[0:00] A few moments ago we have been reading one of the greatest chapters of the Old Testament and indeed our entire scripture.
[0:13] I wonder when we read these familiar texts and passages how it affects us, whether we find any fresh insights and understanding.
[0:24] Now of course there are many commentaries written on the book of Isaiah that one can read through them and learn something from them, even though it is not commentary.
[0:39] But sometimes God can teach us differently. He can teach us through a sermon or through different events. And if I'm reading for a moment I would like to relate to you an event which struck me with such an amazing night.
[0:57] I remember when I was in London, on a occasion I was able to talk to an Orthodox Jew, and it is good to know the Old Testament when we talk to a Jewish Jew.
[1:10] And we must not forget that when Paul said that our scripture is given unto us to make us wise unto salvation, he was primarily, but not exclusively, referring to the Old Testament.
[1:26] And so when we look at the Old Testament, we are bound to find things which will help a Jew to come to faith in Christ.
[1:38] Now we know that in the Old Testament we do not plan the full revelation, and that there is more light in the Old Testament. But in the Old Testament, it refers to Jesus of Nazareth. But in the Old Testament, I felt it was appropriate to read to him from this section in Isaiah 53.
[1:57] And rather him asking me, I asked him, who does this passage speak of or speak about? And he told me, ah, you are reading from the Old Testament, and it refers to Jesus of Nazareth.
[2:13] You see that the Jew was right, and he was wrong at the same time. He was certainly wrong if he was not understanding from the New Testament, but he was absolutely right when he said that this is the book of Jesus of Nazareth.
[2:31] And he was not found it, yet he was not able to say, do not. I don't know what has happened to him since, but what has struck me afresh is how this great chapter speaks of our Lord Jesus Christ in such a forceful manner that we cannot really miss the point.
[2:52] One could almost see that here we have history written in prophetic form. And this too recognized quite clearly that various things which I pointed out truth and quite clearly referred to the Lord Jesus Christ.
[3:12] Perhaps for your own interest, it would be an interesting exercise to look at the Old Testament and see how it uses this particular chapter.
[3:23] We have already been able to read one other passage, the one in Acts chapter 8, where Philip the evangelist meets with the Ethiopian eunuch. And when the eunuch asked him who this passage was speaking about, Philip told him the gospel about Jesus of Nazareth.
[3:43] And so as you compare this great chapter with various passages in the New Testament, you will find a harmony which is utterly amazing and astonishing.
[3:55] Remembering also that this prophecy was written many hundreds of years before Jesus actually turned up on the scene, so to speak.
[4:07] Notwithstanding this amazing prophecy and this amazing description of the servant, his work, his life, his death, his resurrection and so on.
[4:20] Notwithstanding all the light that is in this particular passage, Isaiah cried out in amazement, but he says, Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
[4:37] And now I am in doubt that Isaiah had a tremendous last of the things pertaining to this prophecy, although he did not have a full insight.
[4:51] But it must have mourned his heart. And if you study this passage in Hebrew, as I have to do some time ago in the past, you will find out that it is beautiful poetry, full of poetry, and there are also difficult sections. But nevertheless, it is a passage of text which is a real life jump-packed with theology.
[5:16] But tonight I want to focus on this particular verse. Who has believed our message and to whom is the arm of the Lord be revealed?
[5:28] I find it quite amazing that one can preach the Gospel week after week, month after month, year after year, year after decade, in Jesus' lifetime.
[5:42] And yet, people who hear this message remain utterly unmoved. There is a danger of familiarity, and it has been said that familiarity breeds contempt.
[5:57] How awful it is when we come to church and believe the Word of God, and we are bored and dull, and we just cannot be bothered to listen.
[6:10] We are tired, and nothing seems to sink in. Not even the most amazing food which will affect our hearts. And so there is a danger that we are insensitive to the Word of God.
[6:25] You remember when Isaiah the prophet was commissioned? God told him beforehand something about the reception he would receive, that he was to preach and proclaim the words that he was to be given.
