If the pastor ever says it takes
as much grace to hear as it does to preach, when he's going to
sit and listen, I'd have to beg his pardon. It's
such an honor. It is an honor to be here. This church is special. The congregation
here, Todd Road Grace Church, is special. And great friends
to me through the years, and I love you. It's an honor to
come here to preach to a crowd like this. My goodness. Not used
to this. I want you to turn your Bibles,
if you would, follow along with me in the text of Isaiah chapter
26. The book of Isaiah chapter 26, and
I want to begin reading in verse 17 and finish that chapter. Isaiah chapter 26 and beginning
verse 17. Like as a woman with child that
draweth near the time of her delivery is in pain and crieth
out in her pains, so have we been in thy sight, O Lord. We have been with child We have
been in pain. We have, as it were, brought
forth wind. We have not wrought any deliverance
in the earth. Neither have the inhabitants
of the world fallen. Thy dead men shall live. Together
with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that
dwell in the dust. For thy dew is as the dew of
herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead. Come, my people,
enter down to thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee. Hide
thyself, as it were, for a little moment, until the indignation
be overpassed. For behold, the Lord cometh out
of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity.
The earth also shall disclose her blood and shall no more cover
her slain. Here in verse 17 and verse 18,
Isaiah is speaking on behalf of the church, the church of
old, and it's obvious that they're in pain, they're suffering, and
we're told here why they're suffering. In verse 17, they're desiring
children. The church is desiring spiritual
children, to beget children. And her mind is like a mother. You ladies that have children
have witnessed this. It's like a mother that her time
to deliver has come. And she's in pain, she's having
these contractions, and she's got just a moment's relief, and
then the contractions again, and she's waiting for the child
to be born. That's the way the church of
old here had described itself, in pain as a woman in travail. We've seen this in other places,
especially with the Jewish women. They wanted children, didn't
they? It was Rachel that told her husband Jacob, give me children
or I'm going to die. And he got so aggravated at her,
he scolded her and screamed at her. Am I God? Am I God? I want children. And you find
this sometimes in the prophets, especially in the Apostle Paul.
He had this burden for his brethren, his kinsmen in the flesh. Remember
how he said that? You can almost feel like here
lies a woman and she's ready to have the child. She's in labor
pains. Paul said, I'm in great heaviness
and continuous sorrow. for my kinsman, the Jewish brother,
and he tells us what he was desiring, that they might be saved. I have
this burden, this pain in my heart for the children of Israel
that they might be saved. Don't you wish God would give
us a burden like that? A pain in our hearts for lost
people that's around us, family members, lost neighbors that
We may go and have some ease at heart for a while, but, boy,
it hits us. It hits us. Just like you mothers,
that's, when you were in labor, that's all you could think about,
wasn't it? You'd get some relief for a few minutes, and then the
pain, the awful pain, waiting for that child to be born. And
you had no relief until you heard that cry of life from that child. I bet there's not another year
that planned your vacation while you were having a child. You
didn't look up at the nurse and say, that's what color I'll paint
my kitchen. You didn't, did you? All you
could think about, this child and the pain in childbirth. God give us a burden like that. that whatever we're doing, this
sudden pain comes to our heart. Oh, Lord, be merciful to me. My daughter is grievously vexed
with a devil. Oh, Lord, be merciful to me.
My spouse is without God and without his son. God have mercy
upon my neighbor. He is dead and trespasses and
sins. Don't you wish we had a burden
like that? That's what she was feeling here at this time. In
Isaiah chapter 62 and verse 6 and 7, I've got this quoted here.
Let me quote this to you. He's talking here about marriage.
As a young man marries a virgin and so on. And he said, I have
set watchmen upon the walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never
hold their peace day nor night. Ye that make mention of the Lord
keep not silence, give him no rest till he establish, until
he make Jerusalem a craze in the earth. But how can Jerusalem
be appraised in the earth if she's not begetting children?
She feels it, doesn't she? You and I feel that burden sometimes,
don't we? And that's what she was feeling.
