Let's open our Bibles again to
Isaiah chapter 54. You know, each week as I prepare
messages, these messages are all without exception prepared
for you. As I sit in my study and seek
a word from the Lord, You are who's on my heart. These messages
I pray God would give me for you, for your benefit, for your
instruction. I know other people may listen
on the internet and things, but I'm not really trying to get
a message out to other places. You're on my heart. These messages
are for you. And that was never more true
than this week. The title of the message is Comfort for the
Church. If I know of anybody anywhere
that needs some comfort, I believe right now it's us. Isaiah chapter
54 is a good chapter for us to be in. Isaiah 54 is written to
give God's elect some comfort in Christ. I can tell you the
whole message in a word. If you would be comforted, look
to Christ. Just look to him. The result
of the sacrifice of Christ that we looked at in chapter 53, the
result of that is the comfort in Christ that we read about
in chapter 54. Last week, we looked and I hope we found some
comfort for believers in Christ, our husband. Tonight I want us
to see how the church is comforted in Christ. All of our comfort
is found in Christ. Now we'll begin in verse 11.
He says, O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted. God has a word of comfort for
his people. They're being tossed in a wild
tempest of life. And that's just the best description
I can think of for life in this world. It's just a wild Tempest. It seems like it's a out of control
tornado. Because of sin, it's in the world.
And that tempest and that whirlwind can nearly drive our souls to
despair. It'll cause us to worry and fret.
Now we worry this wind that seems out of control. Where's it going
to drive us? What damage is this wind going
to do to us? And the rest of this chapter,
our Lord gives us nine reasons that in this wild tempest, the
believer has nothing to fear. Now the storm will rage. He's
not saying the storm won't rage. No, the storm will rage. He's
not saying the enemy won't gather against you. Now he says, as
a matter of fact, they will gather against you. But if you're in
Christ, you've got nothing to worry about. So when you're filled
with fear, and the tempest is wild and dark and you feel like
your soul's gonna sink into the darkness. I pray our Lord will
bring back to your mind these precious promises and comfort
your heart. Now here's our first point. If Christ is your foundation,
you've got nothing to worry about. Verse 11, he says, oh thou afflicted,
tossed with tempest and not comforted. Behold, I will lay thy stones
with fair colors and lay thy foundations with sapphires. Now,
the foundation of a believer can never fail. First of all,
our foundation can never fail because God's the one who laid
the foundation. And anything God does is going
to be perfect. It can't fail, can it? But he
says here, you're going to have a foundation. And God says, I'm
going to be the one to lay it. So it can't fail. Second, our
foundation cannot fail because Christ himself is our rock. We're
founded upon Christ the rock. Well, he can never fail, can
he? Then if we're built on him, we can never fail. Look back
at Isaiah chapter 28. Isaiah 28, verse 16. Therefore, thus saith the Lord
God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone, a tried
stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. He that believeth
shall not make haste. Now on that day of judgment,
everyone who's trusting in Christ is going to be found not guilty.
They don't have to run in fear. So if Christ is the foundation
of your faith, your soul can't be lost. But now you be sure
what your foundation is, who your foundation is, because this
is only true what he says here about you should, it's a sure
foundation, and that day of judgment you won't make haste. That's
only true if Christ is our foundation. Look what he says in verse 17.
Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the
plummet, and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and
the water shall overflow the hiding place. And your covenant
with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell
shall not stand. When the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then
you shall be trodden down by it. Everyone who's not trusting
in Christ is going to be destroyed in that day. And that's exactly
what the man we read about to open a scripture, when he built
his house upon the sand, that's just what he found out when the
storm came. He had no foundation and his
house fell down. Now when I say that Christ is
our foundation, he's the foundation of our faith, what I mean is
that everything we believe is built upon the Lord Jesus Christ. It all begins with Christ, it
all comes from him. The foundation of our faith all
comes from who Christ is and what he's accomplished for his
people. And I'll illustrate that by what we call the five points
of Calvinism, two of them. I believe in total depravity.
