We'll be here this morning. Let's
always remember, as Brother Tim brought forth, that we're here
by divine appointment. What a blessing it is to be able
to gather together. Open your Bibles, if you would,
to Isaiah chapter 57. Isaiah chapter 57. Our text will be in verse 18,
but we're going to read the whole chapter today, where we will
see in verse 18 a clear declaration of God's free grace. And that's
the name of the message, it's a declaration of God's free grace. A declaration of God's free grace.
Isaiah 57, we're starting in verse 1. The righteous perisheth, and
no man laith it to hard, and merciful men are taken away,
none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to
come. He shall enter into peace, and they shall rest in their
beds, each one walking in his uprightness. But draw near hither,
ye sons of the sorceress, the seed of the adulterer and whore,
against whom do you sport yourself, against whom make ye a wide mouth
and draw out the tongue. Are you not children of transgression,
the seed of falsehood? Inflaming yourselves with idols, Under every green tree, slaying
the children in the valleys, under the cliffs of the rocks,
among the smooth stones of the stream, is thy portion. They are thy lots. Even to them
hast thou poured a drink offering. Thou hast offered a meat offering.
Should I receive comfort in these? On the lofty and high mountain
hast thou set thy bed. even thither, when is thou up
to offer sacrifice? Behold the doors also, and the
posts hast thou set up, thy remembrance, for thou hast discovered thyself
to another than me. And art gone up, thou hast enlarged
thy bed, and made thee a covenant with them, thou lovest their
bed, where thou sawest it. And thou wentest to the king
with ointment, didst increase thy perfumes, and didst send
thy messengers far off, and didst debase thyself even unto hell. Thou art wearied in the greatness
of thy way. Yet saidst thou not, there is
no hope, thou hast found life, the life of thy man, therefore
thou wast not grieved. And of whom hast thou been afraid
or feared? that thou hast lied and hast
not remembered me, nor laid it to thy heart. Have not I held
my peace, even of old, and thou fearest me not? I will declare
thy righteousness in thy works, for they shall not profit thee.
When thou cryest, let thy companies deliver thee, but the wind shall
carry them all away. Vandy shall take them, but he
that predestines trust in me shall possess the land and shall
inherit My holy mountain. Now in the next verses we'll
see comfort for the contrite in spirit, comfort for God's
people. In verse 14, actually let's read verse 13.
When thou cryest, let thy companies deliver thee, but the wind shall
carry them all away. Vanity shall take them, but he
that putteth his trust in me shall possess the land and shall
inherit my holy mountain. and shall say, cast ye up, cast
ye up, prepare the way, take up the stumbling out of the way
of my people. For thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabits
eternity, whose name is holy, I dwell in the high and holy
place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit,
to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the
contrite ones. For I will not contend forever,
neither will I be always wroth, for my spirit shall fail before
me in the souls which I have made, for the iniquity of his
covetousness was I wroth and smote him. I hid me and was wroth,
and he went on forwardly in the way of his heart. And here is
our text for today. I have seen his ways and will
heal him. I will lead him also and restore
comforts unto him and to his mourners. I create the fruit
of the lips, peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him
that is near, saith the Lord, I will heal him. But the wicked
are like the troubled sea. When it cannot rest, whose waters
cast up mire and dirt, there is no peace, saith my God, to
the wicked. Now take note of the declaration,
the declaration in verse 15, that God makes of himself. And remember our study in Sunday
school, where we looked at our God as infinite, that he is unbound. He's bound to no one. He's outside
of time and space. And this scripture clearly declares
that too, we see here. For thus saith the high and lofty
one, the lofty one that inhabited
eternity, whose name is holy. That's who he is. He's holy.
He's Jehovah. He's the self-existent one. He's
absolute holiness. I dwell in the high and holy
place with him that also that is of a contrite and humble spirit,
to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the
contrite one. So he declares very clearly here in scripture
that he is the high and lofty one. He is high above the earth, high
above the earth, high above all the nations of the earth. He's
above all the kings of the earth, all the leaders of the earth.
Thus, He's called in Scripture, the King of kings and the Lord
of lords. And note, He inhabits eternity. He's outside of time and space.
