Well, our meditation this morning
will be in Isaiah chapter 41. And my text is verse four, though
we'll be looking at most of the first 20 verses. It's a question
from God. Who hath wrought and done it? Who's done it? Calling the generations
from the beginning. Who has done this? In Isaiah
41, God challenges you and me. And in summary, this is how Matthew
Henry put it. It's like when Elijah was challenging
the people on Mount Carmel. If Jehovah, if the true God,
the God of the Bible, is truly God, then follow him wholly. And if Satan, and Baal, and all
false religion, all that that calls itself Christianity, but
we know is false, if that's what you fancy following, then follow
that. But, fundamentally, stop sitting
on the fence. Stop trying to have a foot in
both camps. Stop trying to run with the hare,
and to run with the hounds, as they say. Choose you this day
whom you will serve. Just look with me at 1 Kings
18. Hear how Elijah put it to the people. He gathered the people
on Mount Carmel. He gathered them there to see
who is the Lord, because Israel had gone over completely to the
worship of Baal. And it was completely false.
And there was three and a half years of drought. And then he
comes to King Ahab, that wicked king, and his wicked wife Jezebel.
And he says, gather Israel to me. at Mount Carmel. Mount Carmel
was a big block of land that stuck out into the sea, very
prominent, surrounded by sea on three sides of it, and on
the top of it, there they were gathered together on Mount Carmel.
And Elijah came unto all the people and said, verse 21, How
long halt ye between two opinions? How long are you going to sit
on the fence, you people? If the Lord be God, then follow
him. What else would you logically,
reasonably do? If to you the Lord is God, then
surely you must bow before Him and follow Him. But if Baal,
then follow him. You know, reasonable, isn't it?
A reasonable question. And the people answered him,
not a word. Then said Elijah unto the people,
I, even I only, remain a prophet of the Lord, but Baal's prophets
are 450 men. Let them therefore give us two
bullocks, and let them choose one bullock for themselves and
cut it in pieces. and lay it on the wood, and put
no fire under, and I will dress the other bullock, and lay it
on the wood, and put no fire under, and call ye on the name
of your gods, and I will call on the name of the Lord. And
the God that answereth by fire, let him be God. And all the people
answered and said, that's a good idea. That's well spoken. Yes,
we'll go along with that. Or as Joshua did in Joshua 24. In Joshua 24 and verse 15, he
says to them, you've come out of Egypt. We've come into the
promised land. You've taken over the promised
land. You've each of you got your lot of the land of Israel. Now, are you going to serve God
or are you going back to the idols that you worshiped on the
way? the idols of the people that are all around. And they're
all saying, no, no, no, we will, we will. And he says, verse 15,
he says, if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, You know,
is it seeming like a bad thing? You are the people of God. You
are the people that God has brought out of Egypt. Is it seeming to
you evil to serve the Lord? He said, choose you this day
whom you will serve. Make up your mind. You know,
this isn't an Arminian call, but this is the call to the people
of God. If God is God, then serve him
as God. whether the gods which your fathers
served that were on the other side of the flood you know the
idols that they served or the gods of the Amorites that were
all around you in whose land you dwell because you've come
into their land but then this is what he says this is the testimony
of the true servant of God but as for me and my house we will
serve the Lord This is Joshua, head of his house. He says, you
choose you this day whom you will serve, but as for me and
my house, we will serve the Lord. That's the challenge that God
puts before us in Isaiah 41. You see, people in our day today
are debating Brexit, you know, Britain leaving the European
Union, coming out of the European Union. And the country is very
evenly divided between those that are vehemently for coming
out of the European Union and those that are passionately in
favour of staying in the European Union. And the country is polarised
right down the middle and people debate it all day long, though
I suspect that the vast majority of us, with the news as it is
going on and on and on, we're all heartily sick of hearing
about it. It's the sort of thing like, I do not turn the news
bulletins on because I'm fed up of hearing about Brexit. People
debate Brexit. Are you for it or against it?
