for it if God has put that in your heart. We should be thankful. I even thought about preaching that message. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name. Forget not all His benefits. I pray that God would cause us to kneel before Him and give praise for His grace today. Let's go to Him in prayer. Gracious Father, again we come before You in the weakness, in affliction and sorrow, with inability, to worship you as we should. And we pray, Father, this day that you would give us the grace to worship you in spirit and in truth, that the gospel might be preached in the power of the Holy Spirit, not in the power of the man preaching or in the power of the hearer to receive it, I pray, Father, that the Holy Spirit would give us the ability, the strength, the wisdom, the understanding to hear and receive the Gospel as you have laid it out in your Word. Father, I pray for grace, for strength and mercy in this. I beg you to heal those that are sick, those who are afflicted in their minds, those who cast down because of the cares and troubles of this life. If you would this moment, Father, set aside the things of the world, the things of the flesh, and let us for this moment enter in to the things of Christ, the things of the Spirit. I plead, Father, this morning for the churches that have no pastors, that you would feel that position, that you would call men into your service and send them forth to declare the glorious liberties that we have in Christ. I ask you to forgive us our sins. I plead with you to forgive us of our unrighteousness, of our pride, self-righteousness. Give us the grace to look to Christ and see Him as all our salvation. Call your people even as you promised. These things we plead in the name of Jesus, our Savior, and for His namesake. Amen. I take your Bibles and turn with me to Isaiah chapter 48. Isaiah chapter 48. I'm going to title this message, The Nature of Israel and the Nature of Grace. The Nature of Israel and the Nature of Grace. Now in this previous chapter, the Lord is going to set forth a great contrast of two people. The people of Babylon in chapter 47 and Israel in chapter 48. We know that Babylon is a picture of the lost. It is a picture of those who are hated of God. It is a picture of the whorish church. God says in this previous chapter that Babylon relied upon their own strength. Babylon trusted in the gods of their own imagination. Babylon trusted in their soothsayers and their fortune tellers. God says this in the last verse of that chapter. He says, and none shall save thee. None shall save thee. What a hopeless condition is that nation, is that people. These are a picture of the Esau's, those who were hated of God before their birth. Those are pictured by those who trust in their own wisdom, in their own righteousness, in their own works. Rather than bowing to the Word of God and submitting to the Lord Jesus Christ as all their righteousness, God says, I'm going to come on them suddenly. Think of that rich man. He said, Well, I'm going to build big barns, I'm going to tear these down, and I'm going to do this, and I'm going to do that, and I'm going to say to eat, drink, and my soul, eat, drink, and be merry. And God said, Thou fool. And suddenly he was gone. Suddenly the wrath of God consumed him as stubble before the fire of God's vengeance. What a pitiful condition in such a man. No hope. No hope. But God sets in contrast to them, the people of Israel. God's elect, which are pictured by Jacob, whom God loved before he was born, having done any good or evil. God chose Jacob. God chose Israel. And God's going to set forth a contrast between these two. And He's going to show you this, the only difference between Israel and Babylon was His grace. That's what He's going to show you. That's what the Gospel declares. There's no difference. Naturally. He's going to show you that there's no difference. And so He calls to in chapter 48, He's speaking, not to Babylon, but to Israel. In verse 1 He says, Hear this house of Jacob in verse 12. He says, O house of Jacob and Israel. Now, I don't want to spend much time on this, but I know that this is speaking nationally and this is a fulfillment of prophecy to the physical nation of Israel. You can easily see this. That Israel had sinned. Israel had rebelled. They were chosen of God. They had the law of God. They had the witness of God. They had the gospel of God. Babylon had none of that. God chose them as a nation. And they sinned against God. God told them He was going to, if they rebelled, He was going to send them into captivity. And yet, what do we find in this? God tells them, He said, You heard what I said, but you didn't You wouldn't believe it. He said, I told you this beforehand because I knew who you were. You would say my God did it. My idol did it. If I had not told you beforehand and then brought it