Open your Bibles with me to Isaiah
chapter 42, the gospel of Isaiah chapter 42. I want to talk to you about a
blind and deaf savior. Isaiah 42 verses 18 through 21
will be my text. I'm sure the title of the message Seems a bit strange, as I intended,
but I assure you before I'm done, if God will be pleased to speak
by me, by the power of his spirit, the word of his grace to your
heart, you will leave here rejoicing in a blind and deaf savior. Isaiah 42 verse 18. Hear ye deaf. And look ye blind that ye may
see. Who is blind but my servant? Or death as my messenger that
I sent? Who is blind as he that is perfect
and blind as the Lord's servant? Seeing many things, but thou
observest not. opening the ears, but he heareth
not. The Lord is well pleased for
his righteousness sake. He will magnify the law and make
it honorable. I recognize that the vast majority
of folks commenting on this passage of scripture, those that I generally
admire, from whom I learned much, with whom I rarely differ, suggest
that this can't possibly be talking about our Lord Jesus Christ.
My theology professor every day since I was 18 years old has
been John Gill. And I sometimes argue with the
good doctor in private, but rarely in public. Well, he's mistaken
here. He's mistaken here. There is
no question, no question, that this portion of scripture, in
its entirety, beginning with verse 1 and going through verse
21, is talking about Jesus Christ, God's darling Son, our Savior,
our surety, Jehovah's righteous servant. You may ask, but is
he blind who is the light of the world? Is he blind who is
the light and salvation of our souls? Is he blind who directs
our path and guides us in his way? Is he blind of whom it is
written, in him is no darkness at all? Is he blind of whom it
is said, thou God seest me? Is he blind? That one whom Zechariah
saw as the foundation stone laid before him with seven eyes, is
he deaf? Is he deaf who promised it shall
come to pass that before they call on me? I will answer and
while they're yet speaking I will hear is he deaf to whom all flesh
shall come Is he deaf who bids us come to him to the throne
of his grace? Seeking mercy and grace in time
of need that we might find help in time of need He is indeed
Our blessed Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, Jehovah's servant,
is a blind servant and his deaf messenger. Let's begin reading
at verse 1. I'll be working my way down to
our text. Here is Jehovah's righteous servant,
the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior, our surety. Behold my servant,
whom I uphold. This one who is God's servant,
a real man like us, altogether God and yet altogether man. I'm always hesitant to make any
kind of distinction between his manhood and humanity, lest there
should be some real distinction made in our minds. He who became
flesh is forever God and man in one glorious person. Don't
ever so exalt his humanity that you forget that he's a man. Don't
ever exalt his humanity into deity. Jesus Christ is all man. Just like you, sin alone accepted. And as a man, he walked on this
earth in perfect faith. as Jehovah's obedient righteous
servant to bring in everlasting righteousness for us. And as
a man living by faith, he was helped. Isn't that amazing? Oh, what
marvelous condescension. What marvelous humiliation. Here
is Jehovah's servant helped by God, upheld by the right hand
of his righteousness. mine elect, my chosen servant,
that one chosen to be the substitute, the surety, the representative,
the savior of his people, that one in whom my soul delighteth. God delights in Jesus Christ,
our savior, and delights with us in him. I put my spirit upon
him. He's the anointed one. given
the spirit, that one that John the Baptist saw the spirit of
God descend upon in the form of a dove, lighting upon him
and abiding on him. He shall bring forth judgment,
righteousness, a right verdict, a righteous verdict to the Gentiles. He's talking now about Christ
coming, Isaiah the prophet. He's talking now about Christ
coming 700 years before his incarnation, coming to save his elect, scattered
to the four corners of the earth in all parts of the world to
save his people, Jew and Gentile, because God's is real. God's
Israel is not just a physical nation over in the Middle East
somewhere. God's Israel is the church of God's elect, all his
chosen, scattered in the four corners of the earth. He shall
not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the
streets. Now this is what that means. He will never speak with
frustration, or despair, or discouragement of any kind. You'll never hear
murmuring or complaining about anything. He's here as God's
servant. Here to do God's will. Here to honor God. And this is
his promise. A bruised reed shall he not break,
and the smoking flax shall he not quench. Describing sinners
brought to their knees before him. Oh, may God make you a bruised
reed and a smoking flax this hour. A bruised reed is utterly
useless. A smoking flax is just a stitch. But the bruised reed, that man,
that woman, that sinner who finds himself utterly useless. The smoking flax, that man, that
woman, that sinner who's made to see that he's just a stench
in the nostrils of God and in his own nostrils. He will not
break the reed. He will not quench the flax,
but rather he shall bring forth judgment, a right verdict of
righteousness to truth. He will call sinners. to know
themselves righteous by the grace of God, through his righteousness,
standing before God, truthfully righteous, so that God, the just
