Before we get into the message,
we'll go to God in prayer. I want to remember those who are still
suffering in the body. Continue to pray for Rick. You may hear from Chuck and Patty. I think they were going over
to Kevin's and Kimberly's this week, so I think that's probably
where they are. Just pray for them as they travel.
I think that's exactly. They may have said it, and I
just completely forgot. I just pray for them. Ask your prayers for me. I've
been wanting to preach from Isaiah for a while now. I've been, ever
since the conference, wanting to preach from Isaiah. Kept looking
and kept looking and I think the Lord gave me a message so
I'm thankful for it. I do pray the Lord will bless
the message and I ask for your prayers for me. Also, remember my cousin in your
prayers. He's still struggling with cancer. I think they got him going to
MD Anderson in Houston. Is that right? Yeah. Bone marrow. Bone marrow. OK. So if you would,
pray for him and his family. Any other requests need to be
mentioned that I've absolutely forgotten? Let's go to God in prayer. He
remembers. He remembers. I'm thankful he
remembers, don't you? You don't remember anything,
but he sure does. Our gracious Father in heaven,
we bow before you tonight seeking your mercy, your grace, your
effectualist spirit to come into every heart, Father, we pray.
Through the power of the Spirit, take the word that is preached
and make it applicable to the hearts of your people. Father, I do this night pray
for those that are outside of Christ, those who are deceived, those who are still striving
to earn their own righteousness. I do pray, Father, that you would
be gracious to open their eyes, quicken their spirits to give
them life, and that they should see Christ and behold Him and
believe on Him. And for those that do believe,
those you have saved, I do ask, Father, that you would take the
message and comfort their hearts with it. Strengthen them, encourage
them in their mind in their hearts. And Father, for those that are
sick, those who have sufferings in this body, in the mind, we confess that only You, Father,
can heal. Only You quicken. Only You give life. And Father,
it is You who takes it. And we know that these things
are in Your hand. But what a loving hand, Father,
you have. What a kind and gracious hand.
How many times have you healed us in the past? We cannot count
them, Father, how many times you've been gracious. And Father,
I do ask that you would continue this grace upon them and heal
the bodies of those that are suffering. I need you. Without you, I can
do nothing. These that have come without
you, they cannot hear. And we do plead this night that
you would, by your own grace, give me liberty, pour in your
word, and pour it out as you see fit into the hearts of your
people. We pray this in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen. All right, if you take your Bibles
and turn with me to Isaiah, chapter 54. Isaiah chapter 54. I entitled this message, Afflicted,
Tossed, and Comfortless. Afflicted, Tossed, and Comfortless. You see that from the text. The
scripture says, O thou afflicted, tossed, with tempest and not
comforted. Behold, I will lay thy stones
with fair colors and lay thy foundations with sapphires. I
will make thy windows of gates and thy gates of carbuncles and
all thy borders of pleasant stones. All thy children shall be taught
of the Lord, and great shall be the peace of thy children."
Afflicted, tossed, and comfortless. Now, I know this text could be
applicable to anybody. Everybody might be afflicted. You might be outside of Christ.
You might be afflicted. You might be tossed. You might
be Comfortless. But the scriptures are not vague
as to who this is written to. This is written to believers.
This is written to God's church, to Israel, His people. And we
know this, if you just go back to the beginning of this, you
see who it is written to. It's always an important question,
always, who's, not only who's writing, but who is he writing
to? Look at verse 1, it tells you. He's writing to the barren. He says, Sing, O barren, thou
that didst not bear, break forth into singing, and cry aloud,
thou that didst not travail with child. He's talking to the barren. Now, there are two ways to see
this, and I think both are absolutely correct. One way to see this
is talking about the Gentiles, the bringing in of the Gentiles. Israel was considered to be the
bride. They were considered to be the
jewel of Christ, and the Gentiles were considered to be barren.
And he says this, he says, Sing, O barren, talking about us, Gentiles. We were barren. And he says,
look, you're going to be more than the children that had a
wife. There'll be more believers concerning the Gentiles than
there ever were concerning the Jews. Hadn't that come to pass?
It has. But there's a greater, deeper
meaning than just Jew and Gentile. Because this speaks to both Jew
and Gentile. Both of us by nature are barren. All of us by nature are barren. childless, lifeless. That's what a barren woman is.
