Turn back, if you will, to Isaiah,
chapter 3. Isaiah continues in the same
vein as we read of earlier in chapter 2. Perhaps we ought to
read the last verse of that chapter one more time. Isaiah 2, verse
22, cease ye from man whose breath is in his nostrils. For wherein
is he to be accounted of? For behold, it's as though the
prophet says, take your eyes off man and behold the Lord. The Lord of hosts doth take away
from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole
stay of bread and the whole stay of water. The mighty man and
the man of war, the judge and the prophet, and the prudent
and the ancient, the captain of 50, and the honorable man,
and the counselor, and the cunning artificer, and the eloquent orator. And I will give children to be
their princes, and babes shall rule over them. And the people
shall be oppressed, every one by another and every one by his
neighbor. The child shall behave himself
proudly against the ancient, and the base against the honorable.
When a man shall take hold of his brother of the house of his
father, saying, Thou hast clothing, be thou our ruler, and let this
ruin be upon thy hand. In that day shall he swear, saying,
I will not be an healer. For in my house is neither bread
nor clothing. Make me not a ruler of the people.
For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen. because their
tongue and their doings are against the Lord. Not unjustly is God
judging this nation. To provoke the eyes of His glory,
verse 9, to show of their countenance doth witness against them, and
they declare their sin as Sodom. They hide it not. They hide it
not. They're proud of it. They even
plan marches to boast of it. Woe unto their soul, for they
have rewarded evil unto themselves. Oh, but then the prophet comforts
God's people with this blessed word, this blessed promise. Say
ye to the righteous, even in light of what they see
going on all around them, This hasn't changed. God says
to Isaiah, say ye to the righteous that it shall be well with him,
for they shall eat the fruit of their doings. Woe unto the
wicked, it shall be ill with him, for the reward of his hand
shall be given him. There's an article in today's
bulletin by J.C. Philpott. Many of you are familiar with
his writings, a preacher of years gone by. But he made this statement. The title of the article is Choosing
a Text for a Sermon. I just want to share a few of
his observations with you. The first sentence tells us why
he wrote the article. It says, I found upon the vestry
table this morning a letter requesting me to preach from a certain text,
the text being Jesus wept. The writer of that letter must
know very little of the perplexities and exercises that I and every
minister of truth have with respect to the text that we preach from. He goes on to say, before I take
a text and preach from it, I must have three things. First, I must
see a vein of experience in it. In other words, I must have light
upon it. Secondly, I must find a measure of sweetness and savor
in it. I must know something personally
of the experience contained in it and feel a measure of due
and unction to rest upon. In other words, I must have life
from it. And thirdly, I must find in it
sufficient matter to form a tolerable, full, and connected discourse. Well, I'm often amazed how God
lays a text on my heart when it comes to my heart with power,
as was one of the observations by Mr. Fieldpaw. When he does,
when God, because that's what I'm looking for in study and
preparation, for a text to grip my heart, Until I feel that,
I'm not comfortable. I don't feel like I have God's
direction until I feel that. And how God brings that about
sometimes, as I said, is amazing to me. But when He does, I don't
hesitate to study and to prepare to preach to you from it. I feel
sure it's what God would have me to preach to you here at this
hour. Yesterday, and I want to share
just briefly this with you. Many of you know what I forwarded
this email to you Friday. But this is how God laid
this text on my heart. By the way, our text is verse
10 of chapter 3 in Isaiah. I got this email Friday about
11 o'clock from Brother Don Fortner. It concerned Brother Darwin Pruitt's
wife. Darvin was in Danville for several
years at the same time I was. He was called to pastor in Arkansas
several years ago. Brother Don sent me this email.
Darvin's wife Kathy was taken to the emergency room in Spring
Hill, Arkansas last night. From there she was taken immediately
to LSU Hospital in Shreveport, Louisiana. I spoke to Brother
Darvin this morning. This is the information I have.
