Well, as always, it has been
such a delight for Shelby and I to be here again with you,
our friends, these few days. You have been friends for such
a long, long time, and I never cease on every remembrance of
you to give thanks to God for you. I don't own even a grave plot
yet, I don't have any of what men call material wealth, but
I have got to be the richest man in the world. Not only rich
because Christ is mine and God's grace is mine, heaven and eternity
is mine, but rich in this world. I have friends, Shelby and I
have friends, literally all over the world, dear friends like
you. I couldn't drive from one end
of this country to the other, north, south, east, west, or
crossways, and not be perfectly comfortable to pick up the phone
and call a friend, thinking, we stopped spending the night
tonight. That's a rich man. And among all the riches, I count
you dear, dear, dear riches to my soul. Thank you for your love
for us. for your generosity to us, for
your intercessions on our behalf. Now if the Lord will enable me
to give you the message, I prepared a message for you from Isaiah
chapter 26. You'll find my text in the 26th
chapter of the Gospel of Isaiah. Just hold your Bibles open on
your lap as we look at these 21 verses of Holy Scripture together. Let's begin in verse 1. In that day shall this song be
sung in the land of Judah. We have a strong city. Salvation
will God appoint for walls and bulwarks. Open ye the gates that
the righteous nation which keepeth truth may enter in. Thou will
keep him in perfect whose mind is stayed on thee, because he
trusteth in thee. Isaiah was a faithful prophet. He played a one-string banjo.
He constantly harped on just one thing, the Lord Jesus Christ
and God's salvation in, by, and with him, our dear Savior. Here the prophet once more Points
us to that day in that day in that day It do you good when
you read through the prophecy of Isaiah just to mark those
three words every time you see them It'll give you a hint. That's
what Isaiah is talking about. He used them for the first time
back in chapter 12 He continues to use them right up through
this 26 chapter. He's dealing with the same subject
in all those chapters. He deals with many, many things
included in that subject. But throughout those chapters,
he's talking about that day. That day being the great day
in which we live. We call it the gospel age, this
gospel day, the last day, the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
the day of redemption and grace. Isaiah is particularly calling
our attention to the mercies of God that are ours in Christ
by redemption and calls for us to relentlessly sing this praise
to God for his mercies and his grace in Christ. He promises
us peace. Peace to all who trust in him. Peace to all whose minds are
stayed upon Jehovah. He will keep you in perfect peace
who trust in him. As we trust him, so is our peace. As is our peace, so we trust
him. Now look at verse four. Here's
the title of my message. Trust ye in the Lord forever. Trust him now. Trust him tomorrow. Trust him forever. Trust him
in your present circumstance. Trust him in whatever your circumstance
will be the next hour, the next day, the next month, the next
year. Some of you, I know, as Brother
John already mentioned in his prayer, carry heavy burdens. Some of you are going through
great trials. Perhaps no one knows about the
trial except you and God. And that might just be best. No one knows about the trial
but you and God. Some of you, no doubt, will be
called to pass through deep waters of trouble the fiery furnace
of affliction, and the dark valley of bereavement before law. When
such time comes, my heart carries your burden with you. My heart
hurts with you. I try to pray for you. I know
those are words commonly used. I mean it. I try to carry your
burdens with you. I try to show in whatever way
I can my love for you, my care for you, and the things that
affect you. But I know full well that the
very best thing I can do for you at such times, and to prepare
you for such times, as we anticipate those things that will surely
come, The best thing I can do is preach the gospel to you,
point you to Christ, and urge you to believe God. I don't know whether you have
noticed it before or not. I've called your attention to
it, I know, but that doesn't mean you've noticed it. That
sweet, blessed, blessed passage John read to us in John chapter
14 at the beginning of the service this morning. Have you noticed
the words that immediately precede John 14 one. The words that immediately
precede it. Our Lord said to Peter before
the cock crows twice tomorrow morning, you're gonna deny me
three times. His very next word to Peter is,
let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in me. Trust ye in the Lord forever. Trust ye in the Lord forever. In the teeth of adversity, in
the teeth of great sorrow, in the teeth of great pain, in the
teeth even of your weakness, your failure, and your sin. Trust
ye in the Lord forever. Some of you I suspect you're
yet without Christ, still under the wrath of God. You don't know
it, but you are. And I pray for you. I pray that
God will graciously speak to you by his word this very hour
and grant you life and faith in Christ. And this is my message
