All right, brethren, let's go to Isaiah chapter 57. Isaiah 57. 57, Isaiah 57. We're gonna pick up reading in verse 10 and just read down verse 13.

Isaiah 57, 10, thou art wearied in the greatness of thy way. Yet saidst thou not, there is no hope. Thou hast found the life of thine hand. Therefore thou wast not grieved. And of whom hast thou been afraid, or feared, that thou hast lied, and hast not remembered me, nor laid it to thy heart? Have not I held my peace, even of old, and thou fearest me not? I will declare thy righteousness and thy works, for they shall not profit thee. When thou cryest, let thy companies deliver thee. But the wind shall carry them all away. Vanity shall take them. But he that putteth his trust in me shall possess the land. and shall inherit my holy mountain.

Now the Lord says, thou art wearied in the greatness of thy way. Now I want to just consider two things. I want to consider man's way and I want to consider God's way. Man's way and God's way.

Thou art wearied in the greatness of thy way. Man has a way. and he imagines he can come to God by this way. Scripture says, there's a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. Man's way is contrary to God's way. Man's way is not God's way.

Paul spoke of when he was Saul of Tarsus, dead in sin, and he said this, he said, verily I thought with myself that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. Now he used that name because that's how King Agrippa would have thought of the Lord Jesus, and that's who he was speaking to. So he called him Jesus of Nazareth, and he's saying how he felt about the Lord Jesus when he was dead in sin. He's just a man, and he used a very earthy title to give him and what was essentially a derogatory title. That's how all spiritually dead sinners regard the Lord Jesus. He's just a man. He was a prophet. He was a teacher, a rabbi. But he's the God man. He is God in human flesh.

And there's no rest in man's way. There's no rest in man's way. Not only is his way contrary to God's way, not only will it end in death, there's no rest in man's way. He says there, thou art wearied, wearied in the greatness of thy way. Man's way is wearisome. He's always working, always working. You're told by, you're told by those kinds of preachers to deny yourself, and you're always told to deny yourself. But denying yourself, what they say it involves is cutting out this food and that food and this drink and that drink and this place and that place and this group and that group. But they never say, it's you. It's us. It's our entire self. And so they're working, working, trying to subdue that nature, trying to deny stuff, and trying to put on a show before men. And it's all about pleasing men. It's all about not offending some other man in religion and trying to get the applause of some other man in religion.

Our Lord said, and because of that reason, there's no rest in it. It's wearisome. It's worrisome. And the Lord said, come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Isn't that so clear? You're weary, you're heavy laden by your sin, by your works, trying to fix everything. Come to me, the Lord said. I will give freely, I will give you rest.

God doesn't say greatness of thy way because man's way is great. That's not why he says that. He says it because that's how man regards his way. It's a great way. And that word, though, means multitude. It means abundance. Because man doesn't have one way. There's abundance of ways. That scripture in Proverbs 16 says, there is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. A lot of ways, a lot of doctrines. Listen to the Lord Jesus. He said, I am the way. I am the life. Or the truth, the life. Just one, the way. The truth, the life, no man comes to the Father but by me. He said, enter ye in at the straight gate. Enter in at the straight gate, for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be, many go in thereat, because straight is the gate, and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

" Now, when you've heard men speak of that scripture, how many times have you heard men say, I got to start walking the narrow way, I got to walk the straight and narrow? They always put the emphasis on your walking. The emphasis there is Christ. He's the way. He's the gate. One time I was talking with a pastor, an elder pastor, and he was asking me how it was going. And I said, I'm trying to preach Christ as narrow as I can preach him. He said, preach the gospel as narrow as Christ. There's no other way. He said, I am the door. And everybody that tried to enter some other way is a thief and a robber. He's the way. He's the life and he's the way that leads to life. He said, you're weary in the greatness of your way. You think you found life of your hand. He's the life. He's the way that leads unto life.

Look there at verse 10. Thou wert wearied in the greatness of thy way, yet saidst thou not, there is no hope. Thou hast found the life of thine hand. Therefore, thou wast not grieved. There's no hope in a man's works. We cannot have a good hope at all if we're looking to our works. We can't. There is no hope in man. A man trying to work his way to heaven is too busy to realize there's no hope in his works. He said, you're wearied in the greatness of thy way, yet settest thou not, there's no hope. A man doesn't realize he has no hope. He's too busy working. He's too busy trying to work his way to heaven. Paul really thought he had found life by his hand. He said, this is why you're not saying there's no hope. You think you found the life of your hand. Paul thought he had found the life of his hand. Look at Romans 7.