[6:39] People would not listen, people would not understand, people would not receive, people would be dull, nothing would sink in. What a prospect to end the future, but to be confronted with this awesome reality of unbelief.
[6:56] But it remains true today. Who has believed our message, and to whom was the answer that God has been revealed. Not many are few. A minority, perhaps such tiny minorities. The vast majority will continue to believe the sources in this message.
[7:15] And so the question is quite relevant for us today. Sometimes we find people who sit in a congregation and their English friends, and they know whether they are Orthodox or not, they can spot the heretic, but they remain unmoved, unconvinced, unblessuaded.
[7:36] Sermon truth. Nothing will hit, nothing will thrive in. When the Lord Jesus Christ was crucified, on the Mount Calum, the Evangelist must tell us that the rocks split.
[7:54] But the hearts of men did not split harder than a rock. One saint says this, A heart is called hardened, because it cannot be softened by well-doing, frightened by its head, corrected by punishment, or moved by promises.
[8:19] How then can we convince an unbeliever of the truth of Scripture? Shall we threaten him with the reality of the judgment to come?
[8:31] But what more thing? Shall we convince him of the love of God for sinners? But that won't work either. And so the person remains hardened under the water's furrow.
[8:49] And so Jesus says, You will not come to that generic life. So few believe this glorious water's furrow.
[9:01] They remain repentant. Until the midst of the beauty of it all, there is this frustration of idea, a great creature is confronted with the unbelief.
[9:16] People will not believe this message. What exactly does this unbelief consist of? Now let me mention a few points.
[9:29] First of all, I want to stress the reality of the category of unbelief. I say this because tonight you are either a believer or you are an unbeliever.
[9:45] You are either saved or lost. You cannot be in between. You may be near the kingdom. You may be far away from the kingdom. But you are still outside the kingdom.
[9:58] Unless you are a believer. Who has believed our message? Do you believe the Gospel? Do you believe that this passage talks about Christ and his work on the cross of Calvary?
[10:12] Do you believe that Christ is your Savior? That you need him tonight? The word that is used here is a very interesting word. It is a word from which we get our English word, Amen.
[10:26] And so you could always translate it and say, Who has said Amen to our message? The same word is used in Genesis 15 where they are told that Abraham believed.
[10:40] Abraham voices Amen to the promise that God gave to him. And when a person believes, he says Amen to the message.
[10:51] There is this echoed out of hearts, knowing that this is the word of God. That it speaks the truth. That it speaks to me and my needs. And that I need Christ. Have you ever said Amen to the message of the Gospel?
[11:07] Who has believed our message? Through whom is the arm of the Lord being revealed? There is no one here tonight who can remain or stay morally neutral.
[11:19] Now let me say something which I trust will not be offensive. But I want to say this in love. We know that many of us have come from Christian homes and we have heard the Gospel.
[11:35] We have memorized the shot of the Atochism. We know that the Sermon on the 9th. We know the Bible back to the front. We have enjoyed all these privileges. But unless we have believed the message, we are not saved.
[11:50] We are either saved or lost. We are saved or lost. We are saved or lost. We are lost in heaven or lost in hell. There is nothing in between.
[12:03] And so I may tell us that those that will not believe the message. The word of God, of course, does not have this effect.
[12:15] It always does, says Paul. For the preaching of the cross is to them a parish foolishness. But unto us who that believe, or unto us who that are saved, it is the power of God.
[12:31] So when the word of God is preached to some people, it is foolishness. And to other people, it is the power of God. And that so unbelief manifests itself.
[12:42] When the word of God is being preached, some will believe, and some won't believe. Another way this unbelief manifests itself I may tell us.
[12:57] Look for example at verse 2. It says here, He has no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him. Nothing has appearance that we should desire Him.
[13:11] You see, the unbeliever sees no beauty in Christ. He is not attracted to His person. And so on the year of the son, He was despised and rejected by a man.
[13:25] We hid our faces from Him. We did not escape Him. When we hear the gospel, when we hear about Christ in His work, it makes no sense to us.
