Well, we come to the end of the
year, the end indeed of a decade. It always puzzles me slightly,
the fuss that humanity in general makes about such things. It's
just the spinning of another day of the Earth on its axis,
isn't it? Really, when it comes down to
it, it doesn't make any difference. But, at the end of another year,
We are a year closer to heaven. As Paul says to the Romans in
Romans 13 verse 11, he says, for now, this moment, is our
salvation nearer than when we first believed. It's nearer now
because time is going on. And what is it for which God
has saved his people? You know, a lot of talk about
salvation and people don't really know what they mean by it. What
is it for which God has saved his people? It's his kingdom,
the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God's
perfect peace and righteousness. His perfect kingdom of justice
and peace. Not justice as the world counts
justice. The kingdom in which the justice
of God is absolutely paramount and established. And how is it
established? It's established for the people
He loved from before the foundation of the world in the doing and
dying of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what it is to be saved.
Because as we are, we're naturally lost. We're naturally under condemnation. It is appointed to man to die
once, and then the judgment. And it's a fearful thing to fall
into the hands of the living God. But that is what Christ
has saved his people from. How has he done it? He who knew
no sin was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. He bore the curse of the law. Cursed is everyone that hangs
on a tree. Cursed is everyone that doesn't
continue in the perfect law of God to do it, but Christ has
redeemed us from the curse of the law. How? He as a substitute
being made that curse for us. This is what salvation is about. And we have in this chapter,
if we go to verse 17, Isaiah chapter 65 and verse 17, you
read those verses and you think, this is revelation isn't it?
For behold I create a new heaven and a new earth and the former
shall not be remembered and Nor come to mind, but be ye glad
and rejoice. In verse 19, I will rejoice in
Jerusalem and in my people. And the voice of weeping shall
no more be heard in her, nor the voice of crying. What does
God say? Through John in Revelation chapter 21, there shall be no
more crying, no more tears, for the former things are passed
away. It's the language of heaven.
It's the language of the kingdom of God, for which God has saved
his people. And of course, there's all sorts
of metaphorical pictures there. And in verse 24, we see, look,
it shall come to pass that before they call, I will answer. And while they're yet speaking,
I will hear. That I see as a picture, a description
of intimate communion between God and his people. How many
times in scripture does he say, to them I will be their God and
they shall be my people. He is mine and I am his. This
is the thing. It shall come to pass before
they call. There's such intimate communion and there's such a
kingdom of peace with the wolf and the lamb. natural enemies. The lamb is naturally scared
of the wolf, and the wolf is naturally keen to catch the lamb
and eat it, but they shall feed together. And the lion shall
eat straw like the bullet. You see, it's all metaphorical
pictures of a kingdom of absolute peace. It's a kingdom of sinless
bliss. It's a kingdom where the experience
of those that are qualified to be there is of all that is good. All that is good. And what is
good? God is good. It's a kingdom where the experience
is all. The experience of the people
of God for the person of God. He will be their God. They shall
be his people. And how is it accomplished? As
I've said, it's accomplished by redemption. It's accomplished
by the payment of a price. That's what redemption means.
What was the price? The price was the lifeblood,
the lifeblood of the Lord Jesus Christ, the perfect, infinite
Son of God, who for a multitude that no man can number stood
as substitute and paid the debt to the offended law of God for
the sin of his people that it might set them free, it might
be the ransom price for their liberty, so that God can remain
as He always is, the unchangeable, perfectly just God. A just God,
but yet at the same time, without any contradiction, a saviour
of sinners. As it says in Romans chapter
4, He is just and justifier. He's a just God and the justifier
of those who by nature are sinners, and it does no violence to the
character of God, it glorifies the character of God. But even
now, that's looking forward to heaven. which is the state to
which the believing child of God in this life looks. We live
this life, we have the things to do that we have to do, we
have the responsibilities that we seek to discharge, we seek
to live in our society as the Scripture exhorts us to do, doing
all we can, as much as in us is, to live at peace with all
men. Yet we have a hope of eternity, and a hope of eternal life. But
even now, even now as we live, in those verses 13 to 16 that
you heard read earlier on, in those verses, we see pictures
of temporal, providential blessings, of a good hope. Here and now,
it's the experience. You know, others shall be hungry,
but my servant shall be satisfied. They shall be thirsty, but my
servant shall drink. This is God. This isn't health,
wealth, and happiness. Don't get that wrong. But God
said He will not suffer His children to go begging bread. He providentially
guides them, He providentially directs them. How many of their
catastrophes of life are avoided by living by the principles of
the truth and honesty of God, as it's portrayed in His Word.
