And the year that Shelby and
I were engaged, I went to school out in Springfield, Missouri,
and we didn't see each other but twice that year, at Thanksgiving
and then again at Christmas. And then I drove home and we
were married in June, just a few days after I got home. But we
wrote every day and called every day. I did the best I could to
quote her when I was a long ways off and I wrote frequently. I think probably more often than
anything else, somewhere in the letter, I would say to her, oh,
magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together. Our great God, is God to be praised
by us, always and in all things, in all circumstances. David wrote,
when I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the
moon and the stars which thou hast ordained, what is man that
thou art mindful of him? and the son of man that thou
visitest him. But visit us, he does, every
day. Visit us, he does. And the visitations
of our God, whether they are visitations of grace or of judgment,
visitations of salvation or of wrath, They are visitations in
his providence for the good of his people, for the saving of
his elect, and the glory of his name. Whether they are visitations
that we understand or not, they are to be viewed by us, observed
by us with the eye of faith. seeking to know what God says
to us by his visitations. We ought always to seek grace
to profit by them, to learn from them, to get to know him better,
more fully, more intimately, more personally, because of every
visitation. how we observe God's visitations
of men in scripture. God visited Adam and Eve just
after the fall, and what a visitation of grace. The Lord God visited
Abraham in Ur of Chiodi and revealed himself to him, called him by
his grace. Again and again, God visited
Abraham. He came to visit Moses on the
backside of the desert and revealed himself to him. He came to visit
Israel in the land of Egypt. And when God visited them, they
murmured and complained and grumbled many, many times during God's
visitations. And then at last, on the night
of the Passover, oh, how God visited them. He visited his
people like Manoah and his wife, making himself known to them.
He visited David in times of adversity, in times of trial,
and visited him because of his sin to show his displeasure with
his sin, and yet visiting him to assure him of his mercy, his
love, and his grace in Christ. The Lord God visited men throughout
the Old Testament under what's called the angel of the Lord.
And every time there is a visitation of God in the Old Testament scriptures,
where God is seen by a man, we read in Exodus, God visited Moses. And Moses and Aaron and Nadab
and Abihu saw God's face. That's talking about the Lord
Jesus appearing before them. And every time you see the words,
the angel, with that definite article in front of it in the
Old Testament, the angel of the Lord visiting men, that was a
visitation of the Lord Jesus Christ to his own. In the 25th
chapter of the Gospel of Isaiah, God the Holy Ghost teaches us
that we should respond to every visitation of God our Savior
with confident faith, thanksgiving, and joy. Saying, lo, this is
our God. We have waited for him and he
will save us. This is the Lord. We have waited
for him. We will be glad and rejoice in
his salvation. Now I want you to just hold your
Bibles open here in Isaiah 25. as I try to preach to you from
this magnificent instructed chapter. I'll just give the highlights,
then the Lord willing, we'll come back to it a time or two
more. The title of my message is found in verse nine. This
is our God. May God be pleased to speak to
your hearts. visiting us tonight by his grace
and making himself known to you and to me as we look at this
chapter together. He who is our God is the God
of all grace and the grace of God in all its aspects. The grace of God in all its aspects. is but the revelation and the
reflection of God's character as God. Everything about God's
grace is the revelation and the reflection of his character as
God. In preaching this message, I
want to give unlimited credit, praise and thanksgiving to our
God for all that he is and all that he does. for all that he is and all that
he does. For all that he is and all that
he does. Let us never call into question
anything about his character or anything about his providence,
but rather praise him. Here the prophet of God teaches
us the how and the why of praise. In the previous chapter, Isaiah
described God's judgment of the world in the overthrow of Babylon
and all false religion by his hand. Here he is describing the
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, that great visitation of God
when God took on himself our nature and God became one of
us and visited us to redeem and save his people. Let's look at
these 12 verses together for just a few minutes. The chapter begins with a declaration
of faith. O Lord, thou art my God. That's a declaration of confident
faith. He who is our God is the triune
Jehovah, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, the God of all grace. He is revealed, he's seen, he's
known only in the person of his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, our
Mediator, the God-man Mediator, he who comes and makes God known
to us. God is seen and known only in
Jesus Christ the Lord. Yes, we see God's handiwork,
we see God's creation, we see God's power, we see God's wisdom,
and many, many things. But God is known and worshipped
only in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Faith, God-given
faith, God-wrought faith, saving faith, always confesses God as
God. Not confessing God or belief
in God or some kind of notion about God in the form of man's
imagination. Saving faith always confesses
God as God. You hear men talk about God in
this religious age of darkness, idolatry, and superstition. And
when you hear them talk about God, listen to what they say.
