If you will turn back with me
now to Isaiah chapter 55, my subject tonight is the gospel
of Isaiah. The gospel of Isaiah. Now just hold your place there
in Isaiah 55. In Isaiah 53, our Lord sets forth
His gospel by way of the suffering Savior. If you read through Isaiah 53,
probably the most quoted of all the Scriptures except for Psalm
23 in the Old Testament. Isaiah chapter 53. And you see
our suffering Savior there, a root. He calls Him a root out of dry
ground. Dry ground speaking of all humanity. dried up, dead in Adam, dead
in the fall, under the curse of God. A root suddenly appears
out of dry ground. No beauty in Him that we should
desire Him. Those who have seen Him saw nothing
special about Him. You remember in the Old Testament
when Israel sought for a king They saw Saul. And he was a big man and a wise
man and had a grand reputation. Everything that they thought
they could desire in a king, Saul had it. And so the people
wanted Saul as their king. They didn't even consider David
God's king. They totally overlooked Him.
And that's how this is setting forth our Savior and His humility. There was no beauty in Him that
we should desire Him. He was despised and rejected
of me and a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He alone
hath borne our sorrows. He bore our sorrows and carried
our griefs. He was wounded for our transgressions. and bruise for our iniquities.
The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all." So you see
here how the Lord in Isaiah 53, He sets forth the gospel of the
suffering Savior. That's what He's talking about
all through Isaiah chapter 53. And this is the gospel of the
suffering Savior. And then in Isaiah chapter 54,
the prophet sets forth the promises of God that are in this suffering
Savior. He begins to talk about these
things. His suffering having satisfied
God. God shall see the travail of
His soul and be satisfied, He tells us over in Isaiah 53. So
now in 54, He begins to proclaim to us these promises set forth
of God in Christ. These gospel promises. And the
barren now breaks forth into singing. That barren woman, the
church, she now breaks forth into singing. She is able to
bear children. God will have His seed, He told
Abraham, to be as the sands of the seashore and as the stars
in the heavens. God's Israel shall multiply.
You remember the picture He gave us of Israel back in Egypt when
the Egyptians had purpose to destroy all the children of Israel. Because The Egyptians would have
babies, and they'd have miscarriages, and they'd have this problem
and that problem. The Jews wasn't having any problems.
They were having children by the dozens. And so they told
the midwives to destroy them, to destroy them. But God's going
to have His Israel. He's going to multiply His Israel
no matter what. And as He did in Egypt, He now
does. All of those things being a picture
of Christ, and his church. And God will make himself known.
This is his promise. Thy maker, he said, is thy husband,
thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. And he said, for a small
moment I have forsaken thee. I have forsaken thee. But with
great mercies will I gather thee. And he said, this forsaking to
me, he forsook us in Christ. Did he not? Sure he did. This forsaking, he said, is as
the waters of Noah unto me. They are like satisfied justice.
And so as I have sworn that as the waters of Noah should no
more go over the earth, so have I sworn that I would not be wroth
with thee or rebuke thee any more. He says this. Here is another one of those
gospel promises. My covenant shall not cease.
Not going to cease. And no weapon that is formed
against thee, he said, shall prosper." Gospel promises. These gospel promises, every
one of them has an if, an if, an if. But when those gospel
promises are threaded on that golden chain and hung around
the neck of Christ, they're all yea and amen in Him. You see
what I'm saying? So the first thing Isaiah shows
us is the suffering Savior. And then he shows us the promises
of God. Because of that suffering Savior,
those promises fulfilled as a result of his accomplishments, the accomplishments
of his Savior. And then here in Isaiah 55, he
writes of the proclamation of the gospel. Now he gets down
to it. And now he's going to call out
to sinners. And the prophet here speaks of
a time yet to come, a time when God will speak and man will hear
and hearts will be turned to Him. He is speaking here of that
gospel age in which we live. A time when He will make known
His suffering Savior and make known His precious promises,
and not just to the Jew, but to all nations. As you go down
through these verses, you will see in there where he talks about
a nation that knew Him not shall run to Him. at His invitation. He is not just talking here about
the Jew, but to all nations and tribes and kindreds and tongues.
