In verse 3, Isaiah 40, we read,
"...the voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye
the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our
God." We know this speaks of John the Baptist. John the Baptist
said, This is the record of John when
the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who
art thou? He confessed, and denied not, but confessed, I am not
the Christ. And they asked him, What then? Art thou Elias? And
he said, I am not. Art thou that prophet? And he
answered, No. Then said they unto him, Who
art thou, that we may give an answer to them that sin us? What
sayest thou of thyself? And he said, I and the voice
of one crying in the wilderness, make straight the way of the
Lord, as he said the prophet Isaiah. So we know this speaks
of John the Baptist, and Mark declares that this was the beginning
of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The point being,
God sends forth His messenger to announce the King's arrival,
or before the King arrives. And the king who is going to
arrive is the one who sends the messenger forth to announce his
arrival. He says, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face
which shall prepare the way before thee. The message of the Gospel
is one of the sure triumphs of Christ the Lord. Look here in
verse 4. Every valley... Are you a valley? Every valley... shall be exalted. And every mountain
and hill shall be made low. And the crooked shall be made
straight. And the rough places shall be
made plain. And the glory of the Lord shall
be revealed, and all flesh shall see together, for the mouth of
the Lord hath spoken it." This is the word of sure triumph,
that word that speaks of what our Lord Jesus Christ has accomplished,
is accomplishing, and shall accomplish. And the title of the message
this morning is, The Mouth of the Lord Hath Spoken. The Mouth
of the Lord Hath Spoken. When you hear a message preached,
is there any way that a believer can tell if that messenger has
been sin of God? How do I know if a man speaks
in his own name or if what he speaks is the mouth of the Lord
that hath spoken it. How do I know where a man got
his message? How do I know that? Look over
at 1 Corinthians chapter 2. 1 Corinthians chapter 2. In verse 10 It says, God hath revealed unto
us by His Spirit. For the Spirit, the Holy Spirit,
the Spirit of God, searcheth all things, yea, the deep things
of God. Now we have an illustration here.
For what man knoweth the things of another man, save the Spirit
of man which is in him? Even so, the things of God knoweth
no man, but the Spirit of God knows them. He knows them. Now,
we have received not the Spirit of the world. It's a different
spirit. A different spirit. We have received
not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God. And here's why. That we might
know the things that are freely given to us of God, that we might
know the things that are freely given to us of God, which things
also we speak. Not in the words which man's
wisdom teacheth, because they are all together a different
type of preaching, speaking. We speak the words which the
Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual
things. But the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness
unto him. Neither can he know them, because
they are spiritually discerned." He can learn them. And he can
quote some things to you, but it's altogether different to
count things as foolishness, to not be able to truly know
them. The way a believer knows them
is altogether different than the way a natural man knows them. He thinks he knows them, but
he thinks they're foolishness. He thinks things of God as just
foolishness. Don't get too carried away in
it. But, he that is spiritual, Judgeth all things. But don't judge now. That's what
folks will say. Believer judges every day. That
word means discern. And he doesn't do it unrighteously. He does it righteously. Because
he knows the things of God. He knows what the Holy Spirit
of God has revealed in him. He knows that salvation is free.
He knows that there's no good in his flesh. He knows there's
no good in any man's flesh. He knows that there's no good
in the flesh even after he's been converted and believes God.
That flesh is useless to try to reform the flesh. It's useless
to try to point men to the flesh. He knows that. And it says, yet
he himself is judged of no man. Folks that hear him preach, they
hear him speak, they hear the believer or the preacher of God
speak, and the natural man can't understand what he's saying.
He can't discern it. His mind's running circles over
the field, he's running circles over the field in his mind, and
he's backtracking over this thought and that thought, this thought
and that thought, and trying to figure out a way to prove
the preacher or the brother who's speaking to him wrong. And he
doesn't discern what the man is saying. He can't discern it.
He can't know it. He can't speak it. Because the
Holy Ghost hasn't revealed it in him. He can't understand the
deep things of God. He can't understand the mystery
of godliness. He just can't do it. For who hath known the mind
of the Lord that he may instruct him? Do you have the mind of
the Lord? Scripture just said we can't
know. No more than you can know what I'm thinking. We can't know
what God is thinking. We, the believer, the one that
the Spirit has revealed Christ in, have the mind of Christ.