to pass without you, you would have given glory to your God or yourselves. And then verses 9 and 11, God declares, The reason he's going to do this, he said, I'm not going to kill you. I'm not going to destroy you like I do Babylon because of this. My own namesake, my own glory. Then he witnesses of the Messiah, of their coming deliverance, rather, in verses 12 to 15. And that was by Cyrus. You remember God chose that evil man Cyrus. He said a new thing I'm going to do. It was a new thing. You got this? It was natural for a kingdom to conquer you. It wasn't natural for a kingdom to let you go. And God says I'm going to do something new. I'm going to raise up Cyrus. He's going to kill the Babylonians and then he's going to do something unheard of. He's going to set you free. Unheard of. And then God tells of the prosperity that He will give according to His grace. But again, I want you to see this. He's not really speaking just to natural Israel. That has no benefit to us. He's speaking to spiritual Israel. This text is speaking to every one of you who believe. Now, when I say Israel, I'm talking about God's true elect people. This is the intent of the Holy Spirit. And I'm going to show you four things in this chapter. First of all, you that are God's chosen people, I want you to see your nature, because that's what God wants you to see. I want you to see the nature of every one of God's elect. Then we're going to see this, the reason why God saves us. That's the second thing. You're going to see why God saves you. Why would God save such a person that has an evil nature? Well, God tells you, I'm going to do it for my sake. And then he's going to tell you how he's going to do it. That's the third thing, how he's going to do it. He's going to raise up somebody that he loves. And he's going to raise him up and he's going to prosper in his work. And that person is Christ. That person is Jesus Christ. And fourthly, I want us to see the freedom that we have in Christ. The prosperity that we have because of the grace of God. So those four things. First of all, the nature of Israel is shown. Now Israel, unlike Babylon nationally, was chosen of God. They were chosen, they were given the law and the commandments of God. But God here displays something about His people. That they are no different than the Babylonians. That by nature they are the same. Matter of fact, he says they're worse. They're worse. Why? Because they had His Word. They had His Gospel and they still would not give glory to God. Look at this in verse 1. He says, Hear this, O house of Jacob, you which are called by the name Israel, you come forth of the waters of Judah, which swear by the name of the Lord, and make mention of the God of Israel. But, wait, something's wrong. You claim to be Israelites, you claim to be of the strength of Judah, you claim to trust in the Lord of Israel, But, something's amiss. Not in truth, nor in righteousness. You call yourselves Israel, but it's not true. You don't worship me in truth. And you surely don't have any righteousness. They were hypocrites. God said nothing worse than an actor. an actor, someone who pretends, who praises God with their lips but their hearts are far from Him. So God says, the proof of this, what was the proof of this? Well God tells us in verses 3, He said, I've declared the former things from the beginning And they went forth from my mouth, and I showed them, and did them suddenly, and they came to pass, because I knew you were obstinate." This is why I did it. Why do you think God prophesied of the gospel before it actually come in? Because He said, I knew this, if I just did it, you would claim credit. You would try to rob me of my glory. I know who you are. That's something. You that believe, I know you understand your depravity, but you really don't know how depraved you really are. God does. God knows the depths of your sins that you won't confess to anyone else. There are things in your mind, in your heart, that you would never want to escape. God says, I know who you are. I know your nature, that it is obstinate and rebellious, and you seek glory for yourselves. You seek glory for yourselves. God says in verse 8, look at this, He explains, He said, You heard not. Now I told you, I even did it in front of you. You know what? Even then you didn't know. Yea, from that time thine ear was not opened. For I knew that thou wouldst deal treacherously and was called a transgressor when? When were you called a transgressor? After you came out? No. In the womb. You were a transgressor from the womb. That's what God says about our nature. And this is true of everyone. Now this is not just true of Babylon, it is. But I want you to see that this is true of God's elect. This is true, the true nature of Israel, of God's elect, is that they are a sinner from the womb. By nature we are