Well, I'm sorry so many could
not be here tonight. Thankful you are. And I believe
God's given me a message for you. Turn with me to Isaiah chapter
11. Isaiah chapter 11. In the 10th
chapter of this prophecy, God's servant Isaiah assured Israel
of the sure and complete ruin of the Assyrians. the Assyrians
whom the Lord God himself had raised up to chasten, afflict,
and purge his church. He assures the redeemed of the
Lord of the certain deliverance, the certain and sure salvation
of his elect remnant. He promised to gather them to
himself and to take away the yoke of the oppressor. Now in
chapter 11, our text this evening will be verses one through nine.
In this chapter, the temporal deliverance of his church from
the Assyrians, which was intended by God to be a picture, a type,
a representation of the salvation of God's elect by Christ, our
redemption and deliverance from sin and Satan and death and everlasting
salvation by the Lord Jesus Christ, the woman's promised seed, our
Messiah. And here in chapter 11, the prophet
moves from the temporal picture to the spiritual reality. This
entire chapter, these 16 verses of scripture, speak of our blessed
Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a prophecy of the coming
of the Messiah, the Prince, He describes both the character
of Christ our Messiah, our King, our Savior, and the blessed efficacy
of all His work. In these 16 verses of Scripture,
God the Holy Ghost again identifies God's Messiah, His Kingdom, and
His people. Now understand this at the outset. The kingdom of God is a spiritual
kingdom, a kingdom of grace in the hearts of men. The kingdom
of God is a spiritual kingdom, a kingdom of grace in the hearts
of God's elect. This portion of scripture is
a prophecy not of some earthly, material, millennial kingdom
to come in the end of the world, but rather of this gospel age
and the church of God in which we now live. It is the kingdom
of God into which men and women are born by his spirit when they're
born again. Back when I was 21 years old,
I hadn't been pastoring for very long. And we had a, uh, what
they used to call a fellowship meeting with several churches
and associations of churches. The church was in and lookout.
And, uh, that on those days they had appointed preachers from
the fellowship and appointed men to teach Sunday school class
for the adults. And, uh, I was sitting on the
first or second row and the teacher of the class made this statement.
He said, the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven and the
church and Israel are all different. Isn't that right, Brother Fortner?
And I just sat there quiet. I didn't want to cause too much
difficulty. And then he said the same thing again. Isn't that
right, Brother Fortner? And I said, no, John, that's
all wrong. The kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven and
the church of God and the Israel of God are all talking about
the same people. It's talking about those who
are God's elect, God's redeemed, God's covenant people in whom
he dwells by his spirit and we are born into this kingdom. Before
we look at our text, turn to John chapter three. I want you
to see this. John chapter three. Jesus answered and said to Nicodemus,
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he
cannot see the kingdom of God. Except you're born again, you
can't see the kingdom of God. He's not talking about something
you see with your physical eye. He's talking about spiritual
knowledge and understanding. Verse 4, Nicodemus saith unto
him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second
time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered, Verily,
verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of
the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. We enter
the kingdom by the new birth, for that which is born of the
flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit.
Marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again. Now tonight I want us to look
at the first nine verses of Isaiah chapter 11, and we'll look at
them line by line. And I want to show you five things
clearly set before us in these nine verses. Number one, In verse
1, Isaiah describes the advent of God's Messiah in this world. And there shall come forth a
rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of
his roots. Isaiah has already shown us the
divine nature of Christ, our Redeemer. He who is the Christ
of God is himself God, the eternal son. He is the son given by means
of the incarnation, by the virgin birth, given to redeem and save
his people from their sins. Back in chapter seven, verse
14, Isaiah said, therefore the Lord himself shall give you a
sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and
shall call his name God with us. God in our nature, Emmanuel. Chapter 9, verse 6. For unto
us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government
shall be upon his shoulder. and his name shall be called
Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father,
the Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government
and peace there shall be no end. upon the throne of David and
upon his kingdom to order it and to establish it with judgment
and with justice from henceforth even forever. The zeal of the
Lord of hosts will perform this. This one who comes as God's Messiah
is God. But this one who comes, comes
as a man. God in our nature to sit upon
the throne of universal monarchy as our mediator, but it's here
described as the throne of David. It's not the throne of David.
