Let's open our Bibles again to
Isaiah chapter 30. The title of the message is,
Why Does the Lord Wait? Why Does the Lord Wait? And we'll
begin looking in verse one. See some of the reasons here,
why the Lord waits. Verse one of Isaiah chapter 30.
Woe to the rebellious children, saith the Lord, that take counsel,
but not of me. and that cover with a covering,
but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin. Now we know
that man has fallen in Adam. But even though man's fallen,
man is very, very religious. But man's religion, the religion
that man has made up is what he's made up. It comes from his
own counsel. It does not come from what God
says. It's his own ideas. And God says that rebellion,
That religion is open rebellion against him. That kind of religion
impresses men, but God says it's open rebellion. Instead of believing
what God says, men say, well, I just think, you fill in the
blank. Let me give you a good clue.
Anytime you hear somebody say, well, I just think, beware. I can tell you it's trouble,
because when I tell you what I think, this is man's counsel.
God says, come to Christ. God says, trust in Christ. God
says, come to Christ to be made righteous in him without anything
that you do. Man says, I've got better counsel. I've got a better idea. I just
think if we keep the law ourselves and do as good as we can do and
do a bunch of good deeds and, you know, deeds that at least
seem like good to the rest of the men that I know, then I think
God will be pleased with us. Well, that's man's counsel, isn't
it? But who told you to do that? I can tell you God the Holy Spirit
didn't tell you that. You didn't get that from God's
word. That's man's counsel, man's ideas. Now, man knows he does
need to cover his sin. Isaiah says here he's looking
for a covering, but not of God's spirit, not the covering that
God provided. We'd rather cover ourselves. with our own works, our own good
deeds, you know, try to fix up and patch up the outside rather
than submit to Christ, rather than submitting ourselves to
the righteousness of Christ and submitting ourselves to the sacrifice
for our sin that God's already provided. And our attempts to
cover our own sin, our attempts to make ourselves better, now
those aren't good works now. God says that's adding sin to
sin. It's just adding sin on top of
sin. Verse two, he goes on and says, that walk to go down into
Egypt, and if not ask at my mouth, to strengthen themselves in the
strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt. Now we've
seen this before in earlier chapters in Isaiah. When Sennacherib came
to attack Israel, the people of Israel thought, you know,
it's gonna be a good idea for us to go down and hide in Egypt,
or let's go make a treaty in alliance with Egypt so when we
get attacked, the Egyptian army will come up and help us. Now,
if you're taking man's counsel, that sounds like a pretty good
idea. But the problem with that is God said, don't do that. God
said, don't make a treaty with Egypt. God said, don't go down
to hide in Egypt. God said, you wait for me to
help you. God said, you call on me to help. You beg me for
mercy and wait on me to deliver you because I will. But instead
of doing that, what'd they do? They went and made an alliance
with Egypt. And what's Egypt in scripture? Egypt's always
a picture of bondage. Now, it may seem like a good
idea to, according to the counsel of fallen man, let's keep God's
law. You know, as good as we can do
to keep God's law, God will be pleased with us. But God said
He won't be pleased with us trying to keep the law. God says all
that is is more sin. So what did God say? God said
call on Him. God said beg Him for mercy. God
said wait on Him to deliver you. But that's not what men do by
nature. Verse three, therefore, because you've done this, you've
sought your own way, you've gone your own way, even though God
said not to do that, therefore, shall the strength of Pharaoh
be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion.
For his princes weren't so, and his ambassadors came to Haines.
