Shelby had another text message.
I think it was a text message from Celeste today. They hope
to be home by about 9 or 9.30 tonight. They've had a good trip.
Said Claus and Ruth have made the trip very well and they've
had a good time. So we're very thankful. Turn
with me if you will to Isaiah chapter 19. Isaiah the 19th chapter. As God will enable me, I want
to show you some of the wonders of God's grace. Wonders of grace,
that's my subject. Isaiah chapter 19, verses 18
through 25 will be our text. Isaiah's prophecy, chapters 13
through 23, give a prophecy of judgment, stern, righteous judgment. It was a burden to God's prophet,
but it was the burden of the word of the Lord and had to be
delivered. But right in the middle of this
horrible word of devastation, destruction, and judgment, there's
a message of mercy and grace. Let's read it together. Isaiah
19, beginning at verse 18. In that day shall five cities
in the land of Egypt speak the language of Canaan and swear
to the Lord of hosts. One shall be called the city
of destruction. In that day there shall be an
altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar
at the border thereof to the Lord. And it shall be for a sign
and for a witness unto the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt.
For they shall cry unto the Lord because of the oppressors, and
he shall send them a savior and a great one, and he shall deliver
them. And the Lord shall be known in
Egypt, And the Egyptians shall know the Lord in that day, and
shall do sacrifice and oblation. Yea, they shall vow a vow unto
the Lord, and perform it. And the Lord shall smite Egypt,
he shall smite and heal it. And they shall return even to
the Lord, and he shall be entreated of them, and shall heal them.
In that day there shall be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, And
the Assyrians shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into
Assyria, and the Egyptians shall serve with the Assyrians. In
that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria,
even a blessing in the midst of the land, whom the Lord of
hosts shall bless, saying, blessed be Egypt, my people, and Assyria,
the work of my hands. and Israel, mine inheritance. Isaiah was inspired by God the
Holy Ghost to give us a prophecy concerning God's grace regarding
this particular day in which we now live, we commonly refer
to as the Gospel Age or the Day of Grace. He speaks not only
of an elect remnant among the Jews, but of an elect remnant
among the Egyptians and the Assyrians. The text is a prophecy declaring
how that God will gather his elect out of the four corners
of the earth into one fold, the church of God, under one shepherd,
the Lord Jesus Christ. It never was God's intention. I keep stressing this because
we have such a mindset through the barrage of prophecy idiocy
that you hear in our generation. It never was God's intention
that his son should rule over Israel as a nation alone or that
he should gather his elect out of the nation of Israel alone.
There are folks who say that God's promises to Abraham haven't
yet been fulfilled. I challenge you to read the last
two chapters of the book of Joshua and understand the scriptures
that way. Joshua says, I take you to record, there's not one
word that God promised your fathers he hasn't fulfilled this day.
But God's covenant with Abraham extended far beyond Abraham's
physical seed to his spiritual seed. And the promises find their
fulfillment ultimately only in the church of God through the
salvation of God's elect in, by, and with the Lord Jesus Christ. The church of God made up of
a people out of every nation, kindred, tribe and tongue. Now
when you read the Old Testament Scriptures, understand that this
prophecy was written to the children of Israel and given to them during
the age of the church's infancy. Galatians chapter 3 makes it
clear that in the Old Testament the church was as it was a child,
an infant, young. We come to maturity and fullness
when we come to faith in Christ, that is when the gospel is revealed
and Christ our Savior is made known in our hearts. And when
you teach children, I've never taught many, very small children,
but I learned a long time ago the best way to teach children
is to use pictures. They don't like books that don't
have pictures. They don't pay attention to books that don't
have pictures. So children's books have pictures, usually
very simple but very large pictures with a little bit of writing
at the bottom of the page. And Isaiah here uses pictures, beautiful
illustrations as is done throughout the Old Testament in the types
and symbols of the law and the ceremonies of the law and in
the prophecies given just like this. In this gospel age, the
church of God has come to maturity. We no longer need a material
altar. Christ is our altar. We no longer
need animal sacrifices. Christ our Passover is sacrificed
for us. We no longer need an earthly
priest. Christ is our high priest and
we're the priest of God in him. Our Lord Jesus has fulfilled. and has forever put away all
the carnal ordinances of the law, all of them, so that there's
no sense whatsoever in which God's people today worship God
under law, not under the commandments of the law, nor the ceremonies
of the law, nor the rituals of the law, not the sacrifices of
the law, nor the Sabbath days of the law. Christ has fulfilled
it all. We worship God in the Spirit. through faith in the merits of
Christ alone. And in our text, the God of all
grace tells us that he will show forth the riches of his grace
upon the nations of the world. When you think of grace, think
not merely of a attribute of God, though certainly it is that.
