Turn with me if you would to
Isaiah 40 where our brother just read. Isaiah chapter 40. I want to read one verse to you
and then I'll tell you what our subject is. Isaiah 40 verse 8. The grass withereth, the flower
fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand forever. The grass withereth. All flesh
is grass. And the grass is going to wither. And the flower is going to fade.
But the Word of our God shall stand forever. Shall. The Word of our God shall stand
forever. I want us to look today at the
shalls of God's Word. That's what I want us to look
at. I want to just bring our attention to the shalls of God's
Word. That's the title of our message,
the shalls God's Word. The things that God's Word declares
shall happen. I know that many of you did not
know a man named Henry Mahan, which is just mind-blowing for
me to say. And the reason I say that is
because the Lord used him. He was a true preacher of the
gospel. And the Lord used him very mightily. To many of us here, the Lord
used him to preach the truth of the gospel to us. And so many
of us here just thank the Lord. For what he did through that
man. But he started out as a young man lost in false religion. That's how he started out. And it wasn't until the Lord
sent a preacher to him named Ralph Barnard that he heard and came to know
the truth of the gospel. And he used to tell the story
all the time of how it happened. I can't tell you how many times.
I heard him tell this story and so many of you heard him tell
this story, but Henry was the song leader and he eventually
became the assistant pastor of a Southern Baptist Church in
Ashland, Kentucky in the 50s. This Southern Baptist Church
organization decided one year that they were going to have
a week-long tent meeting revival. The whole organization, the whole
South, the whole Southern states. Same week. And all the churches were supposed
to invite a guest speaker for the special meeting. And the
pastor of the church that Henry attended procrastinated and didn't
book a speaker. And when he finally got around
to doing it, there was nobody left. Everybody was taken all
the speakers, all the evangelists, you know, they were all booked.
And so this pastor started asking around, is there anybody? We
got to have somebody. He was asking everybody he could.
And one man finally said, well, there's a guy named Rolf Barnard,
but I don't know. And his pastor said, book him.
We got to have somebody. So the first night Barnard was
there. And if you know who he is, especially
if you've ever heard him. First time I heard him was on
a cassette tape, you know, and you can hear him on CD or on
the internet now, but I had him in my car. I had a cassette tape.
I put it in my car and I learned immediately, you got to have
your hand on the knob because he is, honestly, he is a very
calm and quiet speaker. He starts out very calmly and
slowly, just like this. And then all of a sudden he gets
loud. And it's just like, oh, you know, it hurts. You can't
hear him. And it scares you to death. And
he's just screeching. He's very screeching in his preaching.
So the first night, right in the middle of Barnard's message,
he was preaching the message. Henry was sitting on the front
row. Henry was 24 years old. Henry died in 2019 at 92, I think
it was. Anyway, Barnard looked at him and he
said, son, can you quote Romans 8, 28? And Henry said, I think I can.
He said, well, stand up and quote it. So Henry stood up and he
said, and we know that all things work together for good to them
that love God. And he sat down and Barnard looked at him and
he said, is that all? What's the rest of it? You know
the rest of it? Can you quote the rest of it?
Henry said, I think I can. He said, well, stand up and quote
the rest of it. So Henry stood up and he said, and we know that
all things work together for good to them that love God, to
them who are the called according to his purpose. The moment Henry
said the word purpose, Rolf Barnard started screaming at the top
of his lungs. ACCORDING TO HIS PURPOSE. And
to tell Henry tell the story would scare you to death too. But he looked at Henry and he
said, Son, if you ever learn something about God's purpose,
you will learn something about God and you will learn something
about the gospel. And I'm telling us all this morning,
If we ever learn something about the word shall, we will learn
something about God and we will learn something about the gospel. For that reason, I want us to
look at the shalls of God's Word. I want to shine the light on
the shalls and let us become aware of the shalls of God's
Word. Now I chose Isaiah 40 verse 8
to be our text, but I could have gone anywhere, anywhere in the
scripture. Because the word shall is in
6061 verses of scripture. And in many of those verses,
it's mentioned more than one time. It could be in here 10,000
times. Shall. That's the terminology of God.