We are constrained by time and space. But He's outside of time
and space. He inhabits eternity. Eternity. And beloved, He is from everlasting
to everlasting. With no beginning and no end. That's our God. That's the infinite
one. That's the self-existent one,
which Jehovah means. The self-existent one. He is
the first and the last. Angels and men have a beginning.
God is from eternity. He has no beginning and no end. He inhabits one undivided uninterrupted
eternity. To which time is a mere point
or moment. All of time. So I ask you this. He who is the high and lofty
one, he who inhabits eternity, is he able to save his people
from their sins? If he is unbound, if he is all
powerful and almighty, does he need our help to save us? Absolutely
not. We can't save ourselves. We can't
at all. But the one who saves his people
from their sins, the Lord Jesus Christ, was God incarnate in
the flesh, the infinite one, the self-existent one. He needs no help from no one.
Is he able to save his people? Well, the answer is a resounding
yes. Is he able to deliver us from
our enemies? Yes. With no effort at all. Now we
know that there was a great cost to our salvation, don't we? We
know that. We know that. The Lord Jesus
Christ came to this earth and lived the perfect life that we
could never live. Did everything perfect. As our
substitute, as a substitute of his people. That which is impossible for
us, we'll look at that later on. That which is impossible
for man, Christ does for his people because all things are
possible with God. And he is the great substitute
of his people. He is the great savior, the redeemer. And who is he? He is the infinite
one. God himself became flesh. God himself became a man. The
one who inhabits eternity. It's too much for our minds almost,
isn't it? Oh my. He is able, and only He
is able to save sinners. Scripture here declares that
He's higher than the heavens. And we know He's higher than
the angels. He's higher than this world. He's higher than
all things in this world. You know His knowledge surpasses
all other knowledge. The wisdom of man doesn't even
come close to the wisdom of God. He's all-knowing. And He's almighty. So not only
does He have the ability to save us from our sins, beloved, which
we have no ability to save ourselves, but He has all power to save
us, and we have no power to save ourselves. See, we lack ability
and we lack power, but we look to the One who has all power,
and all ability to save us from our sins. Our great God, our
great God. And think, he left glory, the
Lord Jesus Christ left glory to come to this world to redeem
his people from their sins. And he did it willingly. And
God sent him. My, what a Savior. The Father sent him. He's able to save. He's higher
than the heavens. Higher than this world. He's
exalted above all the praises of His people, too. His thoughts
are not our thoughts. And His ways are definitely not
our ways. Again, remember, we are constrained
by time and space. He's not. That's why the Scripture
declares that He does whatever He pleases with the armies of
heaven and all the inhabitants of the world. Everything is at
His beck and call. Everything. He is pure holiness, beloved.
He is pure righteousness. He's the Ancient of Days, the
Scripture declares. He's the High and Lofty One we
see here, the One who inhabits eternity. And His name is holy. And He dwells in a high and holy
place. In God's people, we reverence
the name of Jehovah, don't we? We reverence the self-existent
One. We didn't before we were saved. But now, that name is
precious. Jesus, my Savior and my King. Precious name. A precious name. So God's people reverence Jehovah,
reverence our Savior, reverence our Redeemer. And we see here
in verse 18 a clear declaration of God's free and sovereign grace.
Let's look at that verse right there. I have seen his ways and
will heal him. I will lead him also and restore
comforts unto him and to his mourners. I have seen his ways,
this is speaking of man and his people, and will heal him. I
will lead him also and restore comforts unto him and to his
mourners. Now we know God's speaking to
Israel and we know Israel is a picture of the church. Our
all-knowing God knows all the actions of sinful man. All the
actions. And note the scripture here says,
I have seen his ways. Well, he's seen the ways of unsaved
man, and he sees the ways of saved man. Nothing escapes his
sight. Turn, if you would, to Proverbs
5. Proverbs 5, verse 21. Proverbs 5, verse 21. And then
put your finger in Proverbs 21. And we're gonna look at this
in light of, I have seen his ways. So nothing escapes the
eye of God. Proverbs 5.21, the scripture
declares, for the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord,
and he pondereth all his goings. Everything is laid bare before
the Lord. Our thoughts, our actions, they're
all laid bare before the Lord. He knows our ways. He knows our
ways. Now look over at Proverbs 21. Proverbs 21. And let's look at
verse 8 here. With all this in mind. With all
this in mind. It says this. The way of man
is forward. The way of man is forward. And
strange. But as for the pure, his work
is right. Now notice there's a contrast
here. The way of man is forward and strange. Now we're gonna
look at this and we're gonna see that's man's natural state.