They will tell you, your sons and daughters, your mothers and
fathers, your brothers and sisters, your neighbors, folks that are
smart, folks that are not so smart, they will tell you exactly
what they think of God. And it ain't much. It ain't much. That's because they don't know
God. Faith, saving faith, always confesses God as God. Christ is the revelation of God. but he's more. Christ is the
word of God, but he's more. Christ is the image of God, but
he's more. The man, Jesus of Nazareth, is
himself God. God over all, blessed forever. God the mighty one, the immortal,
invisible, all wise, only God. That's who we know in Jesus Christ
the Lord. And this faith, confessing God
as God in all his character, confessing him by faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ, confesses that Jesus the Christ is God
our Savior. that word Lord, Jehovah, is the
name of God that declares both his eternal self-existence and
his saving character. He who is Jehovah is God who
saves all by himself. He is God who saves. That's Christ, our Redeemer.
Christ is God and Christ is God-salvaged. how I wish I could cause the
world to hear what I'm saying to you. Salvation is not a decision. Salvation is not a doctrine. Salvation is not something you
learn. Salvation is not religion. Salvation is a person. And that person is Jesus Christ,
God, our Savior, the incarnate one. when Simeon, that devout
man in Israel who waited for the consolation of Israel, just
imagine that man, Simeon, that old man in the temple. He'd go
in temple every day, every day. He had measured the words of
the prophets and he knew that he was living at the time spoken
of by Daniel the prophet when Messiah must appear. He knew
he was living in that 70th week when Messiah must appear. He
believed God. Anna, his sister, his sister
in the Lord, she was a old woman who with him went into the temple
every day. You know what they were going
for? They were going because they knew that when Messiah came,
he would come according to law and he would be brought to the
house of God, the temple of God, to be circumcised under God as
the law required. And they were waiting and waiting.
And one day, Mary and Joseph appeared carrying that little
baby. And Simeon walked over and said,
let me hold your baby, honey. And he lifted up that child and
said, Lord, now let your servant depart in peace. Mine eyes have
seen thy salvation. God spoke to it by His Word and
by His Spirit and said, this is He, my salvation. Salvation's a person and that
person is the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior. I don't know what
those early disciples knew about Christ and His work and what
they didn't. I'll be honest with you, I just
don't know. It appears as you read the four Gospels, not many
of them understood much of what he's saying. Kind of like you
and me. Kind of like you and me. They had a lot of muddled
thoughts in their heads, Merle, and the Spirit of God records
those things for a reason. He records them for a reason.
We ought never judge one another or even ourselves by the things
we know and the depth of our understanding, but rather by
the person we trust. Jesus of Nazareth, he is the
Christ, the Lord said to Peter. And Peter would go just about
as far astray as any of them. He said, who do you say I am?
He said, thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. You're
the one of whom Daniel and Isaiah and Jeremiah and Moses and Elijah
and David and all the prophets spoke. You're the Christ. You're
the anointed one of God. You're the savior. You're God
come to save. you are God in the flesh. And
so it was with all his disciples. Let us understand, whosoever
believeth that Jesus is the Christ, he is born of God. Whosoever
believeth that Jesus, that man who was born of Mary's womb 2,000
years ago, and walked on this earth as a man, in obedience
to God perfectly and died under the wrath of God as a man and
arose the third day and took his seat in heaven as a man.