We understand the mysteries of godliness. We have some understanding
of this free salvation that's in Christ because he revealed
it to us and in us. And God reveals these deep things
to His people. He really does. Believers have
received the Spirit of God. And we know these things. And
we speak these things. And we speak them not the way
a natural man speaks them. A natural man can go into a pulpit. My message today is primarily
dealing with the Lord's John the Baptists. And those who aren't
His. And the difference is this, a
man will go into the pulpit who thinks he's speaking the things
of God using his natural wisdom. He'll go into a pulpit and he'll
speak. And he'll talk about things that
are foolish to the believer, what he'll talk about. But the
things the believer who's born of God speak of, he thinks are
foolish. And the two won't ever be brought together, no more
than this flesh and this spirit within you who believe will ever
be brought together. They are two different things,
speaking two different Gospels all together. But the man of God is given this
understanding by the mouth of the Lord speaking in his heart. The mouth of the Lord has spoken
in his heart. The first thing I want you to
see is that the believer discerns that the mouth of the Lord hath
spoken by how the messenger speaks. By how he speaks. And secondly,
he discerns if it's the mouth of the Lord speaking by what
he speaks. How he speaks and what he speaks. Of course, Isaiah
40 verse 6, the voice said, cry. The word cry means more than
yelling or putting on a theatrical show. That's wisdom of man. Sometimes a believer, a gospel
preacher, or a believer who's speaking to someone, sometimes
the Lord fills them with the Spirit as they're speaking. And
they do get loud. They do get excited about what
they're saying. But it has more to do with the
substance, where the wisdom comes from. Are they fearful of men? Or are they reverent toward God? That's the difference. It has
to do with Christ being a man's wisdom. It has to do with Christ
being his shield and his defender. Look over with me at John chapter
7. Let me show you that. John chapter 7. The officers
were sent by the chief priests and the Pharisees to arrest the
Lord. And when they came back without Him, They asked these
officers, they said, why have you not brought him? And the
officers answered and said, never man spake like this man. Never. If we find out what they
meant about Christ, we'll understand a little bit more about this
manner in which His people speak when they cry. Jesus declared
that His wisdom came from God the Father. He declared his wisdom
came from God the Father. This crying of the believer is
what happens when Christ is our wisdom. Now look here at John
7, verse 14. Now about the midst of the feast,
Jesus went up into the temple and talked. And the Jews marveled,
saying, How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?
And Jesus answered them and said, My doctrine is not mine. but
He is that sent me as the true prophet, the true preacher,
Son of God, the Son of Man, Christ the Lord, the Servant of God.
He said, here's how I can preach to you, here's how I can cry
this message, having never learned, never been taught of a man, because
my doctrine is not mine. I'm not trying to teach man-made
doctrines. I'm not trying to teach as man
teaches. I'm teaching what God gave me
to teach. My doctrine, my teaching is not
mine, but His that sent me. And God's people speak not with
the wisdom man uses, whether they've been taught by a man
or not. This crying and speaking is to speak by the wisdom of
God. That's what it has to do with. Cry, speak by the wisdom
of God. Look at verse 18. He that speaketh
of himself seeketh his own glory, but he that seeketh his glory
that's in him. The same is true, and no unrighteousness is in
him. This crying has to do with Christ being our wisdom. Christ
being our wisdom. Then the cry is a true cry. It's
not an unrighteous cry. And then look down at verse 25.
This boldness to cry or this crying has to do with boldness.
And this boldness comes when Christ has been made our shield
and our defender. Look here with me. Verse 25,
Then said some of them of Jerusalem, Is not this he whom they seek
to kill? This is the one that the Pharisees
are wanting to kill. But lo, he speaketh boldly, and
they say nothing unto him. They don't say anything to him.