They were all ashamed of a people that could not profit them, nor
be a help nor profit, but a shame, and also, of reproach. Going
man's way, this way of man's counsel, it's always going to
bring condemnation and shame. Always. But what does scripture
say about Christ? In Christ, you'll never be put
to confusion. In Christ, you'll never be put
to shame because in Christ, you're innocent. You'll never be found
guilty. But following man's counsel just adds to our shame and adds
to our confusion. Aren't we in enough of a mess
already? What do we want to add to it for? This is man's fallen
nature, though. And I tell you, it doesn't matter
how sincere we are in false religion and going in man's way. If it's
not God's way, it doesn't matter how much we give, how much we
serve, how much we clean up the outside, God's not going to be
pleased with that. Where is God's pleasure? Where
is God pleased? only with Christ. But look at
verse 6, this is man's counsel. The burden of the beast of the
south into the land of trouble and anguish from whence come
the young and old lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent. They
will carry their riches upon the shoulders of young asses
and their treasures upon the bunches of camels to a people
that shall not profit them for the Egyptians shall help in vain
and to no purpose. Therefore have I cried concerning
this Their strength is to sit still. Now Israel sent so much
money down to, bribe money, down to Egypt, you know, to ratify
this treaty. They just loaded down all their
donkeys and camels, all this gold and silver and bribe money
they're sending to Egypt. They just sent them everything
they had. And when Sennacherib came calling, it didn't do them
one bit of good. They were just, Egypt was no
help to them at all. They were just ashamed. And I
tell you, we can tithe, we can give, we can just put enormous
burdens on people in an attempt to have it by atonement for our
sin. We just load ourselves down with
duty and responsibility and it will never be enough to satisfy
God. We'll end up being ashamed and
guilty because there's no help in anything that we did. But
he gives us such a good clue here at the end of verse seven.
Their strength is to sit still. God saves freely, freely. Now that means we don't pay anything. I mean, you'd think you wouldn't
have to give a definition of freely, but now you do. That
means we don't give anything. That means we don't do anything
to deserve it, to earn it, to keep it. God saves freely. I'll tell you when a man will
be saved. when he sits still and not before. The strength
is to sit still. God's salvation must be received
freely with us sitting still not doing anything to deserve
it. But now look at verse eight. Now go and write it before them
in a table and note it in a book that it may be for the time to
come forever and ever. that this is a rebellious people,
lying children, children that will not hear the law of the
Lord. The Lord told Isaiah, Isaiah, you go write this down in a book
that people can keep it and go back and reference it and read
it over and over and over again. Because this is going to be man's
problem forever. People are not going to change.
Man will always rebel against God, to always rebel against
God's gospel, to always rebel against God's Christ. Now just
how rebellious will man be. Look at verse 10. Which say to
the seers, see not. And to the prophets, prophesy
not unto us right things. Speak unto us smooth things.
Prophesy deceits. Get you out of the way. Turn
aside out of the path. Cause the Holy One of Israel
to cease from before us. Don't set the Holy One of Israel
before us. Don't set Christ before us. That's
what they're saying. Men are so rebellious. God in
His grace sends the gospel. Now they hear the gospel with
these ears and they say, don't preach that to me anymore. I
don't want to hear that anymore. They say to God's servants, you
quit that. Quit telling us the truth about
who man is. Man really is. Don't tell me
what I really am. Don't tell me I'm guilty in sin.
Don't tell me I'm born under the condemnation of God. Don't
tell me I'm lost and there's nothing I can do to save myself. If you keep telling me that,
how am I gonna keep up my positive mental attitude? How am I gonna
keep this up? If you keep telling me how depraved
I am, then what's the use in trying? Don't, I know God's word
says that, but don't tell me that. That's not what that means
to me. Tell me smooth things with a
smile on your face. Don't do what John did Sunday
morning and remind us all we're gonna die. Now don't do that.
That's gonna ruin my appetite for Sunday afternoon dinner.
Tell me smooth things with a smile on your face. Tell me everything's
all right so I can go home and I can be comfortable. Listen to me. If the gospel that
you hear does not make your flesh uncomfortable, you've not heard
the gospel. If God's never made you not just
uncomfortable, but I mean miserable, that he's never showed you who
and what you are, and God's never saved you, the gospel does make
the flesh uncomfortable. And God says, you've rejected
my gospel. You told my prophets, don't preach
that to me more. God said, all right, this is
so scary. This app, this scares me to death. God says, all right,
I'll give you what you want. Verse 12, wherefore thus sayeth
the Holy one of Israel, because you despise this word and trust
in oppression and perverseness and stay there on. Therefore,
this iniquity should be to you as a breach, ready to fall, swelling
out in a high wall, whose breaking comes suddenly, in an instant,
and he shall break it as the breaking of the potter's vessel
that is broken in pieces. He shall not spare, so that there
shall not be found in the bursting of it a shard to take fire from
the hearth, or to take water withal out of the pit. For thus
saith the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, in returning and
rest, so you'd be saved, and quietness and in confidence should
be your strength, and you would not. Now man despises God's free
and sovereign grace, and he'd rather trust, when he's talking
about put your stay on this, he means he'd rather trust in
oppression. Now that can only mean the law.
