If you have your Bibles, please
turn and read Isaiah, the 51st chapter. Isaiah 51. I want you to read the first three verses. We saw in verse chapter 50, we
began to see the Lord come to light in very glorious terms. In these next four chapters,
51 through 54, we set up the glorious declaration of our God
in chapter 55 when he says, ho, everyone that thirsteth. And
what he does before saying that, he sets up in these chapters
to find out whether or not you're interested in the Lord Jesus
Christ. That word ho means you've come
to a point, I've said what I have to say, and are you interested? And if you are, you're thirsty,
come and drink. These words are about the Lord
Jesus Christ. Hearken to me, ye that follow
after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord. Look unto the
rock which ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit which ye
are digged. Look unto Abraham your father,
and to Sarah that bare you. For I called him alone, and blessed
him, and increased him. For the Lord shall comfort Zion.
He will comfort all her waste places. He will make her wilderness
like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord. Joy and
gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of
melody. Let us pray. Our Father in heaven,
we bless you and thank you for mercies through Jesus Christ,
mercies that are new every morning. We thank you for that blessed
grace that saved our soul. We thank you for the shed blood
of Jesus Christ, for his perfect life that made him an acceptable
sacrifice, for his perfect death that finished sin for his people. Pray tonight, Father, for those
in our company who are sick, going through trials, tribulations.
Thou knowest every heart and every case. For those who requested
special prayer, we ask, Lord, for them. Pray for Sylvester,
Lord, you watch over him and be with those doctors as they
diagnose this situation. Pray for Robert and Henry, Wayne
and Laverne and Jenny. Pray for Cricket Driver, Father,
that you might convince him, for you can, to go and see the
doctors about this situation. Pray for his family, as I'm sure
they're worried and concerned about it. We pray for ourselves
tonight. Fathers, we've gathered here
that you might open your word to us and teach us what we need
to know. We ask it in Christ's blessed
name. Amen. The title of my message tonight
is Miraculous Birth. Miraculous Birth. Having set forth in no uncertain
terms the last two verses of the chapter we studied before,
The Lord set forth the doom of those who trust in their own
righteousness. He said, they're gonna be like
sparks flying up from a fire. It's gonna have a flash and it'll
look good for a moment, then it'll be gone. Having done that,
having set that in order, that no man who seeks by his own righteousness
for acceptance of God will ever be accepted, he now calls to
those who trust in the righteousness of Christ, And that righteousness
is revealed only in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
calls on that elect remnant to hearken or to stop and pay attention
to what the Lord has for them and what He has to say. The word
hearken is like the word behold in Scripture. It's also like
the word look in Scripture. And it requires one to not only
listen, but to heed that which is spoken. So the Lord says to
us as his children tonight, hearken, behold, look, listen, hear, and
heed what is spoken. Those to whom the Lord speaks
are described in two ways in the first phrase of chapter one,
or verse one. They are described as those who
follow after righteousness. Those who follow after righteousness. Now this is not the righteousness
of the law, which the Jews followed and practiced, But the scripture
says they did not attain to that righteousness because they did
not seek it or sought it. They did not seek it by faith.
Without faith, it's impossible to please God. And since man,
since humanity, is at its best state altogether vanity, Personal
righteousness is nothing but smoke and mirrors. Men may talk
about it, but it doesn't exist. It's a delusion of the sin-sick
soul and the sin-sick mind. The righteousness that these
follow after is the righteousness of Jesus Christ. They do not
follow after it to attain it. They follow after it because
they have attained it. God has made them righteous by
Jesus Christ. And that is the goal and set
of their mind from that day forward. Their interest is in the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the righteousness that God
has imputed to them by faith in Christ. And it is the righteousness,
as I said, is revealed in the Gospel according to Romans chapter
1 from faith to faith. And that righteousness is the
Lord Himself. It's a strange and wondrous thing,
but when we talk about the righteousness of Christ, we're talking about
Christ. When we're talking about following the righteousness of
Christ, we're talking about following the Lord Jesus Christ, because
He has made to the believer, according to 1 Corinthians 1
and verse 30, He's made to be unto the believer wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. He's all those things. He is
the Lord according to Jeremiah 23 in verse 5. He is the Lord
our righteousness. He is the Lord our righteousness. And if you go to chapter 33 in
verse 16 of Jeremiah, you'll find it It says this this is
the name by which she shall be called the Lord our righteousness
That's our name and the reason is because we are his bride We
are his wife and we have taken his name and his name is the
Lord our righteousness. That's our name also the Lord
our Righteousness to follow after that righteousness is simple.
