I titled this message, Everlasting
Joy. Everlasting Joy. I sat today
and I went over these notes and read the scriptures. And that
statement there in verse 11, Therefore the redeemed of the
Lord shall return and come with singing unto Zion in everlasting
joy. I thought, wow, that's really
going to happen. But there's going to be a day I'm getting
ahead of myself in the message. There's going to be a day that
there's going to truly be everlasting joy. And we'll know that the
Lord has done it. When it's done, we'll know that
He's done it. And He'll be our everlasting
joy. And it's not a giddy, goofy joy. It's a real, abiding, everlasting
joy. Okay, I'm going to look at verses
9 through 16 tonight. You know, through these chapters
that we have been looking at, the Lord has been giving comfort
to His people, to Israel. He's been comforting them. He
says over in chapter 40, Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith
the Lord. That's what He says to His preachers
and His prophets. He's not going to do any less.
God's not going to do any less than what he tells his preachers
and prophets to do. And that's what he's doing. He's going to
speak words of comfort to his people. That's what he's going
to do. And here in verse 9, the church prays for God to awake
and help her as he had done in the past. She draws upon past
mercies. I tell you, that's a good thing
to draw upon, the past mercies of God. As He is, as He has been,
so shall He be. He changes not. And she says,
Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord. We know that
the God of Israel never slumbers or sleeps. We know that. We know
that by the Scripture. We know that by experience. He
never grows weary as a man does. Never, never grows weary. He
is ever present with his people, even though we may not be able
to detect it all the time. He's present. There may be a
dark cloud, but I'm telling you, the sun is always shining. You
just can't see it. I remember the first time I took
a plane ride, the first plane ride I ever took, it was on a
cloudy, stormy day. And we left the airport, and
we rose up, and when we got up out of the clouds, the sun was
shining just as bright and as beautiful as could be. And I
could look down on all those clouds and all those, I could
see the lightning flashing through the clouds. But I was up there
where the sun was shining. And that sun was shining even
when we came back down to the airport, that sun was still shining. He's with us even when we can't
detect it. The scripture says, He is in
the midst of her. She shall not be moved. He shall
help her in that right hour. In His time. In good time, He'll
help. In good time. Yet there are times
that we recognize our immediate need of Him. There are times
He makes us to recognize that we need Him right now. You know,
we pray that the Lord will bless us and help us, but there are
times, if you haven't had it, you will, that you need Him now. Lord, rise up and help me now.
And those times will come for all of us. And there are times
that we need the Lord to rise up in power and deliver us We
live in a troubled world. A man is born of a woman in a
few days and is full of trouble. Boy, we know that. But notice
here, they recognize His help and power in past generations. They draw upon that. They knew this, and they never
said this, but they knew that they never delivered themselves
out of trouble. I know that, don't you? I've
never delivered myself out of any trouble. God has always delivered
me. I cannot look back and say, well, I was pretty sharp on that
one. No, He's always delivered. He's
the one who's always delivered out of trouble. He's always been
their help, and He's always been our help. That's the way it is
with us. He is our strength, and He's
our help in time of trouble. And notice here, they recognize
God as the one who cut Rahab. That's Egypt. That's who they're
talking about, Egypt. and you wounded the dragon, that's
the symbol of Egypt, that dragon was. Let us never recognize anyone
but God, ever. Let us never recognize anyone
but God as our true deliverer. No matter whether it be from
sin, whatever trouble it is, He's the one, He's the one who
delivers. He's the one who has delivered
us from the power of sin. That's the reason why sin does
not have dominion over you now. He's the one who has delivered
us from the power of Satan, from the power of death, through His
Son. He gave His Son to deliver us
from these things. He's always been our deliverer.
And then the voice of faith speaks here in verse 10. It says here, Are you not it?
Are you not the one? Are you not the one who dried
the sea? The waters of the great deep?
Faith looks to the same God who changes not, doesn't it? In all
ages. In all ages, faith looks to the
same God. Are you not the same one? Are
you not the one that drives up the sea? In every generation,
listen, in every generation, God Almighty, the Lord Jesus
Christ, is the one and the only one who delivers. He's the only
one. As the king said to Daniel, is
thy God able to deliver Yes, He is. Yes, He's able. He's able. He is faithful. His mercies are new every morning.
God did for them, listen, God did for them the impossible. Are you not the one? You notice
throughout the Scriptures how many times it is referred to
of God drying up the sea and delivering them out of Egypt.
