as the past. I hope I can't forbid that nothing
shall be forgotten. This shall be bright again. Be still, still know his voice who ruled
while he dwelt below." I like that last line of that second
verse. The waves and winds still know
his voice who ruled them while he dwelt below. Alright, Isaiah chapter 30. Wow, reading 2 Peter last week, using a couple of verses for last week's message. These verses here, let me read
them to you from 2 Peter 3, verse 9. The Lord is not slack
concerning his promise, as some men count slackness, or because
it's been a long time. But he's longsuffering to us,
not willing that any should perish, that any of us, that's what he's
talking about, but that all should come to repentant. And right across the page is
this verse, accounts. He says, Brethren, beloved, accounts. We're taken to account that the
longsuffering of our Lord is salvation. He says, take that
into account, consider that, that's what that means. Consider
that. You need to know that the long
suffering of our Lord is salvation. Then he goes on to say, even
as our brother Paul, according to wisdom given unto him, hath
written you, and that's when he's referring over to Romans
2.4. John, where he says, Do ye despise
the riches of his goodness, or forbearance, or longsuffering? Know ye not that the goodness
of God be the fee to repent him? His forbearance, his longsuffering,
his salvation. Salvation, he says, consider
that. All right, here in Isaiah chapter
30, we're going to see this. It speaks of God's long-suffering
with sinners, as so much of the Scriptures do. We read, Henry,
we read Psalms like 104, 107 that talk about the children
of Israel and all they did and how the Lord put up with them.
And they got in a mess and they cried unto Him and He heard them.
And then they fell back in and they cried and He heard them
and so on. Well, this story is similar to
that, but it represents many people. I don't know where
you came from. I don't know if you came out
of religion. Some of you I do. Or the gutter. And there's not
much difference. There isn't any difference. They're
both lost. One's just moral lost and one's immoral lost. But that's
what this story represents, either of those two or both. Let's dive right in. Isaiah 30,
verses 1 and 2, "'Woe to the rebellious children,' saith the
Lord, that take counsel, but not of me." They take counsel
or advice. And men and women listen to advice
somewhat. The folks, the world, folks in
this world at least, they esteem the thoughts of men more highly
than the Word of God. That's the reason there's so
many, I guess there's so many psychic hotlines now, or psychiatrists,
you know, that's a big, big business. One word of note on that profession. Psychiatrist. You know what the
leading profession, the profession that leads in suicide more than
any other? Psychiatrist. If you want to
go to somebody like that, be my guest. They take counsel,
but not of me. I reject God's Word. Read on. They cover with a covering. but not of my spirit. They add sin to sin. That's what
they do. A cover. I think this represents
religious covering. Look back at chapter 28. Brother
Rick and I were looking at this a few minutes ago. Religion is a refuge for people. It's a covering. People take
cover or take refuge in religion, don't they? It's kind of a... People feel guilty. They start feeling some kind
of guilt feeling. They acknowledge that they've
done wrong or whatever, need to straighten up and so forth.
And religion kind of becomes a guilt covering. And they get in and they clean
up and they get to feeling good about themselves, you know. But
it's a refuge of lies. It's a covering of morality.
Now, let's look at this here. Isaiah 28. He says in verse 15, "...and
made a covenant with death, and with hell their agreement. Overflowing
with scourge shall pass through, and it won't come nigh unto us."
Why? We've made our profession. I was baptized to join a church. You cannot convince anybody that's
made one of these decisions for Jesus or been baptized. You can't
convince them that they're not saved. No way. Right, Joe? I mean, buddy, they're as confident
of themselves that they're saved, and they don't know the gospel.
