Let me read the first five verses
of Isaiah chapter 43. But now, thus saith the Lord
that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel,
fear not, for I have redeemed thee. I have called thee by thy
name, thou art mine. When thou passest through the
waters, I will be with thee. and through the rivers they shall
not overflow thee when thou walkest through the fire thou shall not
be burned neither shall the flame kindle upon thee for I am the
Lord thy God the Holy One of Israel thy Savior I gave Egypt
for thy ransom Ethiopia and Seba for thee since thou was precious
in my sight thou hast been honorable And I have loved thee, therefore
will I give men for thee, and people for thy life. Fear not,
for I am with thee. Now my text this morning is verse
four. Verse four, since thou was precious
in my sight, thou hast been honorable, and I have loved thee. Therefore
will I give men for thee and people for thy life. I want to speak this morning
on the rank and value of the believer. The rank and value
of the believer. Now one of the worst mistakes
that I think that we can make in this world is to judge our
condition before God by our outward circumstances. I think it's always
a mistake to look at ourselves and to look at our circumstances
and attempt by the looking at our circumstances to judge what
our standing is before God. Now it seems by what I read and
study in the Word of God that the ungodly have their portion
in this life. Isaiah for 73 and 7 says their
eyes stand out with fatness They have more than their heart could
wish and in verse 12 of that same chapter The writer says
behold these are the ungodly who prosper in the world they
increase in riches now they have no joy in the world to come so
i believe that god uh... he gives them as much joy as
they're capable of in this world they have no joy to come no joy
in the hereafter no joy in that heaven above where the people
of god are all headed and so god gives them their joy in this
world so do not envy them and never dream that people that
have all these earthly goods, and maybe they have much better
health than you, even though they're ungodly people, never
look at them and say they're beloved of God. They surely must
be beloved of God. They're better off than I am,
and I'm a believer and I'm trying to serve the Lord. They're not.
But God must surely love them more than He loves me. This is
not the case. These people are being fattened
for the slaughter just like a beast is put up and fed grain and he's
fattened for the slaughter. These people are going to hell. These people are going to face
the judgment of God. And as far as God's people are
concerned, we often find them, and this is not an unusual thing,
we often find the people of God in great trials. David said in
that same psalm, to which we've been making reference this morning,
in verse 14 of that psalm, he says, all the day long, I have
been plagued, and he says, I've been chastened every morning. All the day long, he says, I've
been plagued and I've been chastened every morning as if his heavenly
father whipped him as soon as he got up in the morning and
kept him under the rod all the day long. That's what David says.
As we said, this is not unusual in the family of grace. God's
people are a tried people. They're a tested and an afflicted
people. Many of God's best servants are
rich in faith, but they're poor in pocket. They may be strong
in the Lord, but they're weak in body. They may be loved of
heaven, but they're hated by the world. Hated by the people
of the world. The Lord said, as many as I love,
He says, I rebuke and I chasten them. As many as I love, I rebuke
and I chasten. What son is there, the scripture
says, whom the Father chasteneth not? the Lord scourgeth every
son whom he receiveth. Now this is very plain scriptural
language and what it's telling us is that you can't look at
your outward situation and judge your standing before God because
it looks like that we're in trouble. It looks like David must be in
an awful lot of trouble if he's plagued all day long and if he's
whipped all day long if the rod of God is on his back? How could
he have a good standing, a right standing before God? How could
God consider him to be anything if the Lord's dealing with him
in this way? But beloved, this is what the
Bible says, the Lord scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
God disciplines his children. God deals with his family. The
Lord will not allow his children just to go on and on and on and
on in rebellion and in their rebellious ways. The Lord will
conform each one of his children to the image of the elder brother,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't that true? The Lord will
conform his people to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
however he deems fit to do that, is exactly the way it'll be done.
