It's indeed a privilege this morning to be back on this pulpit and to bring God's Word to you. I thank the committee for their invitation and for giving me the text to preach on about three months ago to make sure that I'd be ready. It's a joy to be here this morning, and Reverend Howard's Isle, I know, along with myself, often thank God for the blessings that this church has meant to us, And we trust that we have been a blessing also to you in a small way. Our text this morning is found on the cover of the bulletin, but also I want to have you turn to it in Isaiah chapter 25. That's on page 685 in case you are using the Pew Bible. And I will be reading that from the New International Version. I'm going to begin reading at Isaiah 25, at verse 1. O Lord, you are my God, I will exalt and praise your name. For in perfect faithfulness you have done marvelous things, things planned long ago. You have made the city a heap of rubble, the fortified town a ruin, The foreigners strong hold a city no more. It will never be rebuilt. Therefore strong peoples will honor you. Cities of ruthless nations will revere you. You have been a refuge for the poor, a refuge for the needy in his distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat. For the breath of the ruthless is like a storm driving against a wall and like the heat of the desert. You silence the uproar of foreigners, as heat is reduced by the shadow of a cloud, so the song of the ruthless is stilled. On this mountain, the Lord Almighty will prepare a fifth, a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine, the best of meats and the finest of wines. On this mountain, he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations. He will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces. He will remove the disgrace of his people from all the earth. The Lord has spoken. And that day they will say, surely this is our God. We trusted in him and he saved us. This is the Lord. We trusted in him. Let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation. At that point, I want to stop reading God's Word. Well, this is indeed a wonderful weekend, and I hope that you have enjoyed it and are enjoying it as much as I am. I have told you before, I think when we went through the book of Romans, that when Paul says in Romans chapter 8 that we know that all things work together for good, that I'm glad that he says we know it, because sometimes we don't feel it. And very often we don't see it, and a lot of times we don't understand it. It seems contrary to anything good that God might have in store for us. And so when the Apostle Paul says we know it, we say amen to that because the Bible tells us that all things work together for good. And we know it because if God spared not his own Son, the greatest gift of all, there is no good gift that he would withhold from us. But this weekend, today, we don't have to just know about God's goodness. We can celebrate it, we can see it, we experience it, we feel it all around us. Today we go back for 50 years and we see a dozen or 13 immigrant families here in Escondido who have come here for various reasons. And I suppose we could glorify those reasons, but I would imagine that most of those reasons were financial. That they came to the United States of America because here was a place where they would have a great financial opportunity. But they also realized that financial success was not the most important thing. That spiritual success was necessary. That spiritual health was absolutely necessary and growth for them and for their children. And as you know, there was a good church in San Diego at that time and they faithfully went there, but it was about 40 miles away. And even by today's standards, that's a long ways from church. And they knew that if they wanted to become part of a church, if they wanted to grow, they really had to be involved in more than just Sunday services. So they began to pray and to plan and ask that a new church might be established here in Escondido. And God blessed those plans and blessed those prayers with encouragement from San Diego and from the classes and with help to establish a Reformed church here in Escondido. And then God continued to bless them. Shortly after that, they found a building, a real church building, you know, that they could worship in and for a price that they could afford. I think the pamphlet that you got for this celebration tells us that they paid about $15,000 for that church building. That's about what eight Chevrolets would cost in that day. So they found a building that they could actually worship in and that they could afford. And what joy must have filled their hearts as they and their children gathered for those first worship services to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ proclaim the doctrines of grace that were so precious to them. Here they and their children would be taught those doctrines and God would be praised and they would enjoy the great blessings of God's grace that we are not saved by works, but we are saved by grace through faith, not because of what we do, but because of what God has done in Jesus. But they also knew that that message of the gospel was not just meant for them, for those immigrants, for unza folk, as they would say, for their kind, but the gospel was meant for the whole world and certainly for their whole community. And so one of the first decisions that they made, written, I'm sure, in Dutch, was a decision to have all the worship services in English. That was the language of the community. Because the community needed to hear that message and to join them in praising God for his great grace. And what a blessing we see in that decision because God has continued to bless this church, not only with immigrants, but with those from the community as well. But they needed more than a