Think not of grace as a passion in God's heart that he longs
to see things done according to his grace. That is contrary
to scripture. But grace is the sovereign, effectual,
irresistible operation of God Almighty for and in sinners by
the power of his spirit. Turn back to Ephesians chapter
two, a very familiar text of scripture. Let's read a few verses
together where God describes His grace as we've experienced
it. Ephesians chapter 2 verse 1. Here is grace. And you hath He
quickened, the word is made alive, who were dead in trespasses and
in sins. Dead. That's where grace finds
sinners. Dead. Dead. Dead. A dead person has no feeling. A dead person has no ambition. A dead person has no sight. A dead person has no knowledge. A dead person has no ability. A dead person has no desire.
They're dead. so it is with all men spiritually
when God finds us by his grace you were dead in trespasses and
in sins but very much alive physically wherein in time past ye walked
according to the course of this world That is, you and I, who
are now saved by God's grace, lived in this world just like
all other people by nature, according to the prince of the power of
the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience,
among whom also we all had our conversation, our lives, in times
past. Well, what was our life like?
In the lust of our flesh, that's how everybody lives by nature.
Some, in the lust of their flesh, live moral, upright, religious
lives. Some live exemplary lives of
discipline. Some live lives of debauchery
and drunkenness. Others live other ways. But all
men, all women, have this thing in common by nature. They live
according to the lust of their flesh. Read on. fulfilling the desires of the
flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath,
even as others. Now when you read a passage of
scripture like this, some folks will point to this and say, see,
God changes. You are now the objects of God's
grace, you were once the objects of God's wrath. That is not what
Paul said. He said you were children of
wrath. All men without faith in Christ have the sentence of
condemnation in their consciences, and they have no reason to have
hope of mercy before God without faith in Christ. And they all
live as wrathful children, angry with God, in enmity against God
all their days. God doesn't change. We were never
under God's wrath, we were forever in Christ, and forever we shall
be in Christ, accepted in the beloved, exactly as Paul told
us in Ephesians chapter one. Read on. We were by nature children
of wrath, just like everybody else, but God. That's the only
difference between Don Fortner and anybody out of hell or in
hell today. And that's the only difference
between you and anybody out of hell or in hell today, but God. Except for the intervention of
God, we would all perish. We don't. But God, who is rich
in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when
we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. Well, that looks like when the
Lord Jesus was raised from the dead, we were too. I think that's
what it looks like, don't you? We were quickened together with
Christ, as one with Christ. By grace ye are saved, and hath
raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places
in Christ, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding
riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are you saved through
faith. Grace comes to every chosen redeemed
sinner through faith. Now, somebody reads that and
says, you've got to make your decision, you've got to believe.
As if faith is something that lies within the realm of man's
ability while he's dead in trespasses and sin. It does not. Faith is the gift of God. Read
what it says. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. This salvation,
this grace, this faith is one package. It is the gift of God,
not of works lest any man should boast. The fact is, anyone in
the world who in any way attributes or thinks to attribute salvation
as somehow being determined by his work or his will or his worth,
he will boast in that thing. he'll strut like a proud peacock.
Salvation is not something about which you and I have any right
to boast. It is altogether the gift of
God, for we are his workmanship, his masterpieces created in Christ
Jesus unto good works. He created us unto good works,
which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
I suspect if God before ordained that you should walk in good
works, you will walk in good works, God will see to it. Now
I want to set before you the glory of God's grace by displaying
some of the wonders of God's grace revealed to us in this
book. Let me just give you, give them
two years to go along. Number one, The first wonder
of God's grace is God's purpose of grace in election. Election,
what a blessed, blessed, blessed word. Blessed is the man whom
thou choosest and causest to approach unto thee. Election
is not something by which God shuts some people out of heaven.
Election means that he has opened the gates of heaven and arranged
that a multitude of undeserving, hell-deserving sinners shall
of a certainty enter into life everlasting with his sword. Were
there no such thing as election, there would be no such thing
as salvation. Election's essential to salvation.
