Driving over here this evening,
Janet asked me, she said, are you really anxious to get back
in the pulpit? And I told her I hadn't really
thought about it, really. You know, we got home and I began
my normal routine of study and things. I just didn't really
think about it. But honey, to answer your question, yes. Sitting
here thinking about the text this evening, I became very anxious
to begin setting forth our Savior. I believe the Lord's given a
message that if He'll enable us to hear it, every person here
will flee to Christ. That's my prayer. That's what
we'll do if the Lord enables us to hear. Our text is Isaiah
chapter 19. Now, throughout their history,
Israel was constantly trying to go back to Egypt for protection.
It began as soon as they left Egypt. When Moses led them through
Egypt, it began immediately on their way to the Promised Land.
They said, Moses, why did you bring us out here to die of starvation
and die of thirst in the wilderness? It would have been better if
we had stayed in Egypt. Let's go back. And that continued
all through their history, wanting to go back, wanting to go back
to Egypt. And the prophet, in these previous chapters as we've
been studying, has told Israel the Assyrian army is going to
come and destroy the land. Not just Israel, but all these
surrounding countries are going to be destroyed. And this is
coming. And the prophet told the people,
now you trust in the Lord to deliver you. Don't trust in your
own strength, don't trust in your allies, don't trust in your
wisdom. You trust in the Lord to deliver you. And just so they
know, because the Lord knows what they're going to do, just
so they know, don't go to Egypt and try to hide now. The Lord
sent his prophet with the prophecy of what the Lord's going to do
to Egypt. And when you hear what the Lord's going to do to Egypt,
the last place you want to be found is hiding there when the
Lord sends his judgment upon Egypt. The country is going to
be torn apart by civil war. Egypt, which was famous for its
wisdom, its leaders had ruled wisely and built all these wonderful
things. They've suddenly become fools.
They've lost all their wisdom. They're going to have cruel,
hard leaders that just rule and make everybody in the country
miserable. God's going to send a drought
so people won't have enough water to drink, won't have enough food
to eat. The Nile's going to dry up. And when that happens, that
whole economy was dependent upon that river Nile. When that dries
up, all those businesses are going to fail, and people will
live in poverty. And then when the Nile and all
these other rivers dry up, there's not going to be a natural barrier,
a natural defense separating Egypt, and invaders are just
going to be able to walk right in. They'll just walk on foot
across the Nile. mighty army of Egypt is suddenly
going to be full of cowards. There'll be no defense to the
country at all. And historically, that is exactly what happened
to Egypt. King Sennacherib just marched right on in with his
army, destroyed the place, took everything he wanted. And when
that happened, you did not want to be in Egypt seeking refuge
because there wasn't any. Now, I want us to look at the
spiritual application of this. And see how the Lord has a people.
And what does He do with those people? The Lord afflicts His
people under the conviction of sin. He slays and kills His people. And then I want us to see how
the Lord has mercy on His people. First comes affliction. First
comes conviction of sin. Then comes mercy. Then comes
healing. Then comes life. And this is
the pattern. that we have laid out for us
in this chapter of how the Lord deals with his people when he
afflicts them under the conviction of sin. And we ought to be paying
attention to this pattern. Is this how the Lord's dealt
with me? Is this how the Lord's dealt with you? Because the Lord
must show us these things that are pictured in this chapter
before we'll turn to him. The first thing we see when the
Lord afflicts his people under the conviction of sin, our idols
are finally seen for what they are. They're worthless. They're
powerless to save, and they're powerless to help us. That's
what verse 1 says. The burden of Egypt. Behold,
the Lord rideth upon a swift cloud, and shall come into Egypt,
and the idols of Egypt shall be moved in his presence, and
the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of it. You know,
we'll never realize how worthless an idol is until the Lord rides
into town on a swift cloud. You'll notice He's not coming
into town on a chariot. He's not riding in on a horse.
