Well, we were looking last week
at chapter 28 of Isaiah, and we saw in verse 12 the fact that
they would not hear. They would not hear what? They
would not hear the gospel. Yet they refused to hear. They wouldn't hear. And there's
a stubborn blindness in natural man that refuses to hear the
gospel. Even though the gospel is clear.
We have it here in this book. Absolutely amazing is this book.
It really is. Genuinely, it's a miracle. Do
you know why? Because natural processes would have ensured
that this was confined to a pile of dust in a cave somewhere.
But here we have it here. In 2018, we're able to look at
the Word of God as near to our own language as we can get it.
And yet, the natural man is stubbornly blind. La la la, don't want to
hear. Don't talk to me about that.
Talk about anything, but don't talk to me about this. I do not
want to hear about this. Well, we'll change the subject
now. That's something that Christine's heard recently from someone close.
We'll change the subject now, which means, don't talk to me
about that. I don't want to know. I don't want to know, even though
it's the words of eternal life. I don't want to know. Stubborn
blindness, and it's widespread throughout humanity, but no more
so than in religion. You know, there's a lot, even
in this world, this materialistic world, in the Western world,
it's materialistic. but there's an awful lot of religion.
In fact, their materialism is their religion. You know what
they say is the national religion of this country now, the United
Kingdom, it's the National Health Service. Gosh, there's almost
a law of blasphemy against saying anything contrary to the National
Health Service. The people of this country are
just in absolute awe. I know it's a wonderful thing,
it's very good, it's very nice, but you see, it's a religious
thing. And religion, religion, All, especially that that calls
itself Christianity, refuses to hear the gospel. They claim
to read this book. They claim to get their doctrine
from this book and their teaching, and yet they refuse. They refuse
to hear the gospel. Because religious pride takes
a refuge in lies. It hides in lies. We were looking
at that, weren't we, last week. A refuge of lies. It makes a
covenant with hell. I tell you what, you're not going
to do me any harm, are you? No. it refuses to hear the book. In our chapter today, it says
that, in verse 18, it says, in that day, the deaf shall hear
the words of the book, but they refuse to hear the words of the
book. Just think about it for a moment.
Unbelief, unbelief, unbelief. What an offensive thing unbelief
is. Do you know, in our society today,
it's regarded as the as the human right of everybody. It's the
prerogative of sentient beings, people with brains between their
ears, to decide that they're not going to believe. You know,
the most revered man on the television is Sir David Attenborough, and
everybody in the United Kingdom will have seen his programs.
And the photography on them, the filming of wildlife things
and natural wonders. He's absolutely marvellous, it
really is. But yet the views of that man,
as gentle a man as he is, as kind a man as he is, as wise
a man as he is in so many ways, yet when it comes to the things
of God he says, I've looked at it and I see nothing there. He
chooses to disbelieve God. Is that what it is? Is it the
prerogative of sentient beings? Or is it just plain rebellion
and animosity of the creature to his creator? Is it not plain
rebellion? To disbelieve God who's given
you your breath, to disbelieve God. It's just plain rebellion. It's plain animosity. Why do
the heathen rage and imagine a vain thing? They do. Unbelievers
rage against God. They will not have this man,
the Lord Jesus Christ, to rule over them. But the more you see
by grace the truth of God, the more he reveals it to you, the
more outrageous does unbelief appear. Let me just give you
an example from everyday life. You know, the greatest insult
that one country can make to another is to refuse to acknowledge
their legitimate existence. You know, we have not recognized
that country. We don't want to have anything
to do with them. You know what an offense it is to the country
that is snubbed and that the others refuse to acknowledge
them. Well, can you see it slightly? Poor illustration, I know. God
is true. And yet man in his arrogance
and his rebellion says, no, no God for me, no God for me. What
does scripture say? The fool has said in his heart,
no God for me, no God. I'm not having a God to rule
over me. No. Now, when we come to Isaiah 29,
this chapter describes the pride and presumption of religion It
pronounces God's judgment upon that pride and presumption, and
it declares the marvelous work that God accomplishes in spite
of man's refusal and unbelief. So what I want to do this morning
