We're going to be in the 66th
chapter of Isaiah. If you'd like to turn with me
there in your Bibles, Isaiah 66. Angus had mentioned Brian and
Jill being here with us, and I'm so thankful for both of them
and appreciate their willingness to come. We love them a lot, so they're
happy to be here, I know. And also, Jerry Salzberg, I think,
has been with you all twice? Yeah. And Jerry sends his warm
greetings, and he has spoken so highly of all of you all.
I've been anxious to meet you based on his reports. So, Jerry, Lord willing, will
be back here in August for another meeting, so he's planning on
seeing you all then. And your brethren in Orlando,
I like to tell this story briefly. My father was the youngest of
12 children, and his father died when he was
two years old, which was at the beginning of the Great Depression.
So my grandmother was forced to give away all of her children,
and she kept the baby. She kept my dad. So I have grown
up not knowing any of my aunts and uncles or first cousins on
my dad's side. My dad, my father, never knew
his siblings. And I remember when I was about
15 years old, we moved to California and my father met one of his
brothers for the first time. And I was there when they met,
and there was an instant union between them. I didn't understand it at the
time, but I do now, and how warm their affection was for one another,
never having met before. And I tell you that story in
order to say that that's even greater in our relationship because
we have brothers and sisters that we've never met before.
You have brothers and sisters in Orlando, Florida that you've
never met before. And I know that if you met them,
you would love them instantly, as we have already experienced. So they send their greetings
to you and look forward to the day when we shall all be together. Let's ask the Lord's blessings. Our Heavenly Father, we are thankful first and foremost
for our union with the Lord Jesus Christ. The hope of salvation
that you've given us in Him. Not having our own righteousness
which is of the law, but that righteousness which is by the
faithfulness of thy dear Son. We pray, Lord, that you'd be
pleased to exalt him among us tonight, that our hearts, our
minds, our eyes would be drawn to him and that we would be caused
to set our affections on things above where Christ is seated
at thy right hand. We thank you for the fellowship,
the union that you've given us with one another, and the blessed
encouragement that we have as we are able to fellowship in
the Spirit. Lord, we pray that you would
strengthen our bonds of faith and grace with each other and
with you. We ask that you would now open
the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing, Lord. We pray
with our brother Isaiah. Rend the heavens, Lord, and come
down. Make thyself known to us. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. I've titled this message, To
Whom Does God Look? To whom does God look? You notice in the middle of verse
2, in the middle of verse 2 of Isaiah chapter 66, it says, but
to this man will I look. Truly, it is not an oversimplification
to say that the conclusion of every gospel message is look
to Christ. As a gospel preacher, we call
men. The Spirit and the bride say,
come. We're saying with Moses of old,
look, look to that serpent on a pole and you shall live. We've all been bitten with fiery
serpents. There is a brazen serpent that
God has put on a pole, put on a tree, the Lord Jesus Christ,
who has bore all all the wrath of God, and suffered for the
sins of His people, and we're called always to look to Him. But there is something that precedes
us looking to Christ. It's sort of like in Galatians
when Paul said, I remember the passage in Galatians, Galatians
chapter 4. He said, after you have known
God, and then it's like the Holy Spirit stops him as he's writing,
and he says, or rather are known of God. Why would you go back
to the beggarly elements of this world? And so he makes the distinction
of being known by God as being more important than us knowing
God. And it is in that it precedes. For us to know God, He must first
know us. For us to love Him, He must first
love us. For us to look to Him, He must
first have looked to us. And so, this passage of Scripture
tells us to whom God looks. I quoted that passage in our
prayer from Colossians, where Paul said, set your affections
on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of
God. And the Lord has always caused
a calling on us to look. You have your Bibles open to
Isaiah chapter 66. Turn back just one page to Isaiah
chapter 65. And I'll call to your attention
another place where the Lord is calling on His people to look. Now, we, you know, we walk through
this world Drawing attention to ourselves, you know, we we
want to be seen we want to we want people to acknowledge us
But here's what the Lord says look in Isaiah 65 I have sought
of them that asked not for me a bound of them that sought me
not I said behold me behold me and so every time we preach Christ
and Every time the Lord Jesus Christ is lifted up in the preaching
of the gospel, we conclude that message by calling on men to
look. Look to Him. Only in Him do we have life.
