Well, good morning to everyone.
Can't believe it's the last day already, can you? But we won't
cry about it yet. We still got blessings to enjoy
for then. We're going to open our service.
Brother Dan Morgan is going to come read scripture and lead
us in prayer. Brother Dan, you come. If you would open your Bibles
to Isaiah chapter 40. I'm gonna read from the 40th
chapter of Isaiah, verses one through 11. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people,
saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem,
and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity
is pardoned. For she hath received of the
Lord's hand double for all her sins. The voice of him that crieth
in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight
in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted,
and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked
shall be made straight, and the rough places plain. And the glory
of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together,
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it. The voice said, cry. And he said, what shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and the goodliness
thereof is as the flower of the field. The grass withereth, the
flower fadeth, because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it.
Surely the people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower
fadeth, the word of our God shall stand forever. O Zion, that bringest
good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain. O Jerusalem,
that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength. Lift
it up, be not afraid. Say unto the cities of Judah,
behold our God. Behold, the Lord God will come
with strong hand, and his arm shall rule him. Behold, his reward
is with him in his work before him. He shall feed his flock
like a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs in
his arm and carry them in his bosom. He shall gently lead those
that are with him. The Lord bless his word. Let's
pray. Our holy Righteous Heavenly Father,
we're so thankful for this week that you've given us. Lord, you've
enabled men to stand before us and proclaim our Lord Jesus Christ. And we pray, Lord, that you would
bless us once more. Leave us not alone. but send
your spirit to be among us. Give a word from on high to the
men who stand here this morning that they might proclaim our Lord Jesus Christ. And give us hearing ears, Lord,
and receiving hearts. Cause us to look to Christ. our double cure. What a blessing
to know that not only miraculously, wondrously, are our sins punished
in our substitute, but we're given the very righteousness
of God in him. What a wondrous mystery. Lord, we can't understand it
with our feeble minds, but we can rejoice with it in the new
man that thou hast made us whole. Father, we ask that you would
bless each family here. Thank you for bringing us. We
pray that you would show your tender mercies. We pray, Lord,
especially for our young people. They're such a blessing to us,
and we pray, Lord, that you would You would cause them to see their
need for Christ, cause them to run to our Lord, to fall at his
feet and cling to him. Lord, who can think of no greater
blessing on this earth than to see our children come to Christ,
come to a saving knowledge and love for our Lord. We pray that you would watch
over us as we go out into the world. Cause us to show forth
the love of Christ in all that we do. May we not have pride of grace,
but as sinners saved by grace, point other sinners dead in sin. to the one who can
give life, who can quicken our souls. Father, what we ask for
this congregation here, this local body, we pray for wherever
men stand to proclaim the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Leave
them not alone, but use those means of preaching to call your
sheep into the fold. We ask all these things in that
blessed name above every name, our Lord Jesus Christ, amen. If you would turn in your bulletin,
we're gonna start with our call to worship and please stand as
we sing. And we're gonna continue standing after that with our
next song. So you'll have your hymnals handy. Great God, thy glory and thy
love our humble songs employ. In mercy from thy throne above, Thy presence and Thy glory, Lord,
fill all the realms of space. O let Thy presence, by Thy Word,
divinely fill this place. This hymn declares the solemn
sound of holy worship here. May every saint with joy abound
with reverential fear. Eternal Spirit, heavenly dove,
descend and fill this place. Reveal the Savior's matchless
love and the wonders of His grace. Okay, if you would, turn now
to song number 454. Christ has for sin atoned, but
made what a wonderful Savior. We are redeemed, the price is
paid, what a wonderful Savior. What a wonderful Savior is Jesus,
my Jesus! What a wonderful Savior is Jesus,
my Lord! I praise Him for the cleansing
blood, what a wonderful Savior! That reconciled my soul to God,
what a wonderful Savior! What a wonderful Savior is Jesus,
my Jesus! What a wonderful Savior is Jesus,
my Lord! He cleansed my heart from all
its sin, What a wonderful Savior! And now He reigns and rules therein,
What a wonderful Savior! What a wonderful Savior is Jesus,
my Jesus! What a wonderful Savior is Jesus,
my Lord! He gives me overcoming power,
what a wonderful Savior! And triumph in each trying hour,
what a wonderful Savior! What a wonderful Savior is Jesus,