And He gives His people now, in this life, in these bodies
of sin, in this flesh which is sinful whilst at the same time
having a new man from the Spirit of God he gives his people a
good hope of eternal life as he says to the Thessalonians
in 2nd Thessalonians chapter 2 verses 16 and 17. Now our Lord
Jesus Christ himself and God, even our Father, which hath loved
us. That's not talking about two
different gods. It's Christ who is God. They're
manifested in different persons, but this is the one God which
has loved us and has given us everlasting consolation. Oh,
it's a veil of tears, isn't it? Isn't it a veil of anguish and
of sorrow and of sadness? Isn't it a veil of division and
strife, but he's given us everlasting consolation and a good hope. How has he given us it? Through
grace, through the grace of God, through the kindness of our God
shown to us. May he, says Paul, this is his
prayer, may he comfort your hearts. While you're living this life
here and now, You who've got sorrowful hearts, may He comfort
your hearts, and may He establish you, establish you, build you
up in every good word and work. That's the experience now. So
compared to this life in the flesh without God, which is a
life of sin and of hopelessness, as Paul again writes, those who
are without God and without hope in the world, Compared to that,
what a glorious hope it is to have a true, solid hope of eternal
life. Do you have this good hope? Do you? Can you say, on this
last Sunday of this decade, can you say that you are one who
possesses, by the grace of God alone, the faith of God's elect? Not that you chose him, but that
he chose you, and revealed his truth in you, and revealed Christ
in you, as Paul says. It seems that not many do. In
the days in which we live, it seems that not many do. And Jesus
himself said 2,000 years ago, he said, when the Son of Man
comes, when he comes again, shall he find faith on the earth? It
will be a rare thing, in other words. Well here, we see various
responses in this chapter to this glorious prospect of the
accomplished Kingdom of God set before us. We see, first of all,
I see here, outright rejection by mankind in general. When you
look in verse 1, it says God, in the positive side, is saying,
I am sought of them that ask not for me. I am found of them
that sought not for me. Behold, I said, behold me, behold
me unto a nation that was not called by my name. And I take
from that that there's an implication, that there are those who sought
not God, and remain in that settled state. You see, there are those
that sought not God but then He says they find Him. But there
are those who sought not God and remain in that settled state
of not finding Him. They leave this world when they
die in that state of not knowing God, of not seeking after God,
of wanting nothing to do with God. We hear in our news of celebrities
and important people and famous people leaving this life and
in the vast majority of cases we know a very few of them who
ever, ever expressed or showed any signs of having any interest
in eternal life in God. How many people live lives with
no thought of or interest in eternity? They live their lives
with no thought whatsoever. You know them! They're all around
you. Neighbours, work colleagues, people you go to school with.
different situations, all around us, people who live their lives
with no thought for or interest in eternity, eternity, eternity. The world's philosophy of life,
this world's philosophy of life, that we hear in the news, in
all of the media, all around us, the philosophy is, there
is no need for God. We can get on perfectly well
without God. In fact, we hope there is no
God. In fact, we think there probably
is no God, and we hope that's the case. And they devise all
kinds of ideas to eliminate God from thought and from culture.