He's riding in on a swift cloud. When was Dagon revealed to the
Philistines as nothing more than a stump? When they put the Ark
of the Covenant in the same room and they come in and there's
Dagon laying on his face before the Ark. And they set it back
up and they came in the next day and there's Dagon laying
down, his arms and legs broke off. They realize he's a stump
when they got just a clue of who's in that Ark. Who that Ark
represented. And we see how powerless our
idol is to save our soul when the Lord rides into town. And
we become afraid. When we see how powerless our
idol is to cleanse us from sin, we become afraid. Because we
know God's judgment against our sin is coming and this idol can't
do anything about it. And your common sense should
tell us that, shouldn't it? Common sense should tell us that
a hunk of wood carved to look like some figure is not going
to be able to help us, not going to be able to deliver us, not
going to be able to cleanse us from our sin. Common sense should tell
us that, but it doesn't. That's how dead man is by nature.
But we won't see it until the Lord rides into town on a swift
cloud. When He rides in from on high,
then we'll see how low our idol is. Judgment's coming, and you
know what men do? They seek to their idols. But
it doesn't do any good. Look at verse 3. The spirit of
Egypt shall fail in the midst thereof, and I'll destroy the
council thereof. And they'll seek to their idols,
and to the charmers, and to them that have familiar spirits, and
to wizards. They'll seek to them, but it
won't do any good. And if you go back to Psalm 115, I'll show
you why. God's Word tells us why it won't
do us any good. To seek these idols and these
peepers and men with familiar spirits. Because that idol is
nothing. Psalm 115, verse 4. Their idols are silver and gold.
The work of men's hands. They have mouths, but they speak
not. Eyes have they, but they see not. They have ears, but
they hear not. Noses have they, but they smell
not. They have hands, but they handle not. Feet have they, but
they walk not. Neither speak they through their
throat. And they that make them are like unto them. They're dead.
So is everyone that trusteth in them. Now, if God has no hands
but my hands, and I tell you this frequently, an idol just
doesn't have to be something carved out like Dagon or made
up with this silver and gold and sockets. You know, they put
eyes and hands and mouths and stuff in. You can name your idol
Jesus if you want to. And that's what most people do.
And this is what they say about that idol. He's got no hands
but your hands. He's got no feet but your feet.
My friend, if God's got no hands but my hands, and no feet but
my feet, God's a paraplegic. He's just an invalid. If God
has no mouth but my mouth, God's a mute. If God has no message,
but what is the message of my mouth? God doesn't have a message
worth hearing. If you're going to hear the gospel,
you're going to hear it from a man. But you're going to have to hear
God speak through His Word in order to be saved. It's got to
be God's message. It can't be the message of my
mouth. If God's got no eyes but my eyes, and no ears but my ears,
God's deaf and blind. And that idol has got no power
to save. He can't cleanse from sin, because
the only power He's got is my power. And I'm powerless to do
that, and He is too. We will only turn to God from
our idols when we see the Lord ride into town on that swift
cloud. And it's frightening. It is a frightening, horrible
experience full of fear. But this is what the Lord must
do to convince us of sin and begin shutting us up to Christ.
Second, when the Lord afflicts under the conviction of sin,
the Lord just tears us apart with civil war. Verse 2 in our
text, Isaiah 19. And I will set the Egyptian against
the Egyptians, and they shall fight everyone against his brother,
and everyone against his neighbor, city against city, and kingdom
against kingdom." You know, the natural man thinks, I'm going
to fight sin. I'm going to just get rid of
this sin business. And all we do, we try to, we
just tear ourselves up because we put ourselves in a battle
that we cannot win. We can't quit sin. And truth
be told, we don't have any desire to quit sinning, much less the
power to do it. We truly don't have the natural
desire in us to quit sinning. But we do. We keep fighting against
it, and when we do, we're fighting against ourselves because that's
what false religion tells us to do. And it matches our natural
understanding. Well, just try harder, you know.
Give up certain sins. I can't give up them all, but
give up the worst of them, you know. Clean up the outside of
the cup and platter. And it might work to a degree
for a time on the outside. But what's going on on the inside?