to you. Trust ye in the Lord forever. Life eternal. This thing called
salvation begins with a look. Look unto me and be ye saved
all the ends of the earth for I am God and beside me there
is none else. And that life is continued by
looking. The whole life of the believer
in this world is a look. a look of faith, looking to him
who is the author and finisher of our faith, that one who loved
us and gave himself for us, and he endured the cross, despising
the shame because of the joy set before him of our everlasting
salvation. So we continue this life of faith,
looking to Christ. And when it's all over, it's
going to end in a look. We shall see him face to face. Trust ye in the Lord forever. Now watch this. The prophet of
God tells us why we can and should trust the Lord God our Savior
forever. For in the Lord is everlasting
strength. Trust the Lord forever at all
times in every state In every circumstance, in every condition,
in every temptation, in darkness as well as in light, in pain
as well as in happiness, in peace as well as in a time of turmoil,
trust him. He will support you in every
circumstance. In his own appointed time, he
will deliver you and he will sustain you always. He will cause all things to work
together for your good. Trust in Him always for everything. For all things temporal, for
all things spiritual, and for all things eternal. These are
but the gifts of His grace. All the blessings of God are
yours in Christ Jesus. He bestows them manifestly as
he promised them at the time they are needed so that you find
his grace sufficient as you need it. You find his grace sufficient
as you need it. I recall years ago reading a
story Spurgeon told, a true story. One of the ladies he preached
to was constantly beating herself because of a lack of this or
lack of that She came to him one day just broken hearted,
and he asked her, said, what's wrong, what can I help you with?
She said, Pastor, I fear that I don't have dying grace. He
said, are you dying? She said, oh no, no, I don't
think so. He said, why do you want dying
grace? You don't have any need for dying grace until you're
dying. And when the time comes, God
who made the promise will keep the promise. Trust ye in the
Lord forever for everything. He will give his promised grace
at his appointed time. For in the Lord, Jehovah is everlasting
strength. He who is God is our strength. He who is God is our strength. Not the strength of our faith,
not the strength of our Constitution, not the strength of our minds,
not the strength of our bodies will sustain us. But he who is
God is our strength. And His arms, the arms of omnipotence,
are under us to support, to sustain, and to carry us. And His arms,
the everlasting arms, carry us well and carry us securely. These words, in the Lord Jehovah,
might be better translated, as the marginal translation gives
it, in the Lord Jehovah is the rock of ages. So the song that
Isaiah commands us to sing is a song all about him who is Christ,
our Redeemer, the rock of ages. The foundation rock on which
God has built his church. The foundation rock laid in Zion
upon which God builds all his purpose and all his work, Christ
Jesus the Lord. The rock on which we build our
house of faith, trusting him. The rock on which we lean. The rock on which we stand because
he put us on the rock. Trust in the Lord forever. In
the Lord Jehovah is the rock of ages. This song is a song
to be sung in this gospel day. In that day shall this song be
sung. So everything in this chapter,
While historically applicable to the Old Testament, to the
saints of God in the Old Testament, particularly to the children
of Israel during the time of their Babylonian captivity and
after those 70 years, the destruction of Babylon and their deliverance
from Babylon. It all speaks of those things
historically. But it's speaking about that
day, this gospel day. It's talking about the experience
of God's church, God's Judah, God's Israel, God's Zion. Whenever you read about Israel,
Judah, Zion, Jerusalem, in the Old Testament Scriptures, and
promises made to Israel, to Judah, to Zion, to Jacob, in Old Testament
Scripture, they're promises made to God's elect. We who believe
are Abraham's seed. We are the Israel of God. We are the heavenly Jerusalem. We are Jehovah's holy chosen
nation. So the words of this chapter,
read them as personally as you can. Indeed I encourage you to
read all scripture as personally as you can. This too was written
for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures
might have hope. Now let's go back and look at
these first four verses again for just a moment. This first
part of this song is a declaration of security and security ought
to give peace. It is a declaration of security
and peace. Wherever there is security, there
ought to be peace. I didn't say there is. I said
there ought to be. There ought to be. Sometimes we have experienced
much of things that was false security and we found that our
supposed peace was not well-founded peace. But where there is real
security, there ought to be real peace. And in Jehovah, the rock
of ages is real security. There ought to be peace if we're
in him. In that day shall this song be