is to break this chapter down into three points. Firstly, God's
indictment. Long word. God's charge. God's
charge against formal religion. Secondly, the accomplishment
of sovereign grace, what God has done by his sovereign grace,
and thirdly, irresistible grace and effectual calling declared. So first of all then, let's look
at God's indictment against formal religion. Verse 1 of chapter
29, woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt. Woe to
them! That's God pronouncing a woe
upon Ariel. What is Ariel? It's the city
where David dwelt. Where's that? Jerusalem, the
city of David. The city where David dwelt. I
know he was born in Bethlehem, but this is the city that he
took over and he built, and that's where the temple was, and that's
where the presence of God was, and that's where the sacrifices
were, and that's where God met with his people. And Ariel literally
means the lion of God. The lion of God? Ringing bells,
the lion of God. Judah is the lion, isn't it? the lion of the tribe of Judah. Judah is a lion's whelp, it says
in Jacob's prophecy about his sons. Revelation 5 and verse
5, John's weeping much because nobody is found worthy to unloose
the seals on the purposes of God for this creation. And one
of them says to him, John, don't weep, for look, look there, the
lion of the tribe of Judah has prevailed. The lion, and he looked
into the midst of the throne of God, expecting to see a lion,
and what did he see? A lamb as if it had been slain. He saw a lion, he saw a lamb
as if it had been slain. What a complete contrast. We've
been up in the Lake District, and we've been looking at the
fells through binoculars, and there's a lovely fell called,
Helm Crag and it's colloquially known locally as the Lion and
the Lamb because on the top of it there are two rocks and one
is a giant rock and the one next to it is a little rock and when
you see it from down in the valley below and you look up it just
looks like a statue of a lion with a little lamb. What a contrast.
He looked expecting to see a lion and he saw a lamb as it had been
slain. It's Jerusalem. where God dwelt. Zion, you know, it was the physical
embodiment of Zion in those days. It was where Christ dwelt with
his people. If they'd seen what those sacrifices
pointed to, if they'd seen what that temple and the Holy of Holies
pointed to, the candlesticks, the showbread, the rites and
the rituals that all had to be done precisely, they'd have seen
Christ, for that's who they spoke of. They spoke, these are they,
said Jesus to his disciples and to the Pharisees, these scriptures,
these Old Testament scriptures are they that speak of me. And
that was Jerusalem. But God says, woe to it. Woe
to it. This was the one place where
God met with sinners, the one place on earth. You say God's
in everything. Yes, this was the one place that
God met with sinners. God is holy and cannot look upon
sin. Man is sinful, every one. They're not innocent and lovely
in their tribes that have never been touched by Western society.
That's a complete contrick of Satan in documentary history. Totally distorted. The fact of
the matter is, wherever you find mankind, you find sin. Wherever
you find mankind, you find sin and rebellion against God. This
place, Jerusalem, was the one place in the world where God
met with his people. And God said, symbolically, he
lived, he resided there, in their midst, in the Holy of Holies,
in the temple at Jerusalem. Of course, God fills the universe,
God's beyond the universe. But symbolically, that's where
he was. And no one could go into that
Holy of Holies because they were sinners except the high priest
once a year on the Day of Atonement with the blood of an acceptable
sacrifice. It had to be the blood of an
acceptable sacrifice. He had to have sacrificed for
his own sins as high priest before he went in there for the people.
And God would accept that. And on the mercy seat above the
Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies, God would speak with
the people. As a man, it says, speaks with
his friend face to face, but only on the basis of shed blood. For without the shedding of blood,
there is no remission of sins. It was all there, picturing Christ.
And year after year, the process was gone through, once a year,
but it became a mechanical handle. and they just turned the mechanical
handle. And they went through the motions
of their religion. It was just turning a mechanical
handle. And no doubt they were very proud
of it. Oh boy, you go into churches
today where there's no gospel whatsoever, and you say something
about there being no gospel there. Wow. If the power would be in
them, they'd line you up against a wall and shoot you for it.
They're so proud of their religion. Look at verse 13 of this chapter,
verse 13 of chapter 29. This is what God says to them.