Do the rulers know indeed that this is the very Christ? Howbeit
we know this man whence he is, but when Christ cometh, no man
knoweth whence he is. He walked into this temple and
he's sitting here preaching boldly. And this is the man that they're
looking for. This is the man they want to kill. How is it
they don't understand this is him? And yet he sits here and
speaks to us and we know it's him. How is that? That's the
power of Christ. That's the power of God's ability
to sit there and declare who He is. That He's the Son of God
in the midst of His enemies and make them stand there still as
a stone and not even be able to open their mouth against Him.
They sought to kill Him. It says verse 30. Then they sought
to take Him, but no man laid hands on Him because His hour
was not yet come. They couldn't touch Him. They
couldn't do anything. He set the time. He set the hour
He'd go to the cross. And so when He's in the temple
preaching, He made it so they couldn't understand who He was.
When they'd seek to kill him, he'd go right out of their midst
and they couldn't even grab him. And by that same power, when
he sends forth his messenger to speak in his name, this crying
has to do with the boldness that they have that God has given
to be able to speak in the midst of those Calvinists who are just
merely Calvinistic. It's an adjective instead of
a noun, as Brother Joe Terrell said. It describes them, but
it's not the food. The food is the When they go
in their midst, in the midst of those who would rather hear
about man's works, they'll still preach Christ. That's the difference. It's crying has to do with how
a man is able to come into the presence of those who want to
hear a man-based message and be able to preach Christ. It
has to do with Christ being his wisdom. He don't have any other
wisdom. He's taught of God. And he has to cry what he's been
taught. And he's got boldness. He knows Christ is his shield
and his defender. He's not worried about what men will do to him.
Not worried at all about what men will do to him. And so, that's
why when Isaiah said in Isaiah 12, 6, he said, Cry out and shout,
thou inhabitant of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel
in the midst of thee. This thing has to do with knowing
that I'm not speaking by myself. And the one Of whom I'm an ambassador
is Christ Jesus who holds everything in place by word, by His own
mouth, by His own voice, by His own covenant agreement. He holds
everything in place. And nothing will happen to me
until the hour He has appointed. And in that hour that he has
appointed, he's appointed it so that in that hour, I'll leave
this body of death and this sinful, sin-cursed world and enter into
his presence for all eternity. That man can stand up and cry,
not caring if he's making political inroads, not caring if he's tickling
the ears of his hearers, if he's if he's soothing half a dozen
people that usurp authority over him in a congregation, he can
preach the gospel truly, honestly, in righteousness, and not be
concerned about what men will do to him or what the results
will be, because he trusts the Lord who sent him. And then the
voice not only gives unction to cry, but the voice, the mouth
of the Lord instructs his people what to cry. Look here at verse
6, Isaiah 40, verse 6. The voice said, cried. He said,
what shall I cry? Here's the message. All flesh
is grass and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the
field. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, because the spirit
of the Lord bloweth upon it. Surely the people is grass. The
grass withereth, the flower fadeth, but the word of our God shall
stand forever. O Zion that bring us good tidings, get thee up
into the high mountain. O Jerusalem that bring us good
tidings, lift up thy voice with strength. Lift it up, be not
afraid. Say unto the cities of Judah,
behold your God. That's my message. That's the
only message I have. If you're tired of hearing it,
you're going to be sadly disappointed because this is the only message
I got. All flesh is grass and behold your God. That's it. Verse 7 declares all the good
that you have performed in your flesh, whether before your conversion
or after your conversion, is as the flower of the field. It's
withering and it's fading, every bit of it. And notice why, verse
7, because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it. The Spirit
of the Lord bloweth upon it. One thing is sure, the people,
you, me, and every other man is grass. Would you build a house
out of grass? What else can you think of that
is any less substantial than grass? any less common than grass,
any less of any substance than grass. If God withholds the rain
from it, it dries up and dies. If God pours out more rain on
it, it'll die. If He doesn't give it just what
it needs, it'll die. And it withers away. The flower
comes up and it may be beautiful, may be a beautiful flower, but
it doesn't last, does it? The Lord blows upon it. He blows
upon it just like the... We're going to see this... We
already see this weather turning a little cooler, and it's going
to turn cooler. And as it does, the Lord's blowing
upon the grass and the flowers of the field, and they're just
going to fall away, wither away. So is a man who's looking to
his flesh. He's trusting in the weakest,
least substantial, worthless thing there is to trust in, his
own flesh. And when the Spirit of God blows
upon him, It won't stand. It just won't stand. Are you
trusting in your flesh? Are you trusting in something
about your flesh? That's why we preach about not
trusting in a decision, brethren. Because a decision is too often
nothing more than the workings of the flesh. It's too often
accompanied with music to entertain the flesh. It's too often accompanied
with urging and pleading and begging you to do something which
the flesh loves. The flesh loves that. Take a man who's down in the
dumps. who's just down on himself. And start bragging on him and
watch him. He just gets all full of life again. Because men like
to be bragged on. We like to know that this, we
don't want to admit this flesh is grass. We want you to tell
us to do something. And if you tell us to do something
and we behold it's something that's easy enough we can do,
we'll do it. And we'll put our confidence
in it. It's a house made of grass. A house made of grass. Is this
an old, outdated message? Is it an old, outdated message?
