If you have turned in your Bibles
to the 40th chapter of Isaiah, I'd like to read beginning with
verse 25. To whom, then, will you liken
me, or shall I be equal, saith the Holy One? Lift up your eyes
on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bring
out their hosts by number. He calleth them all by name,
by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power,
not one faileth. Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and
speakest, O Israel, my way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment
is passed over from my God? Hast thou not known? Hast thou
not heard? that the everlasting God, the
Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither
is weary. There is no searching of his
understanding. He giveth power to the faint,
and to them that have no might he increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and
be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall. But they that wait
upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up
with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, and they
shall walk and not faint. It is my intention by the grace
of God to try to preach this morning. I trust that you might
breathe a prayer unto God to enable us to glorify him and
honor him in this time that we have together this morning. Isaac Watts, who was a hymn writer
and a preacher, a very unsightly individual, being five feet tall,
rather chubby with a hawk-billed nose, he wrote a catechism, and
in that catechism he asked a question. And that question was, who is
Isaiah? And then he went on to answer
that question by saying that Isaiah is that prophet who spake
more about the Lord Jesus Christ than any other prophet. And I
think that's a tremendous answer. It was a correct answer. If you're
familiar at all with this book, you know that he This book is
called the Gospel of the Old Testament because it pictures
the Lord Jesus Christ in so many wonderful ways. Now the prophet,
as the Lord speaks through him here in verse 25, he says, To
whom then will you liken me, or shall I be equal, saith the
Holy One? Now you and I as believers in
our blessed God, it doesn't occur to us to compare our God with
any other God. But we must be aware of the fact
that in the Old Testament times, that there was a time when one
of the prophets of God felt like he was the only person on earth
left who was not an idol worshiper. And we know that the Lord spake
to him and said, no, no, that's not so. You're not the only one.
There's 7,000 that hadn't bowed their knee to Baal. But when
you begin to think about the fact that 7,000 out of the world
population that hadn't bowed their knee to Baal, you see the
need for a verse in Scripture like this. To whom then will
you liken me? Or shall I be equal, saith the
Holy One? Now, Brother Randy read to us
out of the 45th chapter of the book of Isaiah, and he has gone
on with this theme that there's none equal to him and that there's
none like him. And we see that six times, no
less than six times in the 45th chapter has he made it clear
that there is none like him. None like him. In verse 5, he
said, I am the Lord and there is none else. There is no God
beside me. I girded thee, though thou hast
not known me. And then in verse 6, that they
may know from the rising of the sun and from the west that there
is none beside me. I am the Lord and there is none
else. And then over in verse 14, He
speaks of those that would be coming to them with chains on
themselves, submitting themselves unto them, unto the people of
God, saying, Surely God is in thee, and there is none else. There is no God except the God
that dwells in Israel. And then in verse 18, For thus
saith the Lord, that created the heavens, God himself that
formed the earth, and made it, he hath established it, he created
it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited, I am the Lord,
and there is none else. Do you think that this is too
much? Is he saying too much about himself? I think not. And then
in verse 21, Tell ye, and bring them near, yea, let them take
counsel together, who hath declared this from ancient time, who hath
told it from that time, have not I the Lord? And there is
no God else beside me, a just God and a Savior, there is none
beside me. And then in verse 22, Look unto
me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God,
and there is none else. There is none else. And so the
Lord makes it crystal clear that there is none to be equal with
Him None that can compare with Him. Now there are many other
verses in the Bible that we could read to support what our Lord
has said and revealed about Himself, but we'll not do that. I want
to give a brief exposition of some of these verses here in
Isaiah 40, and then go on to finish our message as God enables
us to. But He says in verse 26, lift
up your eyes on high. In verse 26 of Isaiah 40, lift
up your eyes on high, begin to look, open your eyes and look
around you, and behold, who hath created these things? How did
these things get here that you see with your eye? These things
got here as they were spoken into existence by My power. That's how they got here. God
spoke the world into existence by His Word. The world was created. He said, Who hath created these
things, that bringeth out their hosts by number? He calleth all
by names, by the greatness of His might. Even every star has
a name, for that He is strong in power, not one faileth. What's kept the universe running
up to this time? Is it not the power of the Creator?
