And grace of God, we would drop
into hell for singing such a song, not from the bottom of our hearts.
Hallelujah, what a Savior. To dismantle those words. So
with the mercy and grace of God, it keeps us living. Turn with me to Romans 7. I'm going to bring a very short
message this morning, a very simple one. I want to do it in
the form of a story. or several stories, much like
our Lord did, sort of parables, with a very simple message and
story on. But read with me a couple of
verses in Romans 7, beginning with verse 3. The apostle says,
If while a woman's husband liveth, she be married to another man,
She shall be called an adulteress. But if her husband be dead, she
is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though
she be married to another man. Wherefore, my brethren, you also
are become dead to the law by the body of Christ. that you
should be married to another. Even to him who is raised from
the dead, that is Christ, that we should bring forth fruit unto
God. Married to another. Married to another. Now, everyone
here has heard the old saying. Now, there is a marriage made
in heaven. You see a young couple that seems
to be an ideal couple, happily married, and you say that. You
say, there's a marriage made in heaven. They seem to be perfectly
happy. And it may have taken place like
this. This young man, he's a dashing
young man. He's a role model as a son. He's respectful to his parents.
He's a good student. He's a hard-working young man. Perhaps he's captain of the football
team. Just the ideal son. And then
there's a pretty blonde-headed girl who also is a straight-A
student. And she's always been the perfect
child. She may be a cheerleader, But
these two, they date while in high school. All the way through
high school they date one another. And then they go off to college
after graduation from high school. Go off to college where the young
man, after several years, receives his degree in medicine. And then
they get married. He sets up a little practice
in a small southern town. And together they purchase their
first little home. And eventually they have a baby,
a little baby boy, looks just like daddy, you know. In a few
years, you see him out there in the front yard. A little boy
is just old enough to throw a little football. He looks just like
daddy. And they live happily ever after. Now, most of the time, that only
happens in the movie or in a novel. something of the sort. In real
life, this may be the story. Here's the picture more often
than not in real life. A young boy grows up rebellious
and hateful and resents his parents. In all authority, resents any
form of authority. He despises school. He despises
the establishment. He thinks everybody hates him,
everybody's out to get him. He gets into drinking and drugs
perhaps. He finds a girl. And this girl
tells him that she loves him. Tells him that he's the greatest
thing there ever was. Gives him exactly what he is
looking for. And as soon as the boy gets out
of school, which he graduates barely by the skin of his teeth,
he takes that girl and they get married. He finds a job. He finally finds a job after
looking a long while in perhaps a gas station, a filling station.
And they get a little three-room apartment and then immediately
a baby comes along. And they start running out of
money. And they start bickering because they don't have enough
money to go get a hamburger or whatever. Start fighting. And they end up divorced. And the boy calls home and says,
Mom, Dad, I need a place to stay. That's usually That's what happens
a great deal of the time. Or, on the other hand, a young
girl, she lives at home, she grows up under what she thinks
is a repressive father. Her father makes unusually cruel
and harsh demands on her, she thinks. And she begins to, when
she's on her own, she begins to be promiscuous and live loosely
She meets a guy she thinks loves her. He tells her that he does. She thinks he's the man of her
dreams. He tells her all kind of good
things, all kind of rosy, paints a rosy picture of how life's
going to be if they get married, you know. He has an ulterior
motive. But how they can make a life
together and they don't need anybody else, just the two of
them, you know, want to get a little place and settle down. So she gives in to him, thinking
he loves her. And shortly thereafter she finds
out she's pregnant. And he immediately loses interest,
scares him. He runs off. and leaves her alone
with a child to care for, and an outcast in society. That is the way it is in real
life. That's what happens in real life. And that is much the way it is
spiritually speaking. Much the way it is. You see,
we live in God's creation. We live in his world. This world
is God's world. Our children grow up under our
rules. We go out and slave and work
hard for a living to provide them with everything they have,
a place to stay to keep from getting rained on, to keep from
getting cold. We do everything within our power
to make them comfortable, usually for naught. You don't usually
get a thanks for it, do you, parent? But we live in God's
world. God's creation. This is His world. His world, it belongs to Him.
The sky is His roof. We live under His roof. We breathe
His air. This is God's air. He doesn't
have to give it to us, but He does, to breathe it. We drink God's water. That's
not my water. It's God's water. He made that
water. We eat God's food. It's his food. He doesn't have
to give it to me. He made it. He clothes us. God makes the sheep and the animals
and so forth that clothe us, the cotton. It's his. They're
his. The cattle on the Thousand Hills
are his. He doesn't have to give it to
us. It's his. It's his work. He clothes us. He feeds us. He cares for us
all of our lives. We barely give Him a thought. Barely give Him a thought. Some
people never give Him a thought. Just like they do their parents.
