Again, the message will go to
God in prayer again. I wanted to make mention, I got
a recall from Angela this morning. Eric is in the hospital again.
He had a clot in his lung this morning and they're giving him some blood
thinners, I think, for that. Just multiple complications and
difficulties. They haven't got the scan results
from the neurologist yet, so they should know something this
week, but be in prayer for her. She's not
slept in a long time and she has her own health problems
as well, so I ask God's mercies on her and
Eric, and pray God be gracious to them. And she has truly encouraged me in this. The strength that the Lord has
given her, the faith that God has given her, He's manifest, and that's something
to be thankful for. Pray for them as they enter through
these dark times the Lord has given them. Our God is very capable
of healing. There is no doubt. We are sure. And we pray that he would, for
our sakes, I remember Paul speaking about
the pastor friend that was sick. And he said, God healed him for
me. God healed him so that I wouldn't
be pressed out with sorrow. And we pray that God would keep
us from that sorrow. We love him and Angela very much. Glad to see Rick. here this morning,
it is a miracle of God's hand that you are here and he has
blessed you. Again, I'm praying for me that
you're here. I'm glad that God has given me
that and given you that. Very thankful. I want to remember Gene's mom.
You heard anything this morning? She doing any the same? Same. Pray for them. She is not well. Tia is not feeling well. Pray
for Trinda as she heals from her knee surgery. Her heart has been heavy this
week for Kevin and Kimberly and their family as they make preparations in the coming
months and pray that God be gracious to guide them and lead them.
I think they're traveling this week or next week or something.
Kevin is, okay. Pray for him. He travels down. He's coming this week to get
the trailer, and then they haven't got a return date, do they? Danville, and then he's going
to go back, but the return date from California is not a... No,
no, okay. Okay, so pray for them as they
have to make these very difficult decisions, and God guide them
as to where they should be I ask you to pray for God's men.
Now, when I say that, there are men that come to your mind. There
are faithful preachers, and I'm surely talking about them, but
I'm talking about the ones we don't know. Isn't it amazing
that there are many we don't have a clue, don't have a knowledge
of them at all? I got an article in the bulletin
from J.C. Ryle. J.C. Ryle is a wonderful,
wonderful man, a wonderful preacher of the gospel in his day. And
I got an email from Jeffrey out in England this morning. And he was recounting that he
had been to the place, the church, where The cemetery is where J.C. Ryle is buried. And he said that
is of no significant mark. He's just like everyone else
laying there. There's no fanfare. You know, you see Spurgeons and
all these Newton and all of these men with their tombs. They're
large. J.C. Ryle, just a little marker. It's all right. Doesn't matter,
does it? Was he any less a man of God
because they didn't revere him as much as these other men? Not
at all. God has his men. You mentioned
J.C. Ryle in this generation. They
wouldn't even know who you're talking about. They wouldn't have a clue.
I imagine most people only know Newton because of his hymn, Amazing
Grace. But other than that, they wouldn't
have a clue. I'm talking about God's men who
are unknown. There are many. I am sure that there are many.
God has not left himself without a witness in every generation. Isn't that amazing? In every
generation, God's always had a preacher. And in this generation, God has.
So be in prayer for God's men and those who suffer sickness. Our God understands and knows.
Pray for healing. Let's go to him in prayer. Gracious
Father, we plead this morning for grace and power and strength
in our body, in our mind, and in our spirit. We beg you for
grace that you would give us the ability, Father, the mind
and the heart, the desire to worship. We confess without you we can
do none of these things. But I know that you have sent
your spirit into this world to the hearts of your people, whereby
we cry, Abba, Father. We lay our requests before your
feet this morning and plead for mercies. I beg you that you give
me liberty and unction of thy spirit to preach and open the
hearts of your people. And these that we have mentioned
that are sick, these who are Father, hurting, and affliction,
and pain, I know that you understand and
know them, and we plead for your healing. We confess the power that you
have is to but say the word. But Father, we know this, that
we And no man could put thee in obligation to do anything.