[13:37] It's as if someone was speaking in Chinese. You hear it, and you know it, and yet it doesn't say Him. Because of unbelief.
[13:51] J.C. Ryle has this to say. He says, I know no greater truth of man's eutrality than the fact that thousands of so-called Christians see nothing in the cross.
[14:06] See nothing in the cross. Nothing at all. Just an historic event which is totally unrelated to my own need. And as they have said it again, we consider Him stricken by God, smitten by Him, and afflicted.
[14:26] That was threatening truth the Jews, was it not? They saw Jesus was a blasphemer, and He died a righteous death, being under the plushed judgment of God, because He blasphemed.
[14:39] The Jews did not see that this very passage was struck by Jesus, who they crucified. For on their own, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
[14:53] So this is one class, the unbeliever. He sees no beauty, he does not understand, he despises, he does not esteem Christ. He is not just morally indifferent, but he is certainly in that one category, either or.
[15:13] Unlike the believer, when he uses the gospel, he realizes afresh what he owes to Christ. He realizes his need of absolute dependence upon God.
[15:26] And he knows that Christ was pierced for his transgression, that Christ was crushed for his equities, that Christ's punishment brought peace to heaven, and that Christ brought healing through his wounds.
[15:44] The believer, when he hears the gospel, rejoices in it. He knows that this is his Savior. He knows that this passage speaks to heaven personally.
[15:57] There is this heaven, which goes like this. Lord, I was blind, I could not see in thy mad vision and grace.
[16:09] But now, the beauty of thy face in radiant vision dawns on me. Here is the contrast of a person that has been converted.
[16:20] At one stage, nothing made sense, he did not understand. But after conversion, he sees the beauty of God. He sees the beauty in the aboginess of Calvary.
[16:37] It is not surprising that men will not believe this gospel. After all, the natural man does not understand the things of God, the foolishness of him.
[16:48] He loves the spiritual discernment, which only can come from God. And then one final thing with regard to the nature of unbelief. And it's simply this, that there is nothing new.
[17:03] That's what the ages we will expect people to embrace this gospel. And we will also expect that people will reject this. And this is not due to the message itself.
[17:17] This is not due to the teaching. This is due to man's unbelief. The Lord Jesus Christ himself quotes from this passage. Inside of all the miracles he performed, there was unbelief.
[17:31] And Paul himself was so painfully conscious, was he not of the fact that his old fellow Jewish people did not believe the gospel he proclaimed.
[17:42] Why then don't people believe this gospel if it is true? Why are there so few? Why do people not accept Christianity?
[17:55] Let me suggest that we believe, which is great to mind, a big, scared place of condemn, on this passage. One of course is that the offense is in the message itself.
[18:10] Now I must try and gauge my approach here on translation. It says here, who is believed our message? Or someone translated us, who is believed our report?
[18:25] But strictly speaking, one should translate it, who is believed what we are the parents? In other words, the emphasis again, as I mentioned this morning, is very much on the origin and the source of this message.
[18:41] Now I stress this for the simple reason that no human mind still has thought up this great chapter in such accurate terms. Now we know that there are some people who can tell the future, we think of astrologers and so on, and sometimes they get right, but they never get it quite completely.
[19:05] And therefore, when they make false prophecies, they are about false problems. But here in this passage, throughout this section, this chapter, we find an anchor of prophecy, which fits the life of Christ, the suffering of death, and so on.
[19:23] And so it is offensive to people, offensive that this should be foretuned. Now you cannot see how well this passage was printed sometime after the New Testament, because we know that it wasn't there sufficient evidence.
[19:40] The Old Testament, for example, was translated into Greek long before the New Testament, where the dead scrolls and so on. So this passage was most definitely written before Christ actually came.
[19:54] But how did the father know all these things that were about to happen? You cannot figure out. But there is a way out, because some of them are a bit critically minded, and unbelievers have got many ways to escape the reality of the truth of the word of God.
[20:11] And so people have threatened tremendously, bought the exarches and so on, to try and see them in this passage as not talk about Christ at all, and have suggested all sorts of names. And if you really look clever, you can do a PhD on it, and people will respect you for latest, accurate scholarship.