Mom and Dad owe me, you know. No, they don't. God owes me. No, He doesn't. But we go all of our lives, most
of our lives, rarely giving God a thought. We probably think
our lot in life is unfair. Unfair. Though we have everything
we could possibly need or want, we think we don't have enough. It's unfair. Just like children,
you know, just like children do with their parents. And thinking we don't need God,
We run off into the world, don't we? Didn't we, Rick? We've got
to run off into the world. And the world becomes our companions,
and the world tells us what we want to hear. The world gives
us what we want, what we're looking for. The world tells us we're
something special. It gratifies us physically. We
get all the gratification we are looking for out of the world.
We join ourselves to it. We become married to the world. We get married to the world.
Forget God! We think we're happy. We think
we're happy. But then a baby comes along.
The fruit of our labors. The fruit of our sin and our
iniquity. Sorrow, misery, deprivation. comes along as a result of our
sin and our rebellion to God. That's exactly what we earn,
sin and sorrow and misery. Then the world begins to turn
on us, like that young man with that pregnant wife begins to
turn on us. When it finds out we can't give
it anything, then eventually we feel alone. Some of you may have experienced
it, empty, sad, troubled, nowhere to go, then we call home. Then people start calling on
God, don't they? When they get down to the dregs, down to the
bottom. Then, and then only. When a child runs out of money,
goes out and gets in trouble, then they'll call mom and dad,
then, and usually mom and dad will come running, okay, I'll
help you. It's no different spiritually,
is it? People get down and down and down. And then finally, finally
they decide to look up and call on God. Sometimes He doesn't
hear. He doesn't have to. Dad doesn't have to take
Junior in again, does he? When he gets in jail or runs
out of money. Why? Why should he? He rebelled
all his life against Dad and Mom. Why should they take him
in? Love. That's the only thing that
will do it. It's not worth it. The child
doesn't deserve it. But, God, for many of us, this
story has a happy ending, spiritually speaking. You take that young divorcee
that I mentioned a while ago, for instance. You take heart.
She's struggling to survive. If she tries to manage on her
own, she'll struggle to get by, just to survive. You see this
all the time. She may be pregnant and maybe
even have a child at home. She gets a job in some little
greasy spoon restaurant, trying to make payments on a little
run-down apartment. Barely getting by. Alone, when
she goes home to a place she doesn't want to go home to. Miserable.
Miserable. But perhaps, one day, into this
restaurant walks a tall, dark, and handsome young man. He apparently
isn't very well off. And he's nice to her. He introduces
himself to her. And he asks her her name as she
waits on him. And he seems to be interested
in her. But she thinks, how could he be interested in me? She feels
so ugly, so worthless. She thinks, how could he have
anything to do with me? He could have any girl he wants.
Why would he want me? And she finds out later on, talking
to some of the other waitresses, This is the owner's son. The
owner's son. Well, a week or two passes and
she's forgotten about him and he apparently has forgotten about
her, but late one night, she gets a phone call. It's him. He says, it's me, it's John. And he says, would you, I'm wondering
if you'd like to go out to dinner with me tomorrow. Well, in the end they end up
getting married and she gets rescued from a life of misery
and sorrow and sadness and she gets taken to a life of happiness.
love, contentment. And that was me. That was some
of me. Alone, without God, without hope,
without strength in this world. Sin and misery, laboring in this
world, trying to get by. And then one day, we meet a man. Behold the man! But we think, surely he doesn't
need me. What would he want with me? He
could have anybody he wants. He's the owner, son. But we hear from a preacher that
this man, the Son of God, that he delights to show mercy. And
it sparks our interest for a time, where our interest is sparked
in this man. But time may go by, and we remain
in our sin and our misery. We get our hopes up, but we remain
in sin and misery. But then, one day, while sitting in a little obscure
place, perhaps it was this place somewhere, spreading over your
troubles, We get a call. A gospel call. It's Him. It's Him. He's calling. We hear about this great and
holy God who we have rebelled against all our life. We hear
about our lost, sinful, depraved condition. We say, that's me.