And it'll be different probably for every one of us, but yet
the Lord will do just that. Therefore, never judge yourself
by outward circumstances. They cannot help you to form
a just conclusion as to your standing and your rank before
God and your value before God. Now everything may, it seems,
be against you at this time. But at the very same time that
everything seems to be against you, it may be working for your
good. And if you're a child of God,
I know it's working for your good because God said it plainly
in the word. Now Jacob, he tried to judge
his situation and he made this statement. He said, it's all
against me. Jacob's gone and or Joseph's
gone and and I have this problem that trouble, but he said it's
all against me but beloved, you know one day the Lord worked
it out where he could go down to Egypt and and when he saw
Joseph then he had to rethink everything because then he knew
better he knew that that uh... that the lord had been all the
time going before him and that the lord had been working out
of his goodwill and that the lord had been looking out for
old jacob even though he didn't realize it and he didn't know
it and so you see he was wrong about his calculation he said
it's all against me but it wasn't Now, our Heavenly Father has,
I think, given us this text of Scripture, this fourth verse
here, and the context of this verse to comfort us in reference
to His outward dispensations in our life. Now, after the flesh,
it would seem that if the Lord had indeed chosen us, If the
Lord had indeed set his love and affection upon us and made
us his children, that the second verse here of this chapter would
have read a whole lot different. In other words, it looks to us
after the flesh that if the Lord had really chosen us and set
his love upon us before all worlds, that this verse of scripture
would have read like this, listen to this, thou shalt not go through
the waters for I will be with thee to keep you out of them.
Neither shall you pass through the rivers, for I built a bridge
over them on your behalf. Thou shalt never go through the
fire, and therefore you will not be burned. Neither shall
there be any fear that the flame shall kindle upon you, for it
shall not come near thee." After the flesh, that's the way we
think this scripture ought to read. But beloved, that's not
the word of promise that is given here. Notice this. On the contrary,
it is here supposed and taken for granted. Pardon me that we
shall have to pass through the fire and through the water to
get to heaven is that what it says? Listen to it when thou
passes through the waters. You're going through the water
You have to go through it the Lord is not going to keep you
from going through the water He said I'll be with you when
you're going through and he said and through the rivers But they
will not overflow you when you go through them, but you're going
through them When thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not
be burnt but you're going to walk through the fire. You see
we've got to have these experiences. That's what life is made out
of. Life is made out of a series of experiences, and we're going
to have to go through them. Make up your mind. But you're
not to fear, because the Lord said, I'm going to be with you,
and you're not going to drown, and you're going to go through
the water, they're not going to overflow you, the rivers won't
overflow you, and he said the fire's not going to burn you,
the flame won't kindle upon you, but yet you're going to walk
through the fire. you're going through the fire. Now then, so
we ought to rest in peace, although you have to pass through unnumbered
afflictions Yet you're kept safe, for the Lord will make any sacrifice
that He must make. He is so determined to save you. He is so determined to have you,
and that you be secure, securely kept unto eternity, that He said
here in the last part of verse 4, He says, I have given men
for thee, and people for thy life. He said, I've not spared
any expense. Whatever I've had to sacrifice,
whatever I had to give for you, he said, I've done it. And what
that means to me is that the Lord is not going to stop. He
will keep on until we have gotten safely through the waters, safely
through the rivers, safely through the fire, safely through all
of the experiences that we have to go through in this life. The
Lord will not give it up. He's going to see us safely through
all of that. Well, as we come to this text
this morning in confidence, may the Spirit of God comfort us
and apply this word to our poor souls in power. Give us here
this morning something for us. First thing I want you to notice
in verse 4 is that the Lord counts His people to be precious. He
counts his people to be precious. Now, I want you to listen to
me. I'm talking about the rank and the value of the believer
in the sight of God. And you've judged it altogether
wrong. You've said, well, I'm trash,
I'm this, I'm that, I'm nothing else. But I want you to see how
God values and ranks his people. This is the point of the message
this morning. Now first of all then, the Lord
counts his people, we said, to be precious. Now the text was
spoken to a nation, the nation of Israel, but I believe that
if the Lord considers a nation to be precious, then surely that
nation being made up of individuals, that the individuals are precious. At least I know that every member
of the Israel of God, the true Israel of God, is precious in
the sight of God Almighty. Now God has loved His church,
and the Bible says He loved His church, and He gave Himself for
it. If the Lord has loved His church,
Then I believe that he's loved every member of that church,
and if his church is precious in his sight, so is each individual
member of his church precious in his sight. Since thou was
precious in my sight. Isn't that blessed? That is blessed
to me. I'll tell you, it is blessed.