Is that not the world in which we live? Is that not the realm,
the media in which we live? No thought for God. We hope he
doesn't exist. We'll do everything we can to
come up with schemes, however stupid, to remove God from everything
so that we don't have to think about eternity. You see, as Romans
says, I quote this often, Romans 1.28, that mankind in general
did not like to retain God in their knowledge. Why? Because
they want to avoid that appointment with judgment. It is appointed
to man to die once and then the judgment. That's what this Word
of God says, but they don't want that. They don't want that. Oh,
I hope that this evolutionary theory is true, so that it means
that I don't have to face a God who is a judge when I die, because
the thought of that appalls me. I've told you about that before,
somebody that said that to me once. Their minds are closed
to God. The only time, the only situation
in which their minds are open to God is to hate Him for their
life's tragedies. Isn't it? Isn't it? Look at them. The only time their minds are
open to the thought of God is to hate Him for their life's
tragedies. Well, if God could do that to
my wife, I want nothing to do with that God. You wanted nothing
to do with that God, did you? You wanted nothing whatever to
do with that God. Well, if God could do this, I want nothing
to do. You wanted nothing to do with him. God will be vindicated. God will be justified. Let God
be true, and every man a liar. There are those who outright
reject the truth of God, and it will always appear, whilst
this world remains, that they are in the overwhelming majority. That is the kingdom of Satan,
the kingdom of Antichrist. That is the world in which we
live. The vast majority of its religion, the vast majority of
its Christian religion, is a manifestation of nothing other than the Kingdom
of Antichrist. Because as when John looked in
Revelation 17, he saw a woman gorgeously arrayed. That woman
is clearly speaking of religion, even of Christian religion, of
formal Christian religion. It looks magnificent in all of
its glory, but when you look at it carefully, in the light
of God's Word and of God's truth, what is it? It's a harlot. It's
a prostitute. It's an unfaithful woman who
has left her true husband, the living God, and gone after idols. That's what it is. That's the
world in which we live. But then we see here also, in
verses 2 to 7, and this is specifically talking about the Jews of Isaiah's
day, A people which is self-righteous. They're religious idolaters. They have, as Isaiah 28 says,
they have made a covenant with death. They think they're all
right in their religion. We'll be okay, we don't need
what you're talking about. God says he spread out his hands
all the day to a rebellious people which walks in a way that was
not good after their own thoughts. A people that provokes me to
anger continually to my face. They do all sorts of idolatrous
things. They think they're so good because
look what in verse 5 what they say. In verse 5 they say, you,
you, stand over there. Don't stand near to me. Don't
come near me. I'm holier than thou because
of all the things that I do. God says these are a smoke in
my nose, a fire that burns all the day long. It was specifically
targeted. at the idolatrous Jews of Isaiah's
day who were going to go into Babylonian captivity for their
idolatry. They worshipped idols. They were privileged with the
Word of God. As Paul says in Romans chapter
2, what advantage is there in being a Jew? Much every way,
for to them was given the oracles of God. They're privileged in
many ways, but they refused the open hands of God spread out
towards them. He spread out His hands in warm
invitation, as His Word does. You who tell me that you hate
God and you want nothing to do with Him because you find Him
hard and cruel, will you look in His Word? Will you look at
God manifested in the Lord Jesus Christ? Will you see him say,
come unto me, all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will
give you rest? Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me for my yoke. Will you not see that? Will you
hear him say at the end of the scriptures, come to the waters
of life, come, buy without money and without price, come and buy.
