Would open your Bibles with me
to the book of 2nd Peter. 2nd Peter Chapter 1. Begin our reading in verse one
will read through the first 11. Simon Peter. servant and apostle
of Jesus Christ to them that have obtained like precious faith
with us through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ. Grace and peace be multiplied
unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord
according as his divine power had given unto us all things
that pertain unto life and godliness through the knowledge of him
that had called us to glory and virtue whereby are given unto
us exceeding great and precious promises. By these you might
be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption
that's in the world through lust. And beside this, giving all diligence,
add to your faith virtue, and to virtue, knowledge, and to
knowledge, temperance, and to temperance, patience, and to
patience, godliness, and to godliness, brotherly kindness, and to brotherly
kindness, charity, For if these things be in you and abound,
they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the
knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things
is blind and cannot see afar off and hath forgotten that he
was purged from his old sins. Wherefore, the rather brethren,
give diligence to make your calling and election sure. For if you
do these things, you should never fall. For so an entrance shall
be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom
of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We'll end our reading
there. All right, let's stand together as Shawn leads us in
singing our call to worship. Ascribe to God, ye sons of men,
Ascribe with one accord All praise and honor, might and strength,
To Him, the living Lord. Give glory to His holy name and
honor Him alone. Give worship to His majesty and
bow before His throne. The Lord doth sit upon the floods,
their fury to restrain. He reigns above both Lord and
King, and evermore shall reign. ? The Lord shall give his people
strength ? And bid their sorrows cease ? The Lord shall bless
his chosen race ? With everlasting peace Okay, if you would please turn to song
number 175, Standing on the Promises. Standing on the promises of Christ
my King Through eternal ages let his praises sing Glory in
the highest I will shout and sing Standing on the promises
of God Standing, standing on the promises
of God my Savior. Standing, standing, I'm standing
on the promises of God. Standing on the promises that
cannot fail, When the howling storms of doubt and fear assail,
By the living Word of God I shall prevail, Standing on the promises
of God. Standing, standing, standing
on the promises of God my Savior. Standing, standing, I'm standing
on the promises of God. Standing on the promises of Christ
the Lord, Bound to Him eternally by love strong-born, Overcoming
daily with the Spirit's sword, Standing on the promises of God, Standing on the promises of God,
my Savior. Standing, standing, I'm standing
on the promises of God. Standing on the promises I cannot
fall, listening every moment to the Spirit's call. Resting in my Savior as my all
in all, standing on the promises of God. Standing, standing, standing
on the promises of God my Savior. Standing, standing, I'm standing
on the promises of God. Let's open our Bibles together
now to Isaiah, chapter 62. Dr. Darvin has asked that we
read Isaiah chapter 62. For Zion's sake, will I not hold
my peace? And for Jerusalem's sake, I will
not rest until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness,
and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth. And the
Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory. And
thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the
Lord shall name. Thou shalt also be a crown of
glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand
of thy God. Thou shalt no more be termed
forsaken. Neither shall thy land any more be termed desolate.
But thou shalt be called Hephzibah, and thy land, Eulah. For the
Lord delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married. For
as a young man marrieth a virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee.
And as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy
God rejoice over thee. I have set watchmen upon thy
walls, O Jerusalem, which will never hold their peace, day nor
night. Ye that make mention of the Lord,
keep not silence, and give him no rest till he establish, until
he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth. The Lord has sworn
by his right hand and by the arm of his strength. Surely I
will no more give thy corn to be meat for thine enemies, and
the sons of the stranger should not drink thy wine. for the which
thou hast labored. But they that have gathered it
shall eat it, and praise the Lord. And they that have brought
it together shall drink it in the courts of my holiness. Go
through, go through the gates, prepare ye the way of the people.