Now if in your own sight you're unworthy, you feel unworthy,
you feel insignificant, and you feel undeserving, but yet you
are precious in the sight of the Lord, you're not to forget
that. However you feel about yourself, don't forget that God
says that you are precious in my sight. You're precious in
my sight. Now I know how we get to feeling
at times, I get to feeling that way, especially when the Lord,
it seems, gives us a soul humbling experience. We feel at that time
as if we're worthless worms. We feel that we're good for nothing.
We feel that we're incapable. We feel that we're ungrateful
and that we're undeserving, that we're ill-deserving, that we're
hell-deserving wretches at times. This is the way we feel. I mean,
we really get down on ourselves and we don't consider ourselves
to be anything of value in any one sight. And we often cry out,
God be merciful to me, a poor sinner. Be merciful. I'm talking
about the most sanctified of God's people find it often on
their lips, God be merciful to me, a poor sinner. Only the ignorant
and the self-exalted talk about their own goodness. You remember
that. Only those who are ignorant of
themselves and ignorant of the Word of God, only those will
tell you about how good they are and how successful they are
in measuring up to the demands of God in the Word. The saints
of God, they mourn, listen to me, they mourn over their deficiencies
and they know that sin remains in them. And 1 John says, I write
to you that you sin not, but if any man sins, he has an advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And so we have
an advocate before God, Jesus Christ the righteous. We do sin.
We do sin. If any man says he doesn't, then
he's a liar and the truth is not in him. And he's deceived
if he says he has no sin. But the text, it comes and it
counters, I believe, This sense of this lowly unworthiness, it
counters that, and the Lord bears witness Himself. He says, Thou
art precious in my sight. Whatever you thought last week,
whatever it was that went through your mind concerning yourself
last week, however foredown you got on yourself last week, the
Lord said, You're precious in my sight. You're precious. Now,
a child of God is often looked upon by the people of the world
as something that is broken and something that just ought to
be thrown away. Now, listen, we do not consider
ourselves to be precious in the sight of the world. The world
can easily do without us. They can get along without us.
And we won't have to be dead very long before the flowers
that they put on the grave, if they do put any on, if they're
not plastic, before they're, I mean, they'll wilt and be gone.
and probably most of us will be forgotten. That'd be the end
of it. We won't be thinking about us much anymore. The world can
get along without us, but we are the salt of the earth as
far as God is concerned. God said you're the salt of the
earth. Those that believe on me, those that trust me, those
that honor the word and believe the word, and those that follow
me in faith, they are the salt of the earth. And we're precious
in God's sight, And that is infinitely more and better than being precious
in the side of the world. Isn't that right? Well listen,
now I believe that's better. In other words, if I'm precious
in the sight of God, it doesn't matter what the world thinks
about me. It doesn't matter if they can get along without me.