Now, this is the way that most people, and this is the way I do believe everybody in their lost state thinks the way to get to glory is keeping the Ten Commandments. And Paul thought that. And he said here in Romans 7-9, I was alive without the law once. Romans 7, 9, he thought he had found the life of his hand. He said, I was alive without the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I failed to be unto death. What Paul's saying there is he's not saying the law is ordained to life. He's saying he thought it was ordained to life. When he was lost and trying to come to God by the law, he thought he had life by the law. But when the commandment came, he realized that this law that he thought could give him life, that God had ordained it to give him life, God really had ordained it to minister death to him. And that's what the law's for. Paul said in Galatians 3.21, if there had been a law given which could have given life, Verily righteousness would have been by the law. The law wasn't given to give us life. The scripture hath concluded all under sin that the promise by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. The letter of the law killeth. That's what he said in 2 Corinthians 3. The letter of the law killeth. The spirit giveth life. He said the law given at Sinai is the ministration of death graven on stones. He said it's the ministration of condemnation. But the new covenant ministers righteousness. It's Christ ministering his righteousness through the new covenant, through the preaching of the gospel. As long as a man thinks, though, that he's found life by his hand, by the doing of the law, he doesn't grieve over his sins. He said, thou hast found the life of thine hand, therefore thou wast not grieved. When you think you're keeping the law, you can't grieve, because you don't see any reason to grieve. A self-made religious man looks at sin as something he can put away. And so you don't grieve over your sin. The Ten Commandments is natural man's way of measuring how good he's doing. He doesn't know it's even, the purpose of it is to minister death and declare us guilty. Please hear the word of God right here. Paul said, when the commandment came, sin revived, sin became alive to me, and I died. I found that that law that I thought was ordained to life ministered death to me It wasn't the law's fault and the law was doing what it's supposed to do God gave it for that purpose if anybody here thinks That that you can come to God by the doing of the law by keeping the law Please hear this Please hear this right here Now we know and you that been born of God like Paul you've experienced what? he experienced. The Lord's made the commandment come alive to you and has made your sin revive and you die. And so we know that what things whoever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world become guilty before God. By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight. By the law is the knowledge of sin. Now how is a sinner made to hear the law? How are we gonna be made to hear the law? It's gonna be by Christ pouring out upon us the spirit of supplication. Go with me to Zechariah chapter 12. It's gonna be by Christ pouring out the spirit of supplication, the Holy Spirit, to make you supplicate God. It's the spirit of grace and supplication. It's gonna be by the Spirit turning you to see Christ, to see Christ. I have a dear pastor friend right now that he's receiving a lot of pushback from somebody that's trying to tell him he needs to really preach the law and he really needs to whip people with the law just strip people with the law and make them feel terrible. That's not how you're gonna be made to repent. It's the goodness of God that leads you to repentance. And here's what he's gonna do. He's gonna turn you to see Christ, and he's gonna make you behold him hanging there on that cross, and he's gonna reveal to you that he's there because you could not obey the law. And he's there bearing the sin of his people, and God makes you know Personally, it's your sin he's bearing. And God makes you to know by that, that you see that everything you thought was righteousness is sin. Everything you thought committed you to God is sin. Because you see Christ, you see God had to give his son, and you see his son had to lay down his life. And that's when you're gonna grieve. That's when you know your sin. That's when you grieve. When the Lord Jesus arrested Paul on the road to Damascus, did he whip him with law? No, he made Paul see Christ. Listen, Zechariah 12, 10, I will, there's the will by which we're saved. I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that's his people. And he said, I'll pour upon him the spirit of grace and of supplication. and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him. Our text said, you hadn't grieved, you've been looking at the works of your hand. But when the Lord turns you to look to Christ on that cross, they'll grieve for him