Well, here's a much more important question. Are you for the kingdom
of Antichrist? Because that's this world in
which we live. Or are you for the kingdom of God? God invites
us to come together and judge the case. Look in verse 1. Verse
1 of chapter 41. Keep silence before me, O islands,
and let the people renew their strength. Let them come near
and let them speak. Let us come near together to
judgment. There, God is saying, come on,
let's discuss it. God is saying, let us come together
and discuss it. It's just as he said in chapter
one of Isaiah, in verse 18, he said, come now and let us reason
together, saith the Lord, though your sins be as scarlet, yet
they shall be as white as snow. Come now and let us reason together.
Now in these 20 verses of Isaiah 41, and for the sake of time
we have to limit it, we could have gone on because the rest
of the chapter's in very much the same vein. I want us to look
at firstly the context, then I want to look at God's challenge,
God's question, then I want to note fallen man's response, then
I want to note God's call to his people, and finally his promise
to his people. So, a lot to get through. Context. First of all, the context. Remember,
You have to go back to Isaiah 39 to realize or to remember
the context and it's the days of Hezekiah and we're talking
about 700 plus years before Christ came. And Hezekiah was a good
king on the whole, he was a good king but he acted very foolishly
in his last days. He'd been sick near to death
and he prayed to God to take the sickness from him and God
granted him 15 years but you know as they say, be careful
you might get what you wish for and his last 15 years Rather
than his life being cut short and him going to glory, to be
with Christ, which as Paul said is far better, he granted him
15 years. And in those 15 years, the most
wicked king of Judah was born. His son, Manasseh, was born. And Hezekiah lost his judgment
in many ways. And he invited to the court at
Jerusalem representatives from the king of Babylon. And he showed
him all the treasures. And the prophet Isaiah came to
him and said, what did you show him? He said, I showed him absolutely
everything. And Isaiah said, here's the message from God.
That was a very foolish thing to do. All of these treasures
will be in the temple of the gods of the Babylonian king,
because you're going away into exile. Judah is going away into
exile. Why? As a punishment from God. He'd always promised it. From
the moment he brought them into the land, he promised them that
if they followed the idols of the people, he would bring them
under bondage and slavery to others. And for that, idolatry. And what is idolatry? It's worshipping
of false gods. Not just gods on totem poles,
not just gods that are little icons in temples, not just gods
of robes and fancy religious things, but idols in the mind. false views of things that are
not subject and not in conformance to the Word of God, for it's
the Word of God that is the truth. If they speak not according to
this Word, says Isaiah 8 20, if they speak not according to
this Word, there is no light, there is no truth in them. And
they were punished for that idolatry. They were promised punishment.
But in the midst of it, in chapter 40, is the promise of gospel
comfort for the elect remnant. For the people of God who would
be troubled by that certainty of judgment coming, there was
the promise of gospel comfort. Comfort ye, comfort my people,
says your God. Sins taken away, sins atoned
for. There's the comfort of the promise
of salvation, which is salvation accomplished. God is coming to
accomplish salvation, says that chapter, chapter 40 of Isaiah,
as we saw it last week. Now, translate that context of
those days, 700 plus years BC, to the day in which we live.
The world in which we live, you need to understand this, you
need to bear it in mind constantly. The world in which we live with
its bright lights and its philosophy and its technology and all of
these things is the kingdom of Antichrist. It's Satan's kingdom. The prince of this world, Jesus
called him. And it's destined for certain
judgment and for certain destruction. For the word of God says it,
clearly, throughout the scriptures. It not only says it, but God
at periods of history showed that he does what he says. So
in the flood, he said he would destroy all flesh, and he did,
apart from the eight that were in the ark. At Sodom and Gomorrah,
he said he would destroy everything there for their wickedness. And
he did, as soon as Lot and his two daughters were taken out
of there, he destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. He has done this
at times in the past. He spoke to the people in the
wilderness wanderings. In speaking to them, He showed
them the way of truth and of light, and they treated it lightly. Some of them did. The sons of
Korah treated it lightly and thought that they could come
to God in their own way. And the earth opened up and swallowed
them up. God shows that He does what He says regarding judgment. And that kingdom in which we
live is the kingdom of Antichrist, which is destined for certain
judgment and destruction. And against it is set, right
from the fall, is the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is
the kingdom of the people of God, the people that God calls
out of the darkness of the kingdom of Satan into His marvelous light. And He's promised eternal glory.