I believe in my total depravity. And that faith, that belief is
founded on who Christ is. His perfection reveals my depravity. See, it's dependent upon who
He is. I believe in the unconditional election of God's people. Those
people never would have chose God. God had to choose them.
God chose a people to say, And he didn't choose them because
there was any good in them. It can't be, because our first
point was total depravity. There's no good in us, so that's
not why God chose us. God chose a people in his son,
in Christ. Christ is God's first elect,
and we're elected in him. Now, the foundation of that belief
comes from seeing who Christ is. He's God's first elect. I believe with all my heart in
limited atonement. Christ died for his people. Now,
when we talk about limited atonement, we're not saying that the power,
the blood of Christ is limited in its ability to save. It's
not the power of Christ that's limited. It's the scope of his
sacrifice that's limited. He only died for his people.
He died for his elect. And brethren, they're saved.
They have to be completely cleansed from all sin. I believe that
because I see Christ my righteousness. I see Christ as the Son of God
who cannot fail. See how the foundation of that
faith is built on Christ, who He is. I believe in the irresistible
call of God the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will call everyone
for whom Christ died to faith in Christ. We don't have to beg
people to walk an aisle. We don't have to beg people to
make a decision. We don't have to twist people's arms to get
them to do anything. You just preach Christ to them.
If the Holy Spirit ever reveals Christ, I promise you they'll
come to Christ. I promise you they will. You
know why I know that? Because the Lord Jesus Christ,
our Savior, is altogether lovely. If you see Him, you'll be so
irresistibly drawn to Him, you won't be able to stand it because
He's so beautiful, He's so wonderful. I believe in the perseverance
of the saints. I believe that everybody that the Father chose,
everyone that Christ died for, everyone that the Spirit calls,
they will persevere to the end. They're not going to be saved
today and lost tomorrow. Because no one that Christ died for can
lose their salvation. Their salvation is complete in
Him. Of course they'll persevere to
the end. Now the storms are still going to come. They're still
going to toss you in the tempest of this life. But your soul cannot
be lost if your faith is in Christ. So even in the worst of these
storms, you've got nothing to worry about if your faith is
in Christ. your foundation will endure the
storm. Second, if Christ is your beauty,
you've got nothing to worry about. Look here at verse 11, he says,
I'll lay thy stones with fair colors and lay thy foundations
with sapphires. Not only is the foundation that
Isaiah is describing here is durable, it's also beautiful. It's got all these precious stones
in it, just made it so beautiful. That's a picture of Christ, the
precious cornerstone. And if your beauty is in Christ,
if you're built upon him, he's your foundation and your beauty
is in Christ. If you've been made beautiful
in him, not in anything that you've done to contribute to
it, but all in him, then you've got nothing to fear. Now I know
when we look at ourselves, all we see is ugliness and sin and
depravity. When we look at ourselves, we
say, I don't see anything desirable about me. But God says he sees
his people as beautiful because he sees them in his darling son. God sees his people in Christ. And our beautiness is the holiness
of Christ. Christ is our beautiful wedding
garment. And if Christ is your beauty,
then you've got nothing to worry about because the father will
always accept the perfect beauty, the perfect holiness of his son. He'll never cast you out like
those that don't have on the wedding garment. He sees you
as perfect and beautiful in Christ. Thirdly, if Christ is your light,
you've got nothing to worry about. Verse 12, he says, and I will
make thy windows of agates. Now windows, they let light in
so we can see. Noah's Ark had just one window
in it. You know why? That window is
a picture of Christ. He's our spiritual light. There's
just one source of that light, it's Christ. But Christ is not
just a window that lets light in. Christ is the light. This word windows here actually
means brilliant light. Christ is the brilliant light
of his people. And when Christ comes on the
scene, he appears in the heart. Now we have light. And we can
only see what we are. We can only see our depravity. We only see our sin and our filth
and our nakedness and our darkness in the light of Christ. We don't
know we're in darkness until Christ the light comes. We don't
know how ugly we are with sin until Christ the light comes
and then we see ourselves in the light of who he is. We can
only see the truth about how a sinner's saved when we see
Christ. Now I know how sinners got to
be saved because I see that in the light of who Christ is. So
windows, they let light in and they also let us see out, don't
they? Well, when Christ appears, gives us light, what do we see? Well, we see ourselves. We see
what we are by nature. But that light of Christ also
lets us see outside of ourselves. What does a believer see when
we look outside of ourselves? We see Christ. If we're looking
in here, in the darkness of our heart, we'll never see any light. We'll never see any comfort.
