His death secured our ransom. Learn that and you have every
reason to rejoice always and in all things giving thanks to
God. His death secured our ransom. A while back I received one of
those invitations that are sent around to preachers, asking me
to attend a conference. Specifically, it was a conference
for reformed pastors and church workers. And the theme of the
conference was announced to be Growing the Church God's Way. That ought to get any pastor's
attention, Growing the Church God's Way. Like most religious
groups and most denominations, the emphasis of all the planned
lectures and activities was growth and success. Growth and success. Even those who call themselves
reformed and Calvinistic, for the most part, are completely
obsessed with numbers, numeric growth. Success in the eyes of
men. Things they could point at and
say, look here what we have done. Look and see how successful we
are. We have something really to show
you. Sadly, when growth and success
become the object of any man, any church, any preacher, any
denomination, any church organization, when growth and success is the
object, compromise is always the result. If your hope, your
aim, your desire is to get more people, have success in the eyes
of men, get people to follow, get people to join up, if that's
the object, you will do what you have to do to achieve the
object. You'll compromise the message,
and you'll compromise your methods, and you'll sell out the gospel
to achieve success. I'll give you an example. I have
been around a little while now. I went to school with a good
many men, well a few men, who at the time believed the gospel
of God's free grace, at least they said so, and argued for
it and defended it. Many of them, most of them now,
are running as rapidly as they can away from the scriptural
doctrine of particular redemption, limited atonement, embracing
the idea that somehow we must acknowledge that Christ really
did die for all men, and God really does love all men. And
God really wants to save all men. Somehow we've got to fit
that in. And I know the reason why the
compromise is so rampant everywhere. Folks think, well, this just
won't work. Preaching free grace. Just preaching
the gospel. It won't work. We've got to do
something. Something must be wrong with
our message. Something must be wrong with our methods. What
are we going to do to get the church to grow? How are we going
to be successful? So they alter the message. Well,
when I read that invitation, I immediately thought to myself,
the only thing we do in this matter of growing the church,
The only thing we do in this matter of going to church is
get out of the way and watch God work. That's all. Get out of the way and watch
God work. We preach the gospel and that's
it. We preach the gospel and wait
on God. We preach the gospel and leave
the work to Him. We preach the gospel and we do
not seek to psychologically manipulate the minds and emotions of people
to get them to make a decision for Jesus. I have an announcement
in the bulletin. If God's given you faith in Christ
and you wish to confess him and believe his baptism, as you certainly
should do, I'll be happy to accommodate you, we will be happy to accommodate
you. But I put pressure on nobody to do anything except the pressure
of the gospel of God's grace. Knowing the terror of the Lord,
we persuade men, but we persuade men merely, only, solitarily
with the preaching of the gospel. The fact is, there is in this
world a people called the elect. They're called the ransomed of
the Lord. These people are such a vast
multitude, no man can number them, but they're a specific
number, specific number. 10,000 times 10,000, thousands
of thousands, a specific number. All the 144,000, the chosen people
of God, the whole election of grace. They're called the elect, that's
a good word, that's a good word, elect. Do you know God's people
are called elect more than they're called anything else in this
book? Don't you find it strange that, go to any church around
here, just go to any of them, I don't care what brand it is,
go to any of them and listen if you hear anybody say something
about election, see if you do. I told you a story some years
ago when I was preaching down in Wichita Falls, Texas regularly.
One of the ladies in the church, her son was out in Fort Worth
and somebody came down on Saturday wanting him to come to church.
He was doing some yard work and he said, you don't want me down
there. She said, oh yes, we'd be happy to have you down to
come visit with us. He said, well, what do y'all believe about
election down there? These are two folks out supposed
to be witnessing somebody. What do y'all believe about election
down there? Now, I'm not stretching this, Bill, but this is what
it says. The fellow answering said, I'm not sure, but I think
almost everybody there's Republican. We laugh and weep. Weep. Because of the ignorance
of men who have been abused with those shepherds our Lord describes
in Ezekiel 34, at whose hand he will require his sheep. There is a people called the
elect of God, called elect because they were chosen from everlasting
by the grace of God to everlasting salvation in Jesus Christ the
Lord. They're called the ransomed of
the Lord. Down in Isaiah 35 verse 10, they're
called the ransom to the Lord. Why? Because these elect ones,
these are the people for whom Christ died. These are the people
for whom Christ, by his blood, obtained ransom. They're the
ransom to the Lord. No, Christ didn't die for everybody.
If he did, everybody'd be saved. He did not redeem everybody.