Forward in the Hebrew here means very perverse. It speaks of something
crooked. It speaks of something crooked,
something perverted, devious. It describes the winding, crooked,
serpentine path of a guilty person, a crooked path. Now that's our
natural state, beloved. We're dead in trespasses and
sins. We all fell in Adam. The word strange there means
guilty one. Well, what are we in Adam? We're
dead in trespasses and sins and we're guilty before God. So think upon this in our natural
state again. We all come into this world dead
in trespasses and sins, dead spiritually to the things of
God. And we know that we will remain in that state unless God
reveals himself to us through the preaching of his word. And we are sinners from the top
of our head to the bottom of our feet. And after we're saved,
we're but saved sinners, aren't we? Because every one of us struggle
with sin. Oh my. But we've obtained mercy.
We've obtained mercy. So the word strains there means
guilty one. Guilty one. And think of this.
We're guilty before God. We're guilty before His law.
We're guilty before His justice in our natural state. Guilty,
guilty, guilty. So tie that in with our text
in Isaiah 57 in verse 18 at the very beginning where it says,
I have seen His ways. God knows our natural state,
doesn't He? He knows our natural state. And we see that man is
in a dreadful state. Again in Proverbs 21.8 it says,
The way of man is forward and strange, but as for the pure,
his work is right. Now note, but as for the pure,
his work is right. Now the word pure in Proverbs
21.8 in Hebrew means pure, clean. It's derived from related verbs,
which means to be clear or pure. And this Hebrew word is often
used to describe objects used in the worship of God, such as
pure oil or frankincense. It also denotes the purity of
the righteousness of Christ. Now keep in mind that the only
way we can be called pure is to be clothed in the perfect,
spotless righteousness of Christ. That's the only way. In the righteousness
of another. Washed by the precious blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And as I said earlier, though
we're still sinners, we're saved. We who believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's the head and we're the body. Let's go back to our
text in Isaiah 57 and look at verse 18 again. I have seen his ways and will
heal him. I will lead him also and restore
comforts unto him and to his mourners. So note here in our text that
God has seen the ways of man, and we know from Proverbs 21,
21, eight. That the way of natural man is
crooked and perverse and guilty. We're in a guilty state. We know
that. We're sinners. We're born sinners. That's our natural state. Now
turn to Romans chapter 3, we'll look at verses 9 to 20. Our natural
state before God is guilty. Guilty. Guilty before the justice
of God. Guilty before the law of God.
The Bible has pronounced that all men in our natural state
are guilty. Plainly, very, very plainly declared
in this text here in Romans 9, we'll start at verse 9, we'll
read to 20. What then, are we better than they? No, and no
wise, for we have before proved that both Jews and Gentiles,
that they are all under sin, all of us. There's not one person
in this earth who is not born dead in trespasses and sins. That's our natural state. As
it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one. And the
scripture means what it says. In our natural state, there is
no one righteous before God. There's no way that we can be
accepted by God in our natural state by our works or by our
doing. Absolutely no way. No way. There is none that understandeth. We looked at that today. Who,
by searching, can find out God? We looked at that this morning
in Sunday school. No one can. Unless God reveals Himself to
us, we will never know Him. Because there is none that understandeth. And there is also none that seeketh
God. We don't seek God naturally. He makes us willing, the scripture
says, in the day of His power. And then we run to Christ, beloved. And all do we run to Him, don't
we? When we're made willing in the day of His power. They are
all gone out of the way. They are all together become
unprofitable. There is none that doeth good. No, not one. Their throat is an open sepulcher.