But in the light of Christ, we're forced to look outside of ourselves
and we look to Him. We're comforted, aren't we? Just see Him. is comfort for
our souls. Now, I know we only see through
a glass darkly, don't we? He says here, I'll make thy windows
of agates. Agates are some sort of opaque
jewel. They're not completely clear.
They wouldn't really make a good window in your house to be able
to see out of, but they're opaque. But that's the life of a believer
in it. We don't see or understand everything there is to know about
Christ. We just, we see darkly, dimly, don't we? One day we're
going to see Him clearly. One day we'll see Him face to
face. But right now, it's just through a glass darkly. And even
though so often we think the light that we have is so faint,
it's such a flicker and we're disappointed in how little light
we have. If Christ is your light, you've
got nothing to fear. Because Christ is the true light. And in His light, He reveals
the Father. He reveals the way of salvation
and redemption for sinners. Look at John chapter 8. John 8 verse 12. This is what
our Lord says. This is one of the great I Am's
of the Gospel of John. John 8 verse 12. Then spake Jesus
again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world. He that
followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the
light of life. If Christ is your light, as dim
as you may think it is, you've got life, life that can never
be lost. Four, if Christ is your way to
God, you've got nothing to worry about. Verse 12, he says, and
thy gates of carbuncles Now we need a way to God because in
the Garden of Eden, Adam lost the way to God. He sinned and
he lost the way to God. He lost a way to come before
God and be accepted. He lost a way to come before
God and have fellowship with God. And that hasn't changed
from then until now. God cannot and will not allow
sin into his holy presence. Light cannot have fellowship
with darkness. But God has a people. He has
a people that he loves. So God sent his son into the
world and he sent his son to be the way that sinners can come
back to God and be accepted and have fellowship with God. Look
in John again, verse chapter 14. Christ the way to God is such
comfort for God's people. John 14, verse one. Let not your
heart be troubled. Be comforted, our Savior says.
You believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are
many mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and
receive you unto myself that where I am, that ye may be also. And whether I go, you know, and
the way you know. Thomas saith unto him, Lord,
we know not whither thou goest. How can we know the way? Jesus
said unto him, I am the way, the truth and the life. No man
cometh unto the Father, but by me. The only way a sinner can
come to God is by the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you come to the
Father through Christ, the way, you'll always be accepted, always. Now Christ didn't just come to
this world to show us the way. He didn't come to show us, here's
a way that you can be saved if you follow my example of goodness
and righteousness. No. Christ came to be the way. He came to be the way that sinners
can come to God. The way to God is through the
sacrifice of Christ. It's through the blood and the
righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ. Isaiah says so, he says,
thy gates of carbuncles. Carbuncles are a bright red stone,
a brilliant red. I know why he used carbuncles
there as a picture. That brilliant red is a picture
of the precious blood of Christ. Now, if your only way to God,
if you're such a rotten sinner that the only way you can come
to God is through the precious blood of Christ, then you've
got nothing to worry about because everybody who comes to God through
the blood is cleansed from all of their sin and the Holy Father
will always accept them because the blood cleanses us from all
sin. If the only hope you have that
God will accept you is the fact that you're in Christ, then you've
got nothing to worry about. Matter of fact, not only do you
not have nothing to worry about, If the only way you can come
before the Father is in Christ, you've got boldness. Not only
are you not worried, you've got boldness. I'll show you that
in Hebrews chapter 10. Christ the way is so great, He's
so wonderful, marvelous, that sinners, those who have been
born sinners, can have boldness before the Father if they come
to Him in Christ. Hebrews 10 verse 19, Having therefore,
brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest house by the blood
of Jesus, by a new and living way which he hath consecrated
for us through the veil, that is to say his flesh, and having
a high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with
a true heart and full assurance of faith. This boldness is not
a, it's not a cockiness. It's full assurance of faith. Having our hearts sprinkled from
an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. This
boldness is a confidence because we've been washed white as snow
in the blood of Christ's sacrifice. Now the storm's still going to
rage. Now this is our comfort in a time when the whirlwind
just seems out of control. The storm's going to rage. but
your soul is secure if you've been washed in the blood of Christ.