It means that God is not going to get along without me. It means
that God has considered me. Now we may live to be a burden
to those around us, to those that look after us, and those
that keep us. We hope not, but we may become sometime bedridden
and unable to care for ourselves and may just consider, I mean
that is if the Lord spares us, we may get old one of these days
and may become decrepit and I mean, if God spares us to get old enough
to where that happens, and it just may be that we just, that
people will just say, and you might as well face it right now,
people will say, well, that fella be better off if he's out of
here and gone, and certainly we'd be better off if he wasn't
around here. If he'd just die and go on to
heaven, it'd just be better. But my friend, listen, we must
be content to be like the Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ, to be
unknown and to be despised, and to be considered, if necessary,
to be the filth and the offscouring of the earth, if the Lord will
just say, Thou art precious in my sight. Thou art precious in
my sight. The Lord has said that about
His people, and said that's the way that I look on you. Now,
can you believe this? Can you believe it, that you're
precious in the sight of the Lord? Now we know how people
sometimes will exaggerate their feelings about us. Friends, lovers, families, they
sometimes exaggerate when they talk to us. And they say things
that make us feel real good. But we suspect even sometimes
they're exaggerating. when they tell us about how important
we are, and about how special we are. We suspect maybe that
they're exaggerating a little bit, but God does not. I want
you to listen to this. God does not exaggerate his feelings. Is that right? Do you believe
that? God, he is not like your wife, he's not like your husband,
The Lord will not exaggerate his feelings. He said you're
precious in my sight. That's what he said. He said
it and I believe it. The word of God makes it plain
here that we're precious in God's sight. And we need, listen, how
can he do this? Well, I think that we need to
remember some things right here we need to remember some things
now how can god say you're precious in my side how can he ever do
that? to sinners to sinners who in a state of nature would put
a butcher knife in the back of god and throw him down off of
the throne if we could get to him in a state of your nature
crucified the lord jesus christ your old flesh nature your old
flesh nature listen to me Your old flesh nature would commit
any sin that anybody else could commit. Your flesh nature would
commit that sin. It's in you. How can you be precious
in the sight of the Lord? Well, I think we need to remember
the power of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. The power
of the blood of Christ to wash us from our sin. The power of
His Spirit to cleanse and to make whole. the power of his
justifying righteousness before we can understand how he can
say this to us, we need to remember that. We need to think about
the gospel and our standing before God in the person of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Thou art all fair, my love, saith
the Lord to his church in the Song of Solomon. Thou art all
fair, my love, he says, there is no spot in thee. That's what the Lord says about
his people. You're all fair and there's no spot in you. No spot
in you. Now that's the gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He makes us, in Christ, to be
fair and without blemish and without spot, wrinkle, or any
such thing as we stand in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now the first
verse, it helps us a little bit to understand this in Isaiah
chapter 43. In the first verse, we take note
here, he says, But now thus saith the Lord that created thee. The
Lord created his people. Well, what that means to me,
and then he goes on to say that he formed thee, and I'm he that
formed thee. And what it means is that in
both of these, the Lord created the clay and then he formed it
according to his own special design and purpose. He makes
children of Abraham and children to Abraham. And the Lord has
made every one of us according to special design and purpose. Our souls have a distinct marking
upon them, the Lord has created and formed us according to the
counsel of his own will. The Lord didn't make any mistake
when he formed you. He had a purpose in mind. And
somebody said, I heard somebody say this a long time ago, said
the Lord don't make any junk. The Lord has a purpose in mind
when he makes each one of his people. He said also in this
verse, he says, I have redeemed thee, and I have called thee
by your name. I've redeemed you, I've brought
you back, and I've called you. Now, I think that if we contemplate
the sufferings and the death of Jesus Christ, I don't think
we can do it without feeling that whatever it was that he
intended to accomplish by such sufferings and death it must
be an object most precious in his sight an object that he will
certainly achieve now this is very important I want you to
see this he cannot I cannot believe that the infinitely wise God
would just simply throw away the life of his own precious
son. I mean just throw it away for
no purpose at all. I think that the purpose for
which Jesus Christ was hung on the cross, and he was hung there
by an act of the Father, in the purpose of God he was hung there.
that God had a definite purpose in mind and there was somebody
for whom Jesus was dying that was precious in the sight of
God. Somebody that ranked way up there
with God the Father that he would put and that he would give his
son what he purchased on that cross he's going to receive.
