When men made chapter and verse divisions, they
did make mistakes.
The Word of God is divinely inspired.
It's inerrant.
But men, for the sake of helping us
to find scriptures and to memorize passages, divided
the Bible into chapter and verses.
And it's a very convenient way to reference.
However, many times they made the divisions in
the wrong place.
And in our reading, we are prone to
read to an end of a chapter and
then quit until the next reading.
And sometimes the thought carries right through.
So that in the dividing of the chapters,
they should have ended chapter 52 with verse
12 and they should have started chapter 53
with verse 13.
Because the last three verses here definitely fit
in with Isaiah 53.
And so that we might see the relationship
with 53, we will begin our study of
chapter 53 with verse 13 of 52.
As God now speaks about His servant, His
only begotten Son, who was in the form
of God and thought it not something to
be grasped, to be equal with God.
And yet He humbled Himself and took on
the likeness of man or the form of
man and came in likeness of man.
And being humbled, He came as a servant.
And so Jesus said, I came not to
do my own will, but the will of
the one who sent me.
And in the garden, He said, not my
will, thy will be done.
As He submitted as a servant unto the
Father.
Now Isaiah begins to prophesy here concerning God's
servant that was to come.
Behold, my servant shall deal prudently.
He shall be exalted and extolled.
The Hebrew word extolled is the word lifted
up.
It is the very same word that Jesus
used in the New Testament when talking to
His disciples said, and I, if I be
lifted up, will draw all men unto me.
Now Jesus, when He was referring to being
lifted up, was referring to the death that
He was to die upon the cross as
He would be lifted up upon a cross.
And I, if I be lifted up, and
the idea is being lifted up on a
cross, I will draw all men unto me.
Now that scripture has been carelessly interpreted by
many people as just lifting up Jesus.
If you'll just lift up Jesus, He'll draw
all men to Him, you see.
So in your ministry, just lift up Jesus.
And they even have choruses, let's lift Him
higher, let's lift Him higher, that all the
world may see.
Well, whoever wrote that chorus doesn't have any
real understanding of scripture because they've taken it
out of its context.
In the context, the gospel writers said, this
said He signifying the manner of death that
He was going to die.
That is signifying the cross, lifted up on
a cross.
And so here the cross is predicted, prophesied
in Isaiah.
He shall be exalted and lifted up and
be very high.
As many were astonished at Thee, His visage,
or face, was so marred, more than any
man, and His form more than the sons
of man.
In the Hebrew, this reads more literally, His
face was so marred that He could not
be recognized as a man or as a
human being.
Now we are told in the gospel that
they covered His face and they began to
buffet Him.
That is, with His face covered, they began
to hit Him.
Now as a general rule, our bodies have
an automatic reflex kind of a action.
When we see a blow coming, we give
with the blow, so it cushions the blow.
You don't get the full brunt of it.
If you don't cushion the blow, it is
a surprise blow that you don't see coming.
That's where you get hurt.
You guys that watch the Monday Night Football,
you know that.
When a quarterback gets blindsided, he's in trouble.
If he can see the guy coming, you
know, you just sort of, you reflex action
to it and you sort of go with
it.
And you may get bounced all over, but
you're reacting and coordinating with it.
And thus, it's a lot easier to take.
But if you don't see that big tackle
barreling in on you, and he hits you
without your having any ability to defend yourself
by the feigning that a person does, that's
when you get the broken bones and that's
when you get laid out of the game.
Those blindsides are the really things that will
put you out.
Now with Jesus, as they covered his face
and began to buffet him, no way to
feign or to give with the blow.
And thus, his face must have been horribly
disfigured.
Here Isaiah declares that it was so shocking.
As many as looked upon you were shocked
when they saw how marred your face was.
So marred that you could not be recognized
as a man, as a human being.
But so shall he sprinkle many nations.
The kings shall shut their mouths at him,
for that which had not been told them,
they shall see.
And that which they had not heard, shall
they consider.
But who hath believed our report?
And to whom is the arm of the
Lord revealed?
For he shall grow up before him as
a tender plant, and as a root out
of a dry ground.
Now he has no form nor comeliness.