With their tongues they have used deceit. The poison of asbestos
under their lips. whose mouth is full of cursing
and bitterness, their feet are swift to shed blood, destruction
and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace they have
not known. There is no fear of God in their eyes. Now we know
that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are
under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world
may become guilty before God. Now look at this wonderful verse
in 20. Therefore by the deeds of the
law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight. For by
the laws and knowledge of sin, what does the law of God do?
It reveals to us our sinfulness. it reveals to us our sin. We
can't be justified by keeping the law. Now God's people, we
don't want to go contrary to that. I don't know any of God's
people who want to go out and murder or do other things. We don't. We don't want to. The love of Christ constrains
us, doesn't it? But the belief, no one can be
justified by the law. How are we justified? In and
through Christ, by faith in Christ, who kept the law in our place. Wonder of wonders! Oh my, what
a Savior! What a Redeemer is Jesus Christ,
our Lord. Let's go back to our text. So
we see there in Romans chapter 3, and we've seen in Proverbs
chapter 21, that man is worthy of death, because we know the
wages of sin is death. In the soul that sinneth, it
shall die. So we may well expect that the next thing that would
be mentioned would be a declaration of the judgment of God upon the
people who God has seen their ways. But here we see before us, beloved,
A declaration of God's free and sovereign grace right here before
us. Look at this. I have seen his
ways. He's seen us in our natural state.
Look at this. And we'll heal him. I will lead
him also and restore comforts unto him and to his mourners.
The Lord proclaims that he will be merciful to his people. He'll
be merciful to sinners. I have seen His ways. Nothing
hidden from the Lord, is there? Nothing hidden. And will heal
Him. I will lead Him also and restore comforts unto Him. Beloved,
be amazed here at God's everlasting love for His covenant people,
for His elect, for those He chose in Christ in eternity. He shows
us mercy. As Paul wrote, I've obtained
mercy. He shows us mercy in Christ. Nothing in us would merit this
mercy. Nothing we do would merit this
mercy. And nothing we can do can gain
this mercy. Because we saw what our natural
state is in Proverbs 21, verse 8. And we saw what our natural
state is in Romans, chapter 3. And we saw what our natural state
is at the beginning. I have seen His ways. This mercy, beloved, this mercy
comes from God Himself. And you know what it is? It's
all according to the pleasure of His will. It's all according
to the pleasure of His will. Here in this verse, He declares
His gracious intentions towards His chosen people. Let's read
it again. I have seen his ways and will
heal him. I will lead him also and restore
comforts unto him and to his mourners. Look at this. I have
seen his ways and will heal him. Will heal him. This is not talking
a healing of the body, but this is talking of a healing of the
soul. Go a couple of chapters back
to Isaiah 53 and look what the Scriptures declare in Isaiah
53. The Lord Jesus Christ died and is
our substitute on Calvary's cross. Why? He died on Calvary's cross
that we might be saved from our sins. He came to save his people
from their sins. Folks often think, well, yeah,
he saved me from hell, but more importantly, he saved us from
our sins. Hell's what we would deserve. But he saved us from our sins.
He saved us from that which we could never save ourselves from. Isaiah 53 verses 2 to 6, For
he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root
out of a dry ground. He hath no form nor commonness, and when
we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire
him. The Lord Jesus Christ didn't stand out from amongst men. He
was fully man, and yet fully God. He is despised
and rejected of men. We read that all through the
New Testament, don't we? The religious who's who of his
day despised him and hated him. He's despised, and you know what?
We despised him before we were saved too. He's despised and rejected a
man, a man of sorrows and acquainted with griefs. And we hid as it
were our faces from Him. He was despised and we esteemed
Him not. Surely He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem Him stricken,
smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for what?
Our transgressions. My sin. He was bruised for our iniquities.
That's all the elect of all the ages. And each believer can say,
my sins, my iniquities. And the chastisement of our peace
was upon Him. We've been reconciled with God.
We have peace with God, how? Through Christ Jesus our Lord.
