Good to see you all again. If
you take your Bibles and turn with me to Isaiah, Isaiah chapter
48. I would hope that as I preach
the gospel to you that you'd pray for me and God would give
me the liberty I need, the unction of the Spirit of God, preach
the word of God to you with plainness and clarity. It's always my fear
in preaching is that I would not be clear. I would not honor
Christ in confusion. That's religion. Religion is
full of confusion. I don't want to be full of confusion.
I want to be clear. I want us to be plain. And I
pray that God would bless the message to your heart and open
your heart to receive it. Isaiah chapter 48 is going to
be our text. We're going to go through this
chapter, the Lord willing. And the title of this message,
the nature of Israel and the nature of grace. the nature of
Israel and the nature of grace. In the previous chapter, God
declares the utter destruction of Babylon. He declares that
this nation is a whore, that this nation whose nakedness is
now exposed, their people are polluted, and have taken the
children of Israel captive. This is all before they had taken
them captive, but God had already declared it. And he says this
at the end of the chapter. He says, none shall save thee. There is no savior for them. These people here in Babylon,
we see clearly that these people, they picture the vessels of wrath
fitted for destruction. I tell you this today, there
is no savior for them. There is no Savior for them.
They are vessels of wrath. They're like Esau. God had hated
them before they had done any good or evil that the purpose
of God according to election might stand. This is what they
picture in this text. And God says to them, there is
no salvation for them. But in our chapter here, he begins
to speak of another people. He speaks of this house of Jacob
in verse 1. He calls them in verse 12, Jacob
and Israel. Now, we know surely that this
prophecy is concerning national Israel, and I have a whole list
of things here to show you that. I don't want to spend too much
time there. because that will do you no good
to just give you a history lesson as to what God promised to Israel
and gave to them. He did. He promised to save Israel. And in verses 1 through 8, God
calls out the hypocrisy of Israel. He calls out the nature of his
people. And he did so because of the
vileness of their own heart that they gave glory to the false
gods of their captors. These people, they were hypocrites. Their hearts
were in full rebellion and transgression. And God said this about Israel. He said, you were this way from
your birth. He said that in verse eight.
Look at that in verse eight. He says, you are a transgressor
from the womb. You are a transgressor from the
womb. And in verses nine through 11, God declares the reason that
they were not consumed. He declares the reason why they
are not consumed. Look at that in verse nine. He
says, you're not consumed for my own namesake. Because of the
promises that I swore unto your fathers, that's the only reason,
that's the only difference that was made between you and Babylon. And in verses 12 through 15,
God shows forth his deity. in calling Cyrus, you remember
he was gonna call Cyrus a man who didn't know him, a man who
didn't love him, a man not loved of God. And yet God chose him
to show his sovereignty to deliver his people by that evil man. In verse 16 through verse 19,
God commands them to look for the Messiah. to look for the
coming of Christ. And he commands them to do this. And if they do this, they will
prosper. And in verse 20 through 29, the
father tells of their freedom, of their freedom, of their prosperity. Now that's concerning national
Israel. And if you want to go back, you
can see that this happened. The Lord did send them to Babylon
because of their sin, because of their iniquity, and even before
their captivity, he swears, 70 years are determined for this,
and that he would come and deliver them, tells them who is going
to deliver them, and he did deliver them by this man Cyrus and so
forth. But we know this, that the nation
of Israel, its main purpose in scripture is to picture the elect
of God. That is the whole purpose of
the nation of Israel. This is why God chose Abraham. This is why God chose that nation,
gave them his commandments, established his worship, established his
presence in the midst of that wicked, stiff-necked people for
this purpose. that they should picture His
true Israel. And friends, they do to a T picture
His elect people. They are a great picture of His
elect people. Now in this text, I've got four
things. I've got four things here that
I want you to see. First of all, the nature of Israel. You want to write this down,
here it is. Hypocrites and sinners. That's what God says about his
people. By nature, they are hypocrites
and sinners. Second point is this. What then
is the root of their salvation? God swears to save these hypocrites
and sinners. Why? God says it's for my own namesake.