And when we shall see him, there is
no beauty that we should desire him.
Interesting prophecies concerning Jesus Christ.
He has no beautiful form or comeliness.
There is no beauty there that we should
desire.
In other words, we will not be attracted
to him by the physical beauty.
Now, so often we have in our minds
sort of a mental picture of what a
person may look like.
And we sort of automatically do this.
Even though we haven't seen a person.
I get this all the time where I
go into areas where people have been listening
on the radio.
And I'll go into an area to speak
and all they've heard is my voice.
And it's interesting to watch their shocked expressions
when they see me.
Because they have envisioned usually something far different
than what I look like.
But somehow we always create sort of a
mental image.
It's an ambiguous kind of an image, but
yet there is sort of a mental image
of what the person must look like who
has a voice like that.
And it so often is very shocking when
you see the person that you've been listening
to.
I was shocked when I first met Dr.
McGee.
And I didn't think he looked like that
at all.
You know, with that southern voice I expect
to see some tall Texan type of a
guy, you know.
And it was just a surprise to me.
And I suppose he was just as surprised
to see me and to see what I
look like.
So, we have in our minds sort of
a mental image of what Jesus is going
to look like.
And we sort of imagine just being enthralled
with the physical beauty of Christ.
But as many as looked upon him were
astonished because really there is no form or
comeliness that is really attractive.
When we shall see him there is no
beauty that we should desire.
And it isn't for the beautiful form that
we will be attracted.
And I think that this is...
I think that this is rather great that
it will not be the beautiful form that
we're attracted to.
Because, face it, the majority of the people
are ugly.
Very few beautiful people, really beautiful people.
Most of us are in the category of
we can get by.
But it isn't our looks that really attract
people.
Now, if he were one of those beautiful
persons then it would be more difficult for
us to identify with him.
But the fact that it isn't the beauty
of his form that is attractive or draws
us to him means that each of us
can identify with him because it is that
spiritual beauty and the love that just draws
us so much that we care not what
the form may look like.
Now, when John was in heaven and he
saw the scroll in the right hand of
him who sits upon the throne and he
heard the angel proclaim with a loud voice
Who is worthy to take the scroll and
loose the seals?
And as he observed that no one was
found worthy in heaven or earth to take
the scroll or to loose the seals he
began to weep.
And one of the elders said unto John,
Don't weep, John.
Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah
hath prevailed to take the seal and to
loose to take the scroll and to loose
the seals.
And John said, And I turned and I
saw him as a lamb that had been
slaughtered.
No beauty that we should desire him.
John's first glimpse of Christ in heaven he
saw him as a lamb that had been
slaughtered.
Not as some tremendously physical, robust, handsome creature
that we all sort of envision Jesus to
be.
But perhaps the Lord still bears the marks
of his suffering for you.
He did bear those marks after the resurrection.
For you remember Thomas said, Except I can
put my fingers into his hand and thrust
my hand into his side, I won't believe.
And so the next time Jesus showed himself
to the disciples, Thomas being present, he said,
Okay, Thomas, go ahead.
Put your finger in my hand.
Put your hand in my side.
The marks were still there.
It said, And they shall look on him
whom they have pierced.
And they shall say unto him, What are
the meaning of these wounds in your hands?
Yet future still bearing them, the marks of
his love for you.
So as many as saw him were astonished.
He has no form nor comeliness that is
really an attractive, desirable or attracting feature.
When we shall see him, there is no
beauty that we should desire him.
For he is despised and rejected of men.
A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
Now you probably have in your mind mental
pictures of what Paul must have looked like.
I read the epistles of Paul and I
think of him as a giant.
Surely he is a spiritual giant.
I read in one of the Apogrypha books
or one of the early writings a description
of Paul the Apostle.
And it describes him as a skinny little
runt about five feet tall with a horribly
large hooked nose and eyes that were red,
swollen and constantly running.
And I was upset because that's not how
I picture Paul at all.
I'm in love with Paul.
My, what this man has given to us
of his great depth of understanding and background.
And I so love the writings of Paul
that I've been drawn to him.
He is one of those that I'm looking
forward to just really spending some time with
in the future.