Is this what He commands you to cry just to sinners, but cry
another message to the believer? Has this command of the voice
changed? Look at the end of verse 8. But
the Word of our God shall stand forever. This word is the same
yesterday, today, and forever. All flesh is grass. The sovereign,
all-knowing, all-providing, thrice holy God says to you sinner and
to you believer, your flesh will not profit you. Your flesh will
not profit you. And the voice commands His people
in every generation to declare to every age, every walk of life,
every sinner, and every believer saying, Cry aloud, spare not,
lift up thy voice like a trumpet and show my people their transgression
in the house of Jacob their sin. Why would the Lord have us continually
hear the message and make us continually behold this message
as good news when it says that our flesh is grass? Because without
it, we'll start trusting the grass. We'll start feeding on
the grass. And as long as he continually
pricks us in the heart through his gospel, through the mouth
of the Lord speaking in our heart, to know that our flesh is grass,
he keeps his state on Christ, our bread. And that's good news. That's good news. And the voice
commands his John the Baptist to declare this to everybody.
Look at verse 9. This is what He wants them to
declare. O Zion that bring us good tidings, get thee up into
the high mountain, O Jerusalem that bring us good tidings. Lift
up thy voice with strength. Lift it up. Be not afraid. Make
sure everybody hears you. Make sure everybody hears what
you're saying. Say unto the cities of Judah,
Behold your God. The first thing that we're to
declare is all flesh is grass. The second thing we're to declare
is, Behold your God. Behold your God. If we're going
to behold Him, we've got to behold that our flesh is grass. He says,
Declare the strength of Christ Jesus the Lord. Look at verse
10. Behold, the Lord God will come with strong hand and His
arms shall rule for Him. Behold, His reward is with Him
and His work before Him. Declare the strength of Christ
the Lord. He's the Lord God. He's the Son of God who came
to this earth. His work required the strength
only the Son of God could perform. He had to, his justice, I want
to get real plain on this point, I did try to in the lesson this
morning, but I won't, his justice had to be satisfied before he
could save anybody. It wasn't that God decided, I
know that we hear a lot that God is love. God is love, but
he don't love at the expense of his holiness. He does not
love at the expense of His justice. In fact, the love that says He
sent His Son into this world to die for every man without
exception, to actually pay their penalty, to pay the debt they
owe, to pay the ransom, to deliver them out of captivity of sin
and death, to buy them to Himself, and to say that He did that for
everybody, and then turn around and say that He pours out His
wrath and His justice again on the sinner. His double jeopardy. That's not justice. And it's
sure not love. Because it doesn't really secure
the salvation of anybody. if He paid the debt for His people,
bought them completely from sin and death so that justice in
His holiness, He promises, I will never pour out wrath, justice
upon them ever again. Well then, if they're dead in
sins and have to come to a knowledge of Him before they can ever believe,
have to be born of the Holy Spirit, have to be regenerated in grace,
how then can they ever come to Him? He has to do that too. He has to bring them to Himself.