If he did, everybody'd be saved. They'd all be redeemed. He did
not come here to make everybody holy. If he did, everybody would
be made holy. Either that or he's just an idolatrous figment
of your imagination and you may as well worship a balloon. Either
he's God or he's not. Either he redeemed or he's useless. They're called the ransomed of
the Lord. Look at Jeremiah chapter 31 for a minute. God assures
us repeatedly. that these chosen ones, the ransomed
of the Lord, at God's own appointed time of love, shall return to
the Lord. Here in Jeremiah 31, we read
about it. They were chosen, blessed, accepted of God in Christ before
the world began. They were scattered over the
earth by the hand of God through the sin and fall of our father
Adam, scattered by the sons of Noah, scattered in the children
of Babel as God scattered people through the earth. But they were
scattered among the nations that they might be gathered again
in God's everlasting grace to God's everlasting praise. These
scattered sheep were gathered out of the world by our Lord
Jesus when he redeemed them with his precious blood at Calvary.
When the great shepherd with his atoning blood laid down his
life for the sheep, he gathered them out of the earth and gathered
them with himself into heavenly glory in his resurrection. And
now, by the preaching of the gospel, as God sends out his
word by the power of his spirit, he gathers his elect in the sweet
and blessed experience of grace, giving them life and faith in
Christ. Jeremiah 31, verse 1. At that
time, saith the Lord, will I be the God of all the families of
Israel, and they shall be my people. Thus saith the Lord,
the people which were left of the sword found grace in the
wilderness. Even Israel, when I went to cause
him to rest, the Lord hath appeared of old unto me saying, yea, I
have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with lovingkindness
have I drawn thee. Again I will build thee, and
thou shalt be built, O virgin of Israel. Thou shalt again be
adorned with thy tabrets, and shalt go forth in dances of them
that make merry. Verse five, thou shalt yet plant
vines upon the mountains of Samaria, and planters shall plant and
shall eat them as common things. For there shall be a day that
the watchman upon the Mount Ephraim shall cry, arise ye and let us
go up to Zion unto the Lord our God. For thus saith the Lord,
seeing with gladness for Jacob. And shout among the chief of
the nations, publish ye, praise ye, and say, O Lord, save thy
people, the remnant of Israel. Behold, I will bring them from
the north country and gather them from the coast of the earth.
and with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and
her that travaileth with child together. A great company shall
return thither. They shall come with weeping
and with supplications. Will I lead them? I will cause
them to walk by the rivers and waters in a straight way wherein
they shall not stumble. For I am a father to Israel and
Ephraim is my firstborn. Hear the word of the Lord, O
ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off and say, he
that scattered Israel will gather him and keep him as a shepherd
doth his flock. Now, let's turn to our text this
morning, Isaiah chapter 35. Here in the gospel of Isaiah, we have
the very same thing discussed as we just read about in Jeremiah
31. the gathering of God's elect, God's Israel, his chosen people. This 35th chapter of Isaiah is
all about Christ coming to save his people. It's all about Christ
coming to gather his elect. The title of my message is When
Christ Comes, When Christ Comes. Our text will be Isaiah 35, verses
one through 10. Here we're told not only that
all God's elect shall return to him, but here the prophet
of God tells us specifically how they are turned to God. God's elect shall return to him.
Here the prophet tells us by divine inspiration how God returns
them to himself. If you would be saved, Listen
to me. Oh, God help you listen to me.
If you would be saved, you must turn to the Lord. But I'm going
to do something that I don't know of another preacher in this
town to do this morning. I'm going to tell you the truth. You won't and you
can't turn to the Lord. You don't have the ability and
you don't have the desire to turn to the Lord until you are
turned to him. Turn me, oh God, of my salvation
and I shall be turned. You must turn to him, but you
will never turn to him except he turn you. You must call upon
the Lord. You must call upon the name of
the Lord, but you never will call for his grace until he has
called you by his grace. The prophet said, surely after
that I was turned, I repented. And after that I was instructed,
I smote upon my thigh and was ashamed, yea, even confounded
because I did bear the reproach of my youth. We must return to
the Lord, yes. But none will ever return to
the Lord until he has been returned by the mighty operations of God's
free, omnipotent, irresistible sovereign grace. I know some
folks say this 35th chapter of Isaiah is merely talking about
the restoration of Israel, the restoration of Judah from there
during the time of revival at the latter part of Hezekiah's
reign after the Assyrian invasion. Others say, no, no, no, that's
the background of it, but this is a prophecy about the second
coming of Christ in the latter day. But while certainly there's
reference to our Lord's second coming, and certainly the historic
background is that time of restoration during Hezekiah's day, the message
is something else. Clearly, this is a prophecy of
this coming of our Lord Jesus in the saving operations of his
grace. Christ's first coming, his first appearance on this
earth, performing wonders and miracles as a man as he established
righteousness and put away sin by the sacrifice of himself and
his coming to you. Oh, may he come today. He is
coming to you who are his, the ransomed of the Lord, by which
he calls you to come to him. So this describes our Lord's
coming in providence to deliver and bless his people. He's coming
in grace to save his elect and is coming to gather his ransomed
ones. When Christ comes to save, he
comes in power. He comes in the power of omnipotent
grace, making all things new. So that if any man be in Christ,
he is a new creature. Old things are passed away, behold,
all things have become new. And let me show you three things
in these 10 verses, and we'll read the text as we go along.