We were once enemies with Him. Shaken our fists at Him in our
minds and by our actions and by our words. But now He's reconciled
us to God. Chastisement of our peace was
upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. By the shedding
of his precious blood, he purchased his people. A number that no
man can number. A number that no man can number. All we like sheep have gone astray. Remember Proverbs 21, 8? We're
all crooked, aren't we? We're all gone astray. We've
turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on him
the iniquity of us all. What did Christ say? He said,
I'll lay down my life for the sheep. He laid down his life for his
people. Note verse 5 there. He was wounded
for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes
we are healed. Now sin is an incurable disease.
that cannot be healed except by the Lord. And the healing
of this disease is to be had only through the substitutionary
sacrifice of the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn,
if you would, to Matthew chapter 19. Matthew chapter 19. Our Lord is speaking to a rich
young man. And note in verse 16 what this
young man says. We see here that he's looking
for something that he must do to gain eternal life. Now this
is the natural man state. We know we're wired for works
when we come into this world. We are. We're wired for works. to think that salvation is fully
dependent upon Christ and Christ alone, that we have a complete
acceptance in and through Christ alone, not according to us or
our works, goes against the grain of natural man. Look at this, look what this
young man says. And behold, one came and said
unto him, good master, what good thing shall I do? Well, there's
the problem right there. But that's natural man. I used
to think that my good would outweigh my bad when I got before God. Boy, was I wrong, because it's
all bad. But look at this. What good thing
shall I do that I may have eternal life? And he said unto him, Why
callst thou me good? There is none good but one, that
is God. But if thou will enter into life,
keep the commandments. Can we keep one commandment?
No. He saith unto him, Which Jesus
said, Thou shalt do no murder, thou shalt not commit adultery,
thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness, honour
thy father and thy mother, and thou shalt love thy neighbour
as thyself. The young man said unto him,
All these things have I kept from my youth, what lack I yet? Oh my goodness. Jesus said unto him, If thou
wilt be perfect, go and sell thou, and sell that thou hast,
and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven,
and come and follow me. But when the young man heard
that, saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possession,
he was covetous. Then Jesus said unto his disciples,
Verily, verily, I say unto you, that a rich man shall hardly
enter into the kingdom of heaven. And again I say unto you, it
is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for
a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. Now look at the
response of his disciples, okay? When his disciples heard it,
they were exceedingly amazed, saying, who then can be saved? That would be our answer too,
wouldn't it? Well, who then can be saved? And remember that the rich young
man had said, what must I do? Note the answer that our Lord
gives to his disciples. To the question of who then can
be saved, but Jesus beheld them and said unto them with man,
this is impossible. That means impossible. That word
means impossible. Salvation by man's works can
never be obtained. Acceptance with God by the works
of man is impossible. Why? Well, because there's none
that understand it. There's none good. There's none
righteous. No, not one. But look it, look
it. The Lord doesn't just leave them there. Look at this. But
with God, all things are possible. You know what? Salvation is of
the Lord. Period. It's all God. It's all of Him. And it's wonderful. It's absolutely marvelous. With
man it is impossible. So think of our text. As God
knows the ways of man, and think of what we're looking at back
in Isaiah 57 verse 18. That salvation by man is impossible. I've seen his ways. It's impossible
for man to save himself. And then note the declaration.
I've seen his ways and will heal him. And will heal him. What a declaration of God's free
and sovereign grace in and through Christ alone. And what we saw
there over there in Matthew 19, God in the flesh declared that
man trying to save themselves is impossible. But He didn't
leave them there, did He? He said, but with God all things
are possible. With God all things are possible.
What a great physician we have in Christ. What a great physician. Salvation is only in and through
Him. And in Christ, the believer in Christ has the forgiveness
of all their sins. All their sins, because He bore
them all. He paid everything that God demanded for our sins.
Everything that we could never pay, because it's impossible
for us to save ourselves. But if Christ saves you, salvation
is not just possible, it's a fact. Oh, my. Oh, my. It's a fact. And think of this. That which we could never pay.
