Isaiah chapter 51. The title of my message this morning
is The Rock and the Pit. The Rock and the Pit. In this blessed chapter of Holy
Scripture, the Lord here in three places gives a command. He says in verse 1, hearken unto
me. In verse 4, he says, hearken
unto me. In verse 7, he said, hearken
unto me. Listen, listen. God calls His people to listen,
to pay attention, to heed His words, which are full of promise
and instruction. Now we who know the Word of God,
that it is good and perfect, we who know that all Scripture
is given by inspiration of God, that it is profitable, for doctrine,
for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. But who is it profitable for? We know it does all those things.
But who then profits? Who benefits from this Word? Who benefits from hearing the
Word of God? The Apostle says in that same
passage, that the man of God. may be perfect, mature, throughly
furnished unto all good works. Who hears this? The man of God.
Who hears this? Even the ones that the Lord says
will hear this. Hearken to me, you that follow
after righteousness, you that seek the Lord. He says in verse
4, hearken to me, who? My people, my people. In verse 7, hearken unto me,
you that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is
my law. Now the lost man, the unbeliever,
and even the professor of faith may read this book, they may
try to follow all of its precepts and teachings, And I tell you,
if a man does that, he'll receive benefit, don't you think? I mean,
that's just simple. If a man follows these precepts
and he becomes a good citizen and he's a productive fellow,
and surely there are things in this book that would make him
such, according to men. He may attain a good reputation,
be a good citizen, you might become a good parent or even
a good child. But unless the Spirit of God
in power give you life and faith. This book is a closed book to
you. This book's closed. You can't
understand it. You can't figure it out. You don't know what in
the world I'm talking about. Every time I come here and, you
know, I just don't get what he's saying. It just not, it doesn't
make any sense. I hear the same thing over and
over and over again and I just don't get it. Don't know why
everybody else is liking it and I just don't like it. Why? Book's
closed to you. You're blind. You're dead. You
have no life. That's why this isn't, this isn't
a closed book. Peter said this, it's better
to have never heard than to turn away from this gospel. Therefore God in this text is
speaking to us who believe on Jesus Christ. We who by the power
and grace of God have believed. And this book, listen, it is
very profitable to us. It's very profitable to me. I've
received everything from this book. Doctrine, teaching. The
word's not something complicated. Don't be afraid of the word doctrine.
It means teaching. Doctrine, reproof. I've been
reproofed. I've been corrected by this book.
Sharp pains of correction. And I've been instructed in righteousness.
What does that mean? That I've been taught how to
live a righteous life? No. I've been instructed that Christ
is all my righteousness. That's what I get from this book.
And it's profitable to me. My soul has been saved. I've
been redeemed. And God reveals this to us. That
Jesus Christ has accomplished all our salvation. This book
teaches me doctrine. How else do I know who God is
and what God requires except God teach me out of this book? This book reproves us of sin
and makes us to know our need of righteousness. We are corrected
by the book of God, this Word of God that demands justice be
satisfied and therefore This book at times makes us sigh and
groan. I'll tell you what, if this word
has no effect on your heart, you're twice dead plucked up
from the roots. This book affects the heart of
God's people. It causes us, when the Word comes
in power, it convicts us of our sin. It shows us who we are. And it shows us the glory of
Jesus Christ and His salvation. We're made by the Word of God
not only to know our depravity, know depravity of Adam's race,
but to know our own. I mean, how many people today
are just enamored with five points of Calvinism, and then they study
it as though it were something outside of themselves, as though
it were something separate from the gospel of Jesus Christ. No,
that's the gospel. That's the gospel. And you know
how I know that's the gospel? Because the Word of God tells
it so. The Word of God speaks to me of depravity. And not just
your depravity, my depravity. I know my nature. And I also
know my election. I also know my redemption. I
also know the irresistible power of the Holy Spirit. This is not
just a doctrine outside of me, it's a doctrine I've experienced.
And it's a doctrine I'm still experiencing. You know why I've
persevered? Because the Lord, the Holy Spirit, keeps me in
the faith. That's what it is. He keeps me.