I mean, how oppressive is the law? You never do enough to satisfy,
just constantly pressing you down, put more and more and more
requirements on you. Man would rather trust in that
oppression. Man would rather trust in the perverseness of
their own nature, rather than beg God for mercy in Christ.
So God says, I'm gonna give you what you want. Your iniquity
is gonna crush you. And it will be total destruction.
Everything's gonna be turned to dust. But he says about the
vessel being broken in pieces, it's just gonna be ground to
powder. There's not gonna be even just a little sliver of
pottery left. You can scoop fire or something
out of the pit. It's just gonna be ground to
powder, total destruction. Yet, here's how merciful and
slow to anger God is. Even though men reject the gospel,
even though men repeatedly reject Christ, God keeps allowing his
gospel to be preached on this earth. And he tells us in verse
15, this is how sinners are saved. When you return, in returning,
in rest, shall you be saved. In quietness and in confidence
should be your strength, but you would not. God keeps allowing
his gospel to be preached and man keeps rejecting it. Like
I said a minute ago, salvation is never going to be accomplished
until we sit still, until we quit working, until we trust
Christ has already finished the work. And there's such, there
is such beauty in that. I know that runs contrary to
the flesh, but there is such beauty in submitting to Christ,
just surrendering to him and looking to him. But men continue
to reject the gospel, and they'll continue to be destroyed too,
verse 16. But you said no, for we will
flee upon horses. Therefore, say you flee, and
we will ride upon the swift. Therefore, shall they that pursue
you be swift. They're gonna be more swift than
you, you're gonna be destroyed. Now that's man. That's the nature
that every one of us here this evening was born with. We're
born with a nature that's dead in sins. We're born with a nature
that's rebellious against God. We're born with a nature that
unless God does something, we're going to keep rejecting Christ.
That's man. Now I want you to see something
about the character of God. You just think about if you were
faced with someone constantly being rebellious against you,
constantly rejecting you, how long would it last? How long
would your goodness to him last? How long would you wait? Well,
God, here's the first point. God has the capacity to wait. God has the capacity to hold
back his wrath for this reason, so that he can be gracious to
his people. Now, the message in chapter 30
is very similar to the message that we saw in chapter 29. And
there's a good reason for that, the gospel, just one message.
But if sinners are going to be saved, God's going to have to
be patient. If sinners are going to be saved,
God must be long suffering. God must wait and not destroy
them. If sinners are going to be saved,
God's got to wait and hold back his wrath so that he can be merciful
to his people in his time. And God is going to wait. God
is going to hold back his wrath and he is going to be gracious
to somebody. Look what he says in verse 17.
1,000 shall flee at the rebuke of one.
At the rebuke of five shall you flee, till you be left as a beacon
upon the top of a mountain, and as an ensign on a hill. God's
gonna save somebody. There's gonna be a remnant. There's
just gonna be a few, but God's gonna save somebody. They're
gonna be like a beacon left on the top of a hill. There's gonna
be a trophy of God's grace held up for everybody to see. And
that remnant is gonna be saved. because God waited. They're not
saved because they deserved it. They're going to be saved because
God held back his wrath, and to the time came, he'd be gracious
to them. That's what he says in verse 18. And therefore, will
the Lord wait, because God's going to save somebody. Therefore,
will the Lord wait, that he may be gracious unto you. And therefore,
will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you. For the
Lord is a God of judgment. Blessed are all they that wait
for Him. Now here's man. All men have
rebelled against Almighty God. And we don't even realize, because
our, you know, you talk about not taking counsel from man,
it's a good idea not to take counsel from man because man's
mind is fallen, it's corrupt. We don't even realize what awful
rebellion sin is against God. We don't realize what an awful
thing it is to sin against God with whom we have to do. Sinning
against God who has the power to damn our souls. Almighty God
has the power to damn those who sin against Him. And Almighty
God has the capacity to wait, to hold back His judgment and
not destroy so that He can be gracious to His people. Look
over at 2 Peter 3. 2 Peter 3, verse 9. The Lord is not slack concerning
his promise, as some men count slackness, but is long-suffering
to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all
should come to repentance. Now the Lord is long-suffering,
and you know this is one of the most abused verses in God's word. The Lord is long suffering, but
now to whom, to whom is he long suffering? Peter's not saying
the Lord's long suffering to every son of Adam. Now he's long
suffering to us word. Well now who's that us? We need
to find out who that us word is so we can understand this
first. We'll look back in chapter one of second Peter. The us word
is those people to whom Peter is writing. This is a letter.