Is it not His power that sustains all things, brought all things
into existence and sustains them? And then in verse 27, he speaks
a word to his people, and God says to them, Why sayest thou,
O Jacob? Now God here addresses his people,
believing people, as Jacob. Now throughout the Old Testament,
the people of God are referred to as the sons of Jacob, seed
of Abraham, sons of Jacob. Now the reason I believe that
God addresses his people as Jacob, or sons of Jacob, is first of
all because God, you remember, loved Jacob before he was born,
before he came forth out of the womb. God had set his love upon
Jacob. And so the sons of Jacob were
loved by God before they had a being. They were loved of God
and chosen of God before they were born into the world and
before they had done any good or evil. They were loved of God. Now, they were elected of God
and the inheritance was chosen for them. Now we know it says,
Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated, and that the elder is
going to serve the younger, just the opposite of the way that
it is on earth. And so the inheritance was chosen
for us, we didn't earn it, or it didn't come to us through
the lineage of our parents. It came by the gift of God. And
it came by grace, entirely by grace. And then another reason,
I think, is because you know that God sought Jacob when he
was running away in fear from his brother Esau. He was running
away from God. Now, I don't know how it was
with you, how God found you, but God found me. I wasn't looking
for Him when He found me. And His people typically are
found by the Lord. It's the Lord that does the seeking.
And He's the one that brings salvation unto His own people. He seeks them out. We see that
clearly with the woman at the well. You see it clearly with
Saul of Tarsus, how the Lord does the seeking. It's God that
does that. Well, when the Lord found old
Jacob, You remember he found him over there at Bethel, and
he revealed the gospel to him. The stairway going up into heaven,
the angels ascending and descending on the stairway. God revealed
the gospel, how to get to heaven to old Jacob. And every one of
us here that are saved this morning, although you may not be able
to understand it and you may not be able to explain it all,
you may not have words to put it into a sentence so that others
can understand it, We were sought of the Lord and the gospel was
revealed to us. What we know that saves us was
revealed to us by the Holy Spirit. It was made known to us by the
Spirit of God. I know people that have been
preached to all of their lives that don't know an ounce of gospel
truth. They know nothing about the salvation
of a sinner, how God comes to the sinner, and how He justifies
and declares righteous the sinner, and brings the sinner to a place
where he can call upon God, and where he can trust in the Lord.
I know people that way, and you do too. And so you had the gospel
revealed to you the same as old Jacob had it revealed to him. Now that was at Bethel. And you
remember that Jacob said, this is truly the house of God. And
you remember how that God would say to Jacob at times, Jacob,
back to Bethel, back to Bethel. Well, that's another picture
of the sons of Jacob. How that when we stray away,
and we do often stray, and we become cold and indifferent,
And we must be called back. Called back. And isn't it wonderful
that the Lord never leaves us to ourselves as His people. He
always calls us back. Back to Bethel. Back to the place
of fellowship. Back to Christ. Back to the truth. Back to the gospel. Always calling
us back. Back. Back. And this is a wonderful
picture of the children of God. And so He says, why sayeth thou,
O Jacob, Why are you saying this, O Jacob, and speaking, O Israel? You're saying, my way is hid
from the Lord. You're saying that, for some
reason or other, as God looks over my life, or our lives, He
is not seeing what we're seeing. He doesn't know what's going
on, really, in our lives. He is somehow or other asleep.
And he doesn't hear everything that's being said, and he doesn't
know about our way, about our way, about our sufferings, and
about our afflictions. Old Jacob and Israel says, these
are hid from the Lord. He doesn't know about these things. Well, beloved, he goes on to
say, my way, you've said also, my way is hid from the Lord,
and my judgment is passed over from my God. You don't seem to
be anxious, O Lord, to make those things right wherein I've been
wronged. You don't seem to be busy bringing
justice into my situation and making things right and delivering
me and showing to others that I'm right and they're wrong.
You don't seem to be about this business and that my judgment
has just passed over. from my God. Well, in verse 28,
God answers and says, Hast thou not known? You've been saying
these things. And He asked them why they were
saying it. And then He said, Hast thou not known? Hast thou
not heard that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of
the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? There's
no searching of His understanding. What He's saying here is, Do
you not know in your heart that I am from everlasting to everlasting? Do you not know in your heart
that He that keepeth Israel never slumbers nor sleeps? Are you
not aware of the fact that I am God, that I made the eye, and
certainly if I made the eye and the ear, I can both see and hear? Are you not aware that I know
what's going on? Are you not aware that all things
are naked and open unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do? Why are you saying my way is
hid from the Lord and His judgment is passed over me, that God has
ignored my situation? Why are you saying that? Well,
you know, sometimes we say things that we ought not to say. And
this was something that the sons of Jacob and Israel should not
be saying, because he says, Hast thou not heard? My friend, have
you not heard of the faithfulness of God? His faithfulness reacheth
unto the clouds. Have you not heard from the prophets
of God? And have you not heard from the
fathers of the faith? And have you not heard from many
around you over and over again that God is not slothful about
His business, but that God knows His people? The Bible says that
the foundation of God standeth sure, having the seal of the
Lord knoweth them that are His. God knows His people. He knows
where they're at. He planted them where they are.
