We read in 1st Chronicles 12,
32 that the children of Issachar were men who had understanding
of the times. Isaiah was such a man as well.
God, the Holy Ghost, the spirit of prophecy gave Isaiah understanding
of the times in which he lived and gave him understanding of
the times in which we live in these last days. The title of
my message tonight is Understanding of the Times. Our text will be
Isaiah chapter four. Isaiah chapter four, verses one
through six. As I preach the gospel of the
grace of God, I try always to address issues relevant to us. I try to answer questions that
men and women are asking. Surely, This is a question you
and I ask ourselves often. What is going on around us? What really is taking place? How are we to understand the
times in which we live? You'll open your Bibles here
to Isaiah chapter four. God the Holy Ghost here teaches
us what's going on around us. and teaches us how we should
look upon the things that transpire in our day. Understanding of
the times in which we live is given us here in Isaiah chapter
four. Now our text begins right in the middle of a portion of
Isaiah's sermon concerning the last days. Turn back to chapter
two for just a minute, chapter two. The sermon begins in verse
one of chapter two. and continues all the way through
the end of chapter five at verse 30. And the subject of these
four chapters is the last days. Look at verse one, Isaiah two.
The word that Isaiah, the son of Amos saw concerning Judah
and Jerusalem, that is concerning God's church, concerning God's
elect. That's what Judah and Jerusalem
typically represented in the Old Testament. And it shall come
to pass in the last days that the mountain of the Lord's house,
the church of God shall be established in the top of the mountains and
shall be exalted above the hills. And all nations, that is God's
elect out of every nation in the world shall flow unto it. In chapter two, the prophet describes
the glory of God's church in these last days. In chapter three,
he shows us God's providential judgments upon the wicked and
his blessings upon the righteous in the last days. In chapter
four, he shows us what we can expect to see in the world around
us, particularly in the religious world in the last days. And then
he concludes his sermon in chapter five with a parable of a vineyard
portraying God's church in the last days. Now I remind you once
more, God the Holy Spirit tells us plainly in 1 John 2 and verse
18 that we are living in the last days. These last days began
with the incarnation of God's Son in human flesh and they will
end with the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ to make
restitution of all things when the last day is ended. prophecy crazy age in which we
have lived for the last hundred and fifty years suggest lots
of silly unbiblical things with regard to prophecy and the last
days. If you have never been exposed
to it, I don't suggest you go buy one if you can still find
them, and I'm sure you can. But one of the textbooks we had
in the school was Clarence Larkin's Dispensational Truths. And it
was a book full of all kinds of drawings. I mean he had figured
out everything in detail. And you could, I've been in church
buildings where they had them enlarged and plastered like wallpaper
around the buildings so you'd be sure you could discern what
period of time we're living in, what to expect next. Now hear
what I'm telling you. These things are not found in
the book of God. The notion of a seven year period
of great tribulation in which men and women are saved by works
is not found in this book. A thousand year millennial kingdom
in which Christ will come and reign in a Jewish kingdom and
God will be worshiped at a Jewish altar in a Jewish temple through
a Jewish priesthood and Jewish sacrifices are not found in this
book. The last days began with our
Lord's incarnation and continue throughout this gospel age until
Christ comes again and then time shall be no more. Don't be fooled
into taking the scripture and just cutting them up and pushing
out this part for this period, this part for this period, this
part for this period. The book of God was written for you and
me and every portion of it written for God's people in the day in
which they live. This prophecy in Isaiah certainly
has reference to certain things that transpired in Israel physically
and historically. But those physical historic events
were but pictures of spiritual things transpiring in these last
days. In Isaiah chapter four, God's
prophet shows us by the spirit of interpretation, what we can
expect to see in these last days, particularly in the religious
world. If you found the fourth chapter
of Isaiah, let's read it together. And in that day, seven women
shall take hold of one man saying, we will eat our own bread and
wear our own apparel. Only let us be called by thy
name. to take away our reproach. In that day shall the branch
of the Lord be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the
earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped
of Israel. And it shall come to pass that
he that is left in Zion and he that remaineth in Jerusalem shall
be called holy, even every one that is written among the living
in Jerusalem. when the Lord shall have washed
away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged
the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of
judgment and by the spirit of burning. And the Lord will create
upon every dwelling place in Mount Zion, and upon her assemblies
a cloud and a smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire
by night, for upon all the glory shall be a defense, and there
shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat,
and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from the storm and
from the rain. I just told you Bible's open
at Isaiah 4 and let me show you five things that God the Holy
Spirit tells us we can expect to transpire in these last days. Five things that we are presently
experiencing and we will continue to see and continue to experience
until our Savior comes again. Number one, it has come to pass
as Isaiah prophesied that the world has been engulfed in terrible,
great religious apostasy. We live in an apostate generation. Apostasy means a falling away,
a falling away from truth to error, from light to darkness,
a falling away from the revelation of God to the notions of man.