First, in verses one and two, the Lord God speaks of and gives
the promise of his grace. Chapter 34 was all about judgment. It's all about wrath. Edom, the
populous fruitful land, because of its sin was made desolate,
a barren wilderness. Here, God promises grace. When
the land of Judah was freed from the Assyrians, that land had
been laid waste. It was empty, barren, desolate. And God says, I'll make it fruitful
again. The wilderness. and the solitary place shall
be glad for them. And the desert shall rejoice
and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly and
rejoice even with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be
given unto it. The excellence of Carmel and
Sharon. They shall see the glory of the
Lord and the excellency of our God. Certainly. These two verses have reference
to the Gentile world. The Gentile world was desolate,
a desolate, barren wilderness, bringing forth no fruit to God.
We'd like to trace our family trees in our generation. It's
gotten to be a popular thing to do. Folks make a lot of money
getting Getting your ancestry down just right. But our ancestors,
we who are of the Gentile world, were barbarians. Yours and mine. Our ancestors
were heathens. Our ancestors were cruel, idol-worshipping
fools. The Gentile world was in utter
darkness, desolate, bringing forth no fruit to God until God
sent the gospel by his grace into the four corners of the
earth and calls out his elect around the globe from every nation,
kindred, tribe, and tongue. When God sent the gospel of his
grace to the Gentiles, Jerusalem then was left desolate, and the
Gentiles given the joy of faith and brought forth fruit unto
God I Can't think of a better picture of what the prophets
talking about than what we have in our in Genesis chapter 1 Genesis
chapter 1 turn back there if you will Before Christ comes to a center
That center is like the solitary, desolate wilderness, the empty,
barren desert. I haven't really spent much time
in deserts, don't plan to, but I have been on the edges of desert. Do you know what's there? Nothing. It's bleak, sand, brambles, nothing,
nothing. Animals that you don't want to
get near you or you don't want to get near them, nothing. Bleak, barren, empty, desolate. That's where you are spiritually,
who do not know my God. Desolate, empty. You have nothing to bring to
God, nothing to offer God, nothing to give God. Before Christ comes,
that's the nature of man. Man by nature has nothing. He can do nothing. He can offer
nothing to God. You can't see God. You can't
walk with God. You can't speak to God. You can't
think rightly of God. You can't praise God. You can't
know God. All those things are impossible
to you who are yet without life and faith in Christ. Like the
desolate earth, you're without form and void and darkness is
upon the face of the deep. Did you find any place in Genesis
1? In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. He
created the heaven and the earth in their pristine beauty and
perfection and glory. And then something happened.
I don't know what, we're not told what. And the earth was,
the word was really became, the earth became. Suddenly, climactically,
something happened. The whole earth became without
form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. That's
where God finds us. Fallen, without form, void in
darkness, and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
As I prepare to preach to you Sunday morning, Sunday night,
Tuesday night, as I prepare to preach wherever God opens a door
of opportunity, when I sit down to write an article, to write
a chapter in a book, or to write a letter, it is my prayer, relentlessly,
that God the Spirit would move upon the face of the deep, dark
waters of your soul. and give you light and life in
Christ the Lord. When Christ comes, he makes the
wilderness to blossom. He makes it bring forth fruit.
He causes the desert to rejoice. Grace, effectual grace. Grace causing sinners to bring
forth fruit unto God. That's what he's talking about.
