Sermon page 2
Now turn with me to the Prophet Isaiah where I will give you many many examples. If they were not excellent examples of God’s grace then the number of these examples would be tedious but I trust that you will find them to be exactly the opposite!
Isaiah 26:3 Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.
Meditation upon God, whether in good or bad times, by the man who trusts God, is said to keep one in perfect peace. D you think it does that because of the skill of the meditator? NO, it is because God is the subject of the meditation. This too is God’s great grace that we need. O for perfect peace. But grace is there to provide! How amazing in these troubled days in which we live!
Isaiah 28:16 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.
We know from several quotations of this vers in the New Testament that Jesu Christ is that precious stone. Now while some stumble at this rock of offence those of us who believe are told that we will not make haste! Now that is a miracle in today’s 24/7 world of busy busy! By God’s grace we actually have enough time to do what we should! We certainly have enough time to love the Lord and our neighbours! What grace!
Isaiah 32:2 further describes the power of God’s grace in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.
In this verse we have four examples of amazing grace! See again here how God shows us exactly how much help we need and yet he promises to supply all we need.
Isaiah 40:6-8
6 The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field:
7 The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the LORD bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass.
8 The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.
In these verse we see that man is like a piece of dying grass! What a miserable state! How hopeless! What can possibly help him? The Word of our God! It shall stand for ever!
Yet do you see the amazing grace in this? This Bible is not written to stand for ever on a dusty shelf. Neither is it written to stand in a world in which all men have perished like the flowers. No, we are here now and we have this Bible be God’s grace!
O will you now see the need God says we have of His grace and see yet more His grace in providing such grace!
Can we continue? I believe there is still much more grace abounding to us chiefs of sinners!
O what are the glorious prospects as we look at a dying world around us that has no more spiritual life in it than dying grass and dead flowers!
I have in my notes here that we should be ending our sermon now and that we must continue this theme of Amazing Grace on another occasion.
Indeed has not our God in His amazing grace granted us time to go from here and enjoy some lunch and perhaps some rest or some fresh air and then to return again this evening!
