I'm going to go ahead and get
started. If you want to turn with me, turn to Isaiah 55. I'm just going to read the first
verse. I have another text that kind
of goes along with this that I'm going to just read through. Isaiah 55, verse 1. Let's read it. Ho, every one
that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money,
come ye buy and eat. Yea, come buy wine and milk without
money and without price. And I agree with Joe, he has
brought down the price. But here, and that just hit me
when Joe said that, You can't bring money and buy this. You
have any money, you can't buy. This is without price here. But
ho, or oh, exclamation point. Everyone that thirsteth. This isn't everyone, but not
all. Only everyone that thirsteth. Physically, I don't know if I've
ever been thirsty in this way, I guess, where I had to stop
everything I could to go get me something to drink. I may
have been close a few times, but I could still finish what
I'm doing and then go get me a drink of water. I didn't say
that I've never been thirsty like this. I just said physically. I feel I'm still thirsty for
water in that sense, but yet feel all the time. This is speaking
of someone who has a thirst, a thirst in spirit. A thirst
that can only be quenched by that which can supply this kind
of quenching. I read a couple of weeks ago
this passage, and this is the other text that I, you know,
I want to use this as part of my text. Isaiah 48, 9 through
11. For my name's sake will I defer
mine anger, and for my praise will I refrain for thee that
I cut thee not off. Behold, I have refined thee,
but not with silver. I have chosen thee in the furnace
of affliction. For mine own sake, even for mine
own sake, will I do it. For how should my name be polluted? And I will not give my glory
unto another. the furnace of affliction. If
you think you've come to God, to Jesus by stop doing this or
stop doing that, or to start doing this or start doing that,
you haven't come to God or Jesus. Did you choose to go through
the furnace of affliction? I didn't choose to do that. And
let's be honest, none of us would choose to do that. It says that
he chose us in the furnace of affliction. Me, by nature, I
want the high road. I want the pie in the sky road.
But that's not what God says he does for his people. God says
he refines us in the furnace of affliction. And that word
means, of course, affliction, but it can mean poverty or misery.
If things are going well for you, I mean things are going
well for you and you're in want of nothing in your soul, you
have not been in the furnace of affliction. When is it that
someone gets thirsty? Thirsty. Even if it's just a
little thirsty, when they don't have water. If you have plenty
of water and you're thirsty, there's something else wrong
rather than a lack of water. But God's furnace of affliction
dries you out as it laps up the water. And I just want to turn
to this passage here, 1 Kings 18, if you'll turn over there
with me there. 1 Kings 18, 37 through 39. 1 King
18. Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that
this people may know that thou art the Lord God and that thou
hast turned their heart back again. Then the fire of the Lord
fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice and the wood and the stones and
the dust and licked up the water that was in the trench. And when
all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and they said,
the Lord, he is God. The Lord, He is God. The furnace of affliction will
see to it that you have no water. What does this water here show
us? That it is no protection from Him who has all the power. Physics do not matter when there
is one who controls even physics. What did they say after seeing
this? The Lord, he is God. The Lord, he is God. But they
did something else before that. They fell on their faces. God
will make you thirsty for this water because he will dry it
up with ever so much ease. But what are we really talking
about here? Are we talking about a drought of water? No, we're
talking about a lack of righteousness before God. You have to be thirsty
for that or you have no need. Matthew 5, 6 says, blessed are
they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they
shall be filled. The indication here is if you
don't hunger or thirst for this, you will not be filled. If you don't hunger or thirst
for righteousness, then you have a righteousness that is not of
God. It may make you feel filled and
quenched, but it is not what God requires. This is not talking
about physically how things might be going for you. The rain falls
on the just and the unjust alike. We all suffer in this world because
of sin, but this is a suffering of spirit and soul for a righteousness
that we do not have. But some feel they are righteous,
and most call this, and rightfully so, self-righteousness. But God, if he is pleased, will
cause you to go through some things. Maybe it will include
physical things, such as hunger and thirst. But he will take
you through things, if you're one of his, and at his appointed
time, and you will begin to hunger and thirst after his righteousness,
deep down in your soul. If you're hungering first for
something, what does that tell you? As I said before, you don't
have any of your own. Jesus Christ is the great physician,
and what did he say? He that is not sick needs not
a physician. He is that great physician, and
he is the righteousness of God without the law, the scripture
says. I will say it another way. He
that is righteous needs not a God righteousness. Turn with me over
to John 5. John 5. And I could have picked
any one of Christ's miracles to show this, but I just picked
this one. John 5, verses 1 through 8. John