sung in the land of Judah, in the church of God. We have a
strong city. Our city is the city of God. Our city is the house of God. Our city is Christ himself, God's
salvation in Christ, for Christ and his church is one. Salvation
will God appoint for walls and bulwarks. These are walls, they're
not bulwarks. But salvation, God appoints for
walls. Nice, comfortable, steady, firm
walls. Walls that will withstand the
wind. Walls that will withstand the
weather. But these walls of salvation
are bulwarks that will withstand any assault from hell or earth
anytime and always do. Bulwarks of salvation. Open ye
the gates. Open the gates of Zion. Open
the gates of God's salvation. Open the gates of God's city
and the righteous nation which keepeth truth may enter in. There open the gates and God's
righteous people, those who keep truth, those who keep truth,
those who are sincere, Those whom God has made new creatures
in Christ, those who have no guile, like Nathaniel of old,
those who are made guileless because they're made new creatures
in Christ, they enter into these bulwarks. Thou will keep him
in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because he
trusteth in thee. Trust ye. Trust ye in the Lord
forever. For in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting
strength. Now, the second part of the song
is an encouragement to faith and confidence. Isaiah calls
for us to trust the Lord. In the song we call for one another
to trust the Lord. And now he shows us reasons to
do so. Look at verse five. For he bringeth
down them that dwell on high. The lofty city, he layeth it
low. He layeth it low even to the
ground. He bringeth it even to the dust. Look at Babylon, you children
of Zion. Lay your hearts on the willows
in Babylon. Look at Babylon, this mighty, mighty city. The
greatest city in the world at that time. This great empire. Watch her. He's gonna bring her
down. He's gonna bring her down. You're
gonna see this city crumble. You're gonna see it brought to
nothing. Babylon, of course, representing throughout scripture
false religion, but not only false religion. Everything that
stands in opposition to God and his church, everything that stands
in opposition to you, every enemy, every foe, everything that would
do you harm, watch what God says. He will bring down the lofty
city. He will lay it low. He'll bring
it to the ground. He'll bring it to dust. Now,
I'll tell you what. I have experienced things. I
don't like to tell it. When I was a little boy growing
up in the South, boys just didn't show fear. If you did, you regretted
it. I just haven't learned to let
men see fear in my eyes. Don't plan to. But when I have
been afraid, and I have, It has never been because of dust. I
have never trembled because I saw a little dust. I've never thought
the dust was going to rise up and do me harm. I never had nightmares
about dust, did you? Did you? Well, whatever it is
that causes you to tremble, whatever it is that troubles you by day
and by night, Whatever it is that causes you restless in the
long hours of the night, whatever it is that makes you have nightmares
in the night, whatever it is, God says he'll bring it to dust. To dust. That's about as insignificant
as you can get. How's he gonna do that? How's
he gonna do that? The foot shall tread it down. Yes, we will tread
it down with our feet, that's so, but that's spoken of in a
strange way. Even the feet of the poor and
the steps of the needy. You, you poor and needy ones
here, constantly bombarded and assaulted and abused by Babylon,
this mighty, mighty city, you will tread it down under your
feet like dust in the streets. Verse seven, the way of the just
is uprightness. You see, the just only have one
way. All of them, not the ways of
the just, the way of the just. The way of the just is him who
says, I am the way. The way of the just is the way
of faith. And the way of faith, the way
of Christ, is uprightness. God only deals with sinners in
uprightness. He doesn't deal with us any other
way. It is an upright thing for God
to protect me. It is an upright thing for God
to destroy my enemies. It is an upright thing for God
to walk with me and we with God because Christ is the way in
which I walk. Thou most upright dost way. He says the way of the just is
uprightness. And now we sing to God, thou
most upright. He who is our way of uprightness
is him who is most upright. Thou dost way. The word is observe,
consider, approve of. The path of the just. God observes, considers, and
approves of the way in which you walk. God observes you. God considers
you. God approves of you if you're
one with Christ, if you're in Christ. Verse 8, yea, the way
of thy judgments, O Lord, You might want to jot down the word
providence if you are taking notes. That's what it's referring
to, God's judgments in the earth. Yea, the way of thy judgments,
the way of your judgments in the world. You folks the last
few years have seen some of God's judgments sweep through here
in the form of tornadoes. You see some of God's judgments
sweep through the earth with pestilence and disease and sicknesses
and war. You see the way of God's judgments
sweep through the earth with famine in one nation and plenty
in another. You see the way of God's judgments.