And they say, it won't come to us. I'm saved and assured for
heaven as if I was already there. We've made lies our refuge. They
don't say that, but they have. Under falsehood have
we hid ourselves. Another Jesus, another false
religion. Look at what God says here. Thus
saith the Lord God, verse 16 and 17. I lay in Zion for a foundation,
a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. Now, if you believe, that's who
you'll be looking to. That's who you'll be resting
on. That's who you'll be standing on. Not your refuge of lies,
not your profession, not your baptism, but on that rock. Because
God says in verse 17, I'm going to lay the line of judgment,
I'll lay the line of righteousness to plummet. Everybody's going
to be judged. And this is what they preached
over in Acts, where he said, God has appointed a day in which
he'll judge all men by that man whom he hath ordained. And he's either going to judge
us standing right beside Christ to see how we measure We're going to be found hidden
in Him. He's not going to see us at all.
We're going to be covered. We're going to be in Him. Rick,
I built a tractor shed the other day. Went down and cut some cedar
posts down and rough lumber. And you know how that rough lumber
is. Well, you know how store-bought lumber is. I had to do it. I had to build it out of what
I could. Now, don't come over to my house and put the plumb
bob on it, please. All right? I've got to level,
and how do you level a cedar post? Or plumb a cedar post? You stick your knots all over
it, and you try to stick a level on it? So don't do that. It's not going
to be plumb, and it's not square and level and so forth. But God
says about every person's refuge, every person's religion, everyone's
profession, he's going to lay it to the line and to the plummet. In another place he said, it
shall be perfect to be accepted. And we just read that in that
last version in Psalm 62. He's going to judge every man
according to his Who's work? Who's work do you want to be
judged by? Hmm? Joe, you want to be judged by
your work or his work. That's what it means. I ought
to just close about it. That's what it means. That's
what the gospel means. That's what the gospel means.
Stan, that's verse one. I'm going to try to get through
this chapter. Let's get to the next verse,
all right? Isaiah 30. Make cover with a covering. Now,
I wanted to get down there to Isaiah 28. It says in verse 20,
the bed's shorter than a man can stretch himself on it, and
the covering narrower than he can wrap himself in it. It won't
cover. It won't cover. Only one thing
will cover. the righteousness of Jesus Christ. The only thing
that will cover our naked, sinful souls before they all see an
eye of God is blood. The only thing he can't see through,
Joe, is blood. But he can see right through
our profession and our this and that and the other. All right,
the next verse here in Isaiah 30. They walk, go down to Egypt,
having asked of my mouth, strengthen themselves in the strength of
Pharaoh, trust in the shadow of Egypt. Egypt has always represented
the world. All through the Bible, whenever
it speaks of Egypt, New Testament especially, you just think of
the world. Egypt represents the world with
its riches, its power, its wealth, its wisdom, its philosophy. Egypt
was the cultural capital at that time. You know, if you wanted
to go somewhere and be somebody, go to Egypt. And Egypt represents
the world. Well, there ain't nothing in
Egypt for the people of God. There's no wisdom there. There's
no true riches there. No honor. People put great stock
in this world, though, don't they? Huh? Oh, yeah. All these news shows and what
have you, you know, it's just about the most popular thing
going today. They trust in Egypt. They look
for their strength in modern technology and so forth. Read
on. The strength of Pharaoh will
be your shame. If you trust in the shadow of
Egypt, you'll be confused right along with it. This world doesn't
have any answers. Like I said, that's why there's
so many shrinks. The shrinks go to a shrink, probably. They don't have any answers.
They're in confusion. It used to be an old rock and
roll song, A Ball of Confusion. That's what it is. That's what
it is. Oh, my. The strength of Egypt. Look down at verse 7. He says
that the Egyptians shall help in vain. And you know religion
is headed in the direction of the world, isn't it? It's there. What do I mean headed? It's there.
It's modern religion that's going on today, has catered to the
world, and it's there. But there's no help there. He
says the Egyptians' help is in vain. Worldly religion is in
vain. Look at this next line, to no
purpose. Religion's help is in vain. There's no comfort in religion
today. No comfort at all. Why? Because there's no purpose. Or
in other words, they don't have a God who does anything on purpose. If you believe that God loves
you and doesn't want you to be sick or your children to be sick,
Jenny, how could you have any comfort in what's going on with
Isaac? When you be filled with... First of all, they'd make you
think you don't have enough faith. Right? There's no comfort there.