God and Savior, makes them righteous. Now watch this next line. One
of my favorite statements in all the book of God. He shall
not fail. Whatever it is that he came to
do, he will of a certainty accomplish it. Whatever it is he was commissioned
to do as Jehovah's servant shall be accomplished. Whatever he
wills to do, he will perform. Whatever he puts his hand to,
he will finish. He shall not fail. And he shall not be discouraged,
not in any way, till he have set judgment in the earth, until
he has accomplished and established and fulfilled God's salvation. and the isles. Whenever you read
about the isles in scripture, the islands in scripture, in
all the prophets, they refer to the Gentile nations. They
refer to those outlying people, those people who were not even
considered a people. They refer to you and me, God's elect among
the peoples of this world. The isle shall wait for his law. That doesn't mean that Men by
nature are just waiting for God to come save them. No, that means
they are preserved by God's hand, kept by God's hand in life through
all circumstances, preserved and kept until God sends his
grace to them. And when God sends his grace,
they anxiously await his goodness. Look at verse five. Here is our
Savior's commission, that which he shall not fail to accomplish
as Jehovah's righteous servant and our covenant surety. Thus
saith God, the Lord, God, the triune Jehovah, he that created
the heavens and stretched them out. This one is God indeed,
the creator of the universe. He made all things by just his
will. He who is God indeed is absolutely
God, sovereign in, sovereign over, sovereign at all times,
in and over all things, the creator of the earth. Not only did he
create it and spread out the earth, but he is that one that
created and spreads out that which cometh out of it. That which cometh out of it. Everything that comes to pass
in God's creation. Everything. He's not just talking
about the flowers and the trees and the corn and the wheat. He's
talking about everything that comes out of the earth. Everything
that comes out of time. All things are of God. And they are of God for you who
are God. The Lord performeth all things
for me. Brother Mike Walker told us Friday
evening. I was aware of it before he said
it publicly when he was 16 years old. His mother and his sister
and he were in a car and it was raining and the car hydroplaned
and she crossed the lane into oncoming traffic. And she was
broadsided. And Mike said his mother and
his sister were killed instantly. Why didn't I die? Because God preserves in life
his elect until the day of their calling, and they cannot die
until they're called by his grace. He causes all things to work
for good to his elect, all things, all things. He is that God who
brings to pass everything in time. I keep repeating this to
you publicly because God keeps repeating it to me because I
need it all the time. That means that we have nothing
to fear in this world. Nothing to fear. You who are
gods, Have nothing to fear. And we ought to complain and
murmur and worry about nothing. Nothing and no one. That includes
Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Cruz and Mr. Trump and all the
other nobodies in this world. Nothing to fear and nothing to
complain of. Hear it done and heed it. We don't. He that giveth breath
unto the people upon it. Men live because God gives them
life. They live as long as God gives
them life. And you'll leave here when God
takes your breath away. At the appointed time, you're
going to die, me too. Doesn't matter how you live or
don't live. Doesn't matter how you take care
of yourself or don't take care of yourself. At God's appointed
time, we're leaving here. He gives spirit to them that
walk in it. Verse 16. I, the Lord, have called thee
in righteousness. The triune Jehovah says, I have
called you, my servant, the Lord Jesus, our surety in righteousness. I will hold thine hand. I will
keep thee. and give thee for a covenant
of the people. I'll give you as the covenant. That is to say, all the blessings
of God's grace given to sinners by covenant grace in Jesus Christ
are Christ himself. All blessedness is in Christ. I'll give you for a light to
the Gentiles. That is to open the blind eye
to bring forth, to bring out the prisoners from the prison,
and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house. I've
come so that you might, by the power of your grace, by your
almighty arm, set my people free. You might save your people from
their sins. I am the Lord. That's my name. That's my name. Moses said, Lord,
who shall I tell your people that has sent me? He said you
go tell them I am has sent you this is my name Pharaoh said
to Moses when he came in he said the Lord said let my people go
Pharaoh said who is the Lord that I shall obey him and Moses
said hey, hang on buddy. You're gonna find out You're
gonna find out sooner or later. Everybody's gonna know I am the
Lord. That's my name and my glory is
Will I not give to another? Neither my praise to graven images. The Lord God speaking here of
the accomplishment of redemption, grace and salvation in Jesus
Christ, the Lord. He says, my glory. Will I not give to another? And
my praise to graven images. Now read this book and find how
God describes graven images. How God describes idolatry. Doesn't matter whose idols they
are. How God describes idolatry. The work of men's hands. The work of men's hands. Everybody who goes to hell, goes
to hell because they worship the work of their own hands.
