All right, take your Bibles and
turn back with me to Isaiah chapter 51. Isaiah chapter 51, entitled
this message, Is God Sleeping? I got that from what the prophet
here says in verse 9. He cries out, Awake! Awake! Put on strength! O arm of the
Lord, awake as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Art thou not it that hath cut
Rahab and wounded? The dragon, the prophet here,
cries out in a prayer that God should awake. He's crying to
the arm of the Lord. He's crying that God should,
that he would have God reveal himself in his strength as he
did in the ancient days. And it appears by the repetition
of his words that he is in great trouble, that he is under some
kind of great affliction. And it appears that he senses
that God is somehow asleep. He cries to God, awake, awake. By all outward appearances, God
seemed to be unaware of his problem, unaware of his situation. And so in his peril, in his dark
and bleak condition, the prophet cries to God, why are you asleep? Why have you closed your eyes
to our troubles? Why are you so far from us? Is this not a mirror image of
ourselves in trouble? Often we, in our trouble, assume
that God is unaware of what is taking place. We assume in our
sorrows and sicknesses that God is somehow, He doesn't understand
or He doesn't know our plight. And so what do we say? Wake up!
Please open your eyes to our troubles and be merciful. Yet
no matter how things appear to us, no matter how we feel about
our circumstances, let us be assured again, God never sleeps. God is always constantly aware
of everything that takes place in the lives of his people. He is ever aware of all our griefs
and all our sorrows. In Psalm 121, the psalmist says,
I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh
my help. My help cometh from the Lord
which made heaven and earth. Listen to this. He will not suffer
thy foot to be moved. Isn't this great? Everything
seems movable. Everything seems changeable.
This is unchangeable. He will not suffer your foot
to be moved from Christ. He won't allow it. That's what
it means. He won't suffer it. He won't allow it. And notice the psalmist says,
he will not suffer thy foot to be moved. He that keepeth thee
will not slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel
shall neither slumber nor sleep. Isn't this wonderful? God is
not asleep. He is fully and constantly aware. And he will not allow anything
in time or eternity to remove us from Christ. He said, the Lord is the keeper.
He is the shade on that right hand. How close is the shade
on your right hand? How close is it? It just, it's
right there. Never, never departs. He will not let the moon, he
said, the sun shall not smite thee by day nor the moon by night.
He shall preserve thy soul. The Lord shall preserve thy going
out and thy coming in. How long? From this time forth,
even forever more. You feel forgotten? Are you constantly, like me,
assaulted in every part? I'm surrounded by enemies. I'm
surrounded by enemies, and the greatest one, you're looking
at him. My greatest enemy is me. If it weren't for me, Satan
wouldn't have a foothold, would he? The world wouldn't have any
sway in me if it wasn't for me. We are constantly at war. And so then in our sorrow, we
cry, God, wake, awake. But know this, that God is ever
present with us. I like this in Jeremiah 29, verse
11, he said, I know my thoughts. Don't tell me what I think about
you. We often want to tell God what he thinks. I know what you're
thinking. Really? No, I know my thoughts
towards you. Thoughts of peace and not of
evil. Thoughts of peace and not of evil. Listen, to give you
unexpected end. You ever read the last chapter
of a book before you, you want to know the end? This end for
you, believers, expected. It's well. It's good. Therefore, believer, in the middle
of our lives, it seems changing and uncertain, but God says,
look, I've determined the beginning and the end and everything in
between. What are you facing? What troubles
are you facing? Don't you know that God determined
them? They weren't surprised. He wasn't surprised by your dilemma.