Only in Him do we have salvation. But here in our text, the Lord
tells us who it is that He looks to. Who does the, who is the
man that God looks to? And notice how this, how this
passage begins in Isaiah 66 verse one, thus saith the Lord. The
heaven is my throne, and the earth my footstool. Where is
the house that you will build unto me? And where is the place
of my rest? For all these things hath my
hand made, and all those things hath been, saith the Lord. But
to this man will I look." In the first verse of Isaiah
66, the Lord is saying exactly the same thing he said in Psalm
50, when he said, if I was hungry, I wouldn't tell you. He said, the earth is mine and
the fullness thereof, the cattle on a thousand hills, the hills
are mine. The man that the Lord looks to
is the man that depends upon the Lord for everything. for
everything. Man-made religion, false religion,
is all based on God needing something from man. And the truth is that God doesn't
need anything from you and me. Nothing. We need everything from
Him. The next breath that you draw
into your lungs you're dependent upon God for. We don't think
about it, we're presumptuous. That's why David said, God, forgive
me of my presumptuous sins. We presume upon God a lot, don't
we? But the next beat that our heart
makes, we depend upon God for that. Everything we have comes
from Him. And most especially are we dependent
upon Him to give us eternal life. to open the eyes of our understanding,
to unstop our ears, to teach us the gospel, to reveal Himself
to us, and to give us faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
We are completely dependent upon Him for that. And so the Lord
said, where's the house you're going to build for me? What are
you going to do for me? Let the potsherds of the earth
contend with the potsherds of the earth all they want. Let
them talk about how much God needs you to make a decision.
How much God needs you to obey a rule or regulation made by
commandments of men. How much God needs this or God
needs that. That's what human religion is
all based upon. God's done His part. Now you
have to do your part in order to make what God did work for
you. And God says, here's the man that I'm going to look to.
The man that's looking to me for everything. The man that's looking to me
for everything is the man that I'm going to look to. And God's
people do look to Him for everything. They do believe that they're
completely dependent upon Him for everything. But there is
one man who lived in the conscious awareness of that every moment
of his life. He didn't presume upon God for
anything. He depended on the Father for every word he spoke,
every step he took. Everything he did was in perfect
obedience and dependence upon his Father. And that's the man
that God's looking to. That's the man that God's looking
to. And God's saying to you and me, you look to the man that
I'm looking to. He's the one that's acceptable
in my sight. So, to whom does God look? Man by nature sets himself up
on the throne of God, according to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2.
And because he has no love for the truth, he has no love for
Christ, God has sent him a strong delusion that he shall believe
the lie. And the lie is that God needs
something from him. That's the lie. The lie is that
God's in the heavens wringing his hands, wishing that men would
let him have his way. God's done everything he can
do. And now he's waiting for man to come through. And God
says, where's the house you're going to build for me? These things of all... If I was
hungry, I wouldn't tell you. I don't need anything from you.
You know, it amazes me that people get this notion that God got
lonely one day and created man. You know, God is infinite. Let's say for the sake of argument
that man has been around a million years or millions of years. I
don't believe that for a minute, but let's just say for the sake
of argument that he has been. What is that? What is that? How long was God here before
that? Was God in need before man was made? No. No, that's what I am means. I
am means I am self-existent. I'm independent. I'm not derived. I'm not dependent. I'm not contingent
on anything. I exist within myself and everything
else exists because of me. I'm the creator. And it, and
it, and it destroys false religion. False religion is all based upon
God needing something from you. And God's saying here, here's
the man I'm going to look to. The man I'm going to look to
is the man that looks to me for everything. The man who knows that I don't
need him and he needs me for everything. Oh, how dependent,
how dependent we are. Scripture says, of Him, through
Him, and to Him are all things. Now that means that He is the
cause of everything. It means that He is the power
of everything, and that He is the purpose of everything. All
things have been created by him and for his purpose and for his
good pleasure. They are, and they do exist. It's all about him. It's all
about him. That's why David said in Psalm
51, not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name be
glory and power now and forever. You see, it's really not about
you and it's not about me. It's about Him. It's about Him. Here's the one I'm going to look
to. The one who has some understanding that it's all about me. The one
who's not trying to provide me something that I don't need.