This was the complaint of the Church of God in the Old Testament. And her complaint is here in
verse 18. Notice what she says. We have
not wrought any deliverance in the earth." We have not wrought
any? Nothing? I doubt that. But that's what she said. You've
not had one soul that's heard and believed the gospel? In the
51st, 53rd chapter, he complains about that, doesn't he? Who has
believed our report? And what he's really saying is,
Lord, nobody has believed our report. Nobody? Well, we get down in our hearts
and get discouraged. We get down in our mouths, don't
we? Nobody's been encouraged. No dear child of God's been delivered
from the snare. No oppressed soul has been freed. Nobody, no good has been done.
No deliverance. No deliverance whatsoever. And
they have two complaints. She has two complaints. The first
one is not just about labor pains, but it's about her conception.
She's not having false labor. She's had a false conception.
She said, I thought it was with child. We thought we were going
to have a child, but all it turned out to be was belly gas. And he's got a polite way of
saying this. Naturally, we know how we say
it in our day, especially some of the young people we have to
get on to. But she said, I thought I was going to have a child and
all I did was pass wind. Have you ever did that? Have
you ever thought, boy, I'm really carrying a burden here. And you
put yourself under this burden. And it turned out to be just
the energy of the flesh. I was watching, I was flipping
through the channels the other night and saw Joel Olsteen out
in the big Houston Oil Stadium preaching on motivating the flesh
to do something. The steam was rising up. All this steam, you could see
it. It was coming from the pulpit
area. And the whole stadium was full of steam. Gas. Gas. That's what he's saying
here. It's gas. But let's be honest,
brothers and sisters. Haven't we manufactured a lot
of burdens that we thought was of the Lord and come to find
out it was energy of the flesh? Energy of the flesh, energy. All it does is create gas. And it bloats us. How many fires
have we kindled that we warmed by? But it was our fires. We're guilty of all of that.
That's what he said they're guilty of here. I'm amazed at myself. I am utterly amazed at myself
of how much labor and how many pains and how many burdens and
how much trouble I've put myself through in my Christian life,
and so much of it has been nothing but belly gas. And I tell you,
it hurts. It is a painful thing when you
come to the knowledge of that, is it not? That's how the church
of old was feeling. We thought we were pregnant.
But it was nothing but bellicose, a false conception. And then,
secondly, they had another problem here. They hadn't realized their
expectation. Neither have we wrought any deliverance
in the earth, and then he said, neither have the inhabitants
of the world fallen. That's a pretty high expectation,
wasn't it? We're going to win the world.
The world is going to fall before our God and our gospel. Is that
too high of an expectation? Would it be too high of an expectation
for the Todd Road Grace Church to believe that our Lord could
save the whole city of Lexington? And pray to that end and preach
to that end? Would that be too high of an
expectation? I remember Brother Todd said
one time, every time he preached, he expected the Lord to save
somebody. You know what? I think it would
be a sin for us not to believe that the Lord could not save
Bletchett. But what happened to this church here when she
didn't meet her expectation? She almost despaired. almost
despaired. We thought we were going to bring
the world down by this gospel and none of them has fallen.
We're almost desolate without any children and then she almost
despaired. Sometimes when you read the old
commentators, I was reading dear John Gill just the other day
and he talked about what a revival we would have in the last days.
And the multitude of Jews and Gentiles would come in. I wish
it was that way. I hope it's that way. But that's
not been my experience. And when I read the scriptures,
it seems like to me that things are going to wax worse and worse. People deceiving and being deceived. I have a friend of mine that
I meet him sometimes and we talk, a pastor friend of mine, and
he and I always, we're always talking about revival. You know,
we want a revival. We want to see our churches full.
We want to see men worshiping and believe in the gospel. And we know nothing else is going
to save this nation but a revival. But that's all he and I talk
about. And sometimes, sometimes when
we get our minds stuck on ourselves, That's what we need to do and
what we would like to see happen. Nothing gets accomplished. That's
where the church was here. This was the problem with the
church of old. She was concentrating on herself
and the core condition that she found herself in. Notice how
many times she said, we, we, we, we. She is looking at herself. And anytime we make ourself the
center of attention, I don't care what it is, we have already
erred in our thinking. And things won't get better,
but things will get worse. Do we have needs? We have needs,
don't We have trouble. We have things we need to talk
about. We have things we need to pray about. But when we center
our thinking on ourselves, no matter what it is, it may be
something in my own life. It may be something within the
church or at work. But when I make myself the focus,
I'm beginning to think wrongly and I'll never get out of the
trouble I'm in until I change my way of thinking. Did they
want children? Well, sure they did. We do too,
don't we? We want to see things happen. There are some things
I wish was different. But if I focus on them, they're
going to get worse. And that was her problem here.