He decreed it specifically for you. And so the prophet, secondly,
cries unto God this. He says, put on strength. We know this, that God is all
powerful. God is omnipotent. Yet in our
troubles, in our troubles and pains, God's strength is hidden. We don't see it. We know it,
but we don't see it. We don't feel it. We don't feel
his presence, and we sure can't see his power in times of sorrow
and grief. So we say this, Lord, put on
strength. Would you please be aware of
my condition, be aware of my trouble, and put on strength. Manifest your strength. That's
what we're asking. We're asking him to show his
strength. To show his power. I know you
have all power. Lord, show it to me again. Let
me see thy power and thy strength. Lord, if I found grace in thy
sight, Lord, please display thy power. Put it on. Use it and
help me. Deliver me. Are you weak as this? Do you
have no strength? Our Lord Jesus said that. My
strength is made perfect when? When you're weakest. In your
weakness, then is my strength manifest. Now my strength has
always been strength. Whether you've known it or not.
But it's only in our weakness are we able to see his strength. To see it. We cry freely. God is all our strength and he
is able to deliver us. Psalm 146 verse 3, put on, put
not your trust in princes nor the son of man in whom there
is no help. His breath goeth forth, he returneth
to the earth, and in the very day his thoughts perish. Put
no confidence in the strength of men. You know, the psalmist
is not crying for the strength of men. In our trouble, when
we are weakest, we realize this. There is no strength in man.
There is no real strength in our fellow man. There's no strength
in ourselves. There's no help for us in the
flesh, the arm of flesh. In man, there is no help because
man is one breath away from the grave. Every man is one breath
away from eternity. And then the day the man goes
back to the earth, all his dreams, all his schemes, all his thoughts,
and all his power is gone. And that day a lost man, a lost
man would say, I thought, I thought God loved everybody. And that
day, When the arm of flesh fails, he said, I thought all I had
to do was try to do my best. I thought that Jesus plus my
obedience, Jesus plus my works was sufficient. In that day,
all of his thoughts of religion will perish. And Christ will say to them who
thought, who trusted in the arm of their strength, This morning,
are you trusting in your strength? I'm talking about for the salvation
of your soul. Are you trusting in your strength?
Is there any work that you want to bring to God this morning
and say, aha, here, anything? What will you bring? If you bring anything. Friends,
in that day, your thoughts and your schemes will perish. Christ will say to them, Depart
from me, you that work iniquity, I never knew you. But David said this, Happy is
he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in
the Lord. Anyone trusting in the arm of
flesh, it shall fail. It shall fail. You trust in your
works, they'll fail. You trust in your fellow man
to help you and save you, he'll fail. But you see, Jacob, who is God's
elect, Jacob, who is God's people, we trust in the Lord for our
health. Therefore, we cry, God, put on
strength. We trust in His strength, in
His ability to save us. You who are elected eternally
loved of the Father, you who are called Jacob, the church
of Christ, we are encouraged to joy and happiness because
God will, by his infinite power, he is fully engaged to save us. This is all our hope. My hope
is that God, in all his strength, is engaged to save me. and I rely on none of my own
strength or the strength of other men. Jacob is happy because we
trust that the Father is fully engaged to save me. That's why
I'm asking for his strength. I'm not asking for anyone else's
strength. In my trouble, I need his strength to save me. God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit are fully engaged in the full measure of
their strength to save me. Wasn't it the strength of God's
determined counsel and will to put us in Christ? Who put you
in Christ? You that are in Christ. By what
strength were you put into Christ? The Apostle tells us in 1 Corinthians
1 in verse 30, but of God are you in Christ Jesus. So whose
power put you in Christ Jesus? It was the Father. It was the
strength of the Father that put us in sovereign election into
Christ Jesus, that predestinated us to be the adopted sons by
Jesus. He predestinated us to be conformed
to the image of Christ Jesus. So then can God, who chose a
people in salvation, can he fail to perform it? Is there any weakness
in his strength to perform what he determined to do? Oh, show me that strength again.
Manifest this strength. And secondly, he says, awake,
put on strength. Who? O arm of the Lord. This is to whom he's crying,
to the arm of the Lord. Now see then in this prayer of
the prophet, where the strength of God is manifest, the arm of
the Lord. Now we know this, that the arm
of the Lord here is speaking of Jesus Christ. How do we know
that? Well, look over a couple passages in Isaiah 53. Isaiah chapter 53. The prophet said, Who hath believed
our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? Then he begins to describe the
message of the arm of the Lord. Who is this arm of the Lord?