This is a letter Peter wrote to somebody, and the us word
is the people that he wrote this letter to. Chapter one, verse
one. Simon Peter, a 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
hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness,
through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory
and virtue, whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious
promises, that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature,
having escaped the corruption that's in the world through lust."
Now, this is the people that Peter's writing to. Those people
who have obtained like precious faith. Well, how'd they obtain
it? God gave it to them. Faith is a gift of God. He's
writing to people who've been born again. He's writing to people
who've been made righteous in Christ. He's writing to people
that God knows and He's revealed Himself to them so they know
God. He's writing to people that God's called by His grace, and
He caused them to be born again. These are the people to whom
God has made these exceeding great and precious promises. Now, the Lord's not willing that
any of those people should perish, any of those people to whom He's
given faith, any of those people to whom He's caused to be born
again and called out by His grace. God's not willing that any of
those people should perish. But they're born with the same
nature every other son of Adam has. So God waits and does not
destroy them. So he can be gracious to them
in his time. I tell you the reason the Lord's
waiting to return right now. I had this conversation with
somebody earlier this week. Why doesn't the Lord just return?
I mean, you just look at this world. Why doesn't the Lord just
return? Well, I don't know all the answer
to that, but I know this. I'll tell you why God's waiting.
He's waiting because He's got sheep, and He's going to wait
until He is gracious to them and grants them repentance and
faith. The Lord keeps putting up with
man on this earth for this reason, so that He can be gracious to
His elect. He's not going to lose one for
whom Christ died. They're probably not even born
yet. That's why the Lord keeps waiting. And if you look in verse
15 of 2 Peter chapter three, this is what Peter means here.
In this way, the longsuffering of the Lord is salvation. And
account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation, even
as our beloved brother Paul, also according to the wisdom
given unto him, hath written unto you. Now you think about
the state of man that we read about in the last two chapters
of Isaiah. Man is fallen in Adam. Our souls are dead, stinking
corpses just laying around in God's creation, polluting it.
Man has ignored God's way of salvation. Not like God hadn't
plainly showed it to him. He has, but man's just chosen
to ignore it and go his own way. Ignore God's way and choose our
own way. And God sends prophets to men and they tell them, go
away. Don't preach that to me. Just
don't tell us that anymore. I don't want to hear that stuff
that makes me uncomfortable. Man has perverted God's way into
idolatry. Man has religion that doesn't
make him by better, just makes him worse. Now I tell you, the
only reason God puts up with that and does not just wipe out
the entire human race is he's waiting. to be gracious to his
people. He's got a people he's chosen
out of that fallen race and he's waiting to be gracious to him.
This story is told over and over and over in scripture. God created
Adam upright in the garden, gave him everything, everything the
heart could desire. God gave it to him. It's all
yours, Adam. Adam rebelled against God. God
could have just snuffed Adam out, wiped out the entire human
race by just snuffing out one little ant. But God didn't do
it because He was waiting. Coming from the loins of Adam
was a people that God chose and He didn't wipe out Adam because
He's waiting to be gracious to His elect. One day God looked
down from heaven. He saw man is so wicked, oh,
the great wickedness. Every imagination of the thoughts
of his heart was on evil continually. And it repented God, he made
man on the earth. He said, God said, I'm gonna
send a flood. I'm gonna destroy this place with water. But God
waited. He didn't destroy the whole human
race. He saved Noah and his family
alive in the ark when he sent the flood. You know why God did
that? He was waiting to be gracious
to his people. To his people gathered here together
this evening. Every one of us can trace our
family tree back to Noah. God was waiting to be gracious
to his people that wouldn't even be born for thousands of years.