Cast up, cast up the highway, gather out the stones, lift up
a standard for the people. Behold, the Lord hath proclaimed
unto the end of the world, say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold,
thy salvation cometh. Behold, his reward is with him
and his work before him. They shall call them the holy
people, the redeemed of the Lord. And thou shalt be called sought
out, a city not forsaken. That's good news, isn't it? Isn't
that good news? Let's bow together. Our Father, Oh, how we thank
you that in your goodness and mercy to your people, you allowed
us one more opportunity to meet together, to worship your matchless
name, to hear your gospel preached, sing your praises. Father, I
pray this morning that you would make this a special morning of
worship, that you would in this place this morning, through the
preaching of your gospel, show us your glory. Oh, would you
show us your glory, enable us to see the glory of Christ our
Savior, see the glory of his redemptive work for sinners,
and that you would enable us to believe him, to rest in him. Father, I pray that you'd be
with Brother Darwin as he comes to preach the message that you've
laid upon his heart. Father, uphold him with thy spirit.
Give him recall of the things that he's studied giving freedom
of thought and speech, that He might clearly, boldly, and simply
proclaim to us one more time Christ and Him crucified. Father,
how thankful we are. How thankful we are for a Savior
who saves. How thankful we are that you've
given us the gift of a place where Christ is preached. You've
given your people the gift of faith to believe Him and rejoice
in Him. Father, how are we thankful?
Pray that you continue to bless. Father, continue to bless your
people. Don't leave us alone, we pray. Father, while you've blessed
us so abundantly, so richly, you have also taught us to pray. Give us this day our daily bread.
Be with those who are in times of trouble and trial. Father,
we pray for it. We pray you'd meet the need of your people,
that you'd comfort those who are sorrowing, you'd heal those
that are sick, you'd give direction. to those that have lost the way.
Show us the way to go. Father, all these things we ask.
We ask for your glory, for your sake. We ask in the name of Christ
our Savior. It's his precious name we pray. There will never be a sweeter
story Story of the Savior's love divine Love that brought Him
from the realms of glory Just to save a sinful soul like mine
Isn't the love of Jesus something wonderful? Oh, isn't the love of Jesus something
wonderful? Wonderful it is to me. Boundless as the universe around
me. Reaching to the farthest soul
away. Saving, keeping love it was that
found me. That is why my heart can truly
say Isn't the love of Jesus something wonderful? Wonderful, wonderful Oh, isn't
the love of Jesus something wonderful? it is to me Love beyond our human
comprehending Love of God in Christ, how can it be? This will be my theme in never
ending Great redeeming love of Calvary Isn't the love of Jesus
something wonderful? Wonderful, oh, isn't the love
of Jesus something wonderful? Wonderful it is to me. Yesterday we held the memorial
service for our sister, Evelyn Yates. Her brother, Darwin Pruitt,
is in town. He came for the funeral, and
he's the pastor of Grace Baptist Church of Louisville, Arkansas.
And I hesitated to ask him to preach. It's a difficult weekend,
but he very graciously said he would. And I have to tell you
how much I have looked forward to it. I told Darwin when I finished
the Bible lesson this morning, I felt like I just went on vacation.
I've been so looking forward to hearing him preach. Darwin's
a dear brother, faithful preacher, simple, plain preaching that
focuses on Christ and Christ alone. I'm just so delighted
he's here. Darwin, I pray the Lord bless
you and bring the message that the Lord's given you. Delighted
that Darwin's brought his daughter Melissa with him as a traveling
partner and Well, we won't worry about saying
goodbye yet. Pray the Lord bless you as you travel, but Lord,
you come preach to us, darling. We will wobble, but we don't
fall down. I invite you to turn back with
me to Isaiah chapter 62. While you're turning, I want
to say how thankful I am to be here, not just in action. I'm happy to be in this particular
place, but I'm happy to be with you. There was a time when I
wasn't. There was a time when I was no
different than anybody else in this world. My mind focused on
all the things that worldly men focus on. Focused on my job,
on my family, on recreation, on this and that, and retirement,
and who knows what else. But God was pleased to intervene. He arrested this sinner, and
he said, enough is enough. The Lord did intervene. He did cross
my path as a preacher, and he did extend his grace and his
mercy. Wouldn't it be something if he
did that again? I've seen it. I've seen it. It's as real as anything you've
ever experienced. It's mercy. And he's great. I want to thank you, pastor,
for having me here. And before we get into this,
I want to say a little bit about my text. Isaiah 62 is a continuation
of a prophecy concerning the glory of his church in the latter
days. 720 years before Christ appeared,
the prophet Isaiah prophesied and And now we're 2,000 years
beyond that. And he prophesied of this very
day and exactly what you're doing here this morning. That's what
this text is all about. Don't think this is some ancient
writing that has no meaning and no application to me today. In
the book of 1 Peter, in chapter 1, he said those prophets understood,
God made them to know that the things that they were saying
were not for them. But it was for us. For us. He was talking about the suffering
of the coming Redeemer. He was talking about the glory
of the coming Redeemer. But it goes even further past
that. Now he's talking about all of
those years after the Lord came. After he redeemed. After he accomplished
it. and ascended back into glory.