These are God's judgments. In the way of thy judgments,
O Lord, have we waited for thee. In the way of thy judgments have
we waited for thee. Lord, when we see what you're
doing and you think to yourself, what
on earth is going on? What's happening? What's happening? What's taking place? God has
arranged things in his providence so that in every generation,
faithful men have been convinced they lived in the last generation.
Isn't that amazing? You go back and read writings
for men who lived in 1500s, writing for men who lived in 500s, writing
for men who lived in 1800s, writing for men who lived in 1900s, writing
for men who lived in the 20th century, 21st century, and they
all are convinced They live in the last day. This has got to
be it. This is the end of it. How come?
Because we all see God's hand in judgment. Judgment. He brings upon the earth and
we're waiting for Him. Waiting to see Him. Waiting to
see what He does by the judgment. Waiting to see what the end of
the judgment is going to be. But while we wait, we have good
instruction. We have waited for thee. The
desire of our soul is to thy name. Now that's either true or it's
not. As I take those words in my lips,
they are either true or there's just an expression of hypocrisy.
As you take those words in your lips, they're either true or
they're a lie. The desire of our soul is to
thy name. Do you remember when the disciples
said to the Lord Jesus, Lord, teach us to pray as John taught
his disciples to pray? The Savior said, all right. Pray
like this. Our Father, which art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name. That's just what we're talking
about right here. The desire of our soul is the honor of your
name. My God, the desire of my soul
in light and in darkness, in peace and in trouble, in health
and in strength, in joy and in sorrow, the desire of my soul
is to thy name. Our Father which art in heaven,
sanctify honor your name honor your name read on and to the remembrance of thee
Lord make me to think on you to think on you your grace your
goodness your wisdom your glory your redemption your son your
salvation oh God calls everything that I see And everything that
I hear, and everything that I feel, and everything that I experience,
and everything I observe around me calls in all to bring to my
heart and my mind the remembrance of you. Your mercy, your grace,
your loving kindness. With my soul, if I desired thee
in the night. In the night, watchers, I've
been seeking you. Yea, with my spirit within me
will I seek thee early. When I rise from my bed after
the long night of seeking you, I will still be seeking you.
For when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of
the world will learn righteousness. What's that mean? I've looked
at that a long time, last several weeks in anticipation of preaching
this message. What on earth does that mean? When thy judgments, when your
providential judgments are in the earth, when you send the
whirlwind and it takes out a city, you send a mudslide and it takes
out another, you send a flood and it takes out another, you
send pestilence and disease sickness, your judgments come when they're
in the earth. The inhabitants of the world
will learn righteousness. Now let me tell you who those
are and when we look at the next line you'll understand why. We
who are God's inhabitants of this world learn righteousness,
that is we observe God's righteousness. This was right. This was right. This was right. God did it. This was right. God did it. This was right. They will learn
righteousness. They will observe God's hand,
acknowledge God's rightness and God's righteousness. Look at
verse 10. Let favor be shown to the wicked. Now this is another group of
people. Let favor be shown to the wicked. Let a wicked man,
doctor tell him, you got six months to live. Come up with
a new cure. He snaps out of it, he gets along
just fine. The wicked sees God's favor.