Well, he's a tender plant that grows up out of the dry ground. That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
The root of Jesse had dried up. The root of David had dried up.
Christ came from the line of Jesse and the line of David. He was despised and rejected,
a man of sorrows acquainted with grief. We hid, as it were, our
faces from Him. He was despised and we esteemed
Him not. Who else is this but the Lord
Jesus Christ? Surely he hath borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten
of God, and afflicted, but he was wounded for our transgressions.
He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed. Behold that Christ, the arm of
the Lord, willingly would come to offer himself without protest
to God. And what does it say? It pleased
the Lord to bruise him. Who is this arm of the strength?
Who is this arm of the Lord? It is the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's who it is. Saint, are you troubled by your
lack of strength? I'm often troubled by the lack
of my strength. But see, my hope is not in my
strength. My hope is in the strength of
this arm of the Lord. All my salvation rests on that
arm, on that strength. And so if you are troubled, if
you desire to know all is well with you now, presently, then
look to the arm of His strength. Look to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Look now at the strong arm of the Lord, which is Christ, who
Himself is God manifest in the flesh. And see His arm then is
able to save the greatest of sinners. Isn't this amazing?
Can you think of a great sinner? I can, me. I can think of a great sinner.
And the Lord was not short to save this great sinner. And so
as I look upon humanity and see the greatness of man's sin, I
know this, that not one is beyond the salvation of God. If he's
determined to save him, he'll save him. I know that everybody is troubled.
Think of those men, those evil men, they were wicked men who
killed those infants in Israel. Beheaded children. Now you listen
to this, if God determined to save that man, his arm is strong
enough to save him. Isn't that something? How do
I know it? Me. He saved me. What was in
that man's heart is the same sin that was in my heart. Do
you think they were any different than we are? God just freely
allowed them to be as evil as they wanted to be and restrained
us. That's the only difference. You see, His arm is not short
to save the lowest of men, the greatest of sinners. And look now at the argument
of the prophet as he cries in his trouble. Look at this, go
back to your text there. He said, Awake and put on strength.
Show me who? Christ. Show me Christ, the arm
of the strength. Awake, how? As in the ancient
days in the generations of old. Art thou not it that hath cut
off Rahab and wounded the dragon? Are you not the same God who
displayed your power in ancient times? Lord, what I want from
you is that you display that same power today. I desire that
God display that same power that He displayed in ancient times. Surely this is the prayer of
God's saints in this generation, that His arm of strength and
salvation would be on display. Would you not love to see Thousands
come to Christ. Not like the religious world,
not that vain decision-making foolishness that happened in
the 50s and 60s. What a load of garbage. Where
are those people today? Where were they 10 minutes after
they made the decision? Gone. I'm talking about real strength,
real salvation that endures to the end. Lord, show your strength
in saving many sons, bringing many sons to glory. Lord, now
in thy power, reveal your salvation to lost sinners and show your
gospel, your arm, Christ, to the weeping saints. And listen
to this question. He said, Are you not it or he
that cut Rahab and wounded the dragon? Now, this doesn't have
reference to Rahab the harlot. This is talking about Egypt.
Rahab is also named Egypt, and the dragon he is referring to
was Pharaoh. He said, Lord, did you not promise
our father Abraham, remember when you promised Abraham and
his seed that they would be captive 400 years? Did you not come at
the exact time and deliver your people? Did you not deliver them from
the bondage of Pharaoh, did you not destroy their enemy? And we know this, Israel's a
type, a picture of us who are Christ's people. We are Israel. That little land over there and
those people, that's not Israel. They just name it that, but that's
not Israel. God's people, His elect, are
the Israelites. We are true Israelites. We are his people. So the Israel
of old was only a type. And you consider their bondage.