You do everything according to your will. And we know this,
that your will is for the good of your people and the furtherance
of your gospel. I pray, Father, that you'd give
us grace to bow and to submit. You put down the old man of sin,
his flesh, And I pray this morning that
you would, even now, remove the darkness from our hearts, that
we should see again our Savior, that his beauty, his glory, the
glory of your salvation, and what great things you've done
for us. I plead for your men and those
who hear them this morning that you would be gracious to bless
the preacher and those that hear. And I ask these things in the
name of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and for His sake. Amen. All right,
take your Bibles and turn with me to Isaiah. Isaiah chapter
50 and 51 here. Our text is going to be found
in verses 1 through 3 of Isaiah 51. Let's read these together. He says,
Harken unto me. You that follow after righteousness,
you that seek the Lord. Very specific group of people,
isn't it? Not being general. There's a general call, but this
is a very specific one. He's saying, you that follow
righteousness, you that seek after the Lord, listen to me. You listen
to me. You hear me. This is what he
says, look unto the rock whence you are hewn. and the whole of
the pit whence you are digged. Look unto Abraham your father,
to Sarah that bare you, for I called him alone, and blessed him, and
increased him. For the Lord shall comfort Zion. He will comfort all her waste
places. He will make her wilderness like
Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness
shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody." My
title of my message is this. Listen to me. Listen to me. God is speaking and He says,
listen to me. Stop what you're doing, put it
down, whatever it is. and listen to what I got to say.
Now, in the previous chapter, we studied this last week, God
sets forth the character of all men in those two verses, verses
10 and 11. Verse 10 is a picture of every
elect person. Everyone God has chosen, everyone
God has redeemed, everyone God has called, everyone that God
saves is pictured very succinctly in verse 10. And every reprobate,
every false professor is pictured in verse 11. Verse 10 says, Who
is among you that feareth the Lord? You who are the elect of
God. The first characteristic is this,
you fear the Lord. I went over what this means.
It's not a terror of God, but rather it is a submissive spirit. It's one in which we are exposed
of our guilt, exposed of our sin. We see the holiness of God
and the great chasm that lays between us, and we are made to
reverence God. We are made to seek one thing. Mercy. Do you seek mercy? That's not what the reprobate
seeks. The reprobate seeks to be found
in his own light, in his own marriage, the spark of his own
life and reason. But we who fear the Lord seek
only mercy. And listen, the second thing
is this, we obey the voice of his servant. Who's his servant?
We know this, Jesus Christ is his servant. He is the servant
of God. We obey His voice. And what has
His voice told us? Believe on Me. Come unto Me,
all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you, what? Rest. What is rest? Rest is cessation
from work. It's ceasing to work. Come to
Me and stop working. You're laborers. You're heavy
laden. You can't bear the weight. Come to Me. Throw off the load
and rest. Why? I did it all. And so what
do we do? We come to Christ and what do
we do? We rest. We rest in Him. But these elect are not free
from afflictions, are not free from difficulties. Notice what
he says, they walk in darkness. Seemingly contradiction here.
Those who are children of light. That's what the scripture calls
you, children of light. John says if you walk in darkness, well, you're not a child of light.
Well, how is it that they say this is darkness? He's talking
about the providential darknesses, not spiritual darknesses. We
have been given the light of the knowledge of the glory of
God in the face of Jesus Christ. We know salvations of the Lord,
but yet we walk in darkness, darkness of feelings, darkness
of confusion, darkness of providence, sicknesses and pains, sorrows,
afflictions. That's where Israel was when
this was written. They were in a dark place. They were in captivity. If you read Psalm 137, I believe
it is, They were sitting on the banks
there in Babylon and they could not sing. They were so down. They had thought
the Lord had left them. In such times of darkness, so
do believers often. When you're in darkness, one
of two things is what we'll do. We'll either doubt God's faithfulness
or my part in His salvation. We'll doubt our faith. We'll
doubt if we're even His. That's what darkness does. Asaph
did both. I like Asaph because, man, me
and Asaph, we are very much kin. In Psalm 73, he doubted his own
part in it. He said this, I know God's good
to Israel, but ask for me. You ever had that? Where there's
such darkness? You know God's good to His elect,
but you don't even know if you're one of them. That's what darkness
does. It causes us to doubt our part
in God's salvation. Or, we even get further in Psalm
77, Asa said this, is God's mercy gone? We doubt God's faithfulness
in such times of darkness. But here's the only remedy for
darkness. Look at that in verse 10. Here's
the remedy of every true believer. And this is the difference. Now,
there'll be reprobates They're naturally in darkness, but they'll
experience dark times too. Here's the difference between
a reprobate, a false professor of faith, and one who is true.
Let him trust in the name of the Lord and stay upon his God. That's what a reprobate can't
do. A reprobate cannot stay upon his God. Matter of fact, when
trouble comes, he starts making his own light. He ceases to trust
the word of God and trust his feelings, his circumstance, his
experiences. One thing he will never do is
he will never trust in Christ alone. He'll trust Christ partially, but the rest is all on him. That's a reprobate. Anybody,
any religion that does that is a reprobate. It's not simple,
that's plain. It's clear. Salvation is either
of grace or of works. Paul says it can't be of both.
