Well, we are turning to Isaiah
34 and 35, though most of our time will be spent in Isaiah
35. But Isaiah 34 and verse 1 is
a message to the world. I know I keep telling you that
the purpose of this book is to reveal salvation to the elect
of God. That's the purpose of the Scriptures.
It is not primarily to tell the people of the world how to live.
It is not to try to make the world a better place, not at
all. Why would it be? The Lord Jesus Christ said, I
pray not for the world. I pray not for the world. It's
absolutely stark. Nevertheless, there are places in the scriptures
that speak specifically to the unbelieving world around, and
this is one, chapter 34. Come near, ye nations, all of
you, to hear. Listen what God has to say. Hearken,
ye people. Let the earth hear, and all that
is therein. the world and all things that
come forth of it. This is a message of God to this
world that verse 2, the indignation of the Lord is upon all nations. His fury upon all their armies. He hath utterly destroyed them.
He hath delivered them to the slaughter." It's a message of
judgment. It's a message of judgment to
come, of God's indignation. Why is God angry? Why does it
say in the Psalms, God is angry with the wicked every day? Why
is God angry with the wicked every day? God is angry with
the wicked every day because of sin. Because God is a holy
God. God dwells in unapproachable
light. God is pure. and high, and his
thoughts are not our thoughts, and his ways not our ways. God
is holy. God is the very definition of
holiness and of righteousness. And we, in this world, in the
flesh, in sin, are unholy. All things that we do are contrary
to the nature and the being of the living God, and God is angry
with the wicked every day, and His indignation is announced,
His fury is set forth in His Word against all that is contrary
to His truth and His righteousness, and it's echoed throughout the
Bible. in pictures of great cataclysm
in the Old Testament, the flood, Sodom and Gomorrah, many other
situations, the swallowing up of the sons of Korah when they
burnt strange fire. All of these things speak of
the indignation, the fury of God against sin. Throughout the
Psalms and in the prophecies, Again and again, God speaks a
message of judgment against sin. Our Lord Jesus Christ, when he
walked this earth, people say, oh, I don't want all your religion,
but I'm quite happy to listen to Jesus. I think he was a good
man and his sermon on the mountain was so good. Have they ever read
it? Have they ever read what he said? Have you read Matthew's
gospel and seen the things that... Do you know Jesus spoke more?
Jesus spoke more about the certainty of hell than he did about anything
else. He said, flee from the wrath to come. He spoke in Matthew
24, he's absolutely clear that the end of this world is coming,
that the end is coming, and it's coming in judgment. Throughout
the epistles, again and again, we read in there that the very
tenor of it is that judgment is coming, but there is a glorious
gospel of salvation. In Revelation, again and again
in Revelation, when the end is described in more and more detail
in chapter 6 and 14 and 16 and 18 and 19 and 20, The end is described in more
and more graphic detail, the dreadful judgment of God against
sin. And signs of the end are increasing. Did not Jesus say to his disciples,
look, you look at the trees. We look at this time of year
and we see the birds, even though it's still only January, you
see the blackbirds are kind of getting pally with one another,
and they're thinking about making nests, and they're thinking about
getting ready for the next breeding season, and the buds are starting
to appear on the plants, and the bulb shoots are coming up,
and you know that spring and summer's coming. Well, in the
same way, Jesus said, look at the signs of the times. The signs
of the end are increasing. Even science, falsely so-called,
recognizes an end. You know, it used to be that
everything just goes on as it always did, and now science says,
no, there was a beginning and there will be an end. We just
disagree on the timescale involved. But even science, falsely so-called,
recognizes that there is an end coming. But our God has told
us there is an end coming. Will we heed the warnings? Will
we hear what God says? Will we take notice? Will we
take it seriously? And if we will, are we ready
for it? Will we be ready for it? Let
me ask you, are you a true believer this morning? And some of you
will say you are, but maybe you're weak and doubting. No, I know
you are definitely weak and doubting. We all live in this flesh, in
this life, and we know that in the flesh there is an evil heart
of unbelief. Yes, we rise up on the mountaintops
of faith and we believe God and we have times of great blessing,
but there are other times when we're in the doldrums and an
evil heart of unbelief takes over and we're distracted by
this world, we're distracted by the things that concern us,
we're distracted by the jobs we have to do, we're concerned
about family tensions and relationships in families. Well God speaks
encouragement to his weak people, he does, he tells us not to be
afraid, he speaks comfort to his weak people. You see by nature
We are as fit for condemnation as all the rest. We have exactly
the same malady, the same sin. We are just children of wrath
even as others by nature. But in the Lord Jesus Christ,
if you're trusting in Him, you know that you're graciously saved.