And yet without seeing the physical
person it is possible to be in love
with an individual and yet not be physically
attracted.
And yet it is interesting that so often
today we only associate love with physical attraction
and not with the person themselves.
And that's rather tragic.
And that's why so many marriages are miserable.
Because the person's married a face.
But there's nothing behind the face.
There's no depth of character.
There's just, you know, there's just a face
and that's it.
One of the most miserable dates I ever
had in my life was with a girl
with a pretty face.
Oh, I was excited.
Man, I lied, this is going to be
great.
My sister worked with her sister and, you
know, as they talked, well, my brother goes,
oh, well, my sister goes, oh, well, my
sister thinks your brother's cute or something, you
know, and so.
Man, that's all I needed, you know.
So you call up and you make a
date.
Most miserable night.
She had a beautiful face, but man, she
was a dud.
I mean, just a dull evening.
No conversation, nothing, just.
And people make mistakes many times in relationships
because we relate on the physical rather than
upon the true nature of a person.
Now, he is despised and rejected of men.
He is a man of sorrows.
He's acquainted with grief.
And we hid, as it were, our faces
from him, perhaps in shock and in horror.
Have you ever looked at something that was
so shocking you couldn't look?
You turned your face.
You couldn't stand to look at it.
It was so horrible.
It may be that that will be your
first response when you see the marks of
the suffering that he bore for you.
You look and you can't even...
He doesn't even look like a human being.
Ooh, you know, you just sort of cringe
at it.
He is despised.
He is rejected.
And we didn't esteem him.
But surely, in that suffering, in that death,
he bore our griefs and he carried our
sorrows.
Yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of
God and afflicted.
But he was wounded for our transgressions.
Now, this is why it is so ridiculous
to try to hold the Jews responsible for
the death of Jesus Christ and to blame
them and to persecute them, as has been
the history of the church, persecute them for
the death of Jesus Christ.
That's sheer unscriptural idiocy.
They are no more responsible for the death
of Jesus Christ than you or I.
We are all equally responsible for his death,
for he was wounded for our transgressions.
It was my sin that put him on
the cross.
It was my sin that brought him that
suffering and that beating and that shame and
that reproach.
I'm guilty.
And we shouldn't seek to blame someone else
for our own guilt and to persecute someone
else for that for which we are ourselves
responsible.
Surely, he hath borne our griefs, carried our
sorrows.
He was wounded for our transgressions.
He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon him,
and with his stripes we are healed.
So, we are the ones responsible for the
suffering and the death of Jesus Christ because
he suffered and died for me, that he
might bring me the forgiveness of my sins,
that he might bring me into fellowship with
God.
You see, God created man in the beginning
for fellowship.
That was the purpose of God when he
created man, that God might be able to
fellowship with man.
But when man turned his back upon God
and sinned, fellowship with God was broken.
And fellowship with God who is holy and
righteous cannot be restored until something is done
about my sin.
And that is why Jesus came, that he
might take the guilt of my sin, that
he might bear my iniquities, my transgressions, my
guilt, die in my place in order that
through his death I can now come to
God and have fellowship with God.
All we like sheep have gone astray.
We have turned everyone to his own way.
But the Lord hath laid on Jesus Christ
the iniquities of us all.
You remember Jesus cried on the cross, My
God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
Crying out the 22nd Psalm and in the
verse 4, the answer is given, For thou
art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises
of thy people.
God forsook his Son when your sin was
placed upon him.
For that's the effect of sin, it's being
forsaken of God, being separated from God.
And when your sin was placed upon Jesus
Christ, he was separated from the Father and
thus the cry, My God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me?
But he was forsaken of God in order
that you won't have to be forsaken by
God.
For God laid on him the iniquities of
us all.
He was oppressed.
He was afflicted.
Yet he opened not his mouth.
You remember before Pilate, Pilate marveled that he
didn't answer.
He said, answers thou not me?
Don't you know that I have power to
free thee or power to put thee to
death?
Jesus said, you don't have any power except
that which my Father gives you.
But don't worry.
Those that turn me over to you have
the greater sin than you do.