The one who's depending upon me for everything. You remember when Mark chapter
10 Peter said, he said, Lord, we've
left everything for you. And the Lord said, no man has
left father or mother or brother or sister that hasn't received
from me a hundredfold in this world. Now, all of us who have
been brought in faith to the Lord Jesus Christ know what it
means to be strained from unbelieving loved ones. The Lord said, your
enemies will be of your own household. God teaches you the gospel and
brings you to Christ. He said, I did not come to bring
a sword. I did not come to bring peace. I came to bring a sword.
A mother against Father against
his sons, brother against sister. Your enemies will be of your
own household. We know something of what that means. But oh, what? The Lord said, you haven't forsaken
anything from me, Peter. Yeah, so you're strained from
some loved ones because of the gospel, but look what I've given
you. You have a hundredfold and in
the world to come eternal life. You've got brothers and sisters
all over the world so that we can travel. You can come to Orlando.
Our home is open to you. Anywhere you find a child of
God, you're going to find a brother and a sister in Christ. The Lord
says, Peter, you didn't do anything for me. Look what I've done for
you. Look what I've done. Who is the
man to whom God looks? the man that looks to God for
everything. And that man, first and foremost,
is the Lord Jesus Christ. Notice in our text, but to this
man will I look, verse two, even to him that is poor. The Lord said, foxes have holes
and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man hath no place
to lay his head. Who was more poor? Who was more
contrite? Who was more humble? Who was
more meek than the Lord Jesus Christ? And God's saying, here's
the man I'm gonna look to. Here's what I'm gonna look to.
Listen to Psalm 86 verse 11. Bow down thine ear, O Lord, and
hear me, for I am poor and needy. Preserve my soul, for I am holy. Now, when David was writing the
Psalms, he was writing prophetically about the son of David, the Lord
Jesus Christ. These words are the words of
Christ. And he says, I am poor, I'm holy, I'm needy, I'm dependent. In 2 Samuel chapter 22, the same
word poor is translated afflicted. And it says, to the afflicted
people will the Lord save. And in Job 34 verse 28, it says,
he hears the cry of the afflicted. And when the Lord Jesus Christ
was on Calvary's cross, he was afflicted. He was poor. And he cried out to the Father,
My God, my God, why'st thou forsaken me? And fulfillment of that prophecy
is Psalm 110. And then he said, Father, forgive
them. They know not what they do. into
thy hands I commend my spirit." The Lord Jesus Christ is that
poor man that God is looking to. The message tonight from
this passage of scripture is look to the man that God's looking
to. Look to Him. God's pleased with
Christ. God is satisfied with Christ. And here's the question. Are
we pleased with Him? Are we satisfied with the Lord
Jesus Christ? Are we looking to the man that
He's looking to? You say, well, how do I know
if I'm looking to Him? Because I understand that God
doesn't need me. God doesn't need me to build
Him a house. God doesn't need me to provide Him anything. I
need Him for everything. Secondly, I am poor. Blessed
are the poor, for theirs is the kingdom of God. And that word
poor means to be poverty stricken. It means you don't have two pennies
to rub together. You've got nothing to offer God.
You don't know anything. You can't do anything. You don't
have anything. You're completely dependent. A poor beggar like
Bartimaeus What was Bartimaeus? Lord, have mercy. Son of David,
he heard about the Lord Jesus. Son of David, have mercy upon
me. What did the people say? Shut up, Bartimaeus. You're embarrassing
yourself and everybody else. You're just a dirty, poor beggar. And then finally someone said,
Bartimaeus, be of good cheer. The master called us thee. And
what did Bartimaeus do? He dropped his dirty robe and
he went to the Lord. Just a poor, naked beggar. Bartimaeus,
what would you have me to do for you? Oh Lord, that I might
see. Open my eyes that I might see.