It's to realize your need of it To rest only in it to vehemently
and intractably and boldly declare that Christ alone is your righteousness. It is the true exercise of what
the scriptures call denying one's self. Most people, when they
think of self-denial, they think of keeping themselves from having
something they want, like the Catholic Church has practiced
Lent after Ash Wednesday. I think they have 40 days of
Lent, and they supposedly keep themselves from something they
like to do in order to satisfy God. in order to appease God. They call that self-denying self,
but that's not. That's self-denial. So two different
things all together. To follow after the righteousness
of Christ is to deny yourself, you. Not deny you something,
it's to deny you as having any part to do with anything in the
salvation of your soul. It is to follow after righteousness
that is not in you but outside you. That righteousness that
is our righteousness sits at the right hand of the Father
on high as the throne of grace. That is our righteousness. He
alone is our righteousness. And here the believer is immovable. He's immovable. He won't countenance
anybody who talks about or preaches or requires of him to have some
sort of evidence for his salvation. He said, no sir, this is my salvation. Jesus Christ is my righteousness. And that righteousness stands
me in good stead before Almighty God. I have no other righteousness
but that. If I think I have righteousness,
I must take the banner of Isaiah in Isaiah chapter 54 when he
says, all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. We do fade
as a leaf. There's nothing to us. We're
vapor. There's nothing to us and there's nothing to what we
call righteousness. Now, when people talk about righteousness,
sometimes they mean doing good and doing right. And every one
of the children of God seek to do that in their lives. And if
you want to call that righteousness, it's okay, but call it what it
is. It is a product of being righteous rather than something
to attain to a place of righteousness. Our righteousness is the Lord
Jesus Christ. The believer here is unmovable.
We sing the old hymn, my hope is built on nothing, nothing
less than Jesus blood. and righteousness. So first they're
said to those who follow after righteousness. Then our Lord
speaks secondly to those who seek the Lord. Seek the Lord. Now this designation automatically
discounts any and all who are born naturally into this world
because no man by nature seeks the Lord. No man in nature will
ever seek the Lord. I remember a dear friend of mine
who I've never met I preached a message on a letter from a
friend. He called a letter from a friend
many years ago. His name is Uche Ukara. He's a Nigerian who lives
in England. And we corresponded through email
because I couldn't understand his dialect and because I'm hard
of hearing, we corresponded. And he had been in religion most
of his life and been in religion in England and he had seen it,
didn't do anything for it. And so he called me one night
and Tried to talk to him, and I told him to email me. He said,
I want to be saved. I want to be saved by sovereign
grace. I want to be saved by God's grace, because I can't
do anything. I know that. He says, how can I be saved?
How do I do that? I wrote him back, and I said,
first of all, you don't do it. You don't do it. I said, but secondly,
if you truly, in your heart, have an interest in these things,
where did that interest come from? It did not come from your
Adamic nature. It had to come from God. Several
weeks later, after we corresponded, he wrote me and told me the Lord
had gloriously saved him and we're still on Facebook together
and talk back and forth on Facebook. If you have an interest, you
didn't have it from nature. No child of Adam has an interest
or a capability of even discerning spiritual things. The natural
man, scripture says, the carnal man, the man as he's born in
this world, the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit. Neither can he know them, nor
discern them, understand them, because they're spiritually discerned.