Third point is this, the gospel of Jesus Christ. God is going
to declare again his salvation. And then fourthly, he's going
to declare the freedom and prosperity of all he saves. the freedom
and prosperity of all his people. So first of all, let's look at
the nature of Israel. Israel, unlike Babylon, was chosen
of God. Again, they had the covenant
promises, the presence of God, but if we look at how God declares
their nature, they were no different than Babylon. And what's true of the type is
true of the real. Listen, there is no difference
between us and the rest of this fallen, ruined world. There is no difference. By nature,
there is no difference. We all have sinned. and come
short of the glory of God. There is no difference. Hear this, house of Jacob. Look
what he says. Hear you this, O house of Jacob,
which are called by my name, the name of Israel, and are come
forth out of the waters of Judah, which swear by the name of the
Lord and make mention of the God of Israel. Listen, but not
in truth nor in righteousness. You see, they came out of Egypt
with the rest of them. They came out like all the rest. They called themselves by this
name, the house of Israel. They called themselves this.
Look at that in verse two. Well, they called themselves
the holy city. They stay themselves upon the
God of Israel. In other words, they profess
to rest in me. They make a bold profession. They stay themselves upon the
God of Israel. The Lord of hosts is his name.
I have declared the former things from the beginning, and the things
which went forth of my mouth to show them. I did it to them
suddenly, and then it came to pass." Look, they call themselves
Israel, but they're hypocrites. That's what he's telling them.
He says, you're hypocrites. You're hypocrites. God says,
I have declared the former things from the beginning. Suddenly,
I've brought them to pass. Now, why did he do that? Why did God declare
this and then bring it to pass without their understanding it,
without their knowledge of it? And God said, the reason I had
to do it this way is because you would have given credit to
false gods. If I didn't do it without you,
if I didn't do it by myself, you surely would have taken credit
for yourself. This is who we are by nature.
Listen, if God did everything and you did one thing, who do
you suppose you're gonna give credit to? You and I would give
credit to ourselves. We would glory in the thing that
we did above our fellows. We would glory in it. And God
says, I'm gonna save you, and I'm gonna do it so fast that
you ain't gonna have a chance to put anything in. I'm gonna
do it without your knowledge." Now, he did this because he tells
them in the next verse, he says, because you would declare glory
for yourself. And so God tells them this in
truth. Listen, the reason I did it this way is because you were
a transgressor from the womb. This is the nature of every one
of God's people. Transgressors from the womb. You didn't become a transgressor. You were born a transgressor. That's what God says of his people.
David said, we came forth from the womb speaking lies. This is what we were by nature.
This is the nature of God's people. And I'm telling you, it is no
different than the Babylonians. God says this, he said, yeah,
you heard, you heard not, you didn't know, you know nothing.
Yea, from that time your ear was not opened, for I knew that
thou wouldest deal treacherously and was a transgressor from the
womb. Now see, this is true of all
spiritual Israel, all of the elect of God by nature are no
different from the Esau's. No different by nature. By nature
we are hypocrites, all men by nature. Though religious, we
may call ourselves Christian. We may call ourselves whatever
we want to. That doesn't make it so. These
people in Israel, they call themselves the city, the holy city. That
didn't make it so. By nature, that's not what we
are. Man is religious. by nature, but we would rather
set a God of our own imagination, a God of our own making, just
like the Babylonians. I'll tell you this, there are
some wicked people. Listen to this woman rant against
God on YouTube. Is she full of hatred and vengeance
coming out of her mouth, despising the God of heaven? It's a wicked
person. But you know, that's not the
most wicked person. You know what the most wicked
person is? A hypocrite. One who sits and professes himself
to be a Christian, and all the while he's just as vile as she
is, just as lost as she is. Most wretched people are the
professors. Many call themselves Christian,
claim to swear that they, by the God of Israel, claim to stay
upon Christ, but are liars. God has declared his word to
them. God has declared his word to
them, but they still will not hear. What has God declared from
the beginning? What has he suddenly brought
to pass? What is this that God declares?