The kingdom of God doesn't have some reference to some Millennial
age in which the Lord Jesus is gonna come and reestablish worship
in Israel and reestablish a temple and Jewish priesthood and all
that nonsense and sit on a throne over in Jerusalem. That is utterly
ridiculous and it is nowhere taught in scripture. Here in
chapter 11, God's prophet tells us about our savior and his kingdom. Here he describes for us our
Lord's earthly parentage. His ascent from among men as
the Messiah, the Christ of God, is that of a man. A man in due
time who came into this world out of the house of David. We're
told in Romans chapter 1 that the gospel we believe and preach.
The gospel of God concerns His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, which
was made of the seed of David according to the flesh. But here
in Isaiah 11, 1, the prophet speaks of our Lord's humiliation.
God didn't send his son in pomp and pageantry, but in humiliation. And yet he came from the royal
house of David as a direct lawful heir to the throne of Israel,
so that he is that one of whom the Lord God spoke to David and
said, you will never lack a man to sit on your throne. Jesus Christ is that man. Again,
hold your hands here and turn to Acts chapter two. Acts chapter
two. This is the day of Pentecost.
Christ is risen. He's ascended. He's seated on
the right hand of the majesty on high. And now he pours out
his spirit upon his church as Joel said he would. And Peter
explains to us what's taken place. Verse 30. Therefore, being a
prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him,
that of the fruit of his loins according to the flesh, he would
raise up Christ to sit on his throne, he seeing this before
spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not
left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption. David said
that in Psalm 16. But he's speaking of Christ.
This Jesus, verse 32, hath God raised up whereof we are all
witnesses. Therefore, being by the right
hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise
of the Holy Ghost, he has shed forth this which you now see
and hear. That is, these things that transpired
here have taken place because David, that is, David's great
son and David's Lord, has ascended upon high. Look at verse 34.
For David is not ascended into the heavens, But he saith himself,
The Lord said unto my Lord, Set thou on my right hand, until
I make thy foals thy footstool. Therefore let all the house of
Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus, whom
ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. Back here in Isaiah
11.1, our Savior is called a rod and a branch. Both words represent
a weak, small stem, a tender twig or a sprig, something that
might be easily broken, something that seems insignificant. Isaiah uses these words by inspiration,
for he speaks of our Lord's real humanity and the humility with
which he came into this world. Here Isaiah tells us that our
Lord Jesus arose from the stem of Jesse. Why did he say Jesse? Why not David? Jesse was David's
father. So that's the same thing? Not
quite. You see, Jesse lived and died in obscurity. His family
was of no importance, was of no significance whatsoever in
this world. David was ridiculed in 1 Samuel
22 by his enemies. They said, thou son of Jesse. It was just an insignificant
nobody from nobody. Jesse is that one who's named
here because God sent his son into this world, not through
pomp and ceremony, but through the stem or the stump of Jesse's
house. By the time our savior came into
the world, The royal family of David had been reduced to a lifeless,
hopeless, insignificant stump. Joseph and Mary, though they
were heirs of David, had nothing to inherit. They were in utter
poverty. Our God sent his son into this
world in such circumstances to teach us that the wealth and
honor of this world are contemptible to him. and they ought to be
to us. The wealth and honor of this
world are contemptible to God and they ought to be to us. God
teach us to quit seeking great things for ourselves. God teach
us rather to seek his great grace, his mercy, and his honor. He
did this to teach us that his kingdom is not of this world. The Church and Kingdom of God
do not depend upon anything that can be given by the arm of the
flesh. They say, well, you've got to have money to keep things
going, you've got to have gifts to have the building to do this,
to do that, to do the other. God supplies what God supplies
through the free, generous giving of His people. But God's servants
and God's church, you'll never see them on their knees begging
for anything except from God himself. Not gonna happen. I
know folks have all kinds of rummage sales and bake sales
and stuff to raise money and all that nonsense and do everything
we can to raise money for missionaries and raise money for this thing
or that. God's church, God's kingdom is not of this world. and does not depend in any way
upon the arm of the flesh. It is altogether spiritual and
it is maintained by the good hand of God in his providence. Anything done by which to lean
on the arm of the flesh degrades the gospel and brings God down
to the level of man. And in this place, God giving
us grace, it will not happen. And he intends to teach us by
this, that earthly power and riches have nothing to do with
the success of God's cause. Now, these are lessons hard for
us to grasp because we live in this body of flesh. Lindsay has a business. You men
are involved in business, one kind or another, and you have
to make things work. You got to figure out how to
make ends meet, how to meet the payroll, how to keep things going,
how to make progress. That's altogether right in the
business world. If you're in business, you work,
you ought to be the very best at it you can possibly be. Understand
that. But that's not how God's church
functions. That's not how it functions.