Whether you're talking about carving out a stick or molding
a piece of clay or chiseling a piece of rock and bowing down
and worshiping a stump, or whether you're talking about worshiping
yourself, your will, your righteousness, your goodness, idolatry. God
says, I won't give my praise to you. Verse 9, behold, the
former things are come to pass. He says, Look back over history. Look back through the ages of
time up to this hour. Look back. Look back. You children
of God, you who yet believe not God, look back through everything
in the past that God wrote in this book. Everything. Everything he has said thus far
he would do has come to pass exactly as he said it would come
to pass. That's encouragement to believe
what he says here. And new things do I declare before
they spring forth, I tell you of them. In the light of this
great revelation of grace, God's prophet erupts in rapturous praise
to God. Before going on to tell us how
he's going to accomplish this new thing he's about to declare,
Isaiah calls for all who experience God's salvation to give him praise. Praise to the triune Jehovah,
the God of all grace. Verse 10, sing unto the Lord
a new song and his praise from the end of the earth, ye that
go down to the sea. And all that is therein, the
isles and all the inhabitants thereof, let the wilderness and
the cities thereof lift up their voice. The villages that Keter
doth inhabit, let the inhabitants of the rock. Mark has told but
us. The inhabitants of the rock,
he is our rock and our salvation. If you read Deuteronomy chapter
32, you'll find out in verse 31 that their rock regarding
the heathen, Those who worship the work of their own hands,
their rock is not like our rock. And they tell you so. They tell
you so. How many times you try to talk
to somebody about God's grace, God's character, God's sovereignty,
God's election, Christ's redemption, and they say, well, my God's
not like that. You're right. Their God is not like our God.
Their rock is not like our rock. Let then the inhabitants of the
rock, Jehovah, sing praise unto Him. Let them shout from the
top of the mountains. Let them give glory to the Lord
and declare his praise in the islands through all the nations
of the earth. Why? Why should God be praised
everywhere? Why should we give all praise,
honor, and glory to God? Read on. Verse 13. The Lord shall
go forth. He shall go forth conquering
and to conquer. He goes forth by the preaching
of the gospel, conquering and to conquer. As a mighty man,
he shall stir up jealousy. When God comes in saving power,
he stirs up jealousy among his enemies, those who are at enmity
against God and hate God, a zealous envy. That's what the jealousy
is, a zealous envy. He shall stir up jealousy like
a man of war. He shall cry, yea, roar. He shall prevail against his
enemies. This is not talking about judgment.
This is talking about mercy. When God comes in saving grace,
the Lion of the tribe of Judah prevails over those who have
been his enemies. and they gladly bow before him. Verse 14, I have long time holding
my peace. I've been still and refrain myself. For a long time, God held his
peace with me. What do you mean? For a long
time God held his peace with you. With Cody who just read
to us. With Eric. These two young men
sat here and heard God's word all their lives. All their lives like this. Just like that. I won't hear. And God lays the reins on your
neck and says, go run like a wild ass's coat. And I won't speak
to you. I'll leave you. I'll keep my
peace. I'll hold my silence. But not forever. Not if you're
chosen of God. Read on. Now, will I cry like
a travailing woman? Like a woman giving birth? You're going to hear me cry.