You can never have enough faith. Something goes wrong, it's something
wrong with your faith. Right? No purpose. That God doesn't
want this to happen. Then why is it? Because he's
no God at all. He doesn't do anything on purpose.
He's just kind of standing back idly, just, and the world's just
going haywire, and he just, he can't do anything. His hands
are tied. He has no hands. Boy, that helps him bane, doesn't
it? Doesn't that bane help? Do you
find any help in that? Why? No purpose. No purpose. But if you learn Romans 8.28,
one word in that verse, you'll learn something about the God
of the Bible, like old Barnard used to say, purpose. That's about how he'd say it,
about 200 decibels louder. Purpose. God does all things
on purpose. Learn something about A God who
does all things on purpose, and you'll have some peace. And no
matter what happens, you can say with Job, well, he can slay
me. I'll trust him. He knows what he's doing. He's
the one that did it. Read on. Verse 8. He says, I've written a book.
Write it before them in a table. Note it in a book that it may
be for the time to come, forever and ever. Write it in a book. You know, everything that man
has ever said, ever done, ever will say or ever will do, God
says he's said it and will do it. It's nothing new under the
sun. Nothing new. And man hasn't changed. Men are still practicing the
same mistakes that they did in the first century. When it comes to that, men haven't
changed. Still practicing the same mistakes,
doing the same thing. If men would just consult God's
Word, they'd see. Read on. Verse 9 says, This is
a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the
law of the Lord. This is the book that men reject,
and they're rejecting it now more than ever. Now more than ever, there's an
all-out war and assault on the Word of God. It's archaic. Anybody would dare to believe
this old book here is absolutely a fool. Well, I say, the Scriptures say,
the fool has said no God, and the fool has said there is no
word of God. And they repeat the same things
as the generation before them. They refuse it. Verse 9, they
will not hear the law of the Lord. As I said, men place great
value in the words of man more than God, even in religion. Even in religion, if you go by the average church bulletin
board, how many times do you see a verse of Scripture on a
church bulletin board? Let me ask you this. Have you
ever seen it? I know there's one, but you have to go 300 miles
to see it. It's in Asheville, Kentucky.
And it's a double-sided billboard, and it's got one on both sides,
so you can see it coming and going. A verse of Scripture. Joe, that tells you what this
world thinks of God's Word, doesn't it? Of all the thousands of words
in God's Word, infinite wisdom and the power of God's Word Scripture says the Word of God
is quick, powerful, sharper than a two-edged sword, able to do
anything, pierce the dividing of the soul and the spirit. It's not good enough for their
church, glory to the Lord. They reject it. Darn it, reject
it. Not good enough. We're living
in a modern society. See, they don't understand. That's
exactly right. They don't understand. Hmm. Rebellious people. Read on. Verse 10. They say to
the seers, See not, to the prophets, prophesy not unto us right things,
speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits, get out of
the way of the old way, turn aside out of the path of the
old path. Not that old-fashioned preaching
for us. Look at this. Cause the Holy
One of Israel to cease from us. None of this talk. About a holy
God, I told you this before, but wrote an article for the
newspaper on the holiness of God. The holiness of God. And the preacher that followed
up my article, the next week, it's obvious that he was taking
a pot shot at it. Because he said in that article,
and nobody would have caught it but me, But he said, now everybody
knows about the moral purity of God. He said, that's not the point.
And you know what he probably went on to talk about. God loves
everybody. It's plain that that fellow doesn't
know anything about the holiness of God because it's a lot deeper
than moral purity. It has something to do with him
being a consuming fire. That holy, all this talk about
the holy God and the just God and so forth, out the window
of that. All this talk of sovereignty. Prophesy smooth things. Turn over quickly, 1 Kings chapter
22. 1 Kings chapter 22. You will enjoy this because I
did. 1 Kings 22. You remember the story of Elijah,
don't you, before all those prophets of Baal? You remember that story? Well, if you don't, Elijah was
a true prophet of God. Ahab was king at the time, and
Ahab had a bunch of his hirelings, his prophets. And Elijah told
him to line up all his prophets, and it ended up being 850 of
them, 400 prophets 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets
of the grove, 850 prophets. And how many true prophets? One. That's some ratio. The ratio
is greater or less. It's about one in 850,000 now.