There's another day God looked down from heaven. See what man
was doing? They were building themselves a tower to heaven.
Now, we could understand, okay, well, this thing's gone far enough,
hasn't it? God, he's fed up. He's just gonna
destroy the whole human race. But he didn't do it. Now, at
that time, they were building that tower in Babel, the whole
earth spoke one language. God came down and he caused confusion. He made them all suddenly speak
all different languages, scattered them all over the world. You
know why God did that? He was waiting to be gracious.
He had a people from every one of those new languages He just
put on the earth. He scattered those people to every corner
of the earth. God had a people from every one of those nations.
That's why He waited, so He'd be gracious to His people. Then
you remember the time God delivered Israel from Egypt. They went
out into the wilderness. God called Moses up into the
mountain. There Moses, now he just delivered him from Egypt.
He just destroyed the Egyptian army in the Red Sea. Moses up
there in the mountain. God is giving Moses the instructions
for the tabernacle and the priesthood. And the children of Israel, while
Moses was up there, made themselves a golden calf so they could worship
it. And they said, this is the God that delivered us. This calf
we just made, you know, delivered us from Egypt. God told Moses,
you stand right over there out of the way. I'm going to destroy
this nation and I'm going to start over. I'm going to make
a new people from you. And Moses interceded with God. He begged God for mercy. He interceded
for that nation and God didn't destroy him. Now did they deserve
for God just to rain fire down from that mountain to destroy
him? Of course they did. But God waited. God had a people. He's going
to be gracious to him. Joshua and Caleb are down there.
How many ever great, great, great grandparents of Gideon and Samuel
and David and Solomon and Daniel were down there. God didn't destroy
those people because he waiting to be gracious to his people.
Then thousands of years later, the Lord Jesus came to this earth.
He was a perfect man. But from the time he was born,
people sought to slay him. I mean, Herod sought to slay
him from the moment he was born. Men hated him. Every day of his
life, they hated him. And one day, God allowed man
to put their hands on his son. And they tortured him. They crucified
him. And they killed him and mocked
him and made fun of him and enjoyed it while they did it. And I'm
just sure the angels in heaven were just on their tiptoes, ready
to come down and put an end to this thing. They didn't know
what God was doing, but they're ready to swoop down and deliver
the Prince of Glory from this travesty that's going on. Why did the order never come?
Why did they stay right there where they were? Because God
was waiting so that he could be gracious to his people. The
sacrifice of Christ is how God's going to be gracious to his people.
If God stopped the crucifixion of his son, God could never have
been gracious to any sinner. He waited to show mercy and grace
to his people in his time. Then after the death of the Savior,
his gospel began to spread. Those 11 apostles and the people
they preached to were turning the world upside down. There's
a man lived in a city called Tarsus. He's a Pharisee. Saul
was his name. And he hated the gospel. He loved
the law. He loved the ceremonies and traditions
of the Jews, but he hated the gospel. And he was going to do
everything he could to wipe out the name of Jesus from this earth.
He's going to wipe out that gospel if he could. And one day old
Saul was riding to Damascus. He was going to jail and kill
believers that he found there. And on his way there, God threw
Saul off his horse, put him down in the dust, caused a great light
to shine around there, so bright it blinded Saul. There lay Saul
in the dust. Now, if you and I were back watching
this scene, you know what we'd think? We'd think, that rebel's
going to get what he deserves now. God's going to take care
of him now. God's going to kill him now.
Well, God's going to destroy that enemy of Christ, that's
for sure. But not the way you and I might think. God didn't
kill Saul. God saved him. God was gracious
to him. Why didn't God destroy that old
enemy? Because God waited. God held back his wrath so that
he could be gracious to Saul. And those stories go on. We can
spend all the rest of tonight and into tomorrow talking about
stories like this. But let's get personal. What
God did in each of those situations, God's done with every single
one of his people. Why didn't the Lord destroy you
and me when we were living in rebellion against him? Maybe
we were in false religion, rebellion against God. Why didn't God destroy
us then? Could be, could be, we run to
the sound of the gospel. Could be, We were hearing the
gospel preached and sitting there in rebellion. You know, you can
sit right here in these chairs every single week and be in rebellion
against God. Why did God put up with it? Why
didn't God just destroy us? Because God waited. He longed
suffering with his people. Why the Lord keeps supplying
our physical needs? Everything God gives us, we're
using to rebel against him. We're so unthankful and rebellious.