And how is that eternal glory secured? How is it Established? It's established by the coming
and the doing and the dying of the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ,
for all his people. The promised Messiah would come,
and by what he did, he would secure eternal glory. The promise
of it. He would certainly secure the
righteousness of it, for he who knew no sin was made sin for
us, that we his people might be made the righteousness of
God in him. Follow righteousness, holiness,
without which no man shall see the Lord. Where do you follow
it? Follow Christ. Follow Christ. If you follow
Christ, you have the righteousness of God. And it's the same throughout
history, from the fall in Eden, of Satan striving to establish
a unified world in opposition to the justice, the divine justice,
the righteousness of God. God's kingdom, always there,
never ever quite being destroyed, right till the end when it will
be triumphant. You know in the dream that Nebuchadnezzar
had, you know when Daniel interpreted the dream for him, and he saw
this great statue, and it had a gold head, and it had silver
shoulders and breast, and then it had a bronze midriff, and
then it had iron legs. And it was a picture of the kingdoms,
the great kingdoms of this world, by which Satan seeks to try to
unify. Down history, Satan has always
sought to try to unify the peoples of this world in opposition to
God. He did it at the Tower of Babel,
and he failed. He did it with the Egyptian empire,
and he failed. With the Assyrians, and he failed.
With the Babylonians, and he failed. With the Persians, and
he failed. With the Greeks, and he failed. With the Romans, and
he failed. He failed always. And in that
dream of Nebuchadnezzar, he saw a little rock, a little rock
made without hands. And that little stone came and
crushed to powder all the kingdoms of the world. Do you know what
that signifies? The kingdom of God is triumphant. The kingdom
of God comes and overcomes everything that is in this world. Now God
has a challenge, and that challenge was then 700 years before Christ,
that challenge is today exactly the same. Verse 4, Who has wrought
and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? Who is it
that has done this, calling his people out of Satan's kingdom
into his own kingdom? And the answer is there in verse
4. Look, I the Lord, the first and
with the last, I am He. This is who has done it. The
true God has done it. And in that question, who has
done it, he's saying, who has done this? And there's a kind
of a, well, so what, if you decide right? Well, this is the so what.
There's an implicit challenge there. If God really is true,
then step forward, I don't mean like Billy Graham crusades, but
step forward in your heart, trust him and follow him wholly. Do you know what was the testimony
of Caleb, who was the compatriot of Joshua in those days? Caleb
had followed the Lord holy. That's what the scripture recorded
about Caleb. He had followed the Lord, not
half-heartedly, but wholly, completely, fully followed the Lord. And
the challenge, the same challenge, goes out down the ages. Right
at the very beginning, after the fall, Abel, the second son
of Adam and Eve, Abel heard the call of God and followed. Cain,
his brother, disagreed and rebelled. Cain disagreed. Cain rebelled
against the justice of God. Cain thought he was all right
on his own. Noah heard and built an ark. He heard the call of
God and built an ark. The world, the rest of the world,
heard him preaching righteousness for 120 years while the ark was
being built and the world rebelled. and the world drowned, and in
a day God swept them all away. After the flood, the sons of
Noah, even those that went into the ark with him, Shem, Ham,
and Japheth, and Shem and Japheth heard the call of God and followed,
but Ham, And those that followed him, Nimrod, that rebellious
panther, says the scripture of him, they rebelled and sought
to establish the kingdom of Antichrist, as they did at the Tower of Babel.
