with me if you would back to
Isaiah 40. Isaiah 40, I selected that song
because I do, I've been looking at this and looking at this and
I don't just want to dive into it with you being unprepared
for what we're going to look at. I have the benefit of really
dwelling on things sometimes. And you don't get that benefit.
And I'll say something that has just touched me and it goes right
past us. And I don't want that to happen.
So ask the Lord to help you right now. Ask the Lord to give you
a real focus on what we're about to read here. Isaiah 40. Look
with me at verse 11. He shall feed his flock like
a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs with
his arm and carry them in his bosom and shall gently lead those
that are with young. Isn't that good? He, God, Father, Son, and Spirit. When we talk about God, we're
talking about Father, Son, and Spirit. He shall feed His flock,
His elect, His chosen sheep. God has an
elect people. Thank God. Thank God. God chose a people. Thank God. He shall feed His flock. Like a shepherd. Like a shepherd. Like a loving shepherd. In the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ, the fullness of God will be a shepherd to His people. You know, the shepherd doesn't
leave the flock. The shepherd loves that flock
and the shepherd's total care is that flock. He shall feed his flock like
a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs with
his arm with Christ. The holy arm of God. The holy
arm of God. God drew his people near to himself. I'm always praying, we're always
crying, Lord, draw near to us, draw us near to you. Draw nigh
to God, he will draw nigh to you. Draw me nearer. Draw me. If I'm going to draw
nigh, you're going to have to draw me. He drew his people near
to himself with his holy arm. with Christ. The Lord made bare
His holy arm, Isaiah 52 says. Where did He do that? On the
cross of Calvary. He gathered His lambs on the
cross of Calvary. He gathered His lambs. He gathered
the sin of His lambs. When he gathered his lambs, he
gathered the sin of his lambs. When he brought his lambs to
himself, he brought the sin of those lambs to himself. When
he carried his lambs in his bosom, he carried the sin of his lambs
in his bosom. He bore our sin in his body on
the tree. He bore our griefs. When He gathered,
when He carried, when He bore, He bore our griefs and carried
our sorrows. Aren't we so glad to know that? We still do, but we don't need
to bear our griefs and carry our sorrows. We still do, but
He bore them for us. He carried our sin. He carried
the weight of it. You know, things are so weighty
in life. Everything is so weighty. Every decision is so weighty.
He carried the weight. The weight of our sin, he carried
the punishment of our sin, he carried the penalty of our sin.
Though we were far from him, he bore the stripes. And shed the blood. that brought
us near. That's what brought us near.
That's what brought us near to God. Now made nigh by his blood. He gathered us, he carried us,
and the promise of his word is that his spirit is going to gently
lead us all the way home. I need that. I need that. I need to know that every now
and then I tell you that I have a message for me and this is
one of them. This one tonight is a message
for me. I need personally to know that I need to hear that. I need to know that as he carried
everything and bore everything, he will carry everything, bear
everything and lead me all the way home. I need to know that.
I need to hear that. I need to hear that again. I
need my shepherd. I need the shepherd who loved me
and gave himself for me. I need Christ. I need Christ. I need Christ to feed me. That's what I need tonight. That's
what you need tonight. I encourage you to ask him to
do so because we need it. Lord, I need you to feed me.
I need Christ to feed me. I need Christ to gather me. You
know what we sheep are prone to do? prone to wander. Lord, we feel it physically,
mentally, emotionally. It's all we do is wander, wander,
wander. Lord, I need you to gather me.
I need you to carry me. I need Christ to lead me and I
need Christ to stay right with me the rest of my days on this
earth. I need the Lord Jesus Christ
to be with me the rest of my days on this earth. I haven't
been able to get this song out of my head all week. And Lord
willing, we're going to sing it. We'll close the service with
this. But the song says, I need thee. Oh, I need thee. Every hour, I need thee. Oh, bless me now, my Savior,
I come to thee. Bless me with what? Your presence,
your voice, your touch, your Spirit, bless me. I come to Thee. I need Thee.
