I'm going to be preaching from
Isaiah chapter 64 tonight, but I'd like to read a passage first
out of Revelation chapter three. Revelation chapter three. Last week, I brought a message
entitled Personal Revival from Isaiah 63, and we're continuing
that tonight out of Isaiah 64. It's the continuation of Isaiah's
prayer It began in verse 15 of Chapter 63 and on down to the
end of Chapter 64, but I'd like to introduce this message by
looking at the Lord's letter to the church at Laodicea. Let's
begin reading in verse 14 of Revelation Chapter 3. And unto the angel of the church
of the Laodiceans write. These things saith the Amen,
the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation
of God. I know thy works. Do you know that in all seven
of these letters, this is the first thing he said to each church?
I know thy works. Look what he says, verse 15,
I know thy works that thou art neither cold nor hot. I would thou wert cold or hot. So then, because thou art lukewarm. And neither cold nor hot. I will
spew thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest. I am rich. and increased with goods, and
have need of nothing, and knowest not that thou art wretched, and
miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked." Now, the Lord Jesus
was sending this letter to this church, as he did all seven of these
letters, and this was a true church. With true believers,
people who had been brought to a saving knowledge of the Lord
Jesus Christ, people who really did trust him, people who walked
with him. But yet how far this church had
fallen. Now, as we read this passage
of Scripture, and you can't help but be struck with the strength
of the language the Lord says to these people, because you're
lukewarm, I'll spew you, I'll spit you out of my mouth. That's
strong language. Now, when you read this passage
of Scripture regarding this group of people, what comes to your
mind as the outstanding, in a bad way, the outstanding characteristic
of this church? Lukewarmness? Well, yeah, but
what was the cause of that? What was the cause of that lukewarmness? As I read this passage of Scripture,
there's one thing that hits me very hard when I look at these
people. No need. No need. I'm rich, I'm safe,
secure. Rich in grace, I'm in good shape. I have need of nothing. And the Lord said, you don't
know, you're poor and wretched and miserable and blind. No need. Now, we are continuing from last
week. Now, would you turn with me back to our text in Isaiah
chapter 64. We're continuing from last week,
this look at the prayer of Isaiah. It began in verse 15 of chapter
63, and the heading in my Bible says the church prayeth for the
presence of God. This is a prayer. For God's presence. This is a prayer for personal
revival, this is a prayer asking the Lord to do something. Notice
he says in verse 1, O that thou wouldst rend the heavens, that
thou wouldst come down, that the mountains might flow down
at thy presence. In this prayer, he's asking the
Lord to do something. And the only way we will earnestly
seek the Lord's face and ask him to do something for us is
out of our need. The whole need not a physician. But they that are sick. I love
a verse of Scripture in Luke chapter 9 verse 11 and says he
healed them that had need. Of healing. Now I'm going to
ask the Lord to do something for me. When I need the Lord
to do something for me. And not before then. Now, if I've been drifting, if
we had been drifting into a lukewarm state, I pray that the Lord will
use this message to get us out of it. You know, it's a blessed
thing to be poor and to be needy. David, the man after God's own
heart, ten times described himself like this. I'm poor. And I'm needy. And I pray that
the Lord will enable me to preach this message As a poor, needy
sinner, and I pray that he will enable you to hear this message,
not in need of nothing, but as a poor and needy sinner. Now, in verse 15 of chapter 63,
when he begins this prayer, he says, look down from heaven and
behold from the habitation of thy holiness and of thy glory.
He says, look down upon us. But now he grows more bold in
chapter 64. He doesn't say simply look down
on us. He says, come down here and do something for us. That
was his desire that the Lord would do something for him. Oh,
he says in verse one of chapter 64, that thou wouldest rend the
heavens and that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains
might flow down at thy presence. If you come down, the high mountains
of opposition, the high mountains of pride, the high mountains
of sin will just flow away at your presence if you come down.
The great need of Isaiah's day, the great need of our day, is
for the Lord to come down and to do something for us. I want
the Lord to do something for me. You see, salvation is what
God does for you. It's not what you do for God.
It's what He does for you. And my great need right now as
I speak to you, our great need in this worship service is for
the Lord to rend the heavens and come down and visit us with
His presence and reveal Himself to us. You see, salvation is
of the Lord. The salvation of the righteous,
David said in Psalm 37, is of the Lord. Jonah learned that
from the Belly of the whale, salvation is of the Lord. You
know what that means? That simple little phrase means
that if you're saved, that's what salvation is, being saved.