Please forgive me for listing the information, but I want to
answer all your questions. Kathy has been having trouble
with memory and simple tasks for several months. Last night,
it became apparent that something was terribly wrong. The surgeon
at LSU has told Darvin that she has a brain tumor about the size
of a teacup on the left side of her brain. Thus far, the surgery
has proceeded as anticipated. Kathy went into surgery about
7 a.m. Friday morning. She is coming
out of surgery now. The tumor was malignant, but
the surgeon said he got all of the tumor. Of course, further
treatments will be required. I am told she has an outstanding
surgeon. When I know more, I will let
you know. Darwin and his family and the
church family there, Grace Baptist Church in Taylor, Arkansas, We
very much appreciate your concern and your prayers on their behalf.
Brother Darwin is a faithful pastor. He and Kathy are cherished
friends. We love them dearly. But he who
loves them infinitely more than we has been pleased to send this
affliction and trial. He will sustain them, teach them,
and continue to perform all things for them. And Don closes that
message, that email with, say ye to the righteous that it shall
be well with them. And that jumped off the page
at me. And I went to my Bible while
I was at my desk seeking a message at the time that email came.
And I looked at it and I thought, oh yes, it shall be well with
the righteous. You remember when our Lord joined
the two disciples on their walk to Emmaus in Luke's gospel after
his resurrection? And after he had departed from
them, they said, did not our heart burn within us? When he
expounded to us along the way as we walked the scriptures,
didn't our heart burn within us? Never a man spake like this
man. And I pray that God will allow
me to preach in such a way that our heart will burn within us
in giving honor and glory to Him for this blessed, blessed
promise, this sure word from God to His people. Say ye to
the righteous that it shall be well with them. Just a little less than two hours
later, From that first message that I received from Brother
Don, I received another one. And it said, I just spoke to
Kathy. Not Darwin, but Kathy. Her voice
is strong and clear. The surgeon has told her and
Darwin that she will need both radiation and chemotherapy treatments. Once those are finished, he will
keep a close eye on her condition with regular checkups every two
months for a while. We are very thankful. Indeed,
it shall be well with the righteous. The prophecy of Isaiah is the
first of the 16 books in the Bible that are written by prophets. He is placed first. He has the
preeminence, not because he wrote first, but he seems to have such
clear views of Jesus Christ, the coming redeemer. These 16
books cover a period of about 500 years. The word Isaiah, his name means
the salvation of the Lord or the Lord will save. And there's not a question mark
at the end of either of those statements. Oh, no. The Lord
will save or the salvation of the Lord. He seems to, as we
said, more than any other of the prophets, to speak with a
clearer view of Christ. Brother Henry, in his commentary
on this book, calls it, The Gospel According to Isaiah. Commentators for many, many years
has referred to Isaiah's work, his prophecy rather, as the fifth
evangelist. This book is quoted more in the
New Testament than any other book. Our Lord himself in the
Gospels quotes more from Isaiah than he did any other book. Because as we said, Isaiah seems
to speak so clearly, as clearly as Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John
concerning the coming Messiah. A prophet's message was exactly
this. He delivered what thus saith
the Lord to the people in his day. But we can't confine it
there, can we? Because the message is for God's
people in this day and in every day. Turn if you will to Isaiah
chapter 62 as a demonstration of this. Isaiah chapter 62. Their
prophet tells us this very thing. It's for God's people in Eberded. In Isaiah chapter 62 at verse
11, we read, And behold, behold, the Lord hath proclaimed unto
the end of the world, Say ye to the daughter of Zion, say
to the church, Behold, thy salvation cometh. Behold, his reward is
with him, and his work That is Christ's work and His work before
Him. And verse 12 tells us the result
of His work. It's not our work, it's His work. And this is the sure outcome
of His work. And they shall call them the
holy people. the redeemed of the Lord, and
thou shalt be called sought out, a city not forsaken." Paul echoes
that very truth when he wrote to the church at Philippi, he
that's begun a good work in you will perform it until the day
of Jesus Christ. Turn back, if you will, to chapter
42. Chapter 42. Again, the prophet speaks words,
yes, that were for God's people in his day, but also the God's