We, we, we. Oh, the pain we're in. Oh, how
desolate we are. Oh, we're not accomplishing anything.
You know, if the Lord had begun to bless this church, you know
what she would have said? Well, it's we. It's we. Look how we were suffering. Look
how we were praying so honestly. Look what a burden we were bearing.
We, we, we. And here in verse 19, the Lord
does something. He breaks right in. He completely
takes their thinking off of themselves. He changes the subject altogether. He'll have no more of hearing
about them and their miscarriage and their failures and their
gas pains and so on. He tells them what he's going
to do. And he tells them how sure it is. And then he tells
them what their reaction is going to be when he does it. And here
in verse 19 he says this, Thy dead men shall live, together
with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that
dwell in the dust, for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the
earth shall cast out her dead. He completely changes the subject.
And because he does, it tells us that it's never good to concentrate
on ourselves. So he changes the subject, and
I want to look at three things quickly, just in this one verse
here, verse 19. And this is one thing I love
about the Bible. You can look at this one verse
and say, what does this mean? And you say, well, it means this.
But it also means this. And it also means that we don't
have to narrow it down to just one thing and that's what we
see in this verse. To me it means three things when
he says this. He speaks first of all of the
union between Jesus Christ and the whole body of His elect. Thy dead men shall live. There he's speaking of the union
between the Old Testament elect and the New Testament elect.
He says it's thy men. You know there's just been one
church, brothers and sisters. There's always one church. There's
just one body. made up of all God's elect in
the Old Testament and in the New Testament. We're one in Jesus
Christ. There's just one Savior. There's
just one gospel and one body, whether you're Jew or Gentile.
Old Testament or New Testament, we're one. And this is speaking
here of the union Jesus Christ has with all His elect of all
ages. And he says here that he's their
head. He's their federal head, their
representative. And the first thing he tells
the church here of old is that he is so one with them, that
he's so taken all of his elect people of all ages to himself. And He so represents them, that
they are so one with Him, when He came to this world, and when
He suffered, and when He died, and when He was buried, and then
when He arose again, they arose with Him. Isn't that wonderful? He's the federal head. That's
what they used to call Him. He's the representative. Jesus
Christ is not a private person. He's a public person. He never
did anything for himself. Everything he did, he did for
others, for his people. And he so took them to himself
that when he lived, they lived with him. When he suffered, they
suffered with him. When he died, they died with
him. And here he said, together with my dead body shall they
arise. Now this is amazing, this union,
it's such an amazing thing, isn't it? To think that all of the
elect of God was so in union with their Savior that when He
arose that third and appointed morning, they arose with Him. That's what He said here. That
is astounding to me. It's just astounding. I think
it's taught in other places in the New Testament. If you have
trouble believing this and getting a hold of this, let me give you
four or five other things. Listen to this. The Lord told
Abraham in Romans 4, before Abraham ever had a son, He said, I have
made thee a father of many nations. I have made thee. He didn't even
have a son. I made thee. And then in Genesis
15 and 18 he said this, In the same day the Lord made a covenant
with Abraham, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land. And he measured it out for him.
His seed didn't even have a being. They weren't even born yet. I've
given it to them. And then in Isaiah 53, since
700 years before the Lord Jesus was born, he said this, God hath
laid on him the iniquity of us all. How could it be that God
laid on Jesus his son our iniquities before he ever came to this world? And then he said in verse 5 of
that chapter, by his stripes we are healed 700 years before
he even suffered. And while you and I are sitting
here this evening, struggling with our sins, struggling with
unbelief, praying for us to see, trying to overcome by his grace,
Every believer that's here tonight is in heaven glorified. Now that's
what Romans 8 verse 29 and 30 tells us. Is it not? Those he
predestinated he called, whom he called he justified, and whom
he justified he glorified. You say, Bruce, how can this
be? How can God do this? How can
He say this? Because He's not like us. He is nothing like us. You and
I are creatures of time. We're here but a few days. He
inhabits eternity. Where is He now? He's in eternity
past. He's here in our present. He's
in eternity future. You and I occupy a little seat
here in this room. He fills the heavens and the
earth. He can say this because He's
God. the omnipotent God. He can call
things which be not as though they were. And he said, when
my son suffered, all his elect suffered in him. When they buried
him, all his people were buried with him. And when he raised,
they all raised with him. Together with his dead body,
they arose. Now that's wonderful, isn't it?