If you're saved, He saved you. He did it. And if you're saved,
whatever that means, you know that's the truth. You know you're
saved because He saved you. I'm saved because He did something
for me. He chose me. He chose to save
me. He chose to come to me. He kept
the law for me. He died on Calvary's tree for
me and put away my sins. He gives me the life that I might
see, that I might see, that I might believe, that I might repent.
These are all gifts of His grace. It's what He does for me in every
aspect of salvation. It's what God does for you. And
if I persevere all the way to the end and if I make it into
glory, You know what I'm going to say? This is what he did. I know it. I'm sure of it. Salvation
is what the Lord God does for you. Now, we don't come looking for
him to do something for us with a lack of need, but we come with
a great need. If he doesn't do something for
me, I don't have any hope. He's got to come down from heaven
and literally do something for me. And if he doesn't do something
for me, I'm sunk. That's what Isaiah said. Oh,
but you win the heavens and come down and do something for me.
Don't you want the Lord to do something for you? Don't you
want him to come down and take you and do something for you?
Now, that's the prayer of Isaiah. He says, when you do in verse
two is when the melting fire burneth. The fire causes the
waters to boil, to make thy name known to thine adversaries, that
the nations may tremble at thy presence. Here's what happens
when you come down. And we certainly desire to see
the nations tremble at his presence, don't we? We want to see men
and women come to a knowledge of the living God. We desire
to see that. And that's what happens when he comes down. And it only happens if he comes
down. Now, look what he says in verse three. This is a very
interesting verse. In this verse, Isaiah tells us why he believes
he should come down. And look in verse 3. This gave
me some hope. When? He's referring to a past event. And this is why I think that
you should come down. And this is why I want you to
come down. This is the argument I'm using. This is why I'm asking
this. When thou didst terrible things
which we looked not for, thou camest down. The mountain slowed
down at thy presence. Now, Isaiah tells the Lord why
he believes he should come down. And do something for him because
you've done it for people in the past. That's why that's why
I have the courage to ask you to come down and do something
for me because you've done it for people in the past. He's
the Lord. He changes not if he did it in
the past. He can do it right this very
minute. And that's the argument I use. You've done it in the
past. So come down and do something
for me now. That's that's my plea. That's
my need. That's what I have to have. I have to have you do something
for me. You did terrible things, majestic
things, powerful things, glorious things that folks weren't even
looking for. I love the surprising nature of grace. How many things
has the Lord done for you that you weren't even seeking? I mean,
you weren't even looking for it, but he did something for
you anyway, because he's so gracious and he's so glorious. He says
you've done that in the past. Do it again. You've done it for
others, do it for me. And he's using the argument of
the nature of God. You don't change. If you've done
it in the past, you can do it now. You've done it. Now I'm
asking you to come down and do something for me. Is that the
prayer of your heart right now? Lord, would you come down? Come
down from your high and holy habitation and do something for
me. Do what you've already done. He says in verse 4, for since
the beginning of the world, Now he's talking about God's grace.
For since the beginning of the world, men have not heard nor
perceived by the ear, nor either hath the eye seen, O God, besides
thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him. Now
you've heard that passage of scripture before, haven't you? You remember
where that's at? It's over in 1 Corinthians 2. Would you turn
with me there for a moment? Paul quotes Isaiah a whole lot,
but look here in 1 Corinthians 2. Isaiah is now speaking of
the glorious things of God's grace. Beginning in verse seven. He
says, but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery. Even the
hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world unto our glory,
which none of the princes of this world knew. For had they
known it, they wouldn't have crucified the Lord of glory.
But as it is written, and now he quotes Isaiah chapter 64,
verse four, I have not seen nor ear heard. Neither has entered
into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for them
that love him. But look what he says next, but God has revealed
them unto us by his spirit. These things that men naturally
don't know anything about. And I know something of the things
that God has prepared to love him by the revelation. I'm going
to be just like Christ. Now, do I see it now? No. But
do I believe it? Yes, I do. Yes, I do. Because
God has told me this in his word. And he's revealed some things
to us. Let's go on reading. Verse 10, But God hath revealed them
unto us by spirit, for the spirit searcheth all things, yea, the
deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things
of man, save the spirit of man which is in him? Even so, the
things of God knoweth no man but the spirit of God. Now we
have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit
which is of God, that we might know the things that are. What's
that next word? Freely. Freely given to us. of God. You know what that means?