If you're ever kept to the end, we'll give all the praising to
glory to God and not to self. But how does God describe His
people? He tells them to listen. But notice how He describes them.
He says this in verse 1. He says, My people, you are My
people. This is them. You that follow
after righteousness. You that seek the Lord. He says in verse 3, You are My
people. That's what He calls us. And
in verse 7, He said, You know righteousness. You know righteousness. God may in truth say to his people,
say this to us, even because the word of God revealed to us
that Jesus Christ is His Son has made us righteous. How is it that you follow after
righteousness but the natural man follows after sin? Because
we follow after Christ our righteousness. He is our righteousness and what
do we do? We follow after Him by faith. We seek only to be found in Him. The greatest hope of my life
is that I should be found not in my own righteousness, but
in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. That's the highest attainment
I ever hope to achieve is to be found in Jesus Christ. That's
it. That's what I want the most.
That's all I want. To be found in Him. This Christ as our representative,
was the representative of all His elect people. And Isaiah
says in Isaiah 42 and verse 21, the Lord is well pleased for
His righteousness sake. He's talking about His servant
in that chapter. He shall magnify the law and
make it honorable. Hearken to the Word of God. How
is it that we obtain righteousness only through the man, Jesus Christ,
who has by His own obedience obtained it? We follow after
Him. that word was not fulfilled in
any other man save Jesus Christ for he said this I came not to
destroy the law but to do what fulfill it I came to fulfill
the law that's what he came to do now behold the Son of God who
was made flesh, became the servant of God under the law of God,
so that as a man he should honor the law of God in our stead."
This is the gospel. This is the message of grace.
That Christ did something for us that we could never do ourselves,
which was obtain righteousness. He did it as a representative. And look in verse 4 of your text.
Hearken unto me, ye my people. Give ear to me, O my nation.
For my law shall proceed from me, and I will make judgment
to rest. Cease for a light of the people. The law of God came from God.
And it declares this. You want to know what the law
of God declares? Here it is. Cursed. Cursed is everyone that
continueth not in all things written in the book of the law
to do them. To do them. No rest. The law, in the law,
there is no rest, is there? There's no place for rest. You
remember those high priests when they went into that temple. You
know this, there were no chairs. You know why? There was no rest. No place to sit. Why? Their work
was never done. They would go in day and night
and morning and evening and they would do all of this work every
day and there was no place for them to sit. because there was
no rest for them. You can work and you can earn
and you can try to merit God's favor. You can cry and you can
plead and you can beg. Not all your sighs and prayers
and tears will ever be able to deliver you. Well, how then shall the law
rest unless judgment be satisfied? Listen to me, my people. This
is what God says to you, my people. His people, the law and judgment
shall rest, even because Jesus has satisfied its last demands.
You hearken to me. You listen to me, my people.
You that follow after righteousness, you that I've given a new heart
to, you listen to me. Judgment is ceased. That's what
he said. Judgment rests. Isaiah foretells of this, even
in Isaiah 53, you can look over a couple pages there, Isaiah
53 and verse 11. Look what he says. He says, for
he, this is Christ, for he, I mean God, this is God, for he shall
see the travail of his soul, whose Christ soul, and be what? Satisfied. You know when a lawyer gets up
there and he presents his case and he said, I rest. I rest my case. Jesus Christ
brought his blood and righteousness before the judgment seat of God
and said, I rest my case. It's finished. And God said,
good case. I'm satisfied with that case.