my Jesus! What a wonderful Savior is Jesus,
my Lord! To Him I've given all my heart,
what a wonderful Savior! The world shall never share a
part, what a wonderful Savior! One wonderful Savior is Jesus,
my Jesus. One wonderful Savior is Jesus,
my Lord. So, Lord Jesus, I long to be perfectly
whole. I want Thee forever to live in
my soul. Break down every idol, cast out
every foe. Now wash me and I shall be wider
than snow. Lord Jesus, look down from thy
throne in the skies, and help me to make a complete sacrifice. I give up myself and whatever
I know, now watch me and I shall be wiser than snow. Wider than snow, yes, wider than
snow. Now watch me and I shall be wider
than snow. Lord Jesus, for this I most humbly
entreat. I wait, blessed Lord, at Thy
crucified feet. By faith, for my cleansing, I
see thy blood flow. Now wash me, and I shall be whiter
than snow. Lord Jesus, Thou seest I patiently
wait. Come now, and within me a new
heart create. To those who have sought Thee,
Thou never saidst no. Now wash me, and I shall be whiter
than snow. Whiter than snow, yes, whiter
than snow. Now watch me and I shall be whiter
than snow. That was beautiful, thanks. Now, many of you may have come
this morning expecting to hear Brother Donnie Bell preach I
didn't want to get you here under false pretenses, but he had to
return home. Bruce Crabtree was scheduled
to preach for Donnie this weekend, but Bruce ended up having two
funerals to preach, one yesterday, one tomorrow. So Donnie went
home, and I said, well, I'll take your place. I want to speak
to you for a few minutes about something that's been on my heart
quite a bit recently. In every congregation, every
time we meet together to preach, to worship our God, there are
always several different types of people in every congregation. There are those who are lost.
They don't believe Christ. They don't know Christ. Maybe
they hate the gospel. They're there for whatever reason,
and maybe they're there, and they just have no interest. There's just no interest in hearing
Christ preach, because they don't have a need of Him. They're lost
and they're without Christ. And I can't tell you how much
I'd like to preach a message that the Lord might use to reveal
himself to them and save them. Then there are believers. And
even those believers, they differ in spiritual maturity. They differ in experience, differ
in their backgrounds. They're babes in Christ. They're
young men, young women in Christ. old men and old women in Christ.
They all believe Christ, but now they differ in growth and
maturity. I sure would like to preach a
message that God would use to edify their hearts, strengthen
their faith in Christ. Then there are believers who
are on the mountaintop. They're just experiencing such
a time of spiritual growth. It just seems like every time
they hear a message, it just blesses them so much, and the
Lord's just using this time to teach them so much. And I sure
don't want to mess that up. I sure would like to preach a
message that would bless their hearts. In the end, there are
believers who are in a time of trouble, in trial. They're like
our brother David. They're crying out to the Lord
from the depths. They know the Lord. They believe
Christ. They trust Christ. But they're
in a real trial of faith, and they're hurting. And I can't
tell you how much I like to preach a message that might comfort
their hearts. Now, it'd take quite a while
to preach a different message to all those people, wouldn't
it? I like being efficient. I thought,
wouldn't it just be more efficient if you could preach one message
that would satisfy every need of all those different kinds
of people? And you know there is. It's the gospel of our Lord
Jesus Christ. It's preaching Christ. It's talking
about Christ. It's glorifying Christ. I don't
care who you are. I don't care what you're going
through. The message of Christ will meet
your needs. And I sure would like to do that
this morning, to preach Christ, to hear who he is. What did he
do? Why did he do it? Where is he
now? That answers the need of every
person here this morning. That's the gospel that God uses
to save the lost. It's the gospel he uses to give
milk to babes, meat to strong believers. And it is the message
that God uses to continue to bless that one who's on the mountaintop
and to comfort those who are in the valley of trouble. And
that's the message I want to preach this morning. Now, if
you would turn with me to Isaiah chapter 40, I've titled the message,
The Message for God's People. And there in Isaiah 40, at the
end of verse 9, we find the very heart of the gospel. Behold your
God. The cry of God's preachers is
always, behold your God. Look to Christ. Look to the Lord
for everything that you need. to Christ for everything that
God requires. We have good news. You look to
God. He provides everything He requires. And He'll only accept
what He provides, but He provides it. Look to Christ for everything. Look to Christ for all of your
salvation. Look to Him for your wisdom,
your righteousness, your sanctification, your redemption. Look to Him
as your prophet, your priest, and your king. Look to Christ
to save you. and look to Christ to keep you
saved. Don't go to Christ to be saved and then go to the law
to keep yourself saved. No, you look to Christ to save
you and to keep you saved. You look to Christ to teach you.
