Alright brethren, Isaiah 45.
This has been a good chapter and I think we may have at least
one more message out of the chapter before we're out of it after
this one. But I want to look this morning
just at one verse, Isaiah 45 verse 22. Look unto me, and be ye saved,
all the ends of the earth. For I am God, and there is none
else. I used to shoot a bow and arrow
quite a bit. And when you first start shooting
your bow, you're getting ready for season a month or two before.
Your sights might not be on, and you're grouping your arrows
a little too wide. And you dial it in. You start,
adjust your front sight, adjust your peep sight if you're using
one, adjust your anchor point, get everything dialed in and
when you start clinking arrows together, when you've grouping
so that they're clinking on one another when they hit side by
side. That's when you know you got
it dialed in. And I want to try to dial it
in this morning. I want to preach very narrow.
I want to preach as narrow as Christ. I want you to see here four things. The one thing God requires. One
thing. Here it is. Look unto me. One
thing. Secondly, I want you to see the
passiveness of salvation for those God saves. He said, look
unto me and be ye saved. That's written in about as passive
language as you can get. This is the one way of salvation.
No matter who you are, where you are in the world, this is
the one way of salvation, through faith in Christ. Look, he says,
all the ends of the earth. Wherever you are in the ends
of the earth, this is the one way. Look unto me, be ye saved. All the ends of the earth. And
the reason, here's the fourth thing, the reason this is the
only way of salvation, Because this is true of the Lord Jesus
right here. This is the reason He's the only way of salvation.
For I am God and there is none else. So let's look at these four things
together. One, the one thing God requires of those He saves
is this. Look unto me. He said, look unto
me. How many things have sinners
been told that we must do in order to be saved? And your time
on this earth and the things you've heard men say, how many
different things have you heard you must do in order to be saved? Pray to idols. The Lord is addressing Gentiles
here. His elect called out, escaped
of the nations from among the Gentiles, heathen nations. And even in heathen nations where
God had not given His oracles, He not given his word, he not
given a sacrifice or a priest or anything. Even in those nations,
men were religious. Men made them some idols to worship.
It's nothing to make a man religious. Man's religious by nature. Without
God even doing one thing, they were religious. They had idols.
And God's so merciful, He says to them, here in verse 20, He
said, Assemble yourselves and come, draw near together, ye
that are escaped of the nations. Drawing his elect out from the
ends of the earth. Come, ye that are escaped of
the nations. They have no knowledge to set up the wood of their graven
image and pray unto a God that cannot save. They have no knowledge. Tell ye, bring them near, let
them take counsel together. Who hath declared this from ancient
time? Who declared it from eternity?
Who hath told it from that time? Have not I the Lord, and there's
no God else beside me, a just God and a Savior? There's none
beside me. Remember last week when I said
if I had one thing to tell somebody, what separates your religion
from all the vain religions in this world? I'd say God's a just
God and a Savior. The true religion that Christ
came and that He is, that He fulfilled for God and His people,
no other religion in the world has a God like this. And that's
what God said right there, have not I the Lord, there's no God
else beside me, a just God and a Savior, there's none beside
me. He's the only God that's just and justifier. He's the
only one. No other religion has this God.
So what does he say? Look unto me and be you saved
all the ends of the earth for I am God and there's none else.
So it's not praying to idols that's gonna save. Among the
children of Israel, where God set up true religion, men looked
to the means that God used to preach the gospel, the means
he used to illustrate salvation in Christ. They looked to the
means. Acts 15.1, certain men came down
from Judea, taught the brethren, and said, except you be circumcised
after the manner of Moses, you cannot be saved. These were those brethren that
the Lord sent the apostle Peter to. And he told Peter, Peter
said, I'm not going to eat anything unclean. He let down that sheet,
remember, and he showed him those unclean animals. He said, arise,
kill and eat, Peter. Peter said, I'm not going to
eat anything unclean. No, it's not touching me. And the Lord
said, what I have cleansed, don't you call common. What I have
made holy, what I have cleansed and purged and made holy and
righteous, don't call it common. Don't call it unholy. And that's
what God was teaching to those dietary laws the whole time.