I will destroy and devour at once everything you thought precious
and dear, everything you clung to with which you fought against
me. I will make waste mountains and hills. I will dry up all
their herbs. I will make rivers, islands,
and I will dry up the pools. I want to take away every refuge
of lies from you. Verse 16. And I will bring the
blind by a way they knew not. I'm going to bring you by Christ
the way I'm going to bring you by the way of mercy, grace and
love. I'm going to bring you in the
way of righteousness and lead them in paths that they have
not known. I will make darkness light before
them. crooked things straight. I'm
going to take away your confusion and I'm going to take away that
which you're ashamed of and I'm going to take away the darkness
and I'm going to cause you to see my hand and my work. These
things will I do unto them. Watch this next line. And not
forsake them. God sets his hand upon you. And
you have this word for certain. He that performs a good work
in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. Verse
17, they shall be turned back. They should be greatly ashamed
that trust in graven images that say to the molten images, ye
are our gods. Oh, my God, how ashamed I am. In the midst of my filth, I clung
to my filthy rags. Pretended they're good Now let's
look at our text verses 18 through 21 and see how this is done Here
is God's call The Lord God himself calls deaf sinners to hear him
he calls for blind sinners to look to him here ye deaf and
Look ye blind that ye may see Here, God, by his prophet, describes
our nature, the nature of all the human race. We are all by
nature spiritually deaf and blind. We cannot hear and we cannot
see in any spiritual sense. If you're without Christ, these
words apply to you. You're deaf. You can't hear. You can't hear. You're like that
one David describes in Psalm 58, like the death adder that
stoppeth her ear, which will not hearken to the voice of charmers,
charming never so wisely. You will not hear and you cannot
hear your death. And yet the Lord God calls to
you. God himself calls for you to
hear his voice. Hold your hands here in Isaiah.
Turn back to Proverbs. Proverbs chapter one. Proverbs chapter one. Someone
asked me just this past week, how do you deal with this fact
of eternal predestination and man's responsibility to believe
God? How can it be said that men are
justly condemned? God never condemns arbitrarily. If you go to hell, you'll go
to hell not just because Adam sinned in the garden, not just
because of God's decree. You will go to hell because you've
chosen your ruin and will not hear God, and that's your responsibility. Justice demands the sentence
of justice against all who offend. Look at verse 23, Proverbs 1.
Turn you at my reproof. Behold, I will pour out my spirit
unto you. I will make known my words unto
you Well, that sounds like if you'll turn to him, he'll pour
out his spirit on you If you'll turn to him, he'll reveal his
he'll make the darkness light to you and make crooked things
straight to you Because I have called and you refused Because
I have stretched out my hand and no man regarded But you have
said it not all my counsel would none of my reproof. I also will
laugh at your calamity. I will mock when your fear cometh,
when your fear cometh as a desolation, and your destruction cometh as
a whirlwind, when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then
shall they call upon me, but I will not answer. They shall
seek me early, but they shall not find me. For that they hated
knowledge. That is, here's the reason for
it. They hated knowledge. and did not choose the fear of
the Lord. They would none of my counsel.
They despised all my reproof. Therefore, therefore, here is
the reason for it. Therefore shall they eat of the
fruit of their own way and be filled with their own devices.
For the turning away of the simple shall slay them. and the prosperity
of fools shall destroy them. But whoso hearkeneth unto me
shall dwell safely and shall be quiet from the fear of evil. You're blind as well as deaf. You do not see and cannot see
the kingdom of God. You can't see your sin. You don't
recognize what you are. I can stand here and preach to
you your depravity and corruption. I can demonstrate it by every
argument, demonstrate it by everything you do and experience, but you
can't see it. You can't see it. You're blind.
You can't see God's Son crucified before your very eyes. You can't
see it. You can't see Him. You can't
see God's salvation because you're blind. But God calls you to look
to Christ and live. Look unto me and be ye saved,
all the ends of the earth. Behold the Lamb of God that taketh
away the sin of the world. You may be thinking, that's ridiculous.
If I'm deaf, how can I hear? If I'm blind, how can I look?