She's lifeless. She can, in herself, produce
no life. She's fruitless. And back then, when this was
mentioned, this was a curse. When a woman was barren, she
was known to be cursed of God, that she could not have children.
Not only is this talking about those that are barren, but in
verse 7, he mentions those that are forsaken. He said,
for a small moment, I have forsaken thee. These are the ones that
were forsaken of God. Now, this is a picture of God's
people by nature. We are born barren of what? Life and righteousness. There's
none of that inside of us when we're born. We are born barren. Now when you think of barren,
you think of a desert, a place where there's no life whatsoever.
You can look into the heart of man and what you will see by
nature is no life at all. There's no life at all. You know,
I remember some years ago, they were all excited, scientists,
all excited. They found one drop of water
on Mars. You know why they're so excited?
Because if there's some water, there's life. That's what they
were hoping. They were hoping they'd find
Martians. But you know that's not so. It's
just barren. It's just barren. That's what man's heart is, barren.
He's born into sin. The scripture says the carnal
mind is. This is what it is. It's not a debatable subject.
This is not some debatable point. The carnal mind is enmity against
God. And prove it is not subject to
the law of God. You've found anyone subject to
the law of God? You've seen anyone in the history
of mankind that's subject to the law of God? Well, no. We've
all failed in this. Proving this, that our mind is
set at enmity against God. Paul says in Corinthians that
the natural man, Ephesians, the natural man is dead in sins.
Therefore, we don't need new habits. This is modern religion
for you. They'll tell you how to get new
habits. You just need to get a routine. You need to start
coming to church and make it a habit. You need to start reading
and make it a habit. Make prayer a habit. You don't
need a habit. You need life. That's what man
needs. He needs life. You don't need
a 12-step program. He needs spiritual life. He needs
to be raised from the dead. This matter of salvation is not
within the capacity of man to do. You can't raise the dead. I've got children dead. Dead. I don't know of any profession
of faith that they've ever made. They're dead. As far as I know,
dead. You know what I can do about
that? Nothing. Same thing I could do about myself.
I was dead and there was nothing I could do. I was barren, empty
of life. But the purpose of preaching
the gospel, this is the purpose of preaching the gospel, is this,
that God should give life to the barren. You listen to it.
He says, sing, O barren. That's just opposite of what
you would think would happen. Weep. That's what the natural
man would say. Weep, O barren. No. If a man
understands he's lifeless, then there's hope for him. If a man
understands he's fruitless, there's hope for him. We preach the gospel
to who? The barren, to dead. Why do we do that? Because God's
chosen a people for Himself. That's why we do it. I know that.
I know God's chosen a people for Himself, not according to
their works, but according to His own free grace. Before the
foundation of the world, I just read that the other night, in
1 Timothy it says that he, 2 Timothy 1 and verse 9 he says, He saved
us and He called us, which is first, He saved us, then what?
He called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but
according to His own purpose and grace which was given us,
now he goes all the way back to the beginning. The world began. When was that
purpose of grace that put you in Christ? It was before the
world began. God chose a people. And all these
elect, how are they born? Were they born with a mark on
them? Could you figure it out? Were they born with some kind
of special? Most parents, they just, you know, when their kid
comes out, he's special. Well, really, They're all just dead.
All just dead. Can't tell who's God's and who's
not. They're born dead. Therefore,
God's sin has only begotten Son into the world, and He has made
a man, took part in our nature. Can you fathom that? The Son
of God condescended and became a man. The Son of God became
the Son of Man. This he did. Why? Because his
people were barren of righteousness. Our Lord Jesus Christ came to
provide righteousness. This is the gospel. This is the
glorious gospel of Christ that Christ obtained righteousness. So much different than the other
false gospel that says he just made it possible. What good is
that to me? If he just made righteousness
possible? It's no good to me. No, that's
not what he did. When Jesus came into this world,
he actually got it. He obtained it. He did it. He established righteousness
for his people. He said, I came not to destroy
the law and the prophets, but what? What did he come to do?