Judgment ceased. Not guilty. Not guilty. Not guilty. Not guilty. Not guilty. That's what the judge
says. That's what God says to you who
are in Christ. Not guilty. Not guilty. Hearken to me, my elect, elect of the Father, And look
what He says He'll do for you when you hearken to Him and hear
this message. Verse 3, For the Lord shall comfort
Zion. He will comfort her waste places. He will make her wilderness like
Eden and the deserts like the garden of the Lord. And joy and
gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of
melody. Oh, herein, believer, The sinner
is the Word of God to you. I've come to comfort you I've
come to give you assurance. I want you to understand This
is the purpose of my message because it's a purpose of God's
Word to give you comfort who my people Those that follow after
righteous those who are in Christ. This is for you and you alone
Behold Christ is our Savior and Christ is all our salvation and
this, my friends, is by the will of God. Hearken to me, I will
comfort you. Isn't that His will? He said,
I will comfort you. I will. O believer, are you such and
one as the Lord speaks to? Are you now following Christ
by faith? Do you rest on Him? Do you seek
the Lord Jesus Christ and to rest in the arms of His salvation? Is the law of God written on
your heart in the new man, created in Christ Jesus unto
good works? Then let us obey the voice of
God. Now, He's going to give us two
things here. I've got two things in verse
1 that the Lord is speaking to His people. I wanted you to hear
that, that it's God's Word. I wanted you to hear that He
is speaking to you, His people. I want you to understand that
His will is to use this to comfort you. And in all of this is found,
I believe, in verse 1, He exhorts us to look to two things. To two things. You who are believers,
look at this. He says in verse 1, Harken to
Me, you that follow after righteousness, you that seek the Lord. Here's
the first one. Look unto the rock whence you
were hewn. And this is the second one. Look
to the hole of the pit from whence you are digged. So first of all,
let's look at this rock. Look at the rock for your comfort.
This rock which God presents is the rock that He has laid
from eternity, the foundation of His church, the foundation
of our souls. It is the rock that He lays in
Zion for a stone, a foundation stone, a sure stone. There's nothing like a sure foundation,
is there? You ever been in one of those
big bouncy tents? Maybe, y'all seen them at least. Boy, that's
just not sure of anything. At any second, you can fall over
and just bounce around. There's no sure foundation to
that. It's real squishy. Kids love it. It bounces their
brain up and down. They like that. But I'll tell
you what. If you're building a house, you
don't want to build it on one of those. You don't want to build it on
one of those. There's no sure foundation. If
you did, I wouldn't go in your house. Be ready to fall at any
minute. But God says this in Isaiah 28.
He says this stone. He mentions it. He says, Behold,
I lay in Zion for a foundation of stone, a tried stone, a precious
cornerstone, a sure foundation. He that believeth shall not make
haste. Who is this stone but Jesus Christ? He is the rock. It was Christ
who was purposed of God to be the Savior of His elect. Therefore,
God first trusted Christ with all the souls of His people. You want to know who had faith
in Christ first? It was the Father. He trusted Christ from eternity. with your souls. But I'll tell you something more
important. You know, I'll tell you what, you don't, you and
I know this, we don't deserve this, so at times we become,
we wonder how in the world that we, our foundation could be so
sure. Listen, I want you to see this above all for your comfort,
that your salvation is infinitely tied to the glory of God. So that when God trusted Christ
to save you, He also trusted Christ with His own glory. So what's more important than
you and me? The glory of God is more important. And I want
you to see this. Go to Ephesians. Go to Ephesians. Won't you see how many times
it says this about tying our salvation and the glory of God
together? Now look at this, he says our
election, all our spiritual blessings are being made holy and God's
purposing us to be holy by Jesus Christ and to be presented without
blame, our adoption in verse 5 that he predestinated, listen,
to the cause of this. Verse 5 at the end he said according
to the good pleasure of his will. Why did he do it? Because he
willed to do it. Now listen, this is the end result. to the
praise of the glory of His grace. Why did He do it? To the praise
of the glory of His grace. Now look down at verse 12. He said that we should be to
the praise of His glory. We who trust in Christ, we who
believe, who have the Spirit of God given to us. This is His
will that you should be the praise of His glory. Who first trusted
in Christ? God first trusted in Christ.
What? His glory. His glory. And look
at verse 18. He said, The eyes of your understanding
being enlightened that you may know what is the hope of His
calling, what is the riches of the glory of His inheritance. Where's His inheritance? In the
saints. The glory of God and the salvation
of your soul are infinitely tied together. The success, therefore the praise
of the glory of His grace, was the cause of our election and
salvation. Yet the success of this salvation
and the glory of God does not rest upon the elect, but rather
upon the rock. Your salvation and God's glory
being tied together are resting on who? On Christ. Not on you. Not on you. On Christ. Believer,
how firm and sure then is the rock upon whom the glory of God
and our salvation rest. God calls it a sure foundation.