Civil war. The battle is raging because
the flesh loves sin. And usually it will burst out
on you on the outside too. If you look in Proverbs chapter
8, you know when we sin, we're destroying ourselves just as
much as soldiers in a civil war destroy their own country and
their own brethren. Proverbs 8, verse 36. For he that sinneth against me
does what? Wrongeth his own soul. All they that hate me love death. A country divided against itself
like that cannot stand. And it's a horrible feeling,
that civil war that goes on inside. But the Lord must afflict us
with it to shut us up to Christ. Then thirdly, when the Lord afflicts
under the conviction of sin, we realize we've been under a
harsh ruler this whole time. Look at verse 4. And the Egyptians
will I give over into the hand of a cruel Lord, and a fierce
king shall rule over them, saith the Lord, the Lord of hosts.
Now, we've been seeing this in our study in Galatians. The law
is a cruel taskmaster, isn't it? The law never tells you you've
done enough. The law never tells you you've
done good. The law constantly points out what a failure we
are. The law cruelly holds up a mirror to show us how ugly
we are by nature. The law never tells you you're
pretty. The law never tells you you're clean. The law holds up
a mirror to show you the truth, which is just the opposite. But
you know, that never made us miserable before, did it? Not
until God afflicts us with the conviction of sin. And when He
does, that bondage begins to become miserable. He's got to
put us under the misery of that cruel taskmaster. So that we'll
do what? Turn to Christ. Then forth, when
the Lord afflicts under the conviction of sin, We realize I'm dying
of hunger and dying of thirst. Look at verse 5. And the water
shall fail from the sea, and the river shall be wasted and
dried up. We're dying of thirst. We don't have the water of life.
And here are all the waters of Egypt. Everybody thought those
waters were so sweet. They're all dried up. We realize
what we thought was the water of life. Was not. It wasn't sweet
at all. We don't have any water of life.
I'm dying of thirst. In verse eight, we're dying for
starvation, too. The fishers also shall mourn,
and all they that cast angle into the brook shall lament,
and they that spread nets upon the waters shall languish. You
know, the fish were a very important part of the Egyptian diet. They're
going to starve to death if there's no water, no fish in those waters.
When God afflicts us with the conviction of sin, we realize,
I'm starving to death. Not only do I not have any bread
of life, I don't have anything to produce life. I don't have
anything to sustain life in me. And even more than that, when
the water dries up, we realize we don't have any natural defenses.
Now, just speaking physically, when we're young, we think we're
strong enough to do I mean, to a young man, there's no job too
hard. He'll just attack it with a pick
and a shovel. Nothing's too hard for a young
man. The boy in the moisture of youth starts to dry up. The
strength starts to go. We realize, I don't have any
strength. I don't have any natural defense. I don't have any natural defense
of the decay of this body. I mean, just a, I mean, just
a thing, just like that, a ruptured disc. I mean, it doesn't stick
out any further than that. It just puts you flat on your
back. I've got no defense against the
decay of this body. Why on earth would I think in
this body there's a natural defense against sin and against God's
judgment against sin? We're too weak to do what God
requires. The moisture just dried up. In
opposing armies, just like in Egypt, they can just walk right
through. The Nile's not protecting them
anymore. All those rivers, I've got no defense. And when the
water dries up, we realize all of our industry, all of our work
that we put so much stock in, all that work that we thought
would make God happy with us, we realize it's gone. It's worthless. We don't have anything left. That's the picture here in verse
7. The paper reads, by the brooks, by the mouth of the brooks, and
everything sown by the brooks shall wither, be driven away
and be no more. They use these reads to make
the paper that they wrote on. Well, that was a pretty big industry
in Egypt. But that whole industry went bankrupt when the Nile ran
dry. And then when God causes the
water to run dry, we finally realize our linen garments, those
garments that we took so much care making and cleaning, they're
not good enough. They're not good enough to be
accepted. We don't have a wedding garment. So we're going to be cast out.
The best linen that we can produce is a filthy garment. It's defiled
by sin and God won't have it. Moreover, they that work in fine
flax and they that weave networks shall be confounded." What happened? What happened to my works? What
happened to my linen? It's gone. I'm dying of thirst. I'm dying of hunger. And I'm
naked before God with no works that He'll accept. The only works
I have are works that He'll condemn me for. Affliction of sin. Conviction of sin. Then fifth,
when the Lord afflicts us under the conviction of sin, all of
our wisdom becomes foolishness. Verse 11. Surely the princes of Zoan, they're
fools. The counsel of the wise counselors
of Pharaoh has become brutish. How say ye to Pharaoh, I'm the
son of the wise? How can you say I'm a wise man,
the son of ancient kings? Where are they? Where are your
wise men? Let them tell thee now, and let
them know what the Lord of Hosts has purposed upon Egypt. The
princes of Zoan have become fools. The princes of Nof are deceived.