They were seeking to establish a unified world that didn't need
the justice of God. And that's why God came down
and confounded the languages there at Babel. You know, we
now talk about when there's a load of unintelligible speech, we
say, gosh, what a babble, what a babble, what a babel in here,
what a confusion of speech. And God did that. God did that
to frustrate Satan's kingdom. After this, Abraham heard the
call of God and followed, but his idolatrous family remained
in rebellion. We read that at the end of Joshua's
book as well, about Abraham's relatives being idolaters. They
were idolaters and they rebelled and they stayed, but Abraham
heard the call and came. And all down The Hebrews 11,
you know Hebrews 11 is the chapter of faith, by faith so-and-so
did this, by faith so-and-so did that. All the way down the
people of that chapter of the epistle to the Hebrews, we read
the same thing, of those that heard, not of their own merit,
but by the grace of God, they heard the call of the gospel
of grace. When in the eternity of God,
The book that John saw in Revelation, that was on the hand of God,
and it was a seven-sealed book. And who was worthy to open the
seals of the book? And none was found worthy, and
he wept much. And one of the elders said, don't
weep, look, look, look, behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah
has prevailed to open the seals of the book. Who's the Lion of
the tribe of Judah? He's Christ. He's the manifestation of God
to his people. He has triumphed to open the
seals of the book. And I looked, said John. And
what did he see? Did he see a lion? No. He saw,
as it were, a lamb that had been slain. Because only in the capacity
of a lamb that is slain is the justice of God for sin established. Do you see that? Do you see why
it's so important? Behold the Lamb of God who takes
away the sins of the world. And when he then is proven to
have the authority to unleash, to unfold the plan of God to
establish His kingdom by the unleashing of the seals and of
the trumpets and of the vials of wrath, right the way through
Revelation. The first one is the Gospel, the white horse of
the Gospel rides forth in history with a challenge which says,
who has done it? Calling the generations from
the beginning. God has done it. I, the Lord,
have done it. Now look, You say, well, if God
is so powerful, why don't they all believe Him? But look at
verses 5 to 7. The isles saw it. The isles,
the Gentile nations, saw it and feared. The ends of the earth
were afraid. We don't want this. We don't
want this gospel of God. We don't want this truth of God. Think how it's going to constrain
us. Think how it's going to tie us up. Think how it's going to
bind us to what this God wants us to do. No, they were afraid. The ends of the earth were afraid.
And they helped everyone his neighbor. And everyone said to
his brother, be of good courage. We can get out of this. We can
overcome this. So the carpenter encouraged the goldsmith, and
he that smootheth with the hammer, him that smote the anvil, saying,
It is ready for the soldering, and he fastened it with nails,
that it should not be moved. Idolatry. You see, they slipped
immediately into refusal of God and idolatry, more inclined to
heed Satan's call and the false gospel of the false prophet than
divine truth. What seems to natural man to
be reasonable is that message of the Kingdom of Antichrist,
that there is no need for the strict justice of God, that we
can have some form of eternal happiness without the justice
of God established. There is no need in that message
for blood redemption. Hence Cain, and Nimrod, and Abraham's
idolatrous relatives, and Judah in the time of Isaiah, and the
Jews in the New Testament days, and The Pharisees saw all of
Tarsus before he was brought to Christ in repentance and faith
in conversion when God arrested him. And the Roman Empire, as
it was, all of it was ganging up, as it were, against the kingdom
of God, as the gospel spread, as the apostle Paul preached
and the other apostles. And it says in the scriptures
that they turned the world upside down. This was the testimony
of non-believers. These people have turned the
world upside down. They've spoiled everything that
we had going on. In verse 5, they feared, they
were afraid. And right up to today, it goes
on. Why such rejection of such powerful
reasoning from God? The Gospel of God is perfectly
rational and reasonable. It really is. They'll say, no
it isn't. It's irrational to believe in
God. I tell you, it is overwhelmingly more irrational not to believe
in God. Who else put it together? Who else did it? What else did
it? Can anything else do it? Of course
it can't. It's absolute stupid foolishness
to say that it can. It can't. The reason is they
did not want to retain God in their knowledge. Why did they
not want to retain God in their knowledge? Because the natural
man cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God. Why? They're
foolishness to him. Then neither can he know them.
Why can't he know them? Because they're Now, here we
come to sovereign grace. They're spiritually discerned.
Except you be born again, said Jesus to Nicodemus. Except you
be born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God. All you can
see is the kingdom of Satan. Unless you're ordained to eternal
life, you will not believe the gospel. For in Acts 13, 48, those
that were ordained to eternal life believed when the apostles
preached. That's man's natural response,
which is a response of rejection. But God calls his people, effectually. God calls his people. In 1 Peter
chapter 2 verse 9, writing to them, Peter says, and this is
what he says to all believers, you are a chosen generation. You are a chosen generation.