I need Thee. Desperately. We all have moments
when in a stronger way than normal, we need the Lord. We always need
the Lord. But we all have moments when
in a much stronger way than normal, we need the Lord. I mean, we
need the Lord and only the Lord. We all have moments. Sometimes we know why we urgently
feel this way. Sometimes we don't. You know
what I'm talking about? Sometimes we can clearly see
what is forcing us to Christ. Sometimes we just can't put our
finger on it. We don't know what it is, but
usually it comes from some form of desperation. True need is a desperate need. If it's true need. It's a desperate
need, it's a. It's desperation, if it's true,
true need. It's urgent need. It's right
now need like when Peter. Was walking on the water, got
out of the ship, he asked the Lord if he could come out there
and. The Lord said come and he started walking and. The wind
and the waves were boisterous and he was prone to wander, so
he did. And all of a sudden he goes down
and he cried, Lord, save me. Lord, save me. What he meant
was right now. It's your business. You save
me when you want to save me. But my cry to you is asking right
now. Desperation, true need right
now. I need you right now. There's
an old story that I heard, and this just really touched me because
I enter into the main character of this story. I very much enter
into the main character of this story. It's a story of a farmer
who was working in his field, and he heard a big commotion
behind him, so he turned around, and running straight at him,
was a little fawn, a baby deer, running straight at him. And
this little baby deer was running for his life because there was
a pack of dogs after him. And they were gaining on him.
They were right on his heels. And at the last minute, that fawn
leaped and jumped into the arms of that farmer. And that farmer said, I just
could not turn away that fawn's desperate need. And the farmer
fought off the pack of dogs. And everything calmed down. And that little fawn was very
happy and peaceful to just stay right there. That fawn didn't
want to go anywhere. And that farmer created peace
and finally put him down and said, okay, buddy, you're free
to go. And that little fawn didn't go
anywhere. Stayed right with the farmer. He followed that farmer
around wherever that farmer went. That's what Christ has done for
us. That's what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for us. Turn
with me, if you would, to Colossians chapter one. Colossians 1 verse 12, it says,
giving thanks unto the Father which hath made us meet to be
partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. Verse
13 says, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, the
hounds of hell that were about to take us down. Verse 13, who
hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated
us into the kingdom of his dear Son." Delivered us to Him. Delivered us by Him. That's what
happened to us. We were delivered to Him. We
were delivered by Him. He's our deliverance. He's our
deliverer. Turn with me to 1 Thessalonians
1. First Thessalonians 1 verse 10 says, and to wait for his son
from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered
us from the wrath to come. That's exactly what happened
to that little phone. He was delivered from the wrath
that was about to come to Him. That is such a picture of us.
That is such a picture of us. We were delivered from the wrath
of judgment against our sin. We were delivered from the wrath
of hell's eternal condemnation, eternal death. How? How? The strength of our Savior,
that's Al. The strength of our Savior, the
might and the ability of our Savior. He had to fight that
battle for us. And that's what he did. The wrath
of judgment came to him. Not us, came to him. The wrath
of condemnation came to him. He victoriously fought it all
off, every bit of it. He won the battle. He calmed
everything down. He made peace for us, set us
free. What do we now do in return?
After all that, what do we do in return? What's our response
to all of that? We strive as hard as we can to
stay right by His side and follow Him wherever He goes. Wherever
He goes. We know He loved us. He saved
us. Therefore, we love Him. We need
Him. We want to be with Him. I need
Thee. Oh, I need Thee. Every hour, I need Thee. Oh,
bless me now, my Savior. I come to Thee. I come running
to Thee. I want to jump into the arms
of Thee. Now, here's a promise from our
Savior to His sheep And I pray this promise will be a comfort
to us. Look with me at 2 Corinthians 1. 2 Corinthians 1 verse 9, it says, But we had the sentence of death
in ourselves that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God,
which raises the dead. Verse 10 says, who delivered
us from so great a death and doth deliver in whom we trust
that he will yet deliver us. who delivered us from so great
a death and doth deliver in whom we trust that he will yet deliver
us. We are all constantly going through
things that we need to be delivered from, all of us. And for God's
people, the promise of our Savior is as he hath delivered us from
our eternal destruction, As He delivered us, He has in our great
moment of eternal need, He does and He will deliver us in every
moment of need that we have from that point forward. Every moment
of need that we have. God's people can lean on His
everlasting arm. It's true. It's true. We can prove Him on this. God's
people can lean on his everlasting arms. Every time we're afraid,
every time we're in trouble, God's people can run and jump
into the loving, saving arms of the Lord Jesus Christ, just
like that fawn. I like that little guy. I really
do enter into him. The fear, the trouble, There's somewhere we can run.