hypocrites, Now listen, men are religious, aren't they? One archaeologist said this, you would sooner find a civilization without a language than you would find one without a temple. Now every civilization has had some type of religious temple built. Every one. Why? They know there's a god, they don't know who he is. So what do they do? They make up a god. They make up a god. Now which one of God's elect has escaped this? Have we not all made a god of our own making? How many people in so-called Christendom claim and swear to believe Christ? And how many are still liars? How many are hypocrites? Well, how can we tell? Because they reject what God says. That's what the proof here is. God says you're a transgressor from the womb. What's the proof? When I declared it, and I showed it to you, you did not believe it. This gospel that we preach, This gospel is a mystery to the natural man. It is. It's a mystery. When I was speaking to some people this week, and I'm just plainly declaring the gospel to them, and they're grasping at it. They can't really get it. And so they got to revert back to something that they know. They can't get this. Though, academically it's simple. But in their heart, they just can't grab it. It's like trying to grab sand. It slips through your fingers. They can't get it. Paul says this about the Gospel. He said, we preach the wisdom of God in a mystery. A mystery. Listen to what we preach. We preach the hidden things of God before the world was. And yet what does the nature of man do with such wonderful things? He said none of the princes of the world had known this. None of the best theologians in the world could have ever understood this. If they did, they wouldn't have crucified Christ, Paul said. And he said this, as it is written. Now this is something, when you say that, this ends all debate. I don't want to debate anymore with you. I don't want to talk to you anymore about it. This is it. It's written. Now you go deal with God if you don't like it. It is written, I hath not seen, nor hear, heard, nor entered into the heart of man the things which God prepared for them that love Him. How do you know it? But God hath revealed them unto us. It's the only way anybody's going to know this. Why? Because our nature is dead. It cannot understand, it cannot perceive the things of God. Remember the rich man in hell said, send Lazarus back so he could tell my brothers. And what'd Lazarus say? He said, even if one rose from the dead, they would not believe. They've got Moses and the prophets, let them hear him. The gospel. This is our gospel. Now I want to make it plain what our gospel is. Our gospel is this, that before the foundation of the world, you listen to this, God chose a people to save. That's it. It's not election. Anybody tells me election is complicated, that's because they don't want to believe it. They don't want to hear it. It's not complicated. God chose a people. Is that complicated? No. He said, I'm going to save them. I love them, I choose them, and I'm going to save only them. It's not complicated, is it? And God even told us how He was going to save them. This is our gospel. By Jesus Christ. That Jesus Christ was to come into the world and represent the elect. Only Israel. He came into this world to save who? His people from their sins. He came and said, I laid down my life for the sheep. Not for the goats, for the sheep. And Jesus told those Pharisees, you're not of my sheep. Therefore, you don't believe. You don't believe because you're not my sheep. He said, I give unto my sheep eternal life, and no man shall pluck them out of my hand. No man is going to pluck them out of my hand. Why? I laid down my life for them. This is our gospel, that Jesus Christ victoriously came in and conquered death and sin, satisfied the justice of God. For who? For who? The elect. And now He has risen and ascended to heaven. where He reigns and rules over all things for the singular purpose of calling His elect. He said to the Father, Thou hast given Me power over all flesh that I should give eternal life to, listen to this, as many as Thou hast given Me. Complicated? Who is He going to give eternal life to? As many as the Father gave Him. Nobody more and nobody less. That's his purpose. So he sends his spirit into the world and he gathers them, he calls them. Matter of fact, Isaiah in chapter 43 says this. God speaking to Isaiah, he said, fear not, I am with thee. I will bring thy seed from the east and gather thee from the west. I will say to the north, give up. To the south, keep not back. Bring my sons from far and my daughters from the ends of the earth. Listen to this, even everyone that is called by my name. This is our gospel. That none shall be missing. All that the Father chose, all that the Son redeemed, the Spirit will call them and they will come. Any complication? Am I