They're spiritually discerned. Our Lord, over in the Psalms,
this one book back here in Psalm 14, says the Lord looked down upon
the sons of men, upon the world, Starts out in verse 1, the fool
has said in his heart there is no God. Now the actual interpretation
of that is no God for me. I don't want a God. That's what
the fool says. And they are corrupt. They are
corrupt. They have done abominable works.
They are there is nothing there is none that doeth good and this
is all of humanity as they are in nature The lord looketh down
from heaven upon the children of men to see If there was any
that did understand and seek god They are all gone aside. They are all together become
filthy and that word is stinking There is nothing that there is
none that doeth good. No, not one paul taking up The
fact that all, both Jew and Gentile alike, are concluded under sin
in Romans chapter 3, takes these words of Isaiah and expands upon
them by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Romans chapter 3
and verse 10, it says, as it is written, there is none good
righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth.
There is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of
their way, they've all together become unprofitable. There is
none that doeth good, no not one. Their throat is an open
sepulchre, and with tongues they have used to seep, and the poison
of asps is under their tongue. Whose mouth is full of cursing
and bitterness, their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction
and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace have they
not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. That's
how humanity is described, and that's how it is. So our Lord
is speaking not to those folks. He's speaking to those who seek
the Lord. That's what He says. Harken unto
Me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord. Ye that seek the Lord. Who are
those that seek the Lord? According to Isaiah chapter 62
and verse 12, they are those who are sought out by the Lord. Isaiah chapter 62 verse 12 says,
and they shall call them the holy people, that's God's people,
the redeemed of the Lord, that's whom he's redeemed, and thou
shalt be called sought out. a city not forsaken. Now do men
seek the Lord? Yes they do. They seek the Lord
after they've been sought by the Lord. They seek the Lord
after they've been awakened to their condition. They seek the
Lord after they've been regenerated to life but not before. So when
you see the word seek the Lord in scripture that is not a generic
phrase nor is it an invitation. It is made to those who can seek
and do seek because they are born of God. When I say seek
the Lord I don't know who will. As far as the ones I can see,
I can't say you will and you will, I don't know whether you
will or not, but God does. And if you're his, you will,
you will, you will. The way who preach the gospel
have no idea who the elect are, as we bid all who hear us to
seek the Lord. We know that those who have been
awakened to the truth and given life through the gospel will
indeed seek the Lord. You see, when we give out a general
call for all men to close with the Lord Jesus Christ, that general
call is still a targeted message. It's a targeted message. We just
don't know what the target is. We are like that bowman of old
who drew an arrow at a butcher and shot it in the air, and it
went right into the breastplate, right between the breastplate
joints of the king and killed him. We shoot an arrow out there. And we preach the gospel, we
shoot the arrow, and everybody we see, we say, seek the Lord,
close with Christ, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, repent
of your sin. We say that to everybody. We
don't know who's gonna do it. And it's good we know. Because
that's the only ones we preach to. We preach the gospel to every
creature. Preach the gospel to every creature.
But we know this, that that is a targeted message. It is indeed
a guided missile. It's a guided missile. Those
who are awakened to the truth, those who have been given life
through the gospel, will indeed seek the Lord. The call is to
the sheep, really. We just don't know who they are.
But it's to the sheep. You've heard preachers say this,
many of them, I'm looking all over for a sinner. Because there
ain't many around, I'll tell you that. Nowadays, if you believe
on God, you're pretty much the sinner, and everybody else is
okay, pretty much, that's the way it is today. If you believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, you're the sinner. You're the one that's
wrong, you're the one that's evil, because you're such a bigot,
everybody said. But we know that that gospel
is going out there, and it's gonna hit its mark. It's going
to hit its mark. This is why the preacher of gospel
refuses the inventions of men, to give carnal men hope outside
of Christ. We know that there might be some
ghosts in the pasture when we preach, but they won't hear and
they won't seek. The Lord speaks to those who
seek Him, those who seek Him. We don't want men to respond
to an altar call so we don't give them one. We don't tell
them to walk an aisle or pray the sinner's prayer or pray through
or any such religious nonsense because it is nonsense. We tell
them what the Bible says. Seek the Lord. And if they're
His, if they are among those whom the Lord says follow after
righteousness and seek Him, they will seek the Lord. Now I've
seen it many times in my life. And I'll tell you what, if they
seek Him, They'll find him. You count on it. Our Lord said,
seek the Lord with all your heart, and you'll find him. You'll find
him. That's a guarantee of scripture.