You know that the remedy for sin has been revealed. You know
that that which is coming, as described in Isaiah 34, is remedied
by the gospel of grace. Look at verse 4 of chapter 35. Say to them that are of a fearful
heart, be strong, fear not. Behold, your God will come with
vengeance, even God with a recompense. He will come and save you. He's
going to save you. out of this judgment. He's coming
with vengeance in judgment, but there's a recompense for that
which Christ has accomplished, and it's the salvation of his
people. And because of that he will come and he will save you.
Look at verse 10 of the same chapter. The ransomed of the
Lord, those that the Lord has paid the ransom price for, shall
return and come to Zion. What's Zion? The kingdom of God,
the city of the living God, the new Jerusalem. the eternity,
heaven, shall come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon
their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness,
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. This is a message
to the ransomed of the Lord. Isaiah 35 promises salvation
as God justly judges the world of sin. Look at verse 8 of chapter
34. It is the day of the Lord's vengeance. and the year of recompenses for
the controversy of Zion. Now compare that with verse 4
of chapter 35. Behold, your God will come with
vengeance. Even God with a recompense, he
will come and save you. As he comes with judgment, with
vengeance on the sin of the world, justly to judge it, at the same
time he comes with a recompense. a reward if you like, a payback
if you like. What for? For the work that Christ
accomplished at Calvary, when he saved his people from their
sins, when he was made the sin of his people, that he paid the
penalty for that sin, that the justice of God was satisfied,
that his people might be made the righteousness of God in him. Isaiah 35 and verse 4, that describes
salvation out of judgment. The whole of chapter 35 describes
salvation out of judgment. Let's just look briefly at the
promised blessings of salvation in chapter 35. The first two
verses, the wilderness and the solitary place, you see all that
about bittens and owls and wild beasts and satyrs and all that
sort of thing, screech owls, it's a picture of desolation. It's the wild creatures that
inhabit the place when everything else of civilization has gone.
You know, you go to a ruined place and these are the creatures
that... It's a picture of destruction accomplished. It's a vivid picture
that God will judge and will bring condemnation. But there's
a promise of abundance and prosperity where there was only a wilderness
deserving judgment. The wilderness, this wilderness
and the solitary place shall be glad for them. It shall be
glad that the judgment has fallen justly and the desert shall rejoice
and blossom as the rose. The rose is Britain's favourite
flower, it said, and there's nothing quite like a rose in
June, a glorious, beautiful rose with all of its abundant fragrance. It shall blossom abundantly,
not just the odd one or two, abundantly, and rejoice even
with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be
given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon. These are
places that were familiar to the people to whom Isaiah was
writing. are places of materialistic abundance, but it's used as a
metaphor for the spiritual abundance that will come. They shall see
the glory of the Lord and the excellency of our God. In place
of judgment, salvation. That is what is coming. In verses
5 and 6, because skip verses 3 and 4, we're coming back to
them in a lot more detail later, but verses 5 and 6. Then, when? When? Then the eyes of the blind
shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.
Then shall the lame man leapers and heart, and the tongue of
the dumb sing. For in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams
in the desert. You know that's a strong allusion
to? You know what that is talking
about? That's talking about the Messiah coming. Do any of you,
I know you do, you know Handel's Messiah, the music, and these
are some of the verses that are picked out for one of the choruses.
Then shall the eyes of the blind be open, and the ears of the
deaf shall be unstopped. Those that can't see spiritual
things, spiritual truth, those that cannot hear the spiritual
truth of gospel grace, they'll have their eyes and their ears
unstopped. They'll be open to hear and to
see. The lame man, the one who can't
walk, shall leap as an heart, and of course when Christ came,
It literally happened. Because in His miraculous healings,
He caused the lame man to leap as an heart, as a stag, as a
deer. He caused the eyes of the blind, one even born blind, who
had no eyes, He made him eyes, and the eyes of the blind saw.