Let the wicked see his son in a bad accident and suddenly he's
raged up unexpectedly and the wicked sees it. Oh, I worship
God now. I serve the Lord now. Let the
wicked see the favor of God. Yet will he not learn righteousness. It'll never happen. It will never
happen. God's judgment never produces
faith. Never, never. God's judgment
never produces faith. If it did, you'd find faith in
hell, but you don't find any there. Wicked men are never brought
to faith by outward circumstances or even inward difficulties.
Faith is the gift of God. It must be wrought in you by
the power of God the Spirit in the new birth. Read on. Yet will
he not learn righteousness. In the land of uprightness will
he deal unjustly. He may be in the church. He may be one outwardly who is
numbered among the seed of Abraham. He may be a Jew outwardly. He
may have been baptized and been preaching for a long time, but
in the land of uprightness, he will deal unjustly. He'll continue
to act like he always has in spite of observing God's judgment
and God's faith. and will not behold the majesty
of the Lord. He'll never see the glory of
God in the face of Christ, not by outward judgments and not
by outward benefits. Verse 11, Lord, when thy hand
is lifted up, they will not see, but they shall see They shall
see. They won't see now, but they
shall see. Everybody's gonna see that Christ
is Lord. Everybody's gonna confess that Christ is Lord. And when
they see, they shall be ashamed. What's gonna make them ashamed?
For their envy at your people. For their envy at the people. Yea, the fire of thine enemies
shall devour them. The very thing that most causes
us difficulty, the very thing that most intimidates us, the
very thing that most causes us to turn our minds away from our
God to ourselves and to circumstances, the fire of their hatred gets
us all worked up in a lather. That shall devour them, the very
evil they perform. The very evil that's in them
will be their devouring forever. Verse 12. Verses 12 through 21,
the last part of this Psalm is a celebration of God's wonderful
works. Children of God, remember God's
wonderful works. To you individually, to you personally,
to his church collectively, his works of grace, his works of
providence, his works of redemption, his works of creation, his works,
all his wonderful, wonderful works. Those that are secret
and those that are manifest. His saving works, his gracious
works. In verses 12 through 18, Isaiah
speaks for us about us. and we have verified his words
in our experience. Then in verses 19 and 20, the
church encourages herself with the words of Christ. In verse
21, the church again speaks praise to God and for the encouragement
of faith. First, in verse 12, Lord, thou
wilt ordain peace for us. for thou also hast wrought all
our works in us. Lord, you will ordain peace for
us. What a strange word. What a strange
statement. I want to read it like this.
Lord, you have ordained peace for us. Our Lord, you will perform
peace for us. But the word is thou wilt ordain
peace for us with everything God brings to pass, in all our
experiences, all those things that, man, I wouldn't choose
that for the world. I wouldn't ask for this for anything.
Oh, God, why'd you do this? In all that he ordains in your
path, he ordains peace for you. And through the storm, and through
the fire and through the flood and through the trouble as he
brings you through and the waters are not able to overflow you
and the flame cannot kindle upon you when you get out. Oh, what peace. What peace. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
were cast into the burning fiery furnace Nebuchadnezzar said to
him, are you going to bow down and worship my image that I've
made? And one of those fellows said, King, we don't have to
have a business meeting about this. We're not going to worship
your image. It ain't going to happen. And he said, bind them
hand and foot, and bound them. Heat that furnace seven times
harder than it's accustomed to being heated, and they heated
it up. So that the men who threw them in the furnace died from
the flame, and they threw them over in the furnace. And the
king came when the flame cooled off a little bit and looked down
in the pit. And he said, didn't I throw three men in there? Three
men, king, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He said, I see
four men down there walking in that flame. And the fourth one
is like the Son of God. I don't have a clue whether he
knew who the Son of God was or not, but he knew he was in that
flame with those men. And Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,
do you know what they lost in that flame? You know what they
lost? They didn't even smell like they'd
been teenage boys sneaking off to the smoking room in the bathroom
in junior high school. They didn't even have the smell
of smoke on them. All they lost were the wreaths that bound them.