Why? Because God has already sewed
this thing up. And the call is to those to whom something amazing
has happened. It's not a general call. It's
a call that says, he said this, look to the rock whence you are
shewn, and the whole of the pit whence ye are digged." Something
has happened to these folks who are followers of Christ and who
seek the Lord. They've been hewn and they've
been digged is what it says. They've been hewn and they've
been digged. Now this is metaphorical language. Metaphorical language
describing the matter of the new birth or a birth from above. Though ultimately these words
apply to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord inspires the prophet
to speak this metaphor in reference to Abraham and his wife, Sarah,
as the whole. as the hole in the pit, and as
the rock. Abraham is the rock, and Sarah
is the hole of the pit. That's what it says. Look unto
Abraham, your father, and to Sarah that bear you. For I called
him alone, and blessed him, and increased him. I did that. I called him. I alone called
him. Men didn't call him. The church
didn't call him. And the invitation system didn't
call him. He was in the Ur-Caldee, he was probably making idols
in an idol factory because that was, there was one of the largest
places that manufactured idols in the area. And God spoke to
him one day, said, come out of her, come out. Come on, get your
family and let's go. Get your family and let's go.
And Abraham got up and left because he believed God when God told
him to leave. But Abraham is said to be that
rock And Sarah is the hole of the pit from which we are digged.
And now we know that Abraham is the father of the faithful,
that's what he's called in scripture, the father of those who believe.
And why is he called that? He's called that because he was
one of the first in scripture, actually the first in scriptures
to say that he believed God concerning the seed, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Genesis chapter 15. You know the story. Sarah and
Abraham are old. Sarah couldn't bear children.
God had made her barren. He had closed up her womb. But
God had promised that Abraham and Sarah would have a child.
He promised that Abraham and Sarah would make a child. Well,
Sarah got a little impatient about the situation. He says,
why don't you take Hagar? my maidservant, and you take
her and you lie with her and bring forth a son, and that'll
be the son God promised. No, not the son God promised,
the son you made. But he did. Brought forth a son
named Ishmael. God hears, that's what Ishmael
means, God hears. And so Ishmael grew up, and Abraham
loved that boy. He taught him how to hunt, taught
him how to fish. He was about 14, 15 years old
when God said, come up on the mountain, I've got something
to talk to you about. So Abraham went up on the mountain, and
God said, look at the stars. Can you name them? He said, no, I can't name them.
He said, so shall your seed be. Your seed. Your seed. Yours and Sarah's. And later
on in that chapter, he said, Lord, let it be Ishmael. Let
it be Ishmael. Let him be the son. He's not
the son. He's not the son. And it says in chapter 15, verse
one, that the Lord believed God, or Abraham believed God, and
it was accounted to him for righteousness. When was it accounted to him
for righteousness? When he left the Ur-Chaldees,
that was surely an act of faith, there's no doubt about that.
When he offered up Isaac later on the Mount, surely there was
faith in that. When he gave up all his land,
said, Lot, take what you want, I'll take the rest. That was
surely an act of faith, no doubt about that. But it was accounted
to him for righteousness when he believed God concerning his
seed. Now Paul takes us over to Galatians. In Galatians chapter 3 and verse
19. And he says, he said unto Abraham,
your seed, not seeds, but your seed, that seed is Jesus Christ. So he believed God concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ and God said, you're a righteous man.