I don't have anything, don't know anything, am nobody. and
worthy of hell, but then we hear about the Son of God, the Son
of God, that only begotten, well-beloved, tall, dark, and handsome Son
of God Himself, Emmanuel, who came down to this earth as a
man, took on the form of a man, to do for us what we could not
do for ourselves, to get us out of a place we wasn't going to
get out of unless He did it. Come and do for us that we hear
how he lived a perfect life in thought and word and deed, which
God demanded of us, that we couldn't produce. And how he came down
and did that, and God was well pleased with him. For my sake. And then we hear him say, Come
unto me. Come unto me. And I'll give you
rest. I'll give you this righteousness
you need." He said, I'll make you acceptable to God. I'll do
for you what you can't do for yourself. I'll do it. And when
we hear how he took our sin and our ugliness and went to that
cross bearing that burden of our iniquity and was bruised
and killed in our state, we hear about that. But he rose from
the grave and he's seated at the right hand of the Father,
that God on high, waiting to receive us unto himself. We hear
that story, that someday he's coming. to get us and marry us. And He asks us to marry Him.
Yeah, He does. That's what the Gospel invitation
is. It asks us to marry Him. And in the day of His power,
we remain willing. We say, yes! Yeah, I'll do it.
I do. I will. Irresistible grace of
this man. Irresistible grace. We say yes. Yeah, we do. All those He calls
say yes. Every one of them. And we find
out later on, though, we find out later on that we've been
married to him all along and didn't know it. Now, turn back. Let's read again there in Isaiah
54. And this will take on new meaning
to you, I hope, if you heard what I was just saying. Isaiah
54. We've been married to him all
along. Yet living in adultery. Living in adultery. And when
you find that out, you get so ashamed, don't you? Huh? You find that out. What I was
talking about, about this great God who bestows all things freely,
just lavishes you with gifts all of your life, nurtures you
and raises you up. Like a child, when a child finally goes off
and gets married and has children of his own, he finally realizes,
hey, mom and dad were so good to me. I didn't know how good
I had it. And I never realized that then.
So they become a husband or a wife or a parent. But we hear We hear,
finally, the gospel. We hear about this God that we
despise and rebel against. We feel ashamed. We feel ashamed
of our past lives, don't we? We feel ashamed of ourselves
now. Look at verse 4, Isaiah 54, 4. He says, This kind, gracious,
merciful, loving, Dear God and Father, he says to us, Terry,
fear not. Thou shalt not be ashamed. Don't
be ashamed. Neither be thou confounded, for
thou shalt not be put to shame. You know, folks, hell, hell will be eternal Shame and
misery. You know, there's nothing a man
or a woman hates worse than to be put to shame, to be embarrassed,
to be made fun of. Even a small child hates to be
made fun of in front of other people. That's what hell is going
to be, eternal shame. Shame to yourself. Have you ever
felt shame where the blood just rushes out of your head? Shame. Shame. Those who have despised
God's goodness someday be put to shame." He said, well, that's
amazing. I just thought it got good. Ain't he merciful? He said, thou shalt forget the
shame of thy youth. You'll forget the shame of thy
youth. You'll forget it. When we leave this place, I'm
talking to believers now, and go to be with him. to go to be
with God, we will immediately forget our sins. Immediately. We will realize that they're
gone. And this is what we ought to realize now. It's the only
thing that will give us any peace and comfort now, to realize our
sins are gone. But when we leave this world,
He says all tears be dried up. Why? No more shame. We'll be
as He is. We'll be righteous and holy,
just as He is. No shame. for what we are, because we'll
be like Him. You'll forget the shame of your
youth. That young girl got married and had a new home now, a new
life. That old husband was gone. She
had one that loved her now. She forgot the shame of her youth. He made her forget all about
that. And the sacrifice of Christ is the only thing that will make
you forget your past. The only thing. He says, you'll
not remember the reproach of thy widowhood anymore. You'll not be lonely anymore."
Violet said, uh, what do I need with a mansion up there and gold?
I don't want to live alone up there. See, I live alone now. You'll never be alone again. Why? Because, verse 5, your maker
is just. Your maker, the one who made
you. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God. All things were made by him. Without
him was not anything made which was made. Your maker is your
husband. The Lord of Hosts is his name. The Lord of Hosts is
his name. You remember that illustration
I gave about going into glory some day and somebody asks, what
right have you got to be here? Huh? I'm with him. He points to Christ. I'm with him. Oh, well, come
on in then. We didn't know. The Lord uphosteth
his name, and thy Redeemer, thy Redeemer, Boaz. Love that story. Thy Redeemer,
the Holy One of Israel, the God of the whole earth, shall he
be called. For the Lord has called you as
a woman forsaken in grief and spirit. A woman forsaken. and grieved in spirit, and a
wife of youth who was refused." Verse 7, "...for a small moment
have I forsaken thee." You know, it seemed like it would go on
forever, didn't it? Even now, God forsakes us, I
mean temporarily. He forsakes us. Why should He?