That's all. That's all. And sons and daughters
of God, whatever your adversity, whatever the fire, whatever the
trouble, painful as it may be now. When it's done its work,
all you will lose are the binding wreaths of unbelief. That's all. That's all. Nothing else. Nothing else. Thou
wilt ordain peace for us. Thou hast wrought all our works
in us oh what debtors we are to God how faithful how faithful he
is I admire in men and women nothing
like I admire faithfulness Like I admire faithfulness. I pastor
some folks who are faithful. As faithful as the day is long. Faithful. Most of you wouldn't
know them because you don't see them and you don't hear them.
Faithful as the day is long. I don't care whether we have
services on Sunday morning or Sunday night or Tuesday night.
Our weather says we'll have them today at 1 o'clock and next week
we'll have service Thursday. Doesn't matter. I don't care
whether it's raining or snowing or sunshine. I don't care whether
there's a ballgame going on or there's no ballgame going on.
Doors open, there they come. There they come. I just, I know
as well they're going to be there as I know that woman sitting
right there is going to be there. I just, I know. It's called faithful.
Faithful. Whatever it is they can do, they
may not say a word, but you see their hands sticking in there,
they're doing it. They're doing it. Nobody beating them, nobody
begging them, they're just doing what they can do. I admire faithfulness. Just dogged faithfulness. Faithfulness, that means you
can depend on. I don't have any idea how many
people you got working for you, but I'll guarantee you, if you've
got any faithful employees, I'm talking about men you can just
flat depend on. Whatever it takes to keep them,
that's what they get. How come? Because faithfulness
is as rare among men as hen's teeth. And there's nothing about
God I more admire than his faithfulness. and I have proved it now for
51 years. He abideth faithful, faithful. And it is God which worketh in
us to will and do of his good pleasure so that this work by
which we admire him This work by which we believe Him. This
work by which we walk with Him in peace. This work called faith,
that's His work in us. We believe Him because He gives
us faith. And we continue believing Him
because He continues working faith in us. We continue in the
faith because He continues in grace. All the gifts of grace. are gifts of God. Love, joy,
peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, meekness, faith. These
are God's gifts, God's gifts worked in us. Now, look at verses
13 through 18. And review all your past. O Lord our God, other lords beside
thee have had dominion over us. But by thee only will we make
mention of thy name. They are dead, those other fellas
who had dominion over us. You remember Pharaoh. You remember
Nebuchadnezzar. They had dominion over us, but
they're dead now. They're dead. They shall not
live. They are deceased. They shall
not rise. That means they're dead, they're
dead, they're dead. They're dead! I can't bother
you. and therefore hast thou visited
and destroyed them and made all their memory to perish. Thou
hast increased the nation. You built your church, O Lord.
Thou hast increased the nation. Thou art glorified in spite of
all our enemies, in spite of Pharaoh, in spite of the Egyptians,
in spite of Nebuchadnezzar, in spite of Babylon. You've built
the nation. Thou art glorified. Thou hast
removed it far unto all the ends of the earth. This nation they
sought to destroy. You've caused it to spread to the four corners
of the earth. Lord, in trouble have they visited thee. They
poured out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them. Your
church, your people scattered through all the four corners
of the earth. like as a woman with child that draweth near
the time of her delivery and is in pain. She, the church,
me, you, crieth out in her pains. So we have been in thy sight,
O Lord. We have been with child. We have
been in pain. We have wept and prayed and cried
and wrestled with God and we brought forth wind. What a statement of our impotence,
what an honest statement. What do we get for all our trouble?