He had counted it to him for righteousness. So he's called
the father of those who believe, or the father of the faithful,
because he's the first one recorded to have said, I believe God,
concerning the sea, concerning the sea. And we know Sarah is
a type of, Sarah and Hagar are types of the old and the new
covenant. Paul said that in Galatians chapter four. Turn over there
if you will. In Galatians chapter four. In Galatians chapter four we
read these words. We know the story of Isaac and
Ishmael. After Isaac was born, the boys
were raised up and then there became trouble in the household.
Hagar was a little upset with Sarah. Sarah hated Hagar. And
Abraham was just all verklempt about it. He didn't know what
to do. So he called on the Lord. And the Lord said, you put a
bottle of water on Hagar's back, and you take her and that 15-year-old
boy of yours, and you send them out in the desert. Why? A son born of your power is not
going to live with a son born of my power. Those two are never
going to mix. And they were. That's a true
story. But Paul says, not only was it a true story, it meant
more than what actually happened. In verse 22 of chapter 4, it
says, For it is written that Abraham had two sons, the one
of a bondwoman, that's Hagar, the other a free woman, that's
Sarah. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the
flesh, but he who was of the free woman was born after the
promise of God, God's promise. Look at that next phrase, which
things are an allegory? All that was to tell us something
else, a story. It's a true story, but it had
other meaning than what it says about that. These two represent
the two covenants, the covenant of Sinai and the eternal covenant
of grace, which things are an allegory for these are the two
covenants, the one from Mount Sinai, which gendereth bondage,
that's the law, that's Hagar. That's what you do in the flesh. That's how Ishmael was produced. For this Hagar is Mount Sinai
in Arabia, an answer to Jerusalem, which now is and is in bondage
with her children. But Jerusalem, which is above,
is free. That's Sarah. And she's the mother
of us all. And our Lord said, Look to Abraham
and Sarah who bare thee. Sarah who bare thee. For it is
written, Rejoice thou barren that bearest not, break forth
and cry thou that surveillest not, for the desolate hath many
more children than she which hath a husband." She has a husband. So that's speaking of Sarah.
So Sarah's a type. We know that Abraham's a type
of the father of the faithful. Sarah, part of the two columns. Now this is not what's being
addressed here in our text, however. The use of the terms of rock
and hole of the pit. refers to the condition of Abraham
and Sarah at the time of Isaac's birth. They were both impotent. They were both impotent. They
were both unable to reproduce. They were both unable to bear
children. Now it wasn't that they were
almost unable. One was able and one was not. According to Romans
chapter 4, their bodies being now dead. They could not do it. So if Isaac is born of this power,
it's got to be a miracle. It's got to be a miracle. They
were both impotent and unable. Abraham was like a rock. What's
that? Well, in this sense, it means he's inanimate. He's dead
and cold in the matter of reproduction. Sarah was a hole of a pit. What
does that mean? She was empty and barren. That's
what a hole of a pit is. It's empty and barren. Yet, miraculously,
Isaac was born of them. And he was born how? By the promise
of God. Because God said, y'all are going
to have a child. Now, they're both over 100 years
old at this time. And Sarah got pregnant
and birthed Isaac into this world. And he's called the Son of the
Spirit. or the Son of God. It is in that
seed that all of God's children are called. That's what it says
in Romans chapter 9. In Isaac shall thy seed be called. What does that mean? That if
you're called of God, you're born in the same way Isaac was.
By the power of God. Not by the power of the flesh.
That's how you're born. So that's what that means. So
what are those who follow after righteousness and seek the Lord
to see in this metaphor? What are they to hearken to?
What are they to behold? What are they to look for? They
are to see that they are followers and seekers of Christ by a miracle
of grace. No human being had the power
or the wherewithal to produce them. They are, as it were, hewn
from a rock and digged from nothing. Digged from nothing. That involved
natural ability. You can't make a baby out of
a rock. Now God can turn these stone into sons of Abraham, but
you can't. You can't. They were born by
the power of God alone. And that's what God says in the
latter part of verse 2. He says, for I called him alone. I alone called him. I, even I,
the Lord called him. And I, the Lord, blessed him. And I, the Lord, alone increased
him and made him into that great nation, that great nation. You
see, Abraham couldn't do anything. He couldn't do anything. Look
over at Romans chapter 4. Now Romans chapter 4, if you
want to understand about this matter of imputed righteousness
and so forth you read Romans chapter 4 over and over again but here in Romans chapter 4
in verse 17 it says as it is written I have made thee a father
of many nations he is speaking to Abraham before him whom he
believed even God who quickeneth the dead and call those things
which are not as though they were who against hope Abraham
against hope believed in hope that he might become the father
of many nations. According to that which was spoken,
so shall thy seed be. And being not weak in faith,
he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about a
hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb.