I would leave that in God's hands if I were you. This much I know. God said to Ezekiel, his prophet,
preach to those dry bones. Oh, ye dry bones, hear the word
of the Lord. It is while we are speaking and
through the very words we speak by the gospel of his grace that
God gives life and hearing ears and seeing eyes here and your
soul shall live. Look and you shall be saved.
If you will, you can. And if you can, you will. And
if you can, you will look to Christ and you will hear Christ
and be saved by his grace. Now, look at verse 19. Remember,
as you read these words, the Lord God is speaking about his
servant by the prophet Isaiah. He's describing the Lord Jesus,
his messenger, who is blind, but my servant are deaf. my messenger that I sent who
is blind as he that is perfect and blind as the Lord's servant
who is blind but my servant while our Lord Jesus walked on this
earth as our substitute surety and representative doing the
will of God on our behalf for the accomplishment of our eternal
salvation God's servant was blind. Blind indeed to all the obstacles
before him. Blind to everything that opposed
the redemption of our souls. Blind to everything that stood
before him as an obstacle. I read again this week about
the Battle of Copenhagen in 1801. There was a British Admiral Hyde
Parker. and his Vice Admiral Horatio
Nelson. And they were in severe battle
with the Danes. And Nelson was given an order,
if he should see the signal, the flag to retreat, he must
do so. And they were in the heat of
the battle. And Nelson's subordinate said to him, I see the signal
to retreat. And Nelson said, where? And he
pointed. But Nelson was blind in one eye.
And he was determined, determined to conquer. And he put his telescope
to his blind eye. And he said, I don't see it.
And he went on to win one of the most decisive battles in
British history. So our Lord Jesus Christ. Jehovah's
servant was blind, willfully, deliberately blind to all the
obstacles that laid before him. Blind to the allurements of Satan
in the wilderness of temptation. I have, since I was 16 years
old, read about our Lord's temptations in the wilderness. And I've always
thought, just my carnal mind, I mean, I've always thought what
could be so great about those temptations that they don't seem
to be terribly great temptations. There's nothing said there about
the temptation to adultery or fornication or stealing or anything
like, nothing like that. They just seem to be just ordinary
everyday things. That's it. That's it. Satan allured
the Savior away from his work of redeeming and saving our souls
by all those things for which men naturally labor and strive
and war all their lives. All the things the world can
give. And our Lord was blind to it.
He was blind to the influence of cherished family and friends.
His disciples, his disciples wanted him to go up to Jerusalem
and go up on a feast day because everybody ready to make him king,
but his time hadn't come. He's blind to it. He's blind
to it. His disciples, when he was about to go up to Jerusalem,
said, Lord, don't go up there. The Jews had sought to stone
thee and they were concerned for him. Don't go to Jerusalem
now, those Jews are ready to kill you. And he set his face
like a flame, as if he didn't see and didn't hear them. Blind
to their influence, blind to them. Thomas finally said, let's
go with him that we may die with him. And he was blind to it,
blind to it. This dear lady is concerned about
me and my health and my welfare, just like you are. She more so,
I think, but concerned about me. Friday night, I was I'd been
working on this message for a month, as I told you this morning, a
little more than a month. And I tried to get away from it. Well, I
just I can't preach, get it prepared for the night and got home from
the services and just stole the lead of God to work on this. About one o'clock, she started
urging me, honey, sweetheart, please go to bed now. Please
don't don't don't stay up. Don't stay up so late. Don't
do it because she's concerned about me. And that's going on
for a long time. Thank you. But I had to be blind
to her concern. Blind, if I'm going to do God's
will. Blind to it. Blind to it. Blind to what's
best for me. He was blind to the justice of
God that must be satisfied. Bless his name. He was blind
to his own will in Gethsemane's garden. Three times, three times,
he said, nevertheless, not my will, thy will be done. He was blind to all the horrors
of hell awaiting him as he prepared to bear our sin in his own body
on the tree. Read on. Who is death as my messenger
that I sent? The Lord Jesus is God's messenger.