Now, remember, Isaiah is asking the Lord to come down and do
something for him. If he gives these things freely,
that means he doesn't have to find a reason in you or me to
give it to us. He does so without a cause. Now,
this ought to encourage everybody here. The Lord doesn't have to
find a reason in you to come down and do something for you.
He doesn't have to see how sorry you are or what you can do for
him or something. He doesn't have to see anything
like that. He does what He does freely. And that ought to give
each one of us a reason to be encouraged that He'll come down
and do something for us. Don't think, well, He's not going
to do anything for me. Why not, if He does it freely? Now, if
you're looking at it for a reason in you, if you think that God's
got to find a reason in you to do something for you, You have
a reason to be discouraged and filled with despair because there's
not a reason in you or me for him to do it, but because he
does this freely. Oh, I have not seen nor ear heard,
neither has entered into the heart of man the things that
the Lord does for his people freely for Christ's sake. Now, Isaiah says in verse five.
He speaks of the one that Lord does do something for. Isaiah,
chapter 64, verse five, thou meetest him. that rejoiceth and
worketh righteousness, those that remember thee in thy ways."
Now, here's the person he meets. Those who rejoice, those who
work righteousness, those that remember him in his ways. And
you know, this describes every believer. I don't care what your
state is, you still are somebody who rejoices in Christ. You really
do glory in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't you
rejoice? If you came in here high, if you came in here low,
aren't you thankful that Christ Jesus Himself is salvation? And
that everything God requires, He looks to His Son for. You
rejoice in that, don't you? You rejoice. And if you're a
believer, you work righteousness. That's because of the new nature
in you. He causes you to work righteousness. Loving Christ
is the working of righteousness. Believing the Gospel. Loving
His people. You work righteousness. Every believer does. They've
got a new nature. And all it can do is work righteousness.
It can't sin. And you keep his ways. He says,
those that remember thee and thy ways, you remember the ways
of the cross, the ways of the gospel. Now, that's the person
you meet. But now with what Isaiah says,
let's go on reading in this verse five. Behold, now Isaiah knows
this is the person he meets, the person who rejoices, the
person who works righteousness, the person who remembers him
in his ways. We know that. But now look what Isaiah says.
Behold. Your wrath. Thou art angry, for we have sinned
in those as continuance, and we shall be saved." Or as the
Amplified Version says, shall we be saved? The New International
Version says, how can we be saved? Now, we know this is the person
you meet, this person who works righteousness and so on. But
you're mad at us. You're wrong, for we have sinned.
And in those in those sins that we've committed, there's continuance.
We haven't stopped. We're still sinning the same
sin. And isn't that true of me and
you? I mean, when God looks in your heart, don't you commit
the same sins over and over and over again? And you're ashamed
of yourself. But Isaiah is just He's being
blunt, isn't he? He said there's a continuance
in those things. We're continually committing to say, how can we
be saved, he says. Or shall we be saved? Shall God
look in mercy on us? How can we be saved? So Isaiah
at this time, he's speaking from the bottom. He's speaking from
his great need. Shall we be saved? Now, he goes
on to confess his sin. This is a very well-known verse
of Scripture. We quote this all the time. Isaiah
is giving a confession of sin. And I know this. If the Lord
does something for me, it's going to begin right here as far as
my experience goes. I'm going to confess my sin before.
Now, when the Lord does something for you, here's what you do.
You begin with a true and honest confession of sin. And here's
what a true and honest confession of sin looks like, if you want
to know what it looks like. I don't believe we have a clearer and
more honest and more poignant confession of sin in all the
Word of God than we do right here. And here's how David, I
mean, Isaiah talks about himself. He says, you're mad at us. We
sinned and we continue in those sins. I hope when I say something like
that, somebody doesn't say, well, you're all looking for an excuse
to sin. No, we're not. I'm not looking for an excuse
in my sin, but I am trying to deal honestly with this. Have
you ever quit being mad? Have you ever quit being proud,
self-righteous? Go on and on down the list of
all these sins of the heart. Which one have you stopped? And
that's he said, we're continuing this now. How can how can we
be saved when we're such a mess like this? And here's his confession,
verse six. But we are all. Every single
one of us as an unclean thing now under the Old Testament economy,
if you're unclean, if you touch something that was unclean, if
you came in contact with something was dead, you know what happened
to you? Anything you touched was unclean. You weren't allowed
to worship. You weren't allowed to come into
the presence of God. You were unclean. The great type of an
unclean person is the leper. Do you remember what the leper
had to do? He had to put a rag over his mouth. He had to cry
out anywhere he went, unclean, unclean. That's what he said,
unclean. I'm unclean. Stay away from me
if you don't want to have anything to do with me. And Isaiah says
we are as an unclean thing, utterly unfit for worship. Utterly unfit for fellowship
with God. Unfit, unclean. We are all as
an unclean thing. And next he says, our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags because of who I am and my uncleanness.