There, the door of salvation is open. But these people are
self-righteous people. They're self-righteous, holier-than-thou
people, who are idolaters, who offer false sacrifices when only
Christ is the true sacrifice that God will accept. Theirs
is the religion of Cain and Jeroboam, and don't think I'm just talking
about the Jews of 2,750 years ago, I'm talking about religious
folks today. The vast majority, the service
I listened to again, radio this morning, exactly this, patting
themselves on their back in their self-righteousness, and completely
saying nothing about how we're made at peace with God, not a
solitary word about it. What did Jeroboam do? You know
what Cain did. The religion of Cain was the
religion of my own goodness that I will bring to God, and if he
won't accept me, then I don't want him. Whereas Abel brought
the sacrifice that God accepted, which was a lamb, which pictured
the Lord Jesus Christ, who alone can take away the sins of sinners
in this world. Who was Jeroboam? Jeroboam, after
the time of Solomon, when the kingdom was split, and they went
off, the ten tribes of the north went off, and what Jeroboam did
these things. He made golden calves. Remember
that? That was in the days of the Exodus,
and when Moses was up Mount Sinai for 40 days, and the people persuaded
Aaron to melt down their gold and make them an idol to worship,
and they did. And Moses broke the tablets that
he brought down from the mountain. Well, Jeroboam repeated. that
sin and made golden calves. He appointed other cities than
Jerusalem, in which the worship of God, in the respect of the
sacrifices which pointed to the sacrifice of Christ, could take
place. He appointed other cities. He
appointed other priests than the Levites, when God had said,
the Levites alone, for they are a picture that only Christ is
our prophet, priest and king. other priests than the Levites,
other times of worship than the times, the Sabbaths, the feasts
that God had appointed. What was he doing? What was Jeroboam
doing? We don't need God's salvation
of Christ and Him alone. We can make it up for ourselves.
Is that not what people do today? They gloried in their traditions
and in their respectability. Like so much Christless religion
today, glories in its tradition and its respectability. They
taught, as Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, they taught
for doctrine the commandments of men, and not the word of God.
And it applied directly to the majority of Jews of Isaiah's
day, but it's so true, so true, of many in false religion today.
Throughout our land, Catholicism, Anglicanism, you could point
the finger. That's not our business to point the finger. But that's
where all of the falsehood is, exactly the same. Don't just
think it was a thing of all that time ago, 2,700 plus years. But don't give up on anybody
while it's the day of salvation. Look at verse 8. Thus saith the
Lord, as the new wine is found in the cluster, and one saith,
destroy it not, for a blessing is in it, so will I do for my
servants' sakes, that I may not destroy them all. The idea is
that there is a vineyard that has become corrupt, and they're
rooting it out and hewing it down to replace it. And one says,
oh, hold on, I often find when I'm pulling out the vegetables
at the end of the summer season, and I'm pulling out the beans
where you can't find a solitary bean left, And as you pull them
out of the ground and look, you go, oh look, hold on, there's
some usable beans in there. And you end up with a great big
handful of beans where you thought there was nothing. There's a
blessing in it. And this is the picture. Here's a cluster of
grapes. In this rotten vine that we're
taking, there's a cluster of grapes. And there'll be some
new wine in it. And what is it a picture of?
That even amongst these religious hypocrites, God has a remnant
according to the election of grace. None is beyond the reach
of God's arm of salvation while it is still the gospel day, and
today still is the gospel day, the day of salvation. This is
talking about people, as it's described elsewhere in scripture,
plucked as brands, as logs, as burning branches, plucked from
the burning, that they don't burn, that the fire is put out,
the vire of judgment is put out. God has a remnant, according
to the election of grace. But not just those plucked from
religious falsehood. Also, those turned to God from
rebellious humanity in general, because who were the people of
God? It was the Jews of the Old Testament, the descendants, the
physical descendants of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob. They were
the ones. That line, that line from which
Messiah would come, that people, that small people on the face
of the earth, compared with all of the great empires of ancient
history, that small people was the people that were the people
of God, specially favoured. But look, it isn't just for them
that God is gracious. He says, I am sought of them
that asked not for me. People in general didn't ask
for him. I am found of them that sought me not. I said, behold
me, behold me, to a nation, meaning a foreign nation, an other nation,
that was not called by my name. Only the Jews were called, only
Israel was called by his name. but he is sought by a different
people. And so this is my final point,
and I'll try and be quick with it, the fruit of sovereign grace. Saving grace freely proclaimed
is what we have. This first one is quoted by Paul,
the apostle, in Romans 10 and verse 20. He says, is very bold. Remember, when you read the New
Testament, you have the names from the Greek translation, Isaiah.