The whole world, by the just judgment of God, is engulfed
in apostate, freewill, works religion. Now I keep hammering
away at that, and I'm gonna keep hammering away at that until
the head falls off the nail. This world is a world of apostate,
freewill, works religion. Wherever works religion is found,
it's apostasy. Wherever free will religion is
found, it's apostasy. Wherever men are put in the place
of God and worshiped as though they were God, it's called will
worship. It's idolatry of the most pagan
barbaric crimes, and it is idolatry that must be denounced. Isaiah
chapter four, verse one. In that day, seven women shall
take hold of one man, We will eat our own bread and wear our
own apparel. Only let us be called by thy
name to take away our reproach. Now, as I said a moment ago,
This first verse certainly has an immediate reference to the
desolation that God brought upon Israel and the Jewish nation
because of their departure from him. The Babylonian captivity
that Isaiah specifically speaks of. The judgment of God upon
Jerusalem in 70 AD when God sent his instrument, Titus, to level
the city to the ground and scatter the Jews to the four winds. But
the whole passage is written for our instruction in these
last days, and the instruction is altogether spiritual. These
seven women represent the whole world, the whole world. Seven
is the number of completion, totality. These seven women represent
the entire religious apostasy of the world. Now, it's called
by many names, called by lots of names. They, as I said this
morning, they wear different costumes and they play different
games, but the religion is the same. It's always the same. It centers on you. It makes salvation
to be somehow, some way, in some measure dependent upon you. and
determined by you. That means that it sets man up
in the house of God demanding that he be worshiped as God and
the people who come to the house of God in name demand that they
be honored as God alone is to be honored. Ascribing to man
that which belongs to God alone. Hold your hands here in Isaiah
and turn to 2 Thessalonians. I want you to read it again for
yourselves. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. Here the Apostle Paul writes
by divine inspiration and gives us a clear declaration of what
to expect in this period of time in which Isaiah is prophesying,
of which Isaiah is prophesying. He says in verse 1, or be troubled neither by spirit,
nor by word, nor by letter, as from us, as that the day of Christ
is at hand. Now Paul taught in his epistles,
as did the other apostles, that we should live on the tiptoe
of faith, always expecting Christ's appearance at any moment. But
apparently someone had written a letter, circulated it in the
name of Paul, and said that, y'all get ready, the Lord's coming
right away. Paul said, don't buy it. Don't
buy it. Don't buy in on that, I didn't
write it. I didn't write it. And anybody who makes such a
suggestion is not writing as God's spokesman. Look at verse
three. Let no man deceive you by any means. For that day, that
is the coming of Christ, shall not come, except there come a
falling away first, except there come an apostasy first, and that
the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition. That day of
Christ's glorious return will not come to fruition until there
is first a wholesale departure from the revelation of God by
men and women who profess to be followers of God. Read on,
verse four. who opposeth and exalteth himself
above all that is called God, or that is worshipped, so that
he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that
he is God. Now this I declare to be characteristic
of religious services in the religious world throughout the
world in our day. go any place you want to, any
place you want to, into any religious service you want to, except where
the gospel of God's free grace is preached. And man is set in
the house of God, in the place of God, and worshiped as God,
and salvation, the work of God, is ascribed to him. That's called
apostasy. That's called heresy. We don't. or verse six rather, I'm sorry,
verse five. Remember ye not that when I was
yet with you I told you these things? And now ye know what
withholdeth, restrains, that he might be revealed in his time.