The Lord said, look, quite clear, wherefore the Lord said, for
as much as this people, the people of Jerusalem, the people of Ariel,
the people draw near me with their mouth, they say the right
sounding things, and with their lips do honor me. They say that
which sounds like it honors God, but have removed their heart
far from me, and their fear toward me, their respect toward me,
That which they genuinely do in the name of their religion
is taught by the precept of men. You look at Roman Catholicism
and you look at the penances that are done and the things
that are gone through by precept of men that is not the true heart
religion of this book. Just like today. Turn to 2 Timothy
chapter 3. 2 Timothy chapter 3. Let me read the first five verses
to you. This know also, says Paul to
Timothy, that in the last days perilous times shall come. We're
living in the last days. The last days have been since
Christ returned to glory and they'll end when he comes again
to end these last days. But perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their
own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient
to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce-breakers,
false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that
are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than
lovers of God, Oh, he's talking about this irreligious world,
isn't he? No, look, having a form of godliness. He's talking about religious
folks as well, probably especially. Having a form of godliness, but
denying the power thereof from such turn away. Why are they
denying the power thereof? Because they're denying the gospel.
They're denying the gospel, the true gospel. For Paul said, I
am not ashamed of the gospel. Why are you not ashamed of the
gospel, Paul? For it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone
that believes. This is religious folks in our
day as well. Religious folks in our day doing
outward forms, but with no heart, true knowledge of God. Claiming
to look like they've got lots of emotion, but having no adherence
to the word, the truth of the living God. What's the point
of all your emotion and all of your excess if it's not true
to the word of God? You know, oh well, we know God
accepts us as we are. No, he doesn't. It's on the basis
of the gospel of his grace and that alone that he accepts people.
You see, they refuse to hear the gospel, yet they refuse to
hear. The Lord gave them up because
of that to willful blindness. You know what it says of Ephraim? It says about Ephraim, he's given
over to his idols. And what does God say? Let him
alone. Leave him alone. Leave him to it. Let him wallow
in it. That's what he wants. He refuses
the truth. Let him wallow in it. He gives them up to willful
blindness and ignorance. Look at verse 10. The Lord hath
poured out upon you, Ariel, Jerusalem, presumptuous, pride-ridden religion. He's poured out upon you the
spirit of deep sleep and has closed your eyes. The prophets
and your rulers, the seers, hath he covered. He silenced his word
among you. And the vision of all is become
unto you as the words of a book that is sealed. which men deliver
to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee. And he
saith, I cannot, for it is sealed. And the book is delivered to
him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray. And he saith,
I am not learned. Scripture is made to them a closed
up book. You say, well, don't they all
follow the Bible? It's just the way you interpret
the Bible. No, it's not. The truth is absolutely clear
in here. But to them, to religion, it's
a closed up book. Their ears are stopped. It's
illegible to them. They're illiterate. They're spiritually
illiterate. And they act as though God can't
see. Look at verse 15. Woe to them
that seek deep to hide their counsel from the Lord. Oh, we'll
hide it from him. He can't see this. And their
works are in the dark, and they say, Nobody sees us. Who seeth
us? and who knoweth us? Surely your
turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter's
clay. For shall the works say of him that made it, He made
me not? What does man say? What does
modern man say? What does even religious man
say? With a product of with a product of random processes of evolution. We're not the handwork of God. He did not make us, you didn't
make us. Or of the thing framed, say of
him that framed it, he hath no understanding, he didn't do this
thing. No, that's what they say. It's as if they're saying, no
God, no God for me. There is no God, there is no
God for me. That is religion in our day, truly. Formal structures,
traditions, temples, sanctuaries as they call them, heritage,
You know, oh, this is what they did in the past and we do that.
Tangible forms, things that you can get hold of. I don't want
anybody ever to get the idea that I put this curtain up behind
me as some kind of religious adornment to this little room.
Not in the slightest. I'm sure there's somebody out
there looking who thinks, oh, he's trying to make it look like
a nice church, even though it's his own house. No, I'm not. I
do it for one reason. If there isn't a dark background
behind me, the camera lens shuts down and you can't see my face.
That's the only reason we do it. We don't do any of these
things for external religious forms. Now, formal structures. Making an outward show, but without
heart. Willfully ignorant of the truth
of God's Word, His Gospel. You know, don't tell me, I don't
want to know. No, we have our ways of doing things, and we
don't want to know your... Oh, isn't that a strange thing?
Why do you do that? Well, this is the way we do things. This
is the way we've always done them. Even those that look and
sound so active are ignorant of God's revelation of true salvation
from sin. They think they do so much for
the cause of God as they see him. But that's their God, who
is not the God of the Bible. The true God of Scripture will
say to them, depart from me. I never knew you. When they say,
didn't we do this in your name, depart from me. I never knew
you. For Jerusalem, physical distress was brought upon them.