5. After this there was a feast
of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is at
Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the
Hebrew tongue, Bethsaida, having five porches. In these lay a
great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting
for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at certain
season into the pool and troubled the water. Whosoever then first
after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of
whatsoever disease he had. And a certain man was there which
had an infirmity thirty and eight years. When Jesus saw him lie
and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he
saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole? The impotent man
answered him, Sir, I have no man when the water is troubled
to put me into the pool. But while I am coming, another
steppeth down before me. Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take
up thy bed, and walk. Here was a man weak. I don't
know exactly what it was that was exactly wrong with him, but
he was weak. And he was like this for 38 years
he had to deal with this. He knew he could never beat everyone
down there and get down there first to the pool to be healed.
But he also knew he could not do it. That had been proven time
and time again, evidently. Left to his self, his state would
remain the same. I mean, can you imagine that?
For 38 years, is what it says, in this same condition. And not
only that, but the only hope for him was to get to that pool
before anybody else. But there was always somebody
that beat him to it. There was nothing he could do
about it. They all had issues as well, though. It was all kinds
of impotent folks there. It just didn't prevent them,
at least some of them, from making it there first. I can just imagine the anguish
he must have felt. He must have thought, what use
is there to even try? He had to be in some kind of
despair. He must have thought, I know
some are bad, but I'm worse than them all. He needs something. What is it? A man. He has no man to carry him down
to the pool to get there before anyone else. But then this man
comes along. He was not asking for this man.
The man just showed up and begins to speak to him. He speaks to
him directly and causes him to confess what his problem is. The man tells him, I can't get
from point A to point B fast enough because I'm sick. I'm
not getting any better. Things just get worse and worse
and the results are always the same. Still impotent. But this man's confession is
to a different kind of man. This is the God man. He can do
things you can't even think of. He will give you way beyond what
you even ask or think. What did he give this infinite
man? Not strength to walk to the pool. He gave him that which
healed him for good and he didn't even have to take the first step.
He wasn't even asking for this. But this is what I'm talking
about. This man, for at least 38 years, was made to see he
did not have the ability to take a step that would heal him. Oh, at first he may have thought,
when several of these others are gone, I might make it. But
after 38 years, he knew he did not have what it took to get
there. But Jesus Christ does. There is not one of God's people
that comes to Him any other way. They will be caused by God to
come to Him knowing they are impotent and not able to save
themselves, not able to heal themselves. They need a man to
help them, and the only one that can is Jesus Christ the Lord. Our circumstances may not look
like this man's exactly, but our plight will be exactly the
same. We will come to see we have no
God-righteousness that we might stand before Him. We will not
be able to do that which will get us healing. He will cause
you to see your utter need of Him. He will cause you to be
spiritually bone-dry, just like those bones in Ezekiel, they
were very dry. He will make you so spiritually
thirsty for righteousness that it will be like when you're unable
to swallow and there's not enough moisture in your mouth that you
can't even swallow. Ever had that kind of dryness
in your mouth? Your tongue and cheeks stick together. They're
so dry, so to speak. The hunger will be like you have
not had anything to eat for weeks. and you'll get to the point like
the prodigal son did, Joe, you'll be ready to eat the husk that
the swine did eat. Some of us have did that, in
a sense, in analogy. We had to go through a time of
eating husk of swines. He had us in a place where we
were taking what was before us, but it was not nourishing at
all. But Christ comes along and he tells us, just as he did this
man, take up thy bed and walk. Then he brings us where the water
is. Remember last week? He is the fountain where the
eternal spring comes from. He brought us to himself, but
he also calls us to go where we are fed this water and this
bread all the time, just like here. No reason to eat, swine
husk. For what reason, though, does
he take us through the furnace of affliction? 2 Corinthians
1, 8-10, we read, For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant
of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed
out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even
of life. But we had the sentence of death
in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves. but in
God which raiseth the dead, who delivered us from so great a
death, and doth deliver in whom we trust, that he will yet deliver
us. We will get to the point where
we have no other place to go. He will be the only one we see
where righteousness may be found. It will cause us to say, just
like Paul says, and I have no confidence in the flesh, This
flesh got me to where I am and that's condemned before God. But it is God who will save me.