Which means what? It means that God sovereignly,
of his own volition, for no other reason than he wanted to, and
he is God, chose some for salvation and the others he passed by and
left them alone. He says you are a royal priesthood,
royal, made that by grace, by God. He said you are a holy nation. We're sinners, but no, he said
you are a holy nation. You are a peculiar people. I
know lots of people We'll call us peculiar people for believing
this, but that's what God calls us, His specially set-apart people. That you should show forth the
praises, listen, of Him who has called you out of darkness into
His marvellous light. It's the call of God. Who has
wrought and done it? Calling the generations from
the beginning, I the Lord. the first and the last, I am
He that has done it, that has called. God is the one who calls
the people of His sovereign choice into the light of His kingdom.
In verse 2, we see Him and I think it primarily referring to Abraham,
because we can see that in a moment, who raised up the righteous man
from the east, and called him to his foot, and gave the nations
before him, and made him rule over kings, and gave them as
dust to his sword. If you look down in verse 8,
it says, Thou Israel art my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the
seed of Abraham, my friend. He's speaking primarily, historically,
about calling Abraham out of darkness into his marvelous light.
How is Abraham the righteous man? Abraham believed God, and
it was accounted to him. for righteousness. Was it Abraham's
act of believing that was accounted to him for righteousness? No.
What was it that was accounted to him for righteousness? It
was what he believed in. What was accounted to him for
righteousness was the doing and dying of the Lord Jesus Christ,
who would come. The Lamb, as Revelation 13.8
says, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. In other
words, in eternity outside of time, it's already done. It's
already as good as done. In time Christ had to come to
fulfill all righteousness, but outside of time in eternity,
it's as good as done. On the basis of the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world, Abraham was made righteous by
faith. He was made righteous by the
faith of Christ. And God gave him belief, and
he believed God. And it was counted, what he believed
in was counted to him for righteousness. He's the man from the east. He
called him to his foot. He called and Abraham heard and
came out. Not the rest of his family, just
him and the immediate ones with him. And he gave the nations
before him. He made him rule over kings.
Oh yes he did. when he went to rescue Lot from
the war that was going on. Just 318, I don't know, somebody
will correct me, but not many, just a handful of people went
and fought the battle with those kings. And that was when Melchizedek
came to him. And Melchizedek, I believe, is
a manifestation of Christ. I struggle to see how it can
be anybody else. And he came and met with him. And there,
when Abraham met with Melchizedek, he showed him all the aspects
of the gospel, of the gospel of grace, bread and wine. It's
symbolizing communion, isn't it, almost? Back there, right
back in the days of Abraham. Abraham, he called, he showed
him his truth, he gave the nations as dust to his sword. That's
exactly what happened historically. But it's not just Abraham, it's
all the people descended from him by faith. Do you know, do
you believe the gospel of God's grace? Do you count yourself
a child of God? Well I'm telling you, if you
count yourself a child of God, then you are a descendant of
Abraham by faith. Not physically, obviously, but
you have the same faith as Abraham. Galatians 3.29 says, and if ye
be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and
heirs according to the promise. If you're Christ's, if you're
a child of God in Christ, believing in him, you're Abraham's seed,
you have the same faith that Abraham had. We who believe the
gospel of accomplished redemption, that Christ has done it all,
he's finished it, we who have God's spirit within by regeneration,
we are the true people of God, and these are who God calls. Who is the circumcision? Not
those who are Jews outwardly. Not those who are Jews by what
they claim to be descent from the ancient people of God. No,
not at all. We are the true circumcision,
says Paul. We worship God in the Spirit. We rejoice in Christ
Jesus. and we have no confidence in
the flesh, none whatsoever. This verse too could equally
describe Paul. He's a man from the east of the
Roman Empire who was made righteous by the faith of Jesus Christ.
Abraham subdued kings, so did Paul. When Paul went before King
Agrippa, King Agrippa. Paul testified before King Agrippa. Herod wanted to hear what he
had to say as well. And when he's preached, a gripper
said, Paul, you've almost persuaded me to be a Christian. He subdued
kings, it says. Who did it? Who called? God did,
the only true God. Verse 4, I, the Lord, the first
and the last, do you have the eye of faith to see God as such? If so, then follow Him. Holy, is that not what he's saying?