All my actions are bad, even my righteousness. Now he says
our righteousnesses. The good stuff. The good stuff. And here's what
the language actually means, a minstrel's rag. Our righteousness, the good stuff,
the good works, the desires, the tears, the intention, the
anything that has my flesh in it. It is as a minstrel rag. Now, that's that means everything
I do because of the uncleanness of my person. Remember, this
is his confession of sin. We're all as an unclean thing.
And because of that, everything we do, I don't care what it is.
Everything we do is nothing more than a filthy rag. Do you believe
that about yourself? You know, we quote that passage
of Scripture all the time. Our righteousness is our filthy rag.
Sometimes I wonder how much we believe what we quote. I wonder.
I'll say it about myself, but if you say that about what I'm
doing, I might get a little upset, a little bit different then.
Look what he says next in this confession of sin, we're all
as an unclean thing and all our righteousnesses are as filthy
rags and we all do fade as a leaf. We cannot do better. We can make
promises, but they don't change the problem. We can't promise
to do better in the future because we fade like the leaf. I mean,
we're just going to fade and fade and fade. I'm not going
to make promises. Oh, if you'll just give me another chance,
I'll start doing this. No, I'm not going to make any promises like
that. We all do fade as a leaf. Look what he says next. And our
iniquities, like the wind have taken us away. We can't stand
before temptation any more than a leaf can bite off the driving
wind. Our iniquities, like the wind, have driven us away. Verse seven. And there is none
that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold
of thee. Now, look what he's saying. We completely, Isaiah
is saying this in his confession of sin. I'm unclean. I can't
stand before temptation. I fade like the leaf, but the
iniquities like the wind have driven. So he makes all these
horrible statements regarding himself. And now all of a sudden
he says, I can't even call on your name. I can't even stir
myself up to lay hold upon you. I can't believe is what he's
saying. I can't lay hold upon the gospel. This is how this
is how needy I am. I can't even stir up myself to
call on your name. I can't lay hold upon your gospel.
That's how needy. That's how needy I am. Now, does
this person need mercy? This person makes this confession.
Does he need mercy? Does he need the grace of God? Does he need God to come down
and do something for him? Isaiah wasn't saying, have mercy
on me because I'm not all that bad. My sin's not really that
bad. At least I'm doing my best. He doesn't say anything like
that at all, does he? He's coming from his great need. I can't
even stir myself up to call on your name. That's how dead and
helpless and simple I am. I need you to do something for
me. You've hid your face from us.
We're consumed because of our iniquities. Look what he says.
There's none that calleth upon thy name that stirth himself
up to take hold of thee, for thou hast hid thy face from us.
Thou hast consumed us because of our iniquities. Anybody who
sees themselves like this is needy, aren't they? Can you make
this confession right now? How I need Him to do something
for me. I need Him so desperately. I need Him to make me feel my
need. I need Him to cause me to know I have a need. I need
Him. You know, I know that probably
everybody in this room believes in the doctrine of total depravity.
I bet you do. But you know, it's one thing
to say you believe in total depravity, and it's another thing to believe
that you personally are totally depraved. Totally different,
isn't it? But you know, when you finally
hit the bottom and there's nowhere to look but
up, You'll cry out, I need thee, precious Jesus, for I am full
of sin. My soul is dark and guilty. My heart is dead within. I need
the cleansing fountain where I can always flee. The blood
of Christ, most precious. The sinner's perfect plea. Now,
Isaiah's hit the bottom, but now he looks up. Look in verse
8. But now, O Lord, Thou art our father. Now, how does Isaiah
say that? Because he's speaking in such
negative terms. I mean, you know, we're nothing
but an unclean thing, a righteousness of filthy rags. We can't even
call on your name. We can't even stir up ourselves
to take hold upon you. We don't have any. We're a mess.
So how does he all of a sudden say, but now, Lord, thou art
our father? That seems to be making a pretty,
pretty strong difference right there. Now you're our father.