God keep preserving our life, but we're using every breath
of it to rebel against him and curse his name. Why did God wait? Why didn't God just destroy us?
Because God held back his wrath so that he could be gracious
to his people. That's the character of God.
And you know why God would do such a thing? For His glory. That's what Isaiah says here.
And therefore will He be exalted. Now, Almighty God is already
so glorious. You and I can't comprehend it.
He's self-existent. He's so wonderful. He sits on
the throne of the universe with all wisdom and power dwelling
in a light no man can approach unto. And that God, is exalted. I mean, how high exalted is he?
That God is exalted when he holds back his wrath to show mercy
to sinners. You see, this is God's greatest
glory. Not that he just overlooked sin.
God held back his wrath in this sense. He didn't put that wrath
on his people. You who believe, God didn't pour
out his wrath on you. He waited. Now, we deserved it,
but he waited. But God didn't overlook that
sin. God punished that sin fully. He poured out His wrath upon
our sacrifice, upon Christ our substitute. That's why Isaiah
means when he says here, the Lord is a God of judgment. He judged the sin of His people. That's why He could wait and
not pour out His wrath on His people. He waited because He
poured out His wrath upon our substitute. God showed mercy
to his people by punishing and by killing his only begotten
son. He killed his son so sinners
could live. Now brethren, that's grace. You can't get a better definition
of grace than that. God poured out his wrath on his
son so that sinners could live. Nothing could exalt God more
and then the way he's gracious to his people. It's through the
death of the substitute. The substitutionary death of
Christ exalts God, his justice. It exalts God's holiness. It
exalts God's wisdom and his love and his grace. Every attribute
of God is glorified in the way he shows mercy to sinners. It's
through the death of his son. He waited to pour out his wrath,
not on you, but on your substitute. And Isaiah says, now God waits.
Blessed are all they that wait for him. You wait for him and
you'll be blessed. That's why Isaiah says, because
God's gracious to his people. He waits so that he can show
grace to his people. Second, God is so gracious, he
hears the cries of his people. Verse 19, for the people shall
dwell in Zion at Jerusalem. Thou shalt weep no more. for
he will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry.
When he shall hear it, he will answer thee. Now we know we're
gonna weep over the pain and sorrow of this flesh. The Lord
promised us that in this world. But you know, spiritually, a
believer's got nothing to cry about. There's no more crying. If sin's gone, there's nothing
to cry about. And yet, because of the flesh
in this world, we're gonna cry. And what does he say here when
we cry? He will be, I love the way he says that, not just gracious,
he'll be very gracious unto thee when you cry. It's the Lord who
makes us cry for grace in the first place. The flesh is never
gonna cry for grace. I'll tell you, the only person
who cries for grace, the only person who cries out because
of their sin is a man who's been born again. The Lord makes us
cry. And then he answers and is very
gracious. And the way Isaiah has phrased
this indicates that grace, God's grace, is shown in love and pity. That's the kind of grace a sinner
needs. That's the kind of grace I need. Grace that's shown in
love and pity. God's so gracious in love and
in pity. He hears the cries of his people.