So what I want to do tonight is just go through these first
six or seven verses here in Isaiah and talk to you about this gospel
proclamation. See if you can hear what He is
saying to these people. In verse 1, Isaiah begins this
chapter with God proclaiming His grace to thirsty sinners. God describes those to whom He
speaks. All the way through the Scriptures,
He describes those to whom He speaks. You remember He spoke
to those Pharisees, and the Pharisees didn't hear Him. And his disciples
said, well, you offended them. He said, it's not given unto
them to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God. It's given
unto you. Blessed are your ears, for they hear. They hear. It's not given unto them to hear. I'm not talking to them. That's
what he was telling them. I'm not talking to them. I'm
talking to you. I'm not talking to those who
are offended by this. I'm talking to them who seek
these answers and seek these promises. I'm talking to those
to whom it's given. And he calls them here thirsty. Thirsty. Thirsty not for water
like the woman at the well. He said, if you knew the gift
of God and who it was that said unto you, give me to drink, you'd
have asked of me and I'd have given you living waters. A well of water springing up
into everlasting life. This thirst is not for something
you can find in this world. This thirst is a thirst after
God. David said in the Psalms, my
heart painteth after thee. Like a thirsty deer painteth
after the water brooks. It's a thirst after the living
God. And this thirst is a thirst for
mercy. This is thirsty sinners. They're
thirsting after mercy. They're not thirsting after works.
They're not thirsting after recognition. They're not thirsting on somebody
to stand up Sunday morning and brag on them and brag on their
work and brag on their decisions. They're not thirsty for somebody
to stand up and talk about them. If we had a beggar here tonight,
that beggar wouldn't want to be seen. He'd want to hide himself
somewhere in amongst the people here and not be seen. We had
one came years ago down to Ball and you couldn't get in 20 feet
of him. He stunk worse than any rotten animal I ever smelled.
He was bruised and his bruises were putrefied and pus covered
and he was hungry and Kathy made him a meal and he ate and I invited
him to stay and he did. But he sat as far back as he
could get on one of the back pews. And we brought him up some
water, and he cleaned himself up a little bit, and he sat back
there. But he didn't want to be noticed. He didn't want to
be seen. He was ashamed of what he was, and how he looked, and
ashamed of his condition. And that's what he's talking
about here, thirsty sinners. Talking about those made thirsty
by God. Brought low. He bringeth down,
then he lifteth up. I fear that. I'm seeing a lot
of folks lifted up, but they've never been brought down. Thirsty
sinners. Anybody thirsty? That's what
our Lord said. They was all doing the ceremonies.
They were all there to feast day. They were all there rejoicing
and playing religion. And at the last day of that feast,
our Lord cried out. He said, anybody thirsty? Has God made anybody thirsty?
Come unto me. Come unto me. That's what he's
saying here. He speaks to needy sinners and
he calls them to the fountain of life. And then look at this
first word he says. Ho! That don't mean what you
think it does. Anybody here ever watch them
old westerns? Huh? They're riding them wagons, whipping
them horses, and then all of a sudden they get to town, boy,
do they cry. Oh! That's what that word means.
That's what that word means. That's what those teamsters cried
out to those horses. Whoa! That's what God said. Whoa! Stop! That's what He said. You're going
the wrong direction. You're looking in the wrong place.
Stop! Stop! What's the next thing He tells
them? Come. Huh? You was going the wrong
direction. Now come. Come, he said. Come. You're not going to find
what your soul thirsts for in religion. You're not going to
find it there. You're not going to find it.
Come is the next prominent word found here. And then watch this.