In verse two, yet I will distress Ariel, and there shall be heaviness
and sorrow. And he goes on about camping
against them. This was Sennacherib, and the Assyrians came and built
ramps up to Jerusalem to take it, and they were terrified.
And Hezekiah, who was trying to turn the society of Judah
round to the ways of the living God, prayed and God said, don't
worry, they're all going to go away because God would always
preserve his remnant in there until Christ would come in Jerusalem
there. He would preserve his remnant,
his people, the line from which the Messiah would come. He used
the Assyrians, yes he did. He used the Assyrians, they took
away the northern kingdoms, they intermingled them, they went
into captivity. And he says that they will come,
he will bring down Ariel from its hypocritical religious pride,
but he tells us in a moment that he won't destroy the core of
it, his remnant that he has. All empty falsehood that takes
the name of Christian will be brought to nothing, because it's
all part of Babylon. And what does God say to his
people? Come out of her, my people. Come out of her. Babylon is religion
that has committed spiritual fornication, adultery, with the
world of Antichrist. That's what it is. You read it
in Revelation 17 so clearly. And you say, well, that's not
us, is it? Oh, my friends. Oh, that we be counted not among
them. Oh, that we beware of the natural
pride of our own flesh. You know, when Jesus said to
the disciples, On the night in which he was betrayed, he said,
one of you is going to betray me. And what did they all say?
They said, Lord, is it I? Is it I? Or did it be not me? That we don't become complacent
and self-satisfied, even with what we have. You know, when
we left our last church, we were told the measure of our success
will be the size of the congregation that you attract. And we look
around and there's very few of us, but we know there's a big,
And, you know, you look at the numbers of the downloads on Sermon
Audio and the numbers of people subscribing to this live stream,
et cetera, and you say, oh, aren't we doing well? Oh, weren't they
wrong? I tell you, it's dangerous. It's pride. It's the pride of
the flesh. It's the pride of the flesh.
No, no. Beware of the human heart, as
Jeremiah says, Jeremiah 17, verse nine, the heart of man. is deceitful above all things. You deceive yourselves. It's
desperately wicked. Who can know it? And then the
very next verse says, I, the Lord, try the reins. I, the Lord. God knows how desperately wicked
is the human heart. Never forget what the heart of
flesh is by nature. And be vigilant, the scripture
tells us. Be vigilant to watch and defend the truth that we
hold. But don't despair. Don't despair. It doesn't depend on our strength. It doesn't depend on human willpower. Because even here in this chapter,
the accomplishment of grace is assured. Look at verses 7 to
9. Sorry, 7 and 8. And the multitude
of all the nations that fight against Ariel, even all that
fight against her and her munition and that distress her, shall
be as a dream of a night vision. It shall be when a hungry man
dreams that he's eating but he wakes and he's empty, or a thirsty
man dreams that he's drinking and he wakes but he's thirsty,
he's faint, his soul has no appetite. So shall the multitude of all
the nations be that fight against, not Ariel this time, but Mount
Zion. Zion, the city of the living
God. Zion, the true place of God. Zion, the people of God,
the church of God. They will come to nothing, they
will not overcome it. The gates of hell shall not prevail
against it. Our Lord told his disciples when
Peter said, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. On
this rock, on faith, I will build my church and the gates of hell
shall not prevail against it. God's instruments of judgment
against religious hypocrisy, which is what Assyria was, he
says here, they won't touch Mount Zion. What is Mount Zion? Even
there, in the midst of physical Jerusalem, which was subject
to siege, God still had his remnant according to the election of
grace. All of those forces will not touch Zion. This is the triumph
of grace. The grace of God triumphs over
all things. The grace of God cannot be defeated
by all the forces of Satan. Despite the godlessness of man,
despite the desperate wickedness of the human heart and its rebellion
and unbelief, despite the blindness with which Satan has afflicted
humanity in general since the fall, God's eternal purposes
to save a multitude can never be frustrated. They can never
be frustrated. It doesn't matter how fierce
and powerful they look, they can never accomplish their purposes
because what does John tell us in John 1.13 about those whom
God saves by his grace? He says, these people were born,
not of blood, like all men are born, were born not of blood,
nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man. There's
nothing that man can do, either himself or somebody for him.