I am God that sanctifies. I make holy. And these men were
men the Lord had sent Peter to. And he went in there and preached
Christ to them. And the Lord sent the Holy Spirit and gave
them faith to believe. And they trusted Christ. Their
hearts were made pure. They believed Christ and they
trusted Christ alone. And here comes these Judaizers
down there and said, except you be circumcised, you can't be
saved. Gotta keep the law. That circumcision was just, that
pictured what Christ had already done in their heart. And what
Christ did at the cross. And these men had no idea what
they, they were worshiping the means. They were worshiping that
which God gave to illustrate salvation by Christ in spirit,
in heart. God commands his people here,
he says, assemble yourselves. Talking about men looking to
the means that God uses, he said, assemble yourselves. And God's
saints are glad to assemble where the gospel's preached. We're
glad to, like we saw in the psalm. I was glad when they said to
me, let us go to the house of the Lord. We're glad to go hear
the gospel of Christ. But there's never been anybody
saved by simply assembling in a building with God's people. Not one person ever been saved
by the act of assembling in a building where God's people are. That's
not salvation. Making a profession, joining
a church, partaking in the Lord's ordinances, Men think there's
salvation in that. That's the means God's gonna
use. Every sinner saved by grace wants to confess Christ publicly.
Every believer saved by grace wants to unite with God's people
in the church. Everybody that he saves wants
to be baptized and wants to observe the Lord's table. But nobody's
ever been saved by making a profession. Nobody's ever been saved by being
baptized. Nobody's ever been saved by taking
the Lord's table or joining the church. Man's wisdom. There's a whole lot of people
that think salvation is in man's wisdom. In his learning and understanding
and he puts confidence that he has a degree of knowledge more
than others. All the books men have read and
all those things. Ever learning scripture said
and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. God said,
after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew
not God. Professing themselves to be wise,
they became fools. Job 11.7 says, Canst thou by
searching find out God? Man can't find out who God is.
Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? It's as high
as heaven. What canst thou do? It's deeper
than hell. What canst thou know? The measure
thereof is longer than the earth and broader than the sea. Keep an old covenant law, even
keeping gospel precepts. That's what men are being told
every day. You've got to keep the old covenant
law or you've got to keep gospel precepts or you can't be saved.
I made the statement in that first message that the one thing
required is faith, and I guarantee you somebody will say, oh, but
what about Abraham, was not he justified by works? But what
were those works that Abraham and Rahab did? They were works
whereby they manifested, they trusted God alone was able to
save. They were works of faith. Rahab
received those spies and hid them and sent them out a different
way and then lied to the king's men about which way they went
and sent the king's men a different way. She could have been killed
for that. What was she trusting? They put
a scarlet line in that window and they promised her, if you're
in this house, everybody that's in this house, we're going to
loyally deliver you when he destroys Jericho. And she just kept going
to that scarlet line and looking at it. Going to that scarlet
line and looking at it. What are we doing when we come and
hear the gospel? We keep coming to hear about this scarlet line,
the blood of Christ. That's what we're coming to hear.
And His promise that all that look to Him will be saved. She
believed God was able to save her. And what did He do? He saved
her. And it was the same with Abraham. God said, offer up your
only son Isaac. This is the son God said the
Messiah is coming through him. Now you go offer him up for a
burnt offering. And Abraham did it. Believing God was able to
raise him even from the dead. From which he received him in
a figure. In other words, in Abraham's heart, he really killed
his son before God. And that's what those, you see,
Brethren, the Holy Spirit's gonna make God's saints, we delight
in the law of God and then we're man. But he also makes the sinner
know you've never kept any law or any precept whereby you can
be saved by. We know what things serve the
law saith. It saith to them who are under the law. That's what
is so sad about men that won't be under the law. The law only
speaks to those that are under the law. And what does it say? It says to them who are under
the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world
become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the
law there shall no flesh be justified in its sight for by the law is
the knowledge of sin. That's what the law is given
for. And we never stop hearing that law show us that we have
sinned. We can't come to God by the law.
Some even look to how they afflict themselves and how, you know,
self-denial and they afflict themselves and they weep and
they mourn and they are so humble. And they look into that. Brethren,
we could go on and on. Who can number the things that
men have been told that they must do in order to be saved?