He tells them to buy. But they're beggars. And he knows
it. And he said, you don't take no
money. Redemption is purchased. Don't ever forget that. You can't
have redemption without the death of Christ. Redemption is purchased
by the precious blood of Christ. Peter said, you know this, that
you were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold, that
you receive from your fathers from their vain traditions. They
look back under that tabernacle and they didn't look at those
things in faith. They just saw that silver redemption
money and they thought that was redemption. And they pay that
little bit of silver, well, I'm redeemed. No. He said, you know
better than that now. You're not redeemed with those
things like that, with that silver and gold, but with the precious
blood of Christ. This thing is purchased, but
you buy it without money. And without price. Because you
don't have enough money. And you don't have the price.
But he did. He did. Buy, he said. And then look here
in verse 2. In this verse, God asks a question. Why do men spend their time and
energy and strength pursuing something that cannot satisfy?
He said, what would it profit you if you gained the whole world
and lost your soul? Why do you spend your time and
your energy and your strength pursuing that which cannot satisfy? One writer said this. He said,
religion is not bread, it's chaff. It's chaff. It's not bread, it's
chaff. You're trying to satisfy your
hungry soul by eating chaff. That prodigal son, he said, he
fain would have ate the husk from the corn with the hogs.
He was down in a hog pen, and he was hungry. And he said, I
would have ate them, but they wouldn't satisfy. They wouldn't
satisfy. And he said, I know what I'll
do. I'll go to my father. And that's what he's telling
us. This verse asks this question. God begins to reason. Did you
know the book of Isaiah begins this way? Come, let us reason
together. You can't reason with a natural
man. I've tried to reason with natural men. You can't reason
with them. They've got their religion. They've got their traditions.
They've got their traditional understanding. They know what
they know. They believe what they believe,
and you can't tell them anything. And I can pile scriptures up
around them and stack it up like cordwood, and it doesn't have
any effect on them whatsoever until God speaks. And God speaking
here in Isaiah 55, He's speaking. Now God said at the very beginning
of Isaiah, He said, Come now, let us reason together. And that's
what He's doing. He's reasoning. And this false
religion, it's not bread, it's chaff, it's not satisfying, it's
condemning. It's not better than nothing.
Somebody's daughter went off to college and And I was talking to them, and I
said, has she found a church there to go to? Well, she goes
to this Methodist church there. It's better than nothing. Oh,
no, it ain't. Oh, no, it ain't. It's poison
to your soul. If that man doesn't preach the
gospel, I don't care what he's got on the door and on the sign.
I don't care what he's got on the front of his pulpit or letters
before his name. If he doesn't preach the gospel,
he's a false prophet. He's Antichrist. And to listen
to him is damning to your soul. He told his disciples, our Lord
did, concerning these false prophets, These men that they admired,
these men that they were worried about hurting their feelings,
he said, they compassed sea and land to make one proselyte like
unto themselves. And when they've made him, they're
better than nothing. Now, I ain't what he said. He
said, they're twofold more the child of hell than those who
made them. Now, that's the truth. That's the way it is. False religion
cannot produce, nourish, or preserve the children of God, only make
proselytes. And here's what he says here.
God says, listen to me. Feed on Christ. Feed on Christ
and your soul shall delight itself in fatness. That is, it will
fill up all your needs. You remember what Paul said over
there in Colossians about Christ? He said, in Him dwelleth all
the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and ye are complete in Him. He'll
fill up all your needs. What do you need? Do you need
righteousness? Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness. You need pardon? His blood alone
pardons sin. Now look here in verse 3. The Lord gives us here in this verse
four things concerning His declaration to the needy. First of all, He
tells them this, incline your ear. Incline your ear. Hear me. Isn't that what God
says there? Shut up and listen. That's what God says. Listen,
incline your ear. No man, no woman will ever be
successful in seeking the Lord until God shuts their mouth.
Read Romans chapter 3. What thing soever the law saith,
it saith to them that are under the law, that every mouth may
be stopped. And that's what will happen if
you ever see what the law, if you ever hear what that law says.
You that desire to be under the law, Paul wrote to the Galatians
and said, you that desire to be under the law, do you hear
the law? You don't hear the law. If you heard the law, you wouldn't
be yakking. You wouldn't be talking. You'd be sitting there with your
mouth shut, guilty before God. God has to shut their mouth.