Otherwise, grace is no more grace or work is no more work. You've
changed the definition of both. One thing that believers always
do and will never cease to do is trust in Christ. This will always fail the reprobate,
the false professor of faith. He will continue so long as there
is no trouble, no darkness. But as soon as it comes, you'll
start looking at something else. You know what is true about every
reprobate? The gospel is never enough. Have you noticed that? I remember a man many years ago. We were very close friends. The gospel was the tie that bind
us together. We love to study together. We
love to pray together. We love to spend time together. It was my best friend. And one
day he came to me and he said, there's got to be more than this. Somebody says there's more than
the gospel. You know why? Because they're walking in their
own life. They're walking in their own life. They're looking
for some experience. They're looking for something
in the flesh. God's people, though we do at times fail in this,
we always seem to return here. We trust in the Lord. We believe
on Christ alone. And so now, though for a season
we may not even see Him clearly, though we may feel, not feel
or enjoy His presence, yet we know this, that Christ alone is all our
hope. Remember what the disciples said when they didn't understand?
Lord sent away over 5,000 people. Just sent them away. He preached
that one message in John 6, and they all left. And there they
were, they had 5,000, and now they're down to 12. In one day. And he asked them this question,
will you go away also? And they said, Lord, Whom shall
we go? That's somebody walking in darkness.
Somebody providentially in darkness. This is what we say. Where else
am I going to go? You have the words of eternal life. And Jesus
said, Have I not chosen you? And one of you is a devil. One
of you is not really even mine. But when God tells his people
who are in darkness to trust his name, what does that mean?
What does that mean to trust His name? To stay, to root down
upon His God? Well, first of all, when you're
in darkness, one thing is true. You can't see anything. Isn't
that right? In darkness you can't see two
steps in front of you. But one thing somebody can do
in darkness is listen. They can hear. And so what does
God say to you who are in darkness? Listen to me. Hear me. And trust my voice. Trust my
voice. Hear me. And so that's what we
want to do this morning. I pray that every heart, if you
are in darkness, God in this text is speaking to you and He
says, listen to me. Listen to me. So that's what
we'll do. And now then, what is he going
to say? He's going to tell you to look somewhere. Now listen,
in providence you can't see a thing. But there are things you can
see. There are things you do know. Even in the darkness, even
when it's providentially against you, there are things that you
still may be able to look to and know. And look what God says,
listen to me you that follow after righteousness and seek
the Lord. You that look, He says, look unto the rock from whence
you are hewn and the hole from whence you are digged. God says listen to me, you who
are in darkness. Listen to me, you who are in
darkness. We're going to listen to Him this morning, and we are
going to look at the place that He tells us to look. If there's
to be any light, any confidence, you must listen to Him. If you're going to trust Him,
you're going to listen to Him. You're going to hear His word. And so, when God says, Harken
to Me, again, He is not He's not saying this to everyone. He's saying it to His people
and He's going to give you other characteristics that are the
same as those two that went before. You that fear the Lord, you that
obey the voice of His servant. Now He gives you these other
characteristics which are just as true of His elect people. He says, they that follow after
righteousness. What is that? What is it to follow
after righteousness? And I know this, you who believe,
you desire to be righteous. There's no doubt about it. You
despise your sin and you desire to be more like Him. It is the desire of every believer
to live soberly, righteously, and godly right now. We're not
waiting to live righteously, we seek to. We follow after it. But that's not what is meant
here. You that follow after righteousness is talking about those who have
their righteousness in Christ. That is what it is to follow
after righteousness. To follow after righteousness
is to believe on Jesus Christ. To seek the Lord is the same. It is to believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. Over in Philippians chapter 3,
the Apostle, this is the heart of one that follows after righteousness
and seeks the Lord. In Philippians chapter 3, Paul says in verse 8, Yea, doubtless
I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge
of Jesus Christ my Lord. Now what is he talking about
all things lost? Well, he is talking about earthly
riches and things like that, but he's talking about his religion.
He said, I count all that as crap. All that stuff before is
useless. I count as loss, as dung, for
that excellency of the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, my
Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do
count them to a dung that I may win. Christ, listen, and be found
in him. not having my own righteousness
which is of the law, but the righteousness which is through
the faith of Christ. You need righteousness? Where
is it found? You that believe, when you pursue
righteousness and you need it, where is it found? Is it found
in your works? No. Paul said, I count that but
done. Where is his righteousness found?
It's found by that righteousness which is by the faith of Jesus
Christ, the righteousness he earned, he merited. And listen
to this, the righteousness which is of God by faith, that righteousness
which I have now received by faith. These are the people, God says
this. Is that you? I mean, that's the question this
morning. If that's not you, listen. God's not speaking to you. He's
not speaking any comfort to you at all. The only thing God says
to you is this. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. That's someone who is outside
of Christ, but you who believe. Listen to me. He's speaking to
you because you need his comfort. You that are in darkness, you
that are in trouble, God says, listen to Me, not to your feelings.