And God will not overlook their situation and leave them to a
situation that He has no mercy and is not gracious. And haven't
you heard? that God is gracious, and that
He will not forget to be gracious. Have you not heard that He is
plentiful in mercy, and that He is a God of truth, and that
He will deliver His people out of affliction? Have you not heard
these things? Now you people here this morning
have heard a whole lot from the things you've read out of the
Scriptures. and heard from those who have preached the Gospel
to you, the Word of God to you, and you know that God must be
trusted. You know that He will try the
righteous. You know that God will afflict
and do terrible things in righteousness in the lives of these people.
And some of you have been guilty, maybe even this last week, of
accusing God of being hard with you. Accusing God of somewhere
or another bypassing you and giving His mercies to others
and leaving you, as it were, in a desperate situation. And you feel that way. Well,
my friend, we ought to rebuke ourselves. We ought to rebuke
ourselves for saying such things. Because God, He's the everlasting
God. He's the Creator of the ends
of the earth. And He's not going to faint, and He's not weary.
He's not weary. Somebody said, well, God's been
dealing with men for 6,000 years. Don't you suppose He's worn out?
No, I do not suppose that He's worn out. I do not believe that. I believe that God has been dealing
with these people all these years, and He's been doing it out of
His strength, His great power, and He's no less strong as He
was in the beginning. He's no less weak than what He
was in the beginning. And God is not weak, my friend.
We've just showed you where by His power not one thing in creation
faileth. Okay? So neither is He weary.
And there's no searching of his understanding. There's no searching
of his understanding. You think maybe God don't understand
your situation. You may feel that way this morning.
You say, God just don't understand. I just can't get him to see what
my situation really is. If I could, then maybe he would
do something in my life. Well, there's no searching of
his understanding. God knows all things. I like
what Job said in Job chapter 11 and verse 7 and 8, I want
you to get this. Beloved, a finite mind cannot
understand the mind of the infinite. You are not going to be able
to understand the workings of God. If a man's ways be of the
Lord, how can he know his way? How can you understand the way
that God's leading you if the leading is of the Lord? If it's
God's work in your life, then you're not going to understand
it. You need to trust. You need to believe God. You
need to rest in the Lord. You need to trust His hand as
it works out His will and purpose in your life. But listen to what
Job said in Job 11, verse 7 and 8. Canst thou by searching find
out God? Can you get busy and start reading
your books that man has been the editor of or the author of
and find out God? Can you do that? Canst thou find
out the Almighty unto perfection? Can you find out enough about
God so that you know what He's up to in every situation and
why it is that He carries in your life and don't appear for
you immediately when you call upon Him? Can you understand
God to perfection? Can you explain everything there
is to be known about God? And certainly there's a lot that
cannot be known about God. And that's the meaning of these
verses. He goes on to say, It is as high as heaven. What canst
thou do? I mean, it's as high as the heavens,
the wisdom of God and the perfection of God and the mind of God. It's as high as the heavens.
What can you do? What can you do? You can't go up there and
find out about God. No way you can get up there and
listen to this. He says, it is deeper than hell. What canst
thou know? How can you know God and His
mind about things, beings that His mind reaches even into the
deepest parts of the earth? And so I believe that this is
exactly what Paul had reference to over in the book of Romans
chapter 11. And let me read these verses. Some of you are familiar with
these verses I'm sure. He said in verse 33 of Romans
11, Oh the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and the knowledge
of God, how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past
finding out. How unsearchable are his judgments
and his ways past finding out. My friend, you're not able to
dig into this mystery of providence and figure it out because his
ways are past finding out. For who hath known the mind of
the Lord, or who hath been his counselor? or who hath first
given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again. For
of him, and through him, and to him are all things, to whom
be glory for ever. Amen. So as Paul looks at this
mystery of the infinite and says that we cannot find it out, it's
unsearchable. And we cannot find it out. Then
he concludes by saying, apparently, of him, through him, and to him
are all things, to whom be glory. Let that be the end of the matter.