Third, God's so gracious He'll not leave his people without
a witness. Verse 20, and though the Lord give you the bread of
adversity and the water of affliction, yet shall not thy teachers be
removed into a corner anymore, but thine eyes shall see thine
teachers. Now we know trials are gonna
come from the Lord. He's the one who feeds us with
the bread of adversity and the water of affliction. But you
know, those physical things, those physical trials, They're
not an indication of God's grace. They're not an indication of
His lack of grace. But here's comfort. Those times of trial
are coming. But even in the worst of times,
the Lord's not going to leave Himself without a witness. He
says, your teachers won't be removed into a corner. Because
God doesn't do anything in a corner. Your teachers aren't going to
be removed into a corner. You'll see them. You'll hear them. God
will always leave Himself with a witness. A witness of what? A witness of His grace in Christ. He'll always leave Himself a
witness. There's always going to be a place God's people can
hear of His grace to them in Christ Jesus. Fourth, God's so
gracious, He gives His people eyes to see Christ, ears to hear
Christ, and feet that will keep following Christ. Verse 21, And
thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is
the way, walking when you turn to the right hand or when you
turn to the left. God's so gracious, he gives his
people, pastors and teachers, he gives himself, he's not going
to leave himself without a witness. But then he gives his people
a heart of obedience that hears that message and causes them
to follow Christ. Why does a person, when they
come to Christ, why does a person stay in the way? Why do they
stay in Christ and not go off to the right? Why don't they
all go off to the left? Why don't they go off in some
wild tangent? Well, it's because we know better. We've been taught
better than that, and we've had better teachers, and we've just
had a better foundation laid in them, so we didn't go off.
No, no. You know why we didn't go off
to the right or the left? It's grace, God's grace. That's the only, that's why. If God held back his wrath against
your sin and poured out his wrath upon his son so that he could
be gracious to you. He ain't gonna let you go. It's
Him that's not gonna let you go. He's not gonna let you go
off to the right or to the left. He's not gonna let you depart
from Him and depart from His way of salvation, depart from
Christ, depart from life, depart from peace. He's not gonna let
you do it because God is gracious to His people. Fifth, God is
so gracious, He delivers His people from the power of idolatry. Verse 22. You shall defile also
the covering of thy graven images of silver and the ornament of
thy molten images of gold. Thou shalt cast them away as
a minstrel's cloth. Thou shalt say unto it, get thee
hence. I tell you, wherever we were,
when God found us, we were an idolater without question. Because before God revealed Christ
to our hearts, we're worshiping something, but I promise you
it wasn't Christ. We were trusting in something
other than Christ and that's an idol. That's what happened
in Thessalonica. Well, when did the Thessalonians
turn to God from their idols to serve the true and living
God? When God didn't leave himself
without a witness. God sent the gospel to them, not in word only,
but in power, in the power of the Holy Ghost, and they turned
to God from their idols. That's grace. They turned because
of God's grace. God worked it out all this time
that they were in idolatry, holding back his wrath so he could be
gracious to them when he sent his gospel to them. Sixth, God
is so gracious His people will never starve. He'll always feed
His people with Christ, the living bread. Verse 23. Then shall He
give the rain of thy seed, that thou shalt sow the ground withal,
and bread of the increase of the earth, and it shall be fat
and plenteous, and that day shall thy cattle feed in large pastures.
The oxen likewise, and the young asses that ear the ground shall
eat clean provender, which hath been winnowed with the shovel
and with the fan. Now you go sow the seed, you
seek the Lord, you support the preaching of the gospel, you
give. Now God's gonna give an increase, his people are gonna
be fed. They're all gonna be fed in large
pastures. And I like what he says here,
the cattle and the oxen, those are God's people. That's all
we are, we're God's cattle, it's oxen. and they're going to eat
corn and they're going to eat wheat that's not mixed with chaff. Now I would just imagine, normally
speaking, if you're going to feed an oxen and cattle and donkeys
You're not going to care too much if you dump some weed and
feed in there for him to eat if there's chaff in it. You know,
if there's bits of stuff that you couldn't eat, you're not
going to care too much if the oxen eat it. It doesn't have
to be pure oats for an ox, right? God's so gracious to his people.
He gives his people wheat and corn without any chaff in it. It's pure Christ because he's
gracious. Then seventh, God is so gracious,
he waters his people with Christ the water of life, verse 25.