And they talked about it, and he said, I'll tell you how you
know that. I'll tell you exactly how you're going to know what
Isaiah said, what Hosea said, what all of these prophets said.
He said, God's going to send you a preacher, and he's going
to be accompanied by the Holy Ghost, and he's going to preach Bless your heart, you're going
to understand it. That's the wonderful thing. You're going
to understand it. You're going to look at that
old passage and you're going to say, he's right. That's what
that means. That's what that means. Oh, what a glorious time this
was going to be. You know, he talks about this
and he said, He inspired his prophet to speak
of the Lord's affection for his people. Did you catch that? As
a bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God. Can
you imagine such a thing? God rejoicing over me? I feel condemned because I don't
rejoice like I ought to. And I can't even imagine it.
It's beyond me. to think about my God rejoicing
over me. And not just a little, but like
a bridegroom rejoices over his bride. Oh, my soul. He tells us that this is going
to be such a glorious thing that he said, I have ordained and
set watchmen on your walls. John Gill called them remembrances. They're going to keep telling
you. Remember now, remember what he said. Don't forget what he
said. They're going to keep telling you. And he said, don't you be
quiet. You just keep telling. You keep
telling. I was laughing a while ago when he said, looked at me
and talked about some of them looks you get. That didn't shut
me up. Didn't you? Uh-uh. No, he said,
you just keep right on preaching. You keep right on talking. You
keep right on telling these people what I'm talking about. Oh, you remind his people of
the glorious days ahead when the Lord himself shall come and
do for you what you cannot do for yourself. Now, how long did
Israel struggle? We're going to do this. No, you're
not. No, you're not. I'm going to
do this. And he said, they're not going
to hold their peace day or night. They'll never be silenced. And
of these glorious days of accomplished redemption, the Lord has sworn
by his right hand. Who's that? That's the Lord Jesus
Christ. He swore by his right hand, the
hand of his strength and power, that it's going to come to pass
exactly as this prophet foretold. After his funeral yesterday,
I was listening to several people talk about heaven and salvation
and hope after death, sickening, really. What they were saying was as
contrary to the Word of God as it can possibly be. But this
is the condition of every sinner. That was my condition when the
Lord came. These things seem right to me.
How many times did the prophet write in Proverbs, there's a
way that seemeth right unto a man. Seem right to me. Do the best
you can. Offer what you can. Do what you
can. Pray as much as you can. Give
as much as you can. Seem right to me. This is the condition of every
son of Adam. And when our Lord came into this
world and began to preach to men and women, it talks about
the people he preached to. And here's what he said. He reminded
them of what the prophet said. And here's what the prophet said.
Those people which sat in darkness saw great light. Great light. Those people that sat in the
shadow of death, in the region in the shadow of death, they
saw light spring up. Wouldn't you like to have heard
the Lord preach? Never a man's faithless. Sit
and listen to him preach. When he preached to men, when
I preach to men, I try to tell them that man is in a bad way. He's in a bad way. His walk,
Paul wrote, is according to the course of this world, this fallen
world, this cursed world. His way is according to that.