Those born deaf and mute, He made them hear and see. All of
these things are speaking of when Christ shall come in saving
grace. Verse 7, The parched ground shall
become a pool. It's speaking of spiritual parchedness,
spiritual dryness, spiritual drought, and it shall become
a pool of blessing. The thirsty land, thirsting for
the things of the Spirit of God, shall become springs of water.
If you're thirsty, there's nothing more refreshing than springs
of water. In the habitation of dragons,
in that evil place where each lay, shall be grass with reeds
and rushes, a picture of abundance, and a highway shall be there,
and a way, and it shall be called the way of holiness.' Job cried
out in his pain and in his torment, that he was going through in
that trial from God. He cried out, oh, that I knew
where I might find him. God, oh, that I knew where I
might find him, that I would even come before his presence.
Oh, if only I could find God, then I would come before him.
Just exactly as Philip said, show us the way, show us the
way. Oh, Lord Jesus, show us the way
to God. And what did Jesus say? I am
the way, the truth, and the life. A highway shall be there. What's
the highway? What's the way of holiness? Our
Lord Jesus Christ is the way of holiness. He is the way, the
truth, and the life. If you would come to the Father,
God the Father, if you would know God, if you would find God,
as Job cried out, you must come through Christ, for there is
no other way. For there is none other name under heaven given
among men, said the apostle Peter to that crowd. There is none
other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be
saved. If you would be saved from your
sins, it is only by coming to this way. which is the Lord Jesus
Christ. For those, the wayfaring men,
though fools, they shall not err therein. We're fools by nature,
but in the knowledge of Christ we have all the wisdom of God,
for in him dwells all the wisdom and knowledge of God. He is the
way for sinners. It's a safe way. There'll be
no lion there. There'll be no threatening beasts
there, no ravenous beasts. This is a safe way. Though I
walk through the valley of death, I shall fear no evil, for thou
art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort
me. The redeemed shall walk there. Those who've had the price of
their sins paid, to redeem them from the curse of the law, for
Christ has redeemed his people from the curse of the law. How
has he done it? By being made a curse for us. He bore the curse
that was the just curse of God upon the sin of his people. He
bore it and he redeemed them from their sins. And the ransomed,
of the Lord shall return and come to Zion. Here is a promise
of eternal heavenly bliss. Do you know this? Is this your
joy? Is this your hope? You'll come to Zion with songs
and everlasting joy upon your heads. They shall obtain joy
and gladness and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. Revelation 21,
I saw a new heaven and a new earth and God shall wipe away
all tears from their eyes. There's no more sorrow, no more
pain. Is that not what this is saying? It's a promise of gospel
grace. Now, believer. You say, yes,
I believe. Like that man, Lord, I believe.
Help thou mine unbelief. Do you struggle to believe this
at times? Do you struggle at times to live in the good of
it? I know you do. I do. We all do. The flesh is
weak, but here is encouragement. Now this is where I want to focus
on verses three and four. Strengthen ye the weak hands
and confirm the feeble knees. Say to them that are of a fearful
heart, be strong, fear not. Behold, your God will come with
vengeance, even with a recompense. He will come and save you. What is it that we have in these
two verses? We have a commission, a commission. We have a commission to God's
preachers, a commission to speak the truth of God, to weep believers
like you and me and their message that they're to preach is one
that will strengthen the weak hands is one that will confirm
the feeble knees I think that's kind of bind them up or make
them strong to say to them of a fearful heart have a strong
heart yeah so what is it then to strengthen the weak hands
What is it? We're not talking physically
here. One thing that Kristin and I are noticing as we get
older is that limbs and joints, etc. that used to work very well
are getting weaker. They're finding it harder to
do things. They're finding it hard and then you go and grip
and the whole lot locks up and you can't straighten it out and
they become gnarled and arthritic. I know we've got several years
to go yet before we reach the worst of it, but that's the sort
of thing that happens. The hands become weak, the knees
become feeble. I now wonder sometimes in the
morning when I come down the stairs, is my right knee going
to give way because there's a nagging pain in it? And it's fine, I
don't have a problem with it at the moment. But you know,
all the signs are there of these things getting worse. Strengthen
the weak hands, confirm the feeble knees. What is it to strengthen
the weak hands? Well, of course, we're not talking
about physical hands. No, no, we're not. There must
be a spiritual significance to this. We must interpret this
spiritually. We're not talking about hands
in a physical way, though they're a very good illustration of a
spiritual truth. Hands are such, you know, you
think about it, your hands are such vital components of your
body, you know, the grasping hand, the the opposing thumb
to grip with, what vital things that these are. I don't know,
those of you of a certain age might remember a British performer
whose name was Max Bygraves, and do you remember his signature