Look to Christ to lead you and to guide you. Look to Christ
to bless you and to comfort you. He'll do it for his sheep all
through their journey here below. At one time, a believer is all
of those different people, aren't they? We're the unbeliever, we're
the babe in Christ, the young man in Christ, the old man in
Christ. We're on a mountaintop, we're in the valley. No matter
where it is that the Lord ends up leading you, you look to Him
to lead you and guide you and protect you in all those different
places. The cry of the gospel is behold your God. Look and
live. Look to Him and live. That one
message fits the need of all these different kinds of people.
Let me show you that from our text in four points. Number one
is this. This is the gospel preacher's
message. The message God's given us for
God's people is this. Almighty God has a people. Verse
one. Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people,
saith your God. Now God has a people. They belong
to him. They're his people because he
chose them in divine election. Before God created anything,
he chose to save a people out of the fallen lump of Adam's
race. God created Adam and put him in the garden. God knew Adam
was gonna sin. God knew that. That was all part of God's purpose.
So that when Adam sinned and plunged his whole race into sin
and death, God's purpose could be fulfilled. His greatest glory,
he elected a people out of that fallen, sinful, rotten lump to
save. in his son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
God chose those people even though there was nothing good in them. They couldn't do anything to
make God choose them. They couldn't do anything to
deserve God's electing grace. There are no count, no good rotten
dead sinners and God chose to save them anyway. Now I'm telling
you that's good news. You don't have to be good enough
for God to save you. You don't have to be good enough
for God to choose you. you gotta be bad enough. Or if you just
quit trying to straighten yourself up and clean yourself up a little
bit before you come to Christ and come to Him as you are in
your iniquity and your filth and your sin and your deadness.
That's who God saves. That's who He chose to save.
You don't have to be good enough. God chose sinners to save. And
people say now, I know election's in the Bible, but don't preach
election now, first thing, to the lost because they'll never
come to Christ then. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. We preach
God's electing love first, right off, because this is where salvation
starts. God's electing love. God came
to Ananias one day and he told him, go down there and preach
this fella, Saul of Tarsus. And Ananias said, wait a minute,
I've heard things about this fella. You know why God said
you go preach to him? He's a chosen vessel unto me. You go preach to him. And Ann
and I started out with election, the God of our fathers. He's chosen you. We preach God's
electing love, because that's the only way a sinner could ever
be saved. By our nature, we would never
choose God. Never. What mercy and grace. There is an almighty God that
he choose to save us anyway. He choose a people to save. And
it's that message that will save the lost. That's the only message
God will ever use to save the lost. And it's that message that
will instruct and teach and guide and comfort God's people. Don't
you love to hear of God's electing love? Oh, it comforts your heart. It thrills your heart every time.
Now, you know, we do have a desire. I mean, the gospel is, we're
not gonna ever compromise the gospel, You care about people. You care about them in the flesh,
the things that they're going through, their worries, their
doubts. And we want to comfort God's people, but now we can't
cry, peace, peace. There is no peace. We can't comfort
anyone who does not believe in Christ. And that's why we only
preach Christ and say, behold, you're God. Look to him. Oh,
if God will show you, reveal himself to you, God will let
you see him. You'll have life. You'll be saved. And God will
comfort your heart, give peace to your heart. And we preach
peace and comfort to God's people. God's people in this earth are
sorrowing, tried people. I mean, even when everything's
going just real well with you, you're a sorrowing people. You're
carting around this old dead flesh, this old dead man, just
constantly whispering in your ear. You're not good enough.
You better get to work keeping the law. You better go see what
God says about the law. Just constantly trying to bring
you back into captivity to the law. You need comfort. What comforts your heart? God's
preacher reminding you, you're God's people. God chose you. He bought you. You belong to
Him. And since you belong to Him,
Almighty God, has taken all of the responsibility for your soul. He will save you. If He chose
you, He's gonna save you. And He'll feed you, He'll teach
you, He'll lead you, He'll guide you, He'll bring you into the
valley, but He'll go with you there. He'll comfort you there. And eventually, He's gonna bring
you to glory. Now that's the only message, that that Savior
that does all the saving, that's the message God uses to save
the lost. That's the message God uses to
feed his sheep, to instruct his sheep, and to comfort any believer. And here's something else that'll
comfort you and thrill your heart. If you belong to God, he calls
you my people. You have the right to call him
your God. Your God. If God is your God,
you can lay claim to every promise of salvation and life and grace
and mercy. that you find in this book. God
has a people. They belong to him. All right,
number two. The message that God's given
us for God's people is this. God himself came in the flesh
to save his people. Look at verse three. We'll come
back to verse two in just a moment. Verse three. The voice of him
that crieth in the wilderness, prepare you the way of the Lord.