It's the broad way that leads to destruction. It's the way
that seemeth right unto a man. When Cain brought the works of
his hands to offer unto God, he brought what seemed right
to him. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been angry when the Lord
wouldn't accept it. But it wasn't all right. It wasn't
what he was told to bring. It wasn't what God commanded
to be brought. He found himself shut out because
of it. Our Lord said, if the light that
be in thee. What's that? That's these little
pieces and fragments of truth that you gather your whole life. From the time you're this big
and grandma's telling you about the Lord Somebody else tells
you about it and then you get a little older and you get some
friends and they go to a different church and you get some fragments
from them and some pieces and parts and after a while you form
a theology in your mind, an image in your mind, and this image,
you think, is light. And that's what the Lord's talking
about in that verse. He said, if the light that be
in thee be darkness, If every idea and conception that you
have of God and of Christ and of salvation is nothing but ignorance
and blindness and darkness, how great is that darkness? How great
is it? Man's in a bad way. His walk is according to the course
of this world. His walk, Paul continues to write,
is according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit
that now worketh in the children of disobedience." You know, most
people write everything in the world off to Satan. Bars and
brothels and drug houses and all this, they write that all
off to Satan. That's Satan. That ain't Satan. That comes
from you. That's where that work comes
from. It comes from you. It comes from the natural fallen
depravity of this flesh. Satan's realm is in religion. It's in religion. That's where
he works. He's not out in the bars. He don't need to go out
there. They're already got him. He's
in the church. His realm is religion. He appears,
the scripture said, as an angel of light, and his ministers He
transforms into ministers of righteousness, not God's righteousness,
not the righteousness imputed to us by Christ, but self-righteousness. They appear as harmless and kind
and concerned with your welfare, but they're wolves in sheep's
clothing. They're vipers that abide as faithful. One of my cousins came to me
yesterday and she said, Before my brother got up to preach,
he said, she said, I'm going to leave now. She said, I just
don't like this part. And I was thinking to myself,
I bet you don't. I bet you don't like this part.
But this is the part we hope in. And that's what he talked
about. He talked about that risk. These things were all revealed
to the prophet, to the best of my ability, and with his spirit,
I hope this passage is going to come to pass, even as I'm
preaching to you this morning. There's three things I want us
to see in verses 11 and 12, mostly in verse 11, and then 12 is kind
of a summation. It's kind of a summation of the
chapter. But I want us to see, first of all, who's doing the
talking. Who's doing the talking? That
first thing came to me when I read that verse. Wow. Who's doing
the talking? And then secondly, I want us
to see who he's talking to. He tells us that in these verses.
And then thirdly, what's he saying? What's he saying? So let's see
who's doing the talking here. Isaiah 62, verse 11. Behold the
Lord. The Lord hath proclaimed, and
his proclamation here, he said, is unto the end of the world. This is not a proclamation for
that hour, or for the next hour, or for the next week, or for
2,000 years from then. It's unto the end of the world.
What I've got to say, the Lord said, is going to keep being
said and said and said until there is no more world. It's
unto the end of the world and the Lord is speaking. These are
not the fickle words of a confused man or the senseless babbling
of an ignorant man. That's what they thought about
Paul. Let's see what this babbler has to say. And they're not the
desperate words of a frightened man. These are the words of the
Lord. The Lord. Boy, that makes a difference,
doesn't it? I want to hear what the Lord
says. I tell you, if he ever convinces you of sin, you want
to hear what the Lord says. What's the Lord say? I've heard
enough about what man says. That's why I'm in the mess I'm
in. I want to hear what the Lord says. In matters of importance,
we look to those whose words can be trusted. Our Lord can be trusted. I don't know if you've ever thought
about this, but way back yonder in the beginning, Genesis chapter
2 verse 2, it says, And on the seventh day God ended his work
which he had and rested on the seventh day from all his work
which he had made. Now wait a minute. Didn't he know that Satan and
all his cronies, when he kicked them out of heaven, walked to
and fro in the earth? Did he not know that? Did he
not know that in a short time they would deceive Eve and through
Eve Adam would plunge the entire race into chaos. Did he not know
that? Did he not know that in seven
or eight generations that every imagination of man would be only
evil continually? Did he not know that? Did he