For the mystery of iniquity, Antichrist, the man of sin, doth
already work. Only he who now letteth, he who
restrains who holds back will continue to let until he be taken
out of the way and Then shall that wicked be revealed And the
Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth and shall destroy
with the brightness of his coming Even him whose coming is after
the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that
perish. Now watch this. I told you this
is an apostasy that comes and engulfs the world by God's judgment. All of this comes to pass because
they received not the love of the truth that they might be
saved. What a statement, what a statement. A good many of you were raised
in various Protestant churches, Presbyterian, Southern Baptist,
Independent Baptist, otherwise. They're confessions of faith.
I'm sadly amused that men start to try to prove what they believe
and stand for by pointing to a confession of faith that they
deny. But they're confessions of faith. All of them are pretty
good. Some of them very good. Some
are very good. There's nothing wrong, now there's
much could be added to it, nothing wrong with the confession of
faith on which Southern Baptist Churches, everyone in Boyle County,
everyone in the state of Kentucky, everyone in the world is founded. Their confession of faith is
just fine. Find me somebody in one of the pulpits preaching
it. Find it. They have departed from the truth. They refuse to receive the love
of the truth. Read on. And for this cause,
God shall send them a strong delusion that they should believe
a lie. Do you ever wonder how on earth
could a fellow believe this? How can a man believe the stuff
you see and hear written and preached by men? How can somebody believe that
nonsense? When God sends blindness, you're blind. That's exactly
how. God sends blindness, just as
He did to Israel, and people are blind. And for this cause, God shall
send them a strong delusion that they should believe a lie. that
they might be damned who believe not the truth, but had pleasure
in unrighteousness. Paul says in 2 Timothy 3, I'm
talking about people who have a form of godliness, but deny
the power thereof. They have a form of religious
service. a form of religious duty, a form
of religious activity, a form of religious doctrine, but they
deny the gospel of God's free grace. They deny the power of
godliness. Many of you came out of such
stuff and God called you to see. God gave you life and faith in
Christ. We're bound to give thanks all
the way to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because
God had from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the Spirit and belief of the truth, whereunto he called you
by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Let's go back to Isaiah 4. I repeat, the apostate religion
of Antichrist is freewill works religion, and it is marvelously
portrayed for us in this first verse of Isaiah 4. These seven
women want nothing but the name of a man. That's all they want
from him. They don't want to be devoted
to him. They don't want to be married to him. They just want
his name, a name to take away their reproach. And the religious
world wants nothing but the name of Christ, that's all. Just the
name to soothe their consciences. The religion of this world is
initiated by man, not by God. Free willism, decisionism, seven
women shall take hold of one man, initiated by what man does. True salvation is initiated by
God, not by man. It is not so much man taking
hold on God as it is God taking hold on you. It is not you seeking
the Lord so much as it is the Lord seeking you. Oh yes, we
take hold of him. We lay hold of Christ. We seek
him, but only when he has laid hold of us. Only when he has
sought us out. The religion of this world is
a religion of works and reward. We will eat our own bread. You don't need to provide for
us, we'll get along all right on our own. True Christianity
is a religion of grace, feeding upon Christ the bread of heaven,
eating his flesh and drinking his blood. The religion of this
world is a religion of self-righteousness. We will wear our own apparel,
these women say. We're not perfect, who is? We're not without sin, who is?