That really troubled Pilate.
He didn't know what he had on his
hands.
He did his best to free him.
But he opened not his mouth.
He is brought as a lamb to the
slaughter and as a sheep before her shears
his dung.
So he opened not his mouth.
All of the accusations.
Hear not all these things they accuse thee
of?
What do you say for yourself?
Jesus didn't answer.
He was taken from prison and from judgment.
And who shall declare his generation?
For he was cut off.
You see, without any children, who's going to
declare his generation?
He was cut off out of the land
of the living.
Now that's an interesting phrase, cut off out
of the land of the living.
You remember that Daniel prophesies from the time
the commandment goes forth to restore and rebuild
Jerusalem to the coming of the Messiah.
The prince will be seven sevens and sixty
two sevens, three score and two sevens.
And the wall shall be built again in
troublous times.
And after the three score and two sevens
shall the Messiah be cut off.
But not for himself, but for the people.
Phrase cut off.
He'll be crucified out of the land of
the living.
And God cries out, for the transgression of
my people, he was stricken.
Now he made his grave with the wicked
and with the rich in his death.
You remember Joseph of Arimathea, a very rich
man, came and begged Pilate for the body
of Jesus that he might bury it.
And here it is.
He's with the rich in his death.
Because he had done no violence, neither was
there any deceit in his mouth.
Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him.
He hath put him to grief when he
shall make his soul an offering for sin.
So Christ became the sin offering for us
according to the will of God.
Because God loved us.
He shall see his seed and prolong his
days and the pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper in his hand.
He shall see the travail of his soul
and shall be satisfied.
That is, he travailed in order that you
might be born again.
And in seeing your redemption, in seeing you
in fellowship with God, he's satisfied.
He looks upon it and says, well, it
was worth it all.
Because of the redemption that he is able
to offer to us, that fellowship that he
can bring to us with the Father.
And so he shall see the travail of
his soul and shall be satisfied.
And by his knowledge, that is by the
knowledge of Jesus Christ, my righteous servant shall
justify many.
So how many of us tonight have been
justified before God through the knowledge of Jesus
Christ?
So God declares by his knowledge, so my
righteous servant justify many for he shall bear
their iniquities.
Now, all of this written 700 years before
Christ was born.
That is why when Peter stood up on
the day of Pentecost and talked to the
people who were involved in the crucifixion of
Jesus Christ, he said unto them, Jesus of
Nazareth, a man who was proved to be
of God by the signs and the wonders
which he did while he was still living
with you, whom you, according to the predetermined
counsel and foreknowledge of God, with your wicked
hands have crucified and slain.
But when he talks about the crucifixion, he
speaks about the predetermined counsel and the foreknowledge
of God.
God knew it.
God had planned it in order that he
might demonstrate to you how much he loves
you.
Here in his love, not that we love
God, but that God loved us and sent
his son to be a propitiation for our
sins.
Paul said, for a righteous man, some might
dare to die.
For a good man, for adventure, some would
even give their lives.
But here in his God's love manifested in
that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for the ungodly.
He bore your iniquities.
He bore your sins.
Therefore, the Father says, will I divide him
a portion with the great, and he shall
divide the spoil with the strong.
Beloved, now are we the sons of God,
and his sons and heirs, joint heirs with
Jesus Christ.
He divides the spoil with the strong, because
he has poured out his soul unto death.
He was numbered with the transgressors, two thieves,
one on either side.
He was numbered with the transgressors, and he
bore the sin of many, and he made
intercession for the transgressors.
You remember, even as they were nailing him,
he said, Father, forgive them.
They know not what they do.
Interceding for the transgressors.
All of these things prophesied in advance, all
of them fulfilled through the death of Jesus
Christ.
Surely, it sets him alone in history as
the only man who could ever qualify to
be the Messiah, the suffering servant.
If Jesus is not the Messiah, there is
no Messiah.
No other man can qualify.
But Jesus has qualified in all 300 points
of prophecy that spoke about his life, his
ministry, his death.
And here in Isaiah, outstanding example of clear
-cut prophecy.
And if it doesn't refer to Jesus Christ,
it can't refer to any other person in
history.