The Lord gave him eyes to see, didn't
he? Who is the man to whom the Lord
looks? The one who depends upon God for everything and the one
who's poor. the one who's poverty stricken,
the one who has nothing. Psalm 25 verse 16 says, turn
thee unto me and have mercy upon me for I am desolate and afflicted. Second Corinthians, Paul said,
for, you know, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though
he was rich. Oh, how rich is he? We don't know anything about
that kind of riches, do we? Not an experience. Though he
was rich, yet he became poor. That through his poverty, you
might be made rich. Here's the man that the Lord
Jesus Christ is looking to. There's not much about poverty
that attracts our attention, is there? You find a beggar on the side
of the road. We saw one in Sydney the other
day. I wasn't interested to go over there and look. And yet,
we stood in front of this beautiful edifice, the opera house. Well, we took pictures and pictures
and got our attention for some time, didn't we? We don't look
to that which is poor. We look to that which is beautiful
and wealthy. God says, my ways are not your
ways. I'm looking to that which is poor. I'm not looking to the
one who's rich. I quoted that verse in the first
hour from Revelation chapter three of the church at Laodicea,
when the Lord said, you think that you're rich and increased
in goods and in need of nothing, but you don't know that you're
miserable and poor, naked and wretched. Here's the man I'm
looking to. I'm looking to that man who is
poor, the one who thought it not robbery to be equal with
God. He wasn't being blasphemous when
he claimed to be God. He knew he was God, yet he made
of himself no reputation and became a servant. and was obedient
unto death, even the death of the cross. The Lord Jesus Christ
is that poor man who made himself poor. And God says, I'm looking
to Him. And all those that are in Him
understand something of their own poverty. Notice in our text, to this man
will I look, to this man will I look, the man who's looking
to me for everything, the man who is poor, and the man who
is of a contrite spirit. Now that word contrite means
to be stricken or smitten. God Almighty, sheathed the sword
of his justice in the heart of his own darling son. And then
the scripture says, it pleased the Lord to bruise him. When
God found sin on his son, he had no choice but to put him
to death, to strike him, to smite him. Let men debate all they
want about who killed Christ. God killed Christ. He killed
Christ. He killed Christ because he found
the sins of his people on him. And then Zechariah says, when
the Spirit of the Lord is given to the church, to Jerusalem,
and to the inhabitants of Israel, he said, they'll look upon him
whom they have smitten, whom they have stricken. That's our
sin, put on Christ. And they'll mourn after Him,
as one mourneth after his only begotten Son. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
man of that contrite spirit. He's the one smitten of God.
Psalm 34 verse 18 says, The Lord is nigh unto them that are of
a broken heart, and saveth them that are of a contrite spirit. David in Psalm 51. David wrote
Psalm 51 after Nathan confronted him. You remember that Nathan
came to him and told him about a man who had a whole flock of
sheep and he stole his poor neighbor's one sheep and slaughtered it
and gave it to his guest? And David was enraged and David
said, you know, kill him and make him pay tenfold. And what
did Nathan say? Oh, David, thou art the man.
Thou art the one that did this. And David was smitten, wasn't
he? He was stricken. But you know, that was nine months,
at least nine months after David had taken Bathsheba and killed
Uriah. What do you suppose David was
doing for those nine months? He was doing what you and I would
be doing, apart from the Spirit of God. He was trying to atone
for his sins. He was living in guilt and shame. Probably couldn't get along with
anybody. Angry, just on the edge all the time, and going to church
every day. When David said in Psalm 51, if sacrifice and offerings
would have pleased Thee, Lord, that's what he was doing. And
it wasn't until the prophet came and said, Nathan, David thou
art the man. And David said, I have sinned?
And what did the Lord say? What did the prophet say? And
God has forgiven thee. Not because of the sacrifice
and offerings that you made, but the sacrifice and offerings
of God are a broken spirit and a contrite heart. That he will
not despise. Why will he not despise that?
Because he's the one that gave it to you. He's the one that gave it to
you and he loves everything he makes. You ever make something
and you just stand back and just, you just want a glory in it for
a little while. You want to appreciate how much effort and work you
put into it and look at it and want other people to see it.
And you know, isn't that beautiful? That's what God's doing. This is the man to whom He looks,
because He's the one that put that in our hearts. He's the
one that put it in our hearts to depend upon Him for everything.
He's the one that put it in our hearts to see that we're poor,
and naked, and blind, and miserable. And He's the one who smites us
with His Spirit and makes us of a contrite heart. That's what
He did for David. And that's what the Lord said,
it's expedient for you that I go away, for if I go not away, this
comforter will not come. Speaking of the Spirit, it's
necessary that I go away for the Holy Spirit to come. And
here's what the Holy Spirit's going to do when He comes. He's
going to convict the world of sin, of righteousness, and of
judgment, of sin, because they believe not on Me. of righteousness because I go
to my father, and of judgment because the prince of this world
has been judged. And that's exactly what the Spirit of God does in
the hearts of every one of God's people. He smites them. He gives them a contrite heart.