We know that everybody sins. While we wouldn't claim to be
perfect, but we're better than most. We're actually pretty good. We're
actually heaps like better than most folks. We'll wear our own
apparel. We have a righteousness and we're
not about to give it up. We have a morality and we're
not about to let go of it. We have a good name and we're
not about to sacrifice it just because we take your name. True
godliness is wearing Christ apparel. God's people delight to cast
aside their filthy garments of their righteousness and wear
the apparel of Jesus Christ, which is righteousness, the garments
of salvation. The religion of this world wants
nothing from Christ but his name, his name. Ignore his word, ignore
his doctrine, ignore his precepts, ignore his revelation, ignore
his will, ignore his glory, that doesn't matter. All we want is
his name so we can call ourselves Christian. Don't you find it
interesting that it's become popular these days to call yourself
Christian. About everybody does. In the
news media, doesn't matter whether they're papist, or Adventist,
or Pentecostals, or Baptist, or otherwise, I'm a Christian.
He's a Christian, she's a Christian. You're a Christian, I'm a Christian,
everything's all right, amen. Give us your name! That's all
we want, just so we won't have to bear our reproach. It gives
us a soothing effect to our consciences. Vital godliness. is not taking
the name of Christ, it's knowing Christ, having Christ, living
in Christ. I have no desire to be contentious
or offensive, but I must be faithful to God and faithful to you. I warn you, I warn you, have
nothing to do with free will works religion. have nothing
to do with it. This is the word from God that
is repeated over and over and over again in both the Old Testament
and in the New. Come out from her, my people,
that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not
of her plagues. In the religion of the world,
Christ is just a name. In the church of God, Christ
is all and in all. Second, verse two. Though the
world despises Christ and his gospel, in these last days there
is an evident exaltation of Christ among his people. In that day
shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious. He always was. He always was,
but now he appears beautiful and glorious. and the fruit of
the earth, that is the risen Christ, shall be excellent and
comely for them that are escaped of Israel. I am somewhat a student of history.
I don't claim to be a historian, but I'm a student of history.
I especially like to read church history. I relish the works of
God in the past, and I relish reading things written by men
who served God in previous days. I like to read the old writers.
Every day I read something from some of the old writers. I regularly
read commentaries and articles and sermons by preachers of old. I've read Augustine and Luther
and Calvin, Owen and Bunyan and Watson. I've read Goodwin, Edwards,
Whitfield and Gill and Spurgeon. But I am going to tell you something.
I've never read better sermons. than what I hear preached today
by faithful men. I've never read better material
than what I read today by faithful men. Brother Todd Nybert, just
outstanding preacher, gifted writer. Brother Frank Call, I
don't know that I've ever read anything written by men. that's
better than what he gets. I urge you to get the bulletins
of these fellows and read their articles. He's just gifted, gifted. You don't have to tell him I
said so. I don't want his head to get too big. But he is a gifted,
gifted man. Brother Clay Curtis, you ought
to read the stuff he writes. Listen to sermons he preaches,
just outstanding. I've never read better sermons.
I've never read better material. There's never been such a day
of spiritual darkness as this. But there's never been such a
day of spiritual light as this. The Lord Jesus has never been
more beautiful and glorious than he is in the gospel we preach
in this day. More and more, more and more,
I see men, God calling and raising up men, focused on preaching
Jesus Christ in his glory. Preaching Christ glorious and
majestic, and that's as it ought to be. Christ is here called
the branch of the Lord. That speaks of his divine origin.
He is the one scent of God. It speaks of his humiliation.