That man is the Christ. He has done everything God said
that Christ would do. He has redeemed his people from
their sins. He has put away iniquity. He's
brought in everlasting righteousness. He alone is our Savior, our only
Savior. He alone is our all-sufficient
Savior. He alone is our effectual Savior. He alone is the Savior accepted
of God who's seated in the right hand of the majesty on high in
heaven today. He and he alone is that one who
is successful in his work of saving his people. Of him, the
prophet said, he shall not fail. He never has and he never can. He did not fail to accomplish
redemption. He did not fail to bring in righteousness. He did not fail to satisfy justice. He did not fail to put away our
sins and he shall not fail to bring his people safely into
heavenly glory. Faith confesses that Christ is
my Lord. and my God. O Lord, thou art
my God. John Gill rightly stated, this
is the first and foundation blessing of grace. O Lord, thou art my
God. And this secures all the rest. This is the highest attainment
of grace, to be assured of this. and will be the glory of the
new Jerusalem state. Oh Lord, thou art my God. Oh, what a confession of faith. What a blessing to know he is
my Lord and my God, because he's my creator. because he made himself
my God in covenant grace. Because he has come and given
me faith in him, life in him. He is the Lord my God. That's the first thing revealed
in our text. A confession of faith. Look at the next line
of verse one. Here is a determination of faith. I will exalt thee. I will praise
thy name. Flesh exalts self. Religion exalts the flesh. the will of the flesh, the work
of the flesh, the worth of the flesh, the whole of religion. Just watch it. Just look at it.
Just observe it. Watch what's said and done. Listen
to what preachers say. Listen to what goes on. Watch
what goes on in what's called worship services. Just watch
it. The whole of it is to exalt the flesh. Idolatry exalts religion. its creeds, its symbols, its
ceremonies, its rituals, its temples. But faith, faith, God-given
faith, faith exalts, magnifies, honors, and praises God and God
alone as God reveals himself in Christ. This is the desire
and determination of every believing heart. I will exalt thee, I will
praise thy name. He that glorieth, let him glory
in the Lord. Have you ever noticed how often
we're admonished in scripture to offer praise to God continually? Over and over we're admonished
to offer praise to God continually. Praise, you see, is the sacrifice
and the strength of faith. It is the sacrifice we offer
to God purely for the glory of his name. It's something we offer
God through Christ and for Christ. And the exercise of continual
praise to God strengthens faith in God our Savior. It's hard
not to trust him when you praise him. It's hard not to trust him
when in your thoughts, in your mind, in your heart, you exalt
him. The more fully we believe God,
the more fully we will praise him. And the more fully we praise
him, the more fully we will believe him. We're therefore constantly
admonished to praise the Lord God continually. Not only because
he deserves it, but because genuine praise is the highest form of
faith. By him, therefore, Paul says,
let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually. That is the fruit of our lips,
giving thanks to his name. Now, I am appalled by the pretense
of praise and the show of praise in contemptible modern religion. Folks call it contemporary worship.
I call it contemptible idolatry. Every now and then, flipping
through the channel, I see somebody doing something, let's give Jesus a hand clap.
Jesus don't want and won't have your hand clap. That's not worshiping
God. That's strutting in the flesh.
I'm talking about praise. I'm talking about heartfelt exaltation
of God, thanksgiving to God for who he is and what he does. I'm not talking about mere emotionalism,
though praise certainly involves emotion. I'm not calling for
a mere outward pretense and show of praise. I'm talking about
an attitude, an act of the heart. So I'm calling for you and me
to make sacrifice to God, a sacrifice that will, if done, if done, it will revolutionize
our lives. I'm calling for praise to God. I will exalt thee. How is that? We can't add anything to God.
We can't make him higher or greater than he is. but we can and must
lift him up in our hearts and in our minds, thinking only high
good thoughts of God. Thinking only high and good thoughts
of God. Did you ever notice how much
better you get along with an individual when you refuse to
think about his weaknesses, his failures, or his offenses, and
just think of the good things you can about him. Just think
of the good words. Just think of the benefits you
found in his hand. Now, with men, that's sometimes
difficult. Not so with God. We think high
and good thoughts of God only when we think rightly of him.