Trust the Lord. Believe that God brought you
into the world by His purpose. They laid hands upon you by sovereign
mercy and grace, and brought you unto Himself. Trust Him and
trust His purpose. and leave the outworking unto
the God who said, all things work together for good to them
that love God and to them that are called according to His purpose. So you believe God and you trust
God. Now then, he goes on to say here,
He giveth power to the faint and to them that have no mighty
increases strength. God is aware that we get to the
point at times where we're faint hearted. The Bible says we are
always to pray and not to faint, but we are faint-hearted. Well,
He gives the power to those who are faint. Trust Him even to
the point of fainting, and believe that He will give you power in
that hour that you need it. He will give it to you, and to
them that have no might. He increases strength. How many
times have we been there? We've been there today, some
of us have. When we have no might, He increases
strength because strength and power is in the resources of
God and God only. And my brother and sister, we
need to learn this, that we live and move and have our being. And is he not gracious? God is
gracious. There's many people this morning,
if they went to the brother... Don't be afraid to get fainthearted.
Don't be afraid to tackle the big situations in life. We sometimes, and most of the
time in our judgment, it's the young people that are healthy
and strong. She'll what? She'll utterly fall. Somebody said, well, it's the
older people that'll fall. The younger would never. The Lord will lift them up when
they fall. Don't despair. Don't be despondent. You say, I'm not outwardly as
righteous as I ought to be. Well, thank God, as Martin Luther
said, Christ did not die for our righteousness. He died for
our sin. And he died for our sins. Somebody
said, well, I ought to be more righteous. Well, we're perfectly
righteous in the Lord Jesus Christ. But the experiences that we have
through life brings us to see that we are not We are not righteous
in and of ourselves, that in the flesh there dwelleth no good
thing. And I would encourage you young
people to understand while there may be those around you that
are coaxing you and trying to get you to go on and on past
the life in the flesh, and it's right that you should mortify
the deeds of the body. This is what the scripture teaches.
But, remember this, that there's not a one of the Lord's people
that have not, at some time or other, have not utterly fallen. All of God's children at one
time or other will fall. And they need to be lifted up.
And if it was not so, then the Scripture wouldn't say anything
about it. You say, well, I haven't up to this point. Bless God,
my friend. Praise His name that you haven't.
But just remember this, we all, and although we don't want to
admit it, all we don't want to admit it, Our depravity. We ever
won our failures in this life. Every one of us. And we need
to recognize that. But I've known people who would
go along, and after a while something happens in their life, and they
give up on themselves. And they give up. It's right
to give up on yourself, but don't give up on this God who said
that the young shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall
utterly fall. But they that wait upon the Lord
shall renew their strength. They will renew their strength
and God will give you grace to overcome and strength to deal
with your problems and your afflictions and your weaknesses and your
failings. As we said, we all have to come
to this point where we cast ourselves upon the Lord anew and afresh
every day. and trust Him, and wait upon
the Lord, and their strength will be renewed. Sure, they had
some. You can't renew something that
was not already there. Sure, they had some strength,
but it must be renewed. Renewed. Renewed. Is anybody
here ready for a renewal in the strength and the grace of God?
I am. And I'm sure that many of you are here this morning.
They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and
not be weary. They shall walk and not faint.
It's amazing what God can do with an individual who has waited
upon Him and trusted in His strength and been renewed and been strengthened
to be able to go forth in the name of the Lord, and to do exploits
for His great name. Now as I meant to go on with
this subject, when we get over here to the fifth chapter of
the book of Isaiah, I wanted to say some things that I felt
like that that would help us to see. I wanted to rejoice in
the Lord with you this morning. I wanted to rejoice in the Lord. I wanted us to be lifted up and
to be encouraged and to be strengthened. And over here in verse 21 and
22 of the 45th chapter, Tell ye, and bring them near.
Yea, let them take counsel together, who hath declared this from ancient
time, who hath told it from that time. Have not I the Lord, and
there is no God else besides me, a just God and a Savior. There is none beside me. I am
a just God, and I am just and justifier of my people. There is none beside me. Look
unto me, he says in verse 22, and be ye saved. all the ends
of the earth. Are you surprised to find that
word saved in the book of Isaiah? Look at verse 17. But Israel
shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation. You
shall not be ashamed nor confounded, world without end. Look unto
me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God,
and there is none else. I tried to picture our God as
a mighty Savior. Certainly the Word of God sets
Him forth as a mighty Savior. One who is able, the Bible says,
His ear is not heavy that it cannot hear, and His arm is not
shortened that it cannot save. He's a God who is able to save
those who look unto Him, those who are enabled by the Spirit
of God to look unto Him. And I thought about the work
that God's doing on earth in the calling out of His people,
and then I thought about after this life is over, And we go
yonder to be with the Lord there when the Lord calls us home and
we, as the expression is, we go upstairs from this wall, we
move on up to be with the Lord in His presence and in His fellowship.