Unlike the generality of unbelieving mankind, look at verse 8, you,
unlike them who rejected with their idolatry, but thou, Israel,
and he's speaking to all Israel, the Israel of God. You are my
servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham, my friend. God calls a man his friend. God
calls his people in Christ, the detainants of Abraham, his friends. He calls us his friends. Jesus
said, I call you no longer servants, but I call you my friends, for
he makes known to his friends the secrets of his heart. That's
what God does in Christ. Thou whom I have taken from the
ends of the earth. God calls a people without any
distinction of nationality, or of race, or of language. He calls
thee from the chief men thereof, and said unto thee, Thou art
my servant, I have chosen thee, and cast thee not away. God calls
his people. Has God called you? If you're
a believer, he has. He's called you. You're amongst
his chosen people to serve him, to be his friend, called by sovereign
grace from every tribe and kindred, called to embrace the salvation
secured by Christ. And he makes a promise to his
people. And it's a glorious promise.
In the rest of the verses, 10 down to 20. Verse 10, God's presence,
his strength, his help, his support, all rooted in his righteousness.
Look at it there. Verse 10, fear thou not. For
I am with thee. This is what God says to his
people. Be not dismayed, for I am thy God. I will strengthen
you. Yea, I will help you. Yea, I
will uphold you with the right hand of my righteousness. Behold,
all those that were incensed against you shall be ashamed
and confounded. They shall be as nothing. They
that strive with you shall perish. All the kingdom of Antichrist
is going, it's going to come to an end. You shall seek them,
the day will come, you'll seek them and you'll not find them,
even them that contended with you. They that war against you
shall be as nothing, and for a thing of naught. For I, the
Lord thy God, will hold thy right hand. Do you know what it's like
when you're a little child? You know when, Isaac will know
this, when we go out into busy traffic, it's nice to hold Daddy's
hand, isn't it? You feel safe when you hold Daddy's
hand, because he won't let you run out in the traffic, will
he? He won't let you get run over. He'd like to do that. God
says to his people, I, the Lord thy God, will hold thy right
hand, saying unto thee, fear not, I will help thee. Fear not,
thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel, I will help thee, saith
the Lord, and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. Let's just
stop a moment there. Oh, how How wonderful is this
salvation of God, of His people, the calling of them, the keeping
of them, the preserving of them, the showing them His way, the
keeping them from evil all around, from those who oppose God in
all things. You know, this fallen world,
it's like Psalm 2 says, why do the nations so furiously rage
together against the Lord and against his anointed? The kingdoms
of this world, they rage in fury against God. They despise the
truth of God. And they imagine a vain thing
against the Lord and against His anointed. And they say, let
us break their bands from us. Let us loose these shackles that
God has put on us. Let us be free of this. Let us
be free of this God and His Christ. We don't want anything to do
with it. And it says, he that sits in the heavens shall laugh
them to scorn. The Lord shall have them in derision,
because the Lord is God. He is triumphant over all. Whatever
seems to be the case with this world in which we live, God's
kingdom is triumphant, and God's kingdom will triumph, and God's
kingdom will be the only kingdom in the end. God's kingdom. He
sustains his people through all trials of life. And though you
are only a worm, Jacob, this is the people that he calls Jacob,
He makes them men of Israel. He makes you princes with God. He makes you as the apple of
His eye, as His special thing, as His jewels, He calls His people
in Malachi, His jewels. God treasures His people and
He calls them, those sinners, He makes them princes with God.
And He says, I will help thee. Look, look who says it, the Lord,
the Lord. Do you notice in your Bible,
that is in small capitals, Well that's denoting Jehovah, God
the Father, the Eternal Father, who dwells in unapproachable
light that no man can see. Our God will help us. God who
no man can see or know, who dwells in unapproachable light. So how
are we going to know Him? And thy Redeemer. And thy Redeemer. am thy Redeemer. The Redeemer,
Christ. The purchaser is what that means.