How were they born then? But of God, of the will of God,
of the will of God alone. You know, we use glibly that
expression, but for the grace of God go I. There but for the
grace of God go I. And people use it so glibly and
they don't mean it, But it is literally true. Why am I a believer
today? Because of the grace of God.
There's absolutely no other reason. It's because for some reason
known only to him, his own good pleasure, he chose me in Christ
before the foundation of the world. And he put me legally
and in a in a sort of a marriage bond. Well, sort of, no, really,
a marriage bond. The bride of Christ. He put me
in there and all others who believe Christ with Him before time began. And in time He came and paid
the penalty for the sins of those people that we might be made
the righteousness of God in Him. He did it, He was made it that
we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. That we might
be the bride for the Son of God, the bride of Christ. to be taken
to be with Him, to be in glory with Him, to be out of this world
of sin and in the endless, eternal, blissful presence of God. And
we declare the sovereign grace of God. That's what we declare. That's what it is to preach the
gospel. We declare. Our hymns have been about singing
about the sovereign grace of God. Not just lip service, but
declaring it. This is our message. This is
the truth of God. This is what God has revealed.
Sovereign grace. We declare it. We don't try the
power of human schemes to persuade men to accept our religious offers. That's not what we do. Read the
article in the Bulletin. That's not what we do. It sounds
so plausible, but it's utterly false. Yes, we persuade men and
exhort them to come to God while it's the day of salvation. That's
what 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verses 11 to 20 tell us to do. We plead
with men, we persuade them, look, listen, listen today while it's
the day of salvation. But we always know that the power
is in God's control alone. God's control alone. You see,
All the time that religion acts in hypocrisy, verse 17, look
at this. We've had all this about Ariel,
Jerusalem, acting in hypocrisy, but look in verse 17. Is it not
yet a very little while, and Lebanon? Lebanon? Them? Lebanon? shall be turned into
a fruitful field. He's talking about spiritually.
He's talking about the Gentiles of Lebanon next door to the Israelites. Oh, they've got the truth. Oh,
Ariel has the truth. Yet Lebanon, the next door Gentiles
shall be turned into a, where you have not been fruitful because
of your unbelief. Lebanon shall be turned into
a fruitful field and the fruitful field shall be esteemed as a
forest. There's going to be loads of it. Lebanon, shall be turned
into a fruitful field." What does God say elsewhere? Is it
consistent with what he says elsewhere? Hosea 2, 23? You know, Hosea was the prophet
who God told to go and marry a whore, a prostitute, because
he said that's such a picture of him and the people that were
supposed to be his bride, the nominal people of Israel. And
yet they committed spiritual adultery. They committed spiritual
fornication with all the false religion all around them. And
in Hosea chapter two, verse 23, this is what God says. I will
have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy. Those that
were Gentiles, those that were not Jews by nature. And I will
say to them, which were not my people, not Jews, you are my
people. And they shall say, you are my
God. Is that not what he does? He
brings the Gentiles to a knowledge of the truth and of the gospel
of His grace. Beware, you proud religious folk
who think you're doing so much for your God. It's all around
us in this day because God says here that He will raise up people
to praise Him from the most unlikely sources. He'll raise up living
stones in His temple, His house, from the most unlikely of human
quarries. He will. He will. You say, ah,
well it won't happen here. Oh, it won't happen in this place
in Britain. Oh, there's no chance there. What, in these days? Yes,
there is. Yes, there is. Oh, what about
these ones and twos that are entirely on their own? What about
those that are meeting in the most unlikely countries, in the
most unlikely societies? But even there, I know some of
you are probably out there at this very moment and I'm thinking
of you in the most unlikely society, the most liberal, unchristian
society in a sense. And yet, there, God has his people
who he calls out of darkness into his marvellous light. He
doesn't call you into religion and outward form. I bet there's
plenty of that around you. No, he calls you to the truth
of the gospel of his grace. He will have the marriage supper
of his son in glory, furnished with guests. You know, in the
parable, go out and invite them in and they couldn't, they all
made excuses. Oh, I've got this to do and I've got that to do.
Oh, I've just bought a field. I need to go and look after it.