I just tried to picture what it would be like to be there. And when God continues to manifest
this greatness of His, this saving power, and I thought about the
verse in Ephesians 2 verse 7. It says that in the ages to come,
He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness
toward us through Christ Jesus. My what a verse that is, in the
ages to come. Now most of you here entertain
the hope, that blessed hope, that sweet hope that you will
be with the Lord in the ages to come. As we assemble around the throne
of God and as God is there, this verse seems to indicate to me
that God is going to put on display, that God is going to show himself
off there in glory as he brings out his trophies and as he sets
them up. These trophies will be to his
praise and to His glory. And we will all be able to see
the exceeding riches of His magnificent, amazing grace in the kindness
which He extended toward us through Christ Jesus while we was here
on earth. I thought about the amazing things
that God has been pleased to do in our own sight. what God
has been pleased to do and how we are called upon to believe
and to trust Him. Now the glory of God's greatness
and grace shines forth most, I believe, when we see the unworthiness
of those whom God has saved. The unworthiness of those whom
God has saved. You think of old Jacob. And God
having saved Jacob. I don't have any fault. I don't say that God was wrong
in saving Jacob, but Jacob wasn't any better than Esau. He was
no better than Esau. But God saved Jacob. The unworthiness
of those whom God has saved. You see, there isn't any that
God saves that are worthy of it. But God is going to show
off there in glory, bring out the trophies of His grace, and
who would these trophies, who would they be? Well, let's personalize
them a little bit. Manasseh is one example, and
if you wanted to read about Manasseh, you could read in the book of
2 Chronicles chapter 33, verses 1 through 13. But he perhaps was the most barbaric
monster ever to sit upon the throne in Jerusalem, Manasseh. And he sacrificed his own children.
Just a word or two about his background to extol the grace
of God and so that you'd see here this trophy as God brings
old Manasseh out and sets him up there in glory to reveal his
kindness, the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness
toward this man. This man, he sacrificed his own
children to the fire of his pagan gods. He filled Jerusalem with
innocent blood. His sacrilegious indecencies
perverted the whole nation. He was not content to mock God
alone. He led all Judah into such moral
and spiritual corruption that even the heathen would be embarrassed
to mention them. Yet the grace of God, on one
occasion, the grace of God came in a saving way and touched his
heart and humbled him, the Bible says, greatly, and renewed his
soul, forgave his sins, and made him an heir of heavenly glory.
That's what God did in the case of Omanessa. And you can read
about that. Now only this God, there's none
else, only this God, only this God who has all power in heaven
and in earth, only this God who's the author of eternal salvation,
only this God could do such a thing as that. But God is going to
put Himself on display. We're going to see this God.
We need to see Him as He's revealed through the Scriptures, even
the ones we studied this morning, but we need to see more and more. that this God is the God to be
looked at and to be admired. Lift up your eyes and look and
behold what this God has done. And then remember Saul of Tarsus
in Acts chapter 9 verse 1 through 22. He was the most bloodthirsty
persecutor of God's church the world could have produced. This
monster of a man lived only to destroy God's sheep. His thirst for violence and murder
was insatiable. His rancorous heart was filled
with hatred for Christ, his gospel, and his people. And he was bent
upon the annihilation of the people of God, of Christianity.
Never did a man live who, in the opinion of human judgment,
was more certainly a reprobate than Saul of Tarsus. Yet, this
godless, implacable wretch of a man is now with Christ in heaven. He's one of those trophies of
grace that God's going to bring out. I'm going to show you just
how gracious I am, and how kind I am, how merciful I am to the
sons of Adam. Old Saul of Tarsus, clothed in
white linen and which is the righteousness of the saints in
heaven as a trophy. And next I thought about the
Corinthians. In 1 Corinthians chapter 6, you
can read verse 9 through 11. These were the most sensual and
profligate people of the ancient Roman world. They were the most
vile of the vilest age in the annals of human history. Yet,
through the infinitely tender mercies of an ever-gracious God,
a multitude of them today are robed in white and crowned with
glory. What a marvelous thing it was
that God took that generation and said, I washed you. Such
were some of you. You were all of these things.