He who came to suffer and die in our stead grew up before him
as a tender plant, as a root out of dry ground. And it speaks
of his ancestry. He's the branch of David's house,
David's son, and David's Lord. I love the way Robert Hawker
spoke about this second verse. He said, The Holy Ghost is still
harping upon that blessed stream, the gospel day, and comforting
the church with the view of it. Jesus is the righteous branch,
which Jehovah declared he would raise up in Zion. Our Lord Jesus,
the Son of God, our Savior, is beautiful in all his glorious
person. This one we worship as our Redeemer
is God and man. He is the God-man. He is the man who is God. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth. Our Lord Jesus in
all His offices is glorious, magnificent. He is the prophet. The one of whom Moses spoke when
he said, God will send you a prophet and you're gonna hear him. You're
gonna hear his words. He is God's prophet who teaches
us the mind and will and word of God. He is God's priest, typified
and portrayed in all the priests of the Old Testament. But this
priest, with one sacrifice, the sacrifice of himself, put away
sin forever. And our Lord Jesus Christ, He
is the King, the King of whom all the kings in Israel were
types and pictures in one way or another, particularly David
and Solomon. Our Lord Jesus is that King that
God promised to sit on David's throne forever. whose kingdom
is an everlasting kingdom, and He, sitting on His throne, has
power over all flesh, controlling everybody all the time to give
eternal life to as many as the Father has given Him. Our Savior
is the all-glorious Christ. He is able to save to the uttermost
all who come to God by Him. Our crucified Savior, the Lord
Jesus Christ, God's Son, Being raised from the dead is here
described as the fruit of the earth, excellent and comely. Brother Mark read back in the
office a few minutes ago, he was delivered for our offenses
and raised again for our justification. Oh, how beautiful, how excellent,
how comely. He who was delivered to death
by the hands of divine justice, when our sins were made his,
was raised from the dead because our sins had been put away. Raised from the dead because
of his accomplishment of justification. Third, look at Isaiah chapter
four, verse three. Though many apostates abound,
departing from the faith. John says they went out from
us because they were not of us. If they had been of us, they
would no doubt have remained with us until this day. Though
many apostates abound, there is an elect remnant who shall
persevere, steadfast and immovable in the midst of wholesale apostasy. And it shall come to pass that
he that is left in Zion And he that remaineth in Jerusalem shall
be called holy, even every one that is written among the living
in Jerusalem. Job said, the righteous shall
hold on his way. The righteous shall hold on his
way. when our Lord describes this
last day and the deceivableness of antichrist, of false Christ. He said the deception of that
day, the delusion of this day, so great that if it were possible,
they would deceive the very elect. Oh, bless God, it's not possible. It's not possible. Those to whom
Christ appears beautiful will never forsake you. Blessed be
God, there is a remnant according to the election of grace and
that elect remnant will remain steadfast in the truth of the
gospel. You will not find them flinching
at finding a way to compromise, finding a way somehow to make
things more palatable to folks who hate God with regard to the
things of God. Total depravity, unconditional
election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, perseverance
of the saints. These are things commonly cherished
and boldly proclaimed by those to whom Christ is beautiful. Now I know men these days are
doing everything they can, men who profess to believe. The very
doctrine you hear preached in this pulpit all the time. But,
oh, by the dot, he's gone to seed on this. He's too didactic. He's too dogmatic. He's too,
well, we can't stand him. And so they find a way to make
total depravity sound like man's fault, but it ain't so bad. And
they try to find a way to make unconditional elections sound
like, well, Well, God loves his elect, but he loves other folks,
too. And they try to find some way
to make it sound like limited atonement. Well, we wouldn't
deny that Christ actually accomplished redemption, but there's a sense
in which he loves all men and tried to redeem all men. God,
the Holy Spirit, he specially calls his elect, but there's
a sense in which he tries to get everybody to believe. And
God's people, they will persevere to the end, not so much because
God holds them and they can't get out of his hand. but because
they have a mighty grip on God and they just won't let go. Such
compromise, God helping me, you won't hear from this pulpit.