That's true. But remember what happened there.
Elijah was the only one. Remember he started poking fun
at their God? I love that. That's chapter 18. He said, cry
louder, man, he can't hear you. And they were cutting themselves.
Sounds just like one of these charismatic church meetings.
You know, cutting themselves, jumping up and down, dancing
and all. He said, louder, he's taking a visit. Look it up sometime
and see what that meant. Look it up. It means he had to
go to the John. Oh, Elijah was making fun of
them. I love that. Scripture doesn't
miss words. Well, here's another fellow here
in 1 Kings 22, a fellow named Micaiah. Micaiah was his name. Read verses through 8, when the
king of Israel gathered prophets together, about 400 men, and
he said unto them, now he wanted to go take this land that he
thought belonged to Israel. He wanted to take this country,
and somebody else had it at the time. And he inquired of his
prophets. It took 400 of them. 400, he said, Shall I go against Ramoth
Gilead to battle, or shall I stay forbear? They said, Go up, the
Lord shall deliver it into the hand of the king. And another
king now, this is Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, he said, he and
Ahab were together, and Jehoshaphat said, Is there not here a prophet
of the Lord? Is there a prophet of the Lord
besides that we might inquire of him? I hear what these four
hundred, I hear what all these other fellows are saying. And they're all in agreement,
saying the same thing, you know. Oh Lord, you have a wonderful
thing, do it. Yeah, take it, claim it, it's
yours. And this Jehoshaphat had a little
sense, he said, maybe we ought to inquire of a fellow who's
inquiring of God. Look at verse 8, and the King
of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, There is one man, Micaiah, the
son of Imlod, by whom we may inquire of the Lord, but I hate
him. He does not prophesy good concerning me, but evil. He's
got nothing good to say about me, or anybody. I hate him. Don't call him. Look
at verse 13 and following. The messenger went to call Micaiah,
and spake unto him, and said, Behold now the words of the prophets.
They said, Declaring good unto the king with one mouth. Everybody
said, Agreement! You know, we all agree it's touching
in one thing. Let my words, I pray thee, be
like the word of this. Speak what's good, Micaiah. Now
don't go down there and cause trouble. Don't go down there
and preach sin. Don't go down there and preach
to just God and a righteous and holy God who's angry with Micaiah
said, verse 14, "'As the Lord liveth, whatever the Lord saith.'"
That's what I'm going to say. Well, he came down and preached,
and look at verse 17. He says, this is what's going
to happen to you all. "'I saw Israel scattered on the
hill, the sheep, but have not the shepherd.' The Lord said,
These have no master, let them return every man to his house
in peace.' The King of Israel said, Jehoshaphat did not tell
you that he would prophesy no good, but I told you he didn't
tell us what we wanted to hear. He didn't tell us what we wanted
to hear. In verse 23 and 24, and this is what Micaiah said
about the rest of those fellows. He said, The Lord hath put a
lying spirit in the mouth of all these dark prophets. The
Lord hath spoken evil concerning thee. And Zedekiah, son of Jananani,
went near and smote Micaiah on the cheek, slapped him on the
face, and they put him in prison and said, Get him out of here.