Oh no, my dad's died. I need to go and bury him and
this, that and the other. No, he says, His banquet, the banquet,
the marriage supper of the lamb of his son shall be furnished
with guests from the highways and the byways. Now, how does
he do it? He told them to go out and to
call them and to compel them to come in. And that's the final
point. It's an effectual call. It's a calling that works. I
know very well what is a calling that doesn't work. 30 odd years
ago, up in Barrow-in-Furness, we had a boxer dog. and she was
a very boundy, lively animal, and we used to go down on the
great big long beaches there. If they had the weather there,
it would be crowded with high-rise hotels, because it's got the
most wonderful sandy beach for miles and miles and miles. The
problem is that about 350 days a year there's quite a cold wind
blowing in off the sea. When it was nice, it was absolutely
beautiful. And we used to always take the dog down on the beach,
and the dog used to love running after things. When she got it
in her head that she was having the time of her life, I used
to call her to come, and my call was utterly ineffectual, because
she completely ignored me. She had absolutely no interest
in coming home. And it's very difficult, because
when they do finally come back, you can't punish them, because
they think you're punishing them for coming back. It was a very
difficult situation. My call was ineffectual. But
you see, all that God chose before the beginning of time, and those
for whom Christ, the same ones, came into the flesh in a body
prepared so that he might die the death that was due to his
people at Calvary, to redeem, to pay the price of the law's
curse for them, being made a curse for them, those whom God, because
of that, has now fitted and qualified and made the righteousness of
God in him, whom God will bring to eternal glory, each and every
one of them, in time, in their experience, in the day that God
appoints for them, they all must hear the call of the gospel. They all must have a preacher
come and preach the truth. This is God's way. This is God's
way. The preacher might be in a book. You might be reading
the book, but it's by the foolishness of preaching that it pleased
God to save those who believe. By the foolishness, he sends
a preacher to you. I can remember distinctly the
preacher above all others that spoke to me. And he's the same
preacher that spoke to loads of people I know. And he's a
lovely old man and he's a great servant of the living God. And
I love that man for that very fact that he preached the gospel. And in each and every case, there
is a man sent to preach to those whom he calls. How shall they
hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they're sent? Because if they're to call on the name of the Lord
and be saved, they must hear the gospel. They must hear the
truth of Jesus Christ. They must believe on Jesus Christ.
And then they will call. but it needs a preacher. All
must hear the call of the gospel in time, and they all must come
to Christ believing the gospel, and they shall come. Chapter
27, verse 13. In that day, the great trumpet
shall be blown. The result? And they shall come. They shall come. They shall come. Now look at verse 14. Behold, This is of chapter 29. Behold,
I will proceed. This is God. I will proceed to
do a marvellous work among this people. A marvellous work. It's a marvellous work of grace. A marvellous work of grace. It's
God's work. These are very precious words,
these. The gospel of God is his marvellous
work. You know, what has he done? Creation.
Wonderful, wonderful. But what is his marvellous work?
It's the gospel of His grace in saving sinners from their
sins. Of God being just, strictly just, absolutely holy, and yet
being the justifier. of the ones whose trust is in
the Lord Jesus Christ. Making them right with God, that
one. He said, I will do a marvellous
work and wonder. Why? For the wisdom of their
wise men shall perish and the understanding of their prudent
men shall be hid. I'm sorry if something's gone
wrong with the thing, but it looks like something's gone wrong
with the picture at the moment. No, maybe it's come back, yes.