The Lord Jesus Christ bore the suffering. Of the infinite wrath
of God for us in our place, that that which was deserving us,
he bore it all. The God man bore it all. He bore
it all. And only by His sacrifice are
the chosen people of God healed from our sin sick state. It's
wonderful. So we have right here a declaration
of God's free and sovereign grace. I've seen His ways. And we'll heal Him. And we'll
heal Him. And it continues. Now look at
this. I will lead Him also. Oh, again,
we see here divine leadership, beloved. And remember, who's
the one making this declaration? God, who is infinite. God, who
is all-powerful. He says, I will lead. Which means
here, lead His people. I'll lead them also. And think
of who it is who leads us to Christ. The Holy Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit of God leads
us to Christ. Leads us to the One who is the
way, the truth, and the life. Leads us to the One who is God
incarnate in the flesh. And it is only in Christ that
we find the full forgiveness of all our sins. All of them. Only in Christ do we find the
righteousness with which God is pleased with. Because there's
none righteous, no, not one. But the believer is clothed in
the perfect, spotless righteousness of Christ. Only in Christ do we find an
inheritance that is undefiled and eternal. Because it's God
who has purchased that inheritance for us. God the Son. Turn, if you would, over to Isaiah
chapter 42. Isaiah chapter 42. And we will
never know, we will never know God unless He reveals Himself
to us. Praise God He does. And we find out when He reveals
Himself to us, we find out that our God is a God full of grace. And a God full of mercy. Oh how
merciful He is to His people in and through Christ. And how He leads us when we're
in our natural state. The Holy Spirit leads us to Christ.
We're born again by the Holy Spirit of God. And again we flee
right to Christ. We who are blind can now see. Look at this in Isaiah 42, 16.
And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not. Oh,
Christ is the way. We were once blind. Blind to
the things of God. Blind to the things of Christ. I will lead them in paths that
they have not known. He does. He leads us all through
this world. He leads us through trials. He
leads us through tribulation. He leads us through persecution.
He leads us in one day here to take us home. Look at this. I will make darkness light before
them. And remember in Proverbs, which spoke of the crooked things
and crooked things straight. Oh, my beloved. crooked things
straight, these things will I do unto them and not, what, look
at this, forsake them. God takes we who are dead and
trespasses in sins and we're born again by the Holy Spirit
of God. We who were crooked by nature
and he makes us straight, he puts us in the path of the Lord,
the way of the Lord, beloved. It's wonderful. It's absolutely
wonderful. And then he says, the God who
is infinite says to us, I'll not forsake you. I'll not forsake
you. No matter what you go through.
I'm never going to leave you. This is so merciful. What a merciful
God. And remember, in Matthew 19,
the Lord told our disciples that salvation by man's work is impossible. And again, Proverbs 8, man's
ways were crooked and perverse. Scripture also declares this,
I will bring the blind by way that they knew not. Right there
in that text. I'll lead them in paths that
they have not known. Did you know the way of the Lord before
he saved you? We may have heard his name, we
may have used his name as a Bible, but we knew nothing about him
really, did we? He's revealed himself to his
people, and he's marvelous in our eyes. He's marvelous, and
we see, we can look back in our lives, can't we? We can look
back even before we were saved and see how he protected us and
kept us. And then after he saved us, we
can look back so many times and see how he's led us and kept
us, and he never forsook us, beloved. And he never will. He will never forsake his people,
never. Turn to Revelation chapter 7.
Revelation chapter 7, if you would. Oh, He leads us. This is divine
leadership, beloved. Revelation chapter 7, we'll read
verses 9 to 17. After this I beheld and lo a
great multitude which no man could number. Verse 9. Of all
nations and kindreds and peoples and tongues stood before the
throne and before the Lamb clothed with white robes and palms in
their hands. And those white robes represent
the pure spotless righteousness of Christ, beloved. That every
believer is clothed. And that's the wedding garment.
That's the best robe that the Father said to put on the prodigal.
That's the best robe, beloved. That's the wedding garment. And
cry with a loud voice saying... And what do God's people say?
Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne and unto the
Lamb. And all the angels stood round about the throne and about
the elders and the four beasts and fell before the throne to
their faces and worshipped God. They're falling before God who
is infinite. God who is sovereign. God who
is almighty. That's the God of the Bible,
beloved. And they're falling down before
Him and they're worshipping Him, beloved. Oh my. And what do they say? Amen. Blessing and glory and wisdom
and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be unto our God
forever and ever. Amen. And one of the elders answered,
saying unto me, what are these which are arrayed in white robes?