They have also seduced Egypt, even they that are the stay of
the tribes thereof. They have become fools. These
rulers who ruled so wisely for so many years, they had wise
counselors that gave them good advice, now they have become
fools. They can't do anything right.
who engineered the pyramids. They can't produce anything right.
Everything they produce for the simplest things they try to make
are flawed. How could we be so foolish as
to think we can do enough to please God? Now by nature, that's
our natural wisdom. I can do enough. I can do enough
to please God because my parents told me I could do enough to
please them. You know how good I am and they just fill my head
with this and my natural understanding eats that up. Foolishness. Just utter foolishness to think
we can do enough to please God. How could we be so foolish as
to think Just because I can hide some of my sin from you, that
I can hide it from God. How can I think God doesn't see
my sin? Now, I'm not saying man's stupid. I'm saying man's spiritually
dead. Men are smart. Men can go into
space. Men can cure and prevent disease. My sister-in-law gave me a book
to read on vacation. I love the Showtime Lakers. I
mean, I loved them. And I got to the, I knew how
the book was going to end. You know how the book's going to
end? Magic Johnson's going to get AIDS and retire and the Lakers
are, Showtime is no more. I knew that's how it's going
to end. I read that book. Sure enough, that's how it ended.
But you know, this is how many years later, Magic Johnson's
doing fine. Physically. I don't know that
they, I don't think they've cured AIDS, but you can't detect it
in them. At one time, that was a death
sentence. When they announced that, that
he had AIDS, I thought, well, he'll be dead in six months.
Brilliant. Some brilliant people come up
with some way to keep people with that horrible disease alive. But we can't, you know, brilliant,
but we can't produce the first thing that's spiritually good. Not one. Everything we do, everything
is flawed and marred by sin. We can't govern ourselves because
by nature we're fools. And we don't realize that until
God sends conviction of sin. Isn't it a tough thing to realize
you're a fool? But God must reveal that to us
or we'll never turn to Christ the wisdom of God. Unless God
sends a conviction of sin, we'll never realize, I'm so foolish,
I can't know God. There's no way we can know God
by ourselves. God sends conviction of sin for
this reason, because now we're beginning to see ourselves as
we are. He's shutting us up to Christ.
Six, when the Lord afflicts us under a conviction of sin, we
realize we can't do anything. We can't do anything at all right.
Verse 14, the Lord hath mingled a perverse spirit in the midst
thereof. And they have caused Egypt to err in every work thereof,
as a drunken man staggereth in his vomit. Neither shall there
be any work for Egypt, which the head or tail, branch or rush,
may do." We can't walk a straight line any more than a drunk man
can walk a straight line. Everything about us looks bad
and smells bad. We've vomited on ourselves. and
just walking around, not cleaning it up. Men don't want to be around
us, much less God. We can't do anything right. And
then last, when the Lord afflicts under a conviction of sin, we
become filled with fear. Verse 15, either shall there
be any work for Egypt, which the head or tail, branch or rush
may do, in that day shall Egypt be likened to women, and it shall
be afraid and feared, because of the shaking of the hand of
the Lord of hosts, which he shaketh over it." You know, the Egyptians,
what they did is they watched well before verse 17. We become filled with fear when
the Lord convicts us of sin. The least thing makes us afraid. Just like a woman who's out alone.
Because she's powerless to defend herself against almost anyone.
I mean, almost anyone is bigger and stronger than her, so she's
filled with fear. Well, when we realize that we're under the
hand of the Almighty, we become filled with fear. He's not in
my hand to do with as I will. I'm in His hand to do with as
He will. Oh, that's another matter, isn't
it? Now I'm filled with fear. So that we cry, men and brethren,
what are we going to do? We're filled with fear. And we
just watch, waiting for the next shoe to drop. What's happening
to everybody else? What happens to them is going
to happen to me. We go to the funeral homes. There lays the
body. That's going to be me. One day. We go to that visitation in the
grave site. They put that body in the ground.