It's clearly Isaiah of the Old Testament. But Isaiah is very
bold and says, I was found of them that sought me not. I was
manifest. I was made known And to them
that asked not after me, but to Israel, the ones that should
have listened, he says, All day long have I stretched forth my
hands to a disobedient and gainsaying people. Quoting those verses
1 and 2 of Isaiah 65. The Jews thought they were entitled. The religious folks of our day,
with their traditions, think they're entitled. They presumed,
on God's grace, always being in their favor. But Isaiah, under
inspiration of the Holy Spirit, refutes that idea. God will save
a people who are not entitled by birth, as they think. But
those who presume they are entitled by birth will perish. It's just
exactly as God said through the prophet Hosea, after Daniel. You look after Daniel, see the
prophet Hosea. He was to marry... a prostitute. He was to marry
a woman who was immoral, who was unfaithful to her husbands
in all of her dealings. And they were to have children
as a picture of God's dealings with Israel. And one was to be
called Loruhama, which means, I won't going to have any mercy
anymore. And another one was to be called Loami, which is,
not my people, they're not my people. But right there God will
have a people, and he will have a remnant in accordance with
the election of grace. And it will be, he says, as a
husband to the wife, God speaking prophetically in Hosea chapter
1, or is it chapter 2, he says, call me no longer Bali, but call
me Ishi. Bali, the harsh husband, the
harsh husband of strict law, the harsh husband with absolutely
strict rules that you dare not, dare not go against. Is she the
loving, gentle, tender husband? This is what God says. Why does
He say this? Because of His grace alone. His
grace alone. Who does He show His grace to?
To whomsoever He will. He will. This is sovereign grace. This is the offense of the gospel. The guy I was listening to on
the radio this morning was telling us that Jesus came to save the
whole world without exception. Well, if he came to save the
whole world without exception, then nobody's going to hell,
and there's no justice. there's no justice. No, he didn't
say that at all, not at all. God will be merciful in salvation
to whomsoever he will. This is why Paul was very bold
when he said, Isaiah was very bold in saying this. It's that
The people that thought they were the right people were not,
because God will be gracious to whom He will be gracious,
even if they're non-Israel, even if they're people just from this
world, a nation that sought Him not. And every true preacher
must be bold in declaring this. I'm talking about sovereign grace,
I'm talking about election, I'm talking about the fact, revealed
in Scripture, that out of all mankind that would exist before
the beginning of time, God the Father loved a people. For no
reason in themselves, He didn't say they would see that they
would love Him, just out of pure sovereign grace, He chose some
to salvation. And at the right time, Christ
was sent forth to redeem them from the curse of the law, by
bearing their sins. For he came to save not everybody,
but his people from their sins. For the transgression of my people,
Isaiah 53, was he stricken. Not for everybody, for the transgression
of this people. And this people, the Holy Spirit,
comes in time, in the experience of each and every one of them
down history. and reveals the truth to them,
whether it be before Christ came or after Christ came. It was
exactly the same. They saw it. David saw the truth
of this. King David, who wrote most of
the Psalms, David saw this. Because why? The Holy Spirit
showed him that he was an object of the grace of God. And many
who claim to preach try to disguise it. And they wish it wasn't so
clear in the Bible. And they wish they could avoid
this chapter or that chapter. But you know, the more deeply
you look and the harder you look, the harder it is to avoid. God's
true preachers declare it boldly, without fear of the consequences.
What are the consequences? Persecution. Persecution from
those around us. Persecution. People naturally
hate this message. Hatred of the person. Opposition
to them. A seeking to shut them down.
A seeking to shut them up. It's happened down history. It
happened in the days of Bunyan, when the good men of the town
of Bedford shut up John Bunyan for doing nothing other than
preaching the grace of God in salvation. We can't have him
saying this. This is an offence to people.