Fifth, if Christ is your border, you've got nothing to worry about.
But here at the end of verse 12, in all thy borders are pleasant
stones. Now a believer is surrounded
by our enemies on every side. This is Written, he says here,
to those who are afflicted and tossed with tempest to not comfort
it. It's like they're out in the middle of the sea surrounded
by the storm and they can't see land. They can't see another
boat. Nobody's coming to help them. And that's very frightening. To know your enemies have surrounded
you? That's frightening. But you know the believer is
protected on every side. Look at 2 Kings chapter 6. Our
borders are protected on every side. 2 Kings 6. Verse 15. And when the servant of the man
of God was risen early and gone forth, behold, and host compassed
the city, both with horses and chariots. And a servant said
unto him, alas, my master, how shall we do? And he answered
him, fear not, For they that be with us are more than they
that be with them. I'm sure that servants look around
saying, no, they're not. We look at it. We're surrounded
on every side. Our borders are. Verse 17. And Elisha prayed and said, Lord,
I pray the open his eyes that he may see and the Lord opened
the eyes of the young man and he saw and behold, the mountain
was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha and
that same wall of fire. is completely surrounding and
protecting every believer, protecting us from every enemy. In this
election cycle, people want to be real sure our borders are
secure. Brethren, your borders are secure if you're in Christ. He's your border. You've got
nothing to worry about. Borders protect us from our enemies.
Well-secured borders, don't they? But you know, borders also protect
us from ourselves. Those borders, yeah, they keep
the enemy from coming in, and they keep me from wandering away,
don't they? If God has shut you up to Christ,
if He's hemmed in so that you cannot leave Christ, if God has
revealed Himself to you in such a way that you're utterly afraid
to leave Christ, to go out there and stand on your own, then you've
got nothing to worry about. God's blessed you, making your
only hope to be His son. You remember in John chapter
6 when all those followers went away and the Lord asks the 12,
will you also go away? You're free to go. Nobody's got you bound here.
You're not chained here. You can go if you want to. And
Peter spoke for every believer. He said, Lord, to whom shall
we go? There's nowhere else for us to go. We believe you're the
Christ. You're the son of the living God. You have the words
of eternal life. Now look at Matthew chapter 16.
Peter said something very similar to this in Matthew chapter 16. Peter made a lot of mistakes,
but boy, he knew this. He can't wander too far from
the Savior. He can't leave him. Matthew 16
verse 13. Jesus came into the coast of
Caesarea Philippi. He asked his disciples, saying,
whom do men say that I, the son of man, am? And they say, some
say that thou art John the Baptist. Some Elias, and others Jeremiah,
are one of the prophets. He saith unto them, but whom
say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and
said, thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. Jesus
answered and said unto him, blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for
flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee. but my father,
which is in heaven. If the father has revealed Christ
to you so that you cannot leave him, then you've got nothing
to worry about. He won't leave you and he won't
allow you to leave him. Your borders are secure. Sixth,
if you've been taught Christ, you've got nothing to worry about.
Verse 13, back in our text, Isaiah 54. And all thy children shall
be taught of the Lord, and great shall be the peace of thy children. And I'll tell you our great need
is to know Christ. My constant, fervent prayer every
day is that the Lord will reveal himself to his people. That's
our great need because by nature we don't know Christ. Don't fool
yourself. By nature, we don't know Christ.
We don't know the way of righteousness. We don't know the way of salvation.