Sorry if there was a slight break there. Those are words that Paul
quotes in 1 Corinthians chapter 1 about not many wise men, according
to the flesh, not those people, not those, but God calls the
ones that the world despises. And when does he do it? It says
in verse 18, in that day. We've seen that before, haven't
we? What is that day? It's the day in the experience
of every individual, it's the day of God's power. In the experience
of everyone, without exception, there is, there will be, a day
when the power of God will be experienced, and it will either
be for good or for bad, either for life or for eternal death. When the gospel is preached,
Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 2, 15 and 16, we are unto God
a sweet saver of Christ in them that are saved and in them that
are perished. To the one, those that are saved,
we are a... sorry, to the one, those that
perish, we are a saver of death unto death, and to the other,
those for whom The preaching is a sweet savour of Christ unto
the other, a savour of life unto life. So what makes the difference? Surely, and only, the sovereignty
of God. In that day shall the deaf hear
the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out
of obscurity and out of darkness. The meek also shall increase
their joy in the Lord, And the poor among men shall rejoice
in the Holy One of Israel. Those who are deaf by nature
to the things of God. We all are by nature. The flesh
is deaf by nature to the things of God. Those who are deaf shall
hear the words of the book. Which book? This book, the scriptures. What do they contain? The gospel
of God, the good news of salvation. Those who are deaf by nature
From amongst the whole of humanity, those who are brought to know
their deafness by nature shall hear the gospel. Those who are
blind by nature, what does the New Testament say? The natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, they're
foolishness to him, neither can he know them. Why? Because they're
spiritually discerned. In the new birth, the Holy Spirit
gives spiritual discernment, faith. to that which had none
before. And those who are deaf by nature
shall hear the words of the book. Those who are blind by nature
shall see out of their natural darkness, their natural blindness,
their obscurity and their darkness, enabled to see. out of their
naturally blind condition, that which only the eye of faith can
see. And those that are made meek
by God's grace, those who are made meek by God's grace, those
who are brought down by the Holy Spirit showing them, a sinner
is a sacred thing, the Holy Ghost has made him so, showing them
what they are before the holiness of a holy God, brought down from
their high tower, of self-righteousness. We had a detour to Dudley on
our way home from the North yesterday, and we went to meet with friends
there while Don Faulkner preached in the afternoon, 3.30 in the
afternoon. And he brought a wonderful message, excellent message. But
it was so good to meet with friends that we see probably once a year,
sometimes twice a year. And many of them were there,
very many, and lovely conversations, it really was. And the most unlikely
people you come across there as well. And they're all people
who've been made meek by the grace of God. They're all people
who were blind but now see. the things of the living God.
Most peculiar how God works. When we were waiting we were
the first there and another man came in and we said hello and
I asked if he was from there and he said yes he's a regular
member of that church and then We said that we'd been, we were
on our journey from the north down to where we live in the
south. And he said, oh, whereabouts? And I said, we'd come from Milnthorpe
and we're going to Wellingarden City. And he said, oh, do you
know a place called Burton in Kendal? Well, that's the village
I grew up in. I said, that's interesting. He said, my grandparents
lived there. Did you know them? Mr. and Mrs. Winstanley. That was my headmaster
at primary school. That was my head, when I was
five to 11 years old, Mr. Wynne Stanley, his grandfather,
was my head teacher at primary school. You see how the grace
of God works in the most unlikely cases. And we had lovely fellowship
with those people yesterday, and every one of them, at one
stage, had been an arrogant unbeliever, like I had. And yet, God had
brought them to meekness, the meek, down from the high tower
of self-righteousness. brought to rejoice in Christ
Jesus and to trust in him alone with no confidence in the flesh,
shown their natural poverty in the things of God and in eternity
and righteousness and finding all of them, everything that
we need in Christ, who is the Holy One of Israel. Verse 19,
rejoicing in the Holy One of Israel, like Mephibosheth. Remember
him? The son of Jonathan, who was
lame in his feet and the whole house of Saul the kingdom under
David they wanted to destroy everybody that had been in the
household of Saul because they fought so much against David
and David said I want to find somebody of the house of Saul
to show grace to and they found Mephibosheth and they brought
him in and he was poverty stricken and had nothing even though he
was by birthright a royal son And David brought him in and
showed him grace and brought him to the table and he said,
you will forever eat at my table. He showed him that favour. That's
what it is to be brought down from that high tower to delight
in redemption. Look at verse 22. Therefore says
the Lord who redeemed Abraham. He shows his people the redemption
shown to Abraham, the same one, and that's why we're children
of Abraham, by faith. Learning whose work we truly
are. He says here, look, the work of mine hands, verse 23,
when he sees his children, it's God's work to make his children. Ephesians 2, verse 10, For we
are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works,
which God before hath ordained that we should walk in them.
We all by nature, verse 24, erred in the spirit. We all erred in
the spirit and murmured against God. We all did that. But by
grace, he brings his people to understand the eternal truth
of salvation. Has he brought you there yet?
If he hasn't, if he hasn't, then while it is still the day of
salvation, what does his word say? Seek the Lord while he may
be found. Call upon him while he is near.
He won't turn you away. He'll bring you. You shall find
rest for your souls. He has promised you shall find
rest for your souls.