We brought forth wind. We have not wrought any deliverance
in the earth. Neither have the inhabitants
of the world fallen. Whatever you think about the
history of God's church, or the history of your own life, or
the lives of God's elect together, Let us remember that our foes
are dead. They're behind us. Let us remember that those foes
being dead cannot harm us. I don't know why we have such
a terrible fear of graveyards. Growing up, if you want to scare
somebody, take them down to the cemetery Turn all the lights
off in the cars, drive off and leave the fellas. It's just scared
to death. Just scared to death. I recall
when I was working in a hospital out in Springfield, Missouri,
I was a janitor and I had to clean up the morgue a lot. And one
day I got on the elevator, had my mop bucket and the other stuff
in my cart with me, and somebody came up from the morgue. I'm
sorry, they were going down to the morgue and they had a stiff
thing covered up. I knew it was a dead body, it
had his face covered up. He's laying there, and I'm standing
up beside that dead body. I'm a grown man, 18 years old, and
I'm looking at that dead body. And suddenly, when that elevator
stopped at the next floor, that dead man's arm hit me on
the thigh, just like that. I about jumped out the top of
that elevator, as if that dead man could bother me. He did. He's dead. Satan, that roaring
lion, goes about there seeking whom he may devour. But he ain't
got any fangs. And he ain't got any claws. And
he's on a chain. And he's on a chain held by the
hand of God, my Savior. All he can do is roar. That's all I see. I see it. I see it. I have to deal with it all the
time. But it's a dead thing. Read Romans
chapter 6 and 7. It's a dead thing. It's a dead
thing. It can't harm me. God's law. His holy law. It's a dead thing. Christ is the end of the law.
It can't harm me. I'm dead to the law. That makes
the law dead to me. It can't harm me. We are kept
in Christ. Now remember where the Lord found
you. He dug you out of the hole of
the pit. He healed you from a rock. fallen humanity. Remember his
goodness to you and trust in the Lord forever. Remember what
the Lord has done for you by his grace. Verse 14, they are
dead, they shall not live. They are deceased, they shall
not rise. Therefore hast thou visited and
destroyed them and made all their memory to perish. Always remember, salvation is
God's work. Eternal salvation, the eternal
covenant, redemption at Calvary, the new birth, preserving grace,
grace today, grace tomorrow, and grace to come. This is God's
work. Look at verse 15. Thou hast increased
the nation, O Lord, That is, you built your church. Thou hast
increased the nation. You built your kingdom. Thou
art glorified. Thou hast removed it far unto
all the ends of the earth. And by this, God glorifies himself. You see, the building of God's
church, the building of God's kingdom, is done in such a way
by such feeble instruments, we have this treasure in earthen
vessels, that the excellency, the power, and the glory might
be of God. God builds his church in such
a way that nobody gets credit but him. Nobody is honored for
it but him. We like to brag on preachers
and how successful they are. God builds his church, not preachers. God builds his church, not church
planters. God builds his church. Verse
16, Lord, in trouble have they visited thee. They poured out
a prayer when thy chastening was upon them. But again, all
we brought forth would just win. because we can't revive ourselves,
and we can't overcome our enemies. All we can do is cry, turn me,
and I shall be turned, draw me, and I will run after thee. The
history of God's church and the history of our souls is a history
of grace, pure, free grace. It's described by our God like
this. I am the Lord, I change not. Therefore you sons of Jacob
are not consumed. Then in verse 19 he makes a promise.
Thy dead men shall live together with my dead body shall they
arise. It looks like somebody else is
talking there doesn't it? It looks like somebody just butted
into the conversation. You're exactly right. These are the
words of our Redeemer. Thy dead men, the dead men of
God's church, this lamenting, poor, distressed church, this
church crying out and can't bring anything forth but win. Thy dead
men shall live together with my dead body, shall they rise. That's talking about the new
birth, the first resurrection. That's talking about our resurrection
with Christ when he died and rose again as our representative
and we rose again with him. And that's talking about the
final resurrection at the last day. Awake and sing, ye that
dwell in the dust. For thy dew is as the dew of
herbs. And the earth shall cast out
the dead. What a statement. What a hope,
what a prospect. Awake and sing, you who dwell
in the dust of the earth. Soon the earth is gonna spit
out her dead, just like the whale spit out Jonah. The earth is
gonna spit out her dead. The earth spits out her dead
as the gospel is preached and God calls them by his grace.