You can't feel that, you'll just have to believe it. Secondly, the way we can understand
this scripture is this. In time, they must experience
this resurrection. Together with my dead body, they
shall live. Well, we were dead, were we not? We came into this world dead
in trespasses and sin. We were involved in the fall
just like everybody else. Union with Christ doesn't deny
the fall. When Adam fell, you and I fell.
We became sinners in Adam by one man's offense. Many were
condemned. We fell too. But the death of the Son of God
assured us union with Him, since we had risen with Him, that assured
us that there was coming a time in our experience that we would
be quickened to life. Peter said this about the Lord
Jesus. He said he was a lamb ordained before the foundation
of the world. He was set aside, decreed that
he should come. But he was manifested in these
last times for you. And that manifestation, his actually
coming and dying, was critical, wasn't it? It was critical. It was critical that God ordained
him, and it was critical that he should come and die. It was
critical that God decree all his elect be in union with his
Son upon the cross, and there's something else that he's decreed,
the means by which we live. And the Son of God, that risen
Christ, He must come to us by the Spirit through the Gospel
and speak unto us and say, live. And until He does that, we cannot
believe. We have no right to believe that
we are risen with Him already in union. But you know something? He said
here, they shall live. They shall. They shall live. Boy, that's better than hopefully
or maybe. Boy, we're praying to that end.
Boy, we're preaching to that end. No, he said they shall live. Here in your soul shall live. Must they hear? Yes, but they
shall. Must they repeat? Yes, and they
shall. Whatever God requires of them,
they shall, because He said, they shall live. Together with
the Son of God, they shall live. The time is coming, He said,
the hour in which the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of
God, and they that hear shall live. And when you hear His voice
in the Gospel, and you live, then you can know I'm in union
with the Son of God. I'm in union with the Son of
God. The trouble with the Church of Old in our text, she thought
she was responsible for bringing all of this to pass. We, we,
we, and we just can't do it, she said. We've tried, we've
suffered, and we can't do it. Nobody can, brothers and sisters.
Who's responsible for this? There's but one that can bear
this burden, and that is God, the triune God. If the continuance
and the well-being and the conversion of all God's elect was dependent
upon you, wouldn't you just despair? I despair over myself. I can't even continue myself.
What if all the burden of the church was laid upon me? I'd
say, Lord, kill me. Kill me, just kill me. But I
tell you, God has put it upon the shoulders of one who can
bear it. And that's His Son, Jesus Christ. He'll do it. He'll do it. They shall live. They shall. And then, the third thing, He's
speaking here also of a resurrection of the body, isn't He? He says
that, Thy dead men shall live together with my dead body, shall
they arise, awakened, saying, Ye that dwell in dust. He's speaking of the resurrection
of the body at the last day. Because I live, ye shall live
also physically. In Adam all died. But in Christ
shall all be made alive, but every man in his own order. Christ
is the firstfruits. Afterwards, they that are Christ's
at his coming. He's coming. He's coming from
heaven. And he's going to speak to those
that are in the grave. And you know something? They're
going to come out of there. That's a good hope, isn't it?
That's a good hope. And you know how they're going
to appear? They're going to be just like Him. He shall change
our vile body and fashion it like unto His glorious body.
His glorious body. Your dew, He said, is going to
be like the dew of herbs. I have a garden and everything
is dead in it, just an old bunch of twigs sticking up out of the
ground right now. But when spring comes and the
dew is on those old herbs, they get full of south and green and
blossom and they're beautiful. That's the way the resurrection
of the dead will be. Because I live, you're gonna
raise too. And you're gonna be just like
me. And it's going to be so glorious.
The first thing they're going to do when they're awake is sing.
They're going to start singing. I remember when we buried Mary
Bell. We went way down, way down in
the woods, in the little field down in the woods. And it was
cold. It was snowing. I took my coat
off and gave it to a young lady, and I was freezing to death.