How is it that you're our father now? Well, look back at verse
15, he said this once. Verse 15 of chapter 63, look
down from heaven and behold from the habitation of thy holiness
and of thy glory, where is thy zeal and thy strength? The sounding
of thy bowels and of thy mercy toward me? Are they restrained?
Are they gone? Yet he says, doubtless, doubtless, thou art our father. Now how does he say that? Thou
art our Father. When he's saying your mercy seemed
to be restrained from me. And here in this other passage
in Isaiah 64 he's saying we're such a mess, we're all as an
unclean thing, but thou art our Father. How do you know he's
your Father? How can you say that with such confidence? Well,
let's go on reading in verse 16. Doubtless thou art our Father,
though Abraham be ignorant of us. Abraham would know us, and
Israel won't acknowledge us. Thou, O Lord, art our Father.
Our Redeemer in Thy Name is from everlasting." Now, He gives two
reasons why He knows He's His Father. And the first reason
is, You're my Redeemer. You're my Redeemer. You redeemed
me on Calvary Street. You died for me. Now, how do
you know He died for you? I can answer that question. I
can tell you how you can know positively that He died for you.
Romans chapter 5 verse 6 says, for when we were yet without
strength. That's strong language, isn't
it? Are you without strength? Are you without spiritual strength? You're like Isaiah in this confession. I can't even stir myself up to
lay hold upon you. When we were yet without strength,
in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. Are you ungodly? If you fit this
description without strength and ungodly, I can guarantee
you Jesus Christ died for you. He's your redeemer. Now, if you
can't get that description, I can't give you that hope. But if you
can fit that description, I know that Jesus Christ died for you.
He came to save sinners. And that's what he did. He died
for sinners. Christ died for the ungodly.
Now, because I fit that description, I know that Jesus Christ is my
Redeemer, so I can call this holy God my Father, because He's
my Redeemer. And next, He says in verse 16,
Thy name is from everlasting. Now, here's why I can call you
Father. It's true there isn't anything
to me, but you never did look for anything in me. You looked
to your Son. His name is from everlasting.
It's always been that way, and it still is. That's my hope.
You know, God is my Father. He's my Daddy. I can cry Abba
Father. He's my Father. And the reason
I know He is is because He's my Redeemer. And the only reason
there's ever been any hope for salvation is his namesake. So
he says, doubtless doubt our father. And then he says in verse
eight, this is chapter 64. But now, oh, Lord, thou art our
father. And he uses another argument
as to why the Lord should hear him. He says, we're the clay
and you're the potter. And we are all the work of thine
hand. Now, God is absolutely sovereign. And I'm nothing more
than clay. He's the great potter who can
do with me whatever he's pleased to do. So you know what? I'm
going to start crying. Lord, do something for me. You can
do it. You can sovereignly choose to do something for me if you're
pleased to do it. Like that leper. You remember what that leper
said? When that leper came to the Lord, he came running and
he fell down on his knees at his feet. He said, Lord, if you
will, you can. Make me clean. If you will, you can. There's
no there's no problem with you if you're willing to do it. You
see, you're the absolute sovereign. You're the potter. We're nothing
but a piece of clay. Now, if you will have mercy on
me. That's the way this person prays,
Lord. You think they have a problem with the sovereignty of God?
No way. You're the you're the great potter.
We're nothing but clay. Look down in mercy. Come down
and visit us. He says in verse nine. Be not wroth, very sore, O Lord.
Don't be angry with us, neither remember iniquity forever, don't
remember our iniquity. You know, it's amazing that the
Lord actually forgets sin. I wonder. I wonder if I've ever,
I know I have. How many of you and I don't want
to know this, this is a rhetorical question. How many of you have
offended? You remember it, don't you? You
remember it. You remember the feeling. And
let me say right off the bat, I'm sorry for offending you.
I'm sorry. If you're around me very much
longer, I'll probably do it some more, and you'll offend me, but
forgive me. But here's what I want to say.