He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but
was strong in faith, giving God the glory and being fully persuaded
that what he had promised he was able to perform therefore
it was imputed to him for righteousness now it is not written it was
not written for his sake alone it was also that it was imputed
to him but for us also to whom it shall be imputed if we believe
on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead who was delivered
for our offenses and raised again for our justification Abraham
was a rock. Couldn't do nothing. Sarah was
a poor old empty pit. She couldn't do anything either.
God gave them a son. You know what they became? Followers
after righteousness and seekers of the Lord. This, as we know,
speaks of Christ on Calvary. And the metaphor spiritually
and truly applies to him. Throughout Scripture, He is known
as the Rock. He's the Rock of our salvation,
but not an inanimate rock. He is the Rock as a solid foundation
upon which our Lord makes us to stand. He's the singular and
only foundation of every believer. He's the only foundation that
can be laid, is that which was laid by God Himself. Paul said
that in 1 Corinthians chapter 3. And He is one with His people,
these chunks that are hewn from Him. He's one of them. They are bone of His bone and
flesh of His flesh, and redeemed by His blood. The believer is
called part of His body, hewn, as it were, from this rock. And
on the cross He was pierced, and from that riven side flowed
forth blood and water. Metaphorically, this is the hole
of the pit from which we are digging. The message, the fact
is the same. We are nothing, we have nothing
to do with our existence as spiritual beings, as followers and seekers.
The believer is born of God, not of himself. It says of Christ
back in Isaiah, that by that work he did on Calvary Street,
a nation, a nation was born in a day. Born in a day. When were they born? They were
born out of that rock Christ Jesus, hewn from him, and they
were born out of that pit in his side that was riven and flowed
forth with water and blood. The believer is born of God.
That's the new birth. And it's an act of God and nobody
else. In John chapter 1, speaking of Jesus Christ and His people,
it says that He came to The world, as the world knew him not, he
came to his own, that is the Jewish people, they received
him not. Verse 12 says, but as many as received him gave him
power or authority to become the sons of God, even to them
that believe on his name. And the reason those two are
put together, because that's how it happens. You say, well, how does
it happen, life and faith? Life precedes all things. You
can't do nothing if you ain't alive. So spiritual life comes
through the hearing of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. We
don't know how that works specifically, but God uses the language of
physical reproduction to talk about it. We are born not of
corruptible seed, but incorruptible seed, sema. That's what that
word is. Incorruptible seed. We're born of incorruptible seed
even by the word of God. The Word of God, which liveth
and abideth forever. And this is the Word which by
the Gospel is preached unto you. That's what the Word of God is.
The Word of God is separate from the Gospel. The Word of God doesn't
contain the Gospel. The Gospel contains the Word
of God. The gospel is the word of God. And he uses that language.
Over in chapter, over in this chapter, he says, even to them
that believe on him. Now how does that happen? Life
comes first. But I believe it's like turning on a light switch.
We come into a dark room, we hit a light switch. Immediately
we see light. But we know that in order for that light to be
fired, electricity had to flow from that switch to that light
first. That's the life. Immediately
there's light and I believe that's the way it happens when a person
truly hears the gospel of Christ immediately He's awakened to
life given life and immediately he believes on the Lord Jesus
Christ immediately And he says in verse 13 which were born 1st
John 1 verse 13 which were born here again. He uses a natural
thing to teach us a principle We were born We know what birth
is We, a lot of us here have had children and our children
have even had children. We know how that happens. A man
and a woman get together sexually, they produce, he produces spermatozoa,
she produces an ovum, he produces about a billion of the sperm,
and she produces one egg, and one of those little jewels of
sperm, only one, makes it into the egg. The rest of them die,
or one die. I saw an interesting tape the
other day that doctors were taking. I don't know how they get these
pictures. I guess they go inside a woman's womb with a camera
and you know the thing. But an interesting thing takes place.