What a picture of us who are the elect of God. Were we not
in bondage? We were in bondage, spiritually
in bondage. We could not escape the corruption
of our flesh. In fact, we were at enmity against
God. We are not subject to the law
of God, neither indeed can be. We were spiritually judged and
condemned and cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God. We were dead. You that believe,
you know that. You understand that. You understand
that we were conditioned when God found you. You were dead.
You know the religious world don't like to hear that. I don't
understand that. I'm just telling you you're conditioned
and you don't want to hear it? They don't. But hearing is a
gospel to captives. Hearing is a word of hope to
dead sinners who can by no means give themselves life. Behold,
Jesus has cut Egypt and destroyed Pharaoh. How was this done? How did God deliver his people
of old in ancient times? Two things. and by water. If God is going
to display the arm of His strength, He's going to show it to you
by blood and water. This is how God delivers His
people. By blood. You remember how Israelites
were embonded to Egypt and God sent those plagues. He sent nine
plagues. The river was turned to blood.
The frogs covered the land. He sent lice and flies and locusts. He sent hail mixed with fire,
a pestilence destroying all the livestock. And you remember the
last one before the last, he sent boils upon their flesh.
Painful, painful plagues. God sent plagues. Did you realize
that none of those painful plagues moved Pharaoh to let him go?
God inflicted nine plagues and still he refused. Even so it is with man. No man could be freed from sin
by his own suffering. There is no amount of pain or
labor or religious will or determination that can free you from the guilt
of your sin. Nothing you can do can free you
from sin. Nothing. So how was Israel freed? Well,
it was by the blood of the Lamb. By the blood of a lamb, you remember
God said I'll pass through Egypt. That night in judgment God will
pass through Egypt and will smite the firstborn of man and beast. Yet God purposed to save Israel
and predestinated a way, a means by which they would be saved
and that is the blood of a lamb. So then they took that lamb,
as God said. He said, take a lamb, a spotless
lamb, a lamb without blemish. Watch it for 14 days and make
sure that it's spotless. And on that day, that last day,
I want you to kill it in the midst of the congregation, in
front of everybody. I want you to slay the lamb and
take the blood, apply it upon the door post and the top post
and go inside. And there I want you to roast
the lamb. I want you to burn it. And I
want you to eat it. I want you to put your shoes
on your feet, gird your loins and put your staff in your hand
and get ready to go. Freedom is at the door. And we know that this, this is
the way the Lord Jesus Christ has delivered His people. The
same way. What a beautiful picture God
leaves us. God will surely come in judgment.
This is true. God will come in judgment upon
all flesh. And no one will escape. I want you to see this, that
Israel and Egypt, neither one of them escaped the judgment
of God. They all were under the judgment
of God. God went through the land of
Egypt that night, and they were all under the judgment
of God. And I know this, when God comes
in judgment this final time, every sinner will perish and
every righteous man will be received into heaven. Everyone who has
sinned will be cast out. Everyone without sin will be
accepted. How is this possible saying we've
all sinned? Well, how is it possible that
the firstborn of the Israelites lived and the firstborn of the
Egyptians didn't? One difference. What is it? What's the difference? Blood. The blood of a spotless lamb
saved Israel. That's the only difference between
them. Behold, Jesus Christ is this Passover lamb. See that
he was sent, made flesh so as to represent his people. He was
sent and set aside like that lamb. For 33 years, Jesus was
set aside. And you know what God said about
him? This is God's judgment of his son. He said, this is my
beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Name another person
that God says that about in themselves, in their own religious works.
No one. God never said that about anybody
else except his son. So what is God saying? He said,
that's a spotless lamb right there. That's my spotless lamb. And yet he was offered publicly
just like that lamb in Egypt was offered publicly. He was
wounded for our transgression, crushed for our iniquities, for
God hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all. Behold, there upon
the cross was Jesus Christ made to be sin for us. Made to be
sin for us who knew no sin. For this purpose, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him. I just told you that
no one's going to heaven except they're righteous. You see what
Christ did? He took all of our sins and God
charged them to Christ, made Him. He bared them in His own
body and judgment fell on Him. See, I didn't escape judgment.