He stands alone as the only one who
has fulfilled these things.
And to reject him after the basis of
this kind of evidence is to sin against
your own conscience and to sin against the
truth, which becomes even a greater evil.
Israel is to be restored as Jehovah's wife.
Chapter 54, Sing, O barren, thou that didst
not bear.
Break forth into singing and cry aloud, thou
that didst not travail with child.
For more are the children of the desolate
than the children of the married wife, saith
the Lord.
Enlarge the place of thy tent.
Let them stretch forth the curtains of thy
habitation.
Spare not, lengthen thy cords and strengthen thy
stakes.
As God speaks of how He's just going
to enlarge the nation and the people of
Israel as He receives them again and places
His blessings upon them once more.
For thou shalt break forth on the right
hand and on the left, and thy seed
shall inherit the Gentiles and make the desolate
cities to be inhabited.
Fear not, for thou shalt not be ashamed,
neither be thou confounded, for thou shalt not
be put to shame, for thou shalt forget
the shame of thy youth and shall not
remember the reproach of thy widowhood anymore.
As we go to the prophecy of Hosea,
we will find a very classic picture of
how God took Israel as His own wife.
How that she forsook Him, serving other gods.
And how that God finally will redeem her
back again to Himself and marry her once
more and have that right relationship that He
has always desired with her.
And so here the same idea, you'll not
remember the reproach of your youth or your
widowhood anymore.
For thy Maker, God, is your husband.
The Lord of hosts is His name, and
thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, the
God of the whole earth, shall He be
called.
For the Lord hath called thee as a
woman that is forsaken and grieved in spirit
and a wife of youth, when you were
refused, saith thy God.
For a small moment I have forsaken thee,
but with great mercies will I gather thee.
The glorious grace of God, the glorious mercy
of God, the glorious patience of God as
He deals with His people, the nation Israel.
And as for a moment in a thousand
years as a day with the Lord, for
a moment I have forsaken you, but with
great mercies will I gather thee.
In a little wrath I hid my face
from thee for a moment, but with everlasting
kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith
the Lord thy Redeemer.
For this is as the waters of Noah
unto me.
For as I have sworn that the waters
of Noah should no more go over the
earth, so have I sworn that I would
not be angry with thee nor rebuke thee.
For the mountains shall depart, the hills shall
be removed, but my kindness shall not depart
from thee, neither shall the covenant of my
peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath
mercy on thee.
O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest and not
comforted, behold, I will lay thy stones with
fair colors and lay thy foundations with sapphires,
and I will make your windows of agates
and the gates of carbuncles and all of
the borders of pleasant stones.
And all of your children shall be taught
of the Lord and great shall be the
peace of thy children.
In righteousness shalt thou be established and thou
shalt be far from oppression, for thou shalt
not fear from terror, for it shall not
come near thee.
Behold, they shall surely gather together, but not
by me.
Whosoever shall gather together against thee shall fall
for thy sake.
Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth
the coals in the fire and that bringeth
forth the instrument for his work, and I
have created the waster to destroy.
But no weapon that is formed against thee
shall prosper, and every tongue that shall rise
against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn, for
this is the heritage of the servants of
the Lord, and their righteousness is of me,
saith the Lord.
Their righteousness is of me.
Our righteousness is not of ourselves.
It's not of our works.
It's not by the works of righteousness that
we have done, but by His grace alone.
God declares their righteousness is of me.
Of course, the primary promise here is being
made to the nation of Israel after He
has regathered them and claimed them as His
people.
No weapon that is formed against thee shall
prosper.
Every tongue that shall rise against thee in
judgment thou shalt condemn, this is the heritage
of the servants of the Lord, so that
it goes beyond just Israel.
And it comes to us as servants of
the Lord who find our righteousness in Christ.
Ho, everyone that thirsteth, going into the glorious
kingdom age.
Now, God detests
and hates commercialism.
God hates how people take advantage of one
another, profiteering on someone else.
God is going to bring down the whole
commercial system.
And when God brings it down, there is
going to be great rejoicing in heaven, though
on earth there's going to be tremendous mourning
and lamentation.