Not as long as this man has breath to breathe and has any control
over who preaches from this pulpit. It's not going to happen. This
blessed remnant shall be called holy. Called holy. How can you and I be called holy? How can we be called holy? Which
of you would dare think to presume, let alone speak and say, I am
holy? Which of you? Now, I have great
admiration for you. I thank God for you. I brag about
you all over the world, but holy is not a term I use to speak
of you, except in this regard, God calls you holy. And if God calls you holy, God
calls you holy because God made you holy. Holy, sanctified, pure,
undefiled. In fact, when you get on Revelation
chapter seven, he refers to you and I who are in Christ as virgins,
chaste and pure. Isn't that wonderful? They shall
be called holy because God by the blood and righteousness of
His Son has made us holy. God doesn't call that pure which
is divine. He doesn't call that holy which
is unholy. He doesn't call that righteous
which is unrighteous. God calls us holy because God
has made us holy in His Son. The very holiness without which
no man shall see the Lord. Holy by redemption. Holy by regeneration. Being given a new nature, a new
heart, made new creatures in Christ. And holy in life, yes. Holy in life. What manner of
persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness? The preacher. What are you talking about holy
in life? What are you talking about? Believers live in this
world trusting the Lord Jesus Christ. And that new man in you
can't do anything but righteousness. The old man can't do anything
but sin, but the new man can't do anything but righteousness.
The old man can do nothing but disobey. The new man can do nothing
but obey. So that while we walk through
this world constantly struggling with sin, you and I are a holy
people in the life we live on this earth. Our security is our
election itself. Look at the next line. Who is
this going to persevere? Even everyone that is written
among the living. Everyone whose name has been
written in the Book of Life of the Lamb, slain from the foundation
of the world, twice in the Book of Revelation, the angel showed
John that those and those only who are not deceived by the beast
and by Antichrist, Those and those only who never received
the mark of the beast in the forest are they whose names were
written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. Four. In these last days, we
can expect to see the purging and the purifying of Christ's
churches by the gospel. Look at verse four. When the
Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion,
and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof
by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning. That
is these chosen ones persevere, hold on their way when the Lord
has brought judgment to the house of God. Now this verse might
be interpreted as a prophecy of our redemption by Christ.
who can read this verse and not think immediately of Christ accomplished
redemption at Calvary. Redemption by judgment and filth
washed away by blood. Our blessing Christ bearing the
judgment of God and brother Larry read here in Zechariah chapter
13. The Lord Jesus by the judgment
of God pouring out his blood washed away our sin. But both
John Gill and Matthew Henry say that the daughters of Zion, spoken
of here in this fourth verse, are individual local churches.
And I think in that context, they're exactly right. The Lord
Jesus purges his church by the preaching of the gospel, thereby
separating wheat from the tares. My old friend, Brother Harry
Graham, used to quote Peter's words frequently, talking about
things going on in our days. He said, judgment must begin
at the house of God. Here in the house of God, by
the preaching of the gospel, he washes away the filth of false
doctrine and false worship. He purges oppressors from our
midst by the same means. He is the spirit of judgment,
wisdom, power, justice, and truth. and the spirit of burning, the
spirit of zeal for the glory of God. The fire of God's word
burns up the wood, hay, and stubble of falsehood within the church. The fire of God's word. How do
you handle things? How do you handle difficulties?
You preach the gospel. You just preach the gospel and
the fire of God's word burns up the wood, hay and stubble.
By the preaching of the gospel, the Lord Jesus separates the
wheat from the tares, the precious from the bile, the sheep from
the goats. Gospel preachers are described
in his parable in Matthew 13 as angels whom God sends in the
end of the age. to gather his wheat into his
garner, and by the same word they preach, to bind up the tares
for the burning. This purging, the separation
of wheat from tares, is God's work. It's God's work. Rex, it's not your business or
mine to try to decide who's saved and who's lost. That's not our
business. In fact, we are specifically warned not to make those kind
of judgments. You just don't know. I don't
know. I had a preacher's wife one time,
a fellow who claimed to believe the gospel. She said to me while
sitting at supper one night, she said, it doesn't take me
long to know who's saved and who's lost. I can show you a
lost man if I'm around five minutes. I laughed out loud. What? You can't. Strange the apostles
couldn't. And our Lord tells us plainly
that we can't. We can't. The only way you can
tell tares from wheat is in the day of harvest. In the day of
harvest, the tares stand tall and straight. The wheat bows
its head. Otherwise, you can't distinguish
one from the other. Our Lord tells us, let them grow
together, leave them alone. By the word of God, he separates
the precious from the vile. One last thing, verses five and
six. In these last days of wholesale religious apostasy, we can expect
to see the continued protection and preservation of God's church. And the Lord will create upon
every dwelling place of Mount Zion and upon her assemblies. This local church right here,
that one over in Lexington, that one down in Kanapolis, that one
out in San Diego, that one out in Louisville, Arkansas, that
one out in Ballymoney. He'll protect the assemblies.