The messenger of the covenant, the angel of the Lord, the brother
Cody read about just a little bit ago, who was in the fiery
furnace with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. The triune Jehovah
is that one who is revealed by him to man. He's God's messenger. The word of God, the revelation
of God, the unveiling of Christ, the sent one of God. You remember
how Job described God's salvation coming to his elect? He said,
if there be a messenger with him, Interpreter one among a
thousand to show unto man his uprightness Then he is gracious
to him and saith deliver him from going down to the pit I
have found a ransom Christ is that messenger Christ is that
interpreter as God's messenger our Lord Jesus was deaf While
he went about doing his father's will accomplishing our salvation
Death to Satan's temptations. Death to the slanders heaped
upon him. They said he's going to eat with
publicans and sinners. If he were prophet, he would
know that gal who's washing his feet's a harlot, and he wouldn't
let that happen. He was accused of being a winebibber
and a glutton. Do you know how many times he
responded to it? Merle, do you know how many times he defended
his reputation? Do you know how many times he tried to set the
record straight? That's not right! Do you know how many times? Not
even once. Not even once. He was deaf to
the accusations of his accusers when he was brought to his mock
trial. As he hung upon the cursed tree, deaf he was to the talks
and jeers of all those who mocked him in his death. Look at those
words again, though. There's much, much more here
than we can imagine. Our dear Lord Jesus was blind
and deaf in his humiliation and suffering in his obedience as
Jehovah's servant and blessed be his name forever. He is still. blind and deaf. Blessedly, deliberately,
determinately blind and deaf as our Savior. Look at verse
19. Who is blind but my servant, or deaf as my messenger that
I sent? And then the last part of the
verse, if I read it right, and I'm sure I do, speaks of our
Lord not in his humiliation, but specifically in his exaltation
and glory as our Savior, Jehovah's righteous, successful servant,
having made perfect, having been made perfect by those things
which he suffered. Who is blind as he that is perfect
and blind as the Lord's servant, Jehovah's perfect servant, the
author of eternal salvation, is blind and deaf. He is perfect, that one who perfected
forever them that are sanctified. Perfect God, perfect man, perfect
sacrifice, perfect prophet, perfect priest, perfect king, perfect
advocate, perfect messenger, perfect interpreter. He who is
our perfect Savior, Jehovah's perfect servant, blind to the
sins of his people. That's what you have in verse
20. Seeing many things, but thou observest not. Opening the ears,
but he heareth not. What's that talking about? You remember Noah's drunken episode
after the flood? His son Ham saw his father's
nakedness and called his brothers Shem and Japheth to come look
at their daddy's nakedness. And Shem and Japheth observing
what had taken place refused to look upon their father's nakedness. They saw it, but refused to observe
it. And they went in backwards and
took a blanket and covered up their drunken father. So our
blessed Savior sees many things. He's aware of our sin. He's the omniscient God, but
he's blind to it. Blind to it because he covered
it up. He atoned for it. He put it away. He's blind to our sins, aware
of them, oh yes. He does not observe them, but
He's aware of them. He doesn't lay them to our charge,
but He's aware of them. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. This is one of the most wondrous,
glorious aspects of gospel truth found in all of Holy Scripture. It was spoken by the prophet
Balaam. He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen
perverseness in Israel. I love the way Balaam spoke those
words by the Spirit of God. He didn't say he does not behold,
he does not see. He does not say he shall not
behold, he shall not see. He says he hath not. beheld iniquity in Jacob. Neither hath he seen perverseness
in Israel. God has never beheld sin, iniquity,
transgression in this man. Not from all eternity. I've been
accepted in the beloved justified, righteous, sanctified, glorified
in Him, in the Lamb slaved from the foundation of the world.
And when I sinned and fell in my father Adam, God didn't observe
it. He didn't mark it down. And when
I came forth from my mother's womb, speaking lies, God, aware
of it, seeing it, didn't observe it. He didn't mark it down. And
after He saved me by His grace, All these days he's not seen
iniquity in this man, or perverseness in this man, ever, ever, ever. Preacher, how can you say that?