He gives life to the dead. Grace brings joy to the heart.
the joy of forgiveness, the joy of righteousness, the joy of
acceptance with God, the joy of knowing you're ransomed by
the blood of Christ, the joy of faith in Christ, the joy of
knowing the perfection of God's love in you, the joy of being
turned to God, the joy of life. It gives the strength of Lebanon,
the fruitfulness of caramel and the beauty of Sharon. When Christ
comes to a center in saving power, he reveals himself. He makes
himself known. He causes us to see the glory
of the Lord, the excellency of our God, the excellency of his
person, his purpose, his works, the glory of the Lord, and the
excellency of our God. I've told you many times about
my experience as a young boy when I go to visit my grandparents
in Spruce Pie, North Carolina, in the mountains of western North
Carolina. I was raised in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. I tell folks
all the time, finest city in the world. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco
Company was Winston-Salem, North Carolina. And on a hot July day,
we had to open those vats and turn the tobacco. You could breathe
in the air and spit out the amber on any corner. It was a wonderful
place to live. But we would drive from Winston-Salem
up to Spruce Pike. And we always had to go by Grandfather
Mountain, close to where y'all live now. Always had to go by
Grandfather Mountain. And I would ask my dad, why do
they call that Grandfather Mountain? He said, if you look, son, carefully,
you'll see the image of an old man. You can see his face on
top of that mountain. And I looked and looked and looked
and looked. And all I saw was trees and weeds. That's all I saw. Until one day,
we went up to Spruce Pine on another route. And we went around
the other side of the mountain. And I looked up, I saw the sign,
we get to Grandfather Mountain, I looked up, and there's that
old man. You could see it just as clear
as it was written, his forehead, his hair, his forehead, his eyes,
his nose, his lips, and his long beard, just laying right there
on top of that mountain. I mean, as clear as the nose
on your face. I said, I see it! That's Grandfather
Mountain! But you can only see it if you're
in the right place. You can't see it from just anywhere.
Will you hear me? You can only see the glory of
God. You can only see the goodness
of God. You can only see that God is
God from one standing point, and that is in Christ crucified. Only as you believe on the Son
of God do you see the glory of God. This is what God promises
to do for sinners when Christ comes in saving power. He'll
give you life. He'll give you joy. He'll make
himself known. No man can do these things. I
can't do that for you. Mom and daddy can't do that for
you. The church can't do that for you. All the programs and
religious shenanigans in the world can't do that for you.
Oh, but God can, if he will. If you will, you can make me
whole. If you will, you can make me
clean. If you will, you can make me
yours. If you will, you can make me
live. It's all together up to him. But I'll tell you how he does
it. He does this work through the preaching of the gospel. The means he uses is preaching. Nothing else will get the job
done. All the theatrics, all the programs,
all the entertainment, all the sideshows in the religious world
don't do anything but confuse men. That which God uses to save
his elect is the preaching of the gospel. Oh, how blessed you
are today. Oh, how blessed you are today,
this hour, you get to hear the gospel of God's grace. What are
you going to do with it? How blessed you are, you get
to hear the gospel of God's grace. Folks come to visit, we want
to make a welcome and I do want to, but I'd like sometime to
have the place full of visitors and do what Brother Jack Shakes
did many years ago. He said, you folks who are visiting
here with us today, be sure you shake hands with all the folks
here in this church and be sure you thank them for providing
you with a place, nice, cool, comfortable building with padded
seats so you can sit down in comfort and hear the gospel of
God's grace. You owe them a lot. That's the
only thing God uses to save sinners. Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the word of God. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. The gospel we preach
is the power of God unto salvation. So second, let me show you something
about the preaching of grace from verses three and four. Verses
one and two, God promises grace. In verses three and four, he
shows something about the preaching of grace. These are God's words
to his prophets and his preachers. This is what preachers are supposed
to do for God's elect. Strengthen ye the weak hands. Hands that can't work or even
be lifted up in prayer. Confirm ye the feeble knees,
feeble knees. I never thought I would find
out what feeble knees are. They're the kind of knees that
won't hold you up. They're the kind of knees that collapse under
you, feeble knees. They can't stand, they can't
walk, they can't run. Say to them that are of a fearful
heart, cannot find peace. Say to them, be strong, fear
not. Behold, your God will come with
vengeance, even God with a recompense. He will come avenging his own
justice, recompensing his own law, and he will come vengeance
upon your enemies and recompensing upon your enemies. He will come
and save you. Now, if you read the book of
Hebrews, the 12th chapter, you'll find that those very same words
are applied to urging God's people to run the race set before them.