And God says, one thing, look unto me. Look unto me. Do you know how
offensive that is to a proud man? That God says, look unto
me. That takes it all out of our
hands. That takes it all out of our hands. Who is it God's
saying look to? Who is this God saying look unto
me? It's Christ. Look to Christ,
believe on Christ. I can't even look at this, look
to me without thinking about the serpent, the serpent, the
brazen serpent. Look over there at Numbers 21
verse 4. Numbers 21 verse 4. They journeyed from Mount Hor
by way of the Red Sea to accomplish the land of Edom, and the soul
of the people was much discouraged because of the way. It was a
tough way to go, and they got discouraged, and they began to
murmur. And the people spake against
God and against Moses, wherefore have you brought us up out of
Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread, neither is
there any water. And then they remembered, oh,
we got this light bread that God's given us from heaven. And
they said, and our soul loathes this light bread. They had water
out of the rock. They had bread from heaven. They
said, we don't have any water. We don't have any bread. Our
soul loathes this light bread. And the Lord sent fiery serpents
among the people, and they bit the people, and much people of
Israel died. Therefore, the people came to
Moses and said, we've sinned. For we've spoken against the
Lord and against thee. Pray unto the Lord that he take
away the serpents from us." And Moses prayed for the people.
And the Lord said to Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, set it
upon a pole, and it shall come to pass that everyone that's
bitten, when he looketh upon it, he shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass
and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass that if a serpent
had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived."
He just looked. Turn over to John chapter 3.
All he did was look. That's all he did. Now you imagine
if you were there. You know, here's our problem.
Remember when the Lord healed that man that was paralyzed,
they let him down through that roof, and He asked them, they're
standing around there watching, He said, which is easier, to
say, thy sins be forgiven thee, or rise and walk? Well, to a
carnal man, it's easier just to say, thy sins be forgiven
thee. but you can't really make somebody walk. The carnal thing
of making that paralyzed man walk, that was the easy thing. It took Christ laying down His
life in place of His people to be able to say, thy sins be forgiven
thee. But you see, we think about those
serpents in the wilderness and the Lord just said, look to this
serpent, lift it up on a pole, just look to it. And when they
looked, they were healed. They lived. And we think, that's
just too hard to even comprehend that that's all they did. They
got real live snakes around them, biting them. And people are dying
left and right. And the only thing the Lord said
to do, they lifted up a serpent just like that was biting them.
And He said, look to that. And that's what they did. They
looked and they lived. I'm going to say, that's got
to be a fable. No, that happened. But that's not the hard thing.
That was just the Lord easily working something to show an
illustration. Here's the hard thing, and here's what it pictured,
John 3, 14. Christ said, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the
wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. That
whosoever looks, that whosoever believeth in Him, that's what
it means. Whoever looks to Him should not
perish, but have eternal life. For God so after this matter
loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever
believeth in Him, whosoever looks to Him should not perish, but
have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into
the world to condemn the world. You see, God didn't send, He
didn't say lift up that serpent on the pole to kill the people
that didn't look. The people that didn't look was
already dead. Sin, venom was already going
through their veins. They were dead. And that's what
he said to Christ. God sent not his Son into the
world condemned the world. We is already bit by the serpent. But that the world through him
might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned. He that
believeth not is condemned already because he's not looked, he's
not trusted Christ alone. He's not believed in the name
of the only begotten Son of God. That's what that serpent's bite
represents. It represents the venom of sin.
Now we all sinned in Adam. We broke the law in Adam. You
were really in that garden and really broke the law. And so
death passed upon all men. Death by sin. The venom came
into us and we died. And God told Moses to make the
very thing that was biting the people and lift it up on a pole.
Christ said that typifies Him. He said as Moses lifted up that
serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted
up. Scripture says, in all things
it behooved Him to be made like unto His brethren. that he might
be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to
God to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. In all
things, it behooved him to be made like unto his birth. That
means, that's substitution. That means he came and became
what his people are to make his people what he is. He was made
under the law, or he was made of a woman, made under the law,
to redeem them that were unloved, that we might be freely given
the adoption of children. He who knew no sin, He made Him
sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. He hath redeemed us from the
curse, being made a curse for us, for it is written, Cursed
is everyone that hangeth on a tree. That's what Christ did for His
people. And by that He accomplished our redemption and all things
that behooved Him to be made like unto His brethren, that
He might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining
to God, to make reconciliation for us to God, to cure us of
the serpent's bite, to put away our sin, to make us righteous
before God. He was made what His people are, and by what He
accomplished, He made His people what He is, perfectly righteous,
the righteousness of God in Him. Was he really made of a woman
or was it just pretend? Was he really made under the
law or was he just pretending like it was? Was he made sin
or was he just treating them as if? Was he made a curse or
was it real? If it was as if, then it's just
as if you've been made righteous. But if it's true, that's what
he says to you who believe. You've been made the righteousness
of God in him. The only way, the only way his
people partake of this, the only one way his people partake of
this and are cured of this the way he makes you know it. He
already cured you of Calvary's cross the way he makes his elect
know it is. He sends this gospel and he says,
look unto me. And when He gives you faith to
look and you look, brethren, that's when He makes you to know
He has put away your sin forever and made you righteous with God. Oh, that's good news. Oh, that's
it. Look. You've been just look to
Christ. It's looking to Christ and trusting
it all into His hand. That's the second thing here.