Is this the gospel? That's what God declares from
the beginning. He has declared the gospel of
his grace. He has declared that his purpose
is to save a people. who are pictured by Israel. That
he would save them by the seed of the woman. Isn't this the
promise from the beginning? Had not God declared this from
the beginning? The seed of the woman shall crush
the head of the serpent. You go down a little ways in
time and you see the Passover lamb. How would God save his
people? By the blood of the lamb. and that by Christ's coming,
we see the fulfillment of this, that by his offering, he has
made an atonement for Israel, for his elect, for their sins. This is what God had declared.
Look at Isaiah chapter nine. Again, Isaiah declared this just
recently before he wrote this in chapter 48. Look at Isaiah
chapter nine. This is a very concise gospel
message right here. Look at verse six. For unto us
a child is born. Well, there's nothing special
about that. Children are born every day. Unto us a child is
born. What makes this child so special? Unto us a son is given. This child born is a son given. It is the son of God who is to
come in human flesh as a representative man. And what was this representative
man sent to do? Look at this. And the government shall be upon
his shoulder. Now what in the world does that
mean? That means this, that the responsibility of the salvation
of his kingdom rests on his shoulders. The responsibility. Now this
is what God declared. This is what God has declared
to those Israelites who were by nature hypocrites. This is
what he declared to us when we were lost in our sins. God declared
this word. The sun is coming and he shall
bear the responsibility for the salvation of his people. Now
will he be successful? Look what they call him, and
tell me if he's successful. His name should be called Wonderful.
Now, you don't call somebody Wonderful, that's a failure.
Well, no, he's gonna succeed. He's gonna be called Wonderful.
He's gonna be called Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting
Father, and the Prince of Peace. Wow, he's successful. How successful? That's the next verse. And the
increase of his government. and peace, there shall be no
end. How successful he shall sit upon
the throne of his father David and upon his kingdom to order
it and establish it with judgment and justice. He's going to establish
his kingdom with righteousness and he's going to establish it
with an offering that satisfies the justice of God from henceforth
forevermore. Now how do you know it's going
to get done? Now, God declares that the sun's
coming. He's going to be responsible.
He's going to be wonderful. He's so wonderful, it's not going
to end. His kingdom's going to be forever. He's going to establish
it. He's going to order it. I keep
thinking when I hear that, I hear David's words, his last words. He says, as for me and my house,
though it be not so with God, yet he hath made with me an everlasting
covenant. What does it say? in all things, and shoo, shoo. Now, how do you know he's
gonna do it? God declared it, yes, but how
do you know? Look at this. He said, the zeal
of the Lord of hosts will perform it. That's how you know it's
gonna be done, because God's going to do it all. He's gonna do it all. He's gonna
do it all. This is the gospel God declared
to them. And so Israel shall be saved.
Israel shall be saved. Go to Isaiah 43, look at this.
Isaiah 43, verse three, I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One
of Israel, thy Savior. Now who's the Savior? He's the
holy one of Israel. Who's he saving? Israel. That's
who he's saving. I gave Egypt for thy ransom,
and Ethiopia and Sheba for thee, since thou was precious in my
sight. Thou hast been honorable and I have loved thee. Therefore,
I give men for thee and people for thy life. Fear not, I am
with thee. I will bring thy seed from the
east and gather thee from the west. I will send to the north,
give up to the south, keep not back. Bring my sons from afar
and my daughters from the ends of the earth. All right, well,
how many of them are gonna come? even every one that is called
by my name. By my authority, everyone that's
called by my authority, every one of them will come. Every
one of them will come. For I have created him for my
glory. I have formed him gay. I have
made him This is what God declared to these wicked Israelites. This is what God declares to
all of his saints while we're yet in our sins. And notice this,
yet, what do these people say? What do so-called
Christians say about this gospel of God's sovereign grace? that
he purposed to save us, that Christ accomplished our salvation,
that the spirit of God is always effectual in his work, in his
calling. What do they say? Well, most
religious Christian people in this country despise the gospel
of God's grace. They reject it. They give glory
to the God of their own imagination that cannot say, They are stiff-necked and they
will not bow to the sovereign God. They will glory in their
carnal wisdom by which no man can know God. They would rather
give glory to their free will than the glory of God. But to us, you that are believers
in Christ, do we have any reason to look down upon them? No, because
this is what we were by nature as well. Scripture says that no man can
come to Christ except the Father which hath sent me draw him.