For anything that is not a high and good thought of God is a
wrong thought of him. We can't add anything to him,
but we can lift him up in our own hearts and lift him up in
the eyes of men. Let us exalt the Lord our God
by ascribing the whole of salvation to him alone. It is his work,
it is his work. Every time you get a chance to
talk about God's salvation, try to use these words. He did it.
Christ is my Savior. God did it. It's God's purpose,
God's plan, God's work. God did it. It's God's salvation. It's of the Lord. And every time
you get a chance, take me, my, and I out of it. You didn't do
anything. You didn't contribute anything.
You didn't accomplish anything. The Lord did it. Oh God, give
us grace to exalt you as God by trusting you with all our
affairs and all our cares, casting all your care upon him. Like many of you, This has been a practice of mine
and my wife's since before our only child was born. Committed
her to God. And we have continually committed
her to God every day of her 47 years throughout the day. Our grandchildren committed to
God long before they came into this world. Lord, they're yours. They're yours. Thank you for
them, but they're yours. And we give them to you. Take
them. Cast all your care, all of it,
on him who cares for you. You can't take care of things. I can't take care of things. You can't take care of your family. I can't take care of my family. God can, and God has, and God
does, and God will. He who is God, my savior, is
one on whom I may confidently cast every care Would to God
I had grace. So just roll off. Every time
something comes up that weighs on my heart, Lord, here, take
this. You take it. It's yours. It's
yours. I will praise him. To praise
him is to submit to and acquiesce to. in his holy will in all things. To praise the name of God is
to celebrate his perfections, rejoice in his works, believe
his word, trust his goodness, declare his greatness, and give
thanks to him always and for all things. When Isaiah says,
I will praise thy name, this is what he's saying. This is
what I ought to do. And this is what I want to do.
And this is what I'm determined to do. Oh, Lord, thou art my
God. Give me grace to praise thy name. And then he gives us reasons
for it. That's what we see next. For thou hast done wonderful
things. Thou hast done wonderful things. Come close and let me tell you
a little secret. Are you listening? All that God
does is wonders. He doesn't do little things.
He doesn't do insignificant things. All the little things are his
work. All those things we think are insignificant are his work,
but he works wonders, only wonders. Let us give praise to him for
his wonderful works, his works of grace in the everlasting covenant,
having chosen us as his own before the world was. having supplied
us with redemption and salvation in his Son before ever the world
was made, having promised us the gift of his Spirit and life
by his Spirit before ever he made the sun, the moon, or the
stars, his wondrous works of providence. Providence is just
the outworking of God's purpose. Always adorable, always wise,
always good. You have a picture of it in Revelation
10, the Lord Jesus is pictured as an angel standing with one
foot on the earth and one on the sea and he has that little
book in his hand. It's a huge book. It's the book
of all God's purpose, all God's decrees, all God's order. And
he's ruling everything in heaven, earth and the seas by the book. What happened today? He just
turned that page over in the book. Wonder what's gonna happen
tomorrow. I don't know, but I'll know tomorrow
just as soon as he turns another page in the book. Providence
is only the unfolding of God's purpose. Providence is only,
what a pitiful word to use. Providence is the wondrous, glorious,
mysterious, good, wise rule of God over the very thoughts of
devils. for the good of his people and
the glory of his Son. Oh, I'm anxious to see what he
does tomorrow, aren't you? This is our God. This is our God. Oh, how adorable are his ways. We have an illustration of this
in verses two and three. Verse two is a prophetic declaration
of the destruction of Babylon, the city of gods, as is described
in Jeremiah, but it's also an encompassing of the providential
acts of God's judgment. When God destroys the nations
of the world in his wrath, he is just saving his people, his
elect remnant. Therefore shall the strong people
glorify thee. The city of terrible nations
shall fear thee. The strong people, people made