losing anybody? Is it so difficult to understand this? Salvation is of the Lord. Now how do you know if you're a hypocrite? You don't believe that. You believe you have some merit. You believe you have some power, some will, some goodness in you. You know what the elect know? We have none. I have no power. I couldn't save myself. I was a transgressor from the womb. No hope for me to save myself. God's elect to hear that. I say, yeah, that's me. That's me. I am Israel. No hope to save myself. My ear was not open until when? Until God opened it. And your ear will not be open until God opens it. Do what you want to. Try as hard as you can. You will not open your own ear. If you know your ear is not open, the best thing you can do is plead for God to open it. Beg God to open it. Otherwise, you'll just die in your sin. But see the grace of God. Even in this condition, even seeing His people in this condition, God here tells them, I will save you. You're obstinate, you're rejected, your ear's not open, You're treacherous! You're a sinner from the womb! God says, Yet I will refrain my anger for this. So you're not cut off. God promises to save. He promises to save. Now the question is, the second thing I want to ask is this. Now you see your nature? Is anybody missing this? Your nature? What's who you are? This is who Israel really is. Sinners. No hope of saving ourselves. And yet God says, I'm going to save you. Now, why in the world would God do this? I was listening to this, reading an article. This man had killed this other man's six-year-old boy. Snuck into his house and killed him. Then, they were going to let this man off because he's ill, mentally ill, gonna let him out. Let him out. And that man said this, he said, if you let him out, I'm gonna kill him. Now, I understand the thoughts of that man. I understand the anger and the pain of that man. That man did something treacherous to him. How treacherous were we to God? And yet God says, I'm going to set you free and not kill you. And that's something that we don't know much about. That's grace. That's grace. Now why would God do this? That's a question, isn't it? I want you to get this. that God is not going to show you mercy based on anything in you. God says, I'm going to show mercy for my own namesake. Look at that in verse 9. Look what he says. He says, for my names sake will I defer my anger, and for my praise will I refrain for thee that I cut thee not off. Why were we not left to ourselves? That's a question I often ask. Why would you choose me? Why would you seek to redeem me? Why would you keep me? I would never keep me. I would never choose me. Why would you? God said, I didn't do it for you. I did it for me. Men don't like that. They're confused when you say God does something for His own glory. Men, their minds are just blown. They don't understand that. God tells you plainly why He does it. He said, I do it for my own namesake. The reason I don't cut you off and kill you like Babylon, I do it for my sake. He said, Behold, I will refine thee, not with silver, I have chosen in the furnace of affliction. In other words, your afflictions are not unto death. Your afflictions are to refine you. Theirs are for destruction. Yours are for your benefit. And look what he says again, for my own name's sake, even for my own sake. How many times you got to say it? Three times in three verses. It says it three times. I'm doing it for my sake. Listen. For my own sake will I do it. For how should my name be polluted and I will not give my glory to another. Listen to me. The whole salvation of God's elect is traced to one thing. The glory of God's grace. That's it. God will manifest the glory of His grace. How many times He says that in Ephesians 1? To the praise of the glory of His grace. He said, I chose you in Christ for the foundation of the world, that you should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us according to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace. He has made us accepted in the beloved. And He redeemed us. Then He gave us His Word. And Paul says, according to the riches of the glory of His grace. Then He called you. For what purpose? The praise of the glory of His grace. Who first trusted in Christ? Who first trusted in Christ? God did. So all of this is for the praise of the glory of His grace. So our salvation is traced to one source, the glory of God. What did you have to do with it? You chosen of God, what did you have to do with your election? What did you have to do with your redemption? What did you have to do with your calling? What in the world can you do to keep yourself believing on Christ? What? What can you do? Nothing. Nothing. Listen, if you could do one thing, you should get glory. You understand? That's why free will religion is so vile. You understand that? When they take one thing, they