It was so cold, getting dark, and Todd read the scriptures
and had prayer, and somebody started singing that song, It
Is Well With My Soul. When peace like a river attendeth
my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll, whatever my lot,
thou hast taught me to say, it is well, it is well with my soul. And I'm telling you, It's almost
like you could hear the bells of heaven ringing. If it's that way when we put
a dear saint in the ground and we can sing then, what will it
be when our Savior comes to get us out of the ground? Will it
not be a joyful time of singing? Oh, awake and sing. And sing. And he says here in verse 20
right quickly, he says this, in the light of what I've just
told you, he says, now come, my people, quit thinking about
yourself. Quit thinking about your pains
and your suffering. Get your mind off yourself. Start
thinking about what I've just told you. And I wonder if they
did. I wonder if when Isaiah wrote this down and he sent copies
out to the church, they started thinking, my, we've been thinking
all wrong about Look here what He's going to do. And look here
at the multitude. We think we're desolate. We're
like a woman that has no children. Why? Look at the children we're
going to have. And they're all assured of a resurrection by
union and actually, and they're at the last day. Why, look what
a bunch of people we have. And they tuck their eyes off
themselves and begin to rejoice. And then the Lord turns to them
and He said, Do this now. Come, my people, unto thy chambers. and shut the doors about thee,
and hide yourself. But just a little moment. Spurgeon's
got a wonderful message you might want to read on this, but he
gave six things that he said these chambers were. And let
me just give them to you right quickly. He said, come down to
your chambers of divine power. Come into the chambers of divine
Are you afraid? Anybody here afraid of what's
coming? Are you afraid of old age? Are you afraid of sickness? Are you afraid of poverty? What
are you afraid of? Come into these chambers of divine
power and you'll see that you're kept by the power of God from
anything and everything that would hurt you. And Spurgeon
says this, come into my chambers of divine wisdom. Do you feel
ignorant? Do you feel like you just can't
know anything or retain anything? Well, come into this chamber
of divine wisdom. He can lead the blind by way
that they know not. He knows how to make crooked
places straight. He knows how to lead you in and
through the valley of death. Come into this chamber of divine
wisdom." And Mr. Spurgeon said, come into the
chambers of divine love, everlasting love. Who shall separate us from
the love of Christ? Nothing, life or death. Come into that chamber. And he
said, come into the chamber of divine faithfulness. Great is
thy faithfulness. Oh God, my Father. There is no
shadow of turning with thee. And Mr. Spurgeon said, come into
the chamber of divine salvation. Happy are thou, O Israel, who
is likened to thee, a people saved by the Lord. Come into
that chamber. And he said, come into the chamber
of divine Immutability. I am the Lord. I never change. Therefore, you sons of Jacob
are not consumed. Come in here to this chamber.
And he said when you get in there, lock the door. Shut the door. Shut it against all mistrust
and doubts and unbelief. And when you get in there, just
don't come out. Just abide in there. That's the
place of rest. It's a place of strength. It's
a place of peace and joy. Abide in me, our Savior said.
Abide in my word. Abide in my love. Just abide
in me. And it's not very long, is it?
He said just for a little while. Just for a little while. Because
something dreadful is coming. It's not ISIS. It'll make Isis look like a picnic. Something dreadful is coming.
And the Lord said, hide yourself from it. Because I'm coming. I'm coming to the earth. Not
to suffer. Not to endure shame. I'm coming
in judgment. When I raise my people, And I
take them to be with me. That's not the end. I'm coming
to punish the world for their iniquity. Oh, that's awful, isn't
it? That's awful. God is holy, is
He not? He's holy. How do we know? We know in so many ways. But
we know by His promise that He is going to punish sin. Not one
foolish thought will escape His eye. Not one thought of hatred. Not one foolish word. Nothing. Everything is going
to be uncovered in that great day. And God is going to punish
it. Oh Lord, hide me. Hide me. I don't want to stand there.
Do you, Joe? I want to be hidden in Christ. That's the only place.
That's where sin has already been punished. And if God don't
find us in Christ, He will punish us. with everlasting destruction. Hide yourself. Oh, if you're
here tonight without Christ, I can say this without thinking
I'm manufacturing a burden for you. In the light of what I've
said tonight, flee to Jesus Christ. Bow your heart to Him. Give yourself
up to Him, the Lord Jesus Christ. Because if you're not found in
Him, You're not hid from the judgment that's coming. Hide
yourself. Just for a while. Just for a
while. God bless his word. Thank you,
Pastor.