God's church functions by faith, trusting God, looking to him,
leaning on him. And the fact that men build religious
organizations, huge and impressive, so that they are applauded by
men for their great success, is no indication of success in
the things of God or of God's blessing in what you're doing.
Earthly power, earthly riches, have nothing to do with the success
of God's calls in this world. All right, second, in verses
two and three, Isaiah describes the anointing of Christ as our
prophet, priest, and king. He came into this world from
the root of Jesse, that insignificant family in Israel. But he comes
into this world with a rare special anointing. Verse 2. The Spirit
of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of
the fear of the Lord, and shall make him of quick understanding
in the fear of the Lord. And he shall not judge after
the sight of his eyes, need to reprove after the hearing of
his ears. Now wait a minute. We've just
seen in chapter seven and nine that this one who is God's Messiah
is God himself, but he has the spirit of the Lord to rest on
him as a spirit of wisdom and understanding and counsel and
might and knowledge in the fear of the Lord. How can this be
talking about one who is God? This one is really a man. And he lived in this world as
a man in the perfection of humanity, believing God as a man for his
people, and he was anointed with the Spirit as a man. Again, in
chapter 10, Isaiah told us that the means by which God would
accomplish the salvation and deliverance of his elect, down
in verse 27, is by the anointing. And here he tells us what that
anointing is. No prophet, no priest, no king
in Israel in the Old Testament was qualified for his work without
special anointing from God. And the Christ qualifies for
his work as prophet, priest, and king in Zion by the anointing,
this special anointing. In the Old Testament, you'll
be getting to it in a few weeks, as Lindsay continues through
the Book of Exodus, God commanded Moses to make special anointing
oil. And that oil was to be used in
the anointing of the priest, anointing in the ceremonies of
the service of the tabernacle and of the temple. That anointing
oil represents God the Holy Ghost, this special anointing. The Spirit
of the Lord shall rest upon him. John, how do you know that this
man is the Lamb of God? How do you know this is the Messiah? He said, because I didn't know
him. I was his first cousin, but I didn't know him. But the
one who sent me to baptize said, you're gonna see the Spirit descend
from heaven on him and abide on him. And I saw it, this is
he. The Spirit of God descended upon
our Savior at His baptism when He began His earthly ministry
and abode on Him. Our Lord Jesus in Luke 4 quotes
from Isaiah 61 and says, the Spirit of the Lord God is upon
me. It was by and is by the special
anointing, this unction of the spirit, that Christ Jesus executes
judgment in his kingdom. That was the truth, or that was
the experience observed while he walked on this earth. That's
the way he executes judgment today, and that's the way he
shall execute judgment in the last great day, by this spirit,
this holy anointing that's upon him. As a man, now listen carefully,
I wrote this down, I looked at it, I've got to make this clear,
understand this. As a man, our Lord Jesus needed
the ministry of God the Holy Ghost just as much as we do,
that he might know and do his Father's will. You and I cannot
separate Christ's divinity from his humanity. And yet he clearly
shows us distinctions. He speaks of the day of his coming.