But in Revelation 18, God spends a whole
chapter telling of how He's going to bring
down this whole commercial world that have put
people into bondage through credit cards and
have made slaves out of people, put people
under all kinds of financial pressures, taken advantage
of people's misfortunes.
And God hates it with a passion.
And He's going to bring it down.
And in the new age that is going
to be established by Jesus Christ, no commercialism
at all.
Man's greed will not have an opportunity of
exploiting the weaker man or his fellow man
or the poorer man.
Ho, everyone that thirsteth, come to the waters.
He that has no money, come, buy and
eat.
Yea, come and buy the wine and the
milk without money and without price.
God is going to allow the earth to
just bring forth abundantly and every man shall
sit neath his own vine and fig tree.
And they shall live in peace together.
There won't be the greed that has actually
created so many of the horrible wars in
our history.
Those men who profit over wars.
Those men who have the commercial interest and
all, who can make great gain through bringing
a nation against a nation, all be gone.
The basis of greed will be gone.
Everything will be free.
Ho, everyone that thirsteth, just come.
Help yourself.
Take what you want.
No money, no price.
Why do you spend your money for that
which is not bread, the Lord said?
You labor for that which does not satisfy
as he speaks out against, you know, our
whole system today.
How that we labor so hard to get
things that really don't satisfy.
Why is it that you do this?
Hearken diligently to me.
Eat that which is good.
Let your soul delight itself in fatness.
Incline your ear.
Come unto me and hear and your soul
shall live and I will make an everlasting
covenant with you even the sure mercies of
David.
Behold, I have given him for a witness
to the people, a leader and a commander
to the people.
So Christ shall come and sit upon the
throne of David and order it and establish
it in righteousness and in judgment.
And he shall be as a witness to
the people, a leader, a commander.
Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou
knowest not and nations that knew thee not
shall run unto thee because the Lord thy
God and for the Holy One of Israel
for he hath glorified thee.
Seek ye the Lord while he may be
found.
Call upon him while he is near and
let the wicked forsake his way and the
unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return
unto the Lord and he will have mercy
upon him to our God for he will
abundantly pardon.
Oh, what beautiful words of God to us
tonight.
Call upon the Lord while he is near
while he may be found.
Seek him while he may be found.
Call upon him while he is near.
Let the wicked forsake his way.
The unrighteous man his thoughts of evil.
Return to the Lord for God will have
mercy.
He'll abundantly pardon you for God says my
thoughts are not your thoughts.
Neither are your ways my ways saith the
Lord.
I will vouch for that.
I don't understand so many times why God
does the things he does.
His thoughts are not my thoughts nor are
his ways my ways.
I would do many things much differently.
I wouldn't do them more wisely.
I just do them differently.
But you see, the difference between God's thoughts
and my thoughts and God's ways and my
ways is that God knows the end from
the beginning.
Therefore, he doesn't do something and wonder if
it's right.
When he does it, he knows it's right.
Now, the way I do things, I do
them and I hope it's right.
And sometimes it is.
But many times it isn't.
But when I started doing it, I was
sure it was.
So many times I think that this is
the best way and then I find out
it isn't.
There was a much better way.
So God says, Hey, my thoughts are not
your thoughts.
My ways are not your ways.
For as the heavens are higher than the
earth, so are my ways higher than yours
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
I mean, there is such a difference.
And yet, herein is the folly of man
because I get angry with God sometimes because
he doesn't do it my way.
Now, isn't that ridiculous?
For a person to get angry with God
because God has done something a way they
didn't want it done or a way they
wouldn't do it.
Now, if I did it my way, I
would never have any troubles.
I would never have any weakness.
I would never have any problems.
If I did it my way, it would
just be smooth sailing all the way.
No storms.
But that's not God's way.
For you see, if I did it my
way, I would never develop any strength of
character.
I would become a very weak, flabby, spoiled
person, miserable to be around because I would
not understand a person that did have problems,
a person that did experience weaknesses.
I would become intolerable towards them.
And so God doesn't let me do it
my way.
God lets me fall.
God lets me stumble.
God lets me experience weaknesses.