strong by his grace. The city of terrible nations,
that's the church of God made up of people out of every nation,
kindred, tribe and tongue in all the world. These are some
of the wonderful things God has done. Now look at the fourth
thing, verse four. Here is God's gracious, unfailing
protection of his people in this world. For thou has been a strength
to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge
from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the
terrible ones is as a storm against the wall. Now here's what Isaiah
tells us. Here's what God tells us. If you are God's, if you trust
the Lord Jesus, if you're born of God, whatever you need, whatever you need, Christ is. Whatever you need. He strength
to the poor in spirit. He strength to the needy in his
distress. Christ is a refuge from the storm. Oh, I found him so. A refuge
from the storm of God's wrath. And a refuge from the storms
of life. A refuge from the storms within. He's a shadow from the heat,
from the heat of God's fiery law and justice. A shadow from
the fiery darts of the wicked one. A shadow from the fires
of persecution and opposition. And Christ is a wall. A wall
to protect us from the blustering winds of all who violently oppose
us. Sometimes we get to thinking
about people who are just determined to do us evil. And when we do,
we start figuring out ways to handle it. And the more we figure
on their plans and our plans, the more fearful we are and the
more shaky we are. It'd be better to forget about
them and look to God, our Savior. He is a wall to protect us, a
wall to protect us. I have on a few occasions been
in fairly small boats in the ocean, and the winds get up. And I've been pretty uneasy.
You have any idea what a strong wind can do to a good-sized boat,
let alone a small one? It can capsize it, it can dash
it against the rocks, it tosses it to and fro at best, even when
it's anchored, it makes a horrible mess. But the wind beats against
a wall. I'm not talking about a wall
with two or three bricks, two or three bricks thick. I'm talking
about a wall, a high, strong, massive wall. Let the wind blow. Let the hurricane come. Let the
tornado come. And it may rip everything else
apart. But when it's done, that wall's
gonna be just like it was before. Just stand there, just stand
totally unaffected by the storm. So our God is for his people. He says to the storms of the
sea, they shall proceed no further. Matthew Henry made this observation. Whatever dangers or troubles
God's people may appear to be in, effectual care is taken that
they sustain no real hurt or damage. Look at verse five. God gives us assurance. God gives
us assurance. Now, when God gives assurance,
you can take it to the bank. If I give it to you, you can
forget it before you get out the door. This is God's word
of assurance to his people. He promises total deliverance
from all our foes. Thou shalt bring down the noise
of strangers as the heat in a dry place. Even the heat with the
shatter of a cloud, the branch of the terrible ones shall be
brought low. The oppressors of God's people,
those who oppress God's church, are strangers to the grace of
God. They may be religious, but they're reprobate. Persecutors,
oppressors, slanderers, may be looked upon by men as righteous
men, but they're not righteous, they're ungodly. Grace is peaceful,
not persecuting. Grace is helpful, not slanderous. Their opposition is hot and noisy,
always has been, always will be, but it's impotent. I ran
across these words in Jeremiah 46, 16 this week. I think they'd
be worth you writing down and going back and reading for yourself.
Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Now Rex, that's somebody. Pharaoh,
king of Egypt, the mightiest king in the mightiest army of
the mightiest nation on the earth in his day. Pharaoh, king of
Egypt, is but a noise. He's just a noise, just a noise. Well, the Rex came in the office
back there a little bit ago, And I had the fan on, it was
a little warm back there. And he looked up, his hearing aids
were working. He said, what's that? I said, that's just the
fan, sounds like the motor's going out. It's just a little
bit of a nuisance, doesn't hurt anything. Doesn't hurt anything. Pharaoh! He's just a noise. He's just a noise. A noise doesn't
do anything. God will shelter his own. from
all their enemies. He bears us on eagle's wings. He says, underneath are the everlasting
arms. He is the angel of the Lord.