And the judgment that was laid to the line and righteousness
to the plummet. And listen, all other refuges
are lies. This is the only refuge. All
other rocks are no good. The rock of good works, the rock
of free will, the rock of self-importance, self-indulgence, self-help, that's
a lie. There's no refuge in it. See,
because their rock is founded upon men and they preach the
glory of man. Don't do that. But you who are believers, look
to the rock upon whom you are built, and listen, the gates
of hell shall not prevail against it. Believer in Christ, are you stricken Are you tossed
about by the billows and waves of affliction? Are you weary
and troubled by divine providence and circumstances? Does sin overwhelm
you? Does this body of death weigh
on you? Then look to the rock! Your salvation
doesn't rest in that body of death. Your salvation doesn't
rest in your good works. It doesn't rest in who you are
or what you did. It only rests in the Rock, Jesus
Christ. David said, truly my soul waiteth
upon God. In your trouble, are you waiting
upon God? And notice David, he said, I'm
waiting, means that he hasn't received it. He's still in trouble. And yet, where is his confidence?
His confidence is in God, in the rock. And David, in that
same chapter in Psalm 62, he said, On this rock I shall not
greatly be moved. In other words, he's being moved.
He's being tossed. He's like a drunken man. He's staggered to and fro. He falls. But as David looks more to the
rock of his salvation, he becomes more confident. And he says this,
I shall not be moved. The more you look to the rock,
the more sure you are of your salvation. The more you look
to you, the more tossed about you'll be. Don't look to you. Listen to God's Word. Look to
the rock. Look to the rock. And when God
comes, to expose the lies of our enemy, to see that all men
and providence are in his hands. We may say with David, I shall
not be moved from this rock. He is all my rock. He is all
my stay. We may have boldness and assurance
by looking to Christ, our rock. Hearken you righteous, you who
are in Christ, whose souls rest only upon Him, look to the rock,
for he is now dead, and God's justice is satisfied. He is now
risen, and you are justified before God, and the judgment
of God has rested." Now secondly, notice this. He said, look to
the rock from which you were hewn. Hewn. This was the will of God from
eternity that all of His elect should be made in the image of
His Son. Go to Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8 and verse 29, speaking of all who God purposed,
who called according to His purpose, that's you and me, We've been
called by the Spirit of God according to His purpose. He said, for
whom He did foreknow, them He also did predestinate. He's just
talking about our election, about our redemption, our whole salvation
He purposed. For this, that you should be
conformed to the image of His Son. that he might be the firstborn
among many brethren. God purposed us, he called us
by grace. Now then was this by accident?
Were you called by accident or on purpose? You who were built on the rock,
you were called on purpose, not by accident. You did not stumble
into this building by accident and hear the gospel. Just didn't
happen. None of us did. God purposed
it. He planned it. He executed it
according to His own sovereign will. And I tell you, if your
salvation was not purposed of God, it's because you don't have
any. If your salvation was by accident, it's because you don't
have any. God purposed salvation. He does it on purpose. John says
this, "...as many as received Him, to them gave He the right
to be called the sons of God, which were born, not of the blood,
not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of
God." You see, we were sons. We were made sons Not because we received Christ. When we receive Christ, we have
the right to be called the sons of God because we were born of
the will of God. Jesus told those Pharisees, He
said, You believe not because you are not of My sheep. In Galatians
4 and verse 6 it says, Because you are sons, the Father sent
forth His Spirit into your hearts, crying, I have a Father. Why
is it you have the Spirit of God? Because you were sons. You were sons. Your faith didn't
make you a son, it just exposed that you were a son. It's evident
you're a son if you believe. You were already a son. It's evidenced by His birth,
by the spiritual birth and faith in Christ. Faith is the evidence
of things not seen, isn't it? And as we were chosen sons, God
sent forth His Spirit into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father,
and we heard. We heard the gospel and believed
it. And listen, because of this, we have this evidence that this
rock to whom we look to, we also were hewn from this rock. Now,
what does that mean? Well, have you ever heard the
statement, he's a spitting image of his father? Man, look at that
boy. He just looks exactly like his
father. And then you see, hey, that boy's a chip off the old
block. You heard that, haven't you? Guess what? My block is Christ. And I'm exactly
a spitting image of His Son. That's what God made you. You
are a spitting image of Jesus Christ. You were made to be conformed
to what? His very image. His very image. Believer, we
are made by the Holy Spirit According to the eternal purpose
of God in the very image of our rock, Jesus Christ. Let us see
now a type. You want to see a type of this?