That's what Christ said. Yet God declared this to us.
How did He declare this gospel to you? He declared it through
the preaching of this gospel. He says in 1 Corinthians 1, for
after the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not, but
God had pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. God declared this gospel to me
over and over and over and over, and yet I in my rebellion still
would not believe. This is who we are by nature.
And I tell you this, I still would be a hypocrite. I still
would be an unbeliever had God himself not called me to life
and faith. I know this is true of every
one of God's people. By nature, this is who we are.
We did not know God, we did not know how to be accepted of God
until he came in grace and opened our ears. God says, I showed it to you,
and then what? I brought it to pass. I showed
it to you, you rebelled, but I still brought it to pass. I
still brought it to pass. even though we by nature were
full of sin and rebellion, full of hypocrisy and idolatry, even
though God knew in the darkness of our heart, yet He still chose
us. He still purposed to save us. He still sent His Son into the
world to redeem us. Is this not astounding to us? I know it is to you who understand
who you are. You who are saved, I know this,
you know who you are. You know everything he says about
Israel is true about me. What a miserable condition, and
yet God's still purpose to save this people. Why? That's the question. Why? And
this brings up the second point. We see the nature of Israel's
rebellious, and yet God still purposed to save them. There
was no difference between them. He wouldn't say Babylon and Israel. No difference. Yet God says,
look, I showed it to you, and I'm going to bring it to pass
without you. Now, why would He do that? Well,
He gives us the root cause. Look at this in verse 9. Here's
the root cause. For my name's sake will I defer
mine anger, and for my praise will I refrain for thee, that
I cut thee not off. Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver.
I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. For my own sake,
even for my own sake will I do it. For how should my name be
polluted? And I will not give my glory
to another. One preacher wrote this, the
whole of sovereign grace and love is by the Lord himself traced
up to the source. Never forget that it is for Jehovah's
glorious namesake that the whole creation work and redemption
work have been and is and will be accomplished even to all eternity. If God pardons sin, receives
the sinner, and passeth by his iniquities, the reason here is
assigned. Be it known to you, O house of
Israel, that I do this not for your sakes, but for my own name's
sake." Here God reveals the true purpose
of his eternal love, of his redeeming grace, of his calling mercy upon
sinners, of his keeping grace. God does it for his own glory. We say that God did it for me.
Well, he did, but that's not the reason he did it for you.
The reason he saved you was for his own glory. That's it. There's the root cause. If man
then ascribes salvation in any part, in his merits, in his deeds,
in his religion, in the act of his will, then salvation is done
for the work's sake and not for God's glory. Why do you think
we despise all free will religion so much? Because God despises. Because if you add anything to
your salvation, if you contribute any minute detail, you rob God
of his glory. And God said this to you, now
beware of this. God says, I will not share my
glory with another. This is why freewill works religion
is a blasphemous doctrine because it robs God of the glory of salvation. It attributes salvation to the
will, the works, or ceremony of men. And anyone that does
that is robbing God of his glory. It's blasphemous. But God says
this, I'm not gonna share my glory with him. I'm not gonna
share my glory with another. Look at Ezekiel 36. Ezekiel 36
describes the covenant of God's grace. This is what God promised
to do. This is what God purposed to
do for all his elect, though sinful they are, rebellious they
are, full of evil they are, yet God still swears this to do this
for them. Look at verse 24. God says, I'm gonna take you
from a heathen. Where'd he get you? When God found you, where'd
he find you? He found you among the heathen.