And whence come they? And I said unto him, sir, thou
knowest. And he said to me, they are they
which come out of great tribulation, have washed their robes and made
them white in the blood of the Lamb. I remember Brother Norm
Wells bringing forth, you know what the great tribulation is?
This life. is great tribulation for the
believer in Christ. Great tribulation. Trials. Temptations come our way constantly. Battling with the flesh. It's
a great tribulation, beloved. Oh my. And have washed the robes
and made them white in what? The blood of the Lamb. Clothed
in the pure, spotless righteousness of Christ. Therefore are they
before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in the
temple. And he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among
them. They shall have hunger no more, neither thirst any more.
Neither shall the sunlight on them, nor any heat. Now look
at this in verse 17 in light of God's divine leadership. Well,
we're here on this earth and even look at this for the lamb
which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them and shall
lead them into living waters. It live in fountains of waters
and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. He never leave
his people nor forsake his people and he leads us beloved. He leads
us. So we've looked at today how
only the Lord can heal us from this plague of sin. And we've
considered how the Lord leads us all through this life, bringing
us to Christ, and ultimately to glory to be with Him. Now
let us consider the last part of this verse. It is He who restores
us. And we read this at the latter
part of this verse. And again, what a declaration.
of God's free and sovereign grace here before us. I have seen his
ways and will heal him. I will lead him also and restore
comforts unto him and to his mourners. Look at this and restore
comforts unto him and his mourners. Here we see divine restoration,
divine restoration. The Lord brings us to what? Mourn
over our sin. We mourn over our sin, don't
we? God's people, we mourn more over our sin than other people's
sins. See, that's the problem in religion.
Everybody's pointing fingers at everybody else, and the believer's
saying with the publican, God be merciful to me, the sinner. We mourn over our sin, don't
we? We mourn over our sin, but God comforts us. He comforts
his people through the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
comforts his people when the gospel declares that our sins,
though there are many, a number that we can't number, they've
all been covered by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh,
what comfort God's people can glean from that. Forgiven, washed
clean by the blood of the Lamb. And marvel at this wonderful
fact, you who are born again, blood-bought child of God, that
God has graciously forgiven you All your sins, how? By the sacrifice
of Christ. By the sacrifice of Christ, the
Lord Jesus Christ. And through Christ and Christ
alone, God has restored his people who fell in Adam to what? Full
communion with him. In and through Christ. In and
through Christ alone. So I ask that you then who are
the redeemed of the Lord, you who are his chosen people, You
who are the recipients of this grace and mercy in and through
Christ. Is this verse that we've not
looked at today, is this not a declaration of God's free and
sovereign grace? I have seen His ways and will
heal Him. I will lead Him also and restore
comforts unto Him and to His mourners. There is nothing here in this
verse about man's worthiness. There's nothing in here, in this
verse, about personal merits, because we have none. We're not
worthy of this grace, and we're not worthy of this mercy. But
there's everything in this verse to excite the ransomed heart
of God, the blood-bought child of God, to magnify God's free
grace, to magnify His sovereign grace in and through Christ,
to magnify the mercy that we have received in Christ. Notwithstanding
our guilt, He loved us. Oh, beloved, He's loved His people
for eternity. He loved us even when we did
not love Him. Scripture declares we love Him
because He first loved us. My, what a Savior. What a Redeemer. And so God's people, we give
Him all the praise and all the glory and all the honor, don't
we? What a Redeemer, what a Savior is Jesus Christ, our Lord. Heavenly
Father, we thank You for the Scriptures which we've looked
at today. Oh, we thank You for a very clear and plain declaration
of Your free and sovereign grace. And we who are the recipients
of Your mercy and grace, we know that we We were dead in trespasses
and sins. We know we had no hope. And we
know even now we're but saved sinners, but we rejoice, we rejoice
in this wondrous salvation. We rejoice in the wondrous grace
and mercy which has been given to us in and through Christ Jesus
our Lord. And Lord, we pray that there's
one here that does not know you, oh Lord. Oh, that you would give
them eyes to see you and ears, ears to hear through the preaching
of your word, that you draw them to Christ just as you draw every
one of your people. We love you and we praise you.
We'll be quick to give you all the glory and honor and praise
in Jesus' name. Amen.