say, yeah, Jesus Christ is all my salvation except this. And then they take that little thing and they coddle it and they say how precious it is, my free will, my works, my baptism, whatever it is. And they say, well God you get all the glory except this one thing, it's mine. No, God says I get all of the glory. I get all of the glory for my own praise. Let's go to Ezekiel 36. Ezekiel 36 is one of the most beautiful pictures I think the clearest, one of the clearest of the covenant of God's grace, of His salvation. Ezekiel 36, look what He says in verse 24. This is the God of the universe declaring something. That's what He says. He says, I will take you from among the heathen. I'm going to snatch you out. You there mingle with the heathen. Guess what I'm going to do for Israel? I'm going to take you out. I'm going to gather you out of the countries and I will bring you to your own land. Listen to what I'm going to do. I'm going to sprinkle clean water upon you. And what is going to happen? You shall be clean. And from all your filthiness and from all your idols will I cleanse you. Look what I'm going to give you. I'm going to give you a new heart. I will put a new spirit within you. I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you and you shall walk in my statutes and keep my judgments and do them. You shall dwell in the land I gave your fathers and you shall be my people and I will be your God. And I will save you from all your uncleanness. I will call for the corn and the increase and lay no famine upon you." Who's doing all this? God says, I will take you. I will gather you. I will sprinkle you. I will cleanse you. I will give you a new heart and a new spirit. I'll take out that stony heart, that rock-solid heart of rebellion and obstinance, and I'll give you a heart of flesh, expose your sin to You, and you'll feel the pain and guilt of it, and you'll flee to Christ. As God says, I'm going to do that. I'm going to do that. I'll put my spirit, not only give you a new spirit, I'm gonna put my spirit in you. That new nature that we have, who do you think sustains that? God says, I'm gonna put my spirit in you. The life of the new man is the spirit of God. Gives us life. And we walk, walk in his statutes. What are his statutes? Believe on the Son of God and love your brethren. Those are his statutes. Don't you walk in those statutes? Who does that? God said, I'm going to cause you to walk in your statutes. You're not going to do it on your own. Look, and I'm even going to save you from your perpetual uncleanness. You're going to still be unclean and I'm going to keep cleansing you. Now who's doing all this? I will and you shall. Now who's doing it? Who receives the glory here? Why does he do it? Look at the previous verses in verse 21. He even starts out, let me get over here, back to my text. Ezekiel 36, look at what he says in verse 21. I had pity on my holy name, which the house of Israel profaned among the heathen, whether they went. Therefore I say unto the house of Israel, thus said the Lord God, I do this not for your sakes. Now why in the world is he going to have grace on such a wicked, vile people as we are? He said, I'm going to do it for my own namesake. And that's all you need to know. I'm not going to do any of this for you. I'm doing it for me. Now why is this comforting to you that believe? Why is this comforting? Why is this necessary? Because if salvation were dependent upon us in one thing, it would not be sure. But because the salvation of God is tied to the glory of God, it's sure. Is there anything going to stop God from being glorified? The glory of God's grace is our salvation. You see, my life is tied to the glory of God. If he should fail to save one of his people, his glory would fail. Is that going to happen? Is it possible that God should not receive glory? No. So why is he saving such a natural born sinner as myself for his own glory? Now then the third question is this, how? How is he going to do it? Well, God tells us how He's going to do it. By Jesus Christ. By Jesus Christ. Look back at your text. Look at chapter 48 in Isaiah and verse 12. He said, Harken unto me, O Jacob, and Israel my called. I am he, I am the first and also the last. You ever heard that before somewhere else in scripture? You heard that before? In Revelation, when the Lord Jesus Christ came down to John, what did He say? He said, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. How is He going to do it? By the first and the last. Notice what He said, My hand hath laid the foundations of the earth, and My right hand hath spanned the heavens. When I call to them, they stand up together. You see that? When God said, Let there be, there was. They stood up together at His command. When Christ commanded the earth to be formed, it was formed. What He's telling you this is that my salvation is