He has to create them anew in heart and in the spirit. Give
them a spirit that wasn't there. Create it within that old, dead,
glass, pitcher, fragile, dead, decaying, withering, grass, flesh. He has to, within that, create
life eternal that was not there. And He does that for everyone
that His Son died for because He's holy. He will not pour out
his justice on his son and then turn around and pour his justice
out on one for whom his son died. And because his son died and
his blood is effectual to save everyone for whom he died, it
satisfied the justice of God. Therein God is able to show mercy
and still be just. And so he sends his mercy into
the hearts of his people and calls them to behold what he's
accomplished. And he does it for every single
one of his people. You see, the issue that this
natural man has is, I don't like that God because it makes him
single out a particular people, and it makes him save a particular
people, and it leaves everybody else alone. It's because you
think you don't deserve to be left alone. It's because you
think, you're saying by that, I deserve for Him to show me
that same kind of grace. His people say, we didn't deserve
any grace from Him. In fact, if you want to understand
what grace is, you need to go back to Grace 101 and understand
that grace is something we don't deserve. It's something we didn't
merit. It's not something we earned.
It's free or it's not grace. And God saves by grace. He did
it that He might receive all the glory. And God says to His
messengers, He said, Go forth and preach. The Lord God will
come with strong hand, and His arms shall rule for Him. Behold,
His reward is not with men, it's with Him. His work is not looking
to men, it's before Him. This work that Christ determined
to do before the foundation of the world, that He entered into
covenant agreement with the Father to perform, so that the Father
could be just and merciful, so that justice and the mercy of
God could meet together and kiss in perfect harmony, this work,
He's viewed this work from all eternity. That's why when Adam
sinned in the garden, he didn't destroy the whole world. He's
looking at Christ and His works ever before him, the work of
righteousness, the work of justice, the work of faithfulness. the
work of honoring His law, magnifying it, showing that His law has
to be satisfied and showing that His law has to be fully fulfilled.
And that's shown to us in the one with the strong hand, the
strong arm. Christ Jesus the Lord. Who hath
believed our report? To whom hath the arm of the Lord
been revealed? He hath grown up. The arm of the Lord is a person.
That's Christ. That's the Lord. What do you
say? You have somebody who A person who is your support, you can
count on. They're your defender. They're your helper. They're
your shield. They're the one who makes sure your name's honored.
They're the one who you would entrust anything to. What do
you call them? They're my right-hand man. They're my right-hand man. Where's he seated? In God's right
hand. Do you notice when Bush sat down
with the two candidates the other day, do you notice who was on
his right hand? A Republican. You think that was by accident?
I don't think it was. That's what I thought when I
saw it. Put the one you want, put the one you like, put the
one that you support, the one that's yours on your right hand.
That's what God did. God the Father put Christ in
his right hand. He's his strong arm. He accomplished this. And
he says, The voice said, cry. And he said, what shall I cry?
And he said, tell them all flesh is grass. Tell them behold your
God. Behold your God. The voice said,
cry, behold the ongoing work of your God. Look at verse 11.
He shall feed his flock like a shepherd. He shall gather the
lambs with his arm and carry them in his bosom and shall gently
lead those that are with young. The food He feeds with is this
Word. He prepares a man like He prepared
John the Baptist. And His servant speaks the Word.
He speaks that which the mouth of the Lord has spoken in his
heart. He speaks all flesh is grass. Behold your God. And Christ
feeds him like a shepherd. Look with me. Look with me. Over at Ezekiel 34, 23. Ezekiel
34, 23. How many shepherds are there?
Ezekiel 34, 23. He says in verse 22, therefore
will I save my flock and they shall no more be a prey. I will
judge between cattle and cattle. And I will set up one shepherd
over them, and he shall feed them. Even My servant David,
he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd. And I, the
Lord, will be their God, and My servant David, a prince among
them. I, the Lord, have spoken it." Christ is the shepherd. He's King David. He's the one
that God put in charge. The government of God is on His
shoulder. And He says here, declare that.
And declare that He'll gather the lambs with His arm. That
same arm that bought them. That same arm that redeemed them.
That same arm that crushed the serpent's head. He will gather
the lambs with that same arm. And He'll carry them in His bosom.