And this need is so great because if we don't know Christ, we're
going to spend eternity in hell. This is our great need to know
Christ. And that's why we're determined
to preach Christ. Just preach Christ. God's servants
only preach Christ. Christ and Him crucified because
sinners must know Him. You must. And the only way you're
going to know Him is to have Him preached to you. There's
none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must
be saved than the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. So we preach
Him. But that's as far as men can
go. We were driving to eat Sunday
afternoon And I was driving and I got a lot of pent-up energy. I think I was beating on the
steering wheel or something. Chance said, what are you thinking? I said, I wish I could take that
message and I wish I could pour it into the hearts of people
that don't know the Lord. But I can't do it. I cannot do
it. But by God's grace, we can preach
Christ, can't we? Can't give you faith to believe,
but I can preach Him to you. And I'm going to continue preaching
Him. You know why? Because God Almighty's promised
that He will teach all of His children. I'll teach your heads
the best I can, but God promised He's going to teach all His children.
He's going to teach them in the heart. And I tell you what, the
lesson He's going to teach every one of His children, it's a very
simple message that He's going to teach, lesson He's going to
teach. He's going to teach you Christ. And if God Almighty teaches
you Christ, then you've got nothing to worry about. Look at John
chapter six. Verse 43. Jesus therefore answered and
said unto them, murmur not among yourselves, no man can come to
me except the Father which has sent me drawing, and I'll raise
him up at the last day, as it's written in the prophets. See,
our Lord's quoting from our text this evening, as it's written
in the prophets, and they shall be all taught of God. Every man
therefore that hath heard and hath learned of the Father does
what? Comes to Christ. Comes unto me. The Father teaches
you Christ. You'll come to him and you'll
have nothing to fear. You see, it's not knowing doctrine
that makes a sinner come to Christ. Knowing the law won't make a
sinner come to Christ. Fearing punishment in hell, there's
no point in me preaching hellfire and brimstone because fear and
punishment in hell will never make a sinner come to Christ.
Felix trembled when Paul preached to him, didn't he? But it never
came. Never came to Christ. He told
Paul, go away, in a more convenient time, I'll call for you. But God reveals Christ to you,
you will come to Christ. And when you come to Him, you'll
have eternal life. Now, if you have eternal life,
if your soul is going to be forever with the Savior, what do you
got to worry about? Really? Seventh, if Christ is
your peace, You've got nothing to worry about. Look at the end
of verse 13. And great shall be the peace
of thy children. Now the peace that a believer
has, peace in the heart, it comes from being washed in the blood
of Christ. Paul says in Colossians 1 that Christ made peace through
the blood of His cross. And that all of God's people
are reconciled to God. by that blood, they're reconciled
to God because they have peace with God. Now they're friends
with God because God's not angry with them anymore because their
sin has been put away under the blood of Christ. Now, the only
way you can describe that kind of peace is what Isaiah describes
it here. Great peace, great should be
the peace of thy children. A believer enjoys great peace. even when they're in the middle
of that raging whirlwind, there's peace. The body may be in danger. The body at one time or another
will be in pain, will suffer sorrow and loss, but the soul
that's under the blood has peace, has nothing to fear, they're
safe. Man may touch the body, but God will never afflict the
soul of his people. because Christ was already afflicted
for them as their substitute. There is therefore now no condemnation. There is therefore now nothing
but peace to them which are in Christ Jesus. Because the blood
of Christ removed the sin that made God angry. So he'll never
deal in justice with his people. He'll never deal in wrath or
condemnation with them. God will only deal with his people
in mercy because there's peace between God and the sinner that
Christ died for. I don't know what's going to
happen to my life here on earth. It could be I live to be an old
man and die in my sleep of old age. Or I may die young because
of something that was very painful and unpleasant to this flesh.