[20:30] But we need not be in any doubt, because the New Testament very clearly and explicitly applies this passage to Christ, and to Christ alone.
[20:41] So now we can't fill this report up, and if we read through this chapter, we are stuck, we are forced in, as it were, to accept what this has to say.
[20:54] And no one can deny, and no one can deny it, that this speaks of Jesus, and that this was fulfilled. But people do not wish to accept this, and so they make excuses.
[21:06] You see, Christ said, such the scriptures refer to the Old Testament, for they witness to me, they point to me. And that's true, the whole Old Testament gradually and ultimately refers and points to Christ.
[21:23] But many people do not see nothing but Christ. They see the things they want to see, because they are unbelievers. And it is not because they have got intellectual doubts, but they are unbelievers.
[21:38] They willfully suppress the truth that has been revealed unto us, and the clarity of God's light. And then there is another effect which comes with unbelief, and it is simply the folly of the cross.
[21:56] Now we've heard a sermon on this just recently. You remember the verse in Matthew 27, where the Jews shout out, He saved others, but He can't save himself.
[22:08] How on earth can you ask me to believe in a Savior that dies? How can I believe in someone who is weak and feeble, who is crucified, who can do nothing at all for me?
[22:23] And to the people it is ridiculous of someone in such great weakness and suffering, should be someone who is able to save us. And so people will not have the gospel in that sense.
[22:40] And then there is another objection which people raise, which unbelief brings to the forefront. And it is simply this, that men do not believe that they need Christ.
[22:53] They do not see that Christ is the Savior whom they must have to be right with God. Now what is quite amazing throughout this passage is the emphasis that is given on the role of the Father.
[23:11] Now I can view this in full detail tonight. But I dare stress quite clearly that ultimately God was responsible for Calvary.
[23:24] It pleased the Lord to lose him. It was the Lord's will to crush him and cause him to suffer and so on. We must see God behind Calvary.
[23:38] Calvary happened and we can't undo it. If the cross was not necessary, then what is it that Christ died for?
[23:50] He was sinless. He did not die for himself. He died for sinners. And the doctrine of substitution is denied today by many. And so again, there is this foolishness. How can we believe this?
[24:08] I was reading my sermon, the Justus of the Moon. And it was basically, my sermon was preached last century by a Glasgow minister in conjunction with J. Myjro.
[24:21] But he says something which fits into this. And that's what he says. It was a daring impeachment of God's wisdom to say that he gave up his son to the accursed death of the cross, if such a sacrifice had not been absolutely necessary to the salvation of sinners.
[24:44] In other words, the cross was necessary. It had to be. I said that the cross was necessary. God in his justice could have bypassed us. But God in his mercy decided to send his son into the world. God gave his son up for us all. And so to handle his foolishness, he would have none of it.
[25:16] And then perhaps a final objection. And it's simply this. That people think that the gospel is really quite irrelevant. They look at the world to see troubles and difficulties. And they think, how on earth can the gospel change things?
[25:33] How on earth can the gospel make the world to be a better place, a more friendly universe? And these strengths do not understand that God is not promised to change the world, but rather he would have been able to bring it to a conclusion to the creation of a new heaven and a new earth.
[25:52] That's the second picture. Think of a man who suffers from cancer. He goes to see his local GP. And he is told by his doctor that he is terribly ill and that he is about to die unless he has the worst sunk treatment.
[26:10] And so this cancer patient turns around to the doctor and says to him, I think you are a fat. I think you are trying to frighten me. I do not believe you at all. I am healthy. There is nothing wrong with me. Thank you very much and goodbye.
[26:28] Thank you very much. We would think that such a man is a fool. Because the doctor would know that this patient suffers from cancer. In a very similar way, since the disease which has affected us and affected us, and God tells us his word that we need this healing and that it comes through the atonement of Christ.