They're in His heart that can't ever be forsaken. And He'll gently
lead those that are with young. The Word from the beginning.
The Word which goes forth and does not return void. The Word
whose words are life and spirit. The Word whom His written Word
bears witness. And why this written Word is
said to be the Word by whom the believer is born. He gathers
all the lambs which God the Father gave Him. He gathers all the
lambs which He laid down His life for. He gathers all the
lambs that in regenerating grace, where He regenerates them in
the heart. And He does it through this word, through the mouth
of His prophet. And if He says that's what He'll
do through the mouth of His prophet. If He's saying to His prophet,
this is what I'll do. You declare all flesh as grass.
And in the midst of the message He's to preach, He tells the
prophet, and this is what I'll do. As you're declaring to the
people that all flesh is grass and telling them to behold their
God, as you're telling them that this is the strong arm of the
Lord, Christ Jesus, as you're telling them that He is the Shepherd,
that He shall lead His flock, that He gathers His lambs, that
they're written on His breastplate, as you're telling them this,
that's what He'll do. He'll gather them, and He'll
lead them, and He'll feed those that He's entrusted with, young
ones. He'll do it. He says, you just simply go forth
and cry. And the messenger said, what
do I cry? All flesh is grass, the holder of God. If that's
what he says he'll do through this message, why are we preaching
another message? Why would a man stand up and
preach another message? Why would a man stand up and
try to command people with do's and don'ts about sexual morality.
Why would a man stand up and try to yoke people with how you
ought to be a better father or how you ought to be a better
husband? Why would a man stand up and do that? Because if you
tell me I ought to be a better father, I'll say, you know, you're
right, I ought to be a better father. That's not offensive
to me and what I owe to, I'll admit that, and I'll walk out
of here And I'll think, you know, I need to be a better father,
but I'm not as bad as Joe over there. I've seen how he treats
his kids. And you'll leave out of there
feeling all right. You're not offended at all. And you'll go on your
way and you'll try to be a better father for a while, until your
kids make you angry the next time. But that message is not harmful.
That message is not offensive. That message doesn't tell him
his flesh is grass, that there is but one father and that he
himself in his flesh is altogether deserving of God's wrath for
what an indecent excuse for a father he is. That's what's got to be
declared. But he's got, if we're going
to declare about how somebody has to be a good father, Let's
declare about how God the Father, the faithful Father, let's declare
Him in His glory. Let's talk about Him and how
He loved His Son, His Son everlastingly. How that He purposed that His
Son is going to have the very best that God the Father could
give Him. That He's going to be exalted to a throne and that
all of His creation, Everything that God the Father made and
everything that God the Father directs and everything that God
the Father does is going to come to an appointed end to where
everybody is going to fall at the feet of His Son and praise
His Son for what He's done. That's a faithful Father that
brings that to pass. Let's talk about that Father.
Then, he says, through the message, as you're declaring that message,
I'll declare in the hearts of my people that they're nothing
recognizable to a faithful father. I'll declare to them in their
hearts that they're grass. And I'll declare to them my faithfulness.
And in so doing, I'll draw them to myself. I'll gather my lambs.
I'll feed my flock. I'll carry my flock in my bosom.
And I'll direct their steps. If we're going to declare how
a A man ought to be a better husband. Let's talk about Christ
Jesus the Lord who came to His bride who had played the harlot
and had served Him in every way indecent for a bride. How she
had totally turned her back on Him and went away in adultery
and committed whoredoms with all her friends. All her so-called
religion, all her so-called righteousnesses. And yet He loved her anyway.
He came to her where she lived and He took her sin Himself. And He went to the cross and
was made the sin that she is. And went to the cross before
God and God said, the ransom price is you have to pay your
own life if you want her. And He said, I want her. She's
my bride. And Satan said, she's a filthy,
stinking harlot. Why do you want her? And he said,
she's righteous in my eyes. I want her. And he bought her. He paid his life and bought her
and brought her to himself. and will never forsake her. Has
provided her everything she'll ever need. She can't want for
anything because He's provided for her. Let's talk about that
husband. Let's talk about... And you know what will happen?