dependent upon my power, my deity. You listen to me because of who I am. This Gospel message I'm preaching to you, you should not listen to me because of who I am. You should listen to it because God says, I am! I'm the one speaking here. Not this frail piece of clay. God says, I'm the one that called the worlds together and they stood up at my word. He said, you assemble yourselves together and hear. Which among them hath declared these things? Who else had said this but me? Now then, this is what he declares. Here is how he's going to do it. Listen to this. The Lord hath loved him. He will do all his pleasure on Babylon, and his arm shall be on the Chaldeans. I, even I, have spoken it, yea, I have called him. I have brought him, and he shall make his way prosperous. Again, we know that physically this was speaking of Cyrus, that the Lord would call that evil king and he's going to make his way prosperous. And he did, didn't he? He made his way prosperous. But this is not speaking of Cyrus. You know why? Because the Lord didn't love Cyrus. The one he has called to save Israel is this, whom he loved, which is his only son. His only Son, the first and the last. He is the one loved of God. The Lord hath loved Him. He will do all His pleasure on Babylon, and His arm shall be on the Chaldeans. I, even I, have called Him. I have brought Him. He shall make His way prosperous. This could only picture Jesus Christ. There's no one else. There's no one else. When God saw His Son, what did He say? This is My Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Jesus alone was loved of the Father from eternity. Do you realize the only way He can love me is in Him? The only way God could love Israel is that God had to put Israel into His Son, put Him in union with His Son. The only way God could love us is through Him, is through Him. The Father has sent Him for one singular purpose and that is to redeem His people, to redeem His people. Look at verse 17, Thus saith the Lord thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. I am the Lord thy God, which teacheth thee to profit, and leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go. What way is that? Law? No. Look what he said. Oh, that thou hast hearkened to my commandments. Then had thy peace been as the river, and thy righteousness as the wave of the sea. Thy seed had been as the sand, as the offspring, as the baptism, have thy bowels as the gravel thereof. His name should not have been cut off nor destroyed before me." He said, look, you should have obeyed my commandments. Should have. We didn't. We didn't. The apostle tells us that if it were possible If there had been a law given by which men should be saved, we should have been saved by the law. But what do you find? We found this, that the law could not save us. We were condemned by it. The law can only condemn me. It can't help me. Is that the way I should go, the law? No, you should have obeyed it, but you didn't. What is the way? Listen, the Lord thy Redeemer. This is it. that Christ should come into the world as a representative man, and as a representative of the elect, He obtained both righteousness and redemption. He actually sanctified us by His offering. I like that what Paul says in Hebrews 10. He says, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. Behold, the Redeemer comes, and He does the will of the Father, which is what? By the which will we are sanctified. How? through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Our Lord Jesus Christ, He is how God redeems sinful Israel. Our Lord Jesus Christ, when He came, He successfully accomplished our redemption. This is the joy of our gospel. The joy of our gospel is based on the work of Jesus Christ. All of it is based on the work of Jesus Christ. When he said those words, it is finished. Aren't those the most wonderful words in the world? What does that mean? Well, it means it's finished. That's what it means. What's finished? All of it. If something was not finished, then he wouldn't say it's finished. It's done! Redemption accomplished! And God raised Him from the dead. And right now Jesus Christ is taking His gospel and He is calling His people and nothing shall stop Him. In fact, everything is working for it. Not against it. You think the world working against Christ is going to somehow win? No! He's going to use them. For what? The calling of His people. Every event that takes place is for the calling of His people. Scripture says that the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hands. Our Lord Jesus Christ was victorious. He was not trying to make salvation. He made salvation. Salvation is not possible. It's accomplished. It's finished. It's done for the elect. And He will call them, and they will come. None of them shall be missing. That's the glorious gospel for the glory of God. Anything less than that