Now the Lord Jesus Christ regardless of what you think of yourself
Regardless of what you think of yourself, He did not throw
His blood away. He did not waste His blood. He
did not just spill it on the ground for nothing. When Christ
died for you, He died for you because you were precious in
the sight of God. and he would have you to be his
own he would have you before him with all of that which would
make you unlovely dishonorable he would have all of that removed
and for you to be standing before him in perfectness and completeness
and righteousness and true holiness and so he gave his son for you
because he would have you to have rights standing before him
You're precious in his sight. He shall see of the travail of
his soul. Do you believe this? That he
laid down his life for you because you were precious in the sight
of God? If you hadn't have been, then
the Lord would not have given his son for you because he bought
you with a price. Now, he called us, we're also
told here, that's effectual calling he calls out those that he's
redeemed from among men scriptures as i have called the by my name
the lord no with them uh... that are here's the foundation
of god stand this year the lord no with them better here's the
call of his own sheet by name and he leads them out he leads
them out of sanity leads them out of death he leads them into
a lot uh... and liberty in the spirit of
god that's the first thing that i see in this verse in regards
to the rank and the value of a believer is he's precious in
God's sight. He is precious in the sight of
the Lord. Now the second thing that we
read here is since thou was precious in my sight thou hast been honorable. Thou hast been honorable. Now
before we knew the Lord We were just the opposite of honorable,
is that right? Just the opposite of honorable.
It is the dishonorable life that makes the dishonorable man. Now we thought and said and did
many dishonorable things before we come to know the Lord, and
that ain't all of it. We've done some dishonorable
things since we've known the Lord. There's not one of us in
here that would lay claim this morning to be honorable. honorable
people. We ought to be, and we would
admit that immediately, we ought to be honorable people. But in
the sight of God, and of course in the sight of God we are honorable,
as we're hid away in the Lord Jesus Christ. But if everything
that we thought, everything that we had done, even since we believed,
was no one we would be looked upon as being dishonorable people.
Is that right? I think I'm right about saying
that. We're dishonorable by nature
and birth, but as soon as we're precious in God's sight, then
we're honorable. God says you're honorable. Now,
are sins forgiven, blotted out? We rank among the honorable as
far as God is concerned. Honorable. Well, God said it. I didn't conjure that up. God said it. He said you're precious
and you're honorable in my sight. Now, those who trust Christ,
then, are honorable before God. The meanest child of God that
lives in this world is honorable before God because he is in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is all the honor
I have, and he's all the honor that you have here this morning.
Now the saints of God are the center of all God's providential
arrangements. And all natures honors the elect
of God. I believe this world stands because
of God's elect, because of God's people. John Gill said this,
He said we are the most conspicuous objects of the divine forethought
from all eternity, the most esteemed subjects of the guardian care
of heaven in all time, and we shall be the most eminent objects
of divine love throughout a whole eternity. Now what do you think
of that? That's a tremendous statement.
It's a big statement, but it just shows you how wrapped up
God is in his people and how God looks upon his own. Since thou was precious in my
sight, thou hast been honorable. Now, let me tell you, if I can,
just quickly, how I esteem myself to be honorable. First of all,
by birth. No, no, no. Not that I was born
into the Mitchell family. No, that's not any honor, I tell
you. It's no honor. There isn't any
of them in jail for as I know this morning, but that's not
what gives me honor before God. is being born into the Mitchell
family. And I think most of you probably would say the same about
your family. Not by blood. Not by blood, no. But by the new birth from above.