Fulfill. To fulfill. And he did this by
his obedience to the law. You want to know there is one
man who has ever obeyed the law fully. It's Christ. The Lord
Jesus Christ, He did it all by Himself. And not only did He
do this, He sacrificed Himself to put away our sins, to satisfy
the justice of God. This is why the barren should
sing. Because Christ came into the world to provide righteousness
for us and obtain redemption by His one offering. Look at that in the previous
chapter. In verse 53, it said, Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise
Him. He put Him to grief. And thou shalt make his soul
an offering for sin. He shall see his seed. He shall
prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in
his hand. He shall see the travail of his
soul, and shall be satisfied. When God
saw the travail of the soul of his Son, he was forever satisfied. Exactly what Hebrews 14 10.14
tells us, He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Every
one God set apart, every one God determined to be holy, Christ
by His blood made us holy. Who were what by nature? Barren,
empty, dead. This is what Christ did for His
people. And what was the result of His righteousness and offering?
Wasn't it victory? Wasn't it victory? Isn't this
prophecy here a prophecy of victory? It says, Sing! Sing! Rejoice! Because something good
has taken place. Something great has taken place.
The Lord Jesus Christ bore our sins in His own body. The Lord
Jesus Christ obtained righteousness for the barren. for the dead so victorious he said he said
this that he he said in John chapter 17 he said I finished
the work you've given me to do that sound controversial iffy
or shaky he said no I finished it's done it's done work you
gave me to do I did it now Give me power over all flesh. Why? He earned it. I love the way
that says in Revelation that when everybody was weeping, John
was weeping, he couldn't find anybody to open the book. And
he said, Behold, there's a lamb as it was slain. And he went
up to God and he took the book out of the hand of God. Why?
He deserved it. Our Lord Jesus Christ, He merited that righteousness. He merited that salvation. And
he took that book from the hand of God and God freely gave it
to him. And why did he do that? He said, to give eternal life
to as many as thou hast given me. He's going to give eternal
life to as many as the Father gave him. That's success, isn't
it? Isn't that a reason to sing?
Man, that's a reason to sing. I like that. Sing, O barren now,
that travailest not. You know what? You didn't earn
this. You didn't work for this? You take a woman in labor, that's
a lot of work. That's a lot of work. We didn't do any of it. We didn't do any of it. He did
it. Are you such a sinner as this? Are you barren to produce any
righteousness at all? I am. By nature, I'm as barren
as a desert. I can't produce any goodness
in myself whatsoever. Scriptures are so plain about
this. In Romans 10 he says there is none righteous, what? No,
not one. Now God looked down and said
that. There's none that understand it. How many people understand?
How many? None. Well, how many people seek
after God? There's none that seeketh after
God. They are all together become unproper. There's none that doeth
good, no, not one. Are you such a shameful sinner?
Do you know that your sin has separated you from God and that
it's impossible for you to merit His favor? Do you know that? I know this. Every one of God's
people know this. When I'm talking, when I'm preaching
the gospel to you, I don't ever tell you something you don't
know, something you've never felt, something you've never
seen. This is something you know about
yourself because God has revealed it to you. If that's you, then there is
a gospel message here for you. Sing, O barren, because all who
believe on Christ Just as He says here, He tells the Israelites
here, the people here, He said, you're going to have more children
than those who have got a husband. Isn't that something? It's an
impossibility. You've got a woman, she's a widow,
she doesn't have any husband, she's buried inside of herself,
and God said that one is going to have more children than the
one who has a wife and has a husband. How can that be? How can that
possibly be? Because it's a spiritual matter. In other words, those that are
barren of righteousness, He says this, you're going to have more
righteousness than the self-righteous. You'll have more righteousness
than the self-righteous. Any barren sinner that comes
to Christ, He will make you so fruitful, so alive, so abundantly acceptable
to God that your righteousness, listen to this, is the righteousness
of God Himself. That's the righteousness He supplies.
Now the self-righteous, the religious, the legalist, the works message,
I'll tell you this, it only frustrates. Works religion messages, I'm
astounded. You that believe, I know it's
frustrating to speak to them, isn't it? It's like trying to
nail mud to a wall. They don't have any real foundation
to stand on, so they just keep moving everything, moving the
goalposts. Works religion is frustrating. Consider those who
profess to believe salvation by works they always say well
you got to do this and then when you do that what do you got to
do well you got to do something else and Then when you do that, what
do you got to do? Well? You got to do something else that's frustrating
isn't it? Consider those that profess to
believe salvation by grace and then turn back to the law how
frustrating is that I? to begin by grace and somehow
had to finish by law. That's madness. This idea of
progressive sanctification is madness. It's just madness. The
idea of progressive holiness is insanity. Name someone who's part holy.