Man, do you have feelings? What do your feelings tell you? What does your experience tell
you? What does the world tell you? What do other men tell you? Better yet, what does God tell
you? And if your feelings and your
thoughts, your experiences, and men go against what God says,
they need to be counted as dumb, and you need to listen to God.
And this is what God's people do. We want to hear Him. God is speaking to you who are
in darkness. It's what He was doing to the
nation of Israel at that time. He's speaking to them because
they were in darkness. He's telling you, listen to Me. Listen to
me. Don't listen to your feelings,
your thoughts, your experiences, your logic. Oh boy, that's a
big one, isn't it? Your reasoning. Your mind of
deduction. You Sherlock Holmeses. You got all this reasoning and
logic in your mind. Don't listen to that. Don't listen
to that. God says, listen to me. When I come here every time,
it is always my thought that you're going to hear me, and
I want you to hear me. I've often told you, everything
that I tell you, you should not take at face value, look it up. You need to make sure that I'm
telling you the truth. God says, hear me, hearken unto
me, you that believe on Christ. Though you're in manifold temptations,
God says, listen to me in your grief. Hearken to my voice in
the darkness. Trust my word, and I will lead
you. I will guide you. And what is
his word? Now we're going to look at what
he tells us. We know who he's talking to. We know what he says
to us. Listen to me. What does he say? He tells us to look. To look. Look to the rock from which you
were hewn. and the hole of the pit from which you were digged."
He wants you to set your eyes on something, not your affliction,
not your pain, not your grief. God is setting your eyes on one
thing this morning. I want you to see it. Because
this is the only thing that's going to comfort your heart.
It's the only thing that's going to give you any peace. It's the
only thing that's going to give you any assurance that you have
a part in God's salvation and that God is truly faithful. Listen
to me. He is going to show you the greatness
of His salvation. That your salvation was no small
thing. It was a great feat that God
did. And so the Lord commands us to
look by faith and see this as his proof of his love and favor
for you, even in the darkness. Look to the rock and look to
the hole of the pit. Two things are inclined here
that I want you to see. I'm sure that I have made this
mistake before. with all the intention of pointing
you to Christ. I've used this as a reference
to look to Christ, who is the rock. And the hole of the pit
to be your, from where you came, the depravity of your nature.
But truly, this text means that both of these are speaking to
your depravity. God wants you to look again at
your, first your original state. Your original, where is the source
of all your sin and depravity, the rock from which you were
hewn. And then he wants to see not
only the origin of our depravity, but the condition that God found
you in, the hole of the pit. Now this is revealed to us in
verse 2. How do we know that's what it
means? Because in verse 2, He is saying the same thing. He's
just showing you a mirror image of what he just said. He said,
look unto Abraham. There's the rock from which you
were hewn. Abraham. And unto Sarah. Sarah is pictured
as the whole of the pit. Lifeless. Remember, Sarah's womb
was barren. lifeless pit. That's all it was. So Abraham and Sarah, here the
Lord tells us to look back, to look back, to remember the source
of our nature. Now the people of Israel, they
revered Abraham, so when he said, look to Abraham, they always
had a positive spin on this. Remember what the Pharisees said?
We be Abraham's children. They trusted in the fact that
they were Abraham's children. It caused them to well up with
pride, but that's not the purpose of the Lord. He's not causing
you to well up with pride. He's rather causing the people
of Israel to be humble. To humble them by looking back. God does not use this to elevate
the pride, but rather to humble us. Listen to the Lord. Look
to Abraham. What is he saying? What kind
of man was Abraham before I called him? That's your daddy. He's saying
that. He's saying this is your dad.
This is the one you revere. What kind of man was he before
I called him? You know what? Where did he find
him? He found him in Ur of the Chaldees.
Abraham was 70 years in pagan idolatry. Abraham bowed down
to little statues. He worshipped false gods. Abraham was a pagan. You look to Abraham, what type
of man was he? We are called to look to Abraham,
but rather we need to look further back than Abraham. We need to
look to Adam. Abraham was like all of the other
fallen race, he was a sinner. And you who are saved by grace,
God says, look at the rock from which you were hewn. This is
meant to humble you. Why? Because we all had our origin
in one man, Adam. I don't care how religious you
are or how big a murderous, pedophile a man is, listen to me, we all
came from the same lump. You are saved by grace, you know
this, and at this time in your darkness, listen to me, God's
telling you, look where you came from. Where do you come from? Remember
that you were by nature the sons of Adam. Remember in that perfect
world as Adam stood? Have you ever tried to visualize?