SHALL. Look how many times it's said
right here in Isaiah 40. Look at verse 4. It says, Every
valley shall be exalted. And that's talking about the
deep, dark places of man's sin. All that's gonna be brought up.
Nothing's gonna go unnoticed. Every valley shall be exalted. And this is talking about the
pride and self-righteousness of man. Every mountain and hill
shall be made low. All flesh is gonna get cut down.
And the crooked shall be made straight and the rough places
plain, planed off. I love this. And the glory of
the Lord shall be revealed. And all flesh shall see it together,
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it." How do you know all
flesh shall see it together? How do you know the glory of
the Lord shall be revealed? Here's why. The mouth of the
Lord spoke it. The voice said, cry, and he said,
what shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the
goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field. What that's
saying is, what is man? Man thinks he's something when
he's nothing. Verse 7, THE GRASS WITHERETH, THE FLOWER FADETH,
BECAUSE THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD BLOWETH UPON IT. SURELY THE PEOPLE
IS GRASS. THE GRASS WITHERETH, THE FLOWER
FADETH, BUT THE WORD OF OUR GOD SHALL STAND FOREVER. Verse 10
says, BEHOLD THE LORD GOD WILL COME WITH STRONG HAND AND HIS
ARM SHALL RULE FOR HIM. BEHOLD HIS REWARD IS WITH HIM.
And that's His people and His work before Him, the salvation
of those people. Look at verse 11, He shall feed
His flock like a shepherd. That's good news. He shall gather
the lambs with His arm and carry them in His bosom and shall gently
lead those that are with young. Do we see how dogmatic that is? Do we see how that's not up for
debate? That is set in stone. These things
are set in stone. That's the wording of Scripture. That's God's Word. It is ordered,
it is sure, it is set in stone. God's Word is not up for men
to take it or leave it. God's Word is not dependent on
men to believe it. It's not. God's Word is not dependent
on men to believe it. Whether man believes it or not
is irrelevant. If God said that's how it shall
be, that's how it shall be. People have that old saying,
God said it, I believe it, that settles it. Hogwash. God said
it, that settles it. Whatever He says shall come to
pass, shall come to pass. And the declaration of what He
shall do is all over this book, and I love it. God's people love
it. Let me, just for clarity, just to see the difference here,
let me just tell you, the message of false religion, the false
message of false religion is, will you? If you want to know
if you're hearing a false message, a false religion, here it is.
Won't you? The true gospel message of God's
Word is, He shall. He has. He is. He shall. Look out at Isaiah 46. Isaiah
chapter 46. Isaiah 46 verse 9, it says, remember
the former things of old for I am God and there is none else. I am God and there is none like
me. Declaring the end from the beginning
and from ancient times, the things that are not yet done, saying
my counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure. calling a
ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth my counsel
from a far country, yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring
it to pass. I have purposed it, I will also
do it. He said, my counsel shall stand. If we ever learn something about
this word shall, we will learn something about God, And we will
learn something about the gospel. We will learn something of the
glory and the sovereignty and the authority and the surety
of the gospel of God's salvation. God's salvation. And that's what
I want us to see today that the prophecy of all the scripture
concerning Christ was he shall. That was the prophecy concerning
Christ. He shall. The gospel announcement of good
news is he did. He did. Now let's begin these shells
with a few shall nots. Okay. Turn with me to Isaiah
42. If your Bible is like mine, the
heading at the top of my page says, this is the office of Christ. This is the office of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And in verse one, God, the father
says, behold, my servant, speaking of Christ, behold, my servant, whom I uphold
mine elect. Do you know who the father chose? He chose Christ. He chose the
Lord Jesus Christ. He is the elect. We are only
elect in Him. God has an elect chosen people
in Christ. Ephesians 1 says, they were all
elect before the foundation of the world. Verse 1, God the Father
said, Behold My servant whom I uphold, Mine elect in whom
my soul delighteth, I have put my spirit upon him. He shall
bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not cry, nor lift up,
nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed
shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench. He
shall bring forth judgment unto truth." Now watch verse 4. He shall not fail. He shall not fail nor be discouraged
till he have set judgment in the earth and the isle shall
wait for his law. The Father said this work that
I've given him to do, he shall not fail in accomplishing it.