Make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley should
be exalted, and every mountain and hill should be made low,
and the crooked should be made straight, and the rough places
plain. Now this is a prophecy of the
ministry of John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ. And
John's message was, the long-awaited Messiah is coming. He's almost
here. And John had the blessed privilege
to say, here he is. Behold, the Lamb of God, which
taketh away the sin of the world. John's message was the same as
Isaiah's, wasn't it? Behold your God. Here he is,
he's coming to flesh to save his people. John's message was,
his ministry was, to prepare the hearts of God's people. He
preached a message of repentance. He prepared the hearts of God's
people so that they would believe on Christ the Savior when he
came. See, John preached a message of repentance. He was preaching
that sinners must repent. Now, you don't need God's prophet
to come tell you that you need to repent, that you need to quit
your sin plaques. God put a conscience in you that
tells you that. Everybody knows that. Who was
John preaching to? The Jews. Religious, religious,
religious Jews steeped in religion. And John's message was repent.
This is the thing we've got to repent of. Those good religious
deeds that we've done that makes us Acceptable to God that thinks
well, I've done all these good religious deeds and that makes
it more likely God will save me than some even Brother, we
need to repent of that. All that is is self-righteousness
We need to repent of that and to turn from it Just turn from
it turn your back on it and quit trusting it and turn to Christ
and trust him You can't put away your sin John's message was but
Christ can and he's come to do it here. He is and And God's
preachers today are commanded to preach the very same message.
All you are, all I am, all our children are, all our loved ones
are, all these people that are so dear to us, all we are is
sin. Everything we think is sin. Everything
we say is sin. Everything that we do is sin.
Everything that we want to do is sin. And we cannot put that
sin away. But old Christ has come. He's
come to forgive the sin of His people. He's come to pay for
the sin of his people and put it away, give them life. And
so all we're to preach is Christ. Don't preach about Christ. Preach
Christ. Preach the person of Christ. We don't preach religious ideas
and religious phrases and catch phrases and so forth. We preach
a person. We talk about faith. We're talking
about faith in Christ. You trust him. When we talk about
love, we're not talking about loving the doctrine or loving
something, whatever. You love him. You love him. You come to Christ. You don't
come to a religious statement. You don't come to a set of doctrines. You come to Christ. You cast your soul on him. Trust
Christ to be your righteousness. Righteousness is not a thing.
Righteousness is not a state of being. Righteousness is a
person. Jehovah Sidkenu, the Lord of
Righteousness. You trust him to be your righteousness. Salvation is the same way. Salvation
is not a state of being. Salvation is a person. It's knowing
Christ, it's believing Christ, it's trusting Christ. It's a
person. This whole thing of salvation is wrapped up in a person. If
you know him, you're saved. If you believe him, you have
salvation. Now remember the first point, Almighty God purposed.
He elected a people to save. And when it came time to accomplish
that great transaction, God didn't send an angel to do the saving.
God didn't send a prophet to get the job done. God didn't
leave it up to his people to save him. Well, I chose to save
him. Let's see if they'll decide to accept me as their personal
savior. God didn't leave it up to them. When it came time to
save his people, God came in the flesh. He sent his son in
the flesh to do the job, to finish this job of salvation. And you
know why God came in the flesh to save his people from their
sin? He's the only one who could do it. You see, only God can
satisfy God. So God the son came in the flesh
to satisfy his father's just demands, to satisfy his father's
holiness and righteousness, and to satisfy the need of his people
to put their sin away. to make them accepted before
the Father. And that's the message we're to preach. Don't quit. Don't think, well,
I'm not getting any results. Maybe I need to kind of change
my methods or kind of change the focus. No, you just keep
preaching Christ. God's elect are going to hear
that message, and they're going to believe it. I promise you
they will. Look at verse five. And the glory of the Lord shall
be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, How do you know
for sure that's gonna happen? For the mouth of the Lord has
spoken. God said this is what he's gonna do, that he's gonna
do it. God's people are gonna hear that
message and believe it. We simply preach Christ. We think so many things in this
life matter. I'm telling you, seeing Christ,
believing him, knowing him. It's the only thing that matters
to our souls. It's the only thing. We preach
Christ to the unbeliever. That's the only way. That's the
only message God uses to save his people. It's the message
of Christ and not some Jesus now that we've made up of our
imagination, the Christ of this book. That's the only message
God uses to save his people. Every other message is a lie.