We don't want to hear what he has to say." Well, don't you know everybody
out there is telling everybody how much God loves them? All
preachers are telling everybody that. They're all of one accord
and one voice in this thing that good, something good's going
to happen. God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your
life. All you've got to say is God's holy and just and angry
with the wicked and men are sinners and better beg for mercy and
God might have mercy and doesn't have to. Nobody's saying that
but you. Whatever God says, that's what
we want to say. You remember over in Isaiah or
Jeremiah 23 where it says there that, are you listening? In Jeremiah 23 there is a verse
that says, God said, they say unto them that despise me, people
that hate God, the God of the Bible, they say to them, no evil
shall befall you. They say, God loves you, in fact,
and everything's okay. And then God says in the next
verse, who heard me say that? Who stood in my counsel and heard
me say that? Where did these preachers get
all this talk? How could they have the audacity to go out and
tell people God loves them and Christ died for them when the
Word doesn't say that? Now, I can say that God loves
all those who are in Christ. I can say that Christ died for
His people, not everybody, but for His sheep. I can say that. And if you're one of His sheep,
then He died for you and God loves you. But if you're not,
you're going to hell lickety-split. Whatever God doesn't say, we're
not going to say it. Well, look back at the text in
Isaiah 30. I say 30. And he says in verse 13, verse
12, Thus saith the Holy One of Israel. I want you to notice
how many times he says the Holy One of Israel, the Holy One of
Israel. He says it in verse 11, in verse 12, in verse 15. Well, that's at least Three times,
understand? Should have known. Three times.
Holy One of Israel, because you despise this Word and trust in
oppression, fraud, and perverseness, and stay there on, or stay with
it, in it, this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to
fall. In other words, this wall is going to come tumbling down. This whole religious thing is
going to come tumbling down someday. It's not going to be one stone
standing on another. Aren't they? Men are still glorying
in temples made with hands, aren't they? Look at our church. Well, we're erecting a big place
for Jesus. You're not going to be left with
one stone standing on another. But I tell you who will be left
is those standing on the stone. Standing on the rock. There's
only one rock that won't be moved, and that's what we read while
we go in. The Lord is my rock and my defense. I'll not be Verse 15, "'Thus saith the Lord
God, the Holy One of Israel, in returning and rest shall ye
be saved.'" This religious world wants to
do something for Jesus, don't it? Jesus doesn't need it doing
something for Him. That's the whole problem. What
men don't need is the Lord Jesus Christ to do something for them. Didn't God say in His Word, didn't
this what the Word of God said, if I was hungry I wouldn't ask
you? Didn't He say that? Oh, God needs our
money, send in your money for the Lord's work. Right, all the
silver and the gold and the mines are His, the Scripture says.
All the silver and the gold and the mines. Well, how's our ministry going
to survive if you don't send in your money?" I'll tell you
how the Lord made his survive. He said, go down to the ocean
there and cast a hook. And the first fish that comes
up, there'll be a corn in its mouth. It didn't even touch man's
hands. Nobody gave it. A fish gave it. Power belongs to the Lord. The
TV broadcast that my church that I grew up in has
on TV has been going on for, let's see, 1974 or 5, 20-some
years. It started out costing about
$800 a week. Now it's up to... It's astronomical,
what it's called. Astronomical. And it's never
once in 20-some odd years has asked for money from anybody.
Not once. You'd be hard-pressed to turn
on the TV one time and see some fellow not ask for money every
time. That's the close of their program.
Oh, it says here, rest, returning and rest. When you return, that
means you turn from something to something else. Turn, returning,
turning. Turn from religion or idols and rest. Quit working for salvation. You'll be saved. Look back at
verse 7. You thought I'd forgotten it,
didn't you, John? You thought I'd just skipped right over that,
didn't you? Verse 7 says, the last line,
their strength is to sit still. That's the reason not much salvation
going on today is nobody's sitting still long enough. You can't
hardly listen too well if you're up and moving around and carrying
on, can you hear me? Huh? You can't listen too well.
If you sit still and open the Bible and a man stands up and
declares the Word of God, you just might hear something say
to you. Men are too busy. Sit still. That's your strength.
That's your strength, people. What's your name there with the
red hair? Your strength of mind, of purpose,
faith, is to sit right here and hear
this gospel Sunday after Wednesday. That way, now, if you hear this,
the truth, and have the truth keep pounded and pounded and pounded
home to you to where you're grounded and settled in the truth. When
some good-looking preacher comes along, not like me, but some good-looking
huckster and sounds good, you'll not be moved. You'll say, oh,
he's a flash in the pan. And you'll be listening, and
you won't be looking. You can't trust what you say.