[26:54] Unlike that beautiful phrase which is tied to Christ as a physician, as the cured of souls. And so tonight, if you are not a believer, you are stricken with a terrible affliction of sin. And Christ says to you, you must come to me to be healed and to be restored and to be a sentence again.
[27:20] But people will not come. But people will not come. They think it is foolish. I was seen in an advert. I was seen in an advert which I find very offensive. It is an advert which says, there is no rest for the wicked. And yet people watch this advert, they hear the word of God and then they laugh because they think it is funny. But they really love it themselves.
[27:47] I trust that all of us. I trust that all of us. I trust that all of us have got a healthy sense of humor. And maybe if you have been in the fridge for a long time, you need it. But when it comes to holy things, you may want jokes about God. And this verse that I dare, there is no rest for the wicked, is an awful reality. Nothing to be laughed at.
[28:12] And yet people watch it. And yet people watch it and find it funny. Because they don't see their knees. They don't see that this verse refers to them. What then can we do in the face of this unbelief which is strong, which is real, which cannot be denied. There are two temptations. One temptation would be to alter the vintage, to make it a little bit more palatable and a little bit more acceptable.
[28:43] I am not saying that we must alter it completely. But water it down just a little bit. There is a glass of water here in the pulpit. And let's suggest that a moment someone comes and says, well, it doesn't taste all that nice. But I am putting just a little drop of poison. Just a little drop.
[29:05] Well, I am putting drink it, that's for sure. And yet people tumble with the word of God and they can't just a little bit and destroy the whole gospel.
[29:18] So we must be careful not to alter the message. The gospel will be offensive. When the message is preached, we cannot avoid it. We cannot apologize for it. If we want to be faithful to God's word.
[29:35] And if Isaiah was met with opposition, and although Jesus Christ was met with opposition, because he called the second opposition to who will be and who must be. So we are not surprised that people do not believe this gospel. But we must, under all circumstances, resist the temptation to alter the message.
[29:55] Let us remember the fearful words of the apostle Paul. If any man preach another gospel, let him be Anasalan. But there is another temptation, which is a very strong temptation. And it's this. It's not that we alter the gospel or twist it or change it, but we just change the method of our representative of this gospel.
[30:22] You see Isaiah here. You see Isaiah here, says, who is believed our message, or that which we have heard. Luther translates this, who is believed our preaching. And there is an element of Jesus in the translation.
[30:37] Isaiah was commissioned to preach the word. The same way that Timothy was commissioned to preach the word. Now, we are told today that people cannot listen to long sermons. And I've used to tell immediately that the longest sermons don't necessarily the best sermons.
[30:59] But people will not listen. But we, as a church, must listen to those who say that others can't listen. And so people are often hear that long sermons. I remember one person once gave me a very good piece of advice, and I trust that knowledge.
[31:19] So I'm exposing myself. But that's what he said. He said, stand up and speak up and then shut up. And for some people, they should shut up altogether.
[31:30] I think some sermons. I think some sermons are not listening to at all. Never mind ten minutes, whatever it is, maybe suggested. But when the gospel is preached. It should not have that effect, but it should grip us afresh. And that we do not depend on methods that cannot be justified from scripture.
[31:54] And that pray to God and say, Lord, let my disobedience. Sometimes people call what is called an open worship. I'm not quite sure what this praise actually means, because this worship is certainly open.
[32:09] But we cannot also participate in the same way, just do all we think. But even after this notion that when you preach, that the congregation sort of drops off, and all the activities sort of go to the group, that nothing is happening down on the pew.
[32:24] I was giving version, and that's what he says, with regards to the healing of sermons. He says, rightfully to listen to the gospel is one of the noblest parts of the adoration of the Most High.
[32:41] It is a mental exercise that rightly performed, in which all the faculties of the spiritual man are called into emotional action. Reverently hearing the word exercises our humility, instructs our faith, irradiates us with joy, It cleanses us with love, inspires us with zeal, and lifts us up towards heaven.
[33:09] That's what a sermon should do to you. And you can't always claim the preacher. Sometimes it's the lack of a whole spirituality. And I've spoken to myself when I find this more difficult to listen to the word of God.