building and they needed more than English services. They needed a shepherd to shepherd the sheep, and a prophet to proclaim the message of the gospel. They needed pastors to administer the sacraments, and God was already working ahead of time for them in putting that burden on the heart of Reverend Dykstra, who lived in Redlands at that time. And without pay, every week he would drive here to Escondido and conduct the worship services and teach catechism going from home to home. And then you begin to see why the committee chose the text that they chose. O God, you are my Lord, and I will exalt you and praise your name, for you have done marvelous things. You've been faithful, things planned long ago. Truly, God was good to those early settlers and to that early start for this church. And we can continue to talk about the blessings of God in all of this. He not only added to their numbers each Sunday those that would hear the gospel of Jesus Christ, but he also added to their success in business so that a mere four years later, like they did in the book of Acts in the early church, two men came and donated five acres of land here, this land that we are on today, because they would need a parsonage for the new domine that was coming, the new pastor. And they would need a new sanctuary someday, and this was big enough for that. and they would have room for a school. Imagine that, already in those days, thinking about a school. After all, if Jesus was Lord, they would have to have a school because they would have to remind their students in the school that their God was the God of history. How can you teach history without talking about the God of history? How can you teach science without reminding the children about the God of creation? So already then they began thinking and planning for a school. And so we do today, as a psalmist suggested in Psalm 48, we walk around Jerusalem. We walk around our Jerusalem. We see that our church, this church, our congregation, not only still stands, but that it flourishes. Think about that, how God has blessed this congregation over 50 years. You think about the number of elders and deacons that have been elected and the number of Sunday school teachers that have come out of your midst and catechism teachers and cadets and young people leaders and Calvinette leaders and those that have made coffee and the cookies and prepared so many things that have to be done. And through it all, God is praised for things planned long ago, for the faithfulness that he has displayed to us, that we are now celebrating. But if you look at the outline this morning, you also see that we not only are celebrating God's faithfulness because we can see it, but I'm suggesting that we will celebrate that faithfulness of God. Let me get at that second point in this way. The things that we see today are things that those first families could never have envisioned. I mean, when that first principal of the school came, I understand that he described this area as bleak. Now, that's not very complimentary to describe our campus as bleak, but that's what it was in his mind. But when you walk around today, it's not bleak, is it? I mean, we worship in this building which is not only functional, but it is beautiful. We don't have dust and dirt all around. We have flowers and grass. There are two parsonages right next door, one remodeled, one brand new. There's a state-of-the-art school and so on. So what we see today is far beyond what those beginners of this congregation ever envisioned. And not only that, you begin to think of the spiritual blessings. The hundreds that have been baptized and made profession of their faith and marriages that have been, people that have been united in marriage and the comfort and encouragement that have come from this pulpit for 50 years. What a joy. What blessings. The church is full today. We have adequate finances for everything that we want to do and need to do. we remember, boys and girls, the story of Gideon, how God did such wonderful things with Gideon and just a handful of soldiers. And today we think about that and we think about the wonderful thing that God did with just a handful of people 50 years ago. It's truly amazing. Oh, Lord, you are our God. We will exalt and praise your name for your marvelous faithfulness for the things planned long ago. but what if that were not the case what if we worshipped in a church half full what if fire had struck this place last week then could we still praise God for his faithfulness supposing the school had to close because of lack of funds could we then still say with Isaiah oh Lord you are God we will exalt your name and praise you for your marvelous faithfulness. Would that be the case then? That's the question I want to ask you this morning. You see, because that actually happens to be the case in this passage. That's what Isaiah was experiencing. He wasn't experiencing 50 years of obvious blessings that he could see and enjoy, but he was experiencing a word from God that depicted gloom and death and judgment. I mean, when you read this passage, when I first read it, it seemed so out of place in the book of Isaiah. Look at verse 2, for example. After speaking about God's faithfulness and praising Him for faithfulness for things planned long ago, Now he talks about a city, actually a city, not anything specific, but a city, a heap of rubble and a fortified town, a ruin. He's not talking about a beautiful campus, but a quiet Sunday worship. He's talking about a city that has become a heap of rubble, and that's not all. If you go to the previous chapters, chapter 22, for example, there he talks about Jerusalem's destruction. He's got a prophecy there about Jerusalem and the judgment of God coming upon Jerusalem. And then in chapter 23 about a prophecy about Tyre, God's judgment upon Tyre. And in chapter 24, the