people in every day. It shall be well with the righteous
is always a word that's in season for God's people. Chapter 42,
verse 1. Behold, behold, You want to be
encouraged, you want to be lifted up, you want to worship, you
want to bow down before the king, then behold my servant whom I
uphold. It's speaking of Christ. This
is God speaking of the Son. Mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth,
I have put my spirit upon him. He shall bring forth judgment
to the Gentiles. He shall not cry, nor lift up,
nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed
shall he not break, and the smoking flax he shall not quench. He shall bring forth judgment
unto truth. He shall not fail. That's worth reading again. He
shall not fail nor be discouraged till he has set judgment in the
earth and the owl shall wait for him. One more before we go
back to verse 10 of chapter 3, chapter 40, Isaiah chapter 40
verse 1. God tells Isaiah, comfort ye,
comfort ye my people, saith your God. He tells him twice, twice,
comfort ye, comfort ye my people. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem,
God's church, Jerusalem which is above, and cry unto her that
her warfare is accomplished. Her warfare is accomplished. Who accomplished it? The captain
of her salvation. When he bowed his head upon the
cross and said, it is finished. Her warfare is accomplished. Tell her that. Remind her of
that. She'll find comfort in that. Her warfare is accomplished,
that her iniquity is pardoned. for she had received of the Lord's
hand double for all her sins." Old Topperlady wrote in his song,
Be of sin the double cure, O save from wrath. and make me pure. My sins are forgiven. My iniquity
is taken away. All the work in me, give me a
new heart as well. Her sins are all gone. The hymn writer said, have you
heard? Have you heard what Jesus has done for me? My sins are
all taken away. My soul, can you think of a better
word of comfort? Now, look back at verse 10 of
Isaiah 3. Say ye to the righteous, it shall
be well with him. The title of my message is no
strings attached. No strings attached. Consider
first of all, who says so? Who utters these words? That
makes the difference, doesn't it? Who says that it shall be
well with the righteous? Isaiah is delivering the message,
but it's not his message. Isaiah is just the prophet. He's
God's messenger, but it's God's Word. It's God's message to His
people. And that makes all the difference
in the world. That's the difference between
success and failure. You remember what our Lord said
in this same book? What God said in Isaiah 55? My Word, My Word won't return
unto me void. Ours does all the time. All the
time. My word won't return unto me
void, but it shall accomplish that whereunto I send it. Void, without fruit. God says,
not my word. My word, when it goes forth,
it does exactly that which I send it forth to do. It accomplishes
exactly what I intend for it to accomplish for the people
and for the purpose to which I send it. My word won't return
void. So therefore, you have comfort
in the fact Who speaks those words? That's God's promise. It shall be well with the righteous. Secondly, of whom is He speaking? It's God that speaks, but of
whom is He speaking? The Word says, say ye to the
righteous. To the righteous. When I read
that, I couldn't help but think of what Paul said in Romans 3.
Someone referred to it as the five nuns. But among those, Paul
said, there is none righteous. No, not one. And yet God says,
Isaiah, say ye to the righteous. Well, of course we know the meaning
of that. There is none righteous, no,
not one, in themselves. But He that was made sin for
us. God who made Him, Christ, to
be sin for us has made us to be the very righteousness of
God in Him. That's our righteousness. That's
our clothing. That's what adorns us before
the throne of God. That's why God looks down and
smells a sweet-smelling savor, because we are robed in the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Accept it. Always accept it. Always accept it. Whether you're
aware of it always or not, whether you feel like it or not, once
we're His, we're His forever. We're always accepted in the
Beloved. We're always before God standing
on the one and sure foundation of acceptance, Jesus Christ our
Lord. Oh yes, may the righteousness
of God in Him. Therefore, say unto the righteous,
not everyone, not everyone. He makes clear that distinction
in verse 11. Say this to Isaiah, woe unto
the wicked. Not everybody's going to heaven,
folks. I know we're given that impression
by listening to a lot of fellas that claim to speak for God,
but not everybody's going to heaven. Everybody's not saved. Everybody may have made a decision. Everybody just about has had
some religious spasm. But that doesn't mean they know
God. Oh no, that means they're deceived.