Read the first chapter of Ephesians again. All God's blessings come
to sinners through the ages of time according as He hath chosen
us in Him before the foundation of the world. There is no blessedness
apart from election. The election of grace here speaks
of the election of Egypt, Assyria, and Israel. An elect remnant
among the folks in Egypt, and the folks in Israel, and the
folks in Assyria, and in the four corners of the earth who
must be saved. How I thank God for his free,
eternal, sovereign, electing love in Christ Jesus. Some folks say election kills
evangelism. Election kills missionary work. Nothing could be further from
the truth. When Paul was at Corinth in Acts chapter 18, the Lord
God spoke to him by vision and said, speak, hold not thy peace. For I am with thee, no man shall
set on thee to hurt thee. For I have much people in this
city. Nothing inspires evangelism. Nothing inspires missionary work
like election. Election. There's a people in
this world God will save. A people in this world God's
determined to save. Oh, how anxious I am to watch
God do the work. Not only has he ordained whom
he will save, God has ordained the means by which he will save
his people from their sins. pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe." I spent a good while
in the early afternoon talking to a friend I haven't talked
to in a long time, Brother Brant Seekers, who pastors Riverside
Baptist Church in Richwood, West Virginia. He was wanting to know
something about how we do the streaming of the services and
so on. He said, he said, we've just Do what we can to get the
word out. That's what we're to do. Do what
we can to spread the gospel. Using no trickery, no devices,
no deceit, just preaching the gospel. just preaching the gospel
and watch God work. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing
by the Word of God. For that reason, we expend whatever
means and energies God gives us for the furtherance of the
gospel here and around the world. Our missionaries, Brother Walter
Groover, Brother Lance Heller, Dan Parks, these men faithfully
serving the cause of our Redeemer. Oh, pray for them and do everything
you can to assist them. This I know, as I leave here
to go preach the gospel, whether I'm going to some remote, small,
insignificant place in the backside of nowhere, or some large place,
this I know, God will bless the preaching of his word for the
edifying and comfort of his people and for the saving of his elect.
This is his promise. I carry it with me every day.
So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth. It shall
not return to me void, but it shall prosper in the thing whereto
I send it, and so it shall. Here's the second wonder of grace.
The grace of God finds its objects in the most unworthy and most
unlikely of people. When you read this book and you
read about Egypt, what do you think about Egypt? You read about Assyria, what
do you think about Assyria? In all the history of Israel
in the Old Testament, God's people, had no greater, more persistent,
more implacable enemies than Egypt and Assyria. Throughout
their history. But God speaks of a people whom
he will save out of Egypt and out of Assyria and make them
to be with the children of Israel in his kingdom. One people in
Christ Jesus the Lord. The Lord sent Samuel the prophet
down anointed king in the house of Jesse. And Jesse heard the
word, I can imagine his excitement. One of my boys was gonna be king
in Egypt, or in Israel. And he called his sons, beginning
at the eldest. And they came in, those big strapping
men. And the Lord said, that's not
him. And another one, that's not him.
And another one, that's not him. Finally, Jesse gave up, said
the prophet must be mistaken. And Samuel said, are these all
the boys you've got? He said, I've got one more, but
you wouldn't wanna see him. He's just a boy. He's out tending
sheep. Samuel said, go fetch it. And
he called for David. And here comes David, the youngest
of Jesse's son, the least impressive, the least manly looking, the
smallest, the least significant. And the Spirit of God said to
Samuel, arise, anoint him, this is he. God finds his elect among
such things as we are. You see your calling, brethren?
not many wise, not many noble, but God takes the foolish, the
things that are nothing, that no flesh should glory in his
presence and uses such things as we are to carry the treasure
of his grace to his elect around the world, that no flesh glory
before him, but rather he that glorieth, let him glory in the
Lord. Here's the third wonder of grace. Grace teaches sinners to pray. Look at verse 20. And it shall
be for a sign and for a witness unto the Lord of hosts in the
land of Egypt. For they shall cry unto the Lord
because of the oppressors. Anyone can teach a man what to
pray. And anyone can teach a person
to say his prayers. And I don't suggest that you,
parents, should not teach your children to pray. By all means,
teach them to pray, but don't teach them to say their prayers.