What does the preacher do? We come here to preach the gospel,
and as we do, we take great care preaching the gospel to feed
God's elect. We feed God's elect and at the
same time call upon sinners to believe on the Son of God. We
edify the saints and we call out sinners. We comfort the saints
and we reprove the sinner. We strengthen the feeble hands. We strengthen the weak knees.
We call men and women to worship God. And then in verses five
through 10, we see the performance of grace. That which follows
the preaching of the gospel is the performance of God's grace.
So Isaiah here returns to the business at hand. Assuring sinners
of God's performance of grace that must and shall attend the
coming of Christ in saving power. Then, verse 5, the eyes of the
blind shall be opened. and the ears of the deaf shall
be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap
as in heart, and the tongue of the dumb sing, for in the wilderness
shall waters break out and streams in the desert, and the parched
ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water
in the habitation of dragons, where each lay shall be grass
with reeds and rushes. and the highway shall be there,
and the way, and it shall be called the way of holiness. The
unclean shall not pass over it, but it shall be for those, the
wayfaring men, the fools shall not err therein. No lion shall
be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon. It shall
not be found there, but the redeemed, the Lord shall walk there. and
the ransom to the Lord shall return and come to Zion with
songs and everlasting joy upon their heads. They shall obtain
joy and gladness and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. Now
without question, The wondrous miracles described here were
prophetic of our Lord's first coming to establish his kingdom
in this world. These things were proof that
he's Messiah. You remember when John the Baptist
sent his disciples to Christ while John was in prison, said,
art thou the Christ and look we for another. The Lord Jesus
said, you go tell John that the death here and the blind see
and the lame walk and women receive their dead again. These things
were spoken of throughout the Old Testament as indications
of He who is the Christ. When the Lord Jesus came, He
performed miracles upon the bodies of men. He caused blind men,
men who were born blind, to see. He caused deaf men, people who
were born without the ability of hearing, to hear. He calls
the mute, people who had never spoken, to speak. He calls the
lame to walk. By the mere word of his power,
he calls the dead to arise. This is the Christ. Wonders were
wrought on men's bodies, but those wonders were only a foretaste
of greater wonders. Wonders to be wrought through
the preaching of the gospel upon the souls of men. You don't need
to turn there. Why don't you listen to this?
Our Savior said in John chapter 14 verse 12 Barely barely I say
unto you He that believeth on me the works that I do shall
he do also and Greater works than these shall he do because
I go to my father. Mark, what on earth can that
be? Greater works? Not greater works of righteousness,
not greater works of atonement, no. Not even greater works of
mercy and grace, no. But something far greater than
causing blind men to see and deaf men to hear. We live in
this Stupid. Insane. Idolatrous. Antichrist. Day of Pentecostal
charismatic healing, health, wealth, prosperity. Stupidity. It's just stupidity. But the
devil has pulled the wool over the eyes of multitudes. If I
had the choice, if I had the choice, of being able to speak
life to the dead in the grave and command the dead to rise
from the grave. Either that or God speak by me
today and cause dead sinners to live. Oh, oh God do that. Do that. By the preaching of
the gospel, God causes spiritually blind folks to see. He gives
you light. He causes the deaf to hear. He
causes the lame to walk. He causes the dead to live. These are greater works than
the healings of men's bodies. Then the eyes of the blind shall
be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then
shall the lame man leap as an heart, and the tongue of the
dumb shall sing. For in the wilderness shall waters
break out, and streams in the desert. What do those two things
have to do with each other? Nothing, except as you understand
them spiritually. Remember this Gentile world,
this place here in Danville, Kentucky, this Gentile world
where it was just desolation, barrenness, emptiness, death,
nothing, nothing. Now, now, here laid me in walls. Blind can't see. Dead men hear. Dead men live and sing God's
praise. And God causes the waters to
gush in the desert. For in you, he sends wells of
living water springing up unto everlasting life. When Christ
comes, he causes those who were lost, straying on the road to
hell, to walk in the way of holiness. The way of holiness. This is
the way of worship, holy worship. This is the way of obedience,
holy obedience. Holiness is conformity, the conformity
of my life, my will, my heart, myself to Christ, his will, his
heart, his life. But it's more than that. Holiness
is Christ the way. Those who live now walk in Christ
the way, verse eight. And then highway shall be there
and the way, and it shall be called the way of holiness. The way of holiness. Now, if
you go out to dinner this afternoon, you'll find that there are some
folks who will obviously be dressed in an unusual manner, and women
won't wear any makeup, and they'll have their hair up in a bun,
and the men will dress very plainly, and they'll dress holy, holy. I was growing up with all kinds
of Pentecostal folks. They're called holiness people,
Pentecostal holiness. We dress like this because this
is the way of holiness. This is the way of holiness?