The Lord said, I'll reveal in the hearts of My people that
in their flesh, they're not good husbands. They're not good wives.
And I'll make my people to behold Christ the husband. And I'll
make my people to behold that in Him, His bride is altogether
lovely. She's dressed in white, in white
garments. And they'll behold, that's talking
about me. I'm the one that played the harlot. I'm the one who went
my own way. And yet God has robed me in righteousness. He's made me the very righteousness
of God. What a husband! And that will
make a sinner, God says in His Word. I'll feed them with that. I'll feed them with it. And I'll
direct their paths. And I'll make them wake up tomorrow
morning in their own house just like Gideon went out there into
the field and was thinking about what the mouth of the Lord had
spoken. I'll make them get up in the
morning. I'll make the husband go, I'm going to go to work today
and I'm going to put in a good day's work for my employer because
look at what my Savior did for me. And the wife will get up,
she'll say, I'm going to give myself for my husband this morning,
and I'm going to work and clean this house, whatever it is she's
doing, because she beholds. He says, that's how I'll do it.
I'll make my people obedient people. You just simply declare
Christ. You just simply declare that
He's the husband. You just simply declare the Father.
You just simply set forth the glory of God before my people.
Don't you try to stand up as Christ and command my people
to do what you want them to do. You're not God, he said. I'll
do it. You go tell them all flesh is
grass, behold your God. And the one who sends forth the
command, I'll make it effectual in their hearts and I will bring
them into obedience. Because John, if you go forth
trying to do it, what's going to happen? If they do it, you're
going to boast that you made them do it. I'm never going to
let you have any glory to where you can think you made a man
do anything. And I'll tell you what, after a year of being here
as your pastor, I can guarantee you the Lord God will never let
this man, if I'm here, He won't let me have room to glory in
the flesh. He constantly reveals in me that I don't have anything
to glory in. Constantly. And He just won't
let a man do it. It's a different message. And
he said, So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth.
It won't return to me void. It'll accomplish that which I
please. It'll prosper in the thing whereto I send it. For
you shall go out with joy, be led forth with peace. The mountains
and the hills shall break forth into you singing. Instead of
thorns and all that Wilderness you were in come up third tree. It'll come up nice fruitful Comfortable
sweet smelling trees that can shade you from the storms that
I'll create that those are his people He said I'll bring those
for you. Just go preach the word. That's
all And I'll do it he said for a name for an everlasting sign
that shall not be cut off What art would you just read about
bring forth that blind that have eyes and the deaf that have ears?
No standing before you today a blind man that has eyes and
a deaf man that has ears. In my flesh, that's grass, I
don't have any eyes. I'm blind. But in the Spirit,
I can see Him. I can behold Him. I was deaf
in the flesh. This flesh don't like God, don't
want to have anything to do with God, wants to do anything and
everything but study the Word of God. But He's created some
ears that hear Him when He says, sit down at your desk and study
My Word. I've entrusted you with My people. cry to my people."
There's a difference. And he says, you're my witnesses.
Not only in what you say to my people, but the very fact that
you're willing to say it. Because I've given you eyes and
ears to want to say it. So the believer discerns that
the mouth of the Lord has spoken by how the messenger speaks.
And in the mouth of the Lord, as he or any discerns that it's
the mouth of the Lord in what he speaks. When John the Baptist
cried, repent, the kingdom of heaven is at hand, he was crying,
turn from your flesh and behold your God. Christ is at hand. He's here. Behold Him. That's
what he's telling them. When he cried to the Pharisees
and Sadducees and said, you vipers, Bring forth meat for repentance.
He's saying turn from your religion, turn from your message of works
religion, turn from telling men that it's that which goes into
their mouth or what they don't put in their mouth or what they
do in their flesh or don't do in their flesh that defiles them.
Stop telling them that and turn around and tell them that their
flesh is grass. It's what comes out of that defiled
stinking heart. that defiles them, that makes
them think that they're doing righteousness for reading His
Word, or for going to a place where people gather in His name,
or for whatever it is they do in religion. That's the defilement. He's thinking that that's righteousness.
And He said, turn from that. Bring forth meat for repentance.