I wonder why so many people believe that he failed in what he came
to do. Really? I wonder why. I wonder why so many people believe
that salvation is not accomplished and it is up to them to finish
what Christ didn't finish. God the Father sent God the Son
to accomplish salvation for His people and He made the announcement
before Christ ever even came to do it, He shall not fail. And He didn't. Look at Isaiah 53. Our Lord declared that this is
what Christ would suffer on the cross to put away the sin of
His people. Isaiah 53 verse 2 it says, For
He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant. He shall be made
flesh, come into this world as an infant, grow up as a tender
plant, and as a root out of dry ground, he hath no form nor comeliness. And when we shall see him, there
is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected
of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we
hid, as it were, our faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed
him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten
of God, and afflicted." That's what we wanted. But He was wounded
for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities, the
chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes
we are healed. I love how even though this was
all written before Christ came, it was written in past tense.
Every bit of that was written in past tense. I wonder why it
was written in past tense. Because if God said He shall,
it's a done deal. He shall. When it says the Father
laid on Christ the iniquity of all of His people, He laid on
Christ all of the iniquity of all of His people. Verse 10 says,
Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him. God did this to Christ. He hath
put him to grief when thou shalt make his soul an offering for
sin. Now watch from this point right
here, okay? This is what Christ endured as
the offering for the sin of His people, the sacrifice of Himself.
This is what He accomplished in the sacrifice of Himself.
Verse 10 goes on to say, He shall see His seed, shall. He shall prolong days. His days, eternal life, He'll
accomplish it. And the pleasure of the Lord
shall prosper in His hand. He'll accomplish the will of
the Father. He shall see the travail of His soul and shall
be satisfied. By His knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many for He shall bear their iniquities. Therefore
will I divide him a portion with the great and he shall divide
the spoil with the strong because he hath poured out his soul unto
death and was numbered with the transgressors and bear the sin
of many and made intercession for the transgressors." Hope
comes from seeing he shall. He shall. And hope does not mean,
I hope, I, man, I just, I'm hoping, I really hope. Hope means expected
anticipation. And it comes from hearing God
shall. He shall. Now go with me to Matthew
chapter 1. I want to summarize the truth
of our salvation with three scriptures, three shalls, and then I'll be
done, okay? This is the truth. of our salvation. Here is the truth of salvation.
If anybody wants to know the truth of the salvation of God's
people, here it is. Matthew 1 verse 18, it says,
Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this When as his mother
Mary was espoused to Joseph before they came together, she was found
with child of the Holy Ghost, then Joseph, her husband, being
a just man and not willing to make her a public example, was
minded to put her away privately. But while he thought on these
things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in
a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take
unto thee Mary thy wife, FOR THAT WHICH IS CONCEIVED IN HER
IS OF THE HOLY GHOST. VERSE 21 SAYS, AND SHE SHALL
BRING FORTH A SON, AND THOU SHALT CALL HIS NAME JESUS, FOR HE SHALL
SAVE HIS PEOPLE FROM THEIR SINS. HE SHALL SAVE HIS PEOPLE FROM
THEIR SINS. CHRIST DID NOT TRY TO SAVE HIS
PEOPLE. If we ever get a hold of this,
we'll learn something about God and we'll learn something about
our salvation. We'll learn something about the gospel. Christ did
not try to save His people. Christ did not come to put a
down payment on saving His people. Christ did not come to show His
people how to be saved, how to save themselves. Christ came
into this world to save His people. And that's what He did. Salvation
is finished. It is finished. When Christ cried
from the cross, it is finished. It was finished. There's nothing
for us to do about it. There's nothing for us to do
with it. Well, now what are you going to do with it? What do
you mean, what am I going to do with it? It's finished. It's
not up to us to accept it. Well, now, are you going to accept
it? What do you mean? It's finished. It's not in our hands to reject
it or to ruin it or to undo it. It's finished. It's finished. I heard a man give a speech one
time. He called himself a preacher and he said, you know, that it
was a message, but he wasn't a preacher and it wasn't a message.