Let's shut him up in Bedford prison for 12 years, and what
did God do? Gave us the Pilgrim's Progress and the Holy War as
a result of it. You can't, you can't cage up
the truth of God. And look how God declares himself
in this verse. Look, I, this is God speaking
through his prophet, I am sought of them that ask not for me.
I am found of them that sought me not. I said, behold me, behold
me unto a nation that was not called by my name. It sounds
very one-sided, doesn't it? Well, In the case of God alone,
it's perfectly justified. For us, self is a bad thing,
but in the case of God, he declares himself because he is the one
that we need. Behold me. There is a people,
an elect multitude, the objects of God's grace, chosen before
time, redeemed in the middle of time by Christ. justified
by all that he did, and sanctified, set apart for his service, called
by the gospel of grace, the preaching of the gospel, for it's by the
foolishness of preaching that it pleased God to save those
who believe, quickened by the Holy Spirit, made alive, given
spiritual life, born again of the Spirit of God, brought into
his banqueting house. This is what salvation is. The
Song of Solomon describes it like this, that love song. Song
2 verse 4, he brought me, God brought me into the banqueting
house and his banner over me was love, the banner of Christ. Jehovah-Nissi, the banner of
Christ over us, was love. It was a love for his people.
God calls. Who does he call for? Who did
Christ come for? Christ says, I only came for the lost sheep
of the house of Israel. He said, I came for the lost
sheep. Who are the lost sheep of the house of Israel? Jews?
No, no, no, no, no. Read it this way. The house of
Israel is the Israel of God. It is Zion, city of our God.
It is the church of the living God. It is the elect of God.
And he gives them ears to hear his call. He gives them eyes
to respond when he says, behold me, behold me. He says in another
place in Isaiah 45, verse 22, look unto me and be you saved,
all the ends of the earth. For I am God and there is none
else. Look what he says in Psalm 34.
In Psalm 34 and verse 5, God has just said, behold me, behold,
look unto me, all the ends of the earth, and be saved. And
it says in verse 5, they looked unto him and were lightened. There's life in a look at the
crucified one, says an old hymn. There is life in a look at the
crucified. They looked unto him and were
lightened, and their faces were not ashamed. Who did? The good
folk? No, this poor man. This poor
man with nothing to offer. This poor man cried, and the
Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles. Oh,
surely he's left on his own. No. The angel of the Lord encampeth
around them that fear him, and delivereth them. O taste and
see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man that trusteth
in him. Is that not a wonderful promise?
And it's exactly as John confirms in John chapter 1, in his Gospel
chapter 1, and verse 10. He, Christ, was in the world,
and the world was made by him. There he is walking in flesh
and blood, and this world was made by him. Do you see how profound
these words are? Do you see how loaded? You know,
sometimes men write, or women write, a great big long novel
with many thousands of words, and you get a grain or two of
life truth here and there and amongst it. But look at this
in the Word of God. The Son of God was in the world. Is that not staggering in itself?
Can you get your head around that? That God, as a man, was
in the world? And the world was made by this
man that was in the world, because without him was nothing made
that was made. And the world that was made by him knew him
not. And he came to his own, the Jewish
people, the people who had been so privileged, and his own received
him not. They tried to kill him, but there
were those that received him. As many as received him, not
of their own will, To them gave He power to become the sons of
God. That's why they received Him,
because to them He gave power to be the sons of God. Even to
them that believe on His name. How did they come to that state?
They were born not of blood. They had a new life put in them,
not of blood, not by physical genetic descent, nor of the will
of the flesh. It wasn't them saying, I think
I have decided to follow Jesus. No, nor of the will of man. Oh,
I want to... No, it was the will of God that
did it. It's the will of God in everything.