That gives me my honor. He that is begotten again unto
a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
He that is born of the Spirit of God. He into whom God has
infused his own nature. He is honorable by that spirit
birth in a sense which nobody can dispute. You don't get any
higher dignity than to be a child of God, with His royal blood
flowing, as it were, in your spiritual veins. You don't get
any higher up in rank than to be a child of God. and to belong
to the Lord and to be His child. And next, I think that we are
honorable by our possessions. Now, men pay honor to those who
are rich. Those are wealthy. Men, they
pay honor to them. Oh, there's a fella gave, what
was it? half of, was it a half a billion
dollars or the other day the education, they had him in the
White House or wherever they were putting on the ceremony
and he was speaking about education, 85 years old, an old man but
he was being honored because he had wealth and he was sharing
some of it with the educational system in America but now Paul
said of believers, now listen to what Paul said he said all
things are yours all things are yours whether things present
or things to come or life or death all are yours and ye are
Christ's and Christ is God's now where's that put you? that
puts you pretty well off doesn't it? You see, we're blind spiritually. Most of us are. Most of us don't
see hardly anything. And glasses won't fix it. Glasses
will not fix it. Won't touch a problem. What we
need to do is to begin to examine more carefully the Word of God,
pray more diligently that God would open up these verses, verses
like this, to our heart until we can understand that life is
ours and that death is ours. and that everything else is ours,
and that the Lord of all nature, that God has it under control
for the benefit and purpose of his elect. So we're honorable
then by the possessions that we have, we are heirs of God. We're joint heirs with God's
only beloved son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We're heirs of God! I
must say that. I don't know how you're going
to get any more wealth than that. Say, well, I'd like to win that
lottery. I think it's up to about $70 million now. That'd really
put me over the top. Well, my friend, I'm already
over the top. I know how it is. I know how
it looks and how it looks, and you think I'm kidding you. But
I'm already over the top. Paul said, everything's yours.
all your some is a preacher how you wanna make it i don't know
how i'm gonna make it but i i still say that according to what the
word of god said and so matter of faith so matter of faith it's
not what faith brings it's a matter of faith faith is the victory
itself faith is all the victory there is you disbelieve god you
believe his word you trust his word you say well i can't do
that you're not one of the elect it's not written to you if you
can believe the word of god then you've got it You got it, and
that's all there is. And you see, the Lord may be
pleased to give you some manifestations of himself. He may be pleased
to unfold to your heart, and he does do that, to those that
trust him and wait on him. Keep on believing God, and don't
you doubt what God said. This is God's word. He said you're
honorable in my sight. I put, I give you enough to make
you honorable in my sight. Whatever anybody else says. Believe in God and don't you
doubt what God said. This is God's word. He said you're
honorable in my sight. I put, I give you enough to make
you honorable in my sight. Whatever anybody else says. I
give you my son. And nothing can make you as honorable
as you are in Him. And I give you much, I put you
in Him. And He is my best beloved, and you can't get any nearer
to me than you are in Him. And if you're in Him, then you're
also best beloved, and you're honorable to me. You're honorable. Well, that brings me to the third
thing, the last thing. And he says this, now I want
you to listen to what he says over here in this 43rd chapter. In verse 4, he said, Since thou
wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honorable, and I have
loved thee. I have loved thee. Well, ever
since the Lord has loved us, now you listen
to this. He has publicly acted on that
love. He has publicly loved us. Now, I believe that at the cross,
the scripture says, greater love hath no man than this, that a
man should lay down his life for his friend. Jesus Christ
laid down his life here in his love not that we love God But
that God loved us and gave his son to be a satisfaction for
our sins first John 4 and 10 the Lord loves us Now listen
to me the Lord acted publicly on that love in that that Jesus
Christ went to the cross before we were born Before we were ever
thought of except in the mind of God We were like an acorn
tree like a tree, a beech tree, and an acorn in that, that we
only exist in the mind of God, a beech tree, doesn't it come
from an acorn in that? Isn't that right? Maybe I'm wrong
about that. Is that wrong? Somebody said that's wrong. Is
that wrong? I guess, I guess, well wait a minute, now I'll
have to look that up. Is that right? Or is it wrong?
Somebody that knows say so. An oak tree. Oh, I said beech,
didn't I? I'm sorry. It's an oak tree.