Judgment fell on my substitute, on my representative. And now by the grace of God,
the Holy Spirit, he has applied this blood to the hearts of his
people, even because we are the sons of God. Consider this. When that man applied the blood
on the doorpost, did that make his firstborn a son, or was he
a son before he applied it? He was a son before He applied
the blood. You got that? You that are believers,
I want you to know this. You were always sons. You didn't know it before the
blood was applied. But you were always His sons. And so the Israelites of Egypt, did not apply the blood to the
house to make the firstborn son. They applied it because he was
a son. Why do you have the blood of Christ applied to your heart
this morning? You who desire to see his strength,
behold his strength. Behold his salvation is that
he made you his son. And then by his grace, he shed
his blood for your sins. Then in grace applied that to
your heart. And now we're like them inside.
What are we doing this morning? We're eating the lamb. We're eating the lamb. We're
feasting on that roasted lamb. Remember, this picture is the
fire of God's judgment upon Christ. And we feed upon Him. How? With
our loins girded, shoes on our feet, staff at our end, ready
to go. Ready to go. You ready to go? You got the blood on the door,
you ready to go. Why? Because God passed over us. God passed over and he saw the
blood and he said, judgment applied. He went on to the next. See,
my sins have already been paid for. My sins have already been
paid for. Why? Because we were sons. And
in great love, the eldest son He bought our adoption by His
blood and now the Holy Spirit in power. You want to see power?
You want to see the power of the Lord revealed? It's when
a sinner believes on Jesus Christ. Now religion thinks very little
of faith. They think faith is just something you can just do. They think very little of it.
It's nothing but a mere decision that a man has to make. That's
nothing to them. To me it's the power of God.
It takes the power of God to make a sinner willing to believe
on Christ alone. And so then we see that they
were saved by blood. And Israel was sent away from
Egypt that night. Then God cut Egypt. He's saying, show the same powers
when you cut Rahab. You know what he did? What do
you do when you cut something? You divide it. You separate it,
right? What did he do? When he came
to us, he separated us unto himself. He cut us away from the enemy. Severed us from him. And the blood was the only difference.
And the second thing is water. They were not only saved by blood,
but they were saved by water. Look at this in verse 10. Art
thou not it that hath dried the sea, the waters of the great
deep, that hath made the depths of the sea away for the ransom
to pass over? And after Israel was delivered
by blood, you remember God led them to a very specific place. He led them to the Red Sea. And if you remember, He hardened
the heart of Pharaoh, and Pharaoh pursued after Israel to take
them back to bondage. And a very peculiar place that
He put them was a way of no escape. He put them in such a place.
On the right hands, there was the mountains. They couldn't
flee into the mountains. On the left hand was desert. There was nothing. It was a barren
wasteland. They couldn't go there. Turn around behind you. Pharaohs
coming up the rear. And they look ahead and they
see the sea in front of them. Trapped. Trapped on all sides. Yet God told Moses, He said,
Go forward. Isn't that something? Looking
at that sea, and God says, you go in there. And you remember,
the Lord parted the sea and made a way in the depths, and they
walked through on dry ground, and when Pharaoh tried to do
the same, he was destroyed. He was destroyed. Behold, believer
in Jesus Christ, behold the strength and power and experience of his
grace. Surely Christ died for our sins,
and by grace we see it is applied to our hearts. And yet behold,
Satan pursued us. He sought to enslave us again. We saw the mountains of the law
on our right hand, the barrenness of false religion on our left
hand, Pharaoh pursuing behind us, and the justice of God before
us. surrounded. That's a picture of the water.