Look at the passiveness of a sinner saved by grace. Verse 22. Look
unto me and be ye saved. Be ye saved. That's totally somebody
else saving you. Be ye saved. Look to me and be
ye saved. That's why we're looking to Him.
for Him to do all the saving. He has done it, and He is doing
it, and shall do it. God didn't tell the children
of Israel to do anything, but look, that's all He said. Look
and be healed. Look and live. They weren't to
fight the serpents. They didn't have to fight the
serpents. You can fight, strive, and work, and do everything you
want to do. You're not going to put your
sin away. You're not going to justify yourself before God.
The damage has been done. It was done a long time before
you ever came on the scene and had them. He didn't tell them
to do something to partially make a cure for themselves and
he'd partially make a cure for them. He didn't tell them to
mix their works with his look. God said simply, look and all
who look to me shall live. Look unto me and be ye saved. And when the Spirit gives a new
heart, the blood of Christ purges our conscience from dead works. That's what granting of repentance
really is. He makes you to know you can't justify yourself, you
can't make yourself holy, you can't fix what you've broken. And that blood makes you see
Christ has already done it. And the point of that is, if
you can look, He already gave you life. And you didn't do anything
to have that. He did it. You were born from
above. That's when you stop trying to
save yourself by your works. That's when you made to look.
That's when He's already made you yield to Christ to know He's
the only one that can save you. If we're saved, brethren, salvation
will be by God alone. By God alone. We sin, the venom's
in us. We're helpless to save ourselves
and no arm of the flesh can save you, only the Lord Jesus Christ. Only the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing
purge the sin of God's elect but the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Look unto me and be you saved. What all is included in
be you saved? What's that included in? What's
included in that? Well, regeneration. I just said
if you can look, There's only one way you can do it. The wages
of sin is death. We earn that by our works. The
wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal
life through Jesus Christ our Lord. If you can look, He's already
given you life. That's the only way you could
look. But when you look, He makes you know, I've given you eternal
life freely through the person and work of my Son. What else
is included in it? What else is included in it?
Justification from all our sins. Justification from all our sins.
Christ freely justified His elect. He's the propitiation through
faith in His blood. He already justified His people
at Calvary's cross. But being justified freely by
His grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus whom God
has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood. and
He comes and gives you that faith, and He makes you look, and He's
the mercy seat, look unto Me and be you saved, and He makes
you know you've been justified from all your sins, past, present,
future. What else is included in this
work of be you saved? Free forgiveness, pardon of all
your sin. Free forgiveness. Only God who
we sinned against can forgive us. That's why David said, against
thee and thee only have I sinned. God's the only one that can forgive
you. If you sinned against somebody else, and I said, well, I'll
forgive you. I can't. You didn't sin against
me. You sinned against somebody else. We sinned against God. He's the only one that can forgive
us. And when He brings you to Christ and makes you to look
to Christ, He makes you to know He has already forgiven you all
your transgressions, pardoned you of all your sins. Be ye saved. Be ye saved. He said Christ came
down, was made of one, made in the law, that we might receive
the adoption of children. And you'll hear men take that
word receive and they'll just harp on that. Say, you've got
to receive it. You've got to receive the adoption
of children. The next verse says, and because
you are sons, you haven't done anything, because you are sons,
God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your heart and made
you cry out, Father. Receiving means it's all been
freely given. And He even has to give you the
faith to look to Him and be brought to a place where you just say,
I'll just trust Him and be saved. I'll trust Him to do all the
saving. He even has to give you faith to do that. What else is
meant by being saved? Preservation all our days. Preservation all our days. In every trial, every day, the
whole way throughout our life, Christ says to his child, look
unto me and be ye saved. What does scripture say? Let's
run the race set before us, run the race with patience that's
set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our
faith. God's saints are kept by the power of God. It's Christ
keeping us. We're kept by the power of God.