But that doesn't mean they're going to glory. Paul in Romans
10 said, My conscience bears me witness. I have a continual
sorrow in my heart for my brethren Israel, according to the flesh,
because they, being ignorant of God's righteousness, they
go about to establish their own righteousness. That proves their
ignorance, doesn't it? Because if they had any idea
of the righteous claims of God Almighty, they would know how
futile, how useless was their attempts to establish their own
righteousness. But they're ignorant of one,
so they go about to do the other. Same way today. Nothing's changed. Paul said they, being ignorant
of God's righteousness, go about to establish their own righteousness.
But he says, Christ is the end. the consummation, the fulfillment
of. He's the end of the law for righteousness. To who? To everyone that what? Works, tries, clings. No, that believeth. That believeth. Say ye to the
righteous. There's always this distinction
in God's Word. The seat of the woman and the
seat of the serpent. Cain, who tried to approach God
by his own works, and Abel, and the hatred that Cain had for
his brother. There's those who are saved and
those who are lost. Those who were in the ark with
Noah and those outside of it. Those in the house that night
of the Passover, the first Passover, those who were in the house marked
by blood, and everybody else, outside. There was no halfway
house there. There was that one place of refuge? Only one. Only one place of safety? Only one. And it was that place
marked by the blood, that place that had already had judgment
pronounced, justice satisfied, demonstrated by the blood of
that lamb. without demonstrating a picture
of our Lord the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Everybody else was without. You have believer and unbeliever. And God declares, he that hath
the Son hath life. And he that hath not the Son,
do you see? Anything else there? I only see
two distinctions there. I only see two classes of men
there, the saved and the lost. He that hath the Son and he that
hath not the Son. He that hath the Son hath life,
but he that hath not the Son hath not life, no matter what
else he has. no matter what else he claims.
If he doesn't have Christ, if he doesn't have the Son, he doesn't
have life, but the wrath of God abides on him. Our Lord spoke about wheat and
tares. Outwardly, they may look alike,
but there's this vital distinction, this difference in one. God's people, there abides grace
that makes them to differ. And that's the vital difference. The grace that makes them to
differ and that alone. If any man be in Christ, Paul
wrote, He's a new creature. He's not what He once was. He has within Him the very life
of God Almighty and it will never die. And the religious man, no
matter how much he tries to act like it, he doesn't have that. And there's nothing he can do
to get it or to produce it. He may attempt to imitate it,
but it will not be so. Our Lord said concerning the
Pharisees, when our Lord, or rather the disciples came to
Him on one occasion and said, the Pharisees were upset with
what you said, and He said, leave them alone. Leave them alone. They'd be blind leaders of the
blind. Let them grow together. until
the Lord comes and he shall send forth his angels and they shall
gather out not gather unto his elect will be gathered unto him
but angels would gather out of his kingdom everything he said
that offends they shall take them out every tree which my
heavenly father had not planted shall be rooted They grow together
now. Oh, but they shall be rooted
up. Then he said, shall the righteous
shine forth in the kingdom of their God. So to whom is the
prophet speaking? He's speaking to God's people. Now let's come to that. Let's
come to that. Say ye to the righteous. What
does he say? What does he say? It shall be
well with him. It shall be well. Notice the
fullness. Notice first the fullness of
this promise. Look at it. Say ye to the righteous,
it shall be well with him. No stipulations. no ifs, no maybes,
all what's fullness. It simply says, it shall be. no strings attached, no ifs,
perchances, hopesos. It shall be well with the righteous. If they, no, no, no, they're
simply the recipients. Nothing is dependent upon the
righteous. It's dependent upon the God who
gave the word. It shall be well with the righteous. Lord, when I was a young man, a teenager when I was still living
at home. My father would tell me to do
something and if I wanted to offer my opinion, I don't know how many times I'd
hear him say, but different times, but only say it once on each
occasion. He said, son, there's no ifs
and buts about this. Did you ever hear that from your
father? No ifs or buts about this. He said, I'm not asking
you, boy. I'm telling you. It's not up
for a vote. No, no, no. It's not a democracy
here. There's only one boss in this
house, and it ain't you, boy. And I wanted to be the boss,
but not in my daddy's house. Not in my daddy's house. And
I'd just grudgingly accept that, even though I didn't like it.