[33:24] You know what it is like after the service, come and start a conversation, and ask, boy, what do you think of that sermon? And then people talk about it. And some people find it very helpful, and others just get nothing else of it.
[33:38] And so we must develop and cultivate the art of listening. And that's the method that God uses. It is through the foolishness of preaching that God saves people.
[33:51] I'm not saying that preaching is the only method, but it is certainly the most important method that God has promised to honor. And so we must preach the word in the face of unbelief.
[34:06] Realizing and recognizing that we've got a message to claim. And then it is also important to remember what someone else said, and it is this. God has decreed that no one can or will believe or receive the Holy Spirit without the gospel which is preached or taught by word of mouth.
[34:28] What he died in the scripture, child's faith comes by freedom and healing by the word of Christ. Now there are people who believe that we can be converted just to a kind of direct experience of the Holy Spirit, never mind the gospel.
[34:44] There is no such thing. The word and the Spirit always come together, and we cannot separate them. And then we are going to say something else which the kids say about the tree, and it is this.
[35:00] We must know what we believe and why we believe it. We must believe and understand or seek to understand what the gospel is all about.
[35:11] Maybe you should go home tonight and look at this chapter of flesh and look at all the truths that are revealed to us about Christ. For example, verse 2, it talks about the incarnation, how Christ grew up, and so on.
[35:27] Or verse 9, it talks about Christ's burial. Then verse 10, it talks about the sinlessness, and so on. Then verse 10, it talks about Christ's sinlessness, and so on. There are great tools in this chapter that we must know what we believe and why we believe it.
[35:45] We must be able to make a defense of the hope that is within us. It is not enough just to fight for the experience. But we must preach the Christ of Scripture, and to make sure that we have a grasp of these basic truths that are feeding to the gospel.
[36:04] And then let me suggest something else. And it is this. We must seek to retain what I call the paradox of the gospel. We cannot rationalize the gospel.
[36:15] We cannot rationalize the gospel. We cannot rationalize the gospel. We cannot read the scriptures. There are things in there which we cannot reconcile and understand fully. How can we understand, for example, that when Christ was weakest, he was strongest?
[36:31] How can we understand that Satan was defeated when he crushed Christ on the cross of Calvary? How can we understand that Satan was defeated when he was stronger? How can we understand that Satan was defeated? The strange paradox that he who was stronger than Satan should become to the power of evil when I break it?
[36:47] Evil overreaches the earth. And the power is broken when it seems to have prevailed. Now it is a glorious thing to see these truths in that particular fashion. To see that even though Christ was weak, yet he was strong.
[37:00] to see these truths in that particular fashion, to see that even though Christ was weak, yet he was strong. And I have told many sermons on the aspect of the victory of Christ from the cross of Calvary over the cross of evil.
[37:19] That is a very important note which we should not forget, and it is just here, that Christ shall see the travail of the soul. Else you could explain it like this.
[37:35] Imagine two chess players, and they play on as the game is so restless. Suddenly, the opponent makes the move, and that is the decisive move, and ultimately as the game goes on, it will determine the outcome.
[37:54] And one might say that the cross of Calvary can be things like that. One scholar suggests that this was the D-Day, that Christ won the decisive victory, and whilst the battle still goes on, the war is already won.
[38:12] And I think it is right to see the cross in that perspective, and not to lose hope, but to remember that ultimately we are the winning side.
[38:22] And there is one other point which I must mention, and it is this. Do we actually preach with conviction? Do we really believe that this gospel is true?
[38:36] Does it really affect us? Again, let me illustrate. There was a bishop, I think he lived in the last century, and he had the opportunity to talk to a very well actor.
[38:51] And he said this by asking a question, he says, Why do we need to claim the most awful truth without making any impression on people, whilst you by making any, sorry, whilst you by the fiction that struck the greatest sympathy in your hearers?
[39:10] In other words, why is it that people flock to the theaters? Why do they want to be entertained? Why are they cutters from a perception, and yet the churches are empty, having policies like that?