That's going to be me one day. Verse 17, it fills us with fear.
The land of Judah shall be a terror unto Egypt. Everyone that maketh
mention thereof shall be afraid in himself, because of the counsel
of the Lord of hosts, which he hath determined against it. The
Egyptians watched Judah, because this is what they knew. The Syrians
are going to go there first. And whatever happens there is
going to happen here next. And they watched with fear to
see what would happen. And that's what we do. We watch
others and see what's going to be my end. The same as the end
of all flesh is going to end in death. And it fills us with
fear. It's not a pretty end for this
flesh. Now that's miserable, isn't it? Is anybody miserable? Are you miserable? Unless you're
miserable, the rest of this message will be of no comfort to you
whatsoever. Once God's made us miserable under the conviction
of sin, then He shows us the promise of mercy in His Son.
God's going to save a people. But before God saves anyone,
every person He saves is going to be brought to this point.
Just utter misery in ourselves so that we have no reason to
hope in ourselves. First, there's utter misery.
Then there's mercy. First, we're smitten by the hand
of God. Then we're healed by the hand
of God. You see, these things are very uncomfortable. Aren't
all these things uncomfortable to realize about yourselves?
But God's got to make us uncomfortable in our sin so we don't stay. If I'm comfortable somewhere,
you're going to have a hard time getting me out if I'm comfortable.
But if I'm uncomfortable, Then I'd be forced to look elsewhere.
So here's a pattern of what happens after God makes his people uncomfortable
under the conviction of sin. Then he shows mercy to his elect.
Now notice as we go through these, the Lord does not bless his people
by taking all these troubles away. The troubles of this life.
You know, in the land of Egypt, there was civil war. He didn't
end it. He didn't take his people away from that. Those cruel,
wicked rulers, they were still there. All the political troubles
were unchanged. The drought and economic depression
still reigned over the country. The Lord didn't bless His people
by taking them to some place where there was no drought, where
there were wise rulers and a good economy. The Lord blessed His
people by His mercy. He blessed them with spiritual
blessings in Christ. He gave them a sight of Christ. He gave them blessing for their
souls. not in taking away all the earthly
calamities, but blessing them while they are still in all those
earthly calamities. First of all, when God shows
mercy and saves a sinner, that sinner speaks a new language,
the language of grace. Verse 18, In that day shall five
cities in the land of Egypt speak the language of Canaan, and swear
to the Lord of hosts. One shall be called the city
of destruction. Now, the language of Canaan is Hebrew. That's the
language they spoke in Canaan. All the Old Testament Scriptures
were written in Hebrew. If you're going to read the Word
of God, you're going to have to learn the Hebrew language.
But the language of Canaan is the language of grace. The language
of God's people. And when God saves someone, they
don't just take up a second language. They don't just understand the
language. They don't just pick out bits
and pieces of what somebody else is saying. Buddy, they speak
it. They speak it. And the best example
that I can think of is Spanish. Last year, I went to Mexico.
I had the bright idea, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going
to get that Rosetta Stone and I'm going to learn a little bit
of Spanish so I can speak to the folks when I go back. As
of this moment, I have not done that. And I think I'd be wasting
my time if I did. But if I did, I'd sound like
a three-year-old to them. It would never be fluent. I'd
pick out maybe a third of the words that they said. You see,
it wouldn't work. God's people don't learn to speak
the language of grace that way. It becomes their first language.
It's in them. It's in their heart. And they
don't just know the right words to say. They have sworn to the Lord of
Hosts. Look at verse 21. And the Lord shall be known to
Egypt, and the Egyptians shall know the Lord in that day. And
they shall do sacrifice and oblation. Yea, they shall vow a vow unto
the Lord. And they'll perform it. They're
going to keep it. They learned a new language.