God lets me experience troubles, trials, problems, difficulties
so that when my brother is in need,
I can come to him in meekness and
lift him as I consider myself realizing that
I too am tempted.
So, God's ways are really best.
Now, for me to insist that God do
it my way is sheer folly because now
I am exalting my knowledge above God's.
For me to demand that God do it
my way.
God, I want you to do this now.
I'm speaking this into existence.
I want you to do it.
Oh man, how foolish.
Because you see, that's exalting my knowledge, my
ways, my thoughts.
It's seeking to make them supreme instead of
God's supreme who knows all things and knows
so much better than I know.
Now, the wrath of God is going to
be revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and
unrighteousness of man who hold the truth of
God in unrighteousness.
And, for you to hold the truth of
God and yet exalt yourself and your thoughts
and your ways above Him is holding the
truth of God in unrighteousness.
That's the wrong way to hold the truth
of God because you say, well, God is
supreme, God knows everything and then I say,
now God, I demand that you do this
or I command you, Lord, to do this.
That is not making God supreme.
That's now making me supreme and my ways
supreme.
So, I'm holding the truth of God in
righteousness.
I'm saying, God, I know better than you
know.
My way is better than your way.
How much better it is.
How much more glorifying to God it is.
What a great witness it is when I
can just say, Oh, God, your will be
done.
I just commit myself and my ways to
you, Lord, that your will will be done
in my life.
You do what is best.
You do what you know is best.
And not to question and not to challenge
and not to gripe and not to complain
when things aren't going my way.
Not to give God such a miserable time.
Oh, again.
If I were God, man, would I put
a plug in some people's mouths.
As they come whining and complaining, you know,
and the minute I'd hear that, Oh, God,
I'd just...
Whining to God.
Of course, I'm very intolerable towards whining.
Talk to my kids.
Man, that's one thing I can never stand.
A whining kid.
And they learn that.
And my kids may do a lot of
bad things, but they don't whine.
And I can imagine God's attitude towards the
constant griping and whining and all that he
hears from people.
Because he isn't doing something to suit me.
To suit my way.
To harmonize with my thoughts.
But yet, as high as the heaven is
above the earth.
Now, how high that is, I don't know.
And I don't think anybody knows.
But it's...
It's out there.
It's high.
Just how high, I don't know.
But it's awfully high.
So are God's thoughts higher than mine.
And His ways are higher than mine.
So surely, the wisest thing I could ever
do is just to commit my way unto
the Lord.
And that's what the Scripture tells me to
do.
Commit your way unto the Lord and He
shall bring it to pass.
Whatever He plans.
Whatever He purposes.
He'll bring it to pass if I just
commit my way to Him.
For as the rain cometh down in the
snow from heaven and returns not thither, but
it waters the earth and makes it to
bring forth and bud, that it may give
seed to the sower and bread to the
eater, so shall my word be that goes
forth out of my mouth.
It shall not return unto me void, but
it shall accomplish that which I please and
it shall prosper in the thing whereunto I
have sent it.
Now God here uses a very common figure,
an occurrence of nature, the rain and the
snow, to illustrate His Word.
How that they come down from heaven even
as God's Word has come to us, not
as an invention of man as some would
have you to think.
But all Scripture is given by inspiration of
God.
Holy men of old wrote as they were
inspired by the Holy Spirit.
God's Word has come to us from heaven.
And the purpose of God's Word is to
work here on earth, not to work in
heaven, but it's to work here on earth.
Its effect and its fruit and its result
is here on earth.
Now even as rain comes down to water
the earth in order that it might spark
into life all of the potential that is
there in that dirt.
You look at a dry, parched, dusty field,
barren, but yet in that dirt, in that
dry field, there's all kinds of latent life
forms.
Out in the desert, dry, parched sand, but
just get a few inches of rain and
oh, the beauty, the glory that is there.
As the rain sparks into life all of
the seeds and everything else that are there
and the desert turns purple, it turns yellow,
it turns golden, it turns blue with all
of the beautiful flowers.
As the seeds have been touched by the
rain and brought forth into life, so our
lives, as God's Word comes to us, is
able to transform our lives and bring into
life that Spirit.