diminishes the glory of God. Any gospel less than the gospel of God's grace in Christ only diminishes the glory of God and exalts man. What's the benefit of this? Now see the benefit, and I'll close. Look at the benefit of this. He says in verse 20, Go forth from Babylon, flee ye from the Chaldeans. Now how are you going to run? How are you going to go away from them? Screaming? Hiding? You know, when someone escapes prison, they go hide. God says, that's not how you're going to go. You're going to go out singing. You're going to go, why? Because I set you free. When I set you free, you're going to go forth singing and you're going to declare this and tell and utter it even to the end of the earth. Say ye, the Lord hath redeemed his servant Jacob. Now who gets the glory out of that? Why are you set free? You vile nation of Israel. God said He's going to, by His grace and for the glory of His name, He's going to save you. And then He saved you. And then what do you do? When He saves you, you go forth and tell, He saved me. You don't try to tell people I had a part in it. Well, God set me free, but you know what? He really couldn't unless I let Him. Anybody says that's an idiot. You need to run as fast as you can away from that fool. Because He's seeking glory for Himself. Most people don't seek glory for ourselves. The Lord set me free. Why did He set you free? His own glory. Nothing in me. How did He do it? Get it by His Son. Set me free. Now He tells me to go out singing. Notice this, we won't thirst. He said, and they thirsted not. When He led them through the deserts, He caused the waters to flow out of the rock unto them. He claimed the rock, and the waters gushed out. What is this but the preaching of the cross of Jesus Christ? Christ is a rock, isn't He? What does God say to His people that He sets free? He said, they won't thirst. They won't be missing anything. Remember when the Lord came to destroy the nation of Babylon, He wrote on the wall, He said, Thou hast been weighed in the balance and found, what? Wanting. You outside of Christ, when you're weighed in the balances, you will be found wanting. You're missing something. What are you missing? You're missing righteousness. You're missing an offering for sin. That's what you're missing! And judgment will come on you! God says, say you to the wicked, That destruction awaits for him, that's the warning in the last verse. But to us, to us who believe, to us who are in Christ, listen, God pours out His refreshment to us. Why? We're not wanting. We're not lacking righteousness. We're not lacking redemption. Everything we need, Christ provides. So remember your nature. You were obstinate, a sinner from the womb. Remember why God saved you. He saved you not because of you, for His own glory. And that's why you're going to be saved, because of His glory. Not anything to do with you. How did He do it? He did it by Jesus Christ, and God says, I'm going to profit you. He said in that text, He says, teacheth thee to profit. Man, what profit do we have being in Christ? You have the forgiveness of sins, all the time. Well, that's good, because I need it all the time. You have cleansing of sin all the time. Good, because that's what I need. I need a new heart, I need a new nature, I need to be accepted with God. Well, you know what? Christ provides all that. And more than you could possibly imagine. I tell you what, sometimes I think too little of Him. I think of how great my sin is, and I think too little of His offering. Can not His offering cover my sin? Not just mine. John said the sin of the whole world, all of His elect. That's how powerful His salvation is. God give us a heart to sing, the Lord hath redeemed me. What's your hope? The Lord hath redeemed me. What's your confidence you're gonna make it through? The Lord hath redeemed me. There's my confidence. And he did it for his namesake. He didn't do it for, well, he shouldn't have done that for you. Look what you've done. I agree. I agree. But God said he didn't do it for any of those things. He did it for his own namesake. That's my hope. That's the hope of Israel. I pray God blesses to you. Stand and be dismissed in prayer. Our gracious Father, thank you for the time that you've given us, the benefit of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Oh, Father, I pray you'd bless it. I pray you'd use it. Apply it. Open the ears of the deaf. Set at liberty those that are captive. And let them say, the Lord hath redeemed his servant, Jacob. for his own glory. Do this for your glory. Keep us, Father. Strengthen us in the inner man. Heal our bodies and minds. Give us cause and great cause of the gospel to continually praise you for the glory of your grace. Bring us again safely together and we can rejoice again in this gospel. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. All right.