They've got a new way of life. That new man speaks a new language. But now this is sobering. This
mercy is not for everyone without exception. This is just for God's
leg. He says here in that day, five
cities in the land of Egypt shall speak the language of Canaan,
but one should be called the city of destruction. And that's
the city of the sun. That is the primary city of idolatry
in that land. Those folks didn't go up there
either. They didn't see the worthlessness of their idols. They didn't see
how foolish they were. They didn't see how unprotected
they were. They didn't see they didn't have
the water of life. They're destroyed. But God's
people learned a new language, the language of grace. Then second,
when God shows mercy and saves a sinner, that sinner comes to
God through the Lord Jesus Christ. He comes through the sacrifice
of Christ. offered by Christ our High Priest, offered on Christ
our altar. Verse 19, And that day shall
there be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt,
and a pillar at the border thereof to the Lord. Now the Old Testament
sacrifices or law required so many animal sacrifices, but we
know none of those animal sacrifices paid for any sin. None of those
sacrifices could give the worshippers any true peace. Because once
that animal was slain, its blood was shed, its body was roasted
with fire, sin remained. It remained on them. So there
was no true peace. They worshipped the way God told
them to, but that sacrifice gave them no true peace. But those
sacrifices were important, weren't they? Because they all pictured
the sacrifice of Christ that would put sin away. And when
God sends conviction of sin, I'll tell you what we desperately
desire. Peace. Peace. We desperately desire the peace
that can come, only be given through the forgiveness of sin.
We're so consumed with it, it's all we can think of. We're consumed
with it because we know I don't have any peace with God. I can't
make peace with God. Somebody else will have to do
it for me. God's angry with me because of my sin. And God afflicts
us that way so that we'll turn to Christ to find that sacrifice
that will put our sin away. The only place we can find that
peace we so desperately crave is in the Lord Jesus Christ,
in the blood of His sacrifice. The sacrifice of Christ cleansed
His people from All sin. So there's peace. Once sin's
removed, there's peace. And peace can't be found anywhere
but in Christ. And God gives that peace to His
people through the sacrifice of His Son. Through the sacrifice
offered on the altar. Now, we don't have an altar anymore,
do we? We don't have to offer sacrifices.
All those things have been done away with in Christ. But Hebrews
13 tells us we have an altar. the Lord Jesus Christ. He's our
altar. He's our peace. And that's what
all those sacrifices pointed to. Peace in the sacrifice and
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Does that make you want to run
to Him? It does me. Third, when God shows mercy and
saves a sinner, that sinner knows something. I know I am saved
by Christ alone. not through anything I did, not
through any contribution of mine, but by Christ alone. Verse 20,
And it shall be for a sign and for a witness unto the Lord of
hosts in the land of Egypt. For they shall cry unto the Lord
because of the oppressors, and he shall send them a Savior,
and a great one, and he shall deliver them. God afflicts his
people with the conviction of sin. This is an affliction. And
then we finally see What a mess we're in. Now, I see something
in my sin. I don't see all of it, but I
see something of it. And I see enough of my sin to
know this. I know this. Luke, I need a mighty
Savior. I don't need God to send a boy
to do a man's job. I need a mighty Savior. I don't need someone to help
me deliver myself. I need a mighty Deliverer. Someone who will deliver me from
all the trouble my sin has caused me. The Lord Jesus Christ was
sent by the Father to be the Deliverer. And He's the Mighty
One. He is mighty to save. He's mighty
to deliver. And He is great. He's great in His person. He's
the God-man. He's God and man, 100% God and
100% man in one person. He's the God-man, great in His
person. He's great in His holiness. He's
the Holy One of Israel. He's great in His righteousness.
He's the Lord, not just His righteousness, the Lord, our righteousness.
He's great in His righteousness. And this Great One, this Mighty
One, is great in His love. Early love sinners. What love! Only someone great could love
sinners like He does. He's great in His power to save.