Teach them to pray, but don't teach them to repeat words after
you. Teach them to call on God for mercy. But only God in reality
can teach someone to pray. Prayer is the cry of the heart
to God because of God's work in the heart. When the Lord God
promised David what he would do for him and his house, setting
Christ upon his throne, building for him an everlasting kingdom
that should never cease, David said, now, because you have said
this, now I have found it in my heart to pray this prayer
unto thee. Do what you said you'd do. God
teaches his people to pray. And when God puts prayer in our
hearts, then we can pray. And quite honestly, we never
do otherwise. I don't know how to express what
needs to be expressed here. As you know, I never lead anyone
in prayer. We go out to a meal at a restaurant
somewhere. I'm not gonna make a show of religion. I just don't
do it. I don't make a show of religion
for folks. But in our home, Shelby and I
have prayer before we eat a sandwich. We pray. I try to lead our family
in prayer. And I try to lead you in prayer. But usually, my heart breaks
for lack of being able to pray. we repeat words. It's not, Lindsay,
that we don't mean them, but we just, we repeat the same earnest
desires of our heart. And then God gives us the ability
to pray. He teaches us to pray. And once
in a while, in my 50 years of experience in His grace, a few
times I've been able to pray, pray. God, however, always teaches
his people to pray, graciously forcing them to by his work of
grace in conversion. He sends oppressors, sin and Satan and the law. Paul said the commandment came,
sin revived and I died. Then he found himself crying,
Lord, what would you have me to do? "'Twas grace that taught
my heart to pray, "'and made mine eyes overflow. "'Tis grace
that kept me to this day, "'and will not let me go.'" And as
soon as God teaches you to pray, God sends a Savior. That's the
fourth thing. As soon as a sinner cries to
God for mercy, God sends a Savior. It shall be for a sign and for
a witness unto the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt. For they
shall cry unto the Lord. I like the way he put that. They
shall cry unto the Lord. Don't know exactly how to do
so, they cry to him. Because of the oppressors and
he shall send them a savior and a great one and he shall deliver
them. It was grace that appointed Christ
to be our savior. Thou hast laid help upon one
that is mighty. Thou hast exalted one chosen out of the people.
It was grace that sent the Lord Jesus Christ, God's darling son,
in our nature into this world to save his people from their
sins. And it is grace that sends Christ to all who seek him in
the omnipotent power of God, converting his elect to himself. Turn over to Jeremiah 29, let's
read about it a little bit. Jeremiah 29. God promises I'll cause you to
return. He says in verse 11, for I know the thoughts that
I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not
of evil, to give you an expected end. And it didn't look to them
like that was the case. They had been in Babylon for
70 years. But God said, I have thoughts
of peace, not evil. My intention is to give you an
expected end. Verse 12, then shall you call upon me, and you
shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken to you. And you
shall seek me and find me, when you shall search for me with
all your heart. and I will be found of you, saith
the Lord. The Lord God opens a fountain
then for cleansing and uncleanness. And when you're thirsty, you
find water to drink. When you're hungry, you find
bread to eat. When you're lost, you find the
Savior. When you're wounded, you find
the healer for your souls. Oh, what a great Savior He is. He is our Savior who is the almighty,
effectual Savior of His people who can never fail. Here's the
fifth wonder of grace. Grace causes people to speak
the same language. Look at verse 18. The language
of Canaan. Those who are chosen, redeemed,
called, and saved by grace all speak the same language. I don't
mean some of them do and some of them don't. I mean what God
says, they all speak the same language. Wherever you find them,
young or old, they all speak the same language. Men and women,
preachers and folks in the pew, they all speak the same language.
Saved people, saved people do not speak the language of human
merit. They speak about the merits of
Christ. Saved people, not religious folks, saved people, Do not talk
about man's free will, but God's free grace. God's people do not
know the language of human praise, but the language of divine praise.