as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him as one that's in bitterness for his firstborn. Does that speak? Does that speak of... Does that speak of God's elect beholding Him? It does. But somebody say, but doesn't that speak of the children of Israel that actually pierced Him, beholding Him? Well, we know that's the fulfillment of Scripture because the Scripture tells us that When the soldiers came and pierced him, it says, this was done that it should be fulfilled. They will look upon him whom they have pierced. So does that only apply to the soldiers that pierced him? Or does it apply to everybody? Everybody's gonna see him and mourn and know that they forgot him. Well, the spirit of grace and supplication is gonna be poured out on his people, those he died for, those he redeemed. And that's what's gonna make you grieve your sin and know Him. But as far as those soldiers, and as far as everybody else in Israel that rejected Him, and as far as everybody in the world that rejected Him, they are gonna behold Him, and they are gonna be made to mourn. Listen, not in grace. It'll be too late then, because it's when He's coming back. Listen to this, from Revelation 1 7, Behold, He cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see Him, and they also which pierced Him, and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, amen. And somebody will hear that and say, well, I'm not religious at all. I didn't pierce him. I hadn't even, I wasn't, he wasn't, you say he wasn't representing me. I didn't pierce him. The scripture says when we, when we reject the gospel and we reject Christ, we crucify him anew and put him to an open shame by not believing on him. And everybody in that day, when he returns, every eye's gonna see him And those that would not believe on him are going to be made to mourn when they see him, whom they pierce, because they rejected him. And it'll be too late then. It'll be too late then. Don't wait till then. Here's why all of this is so of a man. Here's why he looks to himself, why he doesn't grieve. Here's why he hasn't said there's no hope, because man Man's way is not to reverence God and not to fear God. Look here in verse 11. And of whom has, Isaiah 57, 11. And of whom hast thou been afraid or feared that thou hast lied? And hast not remembered me, nor laid it to thy heart? Have not I held my peace even of old, and thou fearest me not? You know, it has to show a lack of reverence and a lack of fear of God for wicked men to live in sin. That's what the scripture says, the transgression of the wicked saith within my heart, there's no fear of God before his eyes. David said, when I see the wicked transgressing against God, it speaks loud and clear to my heart and says there's no fear of God before his eyes. And I'm gonna tell you what'll happen, because I've seen this happen, I've had it happen to me. The Pharisee will hear that, the self-made righteous man, the self-made holy man, and he'll hear that, and he'll say, he'll wag his head, and he'll say, amen. And he'll say, God, I thank you that I'm not like those wicked sinners out there. I tithe and I do this and I do that. That's not the only ones that are wicked. Those wicked ones out there are not the only ones that are wicked. In Psalm 36.1, does that declare that he's only talking about wicked men who are adulterers and murderers and thieves? Is that the only ones he's talking about? Let's go to Romans 3 and let's hear who God applies it to. Romans chapter 3. We saw last week in chapter 1 He gave that list of sins of the Gentiles. In Romans 2, he turned to the Pharisees who were looking to the works of the law. Now listen to Romans 3, verse 9. What then? Are we better than they? No, and no wise, for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles. He just proved it in chapter 1 and chapter 2. Jews and Gentiles are all under sin. As it's written, there is none righteous, no, not one. That includes the adulterer, and that includes the spiritual adulterer. That includes the man that's looking to his hand to rob somebody and steal money from them to provide for himself, and it looks to the religious man who's robbing God of his glory and trying to provide life by his hand. What's the difference? One's thieving a man, one's thieving God. He says, There's none that understandeth. There's none that seeketh after God. They're all gone out of the way. They're together become unprofitable. There's none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat's an open sepulcher. With their tongues they've used deceit. The poison of ash is under their lips. Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways. And the way of peace have they not known? There is no fear of God before their eyes. That includes everybody. That includes everybody, not just those wicked people out there. It includes everybody who is not resting entirely in the Lord Jesus Christ alone. It includes the man that's found life in his hand and the man who's looking to his works and the man, he doesn't fear God. That's wicked sin too. In fact, it's worse than the and the physical adulterer. Our Savior said, He said it's impossible for a rich man to enter into heaven. It's easier, He said, for a camel to squeeze through the eye of a sewing needle. He's talking about a man that's found the life of his hand and hasn't said there's no hope in that. He doesn't fear God. Think of the lack of reverence for God. To think that me and you could work a righteousness that would please God. That's a lack of reverence. That's not realizing how holy God is. To think you and me can do something by our works to please God. That's the rich man he's talking about. It's easier for a real live camel to go through the eye of a woman sewing needle. than it is for a man trusted in his own works to enter into heaven. They said, that's impossible. He said, it's impossible with man. But bless God, listen to this. All things are possible with God. Look back here at Isaiah 57.10. I want you to see this now. You wear it in the greatness of thy way, verse 10. Yet settest thou not, there's no hope. Thou hast found the life of thine hand. Therefore thou wast not grieved, verse 11. I held my peace, even of old, and thou fearest me not. I will declare thy righteousness and thy works, for they shall not profit thee. When thou cryest, let thy companies deliver thee. But the wind shall carry them all away. Vanity shall take them. God is saying salvation is impossible for a sinner, especially for one with a false hope, and impossible for him. He said, if I held my peace, I did nothing to you, and you just go on in your forward religion. Verse 20, he says, the wicked are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith my God to the wicked. God is saying to us right there, brethren, when he holds his hand back and he doesn't interfere, he said man just keeps on going in his wickedness, looking to the work of his hand. And there's no hope for him. He just keep going in that. It's impossible with man to turn from that. It's impossible with man to cease from that. but it's not impossible with God. All things are possible with God. Look here now, verse 13 at the end. He said, but he, but he that putteth his trust in me shall possess the land and shall inherit my holy mountain. See, God's way, now we're looking at God's way. We saw man's way. God's way is through faith in his son. That's his way. What else do I need to do? What else did he say right there? He said, he that puts his trust in me. God's ways through faith in his son. Israel sought righteousness by the law, and they didn't attain it. But there was some Gentiles not even seeking righteousness, and they attained it. Why? In Romans 9, he said, the Gentiles that followed not after righteousness have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith, believing on Christ. But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness. Why? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law. They stumbled at that stumbling stone. We're going to see why that's important here in a minute. They stumbled at that stumbling stone. He said, behold, I lay in Zion, a stumbling stone, a rock of a fence, and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. But we just heard a description of us now. God's saying, you trust my son and you'll be saved. But we just heard a description of us. We just heard God say, if I leave him alone, he just keeps going. Look down there at verse 16. He said, I will not contend forever, neither will I be always wroth, for the spirit should fail before me, and the souls which I've made. For the iniquity of his covetousness was I wroth, and I smote him, and I hid me, and I was wroth, and he went on fraudly in the way of his heart. Do you see what that's saying? God's saying, if I just leave a man to himself, he's not gonna turn to me. I can smite him, he's not gonna turn to me. He just keeps going on in that forward heart. But here's the grace of God. Now that's us, brethren. That's me and you and everybody God saves we just looked at. But here's God's way. God's way is the way of grace. He said that about the one he's gonna save. And then what he said in verse 18, I've seen his ways and I will heal him. I will lead him also and restore comfort to him and to his mourners. See, all his brethren are mourners. All that God saves are mourners. Those looking to their hand, they hadn't grieved, they hadn't mourned. But he said, I'm gonna save him and all his mourning brethren. That's grace, brethren, to tell us that if I smote him and he just kept on going. If I'd have left him, that's all he'd have just, no fear, going on his way, looking to his hand, thinking God's gonna be pleased with this. But grace, but I'll heal him. Oh, grace, by the power of the gospel, by the power of the Lord Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit, God's gonna bring his child out of that broad way, and he's gonna bring him into Christ the way.