Come on now, do you really think, do you really think God cares
whether you wear a felt hat or a straw hat? Do you really imagine
that God cares? Whether you wear a JCPenney suit
that's all black or a seersucker suit from whoever makes suits. Do you really think God cares?
What stupidity. That's not holiness. We're holiness
people. We don't eat, drink, chew, or
go with girls who do. That's not holiness. That's not
holiness. Christ is holiness and there
is none but him. Christ in you is holiness. David Peterson, holiness is not
something you progressively make yourself to be. Holiness is something
God gives you. It's called holiness. Sanctification. Christ in you. That's called
holiness. They shall walk in the way of
holiness. The unclean shall not pass over it. But it shall be
for those, the wayfaring men, No fools shall not err therein. I think of a friend of mine down
in Madisonville. He's with the Lord now, with
Kavanaugh. He's an old man when God saved
him. He's an old man. Somebody started asking him questions,
and he said, he said, I believe in Christ. Is that enough? That's enough. That's enough. That's enough. I believe in Christ. The wayfaring men, the fools,
shall not err therein. No lion shall be there, nor any
ravenous beast shall go up thereof. It shall not be found there.
No one and nothing to threaten you, to harm you, to injure you. No dog shall move its tongue
against you. No weapon form against you shall
prosper. No lion, no ravenous beast, it
shall not be found there. Nothing in this way to injure. But the redeemed of the Lord
shall walk there. And the ransomed of the Lord
shall return and come to Zion. with songs and everlasting joy
upon their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness,
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. When God saves a sinner,
he puts that saved sinner in the way. He makes them to be
people of the way. And the way of holiness is the
way of grace. It's the way of faith, the way
of submission, the way of consecration to God. This higher way is the
king's higher way. It's called by many things in
scripture, the way of righteousness, the way of God, the way of peace,
the way of salvation. It's called the way of heresy.
Paul said, after the way which they call heresy, so worship
I the God of my fathers. Christ is the way, the straight
way, the simple way, the safe way, the only way, the only way
to God. The redeemed, the ransomed of
the Lord shall walk there. All who have been redeemed by
Christ's blood shall at God's appointed time be called into
this way of holiness, and they shall walk there. In those days
and in that time, saith the Lord, the children of Israel shall
come. I'm reading to you from Jeremiah.
And the children of Judah together, going and weeping, they shall
go and seek the Lord their God. They shall ask the way to Zion
with their faces thitherward saying, come, let us join ourselves
to the Lord in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten.
My people have been lost sheep. Their shepherds have caused them
to go astray. They have turned them away on
the mountains. They've gone from the mountain
to heel. They've forgotten their resting
place. The Lord God comes by the power
of his grace and fetches his sheep out of the wilderness and
brings them in the way of holiness. You have many examples in scripture.
One day our Lord was passing through the streets and word
got around that Jesus was passing by and there was a fellow by
the name of Zacchaeus, a little man, and he climbed up in a tree,
a sycamore tree, and the Lord Jesus came to where he was and
he stopped and he looked up in that tree. And he said, Zacchaeus,
come down, for today I must abide at thy house. And Zacchaeus made
haste and came down, and Christ abode at his house. He passed
by Peter and James and John mending their nets. He said, follow me,
I'll make you fishes of men. And they dropped their nets,
followed him. He came to a Gadarene, a wild Gadarene, a madman, insane,
vile, violent, hurting and hurtful. And he came to where that Gadarene
was among the dead, and he cast out the devil. and the Gadarene
was brought into the way, sitting at his feet, clothed and in his
right mind. Our Savior came once to a woman,
a woman taken in adultery. She was brought to him by accusers
who wished her to be stoned to death, only attempting to deride
him and discredit him. And the master, when it was done,
looked up and asked that woman, where are your accusers? Because
he had shoved them all away. Those who took you in the very
act of adultery, where are they? And she said, who doth now condemn
thee? And she said, no man, Lord. He
said, neither do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more. Oh, son of
God, will you today come to sinners out of the way
and bring them into the way? Bring them into yourself, your
holiness, your righteousness, your grace, your mercy. And give us grace as we walk
in the way, ever to walk in the way with joy on our lips, and
joy in our hearts, and praise coming forth from our hearts
to our God who put us in the way. and flood our hearts with
joy as we anticipate at last, coming to Zion above, where we
will be seated forever with Him who is God our Savior. Amen. Amen.