Exactly that. What do we need for soul satisfaction? What do we need that our souls
in this life and in eternity might be satisfied? We who by
nature are defiled with sin, and if God brings you to a knowledge
that you are defiled by sin, he gives a picture, I've mentioned
it before, it's in Ezekiel 16, he says, I saw you as a newborn
baby, that had been cast aside in the dirt and in the squalor,
and nobody had washed you, and nobody had cut the cord, and
nobody had done all the right things that you do to a newborn
baby. You mums will remember that moment when that baby parted
from you, and you saw what happened. What do you need? What does that
baby need? The infant child that was seen
in Ezekiel 16, the infant child says, God, I looked upon you,
my people, like that child, desperately in need. It needed to be washed.
That child needed to be soothed. That child needed to be warmed,
and to be clothed, and to be housed, and to be fed, and to
be protected. Shall we state it in one word,
what that child needed? It needed its mother. Didn't
it? Oh, I know we live in a politically correct age which says, well,
it depends what gender the parents have decided that they need to
be. Maybe it needed its father. No, no. We that have got a brain
between our ears and a modicum of common sense and the enlightenment
of the word of God know that child needed its mother. That's
what it is. And what does the sinner need?
The sinner needs God. The sinner needs God. The sinner
made conscious of sin needs God, whom no man has seen at any time. Well, how are we going to see
Him? Answer, there He is in Christ. Show us the Father and that will
suffice. Philip, have I been so long with
you and you have not seen me? God in our flesh, speaking words
we can understand, bidding us to look and to come in His Word. He who is the Word is speaking
this Word. And the me that is here is come
to Christ, just as the prodigal son. When he came to an end of
himself, he'd had no thought for his father or his family
when he didn't feel a need for them. But when he came to an
end of himself, what does he say? I will arise and I will
go to my father. I've got nothing to lose and
everything to gain. I will arise and go to my father.
What a blessed thing it is to come to God by Christ, for he
is able to save to the uttermost those who come to God by him.
When we come in faith, looking, answering that call to behold,
looking. Isaiah 12 verse 2, Behold, God
is my salvation. I will trust and not be afraid,
for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song. He also is become
my salvation. Therefore with joy shall ye draw
water out of the wells of salvation. Is that not the experience of
the child of God? What a delight to the burdened
soul, what a glorious hope, what an end in sight of sorrow and
of sadness, yet so few seem to believe it. It's such a, I just,
as a believer, I think, oh wow. Knowing this, I can lay me down
in peace at night and sleep in safety. Knowing that I've got
an eternal hope, and yet so few seem to believe it. And so few
regard this pearl of greatest price as something that is not
worth turning aside for one moment to. But all of the worthless,
empty baubles of this world are what they seek. And Isaiah himself
says in Isaiah 53, But in God's sovereign purposes,
he says in Isaiah 55, my word shall not return unto me void,
but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall
prosper in the thing whereto I sent it, and therefore we preach.
We don't try to persuade, we don't employ gimmicks to try
and get men, the gimmicks of the marketplace which might be
valuable in some situations, but not here, we just declare
the truth and we leave it to the Spirit of God to speak to
the soul of man. God speaks to those he appoints
to hear. Like in the parable of the sower,
the sower went forth to sow, and he sowed the seed of the
Word of God into the ground of humanity in its all different
types. And when that seed is sown by
the preacher spreading the Word of God, the seed is prepared
by the Spirit of God for the particular piece of ground. and
the ground into which it falls is prepared for that very seed. This is all the Lord's doing. It is the Lord's work, he says,
and it is marvellous in our eyes. This is the sovereign grace of
God. Do you hear a call? Have you tasted that the Lord
is good? Do you want to rest safe in the everlasting arms? I close with this. Heed the invitation. Matthew 7, verses 7 and 8, ask, Ask, ask, and it shall be given
you. Seek, and ye shall find, ye shall. Knock, and it shall be opened
unto you. For everyone that asks, ask the
Lord, ask God, show me. And everyone that seeks, finds. And to him that knocks, it shall
be opened. That promise is absolutely rock-solid,
copper-bottomed, guaranteed. Why? Because it's the promise
of God, to you, if you will hear Him. Amen.