It comes from the acorn. Thank you very much. But anyway,
the oak tree, it exists in the acorn nut before you see it grown
in a forest. You and I only existed in the
mind of God when Jesus Christ died on the cross. But He was
publicly acting His love out. on the cross when he went to
that cross. Now long before our conversion
here, the Lord acted in his love to us. How close we came to not
being here. My dad almost died when he was
18 years old of pneumonia. And if there hadn't been some
old country doctor come along with a pair of plowers and took
a knife and cut in between his ribs and take them plow handles
and put them in there and pried it open and drained his lung,
I'd never been here. And some of the rest of you would
never have been here if it hadn't have been for what that old doctor
done for my dad when he was 18 years old down in southern Indiana. I'm telling you, the Lord has
gone before his people. The Lord has gone before his
people. I thought about that when I was
working this out. I thought about how close I come
not to be in here. But the Lord has gone before.
Whatever your situation be today, you try to remember this, that
the Lord has loved you and kept on loving you all these years,
and He has never thought an unloving thought toward you after He has
set first His love upon you. He never had an unloving thought
toward you. Nor has He ever acted toward
you in an unloving way. Never has. You say, Preacher,
you don't know how much darkness I've gone through. Yes, but the
Lord loved you still. And He put you through the darkness
so that He could bring you into the light. So He could bring
you out into the light that the light might appear as the noon
day, the sun appears the noon day to you. He's looked out for
every way in which He might best exhibit His love toward His people. The Lord has in wisdom looked
out the way. And He's done the very best for
you that He could do. Are you willing to accept that?
I think the Lord has done the very best for any of us that
He purposed to do. The very best for us, the Lord
has done it. He has loved you infinitely.
His whole heart has been set on you. God loves you as much
as if there had not been another saint for Him to love. Now it
may be with you and I that we love, you know, various and several
people and members of our families and brothers and sisters in Christ
that just a little part of our heart goes here and a part there,
a part somewhere else, but the Lord has such a heart that He
can love all of His saints and love of everyone just like there
wasn't another one to set His love upon. That's the heart of
God I'm talking about. God loves His people. Now, God
loves Christ. You wouldn't doubt that, would
you? Would you doubt that God loves Christ? No, you wouldn't. You better not. And if God loves
Christ, He loves all those that are in Christ. He loves them,
and that's what this means. Jesus says, as the Father has
loved me, so have I loved you, and you continue in that love.
He is loving us now. Cheer up, then, and let nothing
distress you, brother and sister. Cheer up, lean back, fall back
on this love. We sometimes wonder what we're
going to do later on in life, but we must remember that God
loves his people and he's not going to change in his love toward
his people. David said, when thy father and
mother forsake thee, then the Lord will take thee up. And the
prophet said, even to your old age I am he. And even to hoary
hairs will I carry you, and I have made, and I will bear. Even I
will carry, God says, and I will deliver you. when you get old. God says, I'm with you. I'm going
to see you through. I'm not going to forsake you
and abandon you and give you up when you get old and decrepit. And that's a great blessing to
every one of us that are facing that down the road. Of course,
mine's 20 years away, but yours, I don't know how yours may be
closer than that. But anyway, keep moving around.
They say you use it or lose it, I mean you got to keep moving
and keep working this old body and moving it around. Well, I
say let us fall back on that love, the love of God. What more
can you desire? What more can you desire than
the love of God? There was a car here sometime
back and it had a bumper sticker on both sides, two bumper stickers,
and on one side it said God loves you. And on the other side, another
bumper sticker said, destination unknown. And I thought to myself,
my soul, how contradictory that is. If God loves you, my friend,
your destination is certain. There isn't any question about
that. Because the Lord, listen, He's not going to be in heaven
and somebody that He loves is somewhere else. Is that right?