The one who pays the price to purchase. You are bought with
a price, says Paul. You're not your own, you are
bought with a price. Who paid the price? Christ paid
the price. What was the price? The precious blood, as of a lamb
without blemish and without spot. Christ, the Redeemer. Who will
help us? The unknowable God. in the person of his son, the
Redeemer. Thy Redeemer, thy Redeemer, I will help you. He's the one
who's satisfied offended justice for his people by taking your
place. Remember how Philip said, we
want to see the Father? How can I see the Father? I can't,
no man can see the Father and live. How can I see God? Throughout
the Old Testament we read that you cannot see God and live,
and yet again and again we read of people seeing God. Who did
they see? They saw the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the manifestation
of God to the people of God. If I come by Christ, as Jesus
said to Philip, have I been so long with you, Philip, and you
have not known me? He who has seen me has seen the Father.
Charles Spurgeon put it like this, I thought this was very
good, he said, as a believer, as a child of God, I could not
drink from the well of God if God had not provided the earthen
vessel of Christ his Son for me. Isn't that good? There's
a deep well of the unknowable attributes of God And I, a fallen
creature, could not drink from that well had God not provided
an earthenware pot for me to drink. And that earthenware pot
is Christ. Christ. And how does he make
him known to me now? How do I know him now? Because
he's gone back to glory. How do I know him now? Look.
And the Holy One of Israel. The Holy One of Israel? The Holy
Spirit. Jesus said, if I go not away,
I and my Father will not send the Comforter to you. But if
I go away, we will send him to you. And he will call to mind
all things. He will teach you of me. He will
show you the things of the truth of the gospel of grace, the Holy
One, the Spirit of God. He says where two or three are
gathered together in his name, he is there in the midst. How
is he there in the midst? by His Spirit, taking of the
things of Christ. And He, the Spirit, reveals them
to the people of God in our hearts. The Holy Spirit, who is sent
by the Father and Son into His people's hearts for strength,
for comfort, for assurance, to take of the things of Christ
and reveal them. This is what He says. In verse
9 of chapter 40, it says, say to the cities of Judah, behold
your God. Look at your God. Look at your
God. How am I going to look at God?
I look in Christ. I look at Christ, and by faith
given by the Holy Spirit, I see the fundamental essence of God
in the Trinity of His persons. And I see Him as my friend, as
He was to Abraham. I see Him as the one who has
called me out of darkness into His marvelous light. I see Him
as the one who promises me that I need not fear, for He is with
me, and He will strengthen me, and He will uphold me, and that
He will be with me, and with all His people. He's so clearly
promised. So that we can look at Romans
8, 31 to 39, if we had time, I won't do it now, but you know
what it says? If God before us, who can be against us? What can
possibly be against us? Can you imagine, in the darkest
periods of history, can you imagine a believer facing the gravest
threat, say in the days of Hitler, in the 1930s, facing the gravest
threat and knowing, God, my father is with me, I need not fear.
The believer who now, like our friends in America, facing an
unpleasant death, from a brain cancer at an untimely age, too
young for that, we would say. And how can they face it? How
can they face it with such resolve? They've heard the voice of God.
Fear not. I am with you. Be not dismayed. Be not dismayed. He's with his
people. You read on the following verses
and you see the prosperity and its spiritual prosperity. He's
promising to those who are on his side, in his army, against
Satan's kingdom. He is a constant presence. He
is an ever-open ear to prayer. I, the Lord, will hear them,
he says. Do you know that, child of God?
Child of God, God says, I, the Lord, will hear them. I, the
God of Israel, the God of His covenant people, will not forsake
them. I will be with them. His ear
ever, ever open to prayer. Spiritual prosperity in a barren
land is what it's speaking of, all these pictures of all these
trees and fertility. It's talking of spiritual prosperity. Do you see by faith? how utterly
one-sided is the contest between God and Satan. It doesn't appear
like that to the world. It doesn't appear like that to
the eye of flesh, but to the eye of faith. Believing what
God has told us, you see how effectual, how getting the job
done is the salvation that He has accomplished for His people.
If so, Why would you hesitate to wholeheartedly commit to his
service? Choose you, this day, whom you
will serve. But as for me and my house, we
will serve the Lord. Amen.