This is very wonderful. Go to Genesis. Genesis chapter
27. Oh, this is beautiful. This is a beautiful type of how
you are the image. You are created in Christ Jesus. You are made in the image of
Jesus Christ in the new nature. And listen to this. You remember
Isaac in this chapter. He's old and he can't see. And
he's about ready to bless the firstborn. Esau was the firstborn. Now, the firstborn was to receive
the blessing. He was to be in charge of everything. Because he was the firstborn.
And so he's ready to give Esau the blessing. And so he tells him, he said,
you go out there and you kill a deer and you make me some soup
that I love and then I'll bless you. But you remember that Jacob and
Rebekah were scheming. Rebekah had received the promise
that the elder shall serve the younger. And now she's trying
to make this happen. How many times do you do that,
try to make God's Word happen? Just, we mess it all up. But
this is their scheme. This is truly their sin. Their
rebellion, trying to make it work for them. But God here is
going to use their sin and rebellion to show you a picture of what
you are made in Christ. Here's a picture. And so what
does she do? She says, quick, let's go in
here, I'll get Esau's robe, and you put Esau's robe on. And he
says, I'm going to go out there and I'm going to kill some lambs,
and I'm going to make that soup that your father loves. And then Jacob says, well, wait
a second, what if he wants to touch me? I'm smooth skinned,
and Esau's a hairy man. He's going to know our scheme. And she says, well, let's take
the skin of those animals and we'll put it on your hands and
your neck. And so he goes into his blind dad's tent and he says,
I'm Esau, bless me. And he said, wait a second, you
sound like Jacob. I can't see you, but you sound
like Jacob. He said, oh no, dad, I'm Esau.
Here's that soup I made for you. And he says, oh, I don't know
about this. Come here." He leans over, and he smells
that robe. And he says, well, it smells
like Esau. And he says, come closer. Let me touch you. And he puts
his hands on his hands, and he puts his hands on his neck. He
gets real intimate with him. And he says, man, it feels like
Esau. The soup, he eats the soup and
he said, man, that's that soup Esau can make. And what does
he do? He blesses him. He gives him
everything. It's just not a picture of us
in Christ that we have put on his robe of righteousness. And
you know, when the father comes and he says, come here, let me
smell you. Yep, you smell exactly like my son. Come here, let me
feel you. Oh, you feel just like my son.
He said, come, let me taste your works. Oh, they're delicious. You are made in the very image
of his son and God himself blesses you with the blessings only Jesus
Christ deserves. Only the firstborn deserved that
blessing, right? How in the world could the secondborn
ever get it? Only if he was made in the image
of the firstborn. Guess what you are? You were
hewn from the rock of righteousness. And when you approach to your
father, you know what he smells? Righteousness. That's why you
are welcome in His presence at all time. Christ had forever
removed our sins from us as far as the East is from the West. And we are made into the image
of Christ and we receive the blessing of the firstborn. We
receive the inheritance of Jesus Christ. If you be in Christ,
then you're Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. Therefore, all he called, he
justified and glorified in Christ. And if you be in Christ, listen,
who can be against you? If you look like Christ, if you
smell like Christ, if you are righteous as Christ, who then
shall separate you from your father? Who shall separate you
from his love and his blessings? Nobody and nothing. In Jeremiah
50, he says, in that day and in that time, I will look for
the sins of Judah, and they shall not be, what, found. Where's your sin? Believer, where's
your sin? Where is it? It's gone. Well, I could see it. Well, it
don't matter about you. You're not the judge. It only
matters of the one who has the blessing. Wasn't it only Isaac
who could bless? Is it not only God who can bless?