not know that even after the flood, in just a small amount
of time, Babylon was going to rise up and false religion was
going to come to a head. That whole thing, Babylon, all
the way through to the end of the Bible, represents false religion. Babylon. Did he not know that
those men were going to get together try to make a way on her own
into heaven itself. Didn't he know that? Did he not
know how many times Israel would plunge back into sin and idolatry? Leave him and leave his promises
and leave his word, leave his prophets. Did he not know when
his own son would come into this world that those men who looked
for him would reject him? They would be the main ones who
caused Him to go to the cross. Did God not know that? Then how in the world could He
rest? How could He rest? Because He trusted all things
into the hands of His Son. Isn't that what the scripture
says? It says that we should be to the praise of his glory,
who first trusted in Christ, in whom you also trusted after
you heard of him. His words can be trusted. God
himself trusted everything that he purposed to do. I'm going to register. I'm going
to register. Did you know our Lord's name
is the Word? In the beginning, John said,
was the Word. And the Word was with God and
the Word was God. And the Word, he goes on to tell
us, was made flesh and dwelt among us. And looking to him,
He said, we saw the glory of God the Father in him. He's the Word. He's the Word. The Lord hath proclaimed. Who's
Lord? Ah, that's your Lord. That ain't
my Lord. Oh yeah. He's everybody's Lord. He's your Lord. He's my Lord. He's the Lord of the dead and
the living. He's the Lord of glory. He's the Lord of lords
and king of kings. He's the blessed and only potentate.
There is no power higher than Him. In Him, you're complete,
Paul said, who's the head of all principality and power. The
Lord said. Nothing else needs to be said
if the Lord said. See, the thing of it is, is they
didn't believe these prophets spoke for God, just like men
don't believe that preachers speak for God. They don't believe
that. It's always been God's way. Always
from the very beginning, He speaks through men. Word said or written, they're
only as good as the wisdom and power behind them. I talked to
somebody yesterday After a few minutes they said, who are you? Who are you? You think you're a spokesman
for God? Why should I take your word over
a thousand others? And then they asked me this,
how can somebody like myself know? who God's spokesman is
and who he's not. And here's my answer. You never
will, but by the grace of God. John said, he that knoweth God,
feareth not. Why in the world would I believe
Henry Mahan? When everybody else in this world
is telling me something different, why in the world would I listen
to him? Because I wasn't done. And he
wasn't done. And I heard it. I heard it. And that's how you hear it, if
you ever hear it. That's how it works. That's how
it works. Oh no, we got to have this system
of theology and you have to be a theologian to believe it. No.
No. That's not happening. But there's no need here for
speculation. This is the Lord's book. This
is the Lord speaking. The Lord of creation, the Lord
of glory, the Lord of providence. You're here this morning by the
providence of God. I'm here this morning by the
providence of God. You think about that. And all
the workings all over the world. And he has places and churches
and people and is elect and all of this is going on. I mean,
it's amazing that you can't even see the end of it. Brother Fortner
used to say, it's like looking at Big Ben on the inside and
see all these gears and some are going this way, some are
going this way. It all works together, and he's
the governor, he's the arranger, he's the one who brings it to
pass, and he's working his providence, and in his providence he brought
you here today. And he brought me. It's the Lord who's doing the
talking. His word is going to stand to
the end of the world. All right, secondly, here's the
next question. Who's he talking to? Who's he talking to? Isaiah 62, 11, the second sentence
of the verse. Say ye to the daughter of Zion. Who's that? That's God's people. That's his elect. We're scared
to death to say that word. I don't want to offend anybody.
I'm sure he's offended or not. He's elect. He's the one who
said it. I didn't make it up. He said
it. Well, you want to go over here and find that old isolated?
Isolated? It's 27 times in the New Testament. And that's not even to mention
the chosen are my people. My soul, we act like we need
to be The other ones need to be ashamed. He's talking to God's people,
his elect, his bride, his church. How many other names does he
have for them? I'm told in the Great Commission
to teach all nations and preach to every creature. And so I do. And I do it because I don't know
who the elect are. That's what somebody told Henry,
why don't you just preach to God the lesson? He said, if somebody
put a mark on them, I will. But till then, I'm going to preach
to everybody and let God sort it out. That's right. I don't know who his people are.