Lord's devastation of the whole earth. So you see, that's the situation that we find Isaiah in when he talks about the faithfulness of God and exalting the name of God for his faithfulness. As I began to think about this text and prepare it for delivery, I began to think, you know, what's the situation of Isaiah? Is it not Isaiah standing in a situation like we would have on 9-11 in the rubble of the World Trade Center? And standing in the rubble of the World Trade Center and saying, Oh, Lord, you are my God. I will exalt and praise your name. For you are faithful, doing things that you planned long ago. You see, that's the situation. We celebrate today with everything. He celebrated with nothing. With less than nothing, with rubble and destruction and death and disease. How is that possible? How do you praise God? How do you exalt Him? How do you talk about His faithfulness? when your dreams are shattered and you stand at the open grave, when the church disintegrates, when false prophets ascend the pulpits. How do you do that? How do you become an Isaiah? How do you take this text for your own? You remember the things promised long ago. You remember God's faithfulness. That's how you do it. Actually, the text, the way the NIV translates it, is not exactly correct, is not real accurate. It doesn't talk about wonderful things, plural, but it talks about a wonderful thing, a plan formed of old. Not many plans, a plan formed of old, a plan that will not change, a plan that will not fail, a plan that will be fulfilled. A plan that will be fulfilled by a faithful God. And then you ask yourself, what plan? What is he talking about? And I would suggest to you that he is talking about that one great plan that the Bible always talks about. He is talking about the plan that God revealed to Adam and Eve in paradise after they sinned, and he is talking about the plan that God, upon an oath, promised to Abraham. And you children know what that plan was, what that promise was. It was about Abraham's seed being like the stars of the heaven and the sands of the sea. He's talking about Abraham inheriting the land and Abraham understood that to be more than just the land of Palestine. He understood according to Hebrews chapter 11 verse 6 that it was that heavenly land that God was promising him. It was not only that land but that God was promising Abraham not only a huge seed but that God was promising him a seed, a child that would be a blessing to the whole world. That's the plan that Isaiah has in mind when he lifts up his heart in thanks to God. I would submit that to you today. I'm always amazed when I reflect on the importance, on how central, on how crucial that plan of God is. How important it was and how important it still is. Once again, if I can picture it for you, if you want to understand how important that plan of God is, it comes to us in Genesis 12 through 17 because that children is where that promise comes from God. That's where he walks between those animals that were halved, cut in half, you know. That's where Abraham was promised to have the seed as big as the stars of the heavens, as numerous as the stars of the heavens. If you want to understand how important that plan, how central, how crucial that plan is, then you get a new Bible and make sure it's not a red letter Bible because we don't want to highlight anything other than the chapters of Genesis 12 through 17. You take your highlighter and you highlight all those chapters, Genesis 12 through 17. And then I am suggesting to you this morning that everything that comes before Genesis 12, Genesis 1 through 11, is a prologue to Genesis 12 through 17. It's a background for it. All the hundreds of years, the thousands of years before Genesis 12 is a background for Genesis 12 through 17. And all the chapters after Genesis 17 are a fulfillment of those chapters. Everything that follows is a fulfillment of that promise of God. It is that great promise that Isaiah is talking about. I'll put it this way, that everything that God does is his working out that promise to Abraham. Everything that God does after that, all of history, everything that happens, is his being faithful to the covenant that he made with Abraham. Now, you might have trouble accepting that, and you probably should if you are new to this concept. Let me just bring you through the Bible really quickly a moment to show you how true that must be. When you think about Israel, 400 years after this, Israel is in Egypt, they are slaves, and they cry to God, and God remembers his covenant that he made with Abraham, so he delivers them. And then later on when they made that golden calf at Mount Sinai and they are worshiping the golden calf and God is going to come in judgment against them. Moses comes to God and he prays and he pleads with God not on the basis of what Israel would promise to do and how they would keep the law from now on. But he comes to God and he pleads with God and he says, remember the covenant you made with Abraham. You'll find that in Genesis 32. He pleads on the basis of the promise that God made. God, you have made that promise, and you must be faithful to it. And centuries after that, when Nehemiah comes out of exile with a handful of people, in Nehemiah chapter 12, he comes in a prayer to God, and he thanks God for still being faithful to that promise that he made to Abraham. And we go to the New Testament hundreds of years later, and Mary is pregnant with Jesus and she gives a hymn of praise to God for his faithfulness to the promise that he made to Abraham. And when Paul talks to the Gentiles and he talks about their faith in Jesus Christ, the seed of Abraham, he says, and all who believe are Abraham's seed. Sharing in the promise that God gave to Abraham. That land, that earth, the world. when Jesus describes Lazarus' death where does Lazarus