Am I telling you the truth? If the Lord is in heaven, then
everybody He loves is going to be there. Everybody that he loves,
that he said his affection on, that Jesus died for, is going
to be there with him in eternal glory. So you mark that down
in your little book if you've got one. It is written, I have
loved thee, and let us feel the force. of this heavenly love
and serve the Lord with gladness. I like love. I like for people
to love me. I do. But there's one love that
I am interested in above all other loves, and that is what
God said, I have loved thee. I've loved you. And that, my
friend, is that love that's going to get me in to eternal glory. Now, those of you who have no
share in this text we've been talking about the rank and value
of a believer you may say well preacher I don't have any interest
in this text that may be your view of it you just don't have
any you say I just I just I just don't I just don't fit in preacher
I'm not a believer well let me ask you this question is there
anyone here that is empty you're running on empty you're empty
is there anyone here that's hungry It is written, Scripture says,
he hath filled the hungry with good things, but the rich he
hath sent empty away. Are you hungry? A sinner, a sinner,
who can find a convinced sinner? Somebody who has given up on
themselves, somebody, a sinner is a sacred thing, the writer
said, the Holy Ghost has made him so, Are you a convinced sinner? He that really knows his sinnership
is redeemed by the Lord Jesus Christ. He is that soul that
Jesus Christ came to save. The man who knows himself and
is a convinced sinner in his heart feels his emptiness, feels
his hunger, and has a longing in his heart to have a fellowship
with the Holy God. He is the man who may lift up
his heart unto God and he can rest in Christ and lay hold of
the promises of God. You that are despairing this
morning, and you may be at the gates of hell despairing this
morning, unto you is the word of the salvation sent. Trust
the Lord. Look to Jesus Christ, the proud
Pharisee. For him, Christ has absolutely
nothing. He came to call the righteous,
not the righteous, but sinners, to repentance. He came not to
fill the full, not to heal the healthy, because they have no
interest in these things. The full, they don't want anything.
The full soul loatheth a honeycomb. But listen, the healthy soul,
they're not interested. They don't need Christ, the great
physician. Jesus said the whole, they need
not a physician. It's the sick that needs the
physician. He comes to save you that have
no good thing about you. Those of you that have no good
feelings, not a good feeling within you, you that have no
broken heart, He comes to give you a broken heart. You that
have no faith, He comes to give you faith. And you that have
no repentance, He comes to give you repentance. The poet said,
true belief and true repentance, every grace that brings you nigh
without money, come to Jesus Christ and buy. And oh, what
a surprise it will be when you hear the Holy Spirit saying to
you the words of this text, because I loved you before the world,
because I have chosen you, because I have determined to save you,
because you was precious in my sight, therefore you're honorable
and I have loved you. Ain't that going to be some day
when you hear that word and you thought, man, I'll never hear
those words spoken to me. They'll never be spoken to me.
But if you're hungry and empty, and if you look, if you're convinced
of your sinnership, if you give up on yourself, you can't save
yourself. If you're looking to Christ,
you will hear those words. Those words are the words of
the Lord Jesus. Rest in Him. Rejoice in Him. The day is coming when you will.
Now then, there's a poem that I want to share with you before
we leave this morning. And the name of this poem is
The Happy Debtor. The Happy Debtor. And I don't
know who wrote this. I just don't know. But anyway,
listen to these words, beautiful words and a tremendous message. Ten thousand talents once I owed,
and nothing had to pay. But Jesus freed me from the load
and washed my debt away. Yet since the Lord forgave my
sin and blotted out my score, much more indebted I have been
than e'er I was before. My guilt is canceled quiet, I
know, and satisfaction made. But the vast debt of love I owe
can never be repaid. The love I owe for sin forgiven,
for power to believe, for present peace and promised heaven, no
angel can conceive. That love of thine, thou sinner's
friend, witness thy bleeding heart. my little all can ne'er
extend to pay a thousandth part. Nay more the poor returns I make
I first from thee obtain, and tis of grace that thou wilt take
such poor returns again. Tis well, it shall my glory be,
let who will boast their store, in time and to eternity to owe
thee. more and more. It's alright and
I think it is a blessing to me and I certainly believe that
any poor sinner who hopes in the grace of God that that will
be a blessing to him because we are debtors for the great
love, that wonderful love that he's bestowed upon his enemies
in reconciling us unto himself. Hope and trust in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Mike would you lead us in a