There's someone we can jump to. The arms of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Isaiah 53 verse 1 says, To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? If the arm of the Lord has been
revealed to us, the arm of the Lord Jesus Christ, the strength,
the work, the power, the might, the ability, the sovereignty,
the salvation, the everything, the everything. If the salvation of Christ has
been revealed to us, the saving strength of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the arm of the Lord, We can run to Him. We can cast our all on
Him, leaping, landing in the safety of His arms. Now just listen to these scriptures. I won't have you turn to these,
but you can write them down if you want to, read them later.
Deuteronomy 33 verse 27 says, the arms of our Lord are everlasting
arms. They are everlasting arms. If we are caused to cast our
all into his arms, if we're caused to run to him, it's only because
He drew us to Him. No man can come to Him except
the Father which hath sent Him draw a man or a woman to Him.
So if we are caused to come to the Lord Jesus Christ, if we
are caused to run to the Lord Jesus Christ and caused to cast
our all into His arms, we are casting our all into everlasting
arms, everlasting arms. Psalm 77 verse 15 says the arms
of our Lord are redeeming arms. That means price paying arms,
price paying in full, pay the price in full arms. It goes on to say for the sons
of Jacob and Joseph, for the sinner, for the sinner, for the
sons of Jacob, sinners in need, needy sinners. Psalm 89 verse
10 says the arms of our Lord are arms of strength. Verse 13 right there says they
are arms of might. Verse 21 Psalm 89 verse 21 say
says they are arms of encouragement, strengthening encouragement for
God's people who need it. They are arms of encouragement.
If you need encouragement, You need a place to land. You need
some strength. You need someone who can fight
your battle. I love this. Isaiah 33 verse
two says, the arms of our Lord are faithful. They're faithful. Turn over to that one. Go over
to Isaiah 33. Isaiah 33, verse 2, it says, Oh Lord, be
gracious unto us. We have waited for thee. Be thou
their arm every morning. Our salvation also in the time
of trouble. Be our salvation every morning. Be our salvation every morning. When did you get saved? Today. Today. Right now. I need thee
right now. Every single morning, we need
it every morning, just like mercy. We need it every morning. Thank
God we have it every morning. It's new every morning. The arms
of His mercy, the arms of His compassion, they are wide open
every single morning to His sheep, to His sheep. Great is His faithfulness. Great is His faithfulness. Everlasting,
redeeming, victorious, Mighty, strengthening, faithful, and
Isaiah 40 says, ruling over all. Turn with me over there to Isaiah
40. Verse 9 says, O Zion that bringest good tidings,
Get thee up into the high mountain, O Jerusalem, that bringest good
tidings. Lift up thy voice with strength. Lift it up. Be not afraid. Say unto the cities of Judah,
behold your God. Behold, the Lord God will come
with strong hand and his arm shall rule for him. That's Christ. This arm is Christ. Behold, his
reward is with him, that's his people, and his work before him. That's their salvation. He shall
feed his flock like a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs with
his arm and carry them in his bosom. and shall gently lead
those that are with young. If you need the Lord your God,
you can run to him. And I want to, I just want to
like stop the press for one second and just really get this across
for one second. We hear something like this and
think, what does that even mean? We hear something like this and
you think, yeah, I'm constantly in need, but here I am on earth,
here I sit in this life I live, you know. Sincerely, if you need the Lord
your God, you can run to him. You can jump into his arms. You can, I picture this little
fawn just casting his all into these arms. You can cast your
all into the arms of the Lord Jesus Christ. You can fall into
his arms and he will catch you. He will catch you. How do we
do that? How does a sinner do that? How
does a soul in true desperate need do that? We do it with the
heart. We do it by faith. We do it by
looking to Him and seeing Him as our shepherd, who He is. Hearing
His promise, believing His promise, believing Him. We do it in love. We do it by loving Him, needing
Him, looking to Him, believing on Him, trusting Him, loving
Him, needing Him. Every morning, every hour of
every day, every time we need Him, we can fall into His arms
right here. We can cast our all into His
arms and He'll catch us. Run to Him. Run to Him. Leap to Him. He'll catch you.
He'll save you every time. And He will in no wise turn you
away. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. And I will in no wise cast Him
out. Any sinner who He sees running to Him in true desperate need,
casting their all on Him, He will not turn them away. He'll
catch you. Thank God for the loving arms
of the Lord Jesus Christ.