What did he say? He said, of that day and of that
hour, no man knows. Nobody knows what he's going
to say. Not even me. What? He's God. Omniscient. Yes, but as a man. As a man,
our Lord learned. As a man, our Lord grew. As a
man, our Lord was taught. He is a real man. He needed the
ministry of the Holy Spirit just as we do, that he might know
and do the Father's will perfectly. He received all the fullness
of the Spirit as our head and representative. Turn back to
Psalm 130, I think it is, 133. Yeah, Psalm 133. This anointing, when Moses anointed Aaron, he
poured oil on his head. Now here in Psalm 133, the psalmist
is speaking about the blessed, blessed unity of God's church,
God's people, as they worship together at the altar of God.
And he says in verse 2, it is like the precious ointment, the
precious anointing oil upon the head that ran down upon the beard,
even Aaron's beard, and went down to the skirts of his garments. What an unusual expression by
which to describe the blessed unity of God's church. It is
like the anointing, the anointing that God put on Aaron's head
and it ran down on his beard. Aaron the high priest wearing
the names of the children of Israel as a representative of
all God's people and the anointing oil runs down to cover his whole
body on the skirts of his garments. That's how we receive the Spirit
of God. By Christ, this one who is God's
anointed, we too have the anointing. The Spirit of God abode upon
our Savior throughout His earthly life as the Spirit of wisdom
and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit
of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. So that our Lord Jesus,
we're told in Hebrews 5, 7, was made perfect through the
things which he suffered. so that all he experienced in
this world are those things that made him not perfect in the sense
of holiness and righteousness, but perfect, complete as a man. And our Lord, as he walked through
this world with the Spirit of God upon him, walked through
this world as a man under the unction of the Spirit. We who
believe on Him receive the Spirit from Him and with Him exactly
in the same areas from the fullness of Christ our Lord in order to
order our steps in this world. It was this special anointing
of the Spirit that gave our Savior as a man such wisdom and understanding. Look at verse 3. And the Spirit
of the Lord shall make him a quick understanding in the fear of
the Lord. And he shall not judge after
the sight of the eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of
his ears. Our Savior, we're told, grew in wisdom and stature as
a man. As a boy, he learned to walk. And as a boy, When he's just
12 years old, he's in the temple disputing with the religious
heads of Israel. I'm talking about these were
the national theologians. These were the fellas who ran
the best colleges. These were the teachers in Israel.
He's in the temple teaching them because the spirit of wisdom's
upon him. He knew his father's will. He said to his mother and his
father, Didn't you know I must be about my Father's will? Because
the Spirit of the Lord was upon him. And as a man, he judged
and reproved with supernatural discernment again and again and
again. He read the minds of men. He
heard the thoughts of their hearts. He heard their murmuring in secret
and discerned, not at the eye, nor at the hearing of the ear,
but by the Spirit of God residing upon him. How much more you and
I should continually beg grace of God that we sinful worms saved
by His grace might be filled with the Spirit of God at all
times so that in all things we might honor God. Oh God, teach
my lips to speak by your Spirit. Teach my mind to think by your
Spirit. Teach my heart to judge all matters
by your Spirit, so that in all things I walk before you in the
steps of my Redeemer, honoring my God. All right, here's the
third thing, verses four and five. Back in chapter nine, of
the increase of his government, there shall be no end. Here in
verses 4 and 5 of chapter 11, Isaiah describes the administration
of Christ's government as Lord and King over all things. But
with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity
for the meek of the earth. And he shall smite the earth
with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall
he slay the wicked. and righteousness shall be the
girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins. Our
Lord Jesus judges nothing according to appearance, but rather his
judgment is always righteous as well as wise, equitable as
well as prudent. in the administration of all
the affairs of providence and grace, of judgment and wrath,
the Lord Jesus Christ, the King of the universe, always does
right. He always does right. Let us quickly repent of every
thought that was said in judgment of Him. and let us rather bow
to his judgment. With righteousness, he judges
the poor of the earth. Now, please let no one misunderstand
my words. Have sympathy for and do everything
you can to be of help to people who are poor and needy. Do that. Don't ever allow yourself to
become hardened and refuse to help the poor and needy. But