The body's fed through the mouth, but the soul fed through the
ear. It feeds through the ear. And you can follow after a deceived
heart or rebellious mind and walk in darkness. Paul tells
us that they did that. Those Gentiles, he said, don't
walk as they do. They walk in the vanity of their
mind. They're walking in darkness, alienated from God. And you can
hear the poison of false religion and die. Or you can submit yourself
to God's preacher and listen, and listen. as he opens the Word
of God and preaches to you the Good News. You can hear it. You can hear it. You can incline
your ear. Is it asking too much? Isn't
that what he is saying in this verse? Is it asking too much
from a beggar to hear? To shut up and listen, is it
asking too much? Is it asking too much from that
man who's a bankrupt sinner before God, who has nothing to offer,
he has nothing to, no ability, no potential in himself to recommend
himself to God? Is it too much to ask for, to
hear? Is that asking too much? Is this
an unreasonable request upon sinners? Incline your ears. Listen to this. Here's what James
said about it. Of his own will begat he us with
the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of
his creatures. Wherefore, my beloved brethren,
let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to wrath. I'll tell you this. The rebel
is always known by his unwillingness to submit to the things of the
Spirit of God. That's what he tells us. We're
talking about preaching and talking about the revelation of the Holy
Spirit over in I Corinthians 1 and 2. And he gets down to
verse 14 and he said, But the natural man receiveth not the
things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him,
neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
He won't have it. He won't have it. So here's the
first thing God tells us about seeking Him. Incline your ear.
And then secondly, He tells us to come to Christ. Come to Christ. I'm telling you, don't go to
false religion. They have a form of godliness,
but they deny the power of it. You know what the power of this
thing is? Paul said, I'm not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ.
And he said, I'm ready to preach it to those that are here at
Rome also. I'm not ashamed of it because
it is the power of God unto salvation. For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed. False religion has nothing to
satisfy your thirst. Seeking sinners need pardon and
forgiveness and righteousness. And they have to know how God
does those things. They need life, not reformation. They need justification, not
church membership. They need to be buried with Christ,
not just buried in the water. Come to me, Christ said, and
all you that labor and heavy laden, and I'll give you rest.
Take my yoke on you. You yoke up with me. Take my
yoke upon you and learn of me. I'm meek and lowly and hard,
and you'll find rest for your soul. So He says, incline your
ear and quit arguing, and listen, and then come to Me. And then
listen to this. Here's the third thing He tells
us. Hear, and your soul shall live. Hear. Faith cometh by hearing. Isn't that what the Scripture
says? Faith cometh by hearing, hearing by the Word of God. Now
it's one thing to hear from a man, and another thing to hear from
God through a man. Those two different things. Everybody
in this place tonight is hearing from a man. Some of you are hearing
from God through a man. And this hearing is not just
a simple hearing of a lesson or a sermon. That's part of it,
but that's not all of it. But it's a hearing, an answer
to an inward work of grace on the heart. It's a needy soul
hearing where the help is. A hungry soul finding out where
the bread is. Somebody said preaching is one
beggar telling another beggar where he got his bread. It's
what it is. It's what it is. It's a thirsty soul hearing where
the water is. It's written in the prophets.
Where was it written? In Isaiah 54. And they shall
all be taught of God. Every man therefore that hath
heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me." Hear,
he said, and your soul shall live. But you won't hear until
you incline your ear and come to Christ. And then fourthly,
listen to this, to all those who hear, he said, I'll make
with them an everlasting covenant. An everlasting covenant, even
the sure mercies of David. God has made an everlasting covenant
on the behalf of His elect. I'm not a bit hesitant to say
that most of our generation knows nothing whatsoever about an everlasting
covenant. Most people I talk to don't even
know what I'm talking about, even though it tells you over
and over and over in here that our God is a covenant God, that
the blood of Christ is the blood of the everlasting covenant.
He tells you that. And this covenant was a work
of the Father, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy
Ghost. They are all included in this
covenant. God the Father is the author.