So what does it matter what you see? It only matters what he
sees. And he sees you are hewn from
the rock of your salvation. You are in his image. Now then, I'll move on. Secondly,
let's look at this second part quickly. Go back to your text.
Look to the rock from whence you were hewn. Look at Christ.
This is the word of God to you. Look to Christ who has secured
your salvation and look to Christ who has given you his righteousness
from whence you were hewn. Now then, secondly, he tells
us to look to the pit from whence we were digged. Look not only to the rock, who
has saved you, but he also commands you to look to the pit which
speaks to us of your human fleshly nature. Not only look to the
rock, but look to the pit, the hole of your corruption, the
vile nature you received from Adam. Look now into the abyss
of your own fallen nature from whence the Lord has brought you
and set you upon the rock. We are first made to feel the
darkness of this pit when the Lord first comes and works grace
in our hearts. Isn't that the first thing you
felt, believer, when the light of the gospel shined in? What
did you feel first? My guilt. My shame. I felt my woe. I saw the pit
of my sin. I saw a standing on the precipice
of hell looking down into the pit of my iniquity. That's the
first thing God ever teaches you. We saw this exceeding sinfulness
of our sin. We saw that in our flesh dwells
no good thing. We were exposed and naked before
God. And what did this do? What was
the result of this light? On the pit, it caused us to cry
out to God for mercy. That's what it did. Caused us
to look to the rock, didn't it? Isaiah 40 and verse 2, He brought
me up out of an horrible pit. out of the miry clay, and set
my feet upon a rock, and established my righteousness." Believer,
let us see God who has created us in the righteous nature of
Christ did not remove the old nature from us. This is a sad thing about religion
is they're always trying to fix up the old nature. They're trying
to cover the pit. They're trying not to expose
it, but rather to fill it in with dirt. They don't want to
see the pit. They don't want to look at it.
They'd rather just cover it up. God says for us to look at it. This is why Paul said of himself,
said, exhorted us to put off the old man. Now if you didn't
still have the old man, why would he say that? Why would he tell you to put
off something you don't have? That'd be foolish. He says put
it off because you still got it. And he says put on the new
man. So what do you have? You have
the old and the new man. Dwelling where? In your body. in your body. Paul said, In my flesh dwelleth
no good thing, O wretched man, that I am. Who shall deliver
me from the body of this death? Don't you know this? When those
Romans were doing this torture, they would take a man and sew
a rotten corpse, a dead body to to a fella until it rotted
off. I didn't know this until recently.
I always thought it was, you know, sewed around his neck or
his arms. Really, they sewed it around
his face. Why? So that he'd smell it. That is exactly how I feel about
my sin. It is a stench in my nostrils. It never goes away. At times, I imagine those prisoners,
a gust of wind may come and relieve them for a moment, but as long
as they had that corpse, it was always coming back. That's the same way it is with
you, believer. This rotten, stenching corpse is always in our nostrils. Why? Why did God do it? Have you asked the question,
why? How many times have you asked it? Why? Why leave me? Why has thou made me thus? Why
this dull and lifeless frame? Hardly could they be worse who
never knew his name. Is that not what you cried? Why? I'll tell you why. God did it
to humble you. God did it so that no weed of
pride should ever grow in the garden of grace. Surely, if we only look to Christ
and see the grace of God, but were not mindful of this old
flesh, what would creep in? If you only saw that you were
righteous in the eyes of God all the time, and you only saw
this, and you weren't mindful that you still had this corrupt
nature, what would come in? Well, look at me. Oh boy. Man, God must really love me
because Did this Surely that's the reason
I'm righteous obviously because oh no No, don't let that ever
creep in that's why God tells you not only look to the rock,
but also remember the pit Look to the pit to humble you So that
the weed of pride would not grow, surely our flesh would boast
of God's grace to us as though we had something to merit it,
something to do with it. Therefore, look to the pit and
say, who maketh thee to differ from another? Or what hast thou,
thou hast not received? And if you've received it by
grace, why do you boast like you've received it by merit?