He causes them to say, Oh Lord, I've got so much unbelief. That's
the cause of all my sin. You know, when we were in religion,
every man's got a conscience. And people's conscience that
don't know anything about God, that smites them when they do
something bad. But a man's heart is not smitten
by his unbelief until the Spirit of God comes and causes him to
see that he's an unbeliever. Here's the one that God looks
to. The one who has a contrite spirit. The one who's been smitten
by the Spirit of God to be brought to see that they are unbelievers,
and that they really are their own worst enemy. Who's your worst
enemy? Who's your worst enemy? It's
the guy sitting in the same seat you're sitting in, isn't it? And all of our sin problems are
caused by our unbelief. That's what makes us different
from the Lord Jesus Christ. He believed God perfectly. He
was without sin. He had perfect faith. That's
what the Bible says. Whatever is not of faith is sin. The Lord Jesus Christ, the only
man that ever had perfect faith. He's the only one that never
sinned. And God's saying, here's the man that I'm looking to. The man who's dependent upon
me for everything. The man who's been made poor
in spirit. The man who's got a contrite,
smitten, stricken heart. And notice what else he says,
and the man that trembleth at my word. Oh, the Lord Jesus Christ as
the word of God trembled at every word that God had spoken. He
knew the power of God's Word, and he trembled. When Isaiah went to the temple
in the year that King Uzziah died, he saw the Lord high and
lifted up, and his train filled the temple. And what was the
first word out of Isaiah's mouth? Woe is me. I'm undone. I'm a man of unclean lips, and
I live among a people of unclean lips. My eyes have seen the king.
I'm a dead man. And what'd the Lord do? He sent one of those seraphims
down to the altar, take a hot coal and touch his lips and say,
oh, you've been made clean, Isaiah, not because of anything you did.
I've cleaned you. I've made you acceptable in my
sight." Go and preach this message of
condemnation to Israel. Tell them that they're going
to have ears, but they're not going to hear. They're going to have eyes, but
they will not see. It happens all the time. You talk to people,
people come and they hear you preach the gospel. I love what
Peter said. He said, He said, and this is
the Word of God, which by the gospel is preached unto you.
But religious men will hear us talk, and they'll hear words,
and then they will attach their own definition to those words.
And they think that they're communicating with you. They think they're
on the same page. You know you're not. But they
think they are. And that's exactly what Isaiah
said. That's exactly what the Lord said to Isaiah. And the
one passage in the Old Testament that's quoted most often in the
New Testament is that passage of scripture from Isaiah chapter
6, where the Lord said, they will have ears, but they will
not hear. They will have eyes, but they will not see. But you
continue to preach. And what Isaiah said, Lord, how
long? How long, Lord, do I need to preach this message? If they're
not going to hear, they're not going to see. We just keep doing
it until the cities be wasted without inhabitants and the land
be utterly desolate. Isaiah, as long as there's one
person left to hear, you just keep preaching. Just keep telling
the truth. Oh, a contrite spirit trembling
at the Word of God. We tremble at God's Word when
we see the power of the King, don't we? Men don't fear God. Why would you fear a God that
depends upon you for something? That God ought to be fearing
you. The truth is that the God that men worship is nothing more
than a figment of their own darkened imagination. They've gone into
the idol factory and they've formed for themselves a God that
will worship them. And there's no reason to fear
a God that needs something from you. You remember when David
sent after Mephibosheth? He was poor. He was of a contrite
spirit, wasn't he? He knew that he was dependent
upon the king for everything. Mephibosheth was a cripple who
fell in a fall, who was crippled in a fall, who was the son of
Jonathan. And David asked Ziba, he says,
is there anyone left of the household of Saul that I can show kindness
toward for Jonathan's sake? And that's the reason God shows
us kindness, for Christ's sake. And when Mephibosheth showed
up, he said, go fetch him, go get him, bring him to me. Don't
you know, all the way from Lodabar to Jerusalem, Mephibosheth thought,
this is it. I'm the last descendant of Saul.
I'm the only threat to the throne of David. He's gonna kill me.
And as soon as David saw Mephibosheth, what'd he say? Oh, Mephibosheth. David loved Mephibosheth's father,
Jonathan. And don't you know that when
David looked at Mephibosheth, he saw the likeness of Jonathan?