go? he goes to the bosom of Abraham when Jesus describes the blessed state of the believers he talks about them at the feast with Abraham you see that promise of God is the promise that God continues to fulfill until the end of time when the seed of Abraham will be like the stars of the heavens and the sand of the sea and they, the meek, will inherit the earth and heaven besides. So you see, Isaiah is not praising God merely for 50 years of faithfulness, but for centuries of faithfulness. Isaiah knows that death and destruction is not the end. Tears are not God's last word. When we go to the grave, we can say lots of things, but one thing we can say for sure, tears are not God's last word. Sunday's coming. Some of you may remember Dr. Dobson used to have a radio program. Maybe he still does. But near Good Friday, he always had a wonderful sermon repeated. And the phrase that kept coming back and back in that wonderful sermon was Sunday's coming. The preacher described the horrible suffering of Jesus Christ, the darkness of Black Friday. But Sunday's coming, he would always come back and say. He described the devil dancing in glee, almost on a wave of victory. And he would come back and say, but Sunday's coming. And that's what Isaiah is saying. Sunday is coming. That's what he anticipates. The cities are destroyed, but Sunday is coming. The cities are devastated. Jerusalem is devastated. The world is devastated. But God is faithful to that promise. He must be working out that promise that he made to Abraham so long ago. Look at what he anticipates, what Isaiah anticipates. Go once again to that passage that I read, Isaiah chapter 25. You see, when you get to verse 3, war and destruction, we always think that tragedy and violence and all that lead people away from God and make people curse God, but that is not the case. He says it's just the opposite. They flee to him. Nations honor him. Cities revere him. Nations, cities become part of Abraham's great seed. The cities may be destroyed, but God's promises aren't destroyed. God remains faithful because he planned things long ago. A thing, a thing that he promised Abraham. Now look at verses 6 and 7. Beginning at verse 6, he says, On this mountain, that is the Lord's mountain, the mountain that Abraham took Isaac to sacrifice him, but instead of God provided a ram, On that mountain, on that mountain, God provides a rich feast in the midst of death and starvation. He sees a mountain in which God provides a rich feast for all peoples, a banquet, the best of meats and the finest of wines. On that mountain, verse 8, He swallows up death forever. You can hardly imagine such hope, can you? Such joy, such anticipation, such faith. In the midst of death, Isaiah is talking about life. In the midst of starvation, he is talking about a bountiful meal. Sunday's coming, he's saying. And his faith is not misplaced because on that mountain, Jesus came. And we eat at the feast at least a half a dozen times a year when we celebrate the Lord's Supper. On that mountain, death is destroyed. On that mountain, the Apostle Paul says, O death, where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory? The sting of death is sin. The strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, Sunday has come. Christ has given us the victory, you see. On that mountain, the things planned, the thing planned long ago becomes a reality. It's something we can celebrate and will celebrate. Today, we are celebrating God's faithfulness for 50 years. We rejoice, we are glad, we appreciate it, we praise Him for it. But thank God there is more to his faithfulness than these past 50 years. Thank God that there is more to what he planned than buildings and a congregation. Because you see, in the midst of these bounties and blessings, we still experience troubles, though we not. We still experience tears. Last week, the Howard's Isles went to the grave. Next week, it may be someone else. But we still experience tears and disappointment, pain and disease and death. If you have any experience in the so-called evangelical Protestant churches today, you are dismayed by what you see. False prophets are in the pulpit. Wolves in sheep clothing within and without the true churches being attacked. We look at our civilization, we look at the United States, and we see Western civilization teetering on the brink of disaster. They, spiritually speaking, don't know their right from their left hand anymore. How can you celebrate? How can you isolate yourself from all that goes around us? We celebrate by remembering the things that God planned long ago, that He hasn't spoken the last word yet, that Sunday is coming. and then we will celebrate then every tear will be wiped away then there will be no more division in the church no more false prophets no more poor preaching no more half-hearted worship and singing oh no, no more tears because God has promised and he will and does work out that promise. And then at last, when every tear is wiped away, then at last we will really understand this text. We will say, oh Lord, my God, you are my God. I will exalt you. I will exalt your name forever for your marvelous faithfulness for the things planned long ago. There will be no question that day is coming and what a day that will be Amen Heavenly Father we are amazed to think that everything you do is your faithfulness to the promise that you made to Abraham to Abraham's seed To us, therefore, who through faith are Abraham's seed. And Heavenly Father, give us not only to celebrate today the joy of your faithfulness for 50 years, but give us, Lord, the vision to know that we will celebrate someday with undiminished zeal and fervor. We will worship in the beauty of your holiness. oh yes what a day that will be continue to keep us until that time through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen