Isaiah chapter 49, and I know
that we are all experiencing some physical discomfort, but
as I was sitting there and thinking, you know, of course, we as a
people, as a society, are a pretty spoiled bunch of people. We are really kind of wimpy in
reality. compared to the hardships and
things that people have endured in times past. Now, that doesn't
make the endurance of, you know, things any less troublesome than
they are. But we are not slaves to our physical
bodies, although we're limited by them. in great measure. Paul made this statement. He
said, But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection,
lest after I have preached to others, I myself should become
a castaway. Now what he had referenced to
there was the fact that he looked well upon the habitual nature
of his sinful flesh And he dealt with it. Now, we can't cause
ourselves not to sin by the greatest amount of willpower that there
is, because he also said the good that I would not, that I
do, and that which I would do, I don't do. And so there is a
weakness in our flesh, but then there is also the understanding
that greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world.
and that we can, we do have a greater momentum or a greater moving
factor within us than that which is in our flesh. Now, a man oftentimes
is thinking about this cold. I mean, he'll go out in the woods
and sit in a duck blind or sit in a in a deer stand in freezing
weather, and his teeth will be chattering, and he'll endure
that. I remember my daddy, he was an
avid fisherman. And the time that he really liked
to go fishing, he loved to fish for redfish. And the best time
to fish for redfish is when it's about weather like it is right
now. And so when it was the coldest
morning of the year, that's where he'd be is out on the water fishing
for redfish because he knew that the holes and things that those
fish would go in in cold weather and they'd be congregated up
and you could always catch a bunch of them. Of course, back in those
days, you could catch as many as you wanted to, but now, of
course, there's limits on it. But men are able to do what they
set their mind to do in great measure. And many times we want
to make excuses for our flesh and say, oh, well, that's too
hard of a thing to bear. Well, is it? I mean, I'm as convinced
of this as anything that a man will do what he wants to do the
most. There's not a person in here
that won't do the thing that you want to do the most. Now,
you might say, well, I'd rather do something else. Well, you
might rather if circumstances are different, but you always
do the thing that you want to do. You know, if somebody comes
up and holds a gun on you, you will do what you want to do.
Now some people won't do what somebody says for them to do
when somebody holds a gun on them because they are going to
do what they want to do. Now some people would rather
do what the person said to do than get shot. Some people would
rather get shot than do what the person said to do. So, you
know, men always do what they want to do. And we fool ourselves
if we get to thinking that we don't. And just like Brother
Al, that was a great study that Brother Al has been bringing
to us there. That really is an understanding
that we must have about ourselves. We can't blame other people for
the things that we do. Now, we can blame ourselves for
the things we do to other people. that may move them to do the
things they do to us, but see, that doesn't have anything to
do with them as compared to us. We always need to be looking
at what we're doing and what we are and how we think and what
we're going for, because you can't do something for somebody
else as hard as you might like to. And this is so true in the
matter of mourning for sin. Now mourning is not a goal as
Brother Al brought out. We're not hoping we can get to
the place of mourning. We're hoping to get away from
the place of mourning. But you can't call somebody not
to mourn that's mourning. It doesn't matter what you say
or do or whatever. If they're in a place of mourning,
that's where they are. Now, it is the purpose of preaching
the gospel is to lift up the hands that hang down, to strengthen
the feeble knees. It is for the purpose of giving
God's people a place of rejoicing. It's not to bring them to a place
of mourning. Now, it is a good thing to mourn. Blessed are they that mourn.
And as Brother Al Ably pointed out, the whole purpose of mourning
is to bring us to a better place. But you can't get to that place
apart from mourning. And that, if you contrast what
you hear today preached, in general they want to skip the mourning
phase. and just bring everybody into
the joy phase. See, I mean, that's really, in
essence, what the problem with modern-day religious mindset
is, is they want to just skip over the morning. Oh, it's okay.
Well, you mourned. Okay. Now let's rejoice. It's not like
that, because when God calls a man to mourn, he can't quit
mourning until the Lord brings joy into his soul. And that's
why we preach the gospel. It's so that God's people might
be brought from the place of mourning, but we understand that
the work of the Holy Ghost will cause a man to mourn. I mean,
it just will. A man can't escape mourning over
his sin if he is alive, like you said. I mean, that's a good
illustration. I mean, if a man's alive, he's
going to mourn. You know, another thing concerning,
as you mentioned about pain in the body, pain is a good thing
because if you didn't have pain, you'd injure yourself worse.
You know, I mean, if your ankle, when you hurt your ankle, If
it didn't hurt and you kept on working on it and it wasn't hurting,
then pretty soon you'd be ruining the whole ankle and it wouldn't
be any good for anything. But you have pain for a reason.
It's to cause you to look at what's causing the hurt. And
that's what mourning is, is it not? It is to cause us to see
what it is that's hurting us and to cause us to see what the
remedy is. And so every man that has a pain
will seek a remedy. of some kind. You might not go
and take medicine, but if your leg's hurting, you'll favor it. You'll get your stent to lean
on, or you'll sit down, or you won't move. I mean, you know,
when you lay down in bed at night, you don't just lay down any way
that you fall into the bed, but you get where you're comfortable. Now, the older you get, the harder
that becomes, and you have to You know, contort yourself around
and prop yourself up and all kinds of stuff to get to those
places where you can get some relief. But that's the place
that we're moving towards. And men will, by nature, do that.
And I believe by spiritual nature, if they're alive in Christ, that
they will do the same thing. Because we don't want to be mourning,
but we want to be rejoicing. But oh, woe be to that man who
skips the morning and says, well, I don't want to do no morning.
I want to just go right on into the rejoicing. It doesn't work
like that in spiritual things. Now, it does in the flesh. I
mean, you can get jived up in a hurry in the flesh, and you
can get to thinking that it's something to do with the Spirit,
but it's not. Because the Spirit of God brings
a man through a place to a place. And that place is the place,
that journey is the morning, but the destination is the joy
of Christ. And may the Lord give us a mind
to that. Now, over in the, we've got a
few minutes here, Isaiah chapter 49. It says, Listen, O Isles, unto
me, and hearken ye people from far. The Lord hath called me
from the womb, from the bowels of my mother hath He made mention
of my name. And He hath made my mouth like
a sharp sword. In the shadow of His hand hath
He hid me, and made me a polished shaft. In His quiver hath He
hid me. And said unto me, Thou art my
servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified. Then I said, I
have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for naught,
and in vain, yet surely my judgment is with the Lord, and my work
with my God. And now saith the Lord that formed
me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob again to him,
though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious. In the
eyes of the Lord and my God shall be my strength. And he said,
It is a like thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise
up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved of Israel.
I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mightest
be my salvation unto the end of the earth. Thus saith the
Lord, the Redeemer of Israel and His Holy One, to him whom
man despised, to him whom the nation abhorreth, to a servant
of rulers. Kings shall see and arise, princes
also shall worship, because of the Lord that is faithful, and
the Holy One of Israel, and He shall choose thee. Thus saith
the Lord, In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day
of salvation have I helped thee. And I will preserve thee and
give thee for a covenant of the people to establish the earth,
to cause to inherit the desolate heritages. that thou mayest say
to the prisoners, Go forth to them that are in darkness, show
yourselves, they shall feed in the ways, and their pastures
shall be in all high places. They shall not hunger nor thirst,
neither shall the heat nor sun smite them. For he that hath
mercy on them shall lead them, even by the springs of water
shall he guide them. And I will make all my mountains
away, and my highways shall be exalted. Behold, these shall
come from far, and lo, these from the north, and from the
west, and these from the land of Sinom." Now, the most glorious mystery that
the Lord has ever made manifest unto men is the revelation of
Himself in the incarnate person of the Lord Jesus Christ. There
is no greater mystery that has ever been visited upon men and
manifested than that, that Jesus Christ, who is the eternal God,
that One who from the beginning made all things. By his hand
was all things made, and without him was nothing made. That God,
who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in times past by
the prophets unto the fathers, hath in these last days spoken
unto us by his Son." Now, God showed himself to Adam. in the garden in a measure. Now, we don't have any indication
that Adam ever actually saw God except that Adam knew God was
there. But the Lord did not reveal Himself
unto Adam as He has revealed Himself unto us. He visited the
children of Israel, but he visited Abraham. And he told them he
would make him a great nation. But he did not reveal himself
unto Abraham in the same fashion in which he has revealed himself
unto us. He came unto Moses. And Moses
made this request. He said, Lord, let me see your
glory. And the Lord said to Moses, Moses,
you can't see my glory. He said, but I'll tell you what
I'm going to do. He says, I'm going to pass by you and when
I'm almost out of your sight, then I'll let you, I'll hide
you in a cliff to the rock and as I pass by, when I'm just about
out of sight, I'll let you see my backside. For there shall
no man see me and live. But the Lord didn't reveal Himself
to Moses like He's revealed Himself unto us. He didn't reveal Himself
to the children of Israel like He's revealed Himself unto us.
He didn't reveal Himself to Isaiah, though Isaiah wrote these words. Yet Isaiah never saw the things
that those who have lived in these days, the last days, have
been privileged to see. That is, that God, the God who
made the heavens and the earth, has come down and dwelt among
us in human form. He who was the Creator of all
things became an infant of a span, held in his mother's arm, come
forth from a virgin's womb. How could it be? I mean, what
a mysterious thing. Now, the world scoffs at that.