as the scripture speaks of our Lord's care for the poor, it's
not talking about physically, materially poor people, but rather
about those who are poor in spirit. Blessed are the poor in spirit,
our Savior said. He judges and works not according
to outward appearance, but according to truth and by the heart. With equity, he reproves, that
is, he argues and makes intercession for the meek of the earth, those
poor sinners who acknowledge and confess their sin. The passage Brother Rex read
in Matthew 27 and then back in Exodus 20. Just overwhelming. Like those Jews, you and I called upon ourselves the curse
of God's law and the wrath of God. The God in his great mercy
forgives iniquity and transgression and sin through His Son, whom
we nailed to the tree. And when He does, He reproves
us for sin. Read the book again. Oh, how God reproved Eli for
his sin. How God reproved David for his
sin. how the Lord God reproves his
people for their sins. Don't ever imagine he won't do
it. He will reprove us for our sins
in such a way as you know you have been reproved by God. And
yet he never ceases to be our advocate. The poor in spirit, the meek
of the earth, knowing themselves sinners saved by God's grace,
confess their sin. And if we confess our sin, if
we acknowledge our sin, he is faithful and just to forgive
us our sin. If any man sin, we have an advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. We don't. He shall
smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, that is by the
word of God, and with the breath of his lips. By the Spirit of
God shall he slay the wicked. He does this in two ways. He
slays the wicked in mercy to save them. He brings the law
and God shows us the spiritual nature of the law. Sin revives
and we die, then we live. And he comes in judgment and
by his word, by His Spirit, in truth, in equity, in judgment. He says to the wicked, depart
from me, you cursed, I never knew you. Now look at verse five.
In all things our blessed Savior, the Lord Jesus, is both righteous
and faithful. And righteousness shall be the
girdle of His loins, and faithfulness the girdle of His reins. Righteousness,
the strength of his work. Faithfulness, the strength of
his dominion. These divine perfections seem
to be put here by the Spirit of God to assure God's elect
of our perfect safety in, by, and with the Lord Jesus, the
girdle of his loins. that large, thick belt that goes
completely around the bottle, around the body is a girdle of
righteousness and faithfulness. As if the Lord God is saying
to His people, you come to Him from any direction. If you've
been cold and indifferent, or you've turned aside to this way
or that, or you've been neglectful, you can come to Him from the
front, from either side or from the rear, and lay hold of righteousness
and faithfulness and plead for His mercy. For He is ever present
to help His own. And He calls on us to call on
Him in righteousness and faithfulness, so that we are bidden freely
to come to God from any position, with any need, even when it appears
that as we return to Him in prayer, He turns His back toward us rather
than His face. still lay hold of the girdle
of his loins, righteousness and faithfulness, and plead for his
mercy, and you shall obtain his mercy. Now look at verses six
through nine. Here's the fourth thing. The
prophet here describes the effects, the results of the amazing grace
of God upon the hearts and lives of men born into his kingdom. The wolf also shall dwell with
the lamb. And the leopard shall lie down
with the kid. And the calf and the young lion
and the fatling together. And a little child shall lead
them. And the cow and the bear shall feed. Their young ones
shall lie down together. And the lion shall eat straw
like the ox. And the sucking child shall play
on the hole of the asp. And the weaned child shall put
his hand on the cockatrice den. Now listen, they shall not hurt
nor destroy in all my holy mountain. For the earth shall be full of
the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. What
does that mean? Isaiah is describing the peace
and tranquility of Christ's kingdom in this world. Grace produces
peace and grace makes people peaceable. Let me read to you
what Robert Hawker said about these verses of scripture. He
said, spiritual blessings are here promised under figurative
expressions. Now, if you read verses 6, 7,
8, and 9 of Isaiah 11 and try to make any kind of a literal
interpretation of them, you're going to come up with some harebrained
ideas. It's obviously intended to give spiritual lessons. Hawker
wrote, spiritual blessings are here promised under figurative
expressions. Such are the blessed effects
introduced into the circumstances of mankind by the gospel of Christ. Like the beast of the forest,
tamed and brought under order, the passions of our fallen nature
shall be regulated and restrained. He tames the wild beast. Hawker goes on to write, a little
child shall lead them. That is to say the Lord's people
shall be so much under the blessed influence of grace in the heart
that they will need nothing of human learning to guide them.