And there should be upon every high mountain and upon every
high hill rivers and streams of waters in the day of the great
slaughter when the towers fall. Now, even in places that you
don't expect it, at the top of the mountain, you think if there's
water at the top of the mountain, it's going to just fall off,
right? It's going to run down into the valley. But even in
places we don't expect it, God sends the water of life. He sends
the gospel of Christ. And the key to this is in the
day of the great slaughter. That tells us how believers are
always given the water of life. That day of great slaughter is
the day Christ was crucified. And we're going to look at this
Sunday. But as he hung there in his dying agony, what did
he cry? I thirst. He cried, I thirst,
so his people will never be left thirsty. Always satisfied with
Christ, the water of life. Now that's grace. Christ the
Lord thirsted, so his people will never thirst. Always be
watered. And last, Christ is so gracious,
he gives the light of Christ to his people, verse 26. Moreover,
the light of the moon should be as the light of the sun, and
the light of the sun should be sevenfold, as a light of seven
days, in the day that the Lord bindeth up the breach of his
people, and healeth the stroke of their wound." Now, you know
the moon doesn't have any light of its own. The moon simply reflects
the light of the sun, and that's the church. We don't have any
light of our own. Any light we reflect, any light
shines forth from us is because we're reflecting the light of
Christ. And Christ is the light. He's the perfect light. That's
why I hear when Isaiah talks about the light of the sun, he
says it's sevenfold. Seven's the number of perfection.
Christ is the perfect light. And the church simply reflects
Christ the light. How do we do that? Well, number
one, by preaching him, right? We preach Christ, we reflect
the light. Everybody's not a preacher. Well, how does the church, all
the church, reflect the light of Christ? By walking with Christ. In your everyday life, as you
walk with Christ, you're reflecting his light. just like Enoch walked
with God. A man walking with God didn't
end when Enoch was translated. We still do that today. We reflect
his light by walking with Christ. The church reflecting the light
of Christ. I don't have time to fully develop
this, but I'm telling you, we need each other. Now, we need
each other. Hold each other up. Help strengthen
and comfort one another. You can listen on sermon audio
all you want to. Get CDs and tapes. I'm telling
you, there's no replacing this. There's no replacing the comfort
and the encouragement that you get from one another. You get
down. Walk through this world, you're
going to get down now. doesn't find a brother or a sister,
and they start talking about the Lord. They start reflecting
His light. That help? It does. That's the
church reflecting the light of Christ. And Christ the light
doesn't just give us light to see. He also heals. He binds
up the breach. Christ binds up the separation
between God and men. That breach Man made it in his
rebellion. I preached too long. I want to
tell you a story. A couple Sundays ago, Janet was a substitute teacher
for Sabrina. And she was talking to the children
about the fall of man. And she said, God created Adam
upright. He's perfect. And Adam fell. She was up here. She did this. Adam fell. And one of those little
girls asked, What's in between? What's in between here and here? I never thought that question.
What a question. Well, I don't know everything
between here and here, but I can tell you this. Between here and here
is a breach. It's a gulf, a great gulf that
no man can cross. But Christ did. He crossed the
breach. He bound that breach up and brought
his people back to God. because God waited, because he
held back his wrath and didn't pour it out on his people, but
he poured it out on Christ our substitute. Now there's a whole lot I don't
understand. There's a whole lot that burdens my heart, causes
me a lot of grief and worry. I think of so many people that
don't know the Lord, people I know and love, people we come in contact
with, And it's heartbreaking. It's just heartbreaking. But
brethren, all's not lost. Now, there's reason to hope.
As long as somebody is alive on the top side of this planet,
there's reason to hope. We have loved ones that don't
know the Lord. We think, well, it just seems
like there's no hope. We worry about them. We pray
for their souls. And we ought to. It ought to
bother somebody that doesn't know Christ. We ought to be praying
for him. We ought to be praying for him
because we pray to who? The God who waits. It could be
he's waiting to show mercy and grace, that he will be exalted
when he does it. I pray he will. All right, let's
bow in prayer. Our Father, How we thank you
for your mercy and your grace. How we thank you for your long-suffering.
How we thank you that your patience with your people. We can't do anything right. We
can't say anything right. We've done nothing but deserve
your wrath. How thankful you're so long-suffering
with your people. How thankful we are that you
poured out the wrath that the sin of your people deserve upon
Christ our substitute, so that you could be merciful, so that
you'd be very gracious to your people when they cry out for
mercy. Father, we're crying out for
your mercy. We're crying out for your grace. Would you answer,
would you show your power being long-suffering to your people
to show mercy and grace in your time. Surely, we'll exalt your
matchless name in doing so. Bless your word, Father, we pray,
to your glory and to the good of the hearts of your people.
It's in Christ's name we pray and give thanks. Amen.