And the world, while they might pay lip service to it, very few
people actually honestly believe that. I mean, they think, well,
it's just kind of like, you know, it's just a little story that
we tell and it sounds good, kind of like the Easter Bunny and
all of that kind of thing. I mean, it's just something that
we, it's a tradition. I mean, that's really and truly
how most people who call themselves Christians, how they view that. They don't really believe that
the God of heaven and earth came down and caused the Virgin Mary
to conceive, not having known a man, and that a baby was formed
in her womb and came forth, they don't really believe that.
They think, oh, well, that's just a story we tell, you know,
kind of. I mean, because they don't believe,
you see, who Christ really is. Now, when the early disciples
preached the gospel, they preached that Jesus Christ was the Son
of God. Remember whenever Philip preached
the gospel to this man that was in the chariot, and the man said,
Well, here's water. What does hinder me to be baptized?
What did Philip say? He said, Well, if thou believest
with all thine heart, thou mayest. And what did the man say? He
didn't say, I believe Jesus Christ died on the cross. What did he
say? He said, I believe that Jesus
Christ is the Son of God. Because you see, that, dear brethren,
is the glorious revelation that has been brought to us in the
Word of God. Morphing out from that, all of
those things that Jesus Christ did indeed make up the definition
of who He is. But I would say to you this very
plain truth, that to believe that Jesus Christ is the Son
of God, if we understand the ramifications of that. See, that
man in that chair, he knew what it was for a man to be the Son
of God, because what did Philip Preach come to from this
book of Isaiah? And he said that this One would
come. Who was He? What did He do? Who is He? You see, He is Jesus
Christ the righteous. He is that One who came down
from heaven and walked among men and had no sin. Neither was
guile found in His mouth. Listen, O isles unto me, and
hearken, ye people, from far. The Lord hath called me from
the womb. Now who is He talking about there?
He is not talking about Himself. Isaiah is talking about Christ. This is the Lord speaking in
the first person, speaking as men understand, as a man that
walked among men. Now, it is a difficult thing
for us to comprehend it, that Jesus Christ was a man who was
tempted in all points like as we are. Now, we think of that
in the sense of sin. But what that Scripture means
when it says he was tempted in all points like as we are is
that he was made like we are and he was made subject unto
vanity in the same fashion in which we were. And he can be
touched with the feeling of our infirmities because he was made
like us. And he walked and he talked and
he lived among men as a man. Now he is God. There is no question about that.
And you see, here is where our minds just go. They just cannot
comprehend it because it is a mystery. Great is this mystery. The mystery
of godliness. This is it that God would come
down and walk among men. But he was a man, and he says
here, ye people from far, the Lord hath called me from the
womb, from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name. He prophesied it to Isaiah. Isaiah said the house shall call
his name Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God. He shall be called
Emmanuel, which is God with us. But you see, it was when the
Lord called him from the womb, when he was placed in the womb
of the Virgin Mary, and the angel came to Joseph and said to him
these words, Thou shalt call his name Jesus. which means Jehovah is salvation. That's what that word means. It is the Greek equivalent to
the name Joshua, which the name Joshua means Jehovah is salvation. Jesus is that one who came forth
from this virgin's womb, was anointed by this name. The Lord
said, Thou shalt call my name. What is His name? Dear brethren,
we know what His name is. Now, there are those that go
about and they say, oh, well, you know, men don't know who
God is. And so all these different cultures,
they have their own God. And you've got the Jews over
here worshipping Jehovah, and the Muslims, they're worshipping
Allah. And you've got the Buddha and all these people, and they're
worshipping their own God. Well, I'm here to tell you that
there's one God. And we know what His name is. He said, Thou shalt call His
name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sin. But
this One, this Man is no ordinary man. He is the God-Man. He is that One whom the Lord
has called forth. From the bowels of my mother
hath He made mention of His name. You see, Isaiah never made mention
of His name. He didn't know the name Jesus,
did he? Abraham didn't know the name Jesus. Moses didn't know
the name Jesus. But you see, by the grace of
God, He has shown us, dear brethren, who it is, that One who would
come. In the revelation of the Gospel,
this is the same Gospel that Ethiopian believed when he said,
I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And He hath made my mouth like
a sharp sword. Oh, the Word of God. In the beginning
was the Word. In the beginning was the Word. He has no beginning. He was in
the beginning. You see, it doesn't mean He had
a beginning. It means in the beginning. He
already was. In the beginning was the Word. It was pre-existent. It is ever-existent. It has no beginning and it has
no end. And He hath made my mouth like
a sharp sword. The Word of God is indeed a sharp
sword. Now, this doesn't do anything. I can read you this all day long
and it won't do anything. But when the Lord Himself takes
that Word and in the power of His Spirit, He sends it into
a man's heart, it is like a sharp sword, is it not? Because it
pierces to the dividing of soul and spirit. It penetrates into
the deepest recesses of a man and shows a man what he is. It
was that same Word that came unto David through the mouth
of Nathan the prophet, and it went like a spear into his heart,
and it slew him, and did indeed bring him to a place of mourning. And he did cry out, O Lord, against
thee, and thee only have I sinned. And so he hath made his mouth
like a sharp sword, and in the shadow of his hand hath he hit
me. No man could tell who He was,
except those to whom the Lord was pleased to reveal Him. Now
you see, He came in the power, with all the power of heaven
residing in His hand. One who could at a mere, by the
mere stroke of His thought, turn water into wine, walked among
men and they did not know who He was. You see, it's the same
way today. You can preach the Gospel and
you can paint the picture and you can show all the things,
but until God who is rich in mercy shows a man who Christ
is, he can't see Him. He is hidden in the hand of God.