There'll be on them a cloud and a smoke by day and a shining
of flaming fire by night. For upon all the glory shall
be a defense." What a strange word to describe Grace Baptist
Church in Danville, Kentucky. The glory. The glory. This is the word by which God
describes His people in this world. His glory. The saving of His people is His
glory. And upon the glory shall be a
defense, that which is God's glory God protects. And there
shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat,
and for a place of refuge, and for a cover from the storm and
from the rain. Our God shall be to us a cloud
to protect us from the heat of opposition and persecution. No need for us to protect ourselves.
No need at all. I know most of you men have weapons
in your house and you'd use them to protect your families. That's
not what this is talking about. That's not what this is talking
about. This is talking about spiritual things. In the things
of God, as God's servant and God's people, We never need to
defend ourselves. Never, never, never, never. How come the Lord's my defender? The Lord himself shall be a light
to guide us in the midst of darkness. He gives light and we walk in
the light as he gives light. Sometimes I'm asked by folks
how I can be so dogmatic. What's gonna happen if you change
your mind about your doctrine? I say, not gonna change. They
say, well, how can you be sure of that? Because I'm not looking
for something else. I'm just not interested. I'm
just not interested. And the Lord is my light. He guides me. The glory of God
is our defense. And the Lord Jesus Christ, God
our Savior, He is a tabernacle, a refuge, a cover for sinners
to flee for refuge in time of trouble. Oh, you who are yet without Christ,
flee for refuge to the Son of God. And you who are my brothers
and sisters in Christ, you will bear me witness, you who have
come to me with difficulty, heartache, and trouble, and I'm helpless. What can I say to be of help?
What can I do to comfort you? Nothing, nothing. But this is
my counsel. Get out this book and go bury
yourself in this book. And as you do, bury yourself
in Christ Jesus and you will find comfort and refuge, a covet
in time of storm to sustain your soul. That's what we must expect. And if God gives us eyes of faith,
that's what we will see transpiring in these last days. Amen. and you don't eat it. But I know
the Spirit blows where He will. And when He comes, like the wind,
something happens. There's a stirring that goes
on in the soul. But nobody knows it but the one
who experiences it. It's a stirring called Holy Ghost
Conviction. in the revelation of Christ by
which he convinces you of sin. Shows you what you are. He's called the comforter. That
doesn't sound like much comfort, does it? He convinces you of
sin. The most bitter pill I've ever
had to swallow in my life is the conviction of sin. I still
choke on it. I can't tell you, who know nothing
about it, what it is. But you'll never know God, except
he convinces you of your sin. And you'll never know the comfort
of the gospel, except he convince you of your sin. For if he ever
convinces you of your sin, in the sweet revelation of Jesus
Christ, he also convinces you of righteousness. Here stands before you a sinner,
perfectly righteous. Righteous before God. Made righteous
because Christ, my Redeemer, has satisfied the law and gone
back to the Father. And the judgment, and the judgment. Oh, Satan comes in here. Talks about your sin, your filth,
and your dirtiness, and your corruption. He shows you all
the things that constantly disturb you. The fiend of hell first
tries to convince you you're too good to be saved. When that
doesn't work, he tries to convince you you're too bad to be saved.
He stirs up all your corruption. Oh, my corruption, my corruption,
my corruption. I'm so vile, so corrupt, so guilty. but the prince of this world
is judged. Judgment's over. I'm convinced
all spirit of God come today by irresistible power and convince
sinners of sin, of righteousness and judgment that we may all
in this place go home comforted with the everlasting consolation
of the gospel of God our Savior. Amen.