But listen, Christ when he was here, it certainly was not peaches
and cream for him. He had to go through the furnace
of affliction as well. Isaiah 53, seven, listen to what
it says. He was oppressed and he was afflicted. Yet he openeth not his mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the
slaughter and as a sheep before his shearers is done. So he openeth
not his mouth. The word there for affliction
is different than the other word in our first passage. This one
says self-afflicted. He chose us. He tries us in the
furnace of affliction of misery. But what He did for us was more
than we could ever do for ourselves. Jesus Christ suffered in our
stead on purpose. This is God, and what did He
say? He already had been beaten, spit on, had crown of thorns
planted down into His head, His beard was plucked out, and He
had basically railroad spikes drove in His hands and His feet. Then the hard part began. He
was forsaken of God the Father. We don't know much about that,
do we? Other than what we read in Scripture. And I thank God
for that. But we would never have been
able to know this because we deserve that from God. We deserve
to be forsaken of God. But Jesus Christ was just. He
is absolutely and totally holy. Yet he died for the unjust on
purpose. When his work was just about
done, what did he say, John 19, 28? After this, Jesus, knowing
that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled,
said, I thirst. God is not mean in choosing to
take us through the furnace of affliction. Look at what he did
to his only begotten son. Listen, this was not just a mere,
I'm a little parched either, that Christ cried this, Psalms
22, 15, we read, my strength is dried up like a pot shirt,
and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws, and thou hast brought me
into the dust of death. Jesus Christ was thirsty because
God the Father laid on him the iniquity of us all. Guess what
else? He had no help. No help was to
come. Let's turn over to Psalm 22 and
read that. Psalm 22. I know you all know
these, but Psalm 22, and I'm just going
to read the first 11 verses. Psalm 22. My God, my God, Why hast thou forsaken
me? Why art thou so far from helping
me, and from the words of my roaring? O my God, I cry in the
daytime, but thou hearest not, and in the night season am not
silent. But thou art holy, O thou that
inhabitest the praises of Israel. Our fathers trusted in thee,
they trusted in thou didst deliver them. They cried unto thee and
were delivered, they trusted in thee and were not confounded.