I know this, I have no right to
apply what I'm saying to all men. And that's why when you go out
here in religion, there's no direct voice from God to you.
There's no communication from God to his people. It's a plan. And so we lay the plan out and
you just make up your mind what you want to do. Well, salvation
is not a plan. It's not a system of theology
and it's not an offer. It's a proclamation. Ain't that
what this says? The Lord hath proclaimed. He
declared something. He said, this is what's going
to happen. His love is for his people. His
death is for his people's sins. Thou shalt call his name Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins. His righteous obedience is a
representative obedience for his elect. Listen to what Paul says. I think
we read, I know I read old things, read old things, all of a sudden
I see it. And I'll stop and I'll look at it and it's just goes
on forever. It's infinite. It's just so deep
and so wonderful. Paul said of God, Are ye in Christ
Jesus? How'd you get there? Well, I
made my decision. Well, ain't I got there. And
what Paul said, he said, of God. Are you in Christ Jesus? Who
of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. It's all in him. All in him. Well, how do you get in him?
God puts you in him. I can't do it. He can't. And people who despise election
are people who don't know their standing before God outside of
Christ. They think they have rights.
They think they have this. They think they have that. The
only reason this world was permitted to continue after Adam's fall
was because of God's elect. The only reason this world shall
be shortened, he said, for the elect's sake. The only reason
he holds it in consistence. What's that mean? By him, all
things consist. Well, there's a thousand definitions
of that, but the one I love the best is this. It has a continuance. Oh, the polar caps are going
to melt down and we're all going to flood. No, we ain't. They're
not going to flood this earth again, they always said that.
Put a rainbow in the sky to remind us, he's not going to do that. God has a people he chose in
Christ, and he's long suffering to us for it, not willing that
any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. How
many are going to repent? Everyone. How many are going
to believe? Everyone. In the salvation of chosen sinners,
God manifests his glory. Show us your glory, that's what
he said. That's it. He manifests his glory in his
sinners. His glory was justice, his righteousness,
his holiness. You know, we like to take that
word holiness and we like to apply it to good works and paying
your bills and being honest, and we apply that word holy,
but that's righteousness, that's not holiness. Holiness has to
do with the wholeness of God. That's holiness. Be ye holy,
for I am holy. Is God running around trying
to pay bills? No. It has to do with His character
working continually, eternally, meshed together, righteous, holy,
just, merciful, gracious. All of these things are working
in harmony within God. That's His holiness. That's your
holiness. That's your holiness. That's
why you can't have a whole that's contrary to the character of
God. He told you in Christ that, what's the first sign that you
might be holy? He didn't say, I'm going to make
you holy. No, he said, I told you in Christ that you can be
holy. Everything that Christ has done for me, his death, his
righteousness, everything, his intercession in glory, everything
there is working in perfect harmony with the character of God. He's going to show us the glory
of God. The glory of His justice, His
righteousness, His holiness, His mercy, and His grace. And
the whole reason for our being is God's purpose of grace, what
He's purposed to do. Listen to this in Romans 8 and
19. This was such a blessing to me when I finally understood
what it was talking about. He said, the earnest expectation
of creation. What do you expect out of creation?
What does God expect out of creation? You see these planets, you see
these stars, you see the universe, you hear men talking about this
and that and the next thing and a big green deal or whatever
it is they're trying to sell now. Here's the earnest, the earnest
expectation of creation waiteth for the manifestation of the
sons of God. That's what it's all about. And I preach to whosoever will
this morning, but only his people shall be willing and that in
the day of his power. Whosoever will don't bother me. And I preach to all who hear
me. But I'm to make clear As I'm speaking to all men, I'm
to make clear who God's talking to. He's talking to the daughter
of Zion. He's talking to the Lord. When He talks about Him
dying for our sins, He's not talking about the world. He's
talking about the daughter of Zion. When He talks about ascending
into glory and there making intercession for us, He's not talking about
the world. He's talking about the daughter
of Zion. He's talking about his elect. He's talking about believers.