Can you be part holy? Is that a thing? Can you be A
holy sinner? No. You're either holy or you're
not. And no amount of your works is
going to finish that holiness. Now, this was a big deal in the
church. Now, this is no small contention.
I know some Reformed people who think, well, we're just, you
know, we agree on everything, you know, we agree that man's
depraved, that limited atonement, we agree that The effectual calling
of the Spirit, perseverance, preservation of the saints. We just disagree on this non-essential
thing called progressive sanctification. It's not a non-essential. In Acts chapter 15, the scripture
says that Paul made no small contention about this. This was
not a small argument. It was not a non-essential thing. There's some non-essential things.
Now, if you're pre-Milindus, post-Milindus, all-Milindus,
you know, I don't care. I don't care. I mean, if you
want to talk about it, I'll talk about it with you. I'm not really
concerned about it. Why? Non-essential. Why? Because he is coming back. We
do believe that, all of us. Everybody that believes in those
three things, whichever one you want, if he comes back before
this or after this or what, you don't know. You don't have a
clue. So that's okay. We can differ on that. I'm not
going to raise a big stake about that. But this is not a small
contention to go back under the law. It's not a small contention. The apostles, they said there's
no difference now between the Jew and the Gentile. Both are
born of the Holy Spirit and both are purified through faith in
Christ. He said, why tempt you God to
put a yoke on them, which even the Jews could
not bear? Why do you want to put them back
under the law? We couldn't bear it. Why do you want to put it
on them? But we believe that through grace
of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved even as they.
And so, see, all who come to Christ by faith shall not be
frustrated. That's exactly what he says in
verse 4, isn't it? Look at that. Fear not. You that are barren,
those that come to Christ, listen to this, fear not. For thou shalt
not be ashamed, neither shalt thou be confounded. For thou
shalt not be put to shame, Thou shalt forget the shame of thy
youth, and thou shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood
any more. We who come to Christ should
not be frustrated. Why? Because Christ has fulfilled
all our righteousness. All of it. All of it. There's
nothing left to fill. If something's full, can you
fill it? It's already full. You're not
going to add anything to something that's full. He's fulfilled it. It's done. He's made all of our
righteousness. For Christ is the end of the
law. Not the dismissal of the law,
not the doing away of the law, but listen, the fulfillment of
it. That law still stands on Him. But you that believe, Christ
has fulfilled the law. He's completed it. As our federal
head, for what? For righteousness. For righteousness
to everyone that believeth. Look at verse 5 now, I'm trying
to move on, I'm trying to get... Look at this, you that believe,
not only is He your Savior, but listen to this, He's your maker
and your husband. Look at that, He said, thy maker
is thine husband. The Lord of hosts is His name,
thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, the God of the whole
earth, shall He be called. Behold, you who believe on Christ."
Notice who your husband is. You were by nature barren, widowed,
but now what? He said, I've taken you and you
are now my bride. You're my bride. You're my beloved. And He said, notice this, Thy
Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. Not only has He taken us and
betrothed us to Himself, He says this, I am thy Redeemer. How personal is that? How personal is that? He's not
everyone's Redeemer. He's thy Redeemer. He said, I'm
thy Redeemer. Why? Even because Jesus Christ
has paid the debt of our sin in full. He has made us holy. He has reconciled us to God by
His blood. Therefore, in verses 9 and 10,
He gives His bride comfort. Look down in verse 9 and 10.
He says, For this is as the waters of Noah to me. I have sworn that
the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth, so I
have sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee. For the mountains shall depart
and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart
from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed,
saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee. You that were barren
by nature have now come to Christ, He is your husband. He is your
Redeemer. He is your Savior. And this is
what He says, this is like the waters of Noah to me. It's like
the waters of Noah. By this we are given assurance.
This covenant He's talking about. This promise of being your husband.