I want you to know that that's a picture of God's justice. How
in the world shall we go forward and face the justice of Almighty
God? You know how? Because God made
a way in the sea. Just as he parted the sea, Even
so has Jesus Christ by his righteousness and death parted the justice
of God and we now by faith walk to heaven on solid ground. I could imagine the fear of Israel
as they walk through the sea. Someone said at 13 stories high,
the water was at least that high. Some say higher, on either side. And yet they were walking on
dry ground. Behold the strength of Christ's
offering, that the waters of God's justice
shall Never touch me. How safe is this refuge of Christ
who has made a way in the sea? And so then in that moment of
our misery, in that moment of our conflict, God said stand
still and see the salvation of the Lord. Behold the arm of his
strength. And as we do now walk on a firm
foundation, David said this, though my house be not so with
God. Have you found that so? God said to David, a king should
be righteous, a king should be just, a king should be honorable.
And David looked at his life and said, I ain't nothing like
that. Though my house is not like that. Here's my hope. God hath made with me an everlasting
covenant Ordered, settled in all things. Not one thing's left out. It's
ordered and it's settled in all things and sure. Was there any chance Israel would
not make it to the other side? Was there any? I know they were
scared. They feared as though they might not make it. And God
even asked this question later on. He said, why in the world
were you fearing? Why were you calling me to be
awake? And he tells them later on, you're the one that was asleep.
He'll say it like three times, two or three times in his next
few verses, he tells us to wake up. It's not me who was sleeping,
it was you. I made a way in the sea. Behold,
all our righteousness, all our sanctification, all our redemption,
and all our wisdom, God hath made Christ to be everything.
Isn't this wonderful? What's left for you? There's
nothing left for you. This is what's wonderful about
it. It's confusing to the human nature that there's nothing left
to do. It's amazing. Man can't do anything and he
wants to do everything. God says, rest. Behold, stand
still. Stop working. Stand still and
see the salvation of the Lord. All our justification is by the
And I want you to say this, go to Galatians. Go to Galatians.
You know that church of Galatians was being taught that evil doctrine
of Christ plus obedience to the law. They were saying, okay,
we believe in sovereign election. We believe in Christ's effectual
work and the Spirit. They were Calvinist to the T,
except for one thing, sanctification. They believed that you had to
sanctify yourself by Circumcision. They believe you had to sanctify
yourself by circumcision. Notice this in verse chapter
2 and verse 16 of Galatians. He said, knowing that a man is
not justified by the works of the law, how then is a man justified? Now pay close attention, but
by the faith of Jesus Christ. Oh, you mean I'm not justified
by my faith? No. No, our faith receives the justification,
but surely it is by no means the justifying factor. It was
the faith of Jesus Christ. It was the arm of his strength
that parted the seed of God's justice so that I am justified. by the faith of Jesus Christ. Listen, even we have believed
in Jesus Christ. Now there's your faith. Is faith
necessary? You bet it is. Don't think little
of faith. Faith is something that only
God can give you. Faith is something only God can
work in a man. So it's not something to be mocked.
It is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. So
we believe in Jesus Christ, but our hope is not in our faith.
It is in the faith of Jesus Christ, that part of the scene. And so believers stand firm in
this, that the law cannot condemn us. The law cannot condemn us,
look at this. Verse 19 of that chapter, for
I through the law am, what? Dead to the law. How's the law see me? As though
I'm dead. How can the law be over a dead
man? What power does the law have over a dead man? I thought
of this. I mean, I've seen that movie
Green Mile and stuff. And the guy gets electrocuted
at the chair. And, you know, one guy's still
mad at him. He said, no, he's paid his debt.
You know, what can you do? He's dead. He's already done. The law looks at me and sees
what? Sees I'm dead. Why? Because I died in Christ. When Christ died, I died. I'm dead to the law, that I might
live unto God. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless,
I live yet not I, but Christ live with me and the life I now
live in the flesh. I live by the faith, what? Of the son of God. You see, my life is not dependent
upon my faith. My life is still dependent upon
the faith of Jesus Christ, who loved me and gave himself for
me. Therefore, I do not frustrate
the grace of God. Do not frustrate the grace of
God. For if righteousness come by
the law, then Christ is dead in vain. You got that? If any
righteousness comes by the law, any righteousness at all, the
death of Christ is vain. what he tells him later on chapter
five, he said, if you be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. So now go back to the text here
and look at the result. Look at the result of this prayer.