You'll be listening from middle C. Middle C. Isn't that right? Your strength is to sit still
and hear this gospel time and time again, become grounded What
we're doing here is pouring cement around your feet. That's what I want to do. Pour
cement and keep watering it, bag after bag, week after week,
until you can't be moved. You're not moving me away from
my hope. This is my hope. The Lord is
my rock and my defense. I will not be moved. Well, everybody
else is going after, I'm not moving. Isn't that right? That's right. Well, in quietness
and in confidence, John, hold fast the beginning of your confidence,
steadfast to the end. That'll be your strength. That'll
be your strength. But some say, no, verse 16, no. No, we'll flee. We'll flee. I
got it quick. Verse, I didn't, here's my text.
Verse 18. And this was some of us, some
of us, you know, I sat and heard the gospel. I mean, what you're hearing from
me, I sat as a young man, like Brandon over there, like Andrew,
and I became the prodigal son. Right after just about your age,
Brandon, 17, took off, left home. Can't wait to get out from under
my cruel, tyrannical parents. They sit me in church all the
time. I'm going to get out and be my
own man. I'm about to kill myself. But for the mercy and grace of
God, and literally lay in a ditch.
But what I'm trying to say is I heard this gospel growing up.
Just like you, Andrew, I sat under the gospel from a boy,
an infant, a toddler. And I heard it, and I heard it.
I want out. And when it comes time, I'm getting
out. Bless God, I wasn't out. I was in. I was out for a while,
like the prodigal son. And I said, No, I don't want
that. I remember telling somebody that
I can disprove this preaching. My father had been preaching
for years. Got smarter than my father, smarter
than God. I told you about how smart I
got and I'd sit on my roof cross-legged and gaze at my navel. That's wisdom. That's enlightenment.
You didn't know that, Jill? Well, it is. That's enlightenment. Enlightenment. And to hum. It's funny, isn't it? Well, I
thought I was well above even my peers, let alone my father
and God's Word, the Bible. I heard all this, and I said,
No. That's old-fashioned stuff. That's just what Mom and Dad
made me hear, and I'm above that now. But God. Look at verse 18. That's what
this means. Therefore will the Lord wait, that he may be gracious
unto you." That's what that means. Now,
it doesn't mean here that God's waiting on us to do something. That doesn't mean that. It doesn't
mean He's waiting on us to turn, waiting on us to change, waiting
on us to make a decision. That's what religion says. God's
waiting on you. He's done all He can do, you
know. He's waiting on you. Make your decision. Exercise
your free will. That's not what that's saying,
because God's Word doesn't say that. God's Word says it's not
of the will of the flesh nor the will of man. God's Word says
it's not of him that willeth or of him that runneth. God's
Word says it is God which worketh in us both to will and to do
of his good pleasure. What this means is God's waiting
on his time. God's waiting on his purpose,
on his appointed time in the future, if he has indeed appointed
a time in which we will come and hear the gospel. See, I was
really just kind of pacifying my parents. And I got real wise. I got 18, 19, 20 years old. I was older than a
mere teenager, you know. Real wise then. Got a little
money in my pocket, you know. And looking for a girl and found
one. And I got smart, too. She was
kind of a little bit religious, you know. And that's what I wanted. You know, kind of a nice girl.
Not one of these wild girls, you know. Can't turn nice from
good upbringing. I got that smart. Anyway. And
she was going to church. She said she was going to church.
That'll pacify my parents and I might even get the girl in
the process. Got real smart then. Who do you reckon had me in that
church? Who do you reckon? See, God determined
before the world began in my course to bring me to that place. and think on this girl and come
here and sit under the gospel and think I was passing by my
parents when all that while, God working on my heart. Working
on my heart. And you know, after a while,
I got to the point where I didn't know that girl sitting beside
me. And somebody else struck my view. See, that's how God waits. That's
what it means that God waits. He waits to be gracious in his
appointed time, according to his eternal purpose that's ordered
in all things, and sure, he's waiting. Boy, Andrew, I hope. I don't
know where you're going to go, buddy, or what you're going to
have to go through, but I hope you're one of these that God's
going to wait on. and bring you to the point. I
hope you don't go through what I went through. I hope you're
smarter than I was and realize you're not smarter than your
parents. And you're not smarter than God's Word. You don't have
to go through what I went through. Believe me, Andrew, it's dumb. It's not smart. Like I told you
Sunday, I'd love to live at home now. Remember hearing me say
that? I'd love to live at home now.