That's good because that's where he says he takes his people from.
Any heathens? By nature, that's what I am,
a heathen. And that's exactly where God
found me. He found me in my sin. I wasn't looking for God, and yet he found me. I wasn't
asking for God, and yet he found me. He called me, that's because
he said he would, I will take you from among the heathen. I'm
gonna gather you out of all the countries and will bring you
into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water upon
you and you shall be clean from all your filthiness. And from
all your idols will I cleanse you. That's good because that's
all I had. All I had was idols. All I had
was iniquities. God says, I'm going to come and
I'm going to get you, and I'm going to clean you. I'm going
to cleanse you of all your iniquities. That clean water He sprinkles
upon us is the blood of the Son of God. Read back in the study
of His people, He says that He cleanseth us. 1 John 1, He says,
He cleanseth us. That is a constant, perpetual,
ever-present cleansing. And as we walk through this world,
our conscience becomes too heavy to bear. We know we have that
sin still around our neck and it becomes too heavy. And there
he says this, if you will confess your sins, he is faithful and
just to forgive us all our sins. Now, why, how could he do that?
Because Christ has already paid for them. That's how he can be
faithful and just. He promises. And he says, I'm
not only going to do that, I'm going to give you a new heart.
Well, good, because I need a new heart. The old one was full of
sin and violence and corruption. I need a new one. Out of the
heart proceeded evil thoughts, adulteries, murders, fornications. That's all I could produce. And
God says this, I'm going to give you a new one. I'm going to take
that one out. I'm gonna give you a new one.
And this heart's gonna be a heart, that start of stone will be gone.
I'm gonna give you a heart of flesh. What does that mean? It
means I'm gonna give you a heart of feeling. Whereas I had no
love for God, now I do. Gave me a nature to love God.
Gave me a nature to believe on Christ. I didn't have that before
and I have it now. I have it now. I'll put a new spirit within
you. I will take away the stony heart
out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh." And not only
this, he says, I'm gonna come and dwell in you. I'll put my
spirit in you and cause you to walk in my statutes and keep
my judgments and do them. What are his statutes and judgments?
You that believe, what are his commandments to you? John says
his commandments are not grievous unto us, are they? Have you ever
read the law of Moses? You talk about a grievous burden
to be borne. That law was grievous. You know
why? You can't keep it. It's grievous. You know what
law isn't grievous? Faith. That's not grievous. To believe on Christ is not grievous.
Matter of fact, I want more of it. I want more faith to believe
in Christ. And the other commandment is
love. Is love grievous? Let me ask you, is it hard to
love him? I'll tell you what, I hate myself,
but I love him. And I know this, the reason I
don't love him more is because of myself. Those commandments he gives us,
he says, I'm going to walk in my statue. You walk in those
statues? Do you obey those commandments? Of course you do. He promised
you would. You shall dwell in the land that
I give to your fathers and you shall be my people and I will
be your God. And I will save you from all
your uncleanness and will call the corn and will increase it
and lay no famine upon you. Why would God do this for us? Back in the, Just before this,
in Ezekiel chapter 36, he tells us why. In verse 21, he said, I had pity
for my holy name. which the house of Israel profaned
among the heathen, whether they went. Therefore I say to the
house of Israel, thus saith the Lord, I do this not for your
sake, so house of Israel, but for my holy name's sake. This is why God chose us. This is why Christ redeemed us. This is why the spirit called
us for his own glory. And why must we never forget
this? Because if our salvation is tied to the glory of God,
and it is, then we may be sure that all
He purposed to save, He will save. You understand that if I am saved
by the grace and power of God, by the will of God, by the blood
of Christ, and I am saved for the glory of His name, If somehow
I am not saved, his glory fails. And that just ain't gonna happen.