Now, the Word of God is that which
comes to our spirit and brings life to
our spirit and thus brings forth all of
the glory and the potential of our being.
Man without the Word of God remains dead,
lifeless, barren, deserty.
But oh, when God's Word like rain begins
to just soak my life, the fruit, the
results, as it waters, in order that it
might bud, blossom forth to give seed to
the sower and bread to the eater.
The first effect of God's work in my
life is towards me, what it has done
for me.
And the second is bread to the eater,
what God can do through me in helping
others.
So is my Word.
It shall not return unto me void.
God's Word will not come back void.
He that goeth forth with weeping, bearing precious
seed, shall doubtless come again, bringing the sheaves
with him.
You go forth with the Word of God,
the seed.
Now the seed is the Word, Jesus said.
You go forth bearing the precious seed, the
Word of God, carrying it to others.
Doubtless you're going to come again with a
harvest.
For God's Word will not return unto him
void.
Now learn to start using the Word and
quit defending it.
It doesn't need your defense.
It needs that you just use the Word
of God.
How many people have started to read the
Bible in order that they might learn it
better so that they can better argue against
it and have ended up believing.
I think of Lou Madison in our congregation
here.
And his wife loved the Lord and was
a Christian and Lou was so angry.
With his engineering mind, he was going to
read the Bible so that he could just
tear to shreds her whole faith, destroy it.
And as he got to reading the Bible
in order that he might destroy his wife's
faith, God's Word didn't return void and faith
was planted in Lou's heart.
They ended up together in the faith instead
of out of the faith.
Because God's Word won't return void if a
person would only read with an open heart.
God's Word will not return void.
It shall accomplish that which God pleases.
It shall prosper in the thing for which
God sent it.
Now God has sent His Word to bring
you hope, to bring you encouragement, to bring
you joy, to bring you life.
And all of these things will come to
you as you read the Word of God.
It's not going to return void.
It's going to accomplish the purposes for which
He has sent it.
And so how important for us is just
let the Word of God soak into our
lives.
Just each day get a new drenching of
God's Word and just let it soak in.
And oh, how it will cause your life
to just bud forth into glory, into beauty.
For ye shall go out with joy and
be led forth with peace.
The mountains and the hills shall break forth
before you into singing and the trees of
the field shall clap their hands.
Oh, that person who is saturated in the
Word of God.
All nature seems to just come into harmony
and into tune.
It's just glorious.
As you come into harmony with God, you
come into harmony with the nature around you.
And oh, you begin to see things you
never saw before.
I've always said, hey, if you're not a
Christian, be sure that you give your life
to the Lord before you take your vacation.
You cannot enjoy your vacation completely unless you
have Christ in your heart.
And I'll tell you, you'll see things through
Christ-filled eyes that you have never seen
before.
Those flowers that used to just trample down
in the meadows, you'll be enthralled with them.
With their design, with their color, with their
beauty.
You'll see new things.
The hills will break forth into singing.
The trees will clap their hands.
And oh, you'll just come in tune and
in harmony with God's creation.
Instead of the thorn, there'll come up a
fir tree.
Instead of a briar, the myrtle tree.
And it shall be to the Lord for
a name, for an everlasting sign that shall
not be cut off.
God's glorious days of restoration.
You know the glorious thing about teaching the
Word of God?
I never need to worry about the results.
Because God's Word won't return void.
He's going to accomplish the purposes for which
He sent it.
And I can always know that you're going
to go away and be blessed because you've
been here.
And that's sort of comforting to know.
If I stood up here and gave you
my Word all evening, then I'd worry all
week about what had happened to it.
But because we give to you God's Word,
we commend you now unto the Word of
God.
That God might work in your life His
glorious work.
As now by the Spirit He makes application
of the truths to your life.
And as He begins His work of enriching
you in His love, through His grace.
May God be with you this week and
keep your life steadfast in Him.
And may you grow up into Christ in
all things as your life comes into that
place of maturity that God wants you to
know and to experience in Jesus Christ.
And thus may your life be rich and
full as God's Word works in you through
the Spirit.