He saves even the chief of sinners. He's mighty to deliver. And the
Lord Jesus Christ did not come to try to deliver. He didn't
come to deliver you if you let Him. He didn't come to deliver
you even if you want Him to deliver you. Christ was sent to deliver
His people from the power of sin. And that is exactly what
He did. Now, is Christ great enough to
save you? Is He? I mean by Himself, without any
help from you. Is He great enough to deliver
you? If God shows you who you are, that you are a great sinner,
and who He is, He's mighty to deliver. He's great enough. He's great enough. He's got the
might to deliver His people alone. Fourth, when God shows mercy
and saves a sinner, that sinner learns something. Salvation is
of the Lord. Verse 22, And the Lord shall
smite Egypt, he shall smite and heal it. And they shall return
even to the Lord, and he shall be entreated of them, and he
shall heal them. They're going to call to him,
and he's going to heal them. All this trouble was sent to Egypt
so that God's people would know, don't trust in anyone but Christ.
He removed all hope and trust anywhere except in the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's what we mean when we say,
shut up to Christ. We're shut up to Christ when
the only place we can find any hope, any refuge, any rest is
in Christ. But God must show us that by
stripping us. He's got to strip us of our limbs. He's got to strip us of our works.
And it's humiliating. I mean, it's humiliating to stand
naked before the all-seeing eye of God. But then He closes us
in the righteousness of His Son. See, God's got to wound us. And
those wounds are deep. They hurt. They kill. But then it's God who pours in
the sweet balm of Gilead. The Lord Jesus Christ. And He
heals us by taking our wounds and our bruises and our putrefying
sores and His body on the tree and suffering for them so that
with His stripes we're healed. See, it's God who afflicts us For this reason, to make us cry
out to Him, and then He heals us. I want you to pay attention. When I began studying this chapter,
this is the thing that really came to my heart. I want you
to listen carefully to it. I want to spend a minute here. Whatever it is that makes us
cry out to God, it must be good. Is that right? Whatever it is,
whatever affliction, whatever wound, whatever stripping that
makes us cry out to the Lord must be good. It must be. If the Lord hears the cries of
His people, then whatever makes me cry is good for me. When did the Lord hear Jonah? Did He hear Jonah when he was
on the land? Jonah wasn't crying then, was he? Do you hear Jonah
when he's on the ship trying to escape going where the Lord
told him to go? Jonah wasn't crying then. When did the Lord
hear Jonah? When Jonah was in the depths,
in the belly of a great fish in the depths of the ocean, when
all hope was lost that we'd ever see Jonah again, Jonah cried
to the Lord. And what happened? The Lord heard
him. And that fish spit him out on
dry land. Whatever it is that made Jonah cry was good. Good for Jonah is good for Nineveh,
wasn't it? Jonah finally went and preached
the gospel to him. It was good because only then,
when the Lord made him cry, then God heard him and got to liberty.
I want you to look at a couple of scriptures. Exodus chapter
3. I'll return to a couple and I'll just read you a couple. To see this business of crying
to the Lord. When we cry to the Lord, he hears
and delivers. Exodus 3 verse 7. And the Lord
said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which
are in Egypt, and I have heard their cries. You reckon he sent
in all those hard taskmasters and made them make good bricks
without straw and all that for no reason? No, it was for a reason.
So that they'd cry unto the Lord. The Lord said, I've heard their
cry by reason of their taskmasters. For I know their sorrows and
I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians
and to bring them out of that land unto a good land and a large
unto a land flowing with milk and honey. But that didn't happen
until the Lord made him cry. 2 Samuel chapter 22. David had learned this through
the affliction of conviction of sin. 2 Samuel 22 verse 4. I will call on the Lord who is
worthy to be praised. So shall I be saved from mine
enemies. When the waves of death compassed me, the floods of ungodly
men made me afraid. The sorrows of hell compassed
me about. The snares of death prevented
me in my distress. I called upon the Lord and cried
to my God, and He did hear my voice out of His temple, and
my cry did enter into His ears, and He delivered me." Let me
just read you a couple more. Psalm 22, verse 24, For he hath
not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted,
neither hath he hid his face from him. But when he cried unto
him, he heard. Psalm 34, verse 17, The righteous
cry, and the Lord heareth, and delivereth them out of all their
troubles. Psalm 40, verse 11, I waited patiently for the Lord,
and he inclined unto me, And he heard my cry. I cried and
I kept crying, waiting patiently. And he heard me. Psalm 55, verse
17. Evening and morning and at noon
will I pray and cry loud and he shall hear my voice. And I
want you to answer this question in your heart. Why won't you cry to the Lord?