This promise of being your Redeemer. This promise of giving you His
righteousness and His blood as an offering. This is His promise
to you. And He says it's the same as
the covenant that He made with Noah. The oath. The oath that
He gives. What was that oath of Noah? Remember,
Noah and his family by His grace were saved. Scripture says it
was by grace that Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
That's the only reason he was saved. He was not any different
than anyone else in the world. But God saved Noah. How did He
save Noah? You remember, He made the ark. Noah had built the ark. And then
what? When God was ready, He put him
in the ark. And then what happened? The waters
fell. What are the waters? The waters that fell were judgment. God flooded the whole earth because
of the wickedness of man was so great. He flooded the entire
earth in holy judgment. You remember when He saved Noah. Noah didn't escape the flood,
did he? He went through the flood. But the only reason He lived
is He was in the ark. What a picture of Christ, isn't
it? Isn't that a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ? Bearing the
judgment of God. And there we were in Him. Everywhere
in Him. Enduring the wrath of God in
the Mediator, in the Savior. He endured the wrath of God for
us. And when the waters receded,
God, you remember, He gave a covenant. He said, I will no more Flood
the world with water. And then what did he do? Put
a bow in the sky, put a rainbow in the sky. That rainbow was
a token. Listen, that token is still around,
isn't it? After every rain, it's there. Whether you can see it or not,
it's there. The bow in the sky is always there. Why? Because
God says, I'm not going to judge the earth in that manner again.
What a picture of His covenant with us. Once Christ has endured
the suffering for His people, God swears, I will never bring
judgment on you. It's like the waters of Noah
to me. I will never bring judgment on you again. Look at this in Isaiah 40. Go
over a couple of pages here. Look at this. Isaiah 40. This
is what God commands us as His preachers. Read this with me. Isaiah 40
and verse 1. Rebuke ye and chasten ye My people
constantly. Is that what it says? I hope
people listening online got their Bibles open. It's not what it
says. It's not what it says. What does
he say? Comfort ye, comfort ye my people,
sayeth the Lord. Speak comfortably to them. I'm going to tell you why. Her
warfare is accomplished. Her warfare is accomplished that
her iniquity, tell her her iniquity is pardoned. Why? For she hath
received of the Lord's hand double for all our sins. How good was
Christ's offering? For your sins, how good was it? God says it was double the value. I'm not going to get to heaven
by the skin of my teeth. Just not going to do it. Why? Because His offering was double
what I owed. You know what I love about the
justice of God? It cannot demand twice payment. Don't you love
that about justice? Isn't that good? If my payment
is paid, justice cannot demand any more. If he did, it wouldn't be justice,
right? God cannot demand. It's what
He's telling us here. You bear it. Sing. Rejoice. Why? You're My bride. I am your Redeemer and I've made
a covenant with you and I will never forget it. I love this.
If you go to Revelation 4 and verse 3, you can see this, that
when He speaks about the throne, He said the rainbow surrounds
the throne. In Revelation 10, it says the
rainbow is about His head. Now what is that telling you?
It's always in front of Him. He always sees it. His covenant
He never forgets. Isn't that comforting to you
that He don't forget it? He'll never forget it. Regardless of
what happens to you in time and providence, it doesn't matter.
He will never forget His covenant with you. The covenant of peace. covenant of righteousness look at this in verse 10 now
he says for the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed
that a question is that is that to say the mountains might be
will be it shall be right the mountains shall depart the hills
be removed What's going to remain? But my kindness shall not depart
from you, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith
the Lord that hath mercy on thee. You know what's going to be moved?
Everything. Isn't this true about everything?
The scripture in Hebrews, he speaks about this, he says the
things that shall be Shaken will be removed. Now what can be shaken?
Can't you just name anything? Isn't everything in this world
shakable? I just had an earthquake. It's
shakable. Everything that's shakable is
going to be removed. Don't trust in it. Listen, don't put your
confidence in this country. Don't do it. Don't put confidence
in kings or princes or presidents. Don't do it. Why? They're all
going to be removed. Hasn't every president before
been removed? He will. They've all been removed.
Most of them are dead. These will die too. Don't put
your confidence in this stuff. What about family? Don't put
your confidence in family. They'll all disappoint you. I
don't know why it surprises me when they do. I'm always surprised
when they do. I know this. I'm telling you,
they're going to disappoint you. You know what? Next time they
disappoint me, I'm going to be surprised. I'll be surprised again. But
they will. They're movable. Money? What's that? Really hard to get, really easy
to lose. Isn't it? It's easy, it just
takes wings and flies away. Don't put your trust in that,
or fame, beauty, nothing. It all fades. It all fades. This is the only thing that remains. My covenant shall stand. When it's all over, what's going
to be left? Christ and His children. That's all
that's going to remain. Christ and His people. And you
know what He's going to have for them in eternity? He's going
to have this. He said, My kindness shall not
depart from me. Now look at this. Go back and
go to your text now and look at this. He said, Now, O afflicted,
tossed with tempest, and not comforted. I don't know about you, but I
spend a lot of time here. Though I am a child of God, chosen,
redeemed, called, kept, I have the promise of God that He'll
never leave me, never forsake me, His kindness will never depart
from me, just like the waters of Noah, He said, I'm made of
covenant, it's going to stand, and I love you, and I'll never
depart from you. And yet, what is my experience? My experience is affliction,
pain, sorrow, grief. I feel like I'm being tossed
like a rag doll. All around me is like chaos.