He is the author of the covenant, having blessed us thereby with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. And the Son
is the surety and guarantor of the covenant, fulfilling all
of its demands and making sure that its promises find the objects
to which they were promised. And then God the Holy Spirit
brings that covenant. He brings those covenant promises
to us and makes that covenant ours. He is the one who finds
God's elect. Because you are sons of God,
God has sent forth His Spirit into your heart, crying, Abba,
Father. Because you're a son, because
this covenant God made was on your behalf, God sends forth
His Spirit and establishes that covenant with you. How does He
do it? He does it through hearing. He does it through coming. He
does it through calling. He does it through belief. It's what Isaiah is talking about
here. God the Holy Spirit making us to know these covenant promises
to be ours. Putting within us, he tells us
in Ephesians chapter 1, that sealed us with that Holy Spirit
promise. He makes them personal and he
makes them effectual. He said, I'll make my covenant
with you. Listen to Jeremiah. I'll give
you the verses if you want to jot them down for looking at
after a while, but I'll just give you the gist of these verses
as I go. In Jeremiah 31, 33, he said,
I'll put my law into their inward parts. What's he talking about? What in the world is he talking
about, putting his law into their inward parts? He's putting it
there to see it honored and exalted in Christ. That's what he's talking
about. He puts it there so that you
can know that it's holy and right and good, and to see it accomplished
and to see it satisfied. And he said, I'll be to them
a God, and they shall be to me a people. Jeremiah 31, 34, they
shall all know me. They know Him as He's revealed
in Christ. the merciful, gracious, and loving
God of glory, just and justifier. And this knowledge is not just
in word and doctrine, though it certainly is included in these
things, but knowing this is talking about a spiritual union. To know
Him savingly, to know Him trustingly, to know Him in submission. And then in Jeremiah 32, 39,
He said, I'll give them one heart. and one way. We're talking about
God coming and establishing that everlasting covenant with His
people. I'll give them one heart. Every
one of them has the same heart. Every one of them has the same
mind. They all have the mind of Christ, and they all have
a heart for Christ. And I'll give them one way. And
Christ tells us He is the way. And He's certainly the object
of our affection. He told His disciples, He said,
where your treasure is, that's where your heart is. Where's
the believer's treasure? Seated at the right hand of God.
In Him is all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. There's just no other way to
God for ruined sinners than Christ. We'll come by His blood and righteousness
or we won't come at all. We'll come through our high priest
and intercessor or we won't come at all. There's one mediator
between God and me and the man, Christ Jesus. You'll come through
that mediator or you won't come at all. And then over in Jeremiah 32
verse 40, he said, I won't turn away from them and they will
not depart from me. Our God is immutable. He will
not and cannot change. He is of one mind who can change. I am the Lord, He said. I change
not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob
are not consumed. Everything that God has made,
He made to manifest His glory and the salvation of a people
through the person and work of His Son. And our God cannot and
will not be thwarted from that purpose. He will not change.
Those whose hearts have been created anew will not depart
from Him. He's their hope. He's their hope. You remember He had a host of
disciples over there in John chapter 5 or John chapter 6. He had a host of disciples following
after Him. And He started talking about
Himself being the bread that came down from heaven. And He
said, except you eat of My flesh and drink of My blood, you have
no life in you. And they said, whoa, whoa, whoa,
whoa. This man is preaching cannibalism.
That's how they interpreted what he preached. And they packed
up their bags and left. And then nobody left there but
the twelve. And he turned to them and he said, will you go
too? Will you go too? Do you know
what they told him? Where are we going to go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. Where are we going to go? Well, I don't like what that
preacher's got to say. Where are you going to go? I'm going to tell you something.
If you hear from God, you're going to hear from God's preacher.