I tried to visualize Adam. He was a perfect man. If we all
got together and had to vote for one man to represent, listen
to me, Adam would be that guy. He was perfect. The most intelligent
man that ever was. God chose him to be our representative. And have you ever considered
the simplicity of God's law that he gave to Adam? The most intelligent
man there ever was, and yet God gave him one commandment. That's
how simple it is. Every child would be able to
understand this. See that fruit? That's mine. Don't eat it. Who could misunderstand that?
Adam in his perfect condition understood clearly what that
was. And he said the warning, in the
day you eat, you will die. And Adam fully understood what
that meant. That he and all his generation,
all his posterity would forever be damned. He knew that. Look at your federal head, that
rock from whence you were hewn, that he in full knowledge and
rebellion sinned. And what is the result of that
one man's sin? Wherefore, as by one man's sin
entered into the world, and death, that's a result of
it, and death by sin. So, conclusion, death passed
upon all men. Why? Is that right? Is that just? Yes, because we
all sinned in Him. That's what God's telling you.
Look back to the origin of your nature. We all sinned in Adam. We all died in Adam. All of us. Remember when God first revealed
that to your soul? It was the same thing as Adam,
that when he Sin, you remember, God put that flaming sword to
go every way so He could not take the tree of life. That's
our condition, isn't it? Because of the origin of our
sin, there was no way for us to have eternal life. We could
never get it. Secondly, He says, look to the
pit from which you were digged. This is speaking of Sarah's womb.
This is speaking of our condition when God found us. That's our
origin. We all had that origin, none
of us escaped that. When God found us, how did He
find us? That's what He wants you to remember.
When I found you, how did I find you? I found you lifeless. I found you in a hole of a pit. Not just a pit, a hole of a pit.
It's lower than a pit. There's a pit, you dig a pit,
and then you dig a hole deeper. That's where you were. That's
where you were. Remember, you were dead in trespasses
and sins. You that now have life, don't
you know that? Isn't that something you, even
in the darkness, you know this. You know where you came from. And you know where God found
you. He found us dead in our sins
And you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins,
who walked according to the course of this world, according to the
prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in
the children of disobedience. We all had our conversation in
time past in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the lust of
our flesh and the desires of our mind, and were by nature
the children of wrath, even as others. It is vital that you
remember that. And so believer in the darkness,
it is necessary for us to remember this so that we should not try
to create our own light. We should not try to put ourselves
in a better light. How often is it when we are in
grief and pain, it's a temptation to try to obligate God? Have you ever tried to obligate
God? It's a temptation, isn't it? If I am yours, then surely you'll do this. If you really love me, why am I in such pain? We try to manipulate God, thinking
that God owes us something. It's the sad condition of our
nature to assume that God is obligated to do anything for
us. He is obligated to none of us. Why? Remember where I found
you. Remember the hole of the pit
from which I digged you out? Do you remember where you came
from, your family? In our pain, we seek to obligate
God to deliver us or remove our darkness as though God should
regard our person. Hey, it's me. You know, look
what I've done for you. Surely that has some merit. so
that you should deliver me. If we're to be free from pride,
we have to remember where we came from. What does this do? It puts us
in the dust before God, totally dependent upon any mercies He
would have, any grace Any kindness, it has to be by mercy. Because we were all taken from
the same love. Remember that? That's what he
says in Romans 9, isn't it? Hath not the potter power over the
clay? Listen to these words. To take of the same love. You that believe, are you really
any different than anyone else? Are you special in yourself? Did God look down the portals
of time and see what a great person you'd be? He said, man,
I got to have that guy. He's going to be talented. He's
going to be great. He's going to be wonderful for
my kingdom. I was taken from the same lump
as a reprobate. There's no difference. And behold the depth to which
we have fallen. Look at Isaiah 63. Look what
God says about us. Isaiah 63 in verse 5. I like the way God uses language
that we can understand. He says this, he says, I looked
and there was none to help. I wondered that there was none
to uphold. It's just so God looked around
and said, can anybody help these people? Is there anyone out there? And what did he find when he
looked upon the lump of humanity? Was there anyone? He said, I
looked and there was none. There was none. So as we are made to see the
utter ruin of our nature, this does as God intends to do. Listen to me. Listen to me where
you came from. Listen to me where I found you.
I found you in a ruined rock and I found you in a hole of
a pit where there was none to help you. None to help you. He brings us before His throne. He casts us into the dust. But
this is His intent. It's never to leave you there.