But he'd say, that's how it is. And long as you're under my roof,
that's how it's going to be. I don't care how old you are.
And he's exactly right. Exactly right. I didn't realize
it at the time. And I adopted the very same policy
when I became a father. Oh, yes. He'd say, there's only
one boss, and it ain't you. And that's what God says here.
My Heavenly Father, my Heavenly Father says, it shall be well
with the righteous. What He says goes. No ifs, no buts, no disclaimers. I saw a commercial on TV the
other day. Somebody claims to invented a
pill that you can take now and go to bed and go to sleep and
still lose weight. What they saying? I bet they'll
clean off the shelves going after that one. But they make some
outrageous claims on television, don't they? Just outrageous.
But you'll notice at the bottom, usually, you can't see it. They
don't want you to see it. But there's a disclaimer. There's
a disclaimer. And pretty much what it amounts
to, everything we just told you is a lie. But you can't read
it. There's exceptions and ifs and
buts and maybes, things they don't tell you in the large print.
There's no disclaimer concerning God's Word. No disclaimer. You won't find small print saying,
well, wait a minute. Wait a minute. This is conditioned
on certain things. This depends upon you doing your
part. This depends upon certain conditions. This depends upon whether the
righteous cooperate or whether everything, all the cosmic forces
have fallen into place. Hogwash. No, no, no. There's
no conditions. There's no disclaimer. God says,
it shall be well with the righteous. And if I'm one of His, I'm one
of the righteous in Christ, I can fall down on that. Good day,
bad day. Sick, well. Rich, poor. Night, day. Mountain top or in
the valley. It makes no difference. It shall
be well with the righteous. That's what He says. That's what
he promised. Brothers and sisters in Christ,
as another expression goes, you can take that to the bank. Lord,
you can take it to the bank. What happened to your son-in-law
yesterday was not an accident. There are no accidents with the
King of Glory. What happened to Darwin's wife
was no accident. It shall be well with the righteous. It was well with her before they
found the tumor, it was well with her after they found it,
and it should continue to be well if I believe God's Word,
if I believe His Word. And let me apply that to myself. When a heavy trial comes to my
door, and it will, it will, when I get the discouraging news from
a far country concerning my loved ones or wherever it might be,
does that make the promise void? Does that make it a non-effect?
Does that make it not true anymore? Oh no, that makes it even more
precious, even more comforting. When peace like a river attendeth
my way, or sorrows like sea billows roll, whatever my state, God
please teach me to say, it is well, it is well with my soul,
and give honor to Him. by doing so. Oh Lord, make me
to believe your precious Word." No disclaimers concerning the
Word of God. He says, it shall be well with
the righteous. And when God says something,
when God declares something, it's the same as Him doing it.
For example, in Genesis 1 and 3, We read, and God said, let
there be light, and there was light. A more literal, that's
good, don't misunderstand me. But a literal, a more literal
translation of that would be, let light be, and light is. That's it, Lester. Let light
be, and light is. The very declaration declaring
the will of God is the same thing that makes it happen. God says,
God wills it, and it is. And God wills that it shall be
well with the righteous. Thank God for that. What a full,
gracious promise. And now notice the freeness of
this promise. So free. It shall be well with
the righteous. We've jumped ahead of ourselves
a little because we've already mentioned a few of these things.
But it's not dependent upon anything in them. In any way whatsoever
is it dependent upon you, believer, or me. What you do or fail to
do. What you feel or don't feel.
Oh no, it's not dependent upon us, but upon the God of all grace
who gave the promise. I like that, don't you? Self-righteous
people, they hear that and they say, oh my, you shouldn't tell
God's people that. They might take that and just
run out and Live like the devil. No, no, no, they won't. No, they
won't. No, no, they won't happen. John
said, not God's people. Self-righteous people, yeah.
Rebels, yeah. But not God's people. John said,
he that had this hope in him purifies himself even as he is
pure. Oh, I'm glad. I'm glad that this
Word in no way depends upon me. When He said it should be well
with the righteous, not one iota of the promise is dependent upon
me. And I like that. I like that. Because I know who me is. That's
not good English, is it? I know how I am. I'm glad it's
not dependent upon me. Because I'm a worm of the dust.