I mean, I have no qualms about saying that. Every other message
is a lie. God only uses the truth to save
His people. Who's the truth? Christ. And we preach Him. We preach
Him to the lost. To those who believe, we preach
Christ. What feeds your soul? For the
hearing of Christ. What instructs you in righteousness?
For the hearing of Christ. And to those who or in a time
of trouble, what comforts your heart more than hearing of Christ? And we'll be real honest. It
doesn't take the pain of your body, the pain of your heart
away, does it? It doesn't just magically make
the trial end. But it comforts your heart because
God's pleased to bring it to an end, It's the only thing that
will comfort your heart. So when it came time to save
his people from their sin, the father sent his son to do the
job. Buddy, I want to tell you, he got the job done. He did not
disappoint. This is the third thing. The
message for God's people is this. God has saved his people. Salvation is already accomplished.
Look at verse two. Speak ye comfortably. to Jerusalem
and cry unto her, her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity
is pardoned. For she hath received to the
Lord's hand double for all of her sins. Now this thing of salvation
is no easy thing. It's a warfare. It's a warfare
for the souls of God's elect. When we preach the gospel, we're
in a warfare. We're contending for men's souls.
And the good news of the gospel is this. The Lord Jesus Christ,
our Savior, the captain of our salvation, he's already won the
war. The war's over now. My friends,
the battle is won. Now quit your fighting and come
rest in Christ. Quit your rebellion, stack your
arms, lay down your shotgun, and come to Christ and surrender.
Surrender to him. Quit trying and failing to establish
your own righteousness by the law and come and submit yourself
to the righteousness of Christ. Paul said that's the problem
my brethren have. Oh, they're religious. Oh, they know, they
got Scripture memorized and they know a lot of facts and figures,
but they don't know the person. If they knew the person, they'd
submit themselves to the righteousness of Christ. Submit! Surrender! The war's over! What are you
fighting for? Every enemy, sin, death, and
hell has been defeated. Everything God requires has been
fulfilled by the Lord Jesus Christ. The war's over and the peace
treaty's been ratified in the blood of God's Son. Now quit
your fighting. Oh, I tell you, we hear the gospel.
I see those pictures of people on VE Day, VJ Day, at the end
of World War II. Oh. This is a celebration. The gospel, the preaching and
hearing of the gospel is a celebration. The war's over. Let's shout and
be happy. The war's over. Now, I know I
live in the real world. I know. The believer still lives
in a battle, a battle with sin every day. I know there's sin
out there in the world, but I'm going to tell you, my biggest
problem is this fellow. my own sin. We battle with that sin
every day. All we do is sin. You don't want
to sin, and you do it anyway. But here's the good news of the
gospel. If you believe Christ, your sin, as much as you hate
it, I mean, fight against it and hate it, we're never saying,
oh, it doesn't matter how we live. It doesn't matter if we
sin. No, it matters. But when we sin and we're so
disappointed in ourselves and we think, how could I be a believer
and do that? How can I be a believer and think
that? This sin is just, I'm so ashamed, it's so awful. If you
believe Christ, your sin cannot hurt you anymore. It can't condemn
you because your substitute was condemned in your place. Sin
cannot be in two places at once. If Christ has made sin for you
and took your sin and put it away by his precious blood, Almighty
God can never condemn you. You can't condemn two people
for the same sin. If you condemn Christ for your sin, you'll never
be condemned. I want to tell you how full and
complete this is. Our text says that because of
the sacrifice of Christ, God has pardoned the iniquity of
his people. And that word iniquity means
perversity. I mean, we think it just means
sin and it's a perversity. It's a moral evil. And that's
all this flesh can produce, perversity. We drink iniquity like water. We drink this moral evil like
water. It's our iniquity that's put
us in this mess. It's our iniquity that separated
us from our God and we can't clean it. We cannot clean it
away. Our iniquity is why we need a
savior. And the good news of the gospel
is God sent his son to offer sacrifice for sin so that God
would pardon the iniquity of his people. And we don't understand
what this word pardon means. We have a president or a governor
or somebody getting ready to leave office and they pardon
somebody, probably one of their cronies or something, did something
wrong. Now, they're guilty as can be.