Believers. Somebody said, you believe in
believers baptism? There ain't no other kind. It's a confession of faith, ain't
it? That's what I thought. Say ye to the daughter of Zion. And then here's the third question
I want you to see. When I find her, what am I to
say to her? What am I to say to her? I know she's in a bad way. What
am I to say to her? Look at this third sentence in
the verse. Say to her, Thy salvation cometh. Thy salvation cometh. Now, there's
three things I want you to think about here. First of all, as
the prophecy stands, I want you to think about thy salvation
coming. This is talking about the coming Redeemer. Every old
writer I read applied that that way. They didn't go beyond it. They said this has to do with
the coming Redeemer. I'm in perfect harmony with them.
That's exactly what he's talking about. Our Lord's coming. Thy
salvation's coming. He's coming. It's going to be
a while. It's going to be another 760
years, but He's coming. He's coming, and you keep telling
folks that. He's coming. He's coming. Speak of the Lord coming to make
things right, to fulfill all of His promises. Everything rests
on Him. If He don't come, nothing's going
to happen. Everything was riding on His
coming, His appearance. If he don't come, we have no
hope. Everything rests on his coming. So you say unto the daughter
of Zion, by salvation, come. And oh, what sweet words those
are to a doomed sinner. And true to his word, he did
come. He did accomplish redemption, and he did enter into glory and
obtain eternal redemption for us by his own blood. But there's a problem. The natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. They're
foolishness unto him. He's not going to receive these
things. But what can I say to those who
sit in darkness? What can I say that I know comes
from God? It won't be Darwin talking. It'll
be God. God saying this. What can I say
to those who sit in darkness? I can say what the Lord has proclaimed
and shall proclaim unto the end. Your salvation is coming. Your
salvation is coming. Paul said in Ephesians 2 verse
6 that when Christ rose from the dead, He raised us up with
Him and made us to sit together with Him in heavenly places. But it don't stop there. There's
a great big, and I capitalize every word of it, that in order
that in the ages to come, that's what we're talking about here,
he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness
toward us through Christ Jesus for by grace are you saved. Why did God speak to me? Because
he purposed to do it. Cause he will. Just cause he
will. And I can say to God's elect,
or of his elect if you will, by salvation cometh. There's not a shadow of a doubt
in that, is there? Listen to this, in Isaiah, I
mean in Ephesians chapter 1 verse 11. In him we have obtained an
inheritance. being predestinated according
to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel
of his own will. Paul said, God hath from the
beginning chosen you to serve us. He ordained to me through
sanctification of spirit and belief in the truth. But he didn't
stop there, did he? Whereunto he called you by our
gospel. Thy salvation cometh. It may
be that I'm here today to secure your hope in these things through
the gospel. Could be. I hope it is. I hope
it is. And then thirdly, what can I
say to you that have believed? You that have been on this way
for a while. What can I say to you? Remember
what I told you at the beginning? He said, this thing is going
clear to the new world. What can I say to you? Your salvation
coming? My salvation coming. He said,
I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place
for you, I'm going to come again. And I'm going to receive you
unto myself that where I am there, that's where you're going to
be. That's where you're going to
be. salvation coming. Oh, what a
glorious salvation it is. Look down at verse 12. These
people that God intends to save, and shall save, and has saved,
he said they're going to be called the holy people, and nothing
contrary to God. They're going to be called the
redeemed of the Lord. Can you imagine when Ruth stood
there and her husband got up and said, now anybody here thinks
they can redeem? Go ahead. Can you imagine how
she felt when he did? Huh? She's going to be called the
redeemed of the Lord. Sought out. That don't mean he's
looking for you. That means he found you. Sought
out. He's not going to let one go.
Sought out. He's going to find you wherever
you are. He's going to find you. He's
going to have you. That lost lamb, he's going to
pick him up in his arms and carry him all the way back to the fold.
He's not going to lose one life, not one. Oh, what a glorious salvation,
the redeemed of the Lord sought out a city. Boy, can you imagine? I've read
some of the prophets, especially Jeremiah, and he's talking about
walking through the streets of Jerusalem, and the down, everything's gone, the
walls are torn down, everything that he rejoiced in is gone. Gone. He wasn't possessed. Because Jerusalem wasn't that
city. And the temple wasn't that temple. All in Christ. All in Christ. My wife always wanted to go to
Niagara I had about as much interest
in Niagara Falls as... But I took her. My daughter and
her husband were stationed up there in New York, and we went
right through Buffalo. I said, all right, we're going
to Niagara Falls. So I went over there. We saw all the things
there was to see and went on the tours, and we bought a...