That is such a mark in their history. Look over in Psalm 14. As I read to you Psalm 112, right before I was reading that,
I looked at Psalm 114. Listen to this. When Israel went
out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange language,
Judah was his sanctuary and Israel his dominion. The sea saw it. and fled. Jordan was driven back. The mountains skipped like rams,
and the little hills like lambs. What ailed thee, O thou sea,
that thou fleddest? Thou Jordan, that thou wast driven
back. Ye mountains that ye skipped like rams, and ye little hills
like lambs. Tremble thou, earth, at the presence
of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob." They always,
always throughout the Scripture, that's made reference to it.
He did for them the impossible. He dried to great depths. It wasn't ankle deep here. You
can't drown an army in ankle deep water. He drowned Pharaoh's
army in that water. And I was thinking, as I was
reading this yesterday, I thought when the children of Israel walked
through on dry ground, they had to see that wall of water. They
had to believe God. They had to have trusted God
to walk through that on dry ground, walked through that way that
he made, through the sea, and that water standing up on both
sides, way, way up over their heads. I'm telling you what,
I thought, now it took some faith to do that. But that's what they
did. He did for them the impossible.
And that's the point here. He did the impossible. With men,
this is impossible. When they stood before that sea,
it was impossible for Moses to do it. It was impossible for
any of the children of Israel to do it. to do that, but it
was not impossible for God to do it. Not impossible. And I
thought this, can sin, in all of its blackness, and in all
of its wretchedness, and we've only scratched the surface of
knowledge of what we know about sin. God sees sin as it really
is. We have some understanding of
it, but I tell you what, sin, Can it be put away? Can it be
blotted out? Can it be completely gone? Can God be a just God and save
man? Can He do that? If a man dies,
will he live again? Shall he live again? I say this,
if God is the One, if He's the One who does it, then it can
be put away. God can be just. And I could
live again if God's the one who does it. Oh, they said, are you
not the one? Are you not the one who died
at the city? Are you not the one who put away sin? Are you
not the one that can make me live again? Are you not the one?
That which is impossible with men, here's what I'm saying.
That which is impossible with men is possible with God. It's possible with me. God can
be a just God and a Savior through the blood and righteousness of
His Son. He can save the vilest of men
and be a just God in doing it. I know we think ourselves as
vile, but we always see people that have committed some of the
most heinous crimes, and we think, man, that person is so God's
Savior. Through the blood and righteousness
of Christ, he can save the man that has been the worst person
that's ever walked on this earth. Outwardly, outwardly speaking,
he can save him through the blood and righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Christ will put away sin by the
sacrifice of himself. If he died, if he died for me,
died for you, your sins are gone. He has put them away. They exist
no more. They exist no more. God can raise
the spiritually dead in His Son. He can do the impossible. God
Almighty can do the impossible, so don't be afraid to ask Him
to. Don't be afraid to ask Him to. Look at what He did in verse
10. "...that hath made the depths
of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over." A way that no
man thought of but God. Moses didn't think of this. Moses
did not stand before that sea and say, God if you part this
sea we can go over. He never. No one thought that
was God. None but God. Just as God thought
and purposed to make a way through the Lord Jesus Christ back to
Himself. He made a way through Christ.
for the ransom to pass over. Pass over from here to here.
He made Christ. Christ is that way for the ransom
to pass over. Christ is the way to God. He
is the way from sin to holiness. He is the way from banishment
to acceptance. He is the way from death to life. We have in Christ all we need
for the ransom to pass over. We have in Him all we need. Who
would have thought that God would part that sea for those Israelites
to pass over? Who would have thought that?
Nobody. Well, who would have thought
that God Almighty would give His Son to die? Who would have
thought that God Almighty would have came into this world and
become a man and be made sin for us? Who would have thought
that? None but God. None but God. is just like Him to do so. I
thought today, looking at this, I thought it is just like God
to do so. It's just like Him to do this.
Christ is said to be the wisdom of God and the power of God. No one would have thought that
but God. Therefore, he says in verse 11, because of who their
God is and His power to save, the redeemed of the Lord shall
return. They shall return from all parts of the earth, Jew and
Gentile. They shall return. They shall
return out of captivity. They shall return out of sin.
Sin shall not have dominion over them. They shall return from
destruction to restoration. They shall return. And listen,
how shall they return? It says in verse eleven, And come
with singing unto Zion, an everlasting joy shall be upon their forehead. They shall be a happy people.
They are a happy people. I know we have our times of sorrows,
but joy is our life. Listen, everlasting joy shall
be ours in the end. It'll be ours in the end. As
he says in verse 11, and sorrow and mourning shall flee away.