[39:21] And the answer applies to this question. He said this. The reason is this. We speak fiction as if it was a truth.
[39:33] You speak truth as if it was a fiction. Now I think that is a very remarkable answer. If we speak the truth of the word of God as if it was a fiction, we will never begin in touch.
[39:48] We must let our people know, we must let our fellow Christians, our fellow believers, our fellow believers know that we really believe this gospel, that we really believe the physical resurrection, that we believe all these great truths that are revealed to uncourses in scripture and that have been attacked today.
[40:05] And then, I think we will make something rules. Adios, there's always belief our message. The message concerning the servant, his work, his mind, his death, and so on.
[40:21] We must know it, we must embrace it, it must move us, we must feel the voice of truth in our own souls. But all that, I suggest, is not enough.
[40:35] Because Adios was going to say, and to whom is the arm of the Lord we have revealed? Now in one way, this verse is an exclamation, this is an amazement and this frustration, but it is also a question, and it is a question, in the sense that it is one question only, because Adios asked to be the same thing in two different ways.
[41:00] At one hand, he says, who has believed our message? In other words, that somehow we are going to look into God. And then he says, who must be the arm of the Lord we have revealed?
[41:11] Well, that's the Lord we have tried, don't we have to ask as it were. And you see, wherever there is belief, we will find the arm of the Lord we have revealed.
[41:23] Now what does Adios mean when he talks about the arm of God, or the arm of the Lord? When we sang about it, the Lord, Psalm 98, the arm of God, the power of God, is omnipotent.
[41:39] You see, the best preacher, the most eloquent preacher, can never introduce faith. We cannot preach that heart, thus deeply.
[41:51] Isaiah, for example, was very eloquent. At least for his book, you would find places there which are full of eloquence. And then, up to the other side, the other stream, of the Apostle Paul, who says to the Corinthians, that he did not come with three eloquence.
[42:07] I'm never quite sure whether Paul was a falsely humble, he certainly says things which are very eloquence to me. But we must give them the benefit of the doubt, and we must believe that Paul did not work towards his eloquence, as if he tried to persuade people by sort of cunning and crummy language, not at all.
[42:28] And what is needed today is not only possible of sermons, but we also need the message and the power of God being revealed unto us.
[42:40] Peter writes, when he says, these things which now have been announced to you, through those who preach the gospel to you, by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven.
[42:53] And that's also how the gospel came to the Thessalonians, not only in words, but also in conviction, in much assurance and to the Holy Spirit. This is, of course, called the doctrine of affection calling.
[43:08] And he lied on his two sides running together, that the one and the outer call, the wild garden teach, the gospel to preach, Christ offered to all men.
[43:23] But it's also the inward call, the spirit working, the playing the heart, the words, the heart of the hearers. Or in our administration, remember, when Paul preached to Lydia, there was the outward word, but it was not Paul's personality, it was not Paul's eloquence, it was not Paul at all, but it was the Lord that opened Lydia's heart.
[43:52] And I always sort of spin back when I hear people say, well, I opened my heart to Christ. Sometimes we give the impression, don't we, that Christ saw save sinners in the sense that he died for them, and now it's all up to you.
[44:12] But belief is not an easy thing. And when the arm of the Lord is not revealed that can be more faith, if you like, the arm of the Lord is the cause of belief.
[44:28] And tonight, if you do not believe this gospel, it is simply because the arm of the Lord is not being revealed until you have not understood, you have not experienced this power, this might, this strength which comes from God.
[44:45] And so what happens when the spirit comes, when God's arm is revealed, when the spirit comes, it's not that he will dance and be flippant.
[44:57] He will come, he will convince us, he will convict us of sin and righteousness and judgment of sin because we have not believed this message.
[45:08] And we will see and understand that as we look to Christ, we will see that he was still superior for us and we shall mourn and we shall want to embrace that he has offered to us in the gospel.
[45:25] The natural man cannot believe these things, he is unable to come, he is unwilling to come. It was money to achieve. And we shall." weaker Amen." еще opioidнач 益 academy