Because it's for his sake. What if it was for your sake?
Do you deserve it? Would you have any hope it was
for your sake? No, I have hope because it's
for God's sake. His namesake. And thirdly, the
gospel preached. The gospel preached. Look at
this in verse 12. Hearken to me. Go back to your text. Verse
12. Hearken unto me, O Jacob in Israel, my called. I am he. I am the first and the last. My hand has also laid the foundation
of the earth. My right hand has spanned the
heavens. When I call unto them, they stand
up together. Oh, ye assemble yourselves in
here, which among them hath declared these things. The Lord hath loved him. He will
do all his pleasure on Babylon, and his arm shall be upon the
Chaldeans. And these verses, God calls his
people, Israel his elect, who alone will hear the gospel and
believe it. And I'll tell you this, now I call you as I'm preaching
this gospel, I call and compel everyone to believe on Christ.
Every time we preach, this is what we should do. We should
compel, if you don't believe now, believe now. I believe that
was one of the, I was struggling in my early Christian life. I was struggling with if my faith
was real, if my faith was genuine or not. And I would always look
back trying to find something. Some evidence somewhere, and
every time I looked at anything, it was all for nothing. It was
horrible. And Todd and I were preaching
a message called Faith Now. And he said, faith in the scriptures
is always present tense for a reason. Because faith ten minutes ago
and faith ten minutes from now will not help you. Do you believe
now? And now? How about now? Do you believe now? Yes. Faith.
Do you believe on the Son of God? If you don't, believe on
Him now. Now. We call you to believe on
Christ. Scripture says, Whosoever believeth
and is baptized shall be, what? Saved. Saved. Believe on Him now. We call men,
but I know this, that only the Spirit of God can affectionately
call you to this. It is the work of the Spirit
to give us faith in the gospel of Christ. And here is the gospel.
The gospel is this, it's Christ. The whole gospel is Christ. He is the sum and substance of
all our salvation. When God chose you, He chose
you in Christ. God purposed you to be holy and
without blame before him, and love predestinated us on the
adoption of children by Jesus Christ. And when Christ came
into the world, he came out as the God-man. He says this, I
am the first and the last. In Revelation, how did Christ
describe himself? The first and the last, I am
God. That's the gospel. Jesus is God,
but he is also man. God, man. I am the first and the last. I made heaven. I span the heavens. When I commanded, they stood
up. Do you suppose you come to hear
The Word of God by accident. You that believe. Is that how
you came to hear the Word of God? No, you came to hear the
Word of God because God sent it. God declared it. He called us and He brought us
to hear. Who did He bring us to hear?
Him that He loved. Who did God love? He loved Him. He loved Christ. And he loves
me because I'm in Christ. When Christ died, the only way
my sins are paid for is that I was in Christ. The only hope
of my justification and resurrection is that when he rose again from
the dead, I was in Christ. The only hope for my intercession
right now is because I am in Christ. Here's the gospel. It's Christ. He is the sum of
the gospel. He said, I brought him, and he
shall make his way prosperous. In other words, the gospel is
about a victorious Savior. That's the gospel. Christ obtained
a righteousness that we could not obtain. He obeyed the law
of God in our stead. He said this, lo, I come in the
volume of the book it is written to me to do thy will, O God. He came to fulfill the law of
God, the righteousness of God, and atone for our sins. And so
Paul says in Hebrews 10, verse 10, by the witch will we are
sanctified. You know this, you that are children
of God, you are sanctified. I'm so glad I do not have to
sanctify myself, aren't you? I don't have to make myself holy.
He did it. By the witch will we are sanctified
through the offering of the body of Christ once for all. For by the offering of Christ
he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. John Gill said this, The pleasure
of the Lord prospered in the hands of Christ, and so he succeeded
in the work of redemption and salvation to which he was called. Isaiah 53 tells us this, that
the Lord shall see the travail of his soul and be satisfied. This is the gospel. It is a gospel
of perfect salvation. This is the gospel we believe.