Or you ain't going to hear. That's just the way it is. Read
the book. God's not going to speak to you
in dreams and visions. He's not going to speak to you
out of this book. He's going to speak to you through
His servant. And you'll hear, or you'll die
in your sins one way or the other. Why is that? Because He's the
sovereign God and it pleased Him to do it that way. Isn't
that what He says? Why is it so hard to take God
at His word? It pleased God through the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. Is God going to change? I don't think so. I don't think
so. or God cannot and will not change.
And those whose hearts have been created anew, they won't depart
from Him. They're not leaving Him. They're
not going to do it. And then watch this here in verse
4. He's our witness. He's our witness. I'll give Him, I'll give them
a witness. He's our witness. In John 3.31,
He said, He that cometh from above. This is John the Baptist
talking here. He that cometh from above is
above all, and he that is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh
of the earth. He that cometh from above is
above all. And what he hath seen and heard,
that he testifieth, and no man receiveth his testimony. What
did the Lord Jesus Christ see and hear? Huh? What did he see and hear? I sat
in my study a while ago and asked myself that question. What did
the Lord Jesus Christ, He came here, and one of the reasons
He came was as a witness, God's witness. What did He see and
hear? All the eternal counsels of God
concerning the redemption of God's people. He was there when
the Trinity struck hands and made this covenant of grace.
He was right there. He was right there. There was
only one who came into this world who was present in the beginning,
and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. In the beginning, John said,
that's how he started out his gospel. In the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And
the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us." What he saw and what he heard,
that's what he testified. Paul says in Hebrews chapter
1, God hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son. I've given Him, he tells us here
in Isaiah, as a witness to the people. And then listen to this
in John 3.33, "...he that hath received his testimony hath set
to his seal that God is true." He tells us, "...no man knoweth
the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will
reveal him. For he whom God sent speaketh
the words of God, for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto
him." And then he tells us he's a leader. He's a leader. I'm going to give him as a commander
and a leader. He leadeth me, David said, beside
the still water. He leadeth us in the paths of
righteousness. His sheep hear his voice, and
they follow him. To him, he said, the porter openeth,
and the sheep hear his voice, and he calleth his own sheep
by name, and leadeth them out. And then in here in Isaiah 55
verse 4, our Lord is said to be the commander of His people.
He is the head of the body of the church, that is, that in
all things He might have the preeminence. He is the commander. Isn't that what Paul tells us
over there in the book of Romans? To this end came He into the
world. Let me read that to you. He is
a commander of his people. For none of us live it to himself,
and no man dieth to himself. For whether we live, we live
unto the Lord, and whether we die, we die unto the Lord. Whether
we live, therefore, or die, we are the Lord's. For to this end
Christ both died and rose and revived, that He might be Lord
both of the dead and the living. He's the commander. He commands
all things. He commands all things that revolve
around the sun. By Him all things consist. He made all things. He spoke
and it was done. He commanded and everything stood
fast. He's the commander. He was then
and He is now. All power, He told His disciples,
in heaven and earth given unto Me. Now you go preach. You go
preach. The Lord Jesus Christ commands
His people, and as He commands, they follow willingly, lovingly,
and earnestly. They're not coerced. You don't
have to promise them anything. They love Him. They love Him. They want to follow Him. God's
King is King in the heart as well as on the throne. And if
He's not King in your heart, you're not in His kingdom. That's
just so. If He's not your Lord, He's not
your Savior. You'll receive the whole Christ
or you won't receive Him at all. And then in verse 5, this kingdom,
this kingdom of which He's King is made up of every nation, kindred,
tribe, and tongue under heaven. What a great mystery was the
mystery of the Gentiles. These old heathen idolaters,
my soul. morally depraved sinners chosen
and called of God, just as was their father Abraham. Everybody
thinks, you know when I went to church, we had little picture
books. I was young, probably in the first or second grade,
and had these little picture books they taught us in Sunday
school. And I would open that thing up. And Abraham was a man
who they Kind of give us the impression that he was a good
man. He was always a good man. He
always did what his father told him to do. He always did. Abraham
was an idolater. His daddy made idols. He worked
in his daddy's idol shop. He was a heathen idolater. And God included all those heathen
idolaters in his everlasting covenant. Everlast one of them. And then in verse 6, he said,
Seek ye the Lord while He may be found. Call ye upon Him while
He is near. When can the Lord be found? Huh? When can He be found? Anytime
you want to? That is not my experience. When is it that the Lord is near?