It's gonna make you experience it. It's gonna create a heart and give you discernment to see. There's no hope in your hand. There's no righteousness in anything you've done. He's gonna grant repentance from imagining that we have life by our works. It's not just the sins that you have to deny yourself. It's God giving you a change of mind so you see Romans 3 and understand there's nothing about me. I can't just turn away from some things. I gotta turn away from me altogether. There's nothing about me that God's gonna receive. He gonna make you know there's no hope in you. He's gonna grant faith to know that Christ made peace with God. And if you want peace with God, you're gonna have to trust Him. You're gonna have to believe on Him. And when He does that, He's gonna make us be reconciled to Him. He gonna make you see Christ already reconciled you.

What'll make a man stop fighting against God? What'll make a man stop looking to himself and rejecting this gospel, because he wants glory? What'll make him do that? When the Lord makes you know, and comes to him and makes him know, Christ already reconciled you to God. You quit working. You quit trying to do anything. It's done. And that man, he'll drop everything.

I love that illustration. I've given it a bunch of times, but it's just so good. They were down there, and Brother Marvin's dad owned a seafood restaurant in Alexandria, Louisiana. And this little six, seven-year-old child was in there, and they'd finished eating, and the parents were ready to go. And that child had a corncob that he had worked it over. There wasn't anything left on it. But he was sucking all that butter out of that corncob and would not let that corncob go. His mom and dad tried to get him to let it go. Everybody tried to get him to let it go, and he wouldn't. And Brother Ostoniker said, can I try something? And they said, yeah. And he walked up there and held out a Hershey bar. And when he did, that little boy dropped that corncob and latched on to that Hershey bar.

When will you let go of the works of your hand when God gives you something better? When he gives you the Lord Jesus Christ, you'll see I'm holding on to nothing but a filthy idol. Christ is the way.

And when he does that, I said, he said there that that stumbling block was in front of them. They wouldn't believe on Christ. When he does this, when he does this, he said, all that believe will not be ashamed of Christ. When he does this and gives you faith in Christ, you won't be ashamed of him anymore.

And here's what you're going to do. You're going to bear witness of Christ. And you know how you'll bear witness to Christ? When you think of that, do you think about preaching? You bear witness to Christ by leaving. where the false gospel is, and leaving that religion, and counting it wrong, and saying, I gotta be where the gospel is. That's how you bear witness.

I've had so many people call me and say, I wanna come meet with y'all, but I just got people here that I think the Lord's saving them, and I just wanna stay here and help them, and I tell them every time, you wanna bear witness, you believe Christ, get under the gospel, and get away from that lie. That'll bear witness to them more than anything else you could do.

Is it so vital and so important that you have to be under the gospel of life? Or can you sit and hear lies and what's that showing them? And you begin to, any opportunity you have, as you grow in grace and the Lord teaches you, he'll give you the boldness to anywhere, anytime you can speak to somebody about the gospel, to tell them what Christ did for you.

He told that demoniac, go home and tell them what great things God's done for you. And look what he says here. He said, and when I've done that, verse 14, and they shall say, cast ye up, cast ye up, prepare the way, take up the stumbling block out of the way of my people. That's saying, not only am I gonna give them grace to believe me and rest in me, he said, they're gonna start saying, cast ye up, prepare the way.

And Isaiah later, he's gonna say, they're gonna say, lift up the highway, that's Christ. And before where Christ was a stumbling block, now you're gonna go forth speaking about him and have me not ashamed of him. Brethren, he's the way. He's the only one that's great. He's the hope of righteousness.

Listen, this is what Scripture says about our hope. the hope of righteousness, the hope of glory, the hope of the gospel, the hope of salvation, the hope of eternal life, and that hope has entered in the veil and is Christ the Lord. Christ in you, the hope of glory. That's when you'll look to him alone is when he's in you. He's the life.

No man comes to the Father but by him. We have life by the works of his hand, his finished work, and he's the righteousness. There's not any works we've done that's ever been righteous He's the righteousness. And look now, when he takes up his abode in you from that day that he calls you, he's gonna be the life, and he's gonna keep renewing you and reviving you through this gospel, and he's not gonna let you go.

Look at verse 15. For thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is holy, I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite one. That's what's gonna keep you following him. That's what's gonna keep you not trusting anything about you and trusting him alone. Christ in you, the hope of glory, reviving you. That's how you're gonna persevere in faith.

Now, do you see man's way? All flesh is grass. There is nothing to trust in about us. So that's why the Lord says, cease from man, just cease from man. He said there in verse 20, the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, waters casting up mire and dirt, there's no peace, saith my God to the wicked.

Man working for salvation never has a peaceful conscience, because he's never done enough. When Adam made them fig leaves, had he done enough, when he heard the voice of God, he went hid in the woods. You'll never have peace of conscience trying to work your way to God. But believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the word of God.

He said, you'll inherit my holy mountain. You'll be provided for right now, all through this life, he's gonna keep reviving you, and then one day you're gonna enter into his holy mountain with him. He that putteth his trust in me shall possess the land and shall inherit my holy mountain.

You know what our inheritance is? It's Christ, I showed you that last week. But you know what he said to us? All things are yours. Everything's yours. That's what he says to his people. Everything is yours. We're going to have him and everything that belongs to him, joint heirs with Christ, all by him and his grace.

All right, Brother Adam.