I don't know. But either way, my soul is just
as safe because Christ made peace with God for me. by washing my
sin in His blood. Now that's great peace. Peace
in your heart. Peace in your soul is great peace. And only Christ can give that
peace. I tell you, there can never be any peace in anything
we do. Don't look for peace in anything
that you do. You know, some people say, well,
you know, I never miss a service. I attend every service. Better
be careful now of finding peace in that. You might get sick and
not be able to come anymore. Someone else will say, well,
you know, I find a lot of peace. I made a decision 25 years ago
when I walked an aisle. Yeah, I got peace because I made
that decision. You better be careful. You'll change your mind. As you get older, you'll change
your mind. Don't look for comfort and saying, well, you know, I
was baptized when I was 12 years old. All that did is make you
a wet sinner. If it wasn't a confession of
Christ, that didn't help you none. Don't look for comfort
in your tithing. You think God needs what you
got? Now you give an offering, but if you're giving it to please
God, don't do it. You're not going to impress God.
Don't look for any peace in your morality. Now, I hope you're
the best behaved person on the block and at work and everywhere
you go, but don't trust and look for any comfort in your morality
because you don't stack up to the Lord Jesus, so don't look.
None of that religious activity can give any peace to the heart
because none of that stuff takes our sin away. But if Christ took
your sin away, put it under his blood, You have peace with God. Now what are you worrying about?
You got nothing to worry about. Eighth, if Christ is your righteousness,
you've got nothing to worry about. Verse 14. In righteousness shalt
thou be established. Thou shalt be far from oppression,
for thou shalt not fear, and from terror, for it shall not
come near thee. Now all of God's elect are established
in righteousness. in perfection. And they've got
nothing to fear when God's judgment against sin comes. They've got
nothing to fear standing before the judgment seat of Christ because
Christ already stood judge for them. Christ made His people
righteous. Now righteous means being made
without sin. Well, if Christ made you without
sin, what do you fear to stand before the judgment for? You
got nothing to fear, do you? Christ took your sin away. But
here's the question. How can a sinner be made without
sin? Huh? How can he be clean as born
of a woman? How is that possible? There's
just one way. In Christ, our righteousness.
Righteousness, I tell you this all the time, it's not a thing.
Righteousness is a person. Righteousness is not something
that we can earn or something we can keep. The righteousness
of a believer is Christ. Look here at the very end of
verse 18, or 17, excuse me. He said, this is the heritage
of the servants of the Lord and their righteousness is of me,
saith the Lord. Their obedience is the obedience
that the Lord Jesus worked out as a man. Their righteousness
is Christ. Christ was made sin for his people. He took their sin away from them
and he made them righteous by giving them his righteousness.
So when the terror of God's wrath comes in that last day of judgment,
the righteous don't have anything to fear. He says here, God's
righteous judgment won't even come near him. The terror is
not even to come near him because Christ already died for them.
Christ's death already satisfied God's justice for them. Now if
your righteousness is based on something you earned, or even
something you contributed to, you've got a lot to fear. Because
your righteousness won't cover you. It will not meet God's holy
demands. But if Christ is your righteousness,
you've got nothing to worry about. Nothing. Because in Christ you're
perfect. And God will always accept perfection. And then last, If your faith
is in the sovereign God, the God who's sovereign over everything,
then you've got nothing to worry about. Verse 15. Behold, they
shall surely gather together, but not by me. Whosoever shall
gather together against thee shall fall for thy sake. Behold,
I've created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire. blacksmith,
he's blowing the coals, he's trying to make this sword or
something to cut your head off. Where'd he get the breath to
do it? Where'd he get the strength to do it? Where'd he get to know?
I wouldn't know how to make a sword to save my life. This fella does.
Where'd he get that knowledge? God says, I've created him. He's
under the control of our creator. And it bringeth forth an instrument
for his work. I've created the waster to destroy.