They're in jail and they're guilty. That's where they belong. That's
where the law says they belong. But the president or the governor
pardons them and lets them go free, even though they're guilty.
Their sentence has not been served. Justice is not satisfied. They
just got to let him go because the president, the governor says,
well, just ignore it. But justice is not satisfied. God doesn't
pardon sin like that. When God pardons sin, God removes
the sin of his people by putting their sin under the blood of
his son. See, when God pardons a sinner,
God satisfies justice for that sinner. The Lord Jesus Christ,
the Holy Son of God was made sin for his people. The father
made his son to be guilty of all of that sin. The father never
would have put him to death if he wasn't guilty. It had been
unjust for the father to put an innocent man to death, wasn't
it? He made him guilty. He made him guilty of that sin.
And when the father slaughtered his son, put the sword of justice
into the heart of his own fellow, Christ died. Justice was satisfied. The law was satisfied. and God's
people are pardoned in justice. Matter of fact, if Christ died
for you, God's justice doesn't demand that you be condemned.
God's justice demands you be set free. God's justice demands
you have life because Christ died in your place. And then
the father imputed the righteousness of his son. He gave the righteousness
of his son to his people and made him not guilty. And they
go free. Not in spite of the law, not
by ignoring the law, but through the law. Because God satisfied
the law. He gave his son everything sin
deserves. There's nothing left for him
and for his people except love. Love and pity and grace. Here's
how fully God has pardoned the sin of his people. Isaiah says
he's given them double for all their sins. Now what on earth
does that mean? Double for all of their sin?
Does it mean that Christ paid more than the debt? You know,
the debt was this much and Christ paid this much. No, that's not
what it means. This is what it means. The Lord
Jesus Christ has forgiven the sin of his people. And then he
made them holy. That's the double cure. Christ
gives his people a double cure for all of their sin. And he
gave us a picture of it. on Calvary Street. After the
Lord was dead, that Roman soldier, he gave up the ghost. The Roman
soldier came and pierced the side of the Savior with his spear.
And what flowed out? The double cure, blood and water. Blood to justify. Blood to pay
for sin. Blood to blot that sin out. And
water to sanctify. Water to make holy. See, Christ
paid the sin debt of his people, so the debt's paid. And then
he made it so they can't rack up any more sin debt. He gave
them a nature that cannot ever sin again. He made them holy. That's receiving the double for
all of your sin. Now I'm telling you, that's the
message that God uses to save his people. There's no other
Jesus that can be preached to save his people other than that
one, that gives his people the double cure. And that's the very
same message that teaches God's people and comforts the heart
of his people. What else can comfort your heart
more than this? Justice is satisfying. God can't
condemn me. I mean, here's something God
can't do. God cannot condemn you if Christ died for you. It's
well with my soul. I don't care what happens to
our bodies. It's well with our souls. There's going to come
a time, it's not well with your body, but it's well with your
soul. We sang it yesterday. Though
Satan should buffet, the trial should come. Let this blessed
assurance control that Christ hath regarded my helpless state
and shed his own blood for my soul. My sin, oh the bliss of
this glorious thought. My sin, not in part, but the
whole, all of it, is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord, oh my soul.
It's well with my soul. And here's the last thing. This
is the message for God's people. Behold your God. Verse six. The boy said, cry. And he said,
what shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the
goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field. The grass
withereth, the flower fadeth, because the spirit of the Lord
bloweth upon it. Surely the people is grass. Now this is the message of God's
serpent. You can't count on your flesh for anything good. Our
flesh is just dead, dying grass. And all it's fit for is the trash
heap. That's all it's good for. Adam
loves to cut grass. You never one time wept over
that grass you cut, did you? Not one time. Not once. You didn't
miss it once. You're glad it's gone. That's
His flesh. You can't count on it a bit.
But I'm telling you, you can count on Christ. He's the Word
of God. You can count on Him. You can't
put your sin away. You can't give yourself a shelter
from God's wrath against your sin. But Christ has. Look here
at verse 8. The grass withereth, the flower
thereof fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand forever.