Do you know with regard to that, you remember what I did to you,
don't you? You remember, you remember how
I hurt your feelings. You remember how I snubbed you or whatever
my mind was. Hard to tell what it was. You remember it. The
Lord does not remember sin. And the reason he doesn't remember
sin is because in a believer, there is nothing there to remember. Christ put it away. And so he
says, don't remember iniquity. That's how he forgets because
there's nothing there. It's not like it's there and he's forgotten
about it. It's not there. Therefore, there are sins and
iniquities I'll remember no more. Now, he says, Be not rocked,
very sore, O Lord, neither remember iniquity forever. Behold, see
we beseech thee, we're all thy people. You're the only hope
we have. We don't have anywhere else to
look. We don't have anything else to say. We don't have any other
way to cry. We are your people. This is our only hope. Don't
be angry with us. Now, Isaiah in verses 10 and
11 describes the misery of his plight. He doesn't make things
sound better. He doesn't say have mercy on
us because we're really not all that bad and everything's kind
of okay and we've done a pretty good job, therefore we think
you ought to look our way. He doesn't say anything like that.
Look what he says in verse 10. Thy holy cities are a wilderness.
Zion is a wilderness. Jerusalem is a desolation. We're a wilderness and a desolation,
our holy and our beautiful house, where our father's praise is
burned with fire and all our pleasant things are laid waste.
We're a desolation. We're a wilderness and we're
laid waste. Therefore, we need grace. Do you know, if you are utterly
without anything to commend yourself to God, you're a candidate for
grace. You're a candidate for mercy. Oh, how I need his mercy. I've said this a couple of years
ago, and I'd like to I'd like to say it right again. We read in the scripture of grace
and mercy. Grace and mercy, how many times
does Paul, even when he opens up his epistles to say grace,
mercy and peace, the result of grace and mercy, peace, grace
and mercy. Now, are they the same thing
or are they different? Well, in reality, these two things
are very different. God's grace is his unmerited
favor. That's what the word means. Unmerited
favor. What that means is God doesn't
have to find a reason in you to do something for you. He finds
a reason in himself. He gives grace because he is
gracious. He doesn't give you grace even
because you need it. He doesn't give you grace because
you ask him for it. He doesn't give you grace because of anything
in you. It's not his response to you. It's his response to
himself. That's why he gives grace. Grace
is God's unmerited favor. But you know what? Mercy is different.
Mercy. There's some responding that
God does. God looks at the misery of man, the need of man, and
that moves him to dispense his mercy. So if I'm going to ask
for mercy, I'm not saying, Lord, have mercy on me because I'm
not all that bad. You know, when this is what comes
to my mind, I'll go ahead and say it. You know, when Lynn gets
mad at me and she doesn't very often, but she gets mad at me
because because I'm not all that good of a husband. And there's
no doubt that that's the truth. And she never says this. I'm
just talking about the way I'm thinking. But I know what I think when
you get mad at me like that. I think, you know, I'm not that
bad. I mean, I'm not beating her, you know. I'm faithful,
you know. That's generally what I think.
I'm not that bad, you know. And boy, I tell you what, if
you do that, that's not the way to apologize if something's going
on. But when I come to the Lord for
mercy, I don't come saying I'm not all that bad. I come as a wilderness. I come
in my desperate need. I come in, I am all that bad. I come as an unclean thing. And I say, Lord, have mercy on
me because if you don't have mercy on me, I'm going to split
hell wide open. I'm miserable. I need your grace. Now that's how you come to the
Lord in confession. I need your mercy. He says in verse 12, Wilt
thou refrain thyself from these things, O Lord? Won't you do
this for me? Wilt thou hold thy peace and
afflict his very sore? He's coming from his misery.
Lord, we're afflicted very sore. We need you to come down and
do something for us. The hymn writer Charles Wesley
Tells the story of being up in a tower. One of those old buildings
in England. And he was watching a hawk chase
a little bird. I mean, it was going all over
the place, just flying all over the place. That hawk was right
on his tail. It was scared to death. He thought, well, that
little bird's at it. There's no way that bird's going
to get out of this. And you know what that little bird did? While
Wesley was watching that little bird, all of a sudden, that little
bird flew straight into his bosom. And he looked at that little
bird and said, I'm going to protect this bird from this hawk. Beloved, there's only one thing
to do. Fly into the bosom of Christ. You know, that was the
inspiration for Jesus, lover of my soul. Let me to thy bosom
fly. While the nearer waters roll,
while the tempest still is high, hide me, O my Savior, hide, till
the storm of life is past. Safe into the haven, God, O receive
my soul at last. Now, while I've been talking
about all these things that we're asking the Lord to do, to come
down and do something for us, I want to remind every one of
us He already has. And everything that He can do
for you, He's already done. He that spared not His own Son,
but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also
freely give us all things? Let's pray.