This is the Christ we rest in, a victorious Savior. Is there any better news for
a Savior than a victorious Savior? Is there any better news than
a person that can't save themselves? You got a person that can't save
themselves, can't ever merit God's favor. Look over here.
He's already done it. Believe on Him. And we do. We believe on Him. By the power
and grace of God, He saved us. And notice the provisions then
of God in these last verses. This is verse 18. And in verse
21, he says, oh, that thou heardest, thou hast hearkened unto my commandments.
Then had thy peace been as the river and thy righteousness as
the waves of the sea. Thy seed had been as the sand
and the offspring of thy boughs like the gravel thereof. His
name should not have been cut off nor destroyed before me.
I'll tell you this. Paul said that if it were possible
to have salvation by the law, then that's how it should have
been. But we understand this, that there is no one saved by
obedience to the law. But listen, this is true of all
who are saved by Christ. Listen to this, because of Christ,
he heeded the commandments of God, therefore, thy peace is as the river. and
thy righteousness is as the waves of the sea." Our righteousness
is as the righteousness of God. That righteousness was merited
by the faith of Christ, and then that righteousness was imputed
to us by faith in Christ. He says, thy seed had been as
a sand, and thy offspring the bowels of the gravel thereof.
Thy name should not have been cut off nor destroyed from before
me. Listen, you know God's people
are fruitful people. We're fruitful people because
the fruit is of the Spirit of God. God who planted us also
yields the fruit of faith, love, joy, peace, meekness, temperance, and God yields this fruit. And then, notice this, you shall
not be cut off. Because of Christ, listen, you
will never be cut off. I like what he told, I believe
it was Martha, he said, whosoever liveth and believeth me shall
never die. Believest thou this? Do you believe you're never going
to die? Christ said you wouldn't. When
this body goes to the ground, do you die? Well, of course not. You will never be cut off. You
will never be cut off. Therefore, He says this, Go you
forth of Babylon. Flee you from the Chaldeans.
With the voice of singing, declare ye. Tell this. Utter it even
to the end of the earth. Say ye, The Lord hath redeemed
His servant, Jake. Isn't this what we have done?
Haven't we fled our old nature? Haven't we fled from our self-righteousness to
Christ? Haven't we fled from our self-righteousness to Christ? Haven't we fled from
our self-righteousness to Christ? Haven't we fled from our self-righteousness
to Christ? Haven't we fled from our self-righteousness to Christ?
Haven't we fled from our self-righteousness to Christ? Haven't we fled from
our self-righteousness to Christ? Haven't we fled from our self-righteousness
to Christ? Haven't we fled from our self-righteousness
to Christ? Haven't we fled from our self-righteousness to Christ?
Haven't we fled from our self-righteousness to Christ? Haven't we fled from
our self-righteousness to Christ? Haven't we fled from our self-righteousness
to Christ? Haven't we fled from our self-righteousness to Christ?
Haven't we fled from our self-righteousness to Here, as a church, right now is what
I'm doing. I'm declaring the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus. Now, as you leave this place,
what is your job? What is your purpose in this
world? Is it not to do the same? Go ye into all the world and
preach the gospel. I like what he told that man,
that demoniac. You remember he saved him and
that demoniac was right behind him fixing to get in the boat
and the Lord turned around and said, oh no, no, no. You can't
come with me. You go home and tell your prayers. What great things. What great things. God has done
for you. What great things has God done
for you? Well, consider your nature. Consider that God declared the
gospel to you and you rebelled. Consider this, that God purposed
to save you for his own namesake and then send his son and actually
saved you. In the process of time, what
great things has he done? He called you by his own power
of grace. And you're sitting here tonight
rejoicing in the gospel because of the power of His grace. Shelby,
you believe wrong times. Who did that? You or him? Why
are you still here? Why are you still here? He's kept you. What great things
God has done for us. Go tell them. Go tell them.