No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper. and every
tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment, thou shalt
condemn. This is the heritage of the servants
of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord. Now
this is not teaching us that we don't ever have to worry about
man harming our bodies. You know that's not so. You read
the scriptures and you see that. There are many martyrs in the
New Testament church. There are many martyrs we read
about in church history. There's a whole book full of
them, isn't there? But what this is telling us is Satan and evil
men, none of them can touch our bodies without the express permission
of our God. Our God is sovereign over them. Now they may gather together
and have a big war council, make plans to destroy you. And they
may make all these weapons and gather them all together in their
armory and plan to use them all to destroy you. But I'm telling
you, none of that will happen unless God Almighty gives them
permission to do it. Unless He gives them permission
to do it to accomplish His will. And you know God very well. They
turn their plans around on Him. The very weapon they formed to
kill one of God's children could be the weapon turned on them
to kill them. Let me give you a couple of examples. The children
of Israel were down there in Egypt in bondage. Word had got
to Pharaoh, there's going to be a deliverer born. There's
a baby going to be born. He's going to grow up. He's going
to deliver Israel from under your heel. And Pharaoh said,
I'll tell you what we'll do then. All right. We're going to take
all the boy babies and we're going to throw them in the Red
Sea and drown them. Every time a boy baby's born, you drown
it in the Red Sea. And that way, the deliverer,
he'll never be a full grown man. Sounds like a pretty good plan,
doesn't it? Cruel, but seems effective. But let me ask you
this. Whose son was drowned in the
Red Sea? Moses wasn't drowned in the Red Sea, was he? Moses'
mother put him in a basket. Pharaoh's daughter found him
in that basket, and she just loved that baby. She took him
home, and Pharaoh raised Moses. And 80 years later, who was drowned
in the Red Sea? Pharaoh's son, who'd become Pharaoh. Mordecai. built those big gallows
to hang his hated enemy Haman on. Or Haman built the gallows
to hang Mordecai on. Who hung on the gallows? Mordecai. It was Haman. Those counselors for the king,
they said, we're going to get this Daniel. We're going to get
him. They prepared the lions, they didn't feed them for days,
and they concocted this plan. God Daniel would be thrown down
there in the lion's den, so he'd be killed and eaten. Who was killed and eaten at the
bottom of that pit? Not Daniel. All those counselors. See, our
sovereign God is in control. Man's not going to do anything
that violates God's will. And God even uses the wicked
to accomplish his purpose of good for his people. Our sovereign
may even allow men to harm the bodies of his children, but only
so they can go be with the Lord forever. But in the judgment,
there's going to be a day of reckoning. In that day, really
the only day that truly matters because it's eternal, there will
no harm come to God's elect, none. God's enemies will be judged
and destroyed. God's people will be vindicated
and brought to glory. Now that's a story of grace,
isn't it? What a story of grace. I like
to tell the story of grace. That story, it comforts the hearts
of God's people. Back here in verse 11, he talks
about, lay thy stones with fair colors and thy foundations with
sapphires. What he's talking about there
is setting these stones, beautiful, brightly colored stones in black
mortar to make a mosaic. You know, they did that a lot
then. Some of them still exist today. You see these mosaics,
you know, that they made and set in the mortar? What this
mosaic is, the bright stones against the black backdrop, is
telling a beautiful story of grace that only the Sovereign
God could work out for His people. And if you're trusting in that
who's working out this beautiful mosaic of grace. You just don't
have anything to worry about, do you? No, because God's on
the throne. As a matter of fact, if your
faith is in the sovereign, you can have peace and you can sit
down and enjoy this beautiful story of grace that God's working
out for his people. Even when you're in the middle
of the storm, it seems like it's going to scare you half to death.
you have peace because our God is sovereign. That's comfort
for the church and it's all found in Christ. God give us the grace
to look to him. Let's bow and pray. Our Father, we thank you for
these precious promises that picture our Lord Jesus Christ,
that picture his person, his precious, sovereign, perfect
person. and his perfect work that he's
accomplished for his people. Father, we thank you for comfort
that's found in our Lord Jesus Christ. And it is our prayer
for those that are in difficult, difficult times, that you would,
in your mercy, show them your son. Give them a special portion
of your presence. Comfort their hearts as only
you can. promises of Christ to their minds and to their hearts
that they might find their comfort, peace and joy in our Lord Jesus
Christ. Father, we pray that you heal.
We pray that you provide a way out. But until you're pleased
to do so, how we beg of thee that you give us a view of the
Lord Jesus Christ and that you'd never, ever let us leave him
for all of our is found in Him. It's in the precious name of
our Lord Jesus Christ we thank you and praise your name.