I've never even heard of this before, but I watched it on film
or on digitized, whatever it was. But the moment that sperm
breaks the surface of that egg, there's a little flash of light.
A little like an electrical arc. And I thought, man, is that a
picture? Is that a picture? So he talks about birth. First,
there's conception. And that's life. I don't care
politically where you stand. Scientifically, that is life.
The moment there's motility, there's life. Period. There's
life. You can call it what you want
to, but that's what it is. And it grows and matures in a mother's
womb, and then it's brought forth into the world by the mother
expelling the body of the child and getting rid of her placenta,
that nine-month, that weight she's carried for nine months,
and they come out into the world. That's the birth. The child has
nothing to do with it. First, it's created by two different
elements, a female element and a male element gathering together,
and they didn't know anything about that. It's just a little cell. and then as it begins to reproduce
it becomes a zygote and so forth and then it starts to form a
heart and a heart starts to beat and a brain is being formed and
a spinal cord and arms and legs and by all the time that's formed
it's still only about that big. When it has all that equipment
it's only still about that big. All that stunt the baby has nothing
to do. What's he doing? He's floating around in amniotic
fluid enjoying the warm sound of his mother's heartbeat and
his mother's voice. That's all he's thinking. That's
all he's got. Oh, he'll kick and he'll play. Sometimes they
clap their hands. Sometimes they suck their thumb. They do all
sorts of things in the morning. And then the mother bursts them
into the world. And again, the child has nothing
to do with it. The mother expels the child.
She secretes a chemical, an enzyme in her system
that causes her womb to contract and start to push that baby in.
That same enzyme is created when a man and a woman have sex. But
it's only created in the woman. And the enzyme has to do with
connection, physically connecting with someone and emotionally
connecting with someone. Same enzyme. The baby is put
forth in the womb, and the baby is born. What does the baby have
to do with it? Nothing. In fact, for the next five or six months,
it can't do nothing anyway. Judah is sleeping all night long.
It's because Judah don't care. Judah is laid back. Not Nathan. Nathan still wants
to sleep with his parents. He don't want to be left alone.
But Nathan's the first one to stand up and get inquisitive.
And Judah's sitting there watching Nathan stand up. Judah's just
a happy little rascal. They were born, pushed out into
this world. They had nothing to do with it. That's the birth. What happens
when you're born of God? Well, which we're born. Not of
bloods. You're not born because of some
ancestry. You're not born of the will of
the flesh. You didn't will to be born. You didn't say, mama,
I'm leaving. I'm packing my bags and I'm getting
out of town. You didn't say that. Your mom pushed you out into
the world. When you were born, not of the will of the flesh,
nor the will of man. You weren't born because some
man willed you to be born. Your mother birthed you into
this kingdom. Sarah. the mother of us all,
Sarah, who bear us. You're born of God. If you're
born spiritually, that's how you're born. Totally passive
in the operation. I know Billy Graham wrote a book
on how to be born again. God doesn't tell you how to be
born again. Show me any word in scripture. God says you gotta
be. You must be. But He don't tell you how, because
there is no how. It's an act of God. Through the
Word of God. That's how you're born. The believer
is born of God. Born of God. Not of himself. And when he's born of God, you
know what he does? He looks to the Lord. He seeks the Lord. And he follows
after the righteousness. And the result of that great
work of grace is that God will comfort the seekers and the followers
Those who make up the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
what it says in our text. For the Lord shall comfort Zion. Zion is the church of the living
God. How will He comfort them? He's
already told us how He's going to comfort them. Back in Isaiah
chapter 40 it says, Comfort ye. Comfort ye, my people, saith
the Lord. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem
and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished. that her iniquity
is pardoned for she has received of the Lord's hand double for
all her sins. Her sins were paid for and her
sins were put away. Her sins were paid for to the
point that God was propitiated. That's comforting. The gospel
doesn't say if you'll do this, God will do this. The gospel
doesn't say you take the first step and God will finish it up.