Call ye upon Him when He is near. When is He near? When is He near? He is near when God is speaking. Is that right? He is near when
God is speaking. God is speaking here in this
chapter. God is speaking and He is speaking
to His people and He is telling them what to do. He is proclaiming
His gospel. The gospel of His suffering Savior. The gospel of His eternal promises. Peter called them great and precious
promises. And he begins to speak to them
about it. He said in Proverbs 1, verse
23, that he reproved them to turn, and they wouldn't turn.
And he called them, but they refused. He counseled them, and
they set all his counsel aside. When did he do that? When did
he do that? He did it through his prophets.
Now what Paul said over in Hebrews, God, who spoke to our fathers
through the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us
by His Son." He spoke to our fathers through the prophets.
You do always, listen to this, you do always, talking to those
self-righteous Jews, resist the Holy Ghost. As your fathers did,
so do you. Which of your fathers have not
Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? And
they have slain them which showed before the coming of the just
one." Men and women hear from God when God speaks through His
preachers, when He speaks through His ambassadors, His prophets,
His apostles, all of those. You can find a list of them over
there in Ephesians. He sent out his ambassadors,
and he said to them, where two or more are gathered together
in my name, there will I be in the midst, where they are gathered
in my name. Not where they are gathered,
where they are gathered in my name. And then he told them this. He said, now you go and preach.
Now listen to me. This is the Word of God. This
ain't something I'm making up and reading out of a storybook.
He said, you go and preach. Preach my gospel. He that heareth
you, are you listening? Heareth me. Ain't that what he
said? That's exactly what he said. And he that despiseth you, despiseth
me. Why? Because that man is his
ambassador. He gives you a great example
of that back in the Old Testament. The old prophet, he was getting
some age on him, losing his hair. He was about all bald-headed.
Started up that hillside and a bunch of little 13, 14-year-old
kids come out there and they said, go ye up your bald head! And they were making fun of him
and laughing at him and mocking him. It said God sent a she-bear
out of the woods and destroyed him. This is God's ambassador. There ain't nothing in him personally.
Nothing to him at all. Ain't nothing in that old tabernacle
either. Just wood, minerals. That's all there is in it. Until
God sanctified it. Now it's his tabernacle. That old Ark of the Covenant
they carried around, it's just wood. Lined with gold. That's
all it was. But it was sanctified by God.
And when others had touched it, God killed him. And that's the
way it is with preachers. I ain't nothing. I ain't nothing. I don't think in myself that
I'm anything. But I'll tell you this, if God
had sanctified me and called me, which I believe He has, Be
careful. Be careful. Call ye upon Him when He is near.
He is near when He speaks. When He speaks. It's in the preaching of the
gospel, in the assembly of the saints, that God comes near and
men are made willing to call upon Him. Seek Him while He can
be found. Don't seek Him at your own convenience.
Over there in Acts chapter 17, when he preached there on Mars
Hill in Athens, Greece, some believed, and some said, we'll
hear you again on this matter at a more convenient time. They
never did. They never did. One of the kings
that Paul preached to said, I'll hear you on this again at a more
convenient season. They never heard him again. Seek
Him while He can be found, and call you upon Him while He is
near. He tells us, I thanked her three times, and I pointed
this out to our folks here. I don't know if you all have
ever seen this or not. But in Hebrews chapter 3, when He's
talking about Israel out there, He said, today is the day of
salvation. And today, both the 2 and the
D are capitalized all three times when He tells us. Today's the
day. Call you up on Him while He's
near. And I'm going to tell you something. God is as near as
He's willing to come in the crucified Redeemer. The hymn writer thinking about
that said, near to God. Nearer I cannot be, for in the
person of His Son I am as near as He. He's as near as He's willing
to come. in the gospel of Jesus Christ.