song was, you need hands, you need hands to hold the one you
care for, and all this sort of thing, and he used to, that was
his characteristic song. Hands are vital. What do they
speak of? They speak of faith. That's what
they speak of. You see, what do you do with
your hands? You grasp things. You get hold of things. What
do you do with faith? You grasp spiritual truth. With faith, you grasp spiritual
truth. You grasp it. Listen to some
scriptures. Isaiah 27 and verse 5. Take hold of my strength,
that he may make peace with me. Take hold. Get hold. Grasp. How
do you do it? You don't do it with your hands,
physically. You do it with faith. Take hold
with faith of God's strength. 1 Timothy chapter 6 verse 12. Lay hold on eternal life. There
is eternal life. Lay hold on it. How do you do
it? You don't grab it with your hands,
physically. You grab it with the hands of
faith. Grasp it with the hands of faith. Hebrews 6 verse 18. You have fled for refuge to lay
hold upon the hope set before us, the hope of heaven. Lay hold
on it. You don't grasp it with physical
hands, but you grasp it with the hands of faith when you believe
God. To believe God is to grasp, to
have faith. Strengthen that belief. Strengthen
that which is weak. What else do you do with hands?
Well, you fight with hands. I know of two boys, at least
here this morning, who spend a great deal of their lives when
they're at home with one another. What are they doing? They're
fighting with their hands. They fight one another, like
cat and dog sometimes. You love to fight with your hands.
But we're told in Scripture that we're like good soldiers of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Endure hardness as a good soldier.
of Jesus Christ, and he says in 1 Timothy 6 and verse 12,
therefore fight the good fight of faith. And what do you do
if you're fighting the good fight of faith? You grasp the weapons
of warfare, the sword of the Spirit, you grasp the shield
of faith, you grasp the helmet of salvation and put it on, and
the breastplate of righteousness, you put your shoes on, you do
all of these things, you grasp the weapons of spiritual warfare.
you put on that whole armour of God that is described in Ephesians
and chapter 6. And with hands we receive gifts. We've just had Christmas and
we receive gifts from one another. You see a beggar in the street.
The trouble in our society is it's so difficult to know when
it's a genuine beggar or whether it's somebody trying to defraud
everybody all around him by pretending to be a beggar. There's so much
of that. The traditional old picture of the beggar there,
they hold out their hands to receive the gifts from those
that are going to give them gifts. And we use hands to receive gifts,
just like the beggar. And we read in the Scriptures,
John 3, 33, He that hath received his testimony, God's testimony,
hath set his seal that God is true. You believed God. He that
has received it, you receive it with your hands. Not physical
hands, but with hands of faith. You receive it into your hands.
Of His fullness, John 1,16, of His fullness have all we who
believe received. How we received it? By believing
it. By faith we've received it, and
grace for grace. 1 Thessalonians chapter 1 verse
6, Paul writing to them about the time he went to preach and
he says, you received, he preached the word and they received it,
not literally in their hands, but by the hands of faith they
received it. in much affliction, like hands
accepting gifts. Faith takes spiritual gifts. And then what else do we do with
hands? Have you seen a blind man or a blind woman, and you
give them an object, and what do they do? They feel it all
over, don't they? They pick it up and they feel
it. And from what they sense with the nerves in their fingers,
they can get a picture in the mind of exactly what it is that
they're holding in their hands. It's the same with faith. the
hands of the nerves in. Faith is that which feels, which
senses. Like spiritual hands, we sense
the things of the living God, the truth of God, the doctrines
of His grace. With hands we feed ourselves,
we dress ourselves, we work, we go to work, we do work. And
in the same way as without hands it's impossible to do so much,
without faith it is impossible to please God. But so often in
us it is weak. It is weak. In the best of us,
sin from the fall has marred every experience of divine good
that comes to us. Sin marrs it. Just like We know
it in society today, drugs are such a curse. Drugs tend to weaken
the mind and the body and all aspects of it. So sin weakens
faith. And by faith, we experience the
good, the blessings of God. So when it's weak, we're not
experiencing those blessings as we should. And then we're
told here, or the preachers are told, to confirm the feeble knees. What's the spiritual equivalent
of the feeble knees? Well, the knee, of course, is
the joint in the middle of the leg. And it's vital for you to
be able to do so many things physically, primarily to walk
and to run. It's vital that your knee is
strong that you can walk and run. We read that Enoch walked
with God. He walked, which means he lived
his life in fellowship with God, in communion with God. Romans
8 verse 1, there is therefore now no condemnation to them which
are in Christ Jesus who walk Not after the flesh, but after
the Spirit. It's not talking about physical
walking, it's talking about living the life of faith, of belief. They live that life of faith
by the Spirit of God. Isaiah 40 verse 31, They that
wait upon the Lord, they that believe God, shall renew their
strength. They shall mount up with wings
as eagles. They shall run, run, and not
be weary, they shall walk and not faint." What does it mean?