Isn't this a wonderful thing? God does this not, you know,
He doesn't say, look where you came from! Look what a horrible
thing you are! And then just leave you. He doesn't
do that to his children. He tells us these things to humble
us because that's what we need. And then he is going to lift
us up. Look what he says in that last part. There was none to
help. So what happened? Therefore, mine own arm brought
salvation. There was nobody else to save
you. You weren't worthy of it. You couldn't do it yourself. So what did he do? He said, I
did it. My own arm brought salvation. Notice this. He says, look to
the rock. But he doesn't just say, look
to the rock. I like this. Whence you were hewn. Whence you were cut off from.
I chipped you out of that rock. Behold the whole of the pit.
Wentz, I dig you out. He's telling you to look not
just at where you came from and where he found you, but also
at this. Look what I've done for you. Look what I've done for you.
By what means did he do this? Why did he chip you off of the
rock? Why did he dig you out of the
hole of the pit? The only word that the scripture
gives us is this, grace. It was only by his own sovereign
free grace that he did these things, that he extended the
arm of his salvation to bring us out. Behold our lowest state,
but also look at the grace of our God who saved you. That's
what he's pointing you to. Listen to me. Look at my salvation,
how great it is. I like this illustration, a worker
of a rock quarry was asked, what does it take to dig out the good
marble? What does it take? Before they
had excavators and backhoes, and this was a time when men
actually had to get down there and dig. He said it takes every
ounce of our strength, every fiber of our muscle and sinew,
And even that is not enough to dig out the good rock. It takes
our whole heart. What did it take for God to dig
you out? It took all of His strength and
all of His heart to dig you out. Listen to Him while in the darkness
and remember that Abraham You were like Abraham. You were like
Sarah. You were a pagan and without
life. And listen, go back to your text.
Now that you see where you came from, you now see the greatness
of your depravity, and yet God is going to show you His salvation.
Look, He said, look to your father Abraham and to your Sarah, your
mother, and for I called him alone. Listen to what God says. Just
as I called that pagan Abraham, so did I call you. I called you the same as I called
him. Why did he call you? Who does
God call? This is a glorious question.
Who does God call? God doesn't call everyone, does
he? I know this, if God called everyone, everyone would come.
That is for sure. But God says, I called Abraham,
leave this word, alone. What about all those people in
Ur, the Chaldeans? He didn't call any of them. He called Abraham.
Now why did He call Abraham? Nehemiah chapter 9 and verse
8 says this, I chose Abraham. That's the only reason God called
Abraham. There wasn't anything different
in Abraham than any of the others. The reason God called Abraham
was because God chose Abraham. What is that to call to mind
of you while you're in the darkness? Listen to me. Consider where
you were when I called you. Who you were. Why did I call
you? Because I chose you. Listen to
God, I chose you. Remember God has chosen you even
as he chose Abraham by his free and sovereign grace. Listen,
with no regards to the merit of your person. Joanne, God didn't
call you because you were a great person. He called you because
of his own grace. He chose you. How does one know God chose them? I've never seen God's Lamb's
Book of Life. Never seen it. I know my name's
there. How do you know? That story always
comes to mind when I think about that, this English soldier. He knew this, that there was
a book in the king's house. that had a list, a name of all
of the soldiers that served in the Army. And someone asked him,
how do you know your name's written in that book? He said, because
every month I receive a check. I receive money. How do you know your name's written
in that book? Listen to me. Are you caught? Are you called? Who is called? Everyone that
God chose. Look at Romans 8. We've been
over this last week, this last Wednesday. Romans 8. And look at verse 29. For whom
He did foreknow. Listen to this. This is you who
were worthless, of no good race. He said, for whom He did foreknow. He also did something. He predestinated. He determined. He willed. He decreed something beforehand. What is it? That we should be
conformed to the image of His Son. Why? That He, the Son, might
be the firstborn among many brethren. That He might receive the preeminence. And moreover, whom he did predestinate
to be like his son, what did he do? He also called him. And
whom he called, what did he do? He also justified him. And when
he justified him, what is he going to do? He's going to glorify
him. This is God. This is what God has done for
you. That's what it means to be hewn out of that rock, to
be digged out of that pit, is because God predestinated to
hew you out. God predestinated to bring you
out of the pit, and what did God do? He brought you out of
the pit. He brought you out of that hole
that you could not dig yourselves out. How did He do that? Well, to dig a rock out of a
quarry, you gotta send a man down in there, right? Our Lord Jesus came down into
the quarry to dig us out. It was Him that established our
righteousness. It was Christ who established
our redemption, His perfect offering, forever satisfied God's justice
against all our sin. And with sin being removed, how
then could God deny our acceptance? He said, didn't I remove your
sin? Didn't I take it out of the way? What did you have to
do with that? Can a rock chip himself out?
No, I did that. Christ came down and accomplished
the purpose of God. And then what? He sends his Spirit
to call us. That's what he says in 2 Timothy
1.9, doesn't he? He says, God who saved us. and called us. Which is first?