Can't make heads or tails of it. I think it's going this way
and it goes that way. I often find myself without comfort. I think a good picture of this
is Mark 6. Go there. Go there real fast, Mark 6. I
know you know the story here. Our Lord Jesus Christ just made
a miracle feeding the 5,000 with a total display of His deity. I know what the disciples thought.
They thought, this is a good start. Our ministry is kicking
off now. We're going to really burn them
up now. Whoa, this is a good one. And
He says, Boys, get in the boat and go over to the other side
while I send them away. Isn't that something? And so you know that they start
rowing, they follow the command of their Lord and they're rowing.
I think this is verse 45 and 46, He departed and notice this,
He sends the people away and Jesus in verse 46, departed into
a mountain to pray. And when even was come, the ship
was in the midst of the sea, he was alone on the land, and
he saw them toiling and rowing. The wind was contrary to them,
and about the fourth watch of the night, he cometh to them
walking upon the sea, and would have passed them by when they
saw him walking on the sea. They supposed they had seen a
spirit, and cried out, and they all saw him, and were troubled.
And immediately he talked with them, And said unto him, Be of
good cheer, it is I, be not afraid. And he went up into the ship,
and the wind ceased. And they were sore amazed in
themselves beyond measure, and wondered. You get this picture
that they'd been sailing. These are professional sailors,
they're not amateurs like us taking the rowboat out. These
men knew what it was like. They went out there to the water,
and they were rowing, get this, nine hours. One commentator said they only
went three quarters of a mile in nine hours. Do you get that feeling sometimes
like you've only gone just a little ways and it's taken a lot of
work to get there? The wind was contrary to them.
Scripture says He saw them toiling and rowing. Does this not greatly
describe our life when Christ seems afar from us? Are we not toiling against the
flesh constantly? You're not toiling against the
world, against the false religion of this world, against those
who are contrary to you? Constantly toiling. Toiling against our kin, tossed
about, not comforted. Often we cry like the psalmist,
he said, ìMy soul is sore vexed. How long, O Lord, how long will
you forget me?î If youíve been honest, I know
youíve asked that question. Have you forgotten me? You said
that you would never forget me, but it sure feels like youíve
forgotten me. How long will you do that? And this feeling will last so
long as Christ is not near to us. How tedious and tasteless
the hours when Jesus no longer I see. Sweet birds, sweet prospects,
sweet flowers have all lost their sweetness to me. The midsummer
sun shines but dim. The fields strive in vain to
look gay. Oh, but when I'm happy in Him,
December is as pleasant as May. See the difference? What makes
a difference? He does. Now His disciples, listen
to this, were they in any real danger? They were afflicted. They were
tossed. They had no comfort. They had
been rowing for nine hours, no rest. Were they in danger? Why? saw them toiling and rowing. Who sent them out there? Who sent the wind against them? The same one that was watching
them, the Lord Jesus Christ. There was no possibility of them
ever being overcome. And notice this, when Jesus comes
to them, how does He come? He comes walking on the very
thing that troubles Him. The thing that afflicts you,
the thing that tosses you, the thing that causes you to be comfortless,
Christ walks on it! He's above it! It didn't impede
His progress one bit, did it? He just walked, and I like that,
He said it was as though He would pass them by. You notice that? It's like he was walking and
whistling, and they were over here like he was just going to
pass them by. And when they saw him, they were
afraid. How often does it appear he's going to pass you by? Isn't
that an affliction? Isn't that a sorrow? When you
see him helping others, and you feel like, where's my help? I
need you! He never passes you by. He does
it to make you call on Him. Have you considered how vile
we really are? The old man, do you consider
how vile it is that if we didn't have affliction, we'd never call?