It'll flee away. It may not feel like it's gonna
leave, But he assures us they'll leave someday. Someday, he said,
they'll leave and everlasting joy will take its place. Everlasting
joy shall remain. Eternal happiness. What are you
saying? Can you believe that there is
coming a day when we will never know sadness or sorrow again?
That's hard to imagine. Hard to imagine. It won't even
be, listen, it will not even be in our vocabulary. Not even
in our vocabulary. Last night I was reading over
this again and I thought, if there were, if there were such
a dictionary, and I don't think there is, but if there was a
dictionary kept in glory, it wouldn't be as wordy as the ones
we have here because there'd be a lot of words we won't know.
There'd be a lot of words like sadness and sorrow and sin and
depravity. Those words won't even exist.
We have to have a wordy word because of all this sin. But
sorrow and sadness will flee away. They'll flee away. Like the night has to flee away
when the sun shines. It cannot resist. It has to flee
away. He says here in verse 12, I,
even I, am He that comforts you. Comforteth you. Don't look for
comfort from or in this world. Look to Christ for it. He said,
I'm the one who comforts you. I'm the one. Our Lord said this,
Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll
give you rest. He has given us the gospel that
comforts. He's given us the spirit of comfort.
And He is called the God of all comfort. I, He says, even I. He repeats, I, even I. I'm the
one. That comforts you. He says in verse 12, Who art
thou that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die, and
the Son of Man which shall be made as grass? What kind of person? What kind of person are you who
claims to believe God and fear men? That's kind of contradictory,
isn't it? The claim to believe God, that
God is my God, Christ is my Savior, and turn around in fear of men.
He says, who art thou that you should be afraid of a man that
shall die? We have no reason ever to be afraid of a mortal
man, ever. Solomon said this, the fear of
man bringeth a snare. It brings a snare. If we fear
the lesser, I was thinking of this last night, if we fear the
lesser, then everything else will scare us to death. If we
fear the lesser, everything else will scare us to death. Who are
you, he says, that you should fear a man, that you should be
afraid of a man that shall die? Notice how God points out the
frailty of man here. He says he shall die. He's dying
and he shall die. He shall be made as grass. Is
there anything, do you know of anything that's weaker than grass?
You know anything? It withers up, dies up, dies,
and it's gone. The scripture says this, the
beginning of wisdom is to fear God, doesn't it? To fear the
Lord. Well, the end of wisdom is when
you fear anyone less than God. That's an evidence of the end
of wisdom. When you fear anyone or anything less than God, He
only is to be feared. David said in Psalm 56 verse
3, I wrote this in the bulletin last week, What time I am afraid,
I'll trust in thee. Even when I'm afraid of Him,
I'll trust in Him. What time I am afraid, I'll trust
in thee. And as he says here in verse
13, and here's the problem when people begin to fear, and forget
us the Lord thy maker. There's the problem. When we
fear man, it's evident we have forgotten God our maker. We've
forgotten who he is. We've forgotten that all things
are in his hands. He created the heavens and the
earth, and everything is his. And when we forget that, then
we begin to fear man and everything else. As it says here, and forget
it's the Lord thy maker that has stretched forth the heavens
and laid the foundations of the earth. Have you forgotten my
power? Have you forgotten my power?
When you walk out of here tonight, look up, if it's not cloudy,
look up and see if you see the moon and stars or even the clouds. If you see the clouds, God made
those. He said, have I not stretched
out the heavens? Have you forgotten my power?
Have you forgotten who I am? Have you forgotten that the earth
is the Lord's, the fullness thereof, and they that dwell therein?
Have you forgotten that? And hath feared continually every
day because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready
to destroy? This is no way to live, is it? I don't want to live in constant
fear. That's what he's saying here.
You fear continually? I've met some people, and I know
some people that fear continually. They fear the economy is going
to collapse. They fear this is not going to happen. The war
is going to... That's no way to live. That's no way for a
believer to live. Not at all. Unbelievers don't
even live like that. I mean, a lot of unbelievers
I know don't even live like that. But especially a believer, man,
so that's no way to live at all. No one can harm you without His
permission. Nothing. Listen. We are as safe in the midst of
the hardest battle as we are as if we were actually
standing in His presence. Just as safe. You don't feel
it, do you? I know you. We don't feel it.
Bullets flying over your head. Thing of your life, you say,
my life's in danger. Not really. Your life's never
in danger. Your life's here with Christ
in God. That's what the Scripture says. It says our life is here
with Christ in God. My life is never in danger. My
body might be in some danger. That's only if He allows it.