We deserve it. We deserve it. We forsake Him.
And so he turns his back on us for a small moment. He says,
I have forsaken thee, but with great mercy will I gather thee. In a little wrath I hid my face
from thee for a moment, but with everlasting kindness will I have
mercy on thee, says the Lord, I redeem thee. Have you ever
had an argument with your husband or wife? Anybody? Well, have
you ever, you men, or maybe the lady, I don't know, but maybe
you men, you've had an argument and you thought, and she was
wrong, as most of the time she is. So you just say, I'm leaving. You're not leaving forever. Oh
no, no, that doesn't even enter your mind. If you love that woman,
it doesn't even, divorce is not in your vocabulary. It doesn't
enter your mind. You say, I'm just one away from
her for a while. I'm leaving. And you go off. And a little while later, you call her up. Honey, I love you. Oh, I love you too. I'm so sorry.
I'm so sorry. And you know, the parting, the
making up, when you finally get back together, the making up
seems to be worth the fight. Well, When God leaves us to ourselves,
and it always is our fault, He calls us back in mercy. He
says, for a small moment I have forsaken thee, but with great
mercies, you know, the making up seems to be worth the fight. In a little wrath I hid my face
from thee for a moment. Why? Because we deserve His wrath.
We deserve His judgment. But He won't leave us. He's not going to leave us forever.
He already said He wasn't He said, I'll never leave you, you
know, for Satan's sake. I say that to my wife. My word doesn't mean anything.
Forever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven. Perry, he
said he'll never leave you. That's what he said. That's what
he meant. And he won't. Not forever, anyway. 4, verse 9. This is as the waters of Noah
unto me, God said. This is the waters of Noah, this
thing that we go through, this time, this drought or this flood
of sins and iniquities that overwhelm us. He said, God said, this is
as the waters of Noah, for I've sworn that the waters of Noah
should no more go over the earth. He put a bow in the sky to reveal
that. Would you ever look at the rainbow
and think about that promise God made? Well, if you hear the
gospel, that's the promise. That's God's bow, God's sign. It's his promise that he'll never
leave his people. This is the waters of Noah. I've
sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth.
So have I sworn that I would not be angry with you. Why? Why? He's got every right to be angry
with us, even if we're his children, like us with our children. He's
got every right to be angry with them, rebel against us. Care less if we lived or died,
as long as we can drive their car or live under their roof. Why shouldn't we? Because we're his. Because he
bought and paid for it. So the mountains, verse 10, shall
depart, and the hills be removed, but my kindness, that's another
word for grace, my grace shall not depart. You parents, it's
the only way you can describe this. You're parents are not
about to leave your children. You're not about to disown your
children. I don't care what they do to
you. You're not going to do it. Why? You love them. They're your children.
They're your children. You love them. And only a parent
can know the love for a child. And God says to his people, My
kindness, my grace shall not depart from thee, although it
ought to, it won't. Neither shall the covenant of
my peace be removed. You see? The Lord Jesus Christ took a
marriage vow. That's what this covenant is.
It's a vow that he took between God the Father and himself, and
the Holy Spirit was there as a witness of it. He took a vow.
Jesus Christ took this marriage vow between he and the Father,
that he would be joined to this people, that he would come down
and live for them and die for them and make peace by the blood
of his cross, do for them what God demanded. of them. Not only
life, but death. The wages of sin is death. And Christ came down here and
paid those wages. And my husband, now, Jesus Christ,
he took that marriage vow before God Almighty, before his Father,
his God. And Paul said over in 2 Timothy,
he said, And there's times that you, you're
a believer, but you act like you're not. You're a believer,
you're a child of God, but you give no indication of it. You're
a believer, you really trust Christ, but full of doubt and
fear and worry and so forth, you don't give any evidence of
being a believer. There's plenty of times like
that. And though I believe now, Paul
said, yet He about is faithful. He's my faithful husband. He's my faithful husband. And he's not going to leave me.
He's not going to divorce me. This is my only hope. This is
my only hope. Is that my husband, the Lord
Jesus Christ, is not going to leave me, no matter what I do
to him. And I'll do it. If it can be done, I'll do it.
Some of you are doing it right now. But he said, I'll not leave you. I'll not leave you. And someday,
and I look forward to the day, someday I'm going to be faithful
to Him. Never have been, never will be
until that day. I'll be faithful to Him, only
when I'm made just like Him. Faithful like He is, without
sin, holy and righteous. Actually. Has everybody here met this man?
Hmm? I don't think some have. I hope God will show him to you. Show you where you're living.
In old and lowly bar. I hope he'll show you what's
everlastingly too late. Stand with me now.