It's not talking about physically running and walking, it's talking
about living the life of faith. Confirm the feeble knees, because
when faith is weak, the knees of faith are weak, and so the
walk of life is weak. And with the knees also, we wrestle.
You know, as Jacob wrestled with God. We wrestle, and his leg
was put out of joint. We wrestle not, says Paul to
the Ephesians, not against flesh and blood. We wrestle, in spiritual
terms, against principalities. You need strong knees for that.
Not literally. Knees of faith. You need knees
of faith. And they need to be strengthened.
And doesn't the knee also, have a great allusion to the idea
of prayer? Paul writes to the Ephesians
in chapter three, verse 14, he says, I bow my knees unto the
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Is it not symbolical? The bending
of the knee, it's symbolical of prayer. Feeble knees, feeble
prayer. Feeble prayer, all of it deriving
from original sin. And at the core of it, say to
them that are of a fearful heart, a fearful heart, be strong. Encourage
them to be strong. They've got a fearful heart.
You see, a weak heart weakens the hands and the knees. A weak
heart at the core weakens everything else. What weakens the heart?
It says here, a fearful heart. That which weakens the heart
is fear. That sin will drag us down. This is the fear of the child
of God, that sin will at last drag me down to hell, that though
I think I'm truly a child of God, that I'll prove not to be
in the end. That I'll prove not to be, as
verse 9 says, among the redeemed that shall walk in God's kingdom. That I'll not be among the ransomed
of the Lord that shall return and come to Zion. with songs
and everlasting joy upon their heads. That's to have a fearful
heart is by unbelief, a fearful heart of unbelief, not trusting
God that these things are true. And so preachers are given a
commission, strengthen ye the weak hands, confirm the feeble
knees, say to them that are of a fearful heart, be strong and
fear not. They're commissioned to preach
that which will strengthen faith. What is it that will strengthen
faith? What is it that will strengthen
true belief? What is it that will make the
weak and fearful believer be strong in the Lord, be of good
courage in the Lord? Face the things of this life
with confidence knowing that we have a hope of eternal glory.
The answer is this. It is the message of salvation
out of just condemnation. That's it. There's just condemnation
coming but there's a message of salvation. Preach that message
and thereby you will strengthen the weak hands, the feeble knees,
the fearful heart. You will strengthen it by preaching
the message of salvation. What is God saying to his preachers
in these verses? He's saying, preach salvation
by grace. By grace. Grace alone. Not of
works, lest any man should boast. Not what you do to get yourself
to heaven, but what God in Christ has done to secure your eternal
confidence of heaven. Preach salvation by grace. And
what did it cost you? Free. The free grace. What does
the Word of God say? Ho, everyone that thirsts, come,
come to the waters, come buy milk and buy wine. How much is
it going to cost me? Without money and without price. Free grace. Discriminating grace. Particular redemption. That this
is grace that really works, because there's no point having a grace
that makes it a possibility for everyone and then depends on
the fallen will of everyone to make the right choice because
we never will. No, this is discriminating grace, where God chose a people
in Christ before the foundation of the world, and Christ covenanted
to come and be the redemption of those people from their sins.
And the Holy Spirit covenanted to quicken, make alive every
single one of them, that the whole Church of God, the whole
Bride of Christ, might be brought to everlasting glory. and redemption. It's overflowing grace. It's
effectual grace. What do I mean by effectual?