Look to the pit. Believer, look to the pit of
your flesh and see the truth of your own wicked heart. And
as we grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ, the more we
will see the depth of our depravity. I know that people think that
believers just grow holy. That somehow we just get better. Obviously, they've never experienced
the grace of God. because the grace of God continually
abases us and exalts God. The more we grow in grace, the
deeper this pit becomes. Go ahead and go to Ezekiel chapter
36. I'm going to walk you through this and we'll close with this.
Ezekiel 36. Ezekiel 36 and look at verse
21. After speaking of all their sins
and iniquities, he said, But I had pity. Why did he have pity? For my
holy name, which the house of Israel profaned among the heathen,
whither they went. Therefore say unto the house
of Israel, Thus saith the Lord God. I do not this for your sakes,
O house of Israel, but for my holy name's sake, which you have
profaned among the heathen, whether you went. I will sanctify my
great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which you
profaned in the midst of them. And the heathen shall know that
I am the Lord, saith the Lord God, when I shall be sanctified
in you. First of all, you should praise
God for the surety of our salvation. Why? God said, I will. I had
pity. In verse 24 and verse 25, he
says, For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather
you from all the countries, and will bring you into a land, and
will sprinkle you with clean water upon you, and you shall
be clean from all your filthiness. From all your idols will I cleanse
you. A new heart will I give you,
a new spirit will I put within you, and I will take away the
stony heart out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
This is the salvation of God, that He would take us from the
pit and cleanse us. Give us a new
heart, a new life. Hewn us from the rock of righteousness
and make us in the image of Christ. This is the will of God for you. He says in verse 27, I will put
my spirit in you and you should cause you to walk in my statues
and keep my judgments and do them. And you shall dwell in
the land that I will give your fathers and you shall be my people
and I will be your God. What a wonderful, sure foundation
that is. The will of God. You will be,
you shall be my people and I will be your God. There's no question.
There's no ambiguity here. There's no variableness here.
I will and you shall. God is our God and we are His
people, chosen, redeemed, called and sanctified, justified. We are saved by the grace of
God through the blood of Christ. And He sent His Word into our
hearts saying, hearken unto me, hear my word. And in verse 30,
He said, I will multiply the fruit. Verse 29, I will save
you from all uncleanness. I will cull the corn and increase
it. What is that? The Word of God.
This Word that I'm preaching to you today. It is the Word
you feed on. It is the Word that nourishes
your soul. It gives you strength. And he says in verse 30, I will
multiply the fruit. These are the fruits of the Spirit.
Faith, hope, love, joy, peace, meekness, temperance. These are
the fruits He will. This is not questionable. He
will do it in His people. And notice what else he'll do.
What's the result of all this salvation and wonderful things
God said? What's the result of this? He said, then, verse 31, then
shall you remember all your goodnesses and all your good works and you
shall like yourself. Is that what it says? no you shall remember your evil your evil ways and your doings
that were not good and you shall loathe yourselves in your own
sight for your iniquities and abominations you shall loathe
yourselves This is the result of salvation. You will loathe
yourself. And I like this, in your own
sight. That's good news because it doesn't
say anything about God's sight. In God's sight, you're righteous. Not in your sight. in your sight
you will loathe yourselves." How often have you heard such
arrogance as though someone would say when somebody dies, oh, well,
heaven is a better place now that so-and-so's there. What
a load of crap. This is not what God causes his
people to think about themselves or others. Not to think more
highly of ourselves, but soberly, according as God has dealt every
man the measure of faith. How is it you have faith? God
dealt it. God gave it to you. God gave you your faith to look
to the rock. And by doing so, you also look
to the pit. We loathe ourselves. And so long
as we abide in this body of death, we shall groan and pine because
of it. Yet remember, as you loathe yourselves,
as you are afflicted by this, remember David said, it is good
that I have been afflicted. Isn't it good to be afflicted? Yeah, because when we look to
that pit that afflicts us, it causes us to flee to the rock
from whence we were hewn. You see that they both are necessary
for the believer to humble us and to lift us up. Listen to your God, hearken to
his voice. And He will comfort you in all
your afflictions. May God even do so now by His
power and grace. Let's stand. We'll be dismissed
in prayer.