Which did God do first? God saved you. And then He called
you. Not with just any calling. He
said with a holy calling. His calling had power, didn't
it? You that are called, it had power. How do you know it had power?
Do you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? Is that a common thing? Could
anybody do that? No. It is the power of God that
you believe. Everybody thinks faith is something
anybody can do. No. It's not. Not saving faith. Saving faith is a gift of God.
And His call is effectual. Our Lord Jesus promised that,
didn't He? He said, All that the Father giveth me shall come
to me. I marvel at the simplicity of
it. That you can't confuse those words unless you really try.
Who's going to come to Him? All the Father gave Him. What
are they going to do? They shall come to me. What's
going to happen? When they come to me, I shall
in no wise cast them out. Why? I came down from heaven,
not to do mine own will, but the will of Him has sent me,
and this is the Father's will, that of all He had given me,
I should lose nothing, but raise it up again at the last day.
Those are simplistic words that are hated by religion and false
religion today. They're hated. But we who have
been chipped from the rock, we who have been dug from the pit,
these are glorious words to us. God called me. Why? God chose me. How? God gave me to Christ and
He accomplished my salvation. Secondly, He blessed him. What He did to Abraham is what
He did to you. What was the blessing of Abraham? Now, I've got several
scriptures. I don't have a lot of time to
go through them, but if you go through Genesis 12, 3, Genesis
13, 15, and 16, Genesis 15, verses 5 and 6, have one thing in common. They all speak about the seed. Abraham's promise, all the promises
of Abraham were to him and his seed. Now once speaking of Isaac, Galatians
chapter 3 and verse 16 tells us specifically what that blessing
was. The blessings were contained
in Jesus Christ. He is the seed. Paul tells us,
that the scripture says, not unto seeds, plural, but unto
thee and thy seed, singular. In thy seed shall all the nations
of the earth be blessed. So when God blessed him, how
did God bless him? He blessed him through the seed. You that God has chosen, you
that God has called, where is your blessings found? Abraham trusted all his blessings
in Christ. Even so, in the darkness, when
you can't see in front of you, when all is surrounding you,
you can trust the seed. You are blessed. I don't feel
blessed. What does that have to do with
anything? God says, I called you. I blessed you. So what? You're blessed. Doesn't matter what happens to
you in this life. You're blessed. Can anyone remove
the blessing? God said to Abraham, in blessing,
I will bless thee. And I'm going to curse everyone
who curses you. Is that true? Are you blessed? Well, in order
to see that, you have to see where you came from. And now
you have to see what God did for you. He called you. Did he have to? He saved you. Did he have to? He blessed you. Was he obligated
to? And all of our blessings are
not found in what we see and what we touch. Listen to me. You get somebody comes along,
gives you a brand new house. You say, wow, what a blessing.
No. Maybe, maybe not. Maybe a curse. You don't know. Somebody give
you a brand new car. I often think about these celebrity
stars, these people that come from nothing and nowhere, and
all of a sudden they shoot up to fame, you know, and they're
dead a year or two later. Was that a blessing? You don't
know. Why? Because none of these things
are your real blessings. God gives you these things. You
can enjoy them if God gives them to you. Nothing wrong with that.
You can ask for them. God gives these things, and they're
just lesser things. But all these things have one
thing in common. They're temporal, aren't they?
None of these things that you have are going to last. None
of them here. They're all going away. You know, I had little children.
I did. These were little children. They were little. I get reminders
on my phone all the time, pictures come up, and I see them and I
go, man, who the heck is that? That's not them. See, they're
blessing, but they're temporal. It's fleeting, isn't it? One thing about what God blessed
you with is it's not fleeting. Peter said this, that we have
an inheritance, listen to these words, incorruptible. That tells me this, that nothing
here can corrupt it. It's incorruptible. That's its
nature. It doesn't corrupt. I can't corrupt
it. I can't make it tainted. All the sin that I abhor within
myself cannot contaminate my inheritance. It's undefiled. I can't defile it. No one can defile my inheritance. Incorruptible, undefiled, reserved. I got a reservation. I got a
reservation. It's one that nobody's going
to take my seat. It's mine. Heaven itself is mine. Now it breaks my heart. It breaks
my heart because I know where I came from. I know the rock from which I came. I know the hole in the pit that
he dug me out of. Does this give you any sense
of pride? that he would bless you? Or does
this humble your soul to view the greatness of his love and
grace? And he says this last thing,
I increased him. I increased him. When God found Abraham, he did
increase him, didn't he? I mean, physically, he did increase
this man. This man had nothing. He went
out with a pack on his back and a few family members into the
desert, and he had nothing. By the time he died, he was the
richest man there in that generation. He had everything. God increased
him. But we know that these physical
things was not the real increase, was it? When God found you, He
increased you, didn't He? Here's an increase. You were
dead, now you're alive. Isn't that an increase? Isn't
that a vast step up from being dead to being living? You did
not believe, you would not believe, and now you believe. That's an
increase. You did not love, you would not
serve, Now you love. Now you serve. Isn't that an
increase? You were of the rock of Adam.