go running to Dad. Dad, help. Here, Dad, here's
this bill. Pay this. Pay that. Mom, wash
this. Clean that. I'd love to live
at home now. Wouldn't you? And God's Word especially. Oh,
my. He waits. He waits. You see,
God The salvation is called a new birth. A new birth. And we might take this up again Sunday
night or something. But the new birth, my wife and
I weren't, we didn't plan to have a child. We didn't think
we could. Some of you may have, Any of you would say, we want
to have a child. So you got together and you tried
to conceive a child, and some of you are what they call fertile
myrtles, you know, and you just do it. Some of you, you know,
have a baby. And here's the illustration I
want to make. You both got together and you
decided, let's have a child. So you got together, joined together
in this, and conceived. The child was conceived, and
you know pretty much the time when that child was conceived.
And you know that if all things go according to natural order,
and we call it gestation in people. I know you're doing horses. But
you know, nine months from that, they can get it down. Jenny,
you could tell us more about this than anybody. How many days? Two hundred and eighty? Got it
down back to the day, if you know when you're conceived, and
pretty much count to the day, and all the signs are pointing
to it, and you say, on such and such a date, I'm due to give
birth to a child. That's exactly what God Almighty
does. Exactly. You see, you call a
mother who's expecting, you call her she's expecting. Don't you? She's expecting. She's waiting
to give birth. And that's what this means. The
Lord waits to be gracious in His purpose and time before the
world began, He and His Son and Holy Spirit got together and
purpose to save, I don't know who in here, but they do. And Christ came and lived for
them and died for them, and in time he sends the Holy Spirit
to supplant the seed of the gospel preaching. And
in God's good time, causes the wind to blow, the water and rain
to come, And God knows. And he's waiting. He's expecting to be gracious. And you've got
to see the next part of that verse there, in verse 18. I don't want to leave that out. It says, verse 18. No, verse
19. The Lord is a God of judgment,
blessed are all they that wait for him. And the people shall
dwell in Zion and Jerusalem, thou shalt weep no more, he will
be very gracious unto thee." He'll hear you, he'll answer
you. He's waiting to be gracious, very gracious. Oh, look at me
now. There's not a moment of a day
that goes by I don't think, oh, what great things the Lord has
done for me. How the Lord has blessed me.
I'm sitting on a roof, cross-legged, staring at my navel. Well, yeah,
that's wonderful, preaching the gospel. That's the blessing of
blessing. Just to hear it, to believe it.
Not preaching it, per se, just to believe it. And then all this
gravy. I got the bread and look at the
gravy on it. I got the biscuit and look at
the gravy. Seek ye first the kingdom of
God and his righteousness. All these things I have to tell
you. Look at that. Jacob remember Jacob in his last
day looking at all his children, you know, look at you. My, my. He could be very gracious. He
waits to be gracious. The long, see, now you account
that the long suffering of the Lord is salvation. You see, hey,
put up with me. They put up with you. How long
he put up with you, Theresa? He waited a long time, to be
gracious. And oh, he's very gracious in
that. And you ain't seen nothing yet. All right, let's stand. Our Heavenly Father, we thank
You for Your mercy, Your grace, Your lovingkindness, Your forbearance,
Your goodness, Your kindness. everything that you are and do
for the likes of us, the sinful men and women. How we thank you
that you waited to be gracious for us and now cause us to wait
or to trust and look to, submit to, sit quietly and patiently
on thee. Sit still. That's strength. That's strength. We thank you
for your word, O Lord. Bless it to the hearts of your
people the remainder of this week. Watch over them. Bring us all back together again
around this gospel table, around Christ. In his name we pray.
Amen.