That's only if He allows it. Oh, we're safe. We're safe. I wrote this down and highlighted
it. Do we really believe this? Do
we really? I thought if people, I'm trying
to say this carefully, if people really believed this, there wouldn't
be so many people on depression medication. We wouldn't be so
drugged up. This has got to be the most drugged
up society that's ever been on this earth. Has to be. I know, I know there are people
who have legitimate reasons. Depression and some of those
things. I'm telling you, I think the majority of it is because
they don't really believe this. They don't believe God. There
are two or three ways to deal with reality. And I've learned
this. There's two or three ways to
deal with reality. One is drugs. Just drug yourself
up and don't deal with it. Alcohol, drunkenness. Second
way, lie to yourself. Just lie about it. Convince yourself. Tell yourself a lie until you
believe it. You tell it long enough, you will. And then lastly,
you can believe God and rest. And it's one of those three ways.
You drug yourself up, lie to yourself, or actually believe
God and rest. And he says here in verse 14,
The captive exile hasteneth that he may be loosed, and that he
should not die in the pit, nor that his bread should fail. There
is no salvation in the pit, is there? Christ saved us from it. He brought us out of it. There's
no salvation there. But I'll tell you this, listen.
Only those in prison want to get out of it. Only those in
prison want to get out of it. People don't really realize they're
in prison, do they? Everybody thinks they're free.
I'm telling you, they're prisoners to sin, they're prisoners to
Satan, and they're prisoners to that old wretched nature they're
born with. They're prisoners to it. And it's not until Christ
gives us life that we realize that we were in prison, and that
we were under the execution of the law, and we flee from the
pit to Christ for salvation. Oh, the captive exile hasteneth
that he may be loosed, that he should not die in the pit. He says in verse 15, But I am
the Lord thy God that dried up the sea. They said, Are you not
the one, are you not the one that dried up the sea and made
a way for the wrath and the Passover? And it's as if he's saying in
verse 15, Yes, I am. I am the one who dried up the
sin. I am the one who did that. The
Lord of hosts is His name. Look to me for help. Look to
me for salvation. All of it. Time and eternity. We trust in God to save our souls
for eternity and we're worried to death we're not going to make
it tomorrow. That's just not right. There's just something
weird about that. It's not right. Look to Him. He says, listen here, The Lord
of hosts, do you know what that is? The Lord of armies. You think your problems are big?
You've got a bigger army to take care of. He said he'd give his
angels charge. How many angels do you think
are at his command? How many angels do you think
are at his command? And he says, and I have put my
words in thy mouth. When Prophet Isaiah was speaking,
he was speaking the words of God. God put his words in his
mouth. Christ said this when he spoke, as I hear I speak. These are the words of God. Can
you imagine that? You're sitting there, you're
listening to me. We read the word of God. This
is not just another book. Don't ever read this like another
book. I read a lot of other books. I've read a lot of other books.
on business and management and just a lot of different things.
But I don't, and I hope I never do, but I probably have sometimes,
read this book like any other book. When we open this book,
we need to open this book and realize this is the Word of God. There is no error in this book.
This book came from God. These words came from God Almighty. I have put my words in thy mouth. He says there in verse 16. I have covered thee in the shadow
of my hand. Listen here. I've kept you. I've kept you. You're here this
evening. I'm here. God's kept us. There's
been times that I've felt like I thought I was going to fail.
There's been times I thought I wasn't going to make it in
one thing or another. But here I am, and here you are. He said,
I have covered thee. I've protected you. I've covered
you. You know how a hen covers this
brood with her wing when danger's around? God's covered us. He
has covered us. I tell you, if we could just
get a hold of him. I have covered thee in the shadow of my hand. I've kept you and protected you.
I'll keep thee. Listen. Get a hold of this. And I'll close. I will keep thee
there, he says here in verse 16, I have covered thee in the
shadow of mine hand that I may plant the heavens and lay the
foundations of the earth and say unto Zion, thou art my people.
Here's what I believe he's saying. I will keep thee until I plant
a new heaven and a new earth. And when that's done, and this
is all over, God will look out at that sea of people. He's going
to say, unto Zion, thou art my people. You are my people. We won't be wondering who's elected
and who's not elected. There won't be anybody there
that's not elected. There won't be anyone there that's not elected.
He's going to look out over that sea of people. He's going to
say, thou art my people. And you know what? I think we're
going to say hallelujah. We're going to say hallelujah. Okay, Mike.