This God, our Savior, of whom Isaiah is speaking. He is that
one who encampeth round about his people as a fire, a wall
of fire continually. And our God will bring down every
oppressor in his time. in his way, and at the day of
judgment, and at last, he'll bring them down to hell. Now,
one more thing. When the Lord our God has subdued
all our enemies beneath his feet, then our salvation will be complete. That's what the rest of this
chapter is about. The final outcome of all things The final complete
consummation of God's everlasting purpose will be the salvation
of his people. Look what it says. In verse six,
Isaiah speaks of the coming of Christ and the accomplishment
of redemption by him. He tells us that in that time,
there will be a feast prepared in this mountain, that is in
the gospel church. Shall the Lord of hosts make
unto all people a feast of fat things. You may recall that in
the Old Testament and the Mosaic law, God's people weren't allowed
to eat fat things. So obviously this talk about
this gospel age. He'll make a feast of fat things,
fat things. Now, I know the doctors don't
like it and some of you don't like it. You like meat that's
kind of tasteless, kind of like shoe leather, doesn't have any
fat on it. But if you want a good steak, Get you a prime rib and
cook it anywhere from warm to almost done. Don't cook it till
it's done. And if you want the best part
of it, just throw all that stuff in the middle away and get that,
it goes right around the outside. Now you got some food. Oh, it's
meat marbled throughout with fat where all the taste is. The gospel of God's grace. Spread
in the kingdom of God, in the church of God, is a feast of
fat things. Of wine on leaves. Of fat things full of marrow.
Fat things that are good for you. Of wines on leaves, well
refined. long, long time ago, made some
wine for some reason. I don't know what it was. I guess
just proved I could do it. But I didn't do much of a job
of it. I remember Brother Bob Pontcher made a bunch of wine
down in baseball one year. And he didn't do much of a job
either. He put it up kind of green and it just exploded and went everywhere.
But wine that is well refined, it's wine that's been completely
refined so that all the yeast on those grapes, all the sediment
is settled in the bottom. It's almost muddy in the bottom,
but everything above that mud, that's good stuff. This gospel
feast, spread in God's kingdom, a feast of fat things, a feast
of the very best wine. Men drink wine to forget their
miseries. The wise man tells us that's
the reason they do it in Proverbs. And it's foolish for men to drink
wine to forget their miseries. It doesn't help, it just makes
more misery. But for the believer to drink in the wine of God's
grace, feasting upon the fat things of redemption and righteousness
in Christ Jesus, that causes the believer's heart to be merry
indeed. That causes the believer like
David to leap and dance before the ark, understanding that all
our sins are taken away. We've been made the righteousness
of God in his own dear son. Ultimately, this prophecy will
have its fulfillment in the last day, in the marriage supper of
the Lamb described in Revelation. Then Isaiah tells us in verse
seven, of a veil removed. He will destroy in this mountain,
here in the church, by the preaching of the gospel, the face of the
covering cast over all people, the veil that spread over all
nations. Folks can't see the light because
they've been blinded, their eyes are covered, their minds darkened
by the veil of Mohammedan religion or the paganism and idolatry
of the land where they live or the papacy and Romanism or liberalism
or free willism or legalism. There's some kind of a veil,
almost like a bewitching thing Paul describes in Galatians.
but this veil the Lord will destroy by the light of the gospel shining
in the hearts of men as it is preached to men in the power
of the Spirit. The means for removing spiritual
ignorance is the preaching of the gospel. The preaching of
the gospel right here. And as God makes the word effectual
to the souls of men, he takes away the veil of ignorance. Let
us then be found faithful, doing what God has given us the privilege
and responsibility of doing. I'm a preacher and a pastor. Most people think it is the responsibility
of a pastor to build the church. Nothing could be further from
the truth. I have deliberately made no effort to offer anything
to any man, woman, or child to entice them deceitfully to come
here and hear the gospel. But preacher, how do you expect
to get things done? If this is God's work, God will build it. And if it's not God's work, the
sooner it ceases, the better. It's God's work. What are we
to do? We're to honor God, preach his
word, and wait for God to work. That much, all of that, and nothing
but that. That's all. That's all. Look
at verse 8. Here God tells us of an enemy
abolished. He, the Lord Jesus, will swallow
up death in victory. Death, the most dreaded and most
feared of all enemies. But Christ came to deliver his
elect from the fear of death. He has delivered us from spiritual
death and from eternal death. He's even delivered us from that
thing that's spoken of as death, because the believer shall never
die. For the believer, death is but the entrance into glory.