We're being saved by Christ, by the power of God, through
faith. Just look into Christ to save
us every step of the way unto salvation, which is already ready
to be revealed in the last time. Look, there's nobody here, none
of us here would say, well, I believe, I hope none of us would say this,
I don't think any of us would say, that I think that there's
something I have to do to obtain eternal salvation. I don't think
you'd say that. I think you've been taught well
enough to know that's not so. But here's what we do mess up
on, and this is true too, brethren. He's telling you to look to him
and be saved today, in the trial today. Whatever the next trial
is that you face, he's saying look to me and be saved. I was trying to say that this
morning. If you're in a trial and you're trying to deliver
yourself and you're trying to make it all better and you're
trying to make it all right and you're trying to do this and
that and the other and fix it, it ain't gonna happen. It is
not going to happen. Not if you're God's child. Why? Because if you fixed it, you'd
say, I fixed it. It ain't going to happen. He'll keep you in that fire.
He'll keep you in that trial. You won't have peace in your
heart. All you'll have is bitterness until he brings you to obey his
one command, look unto me and be ye saved. That's it. Is that too simple? Is that too
narrow? He said he's the one way. He's the one way. That's the
third thing. The singularity of the way, Christ is the one
and only way of salvation. It doesn't matter who you are,
where you are. He said, look unto me and be you saved, all
the ends of the earth. What does that mean? That means
God's elect are scattered from one end of the earth to the other.
He's speaking here to Gentiles, elect among Gentiles, called
out from among the heathen nations. And wherever His people are,
whatever their condition, however sinful, wherever they are, no
matter where they are, there's one way of salvation. One way
of salvation. Look unto me and be ye saved,
all the ends of the earth. Can you back that up with scripture?
Our Lord Jesus Christ said, I am the way, the life, the truth,
and no man comes to the Father but by me. He said, I'm the straight
gate. I'm the narrow way. Broad is
the way that leads to destruction. Narrow is the way that leads
to life eternal. He said, I am the way. There's
not one way for the American and another way for an Asian
and another for an Arab. Christ is the one way his people
are saved wherever they are in this earth. wherever they are. Neither is there salvation in
any other, for there is none other name under heaven given
among men whereby we must be saved. And it's only through
faith in Him. Well, lastly, why is this so? Why is this so? Here's the reason. This is why Christ is the only
way of salvation. God said at the end of verse
22, for I'm God and there is none else. He said there in verse
21, I've declared this from ancient time. I've told it from that
time. Have not I the Lord, there's no God else beside me, a just
God and a savior. There's none but me. You and
me can't make mercy and truth meet together. Only the just
God and Savior could do that, and He did it in Christ, and
He's gonna get all the glory, and we're gonna, all His people
are gonna give Him all the glory. That's what we're gonna see in
the end of the, in the verse 25, when the Lord shall all the
seed of Israel be justified, and nail all glory in the Lord.
Nobody else. Beware, Paul said. Now listen,
Colossians 2.8, beware. lest any man spoil you through
philosophy and vain deceit. After the tradition of men, after
the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in him
dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. He said,
I am God and there is none else. I'm the just God and the Savior. I'm the just God and the Justifier. Look to me. Look to me and be
you saved. And if God by His grace has made
you look to Christ and He's your only hope, you just look into
Him and resting in Him to be saved by Him, trusting He will
do all the saving to the end. Here's the good news of the gospel.
He's the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete
in Him. What do you reckon God means
when He says complete? What do you reckon God means
when He says you're complete? God doesn't do anything halfway.
If He says something's complete, I guarantee you it ain't ever
even entered our heart how complete you are. Complete. And this one who tells you you're
complete, can you trust him to save you to the end? He said
he's the head of all principality and power. He's ruling everything
that's coming to pass. He's ruling everything that's
coming to pass. You know what I pray God will do? This is something
I have to ask God to do for me every day. And I pray he'll do
it for us today, and I pray he'll do it for us tomorrow, and I
pray he'll keep doing it for us to the end. Empty our hands. of anything we think that's going
to contribute to our salvation. Just turn us from it. Make us
drop it. Make us turn from leaning on
the arm of the flesh, from leaning to our wisdom, to whatever it
is, these many things that men think they got to add. And give
us faith to make us simply look. Just look. Try this. When you get alone with the little
one, ask her. Pick out something and say, look.
Look at that. See if she can do it. A little
child can look. What do we have to be made to
be safe? You got to be made of little children. to just look,
just trust Christ. That's so, brother, that's so.
Look unto me, be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I
am God and there is none else. God bless that word. Greg.