Where the prince of peace reigns, there is peace. The church of
God is a house of peace, a family of peace, a kingdom of peace.
When the Lord God our Savior conquers the hearts of men, He
breaks down the middle wall of partition that separates men
one from the other. Clearly, that refers to the law
and the ceremonies of Israel separating Jew and Gentile. But
this Apostle writes by inspiration, it makes it go much further than
that. He says in Christ, there's neither male nor female, nor
bond, nor free, nor circumcision, or uncircumcision, or barbarian,
or Scythian. No such thing. Now, wait a minute. Wait a minute. About everywhere
I go, I meet with folks in congregations where there are men and women.
There are smart folks, highly educated, and folks who aren't
so smart who are poorly educated. Sometimes folks who aren't so
smart who are highly educated. And there are black folks and
white folks. There are folks who are fairly
well off and folks who are just scratching by. But what Paul
tells us is that doesn't make any difference. Not in God's
kingdom. Not in God's kingdom. In God's
kingdom, we're one. Christ is all in you all. That makes the people of God
one in him. And they live together in peace.
The wolf no longer threatens the lamb, and the lamb no longer
fears the wolf. Do you remember how they spoke
of Saul of Tarsus? That wolf who was raging against
God's church. Behold, he's a lamb, he prayeth. He is saved to join the church.
And they said, behold, he prayeth. God causes the lamb and the wolf
to lie down together. Those who are in the Ark of Christ
Jesus, like the creatures that went into the Ark with Noah,
live together in peace. Did you ever stop to think about
what must have gone through Noah's mind as he's bringing lambs and
lions into that Ark side by side? We're going to have trouble.
We're going to have to keep these things separated. Oh, no. God
miraculously did something so that they lay together as one
family in the ark. That's what God does by his grace
in the ark, Christ Jesus. He causes wild beast to lie down
gently with tender lambs. They lie down together in the
church of God. and a little child leads them. Here I am your pastor. The man starts preaching. I'm
not of the opinion that most fellows seem to be. A pastor
needs to be an older man. There's something to be said
for a fellow to give his life to this work. When I started
pastoring, I was probably the youngest babe in the kingdom
in that part of the world. At 21 years old, I had been saved
about four years, and maybe a little more than that. And God put me
in this work. And I came here to be your pastor
at 29 years old. Howard, Brother Hubert, when
I came here, Lindsay, he was pushing 80. He pushed it, and here I
am, his pastor. He's buried pastors, and the
man gladly led by a 29-year-old boy. A little child shall lead
them. They feed upon the green pastors
of gospel truth. The sucking child, the newborn
baby in God's kingdom is as safe as comfortably safe as the oldest
and strongest and most tried believer. He plays on the cockatrice
dead and nothing hurts him. He puts his hand on the hole
of the ass and nothing bothers him. The sucking child, the newborn
babe, shall not be harmed by the old serpent. The weaned child,
weaned from his own righteousness, shall not be harmed by the den
of iniquity, self-righteous religion. Some years ago, I got a book
in the mail, my friend Ian Potts put together, Sovereign Grace,
Past and Present. And then I got the book and I
was going out of town and I just had to read the table of contents
to me. And there was a sermon in there by a fellow named William
Huntington. And she read the title. She said,
An Innocent Game for Babes in Grace. And I said, read that
again. An Innocent Game for Babes in
Grace. I said, I can tell you the text.
She said, what is it? I said, Isaiah chapter 11. And
she read the text. That's what it's talking about.
They play on cockatrice day and they'll not be harmed. And God's
church in this world is safe and secure as it is pleasant
and peaceful. They shall not hurt nor destroy
in all my holy mountain. Now, I have to acknowledge As
a pastor, much like being a father in a household, as you all know,
Audre Grace is fixing to leave to go to England for a semester. And Papa is concerned. That goes
with the territory. That just goes with the territory.
My daughter and son-in-law are in Florida right now. Dad's concerned. It just goes with the territory.