And he delivers his own from the fear of death. By satisfying
all the demands of God for us, and by removing from before us
Everything that makes death fearful. Men are fearful of the unknown. Well, that didn't cause me any
fear. Men are fearful of sin. Bless God, that didn't cause
me any fear. Men are fearful of judgment. That didn't cause
me any fear. Men are fearful of righteousness. I got no reason to fear that.
You see, Christ has satisfied the justice of God for me. By
his blood, he has answered for me at the judgment bar of God.
By his righteousness, I am seated with him in heaven. And he has
given me word after word after word in the revelation of God
in this book of that which awaits his people. He will present us
faultless before Him. Faultless before the presence
of His glory. And then we're told of a great
comfort He will perform. And the Lord God shall wipe away
tears from off all faces. No, God will not wipe tears away
from all men. But he will wipe away all the
tears of all the faces of his own. Like a tender parent has a child
that's maybe just frightened and being frightened is terrified,
scared. We won't ask your mom to tell
about it or your grandmother. I expect there were times you
just had nothing but just a thought that scared you to death and
one of them come along and get a cloth and wipe your tears and
hold you close and you'd be settled down quiet. That's the picture. Our God shall, my brother, he
shall, my sister, wipe all tears from your eyes. He does so little
by little here and now. But the day is coming when we
will have no sorrow, for we'll have no sin, no adversity, no
darkness, no sickness, no bereavement, no pain, no trial, no foe, no
tears. we will be at last conformed
perfectly to the image of our Redeemer. Yes, God's people sorrow. We sorrow. We sorrow for a lot
of things. I recall many, many years ago
when Brother James Rankin was dying and lots of us concerned. We knew he was dying and some
young pup said to me one time, I don't see what all the concerns
about is going to heaven. And I said to him, I said, did
you ever live with somebody for 30 years, love them and married
to them and watch them die? Why don't you just shut up? Just
shut up till you know what you're talking about. Yes, we sorrow,
believers sorrow. But bless God, we sorrow not
as others, which have no hope. For God, our God, our Savior,
graciously dries our tears here, and he will at last wipe all
tears from our eyes. And then in the end, when everything
that shall be has been, he'll remove all reproach. Look at
verse eight, and the reproach, the rebuke of his people shall
he take away from off the earth. We are reproached by the world,
and reproached by Satan. We reproach ourselves and sometimes
our own brethren reproach us. But God in that great day when
he makes all things new will cast away all reproach from his
people publicly and display to the universe the wondrous work
of his grace as he stands us before wandering worlds of angels
and devils, clothed in white linens of perfect righteousness, where no fault is found against
us again forever. Now, when the Lord God gets done,
when he comes again, We'll cast our crowns before him and say,
lo, this is our God. We have waited for him. He will
save us. This is the Lord. We've waited
for him. We will be glad and rejoice in
his salvation. is reason enough to praise Him
always. In everything, give thanks. This is the will of God in Christ
Jesus concerning you. And when God gets done, When
God gets done, we will have learned to praise
him for everything, for everything. Pastor, but I'm so weak. Me too.
But I have so many things to overcome. Me too. But with so
many opposing us. Me too. How can you be sure? Look at verses 10 and 11 and
12. You can read them when you go
home. because God said it. And he will accomplish this more
easily than we can imagine. I mean, it's with ease. He says,
this is how I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna do it with greater
ease than the ease with which a man takes a bale of straw and
scatters it over a dung pit. Not much to that. I can even
do that. Not much to that. I'll do this. I'll do this more easily than
when a man swimming cups his hands and pushes the water. I've purposed it. I'll bring
it to pass. I've said it. I'll do it. And we will say, lo, this is
our God. Amen.