And in the last day, the earth will spit out her dead when the
trump of God shall sound and the dead in Christ rise to the
everlasting glory of God. And then the chapter ends with
a call, a call of mercy. Come, my people. Come into the ark. Noah, it's time. Come into the
ark. Come in. Come in, my people,
enter thou into thy chambers. Enter into the rock of safety,
Christ Jesus. Enter into the chamber of your
closet and shut the door behind you. Come in here, just me and
you, come in here. Shut thy doors about thee, that's
a good place to be. Just you and God. Best company
in the world, just me and God. Hide thyself, as it were, for
a little moment, for a little moment. To the indignation be
overpassed. Hide yourself for just a little
bit. Hide in the place of refuge and
be comfortable. When Athanasius was banished
from Alexander by Julian the Emperor, And his friends greatly
lamented his exile, his persecution. Athanasius urged his friends
to be of good cheer with these words. It is a little cloud that
will soon blow over. It's just a little cloud. It'll
soon blow over. Whatever your trouble, whatever
your sorrow, Whatever your pain, whatever your adversity, child
of God, it's just a little cloud. It'll be gone in the morning.
It will soon blow over. Verse 21, in the end, our God will reckon
with our enemies and we will observe his judgment. For behold,
the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of
the earth for their iniquity. God's coming in judgment. The
earth also shall disclose her blood. The earth will rise up
in judgment against all who have opposed God's church, his people,
and shall no more cover her slaves. Turn to 1 Corinthians 4, and
I'll wrap this up. 1 Corinthians 4. When Christ comes again, from
the throne of mercy to the throne of judgment, he will punish the
inhabitants of the earth, and God will reveal the secrets of
man. In the day of judgment, there's
not going to be a day when the books are balanced and see who
comes out all right. The Day of Judgment is not a
court appearance. The Day of Judgment is an announcement. It will be God revealing the
righteousness of all His elect and revealing the wickedness
of all the damned. Revealing the rightness of His
grace to His elect and the rightness of His judgment upon the damned.
And I'm perfectly happy to wait for that day. You probably are unaware of this.
I get a lot of folks who, I know this will be astonishing to you,
some people don't like me. And they yak a lot, make a lot
of accusations, a lot of slander. I'll tell you how I respond to
them. I'll tell you how I always respond to them. As long as God
continues to give me grace, I don't. I don't. I don't attempt to defend
myself. I don't attempt to explain things.
I don't attempt to defend myself against accusations of men. I
figure if somebody comes and tells Larry Criss some horrible
thing about me, he knows me about as well as they do. He can either
say, well, I kind of expected that from Don. Or he can say,
no, that's not Don. And if he wants to, he can call
me up and say, Don, did you do that? And I'll tell him, I'll say,
well, no, I didn't do that. Or I might say, yes, I'm afraid
I did. Or I might just say, it's none
of your business. But I don't defend myself. I just don't do
it. What do you do? 1 Corinthians chapter 4. Let
a man so account of me as the minister of Christ, as steward
of the mysteries of God. Moreover it is required in stewards
that a man be found faithful. Faithful in study, faithful to
God, faithful in prayer, faithful in preaching, faithful in labor,
faithful to God's people, faithful to the gospel. But with me It
is a very small thing that I should be judged of you or of man's
judgment. Yea, I judge not mine own self. For I know nothing by myself,
yet am I not hereby justified. But he that judgeth me is the
Lord. Therefore judge nothing before
the time until the Lord come. Who both will bring to light
the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels
of the heart, then shall every man have his praise of God. Truly, O Lord our God, our rock,
thou wilt ordain peace for us, for thou hast wrought all our
works in us. Thou art glorified. I want nothing more. Thou art
glorified. I desire nothing more. Thou art
glorified. And I'm going to have what I
want. Thou art glorified. Amen.