We speak of God's holiness and man's depravity. We speak of
man's ruin and of God's redemption. We speak of men perishing and
Christ's effectual atonement. We speak of irresistible grace
and sure salvation. Number six, grace causes men
and women to consecrate themselves to God, to gladly, freely give
themselves to God in worship. Verse 19, in that day shall there
be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land, in the midst
of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to the
Lord. The altar of God is in heaven. Christ Jesus, our altar. The altar of God is in our hearts. Christ Jesus is our altar. We
don't have a physical altar. Now, I know that it's customary for
folks to think about altars. We don't have a physical altar. If you come to the front of a
Baptist church, or go to a confessional booth, or go to a place you set
aside in your garden, or you go to Rome and you find an altar,
and you worship at a physical altar, you do not worship God. We worship God in the spirit. The altar is in heaven and in
our hearts. We worship God spiritually. God's
church, in this world is described in this book as the pillar and
ground of the truth. You and I sit here in this place,
established in this place to be the pillar on which sits the
truth of God. The pillar that upholds the truth
of God in our generation. That's our responsibility. We have no other work and no
other responsibility. And God's church in this world
has the pillar of God, God the Holy Ghost, to guide us as a
pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. And it shall
be for a sign and for a witness unto the Lord of hosts in the
land of Egypt. God has put us here in this place,
in this generation. Each of us individually, all
his people individually, and each of us collectively, he's
put us here to be a sign and a witness to the Lord of Hosts
in this land of darkness. to carry the light of his free
grace into this dark world. Number seven, grace instructs
sinners in the knowledge of God. Verse 21, and the Lord shall be known to
Egypt, and the Egyptians shall know the Lord in that day, and
shall do sacrifice and oblation. Yea, they shall vow a vow unto
the Lord, and perform it. This is life eternal, that they
might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou
hast sent. Salvation is knowing God. And the only people who know
God are those who are taught of the Father. Our Savior said,
that hath heard and learned of the Father cometh unto me. All
of them do, and none except they who are taught of God come to
him. Taught of God by his Spirit through
the preaching of the word, sinners converted by God's grace come
to the Lord Jesus Christ because God has revealed his Son in them. The grace of God that brings
salvation. has appeared to all men, teaching
us, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lust,
we should live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world,
looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of
the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. who gave himself
for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify
unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. Teachers, teachers. I remember Brother Hubert Montgomery
telling me many, many years ago, he taught high school for one
year. And he said, I quit after one year because I realized though
I went to school to be a teacher, teachers aren't educated into
it, they're gifted for it. They're gifted for it. And if
you're not gifted to teach, you can't teach. All you can do is
put out the lessons. Teachers who are able to teach,
see to it that the pupil gets the lesson. They see to it that
the pupil gets the lesson. I had a Greek professor, and
he didn't, he didn't much like me, he didn't believe the gospel
of God's grace, but he taught New Testament Greek, and he taught
church history, and he was tough. I mean tough. But if you made
it through the class, you got the lesson. There's no way to
survive without getting a lesson. He saw to it, you got the lesson.
That was his job. God comes teaching. and he doesn't
try to teach. He teaches us. He educates us
to know himself, his son, his way and his ways. The psalmist
said, what shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits
toward me? I will take the cup of salvation
and call upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows unto
the Lord. Now in the presence of all his
people, God's people, being taught of God, take the cup of salvation
from his hand and call upon his name before his people in the
congregation of his assembly. Number eight, the grace of God
makes even trouble and affliction a blessing to his chosen. Look at verse 22. The Lord shall
smite each He shall smite and heal it, and they shall return
even to the Lord, and He shall be entreated of them and shall
heal them. God sends great affliction in
what we call Holy Spirit conviction, that He might comfort His people
in the knowledge of His Son. God sends affliction and adversity
in his providence, and we often fall. And he raises us up. God sends afflictions of grace
in his providence, and he graciously teaches us by them. David said,
before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I've kept thy
word. It's good for me that I've been
afflicted, that I might learn thy statutes. I can't say much
about affliction and adversity. I've known very little of it,
but I can tell you what I do know. I have never experienced any
adversity, any heartache, any trial. any trouble, any difficulty,
that looking back on it, I do not sincerely and honestly give
God thanks that I experienced it. Not a one. In the midst of them, weep. In the midst of them, heavy.