But I am a worm, and no man, a reproach of men, and despised
of the people. All they that see me laugh me
to scorn. They shoot out the lip. They
shake the head, saying, He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver
him. Let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him. But thou
art he that took me out of the womb, thou didst make me hope
when I was upon my mother's breast. I was cast upon thee from the
womb, thou art my God from my mother's belly. Be not far from
me, for trouble is near, for there is none to help me. I do believe it is very clear
who's speaking here. It is the glorious master, our
Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. What does it say of him at this
time in verse 11? Be not far from me, for trouble
is near, for there is none to help. But listen, there could be no
help. He had to do this or we would
all perish. But in him doing this, what did
it bring about for us? Isaiah 55 one, ho, everyone that
thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money, come
ye, buy and eat, yea, come, buy wine and milk, without money
and without price. He paid the price so we don't
have to. We come to him for whatever it
is we need, and it doesn't cost us a thing. And don't misunderstand,
it was very costly. But the cost or payment did not
come from me and does not come from me. He paid the price so
I don't have to, or so you don't have to. Salvation is free to
sinners like you and I. But it was not free to him. But
he gladly did this for his people so they can now come to him freely
and be filled. Can you imagine that? We can
come to him and partake of the righteousness of God. We don't
have to pay a thing. We had no money to pay the debt
of sin we owed, but he did. Now we have more than we can
ever hope for. He takes us through this furnace
of affliction so that we look to this one. We look to him and
his shed blood, which was the price he had to pay to set me
free from sin and death. It causes us to trust in Him
and have no confidence in this flesh. I want to continue to
look to Him. The furnace of affliction may
not be fine, but if it causes me to see Him, I am thankful
for it. God does not have to do this.
He does not do this for all. God owes us nothing. but he was
pleased to have mercy and show grace to some. Only those he
chose in his righteous son are those. So what do we have to
do? Nothing. Salvation does not involve
doing. Salvation is all of grace. We
can do nothing to procure salvation for our souls and thank God we
don't have to do anything because he's already done it for me.
It is free. I need nothing to have this water,
but even here, what does this water bring to us? We have wine
and milk. When we thirst after this water,
God gives us what is needed. He sends us his gospel and that
gospel fills us with the body and the blood of Jesus Christ. First of all, wine is used in
scripture to symbolize the blood of Christ. When we ask for this
water, when we seek for this water, we are filled and it allows
us to see His person and His shed blood. This is the work
of God in bringing His people through the furnace of affliction.
But it is for us to see that He took His Son through the furnace
of affliction. He gets all the glory because
He does all the work. He did all the work and He does
all the work. He comes to us giving us life,
Titus 3, 4 through 6 we read, but after the kindness and love
of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us by the
washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed
on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior. The Holy Spirit
is given us by Jesus Christ to those who are his. The Holy Spirit
regenerates us. That's what it says right there.
Those who have nothing to pay come to Christ and they are filled. They are given the Spirit of
God who regenerates them. The Spirit opens their eyes so
they can see Joe and he opens their ears so they can hear and
he gives them a heart that they might believe. But he also sends
us his gospel. How shall they preach unless
they be sent? And what else does it say? How
beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace
and bring glad tidings of good things. It's the message that
they bring that matters. He sends someone to us to hear
words of him, Joe, goes right along with Joe's message, don't
it? We all preach the same thing, thank God. He gives us milk,
he gives us his gospel, and we grow thereby, 1 Peter 2.2, as
newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may
grow thereby. I want to learn more of him.
His gospel, attended by the spirit of God in my soul, causes me
to want to hear more. I want to hear more of that gospel.
I am thirsty, but am always filled. In this world, I still have this
flesh, and it has its way sometimes. It feels like far too often it
does anyway. But I thank the sovereign God
above that he sends me his gospel to fill my hungry soul with water,
wine, and milk. When I see what I did, I see
I need cleansing. When I see what he did, I see
that I am cleansed. There's nothing that I can do,
and if I do do something, I will mar it, and I will pollute it.
That is why God said he chose us in the furnace of affliction.
what Christ went through. Yes, we do go through the furnace
of affliction as well, but what is our end? Being filled with
water, wine, and milk. With no money. God helped me
to always be thankful for what I have, because had he not done
this for me, I would still be destitute and I would still pollute
the sovereign holy God. But I would have no remedy. I
would have to pay the price for which I have nothing to pay.
We owe all to the merciful, wonderful Savior and Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Dear Lord God, thank you
for allowing us again to be here, dear Lord. Cause us, dear Lord, to be thirsty
to want to hear of you and what you've done, dear Lord. May we see you in all things,
dear Lord, in what you've done. Nothing else matters. All these
things we ask in Christ's name, amen.