If everything went well, would we even ask Him? Would we seek Him? Would we thank
Him? I know when everything goes well
for me, my heart gets hard. I get cold and indifferent. I'll tell you when the trouble
comes. He makes me call on him, and
you know what he says to me and to you? Don't be afraid. It's me. I'm doing all this. I sent the wind. I sent the trial. I sent the affliction. I'm on
top of it. You know what happens when He
comes to you? Same thing happened to these guys. When He entered
that boat, everything stopped. I'll tell you this, when He's
near, It seems like the world vanishes. My troubles seem so small when
he's near, but let him be a little distance from me, and my troubles
become so great. And in the trouble, I tell you,
we begin to fear. We fear. The greatest fear of
the believer is that he's not a believer. That's the greatest
fear we have, isn't it? You let that wind just blow strong
enough and we'll question whether we have any interest in it at
all. Tis a point I long to know, oft it causes anxious thought.
Do I love the Lord or no? Am I His or am I not? From His help could my heart
remain so hard, prayer-task and burden-proof. Every trifle give
me pain if I knew a Savior's love. We question ourselves,
and I'll tell you that, that makes us comfortless. Well, your
Savior will never leave you comfortless. Listen to this, go back to your
text. He's going to give you the comfort. He's going to give
you the comfort. Look at this. He says, O afflicted, tossed
with tempest and not comforted. Here's your comfort. Behold,
I will lay thy stones with fair colors and lay thy foundations
with sapphires. Here's your comfort. Your foundation
never moves. He said, I lay your foundation. precious stones. I think we spent quite a bit
for this floor. But it ain't covered in emeralds and rubies
and diamonds, is it? But he's picturing to you the
foundation of your soul is precious. It's Christ. He said, I'm your
foundation. Though you shake, though you
rattle, though you fall, I don't move. I laid your foundation
with precious stones. Behold, I lay in Zion a stone,
a tried stone, a precious cornerstone. When you're tossed and you're
afflicted and you're moved, what about your foundation? Does it
move? Is it tossed? Is it now questionable
because you feel something different? I don't, I don't feel like I'm
here, I don't feel that he's, I don't, who cares? If he's yours, if he's your foundation,
listen, you'll never be moved. I like that, he says, a sure
foundation Listen to this. He that believeth shall not make
haste. You want to go anywhere else?
Are you looking for another foundation? When you're tossed, are you looking
for another foundation? No. I want to know if I'm on
this one. This is the only one. I need Christ. I've got to have
Him. David said, The Lord is my rock
and my salvation, my defense. I shall not greatly be moved.
And he's talking about himself. Now, I'll tell you this, we're
moved. David was sure, he said, I'm not greatly moved. I'm moved a little bit, but I'm
not greatly moved. Later on he said this, I shall
not be moved. Why? Because I'm in union with
my foundation. This is your comfort. Your foundation
doesn't move. Your salvation is totally dependent
upon Him. And he said, I will make thy
windows of a gates. Now, he doesn't make windows
gates. That's rubies. He's going to make your windows
of rubies and gates of carbuncles and the borders thereof with
pleasant stones. What is a window? Windows see
out of, isn't it? Let the light in. When God opened
our hearts, he let the light in, didn't he? He said, I'm going
to make windows. Like that window on Noah. He
had one window. Looked up. Looked toward God. One window to look through. We
have gates. Protection. That's what that
speaks of. And look at this. And all thy
children shall be taught of the Lord. Isn't this comforting to
you? You that believe. Who taught
you? Who taught you to believe? Did
you do that on your own? Was that something, you know,
you felt all emotional one time and some preacher said that you
need to come down to the front, make a decision. Did you do that? Is that you? Did you make yourself believe? No. We were ignorant. We were barren. We were fruitless.
And yet, what does it say? They shall all be taught of God. This is the scripture our Lord
uses when He says, No man can come unto Me, except the Father
which hath sent Me draw him. As it is written, they shall
all be taught of God. Isn't this a comfort to you?
No matter what, you that believe, here's your comfort. You've been
taught of God. How do you know you've been taught
of God? Whosoever is taught of God cometh to Me. That's what
Christ said. Do you come to Him? Do you believe
Him? Who taught you that? Remember
what He said to Peter? He said, Blessed art thou, Simon
Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood hath not revealed this to thee.
Isn't this a comfort to you that this wasn't flesh and blood that
revealed this to you? It wasn't the power of the preacher?
Because that goes away, doesn't it? How many messages can you
remember? I'm not going to quiz you. I'm
not going to ask you. I'm not going to ask you what
I preached last week. Not going to do it. That's not. We are not the ones teaching.