Now you're united to the rock of ages. It's an increase, isn't
it? Totally different rock, isn't
it? I'm not. I'm not with that rock anymore.
I'm with this rock. I'm with Jesus Christ. He's my
rock. He increased me. And listen, He still increases
me. Are you the same as when you
first believed? Is your faith still as vile and
weak as it was? No, God's increased your faith.
Now, to you, it's worse. I'm telling you, I believed my
faith. When I first began to believe, I thought I had all
the faith there was. But as I grew in faith, I realized I didn't
have much at all. And the more I grow in faith,
the smaller it seems to be. But I know this, that's only increasing faith.
When you decrease and He increases, that's increasing in faith. But nothing compares to the increase
that we have when we die. Talk about a step up. When a believer dies, it is an
immense step up. It's an increase. That's why
the Lord said this. Now listen to the words, because
this goes against everything we say and think in our mind.
The day of one's death is better than the day of one's birth.
Do you believe that? Now I know everything goes against
that in our minds. God said it, listen to me. God
said it. You know, because to be absent
from the body is to be present. Isn't this
what's causing all the grief? His absence? When you don't feel
his presence? That's causing the grief! That
causes the pain! There's coming a day when we
will be absent from the body and be fully present with the
Lord. What an increase. What an increase. What a step up. And I'm going to close with this
last verse, and I may come back to this last verse because there's
so much packed in it. Look at verse 3. I'm going to
close. And tell me if there's any doubt as to what the Lord
will do. Listen to me, God said, listen to me. You in darkness,
listen to me. You were depraved, you were in
the hole of the pit, but listen to what I've done for you. I
did Abraham. I chose you, I saved you, I called
you, I blessed you, I increased you. Now then, is there any question
then that these things are going to take place? Look what he said.
For the Lord might comfort Zion. Is that what it says? No. The Lord shall comfort Zion. Now is there any question that
Zion is going to be comforted? Now you who believe You're Zion. I don't care your darkness. It
doesn't matter your darkness. That's what God said. I'll comfort you. What's the comfort? To remember
where you came from and remember what I did for you. I like that when the Lord forgave
that woman, Simon, that Pharisee, he was a very moral man, very
good man, and he believed the Lord. And had the Lord come over
his house. And remember that woman, that
harlot came up behind him. The Lord forgave her. And he said this, he that is
forgiven much, does what? Loves much. So the more you see
where you came from, and the more you see what he's brought
you to, the greater increase in love. And this is a comfort,
isn't it? It's a comfort to know that I
was part of that rock. I'm not there now. I was in the
hole of a pit, but now he's delivered me. So regardless of my experience,
this is what God says, I'm going to comfort you. Look what he
says. He will comfort all her waste places. You got waste places?
When you look inside, what do you see? Waste places. God says, I'm going to take care
of that. All of them. All your waste places. Look what
he's going to make it. He's going to make her wilderness like Eden,
and her desert like the Garden of the Lord. I'm going to make it beautiful. And he will. Any doubt to that?
And he says this, joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving
and the voice of melody. In the darkness you feel like
singing. I don't know, maybe some sad
country song you feel like singing. But you don't feel like singing
for joy and praising the Lord when you're sad. God says this, don't worry. There'll
come a time when I'm going to restore the joy that you don't
feel. I'm going to restore the gladness
that you don't feel. I'm going to give you thanksgiving
instead of this murmuring spirit that you have. You have a murmuring
spirit, don't you? Well, I'm gonna change that out.
We're gonna have, you have a thankful spirit. Why? When you look at
where you came from and look at what God has brought you to,
you'll be thankful. And what are you gonna do? You'll
see. You'll see. I pray God give us grace to listen
to him. to listen to His voice of mercy,
grace, love. His voice of love. Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer. Glenn, dismiss us in prayer,
please, brother. Thank you for Christ. Our Lord bless you. Lord, we owe it all to you. We owe it all to the Lord above
us. We owe it all to you. Lord, we trust in you. Lord,
we hope in you. not cling to the honor of goodness.
Keep us out from the war of predicament,
those among us that are sick and afflicted, and those among
us who have had the experience of all that is about to be revealed. Lift the hand of custody for
all who are sick and sick. All right.