Now O Zion that bring us good tidings, get thee up into the
high mountain. O Jerusalem that bring us good
tidings, lift up thy voice with strength. Lift it up. Be not
afraid. Say unto the cities of Judah,
behold your God. Now behold your God. Behold him
as all of your salvation. Now look to him, behold him.
Where is he? Where is he? He's on the throne
of heaven. He's sitting there as the victorious
Savior, ruling and reigning, accomplishing his will in all
of the earth. And our message to the lost is,
behold your God. He's your God. Somebody said
that earlier. I don't care who you are, wherever
you are, he's your God. He's God over all. Our message
to the lost is you bow before your King. Bow before King Jesus
and you beg Him for mercy. You beg Him to forgive you. You
beg Him to save your sorry soul because He's the only one who
can. Our message to God's people is bow before your Savior. Bow
before His throne of grace and worship Him. Bow before the King
and have your heart comforted. What can comfort your heart more
than being in the presence of the King? Well, you're going
to be in His presence. You're going to have to be found
at His feet. at the footstool of the throne. David says, you
go tell all the earth this, our God reigneth. God reigns, he's
a sovereign king. You know what he said next? Let
the earth rejoice. Well, maybe the unbeliever won't
rejoice, but I tell you this, God's people will. Our God reigns.
Let's rejoice in that. Be comforted. Whatever it is
that has come your way today, has come from the hand of the
king. He sent it to you on purpose.
And this is no just, you know, king that is fallible and some
of his policies are good and some of them are bad. This is
a king who's got all wisdom and can't make a mistake. Our king,
something doesn't happen in his reign. I wish that didn't happen,
but I just didn't have the power to stop it. You know, people
do what they want to do. No, this is the king who has all
power. There's no accidents. This is
not something that he couldn't stop from happening. He sent
it on purpose. And listen to me now. Are you
listening? This trial came from the hand
of the Savior. That's the Savior, victorious
Savior sitting on the throne. Whatever it is he sent you and
me today has come from the hand of the Savior. Who loves you so much, he sacrificed
himself for it. That'd comfort my heart. That'll
do me, won't you? Now behold your God. He shall
save his people. Look at verse 10. Behold, the
Lord God will come with strong hand and his arms shall rule
for him. Behold, his reward is with him
and his work before him. Our Savior rules with a strong
hand to save his people. Nobody can stop his way. He's
going to save his people. He'll find his lost sheep and
he's the ones going to keep them safe. He's going to keep them. Now, how can you not want to
trust your soul to a savior like that who can't fail? He can't
fail. Trust your soul to him. And this
is a savior who lovingly cares for each one of his sheep. Verse
11. He should feed his flock like
a shepherd. He should gather the lands with his arm and carry
them in his bosom. He should gently lead those that
are with young. Our savior reigns as the shepherd
of the sheep. This is a king. who personally
cares for each one of his lambs. He cares for each one of them.
Christ, the great shepherd of the sheep, it's on him, it's
his responsibility. And he's gonna make sure they're
all brought safe to glory. See, all the responsibility for
the salvation of God's people is on the shoulder of our great
shepherd. Now Isaiah said, the government
of all of creation is on his shoulder. And you'll notice he
didn't say shoulders. Just one, just one shoulder. Well, I believe
if he can carry the government of all the universe on his shoulder,
he can carry his lambs there too, don't you reckon? I think
they'll be safe there. Christ our Savior is gonna gather
all of his sheep together, and he's gonna feed them. He's gonna
feed them by what we're doing right now, the preaching of his
word. And he'll gently lead his people. He'll lead them, he'll carry
them in his bosom, up by his heart. He's going to carry them
lovingly. And in His love, in His power,
He's the one that's going to make sure they're all safe together. One fold and one shepherd. I'm
telling you, the only way any sinner is ever going to be saved
is hearing of that Savior and believing in Him. The way God's
people are going to be fed, the way they're going to grow, the
way they're going to learn is by hearing that very same message.
of that Savior. That's the message. The message
that God uses to save His people is the very same message He uses
to feed them and instruct them. And it's that message that God
will use to comfort His people until it's time that He brings
them home to be with Him. Then we won't need faith anymore.
Then we won't need this message anymore. We're going to see Him
face to face, see Him as He is. And it's my prayer that the Lord
will do all those things for all those different people through
this message today. All right, God bless you. We're
gonna take a short break. When you hear the music start,
come back. We got a special blessing, I'm
sure, from Brother David.