I hope I'm not. When people hear me, I don't
want people to hear me. I pray that they will hear him.
He will teach them, and that's what he does for all of his elect. Listen, I didn't know I was depraved
until He taught me. I didn't know I needed a Redeemer
until He showed me Christ. And I didn't know Christ was
a perfect Redeemer until He revealed it to my heart. And I couldn't
believe in Him until He gave me faith. But now that I have
it, is it going away? Though I'm
tossed, though I'm afflicted, Though I feel comfortless, yet
He is my foundation. And He has taught me, look at
this, in righteousness thou shalt be established, fixed. You know,
your righteousness is fixed, you understand that? It's not, you go out of here and Somehow you just get so mad,
you go to a bar and tie one on. Boy, you just flipped upside
down. I'll tell you this, when God
comes after us and chastens us for our sins, we feel the remorse
of it. But I'll tell you this, you are
no less fixed before you went as after you went. Why? Our righteousness doesn't depend
upon us. Isn't this a comfort? That it
doesn't depend? If it did, we'd all be lost. It doesn't depend. He says this,
In righteousness thou shalt be established. Thou shalt be far
from oppression, and thou shalt not fear and from the terror,
for it shall not come nigh unto thee. In other words, you will
never ever know the terrors of hell. Why? Your righteousness
is fixed. I feel afflicted. Your righteousness
is fixed. I feel tossed. Your righteousness
is fixed. And all these things, though
they come at you, they'll never get to you. Isn't this what exactly
our Lord said? He said, No man can pluck them
out of my hand. Alright? Who can pluck me out
of his hand? Who, who shall in thy presence
stand and match omnipotence, unfold the grasp of thy right
hand and pluck the sinner thence? Who? Name him. No one. That's what he's telling
you. But notice this in verse 15,
I'm moving on, I know I'm running behind. Verse 15, Behold, they
shall surely gather together, but not by me, Whosoever shall
gather together against thee shall fall for thy sake. Behold,
I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire
and bringeth forth the instruments of his work, and I have created
the waster to destroy." All your afflictions are made by who? Now look, they're coming at you.
The flesh is coming at you, the world's coming at you, Satan
is coming at you, everything is against you. Know this, God
says, those people coming at you, I'm the one that made them. And I'm the one that sent them.
And listen to this. No weapon that is formed against
thee shall prosper. Satan is a mighty, deceptive
being full of schemes. Full of weapons. How many of
them will win? How many of them will prosper?
I mean, he gets us, he could tempt us, we could tempt ourselves
to fall all the time. Any of those weapons going to
prosper? Will they ever remove me from Christ? In other words,
what's going to move me from Christ? Name it. Paul said neither life nor death,
nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present,
No things to come, nor height, nor depth. Listen, in case I
missed anything, any other creature shall be able. That's vitally
important. Shall be able. Didn't say anything
about them not trying. Oh, they're going to try. They're
just not going to be able to separate me from the love of
God that's in Christ Jesus. Every tongue that shall rise
against thee in judgment shall be condemned. This is the inheritance
of the servants of the Lord. What is your inheritance? Your
inheritance is what? Sing, O you barren. You without
life, you without righteousness. Why? Because I give you life
and I give you righteousness. I'm your husband. I'm your Redeemer. I've made a covenant with you
that shall stand the test of eternity. And I will never forget
My kindness. Though you are tossed, though
you are afflicted, though you are comfortless at times, My
foundation is sure. It stands. My righteousness is
fixed. Though they come at you with
everything they've got, they will never touch you. This is your inheritance, you servants of the Lord. If you are afflicted, you should
be comforted. You should be settled. And it's only when Christ is
near that can happen. I do pray you take this and make
us settled. Give our hearts comfort. I need
it. I pray he'll do it for his own
glory. Let's stand and be dismissed in prayer. Lynn, dismiss us, please. So we're going to move to the
front. Before he went to the town, he
went to the town. He went to the town. He went to the town. He went to the town.
He went to the town. He went to the town. He went to the town. He went
to the town. He went to the town. He went
to the town. He went to the town. He went to the town. He went to the town.
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to the town. He went to the town. He went to the town. He went to
the town. He went to the town. He went to the town. He went
to the town. He went to the town. He went to the town. He went to
the town. He went to the town. He went to the town. He went
to the town. He went to the town. He went to the town. He went
to the town. He went to the town. He went
to the town.