The prophet, he's in trouble. He cries to God. Wake God. You didn't notice. Show me the
arm of your strength as you did in the ancient days. And what
does He reveal? He reveals to us the blood of Christ. He reveals
us salvation by blood, salvation by water. Look at verse 11. Therefore,
the redeemed of the Lord shall return and come singing unto
Zion. Here is the result Absolute success. The strength of the Lord, the
arm of the Lord is always successful. They shall return. Was there
any doubt that you should be here? Was there any doubt you
should believe on Christ? Eric, is there any doubt in the
world you should ever believe on? It was sure. It was sure. Why? Because God said he should
come. He shall come. This text was written, the thought
was on us. They shall come. Jesus said that.
All that the Father giveth me shall come to me. When he comes,
I'm not gonna cast him out. Why? I came down from the heaven,
not to my own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this
is the Father's will, that I should lose nothing, but raise them
up again at the last day. So what is our hope? The hope
is this, that the arm of the Lord will accomplish salvation
for everyone he determined to save. And behold this, the joy of Israel
is upon their head. Look at this, the everlasting
joy shall be upon their head. Listen, he's talking about their
head. The source of our joy is our
head, Jesus Christ. That's where our joy is found.
It's found in Christ. Believer, it is our Father's
good pleasure to give us the kingdom. Therefore, all the joy
and praise belongs to Christ, our head. And they shall obtain
gladness and joy, and sorrow and mourning shall flee away. Here is his promise that one
day he shall give us a crown of joy. One day, all this sorrow and
mourning are going to flee away. That's his promise. Who's going to make it happen? The arm of the Lord. It was his
strength that saved Israel from Egypt. It was his blood. It was his righteousness. It
was his death, it was his resurrection, it's by his spirit we believe,
and it's by his spirit we are kept. And so God then asks this question.
He makes this declaration in verse 12. I, even I am he that
comforteth you. Where do you derive any comfort
at all? I know we're comforted by certain
things that happen to us. I mean, we find some comfort
here and comfort there. Does it last? It don't last. This is comfort that is constant. I am he that comforteth you. That's a present perfect tense.
I did comfort you. I am comforting you and I shall
comfort you. Who? Me. God says I'm doing it.
I'm your comfort. He said, why in the world did
you fear? Why did you fear men that die?
Do you fear what's going to happen? I mean, our leadership is horrible
in this country we live in. We have women and children ruling
over us. We fear. Why? God said, why would you
fear them? Whose breath is in their nostrils? Pretty soon they're
going to die. What does it matter? Why do you
fear them? Why did you forget the Lord your
maker who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundation of the
earth? Why would you forget me? Why would you forget that I never
sleep? Why do you fear the oppressor?
He says in verse 15, but I am the Lord thy God that divided
the sea whose waves roared. Who's the one that made a way
in the sea? The arm of the Lord did, Christ. And he said, I put
my words in thy mouth, and I have covered thee with the shadow
of my hand, that I may plant the heavens and lay the foundations
of the earth and say unto Zion, listen to this, take comfort. You are my people, sayeth the
Lord. You're mine. It was my power
that chose you. It was my power that saved you.
It's my power that keeps you. I am the Lord. You are my people. May God help us and comfort us. In the midst of our trials and
no, God never sleeps. Everything he has happened to
us is determined. We pray, Lord, reveal the arm
of your strength. What are we asking? We're asking
for God to save his people. How's he gonna do it? Blood and
water. The blood of Christ, being baptized
into Christ. And then he comforts us with
his word. He puts his word in our mouth, in our hearts, that
we are his people. Hope that was clear. Hope the
Lord bless you and make it, make it plain to you. Always want
to make it plain. Christ is all, isn't he? I hope
the whole message you got that, that Christ was everything. He's
the arm of the Lord. He's our strength. Let's stand.