A long word. It means this, it gets the job
done. Effectual grace is grace that
works and gets the job done. It's a finished work. There's
nothing left nothing left for us to do, nothing left for anybody
else to do, because it's a work that Christ finished at the cross.
How do we know? He was raised from the dead.
He was lifted up for our transgressions and raised again for our justification. The fact that Christ was raised
is the vindication of all that Christ accomplished, and so we
know that as he rose, so shall his people rise to newness of
life. We know that it was effectual. We know that the plan of salvation
did nothing to change the fundamental holy character of God, for he
is just. He is a just God. But whilst
he remains entirely with his integrity as a just God, he justifies
rightfully, righteously, the ones who are not just. He justifies
the ungodly. He justifies his people who are
sinners. He is, as Isaiah 45 says, a just
God and a Savior. Do you see the contradiction
that's in there? To logic, if it was thought out, a just God
must condemn sin. So how can he be a just God and
a Savior? He can only be both by virtue
of what he's accomplished in the salvation that Christ has
wrought, a just God and a Saviour. What is it to strengthen weak
hands and confirm feeble knees, to strengthen faith? What is
it? It's to preach grace. It's to preach that Christ is
coming or that He has come and accomplished all these things.
It's to preach that redemption is finished. It's to preach the
truth, the fact of these things. It isn't to preach law and duty,
not at all. Jesus said to the scribes and
Pharisees in Luke 11 46, he said, woe unto you also ye lawyers,
for you laid men, you put burdens on men with burdens grievous
to be born. He said, they won't even lift
a little finger themselves, these lawyers, these religious lawyers,
but they'll put heavy weights, like weights to burden them down. What are you going to do with
a weakened hand? Have you ever had a sprained hand, where...
I know some of you have had sprained joints, I know you've had sprained
knees, yeah? There was a time, wasn't there,
Lids? There was a time when you were told you must not put any
strain on that knee, you really mustn't, you must keep it, yeah?
You don't go and get a heavy weight and start trying to lift
with a sprained hand, no, you wait till it's better, and then
you do something with it. You don't put weights on a weakened
hand, And to preach law and duty is putting burdens that it's
impossible to bear on a conscience that is weak and faith that is
frail. But preach grace. Preach the
finished work of Christ. Preach the efficacy of atoning
blood, how the blood of Christ cleanses us from all sin. Preach
the resurrection of Christ that shows that what Christ did accomplished
the job Preach justification by imputed righteousness, that
sinners who are his people are counted the righteousness of
God in him, because they are made that very thing by virtue
of what he has accomplished. Preach salvation to the uttermost. Not so far and then you have
to do your bit. No, salvation to the uttermost. And that, that engenders strength
in the soul, strengthens faith. Preaching grace assures the saved
sinner. Preaching grace banishes fear
and doubt. Preaching grace pours balm of
God's peace into the wounded soul and thereby it delivers
strength. strengthen ye the weak hands,
confirm the feeble knees, say to the fearful heart, be strong.
How am I as a preacher going to do that? Preach the grace
of God in salvation to you. I'm not going to tell you which
laws you ought to obey. I'm not going to bring you back and having
shown you the blessed glory of salvation accomplished by Christ
at Calvary, I'm not going to then send you back to Mount Sinai
to find out how you ought to live. under the burden of the
law? Not at all. That won't strengthen
faith. That will only weaken a wounded
hand. It will only weaken a feeble
knee. It will only make a heart more
fearful. Let me give you my own testimony. I remember as a teenager first
coming across the things that were called the evangel, the
gospel, the gospel of Jesus Christ, but it was an Arminian gospel.
And I remember making, under great pressure from an American
evangelist, I remember making an Arminian profession of faith,
you know, coming to my heart, coming today, coming to stay,
coming to my heart, Lord, all this kind of thing, that it was
my decision that achieved that. And you know, I had no, no comfort
in that. I had nothing other than fears
and doubts. Because I thought about it and
I thought, how on earth can it possibly be that on a whim of
mine, I get to go to heaven, and on an equally trivial whim,
the person next to me goes to hell? How can that be right?
That cannot be right. And I had great Arminian doubts.