You have to buy a coffee table book when you go visit places. People say, well, you've been
to Niagara Falls. Yeah, I've been to Niagara Falls.
So we bought it. I brought it home, set it on
the table. I never looked at it. A year after my wife died,
I was dusting the house. I understand I need to dust it
more than once a year, but I didn't. Somebody said, how you getting
along since your wife died? I said, I'm learning. They said,
you're learning? I said, yeah, I'm learning. If
I don't cook it, I don't eat it. If I don't wash it, I don't
wear it. Without them cleanin', it is gonna be dirty. And I was
dustin' around, I dusted that old book off, and I decided to
look, and I turned in there, and it was talkin' about the
daredevils back in the day. And they stretched the line.
I can't imagine if back before they had any idea of how to make
some kind of composition, it was just old rope. And they stretched
that thing across Niagara Falls, and those daredevils would walk
across Well, there was one, and his name, he called himself the
Great Blandon. And he could just do anything
on that wire. He was fearless. He put peach
baskets on his feet and walked across that Niagara Falls on
rope. He got out there, and then this
went on for years. And finally, he went out there,
out in the middle, and the Maid of the Mist had come around,
and he had a a line with him, and he lowered it down, and they
put a bottle of wine and a glass on that line, and he pulled it
up, poured him a glass of wine, dragged it, lowered it back down
to the boat. And then he sat down on the wire
out in the middle of nowhere. He sat down, and he got up, and
he walked over to the other side, and his promoter's name was Harry. And he said, Well, Harry, what
do you think? He said, do you believe me now that I can do
anything on a tightrope? Harry said, you convinced me.
I've never seen anything like it. I've never even heard of
anything like it. He said, get on. Huh? Get on. And here he did. He walked back across Niagara
Falls and set him down in there. You believe what I'm preaching
to you? Get on. Get on. Rest in Him. Don't wait another second. Rest
in Him. Rest in Him. He can do everything
that He says He can do. And He did everything that He
said He could do. Trust Him. I told you I felt like I was
on vacation when I finished my lesson this morning. The one
thing I do real well on vacation is rest. I don't do nothing. I rest with my family and eat. I hope none of us Let's bow together. Our Father, oh, how we thank
you for your infinite wisdom, purpose, your grace, your people
and our Lord Jesus Christ. It's finished. It's complete.
Father, we pray that you give us the faith to believe, rest,
in our Lord Jesus Christ. Whether it's for the Peter said
to whom coming, whether it's the first time or the thousandth
time, Father, let us rest. Let us come to Christ and rest.
Father, we ask this for the glory of Christ our Savior. We thank
you for bringing Brother Darwin our way. And Father, I pray to
you, bless him. Bless him, Melissa, as they travel.
When he gets back home, Father, use him to bless your people
there in Arkansas. Blessing in a special way. All these things
we ask and we give thanks in that name which is above every
name, the name of Christ our Savior. Shawn, you can lead us
in a song. If you would, please turn to
song number 460 and stand as we sing. What a fellowship, what a joy
divine Leaning on the everlasting arms What a blessedness, what
a peace is mine Leaning on the everlasting arms Leaning Leaning,
safe and secure from all alarms. Leaning, leaning, leaning on
the everlasting arms. Oh, how sweet to walk in this
pilgrim way, leaning on the everlasting arms. Oh, how bright the path
grows from day to day, leaning on the everlasting arms. Leaning, leaning, safe and secure
from all alarms. Leaning, leaning, ? Leaning on
the everlasting arms ? ? What have I to dread, what have I
to fear ? ? Leaning on the everlasting arms ? ? I have blessed peace
with my Lord so near ? ? Leaning on the everlasting arms ? Leaning,
leaning, safe and secure from all alarms. Leaning, leaning,
leaning on the everlasting arms.