In the shadow of His hand has He hidden me. Now He is that
one also in the shadow of the Lord's hand as He came among
men that He was The Scripture says that he would give his angels
charge over him that they wouldn't touch him. And so it was that
not one thing befell him but that which the Lord ordained.
Nothing could touch him. He hath made me a polished shaft. Made him a polished shaft. If you understand the warfare
that men used to wage with one another, and they used bows and
arrows at this time, You couldn't just take an old stick out here
and make an arrow. I remember back when I was a
kid, we used to try to make us a bow and arrow. You know, we'd
take us an old stick and get a piece of string and then we'd
get another stick and we'd try to make it work. But they never
worked very good because they'd go this way and that way and
all of this. And the reason was because we
didn't have a polished shaft. Because you see, an arrow, in
order for an arrow to be true, in order for it to hit its mark
exactly, it has to be perfectly straight. And it has to have
no wind resistant to it. And that's what the Lord Jesus
Christ was in the hand of the living God. As a man who came
to die for sinners, He was a polished shaft. He was that one who was
perfectly fitted for that role that He came to perform And he hit his mark exactly. You see, when men shoot at a
target, if they get close, they think they've done pretty good. But the Lord hit the bullseye,
because He came to do, He came and accomplished exactly what
He set out to do. Now, we might shoot at a target,
and we all intend to hit the bullseye, but we really kind
of think it's kind of an odd thing if we do. We expect to
miss it, do we not? Well, he came, he expected to
hit it, and he did. And he shall see of the travail
of his soul, and shall be satisfied. And in his quiver hath he hid
me. You know, a quiver is that bag, for lack of a better term,
that an archer keeps his arrows in. And in the quiver of the
Lord, the Lord hid the Lord Jesus Christ until such time as it
pleased Him to reveal Him unto men. And in the time, at the
appointed time, You see, the Lord Jesus Christ didn't just
come at any time. He came at the right time. He came at the time appointed.
He didn't come a minute too soon. He didn't come a minute too late.
He came at the right time, when it pleased God, because it was
a time which was ordained at the time that the world was created. The world was not created and
then the Lord decided what to do as He went along, but He said
it and it was done. And His purpose in the creation
of the world is to bring glory to His name. And we read as we
get further into that chapter, He said He did this for His name's
sake. You see, all the things that
God has done, He's done for His name's sake. Now, the modern
mindset of looking at what God does and has done is He's done
it for man's sake. And men get looking at all the
things that happen in the world and they're thinking about, well,
how does that fit? Well, that doesn't seem like God would do
that because that doesn't benefit man. Well, the Lord didn't create
the world to benefit men. He created the world to bring
glory to His name in the sending of His Son into the world to
redeem a people in Jesus Christ. And He will have glory in all
things, everything. All the stuff that has happened
in the world, everything from the wickedest man that ever lived
to the most glorious thing that has ever transpired on earth,
all of it will redound unto the glory of God. And every knee
shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Christ is the Lord. Yes, you see, all things. offer the purpose of the glory
of God. And He has manifested that in
the giving of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And what a glorious
place we are here, dear brethren, in the day of salvation. Behold,
this is the accepted time. Now is the day of salvation.
Jesus Christ has come into the world and manifested Himself
as that one sent from God, as that one who is the Savior of
sinners. And he said, "...and I, if I
be lifted up, will draw all men unto me." I'll draw all the men
that I'm intended to draw is what he means. Have I won? He says, I'm going to draw them
all. I'm going to bring them to myself. Because he is that
polyshaft. He is that one sent by God. He
is that one to accomplish that which God has set forth that
should be accomplished.