But in his speech he said, the two greatest things that we have
going against our salvation are the devil constantly getting
in the way and us constantly getting in our own way. Hogwash. That is not so. That kind of
talk is just so ridiculous. That kind of talk is so foolish.
When you're dealing with the shalls of God's Word, there's
no room for that. There is no room for that. God
said He shall save His people, and He did. He did. Christ saved His people. That's the first summary scripture of our salvation. All right, now go to John chapter
6 with me. Christ saved His people. Call
His name Jesus, He shall save His people. That's what He did. John chapter 6, verse 37, it says, Our Lord Jesus Christ said, All
that the Father giveth Me, shall come to me. And him that cometh
to me, I will in no wise cast out." That word will means shall. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. And him that cometh to me, I
shall in no wise cast out. They shall and I shall not. They shall come to me and I shall
not cast them out. When it comes to every soul that
Christ has saved, all of them are coming to him. All of them
are coming to him. All of them will receive faith
to believe on him. All of them will come begging
mercy from Him. All of them. You won't have to
beg one child of God to come to Him. They will all come begging
mercy from Him. All of them. People close their
church services sometimes, begging people to come. Just begging
people to come. Begging and pleading, please
come. They want them to come down here
for some reason. And they'll play the same song over and over
again. We're just going to keep playing the song until somebody
comes, you know, as though this is coming to Christ. This is
not coming to Christ. This is coming to that spot right
there. But anyway, they'll just keep, keep, keep going until
somebody finally breaks down and comes and then they'll, you
know, pat themselves on the back for the result of getting somebody
down here. That's not how it works. Not with God. When God says, come, His people
come. And they come to Him. When He says, come to Me, I'll
give you rest, they come to Him. Every soul that the Father gave
to Christ, the Father selected the souls and put them in the
hands of the Lord Jesus Christ. And every soul that the Father
gave to Christ shall come to Christ. Verse 44 says no man
can come except the Father which has sent Christ draw the soul
to Christ in the first place. But every soul that the Father
gave to Christ shall come to Christ and the promise of God's
Word is Christ shall not cast one of those souls out. If you
have a desire in your heart to come to Christ, come to the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's the Father drawing you
and you will not be cast out. I'm going to leave you with one
more shall, okay? We'll be done, but it's in two
locations. Find Acts chapter 1 and find
1 Thessalonians 4 and hold both of those spots. Acts chapter
1 and 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. This is the moment that our Lord
ascended back up to glory, all of His work here being finished. He was leaving to go back to
His Father. And in Acts chapter 1, verse
9, it says, When He had spoken these things, while they beheld,
He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight.
And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven, as he went up,
behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, which also
said, ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven?"
This same Jesus. WHICH IS TAKEN UP FROM YOU INTO
HEAVEN SHALL SO COME IN LIKE MANNER AS YOU HAVE SEEN HIM GO
INTO HEAVEN. HE SHALL SO COME. IN THIS SAME WAY, THIS SAME JESUS
IS COMING BACK. HE SHALL. HE SHALL COME BACK
TO GET YOU. IT'S GOING TO BE AT A TIME WHEN
YOU LEAST EXPECT IT. He shall come back for us. He is coming back. Look at 1
Thessalonians 4 verse 13. It says, but I would not have you to be
ignorant brethren concerning them which are asleep that you
sorrow not even as others which have no hope. For if we believe
that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep
in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you
by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain
unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. But the Lord himself shall descend
from heaven with a shout. And the voice of the archangel
and with the trump of God and the dead in Christ shall rise
first, then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up
together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and
so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore, comfort one
another with these words. Comfort one another with these
words. The Lord shall, that shall happen. If we ever get a hold
of that, true faith will come, true hope will come, because
the true gospel has come. The grass may wither and the
flower may fade, but this word from our God shall stand forever. Amen.