In the midst of them, darkness all around you. And you think,
why God? But the things I do, our Savior
said, thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter. And
it is good enough for us to have his word. When God brings darkness,
it is that he may send light. When God brings trouble, it is
that he may send peace. When God brings storms, it is
that he may send calm. When God brings heartache, it
is that he may send joy, and he always does. This is God's
hands. This is God's gift. By his hand,
by his gift, he gives us trouble, just in measure as we need trouble,
exactly according to what our needs are to learn of him. And
when the trouble is over, Our light of fiction, which is
but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal
weight of glory. Peter says the trial of your
faith is much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though
it be tried with fire. It might be found unto praise,
honor, and glory, at the appearing of Jesus Christ. Not your faith, the trial of
your faith, more precious than gold that perishes, because these
trials, these adversities, no matter what they are, through
which God graciously brings us in his providence, make heaven
more glorious than it could otherwise be. They make heaven more glorious
than it could otherwise be. Two more things, I'll quit. Here's
number nine. The grace of God changes men's
relationships with one another. Verse 23, in that day shall there
be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrians shall
come into Egypt. and the Egyptian into Assyria,
and the Egyptian shall serve with the Assyrians. In Christ,
enemies, implacable enemies are reconciled. Barriers are removed. Israel and, I'm sorry, Egypt
and Assyria were sort of like Iran and Syria today, or Iran
and Turkey today. If they could, they'd slit one
another's throats. But when they have a common enemy, they can
be the best of friends. And that's the way Egypt and
Assyria was against Israel throughout their history. Now, the prophet
speaks of a day, this day of grace, when Egyptians and Assyrians
mingle together with Israelites. And he's not talking about a
physical mingling of people. He's talking about men and women
who are common enemies. Men and women who have nothing
in common. Men and women who oppose each
other by nature. Men and women who wouldn't speak
to each other by nature come together as one in the church
of God, in the body of Christ. I repeat to you what I've said
so often. Because I want you and me to
understand this. The only place in this world
where your education or lack of it, your wealth or your poverty,
your physical appearance, whatever it be, the only place rank and
position and property don't matter. is in the church of God, in the
church and kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. The only thing
that matters here is our Redeemer, His will and His glory. If we allow anything else to
matter, it's an obstacle in the way. When men and women are born again
by God's grace, they love each other and forgive each other. They excuse each other and forgive
each other. They care for each other and
forgive each other. They defend each other and forgive
each other. They provide for each other and
forgive each other. You see, people who are forgiven
learn to forgive. And forgiving folks you care
for isn't hard. Forgiving folks, your love, far
easier than not forgiving them. The Egyptian and the Assyrian
and the Israelite walked together like the three amigos. Ham, cursed of God. But Japheth, the Egyptian and
the Assyrian, he shall possess the tents of Shem. The Israelite
with the God's elect among the Gentiles shall be one people
in Christ the Lord. Now, all right, here's the last
thing. The grace of God makes men and women to be blessed and
makes them a blessing. Verse 24, in that day, shall
Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria. Now watch this.
Even a blessing in the midst of the land. Whom the Lord of
hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt, my people, and Assyria,
the work of my hands, and Israel, mine inheritance. Turn back to
Genesis 12, and I'll wrap this up. Genesis chapter 12. I think I said this to you Sunday.
Abraham is spoken of in scripture as the father of them that believe. God's covenant with Abraham was
one of the first revelations of God's everlasting covenant
of grace portrayed in Abraham. And this is what God says to
Abraham. Genesis chapter 12. Now the Lord had said unto Abram,
get thee out of thy country. and from thy kindred, and from
thy Father's house, unto a land that I will show thee, and I
will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee. I will
bless thee. God's people are a blessed people.
And I will make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing. Grace takes men and women who by nature walk according
to the course of this world and the lust of their flesh, that
means they live selfishly for themselves and makes them a blessing. There's many ways to understand
this. In God's providence, do you know why our neighbors this
way and this way and that way and that way are getting rain
tonight? Because we're here. God causes it to rain on the
righteous and the wicked, but the rain comes for the righteous.
He causes the sun to shine on the righteous and the wicked,
but the sun rises every day for the righteous. The wicked benefit
from having the righteous living among them. God's people are
a blessing to others by their deeds. in their lives as they
go about living for God, other people benefit from it. I don't ever think about doing
business with folks who make a show of religion. I'm always
suspicious. But find me a godly man. A believing
man. I'm talking about a believer.
Somebody who worships God and serves God. I'll take his word
for anything. Just trust him. Don't you want
some paper for this? No. No. Don't need it with you. Don't need it with you. How come? Because God's people live for
God. And if you live for God, you
benefit others. And God's people are made a blessing
to their generation. A blessing to the people around
them by their service. Old John Newton was a slave trader. And on one occasion he was captured
and for a long period of time held by a black chieftain who
was a slave trader in Africa. And she treated him, if possible,
even worse than Newton treated the slaves, he hauled back to
England and Europe and sold in his trade. He finally escaped
from her. And after a while, a good long
while, God saved him. And oh, what a blessing he made
that man in his day and to our day, this one who had been an
influence for nothing but evil all his life, all his life. He wrote the song Ruth sang for
us just a little bit ago, Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that
saved a wretch like me. Amen. Amen. All right,