My breath is in my nostrils. Where in should I be accounted?
I don't enter into the equation. I can't make it happen and I
can't stop it. It's all dependent upon God Almighty. My soul, I'm so thankful that's
so. Aren't you, Terry? Because I'm
weak. I'm weak. Oh, but He's strong. I'm sin, but He's all grace. I can't do anything. Christ said,
without me, remember this, be reminded of this, without me
you can do nothing. And attempt to do it without
me and I'll show you, I'll prove it to you. Without me, you can
do nothing. I can't even Well, I remember
when I first moved into the parsonage. I've been here about a week or
so. And I'll just confess, I couldn't
turn on the stove. I couldn't figure out how to
turn the stove on. I had to call Rob. I wanted to boil something,
make soup, something. It wouldn't work, all these buttons
and stuff. You're looking puzzled, Lord, but you've probably been
down this thing. Somebody's had to show you. But I called her
and said, what's the matter with this stove? It won't turn on?
She had to tell me. Aren't you glad? I mean. Aren't
you glad that this promise doesn't depend upon you? Its fulfillment,
its success is determined by God Almighty. That One who says,
I'm in the heavens doing whatsoever I have pleased. Those that they
cast their crown before, or Him rather, that they cast their
crowns before and sing, Hallelujah! The Lord God Omnipotent reigneth. That's what they said in Revelation.
The Lord God Omnipotent reigneth. Well, of course He does. That's
a no-brainer, isn't it? If He's the Lord God Omnipotent,
then He's gonna reign. Who's gonna stop Him from reigning? He works all things after the
counsel of His own will. Imagine that. He doesn't have
to ask advice from anybody. He doesn't need anybody's input. Well, now, who would that be? Who would give God Almighty,
the omniscient, all-knowing God, who's going to give Him any input?
Oh, He knows all of His works from the beginning to the end. He says, I shall do all My pleasure. Remember when he appeared before
Job? Job, stand up. Stand up. You and your miserable
comforters have been in a conference. Y'all been debating this thing.
Stand up and answer me. Where were you at when I laid
the foundations of the earth? Where were you when I set the
stars in their course? Answer me, Job. What part did
you play in it? Remember what Job said? I'll
shut my mouth. I've uttered things too wonderful
for me. I didn't know what I was talking
about, so I'll get back down in the dust where I belong. I'll
bow before you and look up and say, you're my God. You're my
Savior. Of Him and through Him and back
to Him are all things to whom be glory forever and forever. It's while I was writing this
point, this very point here, that my telephone rang. I had
called Darvin, and we sort of played phone tag, but it rang
so I laid down my pen, looked at my phone, Darvin Pruitt. So
I picked it up. I said, well, good, good. Ask
Darvin how Kathy's doing. But it wasn't Darvin. It was
Kathy. It was Kathy from her hospital
bed. I said, Kathy, I wasn't expecting
to hear from you. She said, oh, Larry. And her
voice was strong, just like Donna said, strong and clear. She said,
you know, Larry, I'm in God's hands. I'm in God's hands. I said, yes, you are, Kathy.
Aren't you thankful? She said, oh, yes. She said,
I couldn't be in better hands. What a blessing. What a blessing. My sheep are in my hands. It shall be well with the righteous. She, uh, I said, so you're at
the hospital, the LSU. She said, yeah, yeah, LSU. And you're in Alabama. I said,
yeah. She said, they don't like to talk about Alabama either. I said, I understand. And she
mentioned the game. She'd watched it before this
happened. Oh. But then Darwin called later. And then I thought, I thought,
some several years ago, God led Darwin and Kathy to a little
church in a place called Taylor, Arkansas. Taylor, Arkansas, from
Kentucky. He went down there to be their
pastor. And just the other day, they found
this tumor that his wife had. Just 45 miles away is this hospital
with one of the surgeons, one of the best surgeons in the country
for exactly that type of thing. What a coincidence. Oh, no. Oh, no. It shall be well
with the righteous. It is well, it is well with my
soul. Thank God. Or may he enable me
to look not at the things which are seen. I am so prone to do
that. but it's the things which are
not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the
things which are not seen, they're eternal. And Paul said our light
affliction is just for a moment, and it's not against us. God
is working it for us, a more eternal weight of glory. Turn, if you will, to Mark chapter
7, and we'll wrap this up. Mark chapter 7. In Mark's Gospel, chapter 7,
our Lord, after a day of speaking, has never a man spake. The first
part of the chapter speaks of, tells us about his encounter
with the Pharisees. And he said, well, spake Isaiah
of you hypocrites. Pretty tough. And then he turned
to the people and said, let me tell you how things really are.