Why won't you? Why won't you cry to Him for
mercy? Why won't you cry to Him for
the forgiveness of sin? I mean, I just read those How
Many Ever Verses. Believe me, I could have read
many more. I spent some time in the concordance. I could have
read many more. The sinner cries and he hears. Why won't you cry? I'll tell you why. A sinner won't
cry to the Lord for mercy and forgiveness of sins because we
don't think we're bad enough yet. When God makes us see how
awful and rotten and depraved and hopeless we are, then we'll
see our need of Christ and we'll cry. Psalm 34, verse 6, this
poor man cried and the Lord heard him and delivered him out of
all his troubles. If the Lord would hear this poor
needy sinner, surely He'll hear you too. Cry to Him. But the Lord's going to have
to make you do it. And He will make His people cry. And He will
answer those cries. And when the Lord answers our
cry, we're going to know this. Salvation's on the Lord. I'm
not saying because I cried somebody else didn't. No, He made me cry. So I'd answer Him. So he'd answer
me, salvation is of the Lord. We're not the works of our own
hands. We're the works of His hands. Verse 25 says, Whom the
Lord of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt, my people,
and Assyria, the work of my hands, and Israel, mine inheritance.
We didn't make ourselves. He made us by His mercy and grace. He made us trophies of His grace.
for chosen by the Lord, redeemed by the Lord, born again by the
will of the Lord, and preserved by the will of the Lord. Salvation
is of the Lord. And last, when God shows mercy
and saves a sinner, there is unity and peace. Verse 23, In
that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and
the Assyrians shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptians into
Assyria, and the Egyptians shall serve with the Assyrians. And
that day shall Israel be the third, with Egypt and with Assyria,
even a blessing in the midst of the land." Now the Egyptians
and the Syrians and Israel, they are mortal enemies. The only
way they could ever be brought together is by an act of God. No man could do that. God brought
them together. And this highway he speaks of
here is Christ. Christ is the highway. who brings
his people together from all four corners of the globe, and
they come together in peace and unity, and they worship the Lord
together. How can we not be at peace with
one another when we're worshiping the Lord together? How can we
not be at peace and unity with one another when we're serving
the Lord together? But how do we serve the Lord?
By serving each other. Now how can all these people
who are mortal enemies by nature come together? In Christ. He's removed that middle wall
partitioned between them and made them one. But you see how
all this happened? In the midst of trouble, in the
midst of the turmoil and the civil war and the political unrest
and the ignorance of their leaders and drought and famine and poverty,
God's people were still blessed. Verse 24 says, in the midst of
the land they were blessed. They weren't blessed by being
taken out of it to an earthly place that had political rest
and wise leaders and plenty of food and water. No. They were
blessed right where they were in the midst of the land. Blessing
and peace even in the midst of earthly troubles. Because God's
people were blessed with a place to hear the gospel. A place to
worship and see Christ. He mentioned in there the pillar
that stood at the edge of the lane. You know what that pillar
is? The church. The pillar and ground of the
truth. They were blessed because they
had a place to worship together. To hear the message of salvation
and forgiveness of sin and cleansing from sin in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, why don't we call? Why don't
we cry to Him? We will when God rides into town
on that swift cloud, won't we? God make it so. Let's bow in
prayer. Our Heavenly Father, we're so
thankful for the message of this passage of Your precious Word
that You've given to us. The message of grace. The message
of peace and forgiveness of sins in our Lord Jesus Christ. The
One who is mighty to deliver. Who comes to deliver His people
without any help from ourselves. And Father, we pray that You
would afflict us with this conviction of sin. That You, as painful
as it is, cause us to see ourselves for who and what we are. that
we might cry to Thee for mercy, that we cry to Thee for forgiveness. Because of this precious promise
that You've given us throughout Your Word, You hear the cries
of Your people. Father, cause one here tonight
to cry unto Thee and hear Him and show mercy according to the
riches of Your mercy and Your goodness and Your grace to Your
people in our Lord Jesus Christ. It's for His sake and His glory
we pray. Amen.