And I came out of that error, and we found reformed, Baptist,
legalistic, orthodox religion, where we were told there that
Christ has saved you from the curse of the law, but now having
saved you, you must go back to Mount Sinai, and you must live,
you must know that you've been saved by the grace of God, but
you must live as though you are under the law of God. to teach
you how to live, to tell you that you shall not murder, to
tell you that you shall not commit adultery, to tell you that you've
got to give your tithes of your money, you must go back to the
law of God to do all of that. And under legalism, trying to
implement legalism, I found nothing other than self-condemnation,
because my own heart condemned me constantly, because we never
got close to the legal requirements of the law. We never ever knew
anything of peace, But then, when we heard free gospel grace
preached, when we heard the message of this book preached as it is,
without the clouding and the spectacles of the reformed catechisms
and all these things that these men of such stature lay upon
us, these burdens they lay upon us, when the preaching of the
Word of God alone was what we heard, then we found peace, and
we found pardon, and we found strength to grasp the truth. That preaching of grace strengthened
faith to grasp the truth. That preaching strengthened the
knees of faith to walk the life of faith with God. That preaching
strengthened faith to rest in the peace of God, the accomplished
peace of God, to enjoy a good hope of eternal life. What is
it that God says to his preachers? We're going to come to it in
a few weeks. Isaiah 40 verse 1, Comfort ye, comfort ye my
people, says your God. What does God tell his preachers
to do? Warn them and threaten them. Warn them and threaten
them that if they don't live like this then they're going
to lose their reward in heaven and it's going to be terrible
for them. No, comfort my people. Comfort my people, says your
God. Comfort them. Comfort them. Say unto the cities of Judah,
behold your God, comfort them. That's what to preach. What did
Jesus say to Peter? You know Peter who was so hurt
and cut to the heart. that he denied the Lord Jesus
Christ on the night of the crucifixion, the night before the crucifixion.
And then when he's risen and he meets them and they have breakfast
together on the beach before he goes back to glory. And Jesus
says to Peter, Peter, do you love me? Yes, Lord, you know
that I love you. You do. You know I do. And he asks him
again, and what does Jesus say to him? Peter, feed my lambs,
feed my sheep, feed my lambs, feed them! Like you're the good
shepherd, and you're feeding them, you're comforting them.
This is what preachers are to do, comfort and feed. But how
can preaching bring strength into the naturally weak heart?
Just by saying, be strong? Is that how we do it? It's almost
like saying, pull yourself together, isn't it? You know, if somebody's
having a crisis, it's not a great deal of use to them to be told
to pull yourself together. But by preaching grace alone,
and confirming that no strength comes from fleshly resolve, that's
how we strengthen. That's it. We heard a message
by Gabe Stalnica the other evening, and it was about people who are
so inclined to trust themselves. We are, by nature, rather than
trusting in God. No, all strength comes from God. Everything of salvation comes
from Him. There is nothing that comes from the strength of the
flesh, for the flesh has none. When Paul had an affliction in
the flesh, I think it was his eyes, but when he had that affliction
in his flesh he prayed over and again that that affliction might
be taken from him for it was to him so hindering his ministry. And God said to him, he said,
this is 2 Corinthians 12 verse 9, God said to me, My grace,
God's grace, is sufficient for you. My strength is made perfect. How is the strength of God made
perfect? When you realize that there is
nothing other than weakness in yourself. That's how. Most gladly,
therefore, says Paul, will I rather glory in my infirmities that
the power of Christ may rest upon me. Gospel grace alone teaches
the soul to lean wholly on Christ. What do we say? We are the circumcision,
who worship God in the Spirit, who rejoice in Christ Jesus. So we rejoice in and have no
confidence in the flesh. My strength, God's strength,
is made perfect in weakness. He says, fear not, look in verse
four, the middle of it, be strong, fear not. Behold, your God will
come with vengeance, even God with a recompense. He will come
and save you. Everything needful is established. God, the just, will come in judgment
on all sin, just as he comes with a recompense for Christ's
finished work, and that recompense is the salvation of his people.
Is your faith weak to believe God? Is your Christian walk erratic? I know it is. Mine is. I know
it is. Hear the truth of gospel grace
and be strengthened in your soul like David. This is what he said.
He had ups and downs throughout his life. He did some terrible
things as well as being the sweet psalmist of Israel to whom God
communed like he communed with no other man. 2 Samuel 23 verse
5, God has made with me an everlasting covenant. This is on his deathbed.
God has made with me an everlasting covenant ordered in all things
and sure for this is all my salvation and all my desire. Amen.