And you people know what all of these things are. And yet
He said, I've washed you. And you're clean through the
name and blood of the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. What
trophies they will be in heaven above. And then you think of
these people in Ephesians where I read this verse. Paul said
that God had quickened them who were dead in trespasses and in
sins. I don't think we know really
and truthfully what that really means. If you could just understand
a little bit what it means to be spiritually dead. To be spiritually
dead. To have not the life of God.
To be cut off. from the life that's in God,
here you were, in time, dead in sin, dead I say, graveyard
dead, dead in sin, and the Lord Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit
came and quickened you, made you alive, made you alive. And
you once, y'all, my soul, where would you be today if it hadn't
been for the quickening influence of the grace and Spirit of God
in your life? Well, you may say, well, it's
blurry to me now, preacher, but brother, sister, when you get
to glory, it won't be blurry. It will not be blurry because
then you shall see clearly how God raised you from a spiritual
death and what that death meant and how that death had you in
its embrace. And until sovereign grace and
the voice of life, the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ came
and quickened you and brought you up, brought you up to where
you could hope, where you had a ray of hope, where you had
a prayer in your heart. and where you had some consolation
and comfort and some visits from the Lord and from His presence
and from His power. My friend, only then will we
really know what the Lord has done for us. How marvelous the
Lord has been. And then I think about my own
experience. And I have the hope that I shall
go to heaven when I leave this world. That hope is in Christ.
That hope is in Christ. He promised eternal life. He
promised it. He promised it. And faith is
acting upon the promises of God. And I believe that He promised
eternal life. God, which cannot lie, promised
before the world began that He would be the Savior, and that
He would provide the Savior, and He would provide all for
me that He demanded of me. Everything His righteous character
demanded, He said, I'll provide it for you. And He did that,
and my hope is in Christ. But I was a sinner. And out and
out sinners, a young man, Fifty-six years ago, the Lord came to me
and brought me out of spiritual death. I was lost. I was a dead
sinner, lost. And God was pleased to quicken
my heart and to give me a solid hope, a solid hope in the Gospel. I don't know. I certainly am
not going to get up and call attention to myself in heaven.
I certainly am not going to do that. I'd be seeking me a place
in the back row, way back as far as anybody can go, because
I don't have any feeling in my soul that I've ever measured
up. If it hadn't been for God's grace and His love and mercy,
this center would not have a ray of hope, and it would have nothing
to talk about before God's people, chosen and redeemed people if
it were not for God's grace. But I'm going to be looking for
me a chair way back, way back, as far back as I can. And whether
my name is ever mentioned in eternity or not, it's a very
small thing to me. If I can be there, if I can just
be there, be there to look upon this God that has so amazingly
created this earth, and populated the earth, and this God who controls
all things, this God who said the deceived and the deceiver
are mine, this God who rules from the heavens, to be able
to look upon His face and to see this magnificent God, and
if ever I could be brought out and said, this is a trophy, my
trophy, God says, Because if I'm there, it's going to be by
His mercy and His grace and His magnificent power and work. And
I think we all should have a little time of praise and adoration
under our God. What is your hope? Friend, what
is your hope? If you're here this morning and
you're lost outside of Christ, God said you look. Look! You say, well, is that all you
do? Well, if you can, you look! You look to the Lord Jesus Christ. You look to His all-sufficiency,
His ability. Get your eyes off yourself. You've
been looking at yourself long enough. You don't see any hope,
do you? The hope is Christ. Christ in
a man is the hope of glory. And you look to Him and trust
Him. Believe in Him. Claim the promises
of the Word of God about Him. He said, Thou shalt call mine
name Jesus, for I shall save my people from their sin. Look
to Him, look away from all things earth on this side and look to
Christ and believe Him and trust Him and you'll be a trophy of
grace in eternal glory. Father, we thank you this morning
for your word so feebly presented, but we do ask that you might
own it and that you might bless Some portion are here with grace
to enable them to look up, that they look to Christ. There are
those here, young people and others, who need to look, Father. They need to look. And they can
only do that as the God who can raise the dead brings them and
enables them to do it. And so, Lord, we commit them
to You and commit the service to You. May Your people rejoice
and be glad in the everlasting God, in the God who said there's
none else, none else. Help us to rejoice in Him and
give Him glory this day. In Jesus' name, Amen.