The gospel says this is what God has done and for a sinner
who knows there's no help for him, if he's awakened to that
fact, that's absolutely the best news he could ever get, that
God did it all. Because he knows, in himself,
he can't do a thing. Comfort him. He said, I'm gonna
comfort Zion. How's the people of God comforting
today? They're comforting exactly the same way. They're comforting
through the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, through the knowledge
and the repetition, the fact that your sins are forgiven,
your warfare is over, you ain't got no fight. The fight's won.
And your sins have been taken care of. This is the good news.
This is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Lord said,
oh, in Isaiah 62, verse 1, he said, for Zion's sake, for the
church's sake, I will not hold my peace. And for Jerusalem's
sake, I will not rest. until the righteousness thereof
go forth as brightness and the salvation thereof as a lamp that
burneth." God said, I'm not going to rest until that's done. What's
God doing? He's resting. What does that
mean? It must be done. Righteousness must have gone
forth in brightness and salvation as a lamp in this world. He says this, He will comfort
her in her worst places. He will make her wilderness like
Eden. and her desert like a garden of the Lord. What does that mean?
He'll make all things new. Solomon, as he looked at his
bride, said, My daughter, my sister, is a garden enclosed. What does that mean? Your God's
garden has a fence around you. The devil can't get to you unless
God opens some gate and lets him in. He can't do it. He can't
do it. 1 Corinthians 5, it says, what
suffices is not anything less than a new creature, a new creature,
a new creation, and that's you. And behold, all old things are
passed away, and behold, all things are become new. And the
church will not be a place of hard tasks, of stiff rules and
regulations, designed to control people by duress. It's a place
of joy. gladness. Nehemiah says it's
a place to laugh and have mirth, have mirth. Zion is a place of
thanksgiving and a voice of melody. David says you put in my heart
a new song, a new song. What is that new song? In a new
song they shall sing, saying worthy is the lamb that was slain,
that has redeemed us by his blood out of every kindred, nation,
tongue, and people, and made us kings and priests unto our
God. It would be a place of thanksgiving. This is such a powerful word. Most people just let it slip
past their mind. Thanksgiving is such a powerful
word because it means this. If you thank somebody for something,
it means they gave you something and you didn't have anything
to do with getting it. That's why you thank them. If you had
something to do with getting it, then you wouldn't thank them. I remember many times in the
early days when there was only about eight or ten of us here,
and I'd have to go preach some word, be called to go preach
some word. I'd walk out, get in my car, and there'd be a $100
bill stuck in the, I don't know who gave me that. But I've been
told by some of the old aged ones that that was the way the
Cherokees liked to give gifts back in the old days. They'd
hide them in corn bins. Or stick them somewhere where
nobody would know who gave it. And I asked how come that is?
He said, because, you know, if the person who gave it thought
the person to receive it was worthy of it, the person who
gave it didn't want recognition for it. Didn't want recognition for it.
Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving. What is that? God
says that by Jesus Christ we offer the sacrifice of praise. Praise. What does that mean? Well, you get about 20 girls
in chiffon dresses and they sing a chorus of God is awesome. No,
that's not praise. What's praise? Which is, according
to Hebrews 13, 15, the fruit of our lips, thanksgiving from
our hearts. That's praise. That's praise. It says in Psalm 29 verse 9 that
all the congregation of God's people give Him the glory, give
Him the praise. You who are seekers of the Lord,
you who are followers after righteousness, it's because you've had a miraculous
spiritual birth from God. And that's why you are. Father
bless us to understand and pray in Christ's name. Amen.