It just goes with the territory. And I have a lot of concern for
you, for this church, those folks in San Diego, folks up in Wasilla,
places where I'm responsible for people. I have a lot of concern,
a lot of concern. But in the midst of all the concern,
as I commit my children to God, I commit you to God and the word
of his grace. And this I know, No heresy, no
evil, no corruption, nothing will ever harm God's church.
Nothing. Nothing will do injury to God's
cause. Nothing will separate you from
the love of Christ. Oh, what a change grace has made
in our lives. We were and are, all of us by
nature, wild, dangerous, brute beast. Grace has changed us into
peaceful, helpful, pleasant children of God. We used to be instruments of
destruction, harmed everything we touched. Brought injury everywhere
we went. And God has made us to be instruments
of good and usefulness in his kingdom. Oh, wondrous, transforming
grace. The means of this change is the
knowledge of the Lord. This is so because the earth
shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover
the sea. Oh, how grace changes men. It
makes Gomer the best wife a man ever had. It makes Onesimus the
best servant a man could have in his employ. It makes the wild
Gadarene a faithful servant. It makes the proud, arrogant
prodigal the best son a daddy ever had. The wolf lies down
with the lamb, and they dwell together in peace, and a little
child leads them. Now, one last thing. Isaiah assures us of the advance
of the gospel in this world. For the earth shall be full of
the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. What a statement. What a statement. We live in a day of great famine.
A famine for hearing the word of our God. Today, gospel preachers
and gospel churches are few and far between, but not like they
used to be, not like they used to be. Shelby and I often comment
when we're traveling, we don't own anything. We don't possess
any property of any kind, but we're the richest people in the
world. God's given us friends, literally, all over the world. There's not an English-speaking
country, and others as well, where I couldn't feel free, perfectly
free, pick up the phone, call, say, we're coming through town,
can I stay with you for a couple of days? Nowhere in the world. How come? Because today, things
have radically changed just in the 50 years since God saved
me. I told somebody the other day,
I used to go to every Sovereign Grace Bible Conference there
was anywhere in the country, and I didn't have to be gone
often, because there weren't many. Now, I couldn't possibly
attend all of them. Just couldn't do it, just couldn't
do it, because God's raised up churches literally all over the
place and continues to do so. And if I read this book right,
and I'm sure I do, We won't turn there and read
it, but in the 11th chapter of Revelation, the Word of God makes
plain that in this day of apostate, horrid, Arminian, free will,
will worship, works religion, in this, the greatest day of
apostasy the world has ever known, God revives His witnesses, His
Church and His Gospel. God causes the word of God again
to flourish. And the gospel of God's grace
goes forth into all the world. We witnessed some of that. We
witnessed some of that. The word of God, the gospel of
God's grace is spreading constantly. Let me tell you a little secret. Listen
to me now. God Almighty still adds to His
church daily such as should be saved. He's given us remarkable
means of ministering. He's allowed us to be instruments
in raising up a number of churches over the years. The internet,
the means God's given us there with Free Grace Radio and the
broadcasting of the messages. I don't look these up very often. I very seldom read the reports,
but sometimes I think it's encouraging to you. In January 2018, 11,355 different people downloaded sermons
off Free Grace Radio. In all 50 states, in 73 countries
around the world. We've had almost one and a half
million sermons downloaded since we started this. Churches are
springing up. Churches in Mexico are doing
fine, continuing to prosper. The work in New Guinea continues
to thrive. I just got a note last week or
talked to Peter Minnie about a mutual friend of ours who's
resigning as pastor, planning to go to the Philippines to establish
missionary work in that area. What I'm telling you is Babylon
shall fall. Babylon is falling, and it will
fall through the preaching of the gospel of God's grace. And
the Lord Jesus Christ, our God and Savior, shall at last be
triumphant everywhere by his two witnesses, his church and
the gospel of his grace. these two lampstands, these two
olive trees that were given in the visions. These are my witnesses,
and by these, the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth
as the waters cover the sea. I wake up every day anxious to
see what God's gonna do next, anxious to see where the word
will go next, what door the Lord will open next. You never cease
mercy and seek His grace that He may open doors of utterance
for the Gospel before us and make us faithful in the labor
as His witnesses in this generation. Amen.