It's not what goes into your mouth. It's not what you eat.
That's what the Pharisees had criticized his disciples for.
He said, that's not the issue. It's not what they've been telling
you, touch not, taste not, handle not. That's not the issue. The
issue is the heart. Need a new heart. Oh, he spake,
as I said, as never a man spake. And then after that, It's recorded
the encounter with the Syrophoenician woman. At verse 29, she had come
to him and said, Lord, if you can do anything, help my daughter. She's vexed with the devil. And
he pretended he didn't even hear her, or seemed as though he didn't
even hear her. And the disciple said, she's bothering us, send
her away. She's a Greek, she's not a Jew. Then when our Lord did speak
to her in verse 27, He said, It's just not right to take the
children's meat and cast it to dogs. My son. And you know what she said? Truth,
Lord. You're right. You're right. I'm a dog. But I'm your dog. Just give me the crumbs from
your table, Master. And look what He said in verse 29. And
he said unto her, For this saying, Go thy way, the devil is gone
out of thy daughter. And what happened? When our Lord
said that, what happened? And when she was coming to her
house, verse 30, she found the devil gone out, and her daughter
laid up on the bed. His word will not, cannot, has
never, and never will return unto him void. It shall be well
with the righteous. And then on down in the chapter,
they bring unto him a man that was deaf. And he says to him,
be opened. And his ears are opened and his
tongue is loose. Verse 35, and he spake plain,
plain. And then look at verse 37. At
the end of this day, speaking is never a man's spake.
Doing things that never a man done. Verse 37, And they were
beyond measure astonished, saying, He had done all things well. He had done all things well. Brothers and sisters in Christ,
He had done all things well. It shall be well with the righteous. God help me to believe what I'm
preaching to you. God helped me to believe when
he said, it shall be well, Larry, with you. It shall be well, no
matter what, with the righteous, always. I know what e'er befall
me. The hymn writer wrote, Jesus
doeth all things well. Always, always, all the time. Thank God, that's hard for us
to grasp, isn't it? But you know, it's not our grasp
upon the promise, but His grasp upon us. That's the surety of
it. In Psalm 73, after David confessing
he'd been like a heathen, like an unbeliever in his attitude,
he looked at the rich people and said, well, look, they've
got everything. They've got it all. Why should
I serve God? heartache, sorrow, trial. It's
all for nothing. And then God in his grace reclaimed
to David and he said, oh, I was so stupid. He said, I was as
a beast before you, ignorant. David repented, but he went on
in the psalm and said, nevertheless, nevertheless, I am continually
with thee. Thou hast holden me up, Psalm
73. It's not my hold on thee, but
your hold on me. Nevertheless, I am continually
with thee. And when in scenes of glory we
see him, oh, how we shall sing. How we shall sing. He hath done
all things Well, Isaiah chapter 65, look at it with me and we'll
close with these couple of verses. Isaiah chapter 65. 65 verse 17. 17 through 19. God says, For behold, I create
new heavens and a new earth, and the former shall not be remembered,
nor come into mind. I shall wipe away all tears from
their eyes. But be ye glad and rejoice forever
in that which I create. For behold, I create Jerusalem
a rejoicing, his people the righteous, and her people a joy. And I will
rejoice in Jerusalem." Did you see that? We will rejoice in
our God, but our God says He will rejoice in us. Isn't that
something? God says, I will rejoice in Jerusalem
and joy in my people. And the voice of weeping shall
be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying. It shall be well with the righteous. God bless you.