And he loved him. And what did Mephibosheth say? What would the king have to do
with such a dead dog as I? Why would you show any attention
towards me? Mephibosheth, come here and sit
at my table. hide those crippled legs underneath
my tablecloth and I'm gonna feed you the King's fare the rest
of your life rest of your life what a picture of salvation but
Mephibosheth trembled at the Word of God we tremble knowing that God has
sovereign absolute control we're dependent he said fear not those
who can kill the body Don't be afraid of them. All they can
do is take away your life. Rather fear Him that has power
to cast both body and soul into hell. Fear God. And the thing about it, the beauty
of that is that when you understand that and you come before Him
with a contrite spirit and poor, depending upon Him for everything,
perfect love casteth out fear. They that trembleth at the Word
of God. Oh, how authoritative is the
Word of God. I've given up a long time ago
trying to prove to anybody that the Bible is the Word of God.
That's the work of the Spirit of God. We just declare it. We don't try to prove it. We
don't argue it. We just say, thus saith the Lord. And the only authority that I
have, the only authority your pastor has, the only authority
any man has, is to be able to say, thus saith the Lord. That's
what God says. But what authority to know that
all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for
doctrine, for reproof, for correction and righteousness. A man of God
may be thoroughly furnished unto all good work. None of it is
by private interpretation. Holy men of God wrote as they
were moved by the Spirit of God. We tremble at God's Word. We
don't question. We'll say, well yeah, you know,
you remember the king in the Old Testament that they brought
the scriptures to him and he took his, the scripture says
he took his pen knife and he started cutting out pieces of
the Bible that he didn't like and throw them into the fire.
He didn't tremble at God's Word. We tremble at God's Word in that
we believe every word of it. Every word of it. I have people
say to me all the time, say, well how much of the Bible do
you have to believe to be a believer? A believer, by definition, believes
everything God says. They believe everything God says.
Do they understand it all? No, but they believe it. Truth
is, we don't understand anything we believe. Everything I've been saying tonight,
everything we read, we don't understand the fullness of that.
We don't understand but a fraction of it, do we? We talk about God
being holy. What does holiness mean? What
is that? I don't know. But I know He's other than I
am. I know He's holy, undefiled, separate from sinners. And I
fear making Him like me. David said, you thought that
I was altogether as thyself. And that's what men do. They
fashion a God that's like themselves. They set themselves up on the
throne of God. And God sends them a delusion
so that they believe a lie. The word of God is clear. It's not complicated. It's simple. It's simple. It just means what
it says. And the Word of God is all about
the Lord Jesus Christ redeeming His people. After David was exiled by Saul
out of jealousy, Saul knew that God's hand was on David and not
on Saul, and he was losing control of Israel. Abner Saul's commander realized that
the hand of God was on David and not on Saul and Abner went
to David. And Abner said, I want to make
a league with you. I want to take the army of Saul
and commit it to you because I can see right now that you're
going to be the king and I want to be on the winning side. And
David said, I will make a league with you under one condition. My wife, Michael, has been stolen
from me. You go get her and you bring
her back to me. Otherwise, you will not see my
face. Now that's exactly what God the
Father said to the Lord Jesus Christ. I'll make a covenant
with you, and you're going to see my face under one condition.
Your wife's been stolen. And that's what happened in the
fall. The bride of Christ was stolen by Satan, by sin. And
God sent the Lord Jesus Christ to get his bride and bring her
back. And that's what this whole book's
about. In the volume of the book, it is written of me, for I have
come to do thy will, O God. What is the will of God? To save
God's people. You shall call his name Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins. And that's what it's all about.
And the evidence of that? One of our, I think it may have
been Brian, somebody, we were talking before we left to come
here, and they said, you know, maybe the last of God's elect
is in Australia. And you won't even have to worry
about that 21-hour flight home. Because as soon as the last of
God's elect are called by the Spirit of God, this whole thing's
coming to an end. The only reason this world is
here is for the salvation of God's people. And when God brings
in his last lost sheep, it'll be over. To whom does God look? He looks
to the man that depends upon Him for everything. He looks
to the man who's poor. He looks to the man who has a
contrite, smitten spirit. And He looks to the man who trembles
at God's Word. And that's first and foremost
the Lord Jesus Christ. And we know that we're in Christ
because we can identify with all of those things, can't we?