He's the omniscient God. He's aware of it. He sees everything,
but he doesn't observe it. He's blind to it, deliberately
blind to it. Having cast our sins behind his
back, having cast our sins into the depths of the sea, having
removed them from us as far as the east is from the west, having
laid them on his son, seen them in his son, observed them in
his son, he charged them to his son, and he punished them in
his son, and now his son has purged away our sins. He was manifested to take away
our sins. And in Him is no sin. That means the Lord God Almighty
never looks upon His people except as they are in Jesus Christ upright,
holy, and perfect. Holy. Beautiful. Unblameable,
unreprovable, made beautiful by His beauty He has put upon
us. All the sins of God's elect forever
put away. This is that which God declares
He is blind. Blind. And He continually is
blind to them. Blind to all the evil that's
in us. and all the evil that we perform. And death. Death. He's death to Satan's accusations
against us. He's death to the accusations
of our own aching hearts by reason of the sin that's in us. Death
to the murmurings the murmurings that come out
of these lips. And murmurings far worse than
those. I try to set a good example before my wife and children and
grandchildren and you. I try not to let folks hear me
complain. I try not to let folks observe in me when I'm downcast
and gloomy. I just, I try not to let it happen.
I say, well, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna do that. I want you,
what I am is what I am. Well, what I am is what I am,
but I don't want you to know about it. I try to, I try to do those
things outwardly that will help you and not hurt you. But, uh,
he sees. He sees. But he's blind to it. And he's deaf to it. And far
worse, the murmurings in here. The blasphemies that suddenly
erupt in our hearts is death to them. Death to Satan's accusations
against us. Read the third chapter of the
book of Zechariah again. As Satan stands before God and
seeks to accuse his servant Joshua, the high priest, raising up Moses
against God's chosen one. And the scripture says that our
Lord Jesus didn't raise a railing accusation. He didn't he didn't
open his mouth. He just stood by death, death
to the accusations. And he said, put a change of
raiment on him, put a crown on his head. He said, your iniquity
is taken away. Deaf. Deaf. How can that be? Because in God's esteem, you
and I, his church, his bride, his elect, are the very perfection
of beauty. And the Lord God says, he's blind
and he's deaf. You remember when David sinned
against Uriah? God, the Holy Spirit, tells us
distinctly the thing that David did displeased the Lord. And he showed it. He showed it. He showed David that it displeased
him. He showed Israel that it displeased him. He showed Bathsheba
that it displeased him. He showed David's family that
the thing David did displeased him. He showed us, he showed
the world the thing David did displeased the Lord. But it is
never written that David displeased the Lord. Because David's accepted
in the beloved and the Lord God is blind and deaf to our sins. He lays them not to our charge. He declares rather that we have
none. In the day of judgment, the books
will be opened. And every man can be judged out
of the books. And the Lord God says in those
days and that time, the iniquity of Don Fortner shall be sought
for. Look over every page. Look over
every page. Every one of them. Start back
June 10th, 1950. Look over every page. Go all
the way through April 17th, 2016. And the Lord God says, there's not
any. There shall be none. sins and
they shall not be found. For I will pardon them whom I
observed. God make you to hear his call. Hear ye deaf, look ye blind, and live forever. And this is my prayer. Oh God, make me such a servant. Blind to every obstacle that
stands in my way. Blind to it. You can't do that. You can't do that. I keep telling
you how many times in my life I've been told you can't do that.
You can't do that. I'm not talking about the thing
before God said, I'm talking about as a preacher, that's not
possible. You can't do that. You can't do that. I'll tell
you what I've done. I'll tell you what I've done. In 45 years, trying to lead God's people in faith, in the service of God. And 45 years as a pastor, Bobby,
I have never yet seen something that I knew God would have me
to do, that I put my hand to, I didn't accomplish. Sadly, there have been some things
come up. I thought, you just can't do
that. You just can't do it. And you
know what? I didn't. I didn't. God make me blind to
every obstacle. Make me blind to the offenses
of brothers. Make me blind to them. Well,
if he offended me, so what? Who am I? Who am I? Make me blind
to the failures and sins of my brethren. Just blind to them.
Just blind to them. In his lectures to my students,
Spurgeon, one of his lectures said, every preacher ought to
have a pocket with holes in it. so that when he picks things
up not worth keeping, put them in his pocket and they just slip
out of his pocket and they're gone. Make me blind to offensives,
deaf to slanders, deaf to accusations, deaf to rumors. God, make me
as your righteous servant, blind and deaf. And God make you so
for Christ's sake. Amen.