Prove that you truly came to seek the Lord. Unless we hear the voice say,
Adam, where art thou? we'll go on hiding in the trees.
Unless we hear the voice say, your flesh is grass, behold your
God, we'll go on praising our grassy flesh for this delusion
the world calls obedience, wisdom, and grace. Unless we're made
to behold Christ's obedience as our own, we'll never obey
Christ. Unless the voice sends forth his word like the snow
and the rain in your heart causing you to experience true sovereign
grace, you'll leave out of here hugged up to that old viper saying,
poor old Clay. He just ain't arrived at our
platitude of learning. Hear the word of the Lord, you
children of Israel, for the Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants
of the land, because there is no truth, no mercy, nor knowledge
of God in the land. What does the devil's lie sound
like? What does it sound like? The Lord said to some, you are
of your father, the devil, and the lust of your father will
he do? Will you do? The devil doesn't cry, all flesh
is grass. Behold your God. The devil lusts
to stand in Christ's place and bark Christ's commands as if
they were his own. You get that? The devil likes
to stand in Christ's place and bark out his commands as if they
are his command, as if they're his own command. The devil was
a murderer from the beginning and a bold not in the truth because
there's no truth in him. He'd have Christ crucified by
not preaching Him, or by telling those who think they're believers
only what they ought to be doing or ought not to be doing, and
thereby never telling anyone that the flesh is still grass
and the believers still continually must behold the Lord Jesus Christ.
When He speaketh a lie, He speaketh of His own. When a man doesn't
preach ruin by the fall, redemption by the blood, and regeneration
by grace in every single solitary message he preaches, in every
word of advice he gives, in every time he has the opportunity to
do it, then he speaks of man. He speaks a lie. He speaks of
his own, his own will, his own choice, his own ability. Yea,
of his own father the devil, for he's a liar and he's the
father of it. See that? See that? That's just how serious it is.
The believer declares what the voice declared when he walked
this earth. Christ himself didn't spend his
ministry preaching on how to raise children, on how to be
sexually moral. He didn't preach a series on
the history of the church or on various Old Testament prophets.
He never did. He declared the one of whom the
law and the prophets spoke. That's who he declared, saying,
this day is this word fulfilled in your ears. And the religious
folks who claim to believe God hated him because he declared
all flesh is grass. Behold your God. He declared
that though many reject him, those whom he purposed to save
from eternity, he'll save. When did he say that? First message
he ever preached. He sat there and said that, talked
about that one, all the widows that were in Sarepta, but it
came to one. Talked about all the lepers that were in Naaman's
day, but he healed one. They want to take him up on a
hill and throw him off the hill for preaching that. When he preached
the law, he used it lawfully to declare that the very thoughts
of a man's heart are evil. It's not that which he eats or
doesn't eat, or how he washes or doesn't wash. It's the heart
which imagines his fleshly doings or his sanctification which defiles
a man. He declared, if any man is thirsty,
let him come unto me. And he declared, no man can except
my Father which is in heaven. Draw him. He told his disciples
to keep my commandments. And he told Peter, you'll deny
me three times tonight, Peter. But I've interceded for you that
your faith fell not." Now, when you're converted from seeing
that the strength of keeping my commandments doesn't have
anything to do with any strength in you whatsoever, then go preach
this word. Your flesh is grass. Behold your
God. And I will give my commandments
in the heart of my people, and I'll cause them to obey me, Peter. This is the work of God. This
is life. This is righteousness that you
believe on the Son of God. And John says, In this the children
of God are manifest, and the children of the devil. Whosoever
doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth
not his brother. Let's cease from doing the unrighteousness
and hateful thing of pointing men to grass. Thereby the voice
will exalt every valley and bring low every mountain and hill.
Just preach what he said, preach. Just speak what he said, speak.
And you don't have to be a preacher. This is to all of us. And he
shall make the crooked straight and the rough places plain. And
the glory of the Lord shall be revealed. instead of the grassy
flesh. This is His commandment. The
voice said, Cry, all flesh is grass, behold your God. Have you heard the voice of God?
Have you heard the command of God in your heart? Will you heed the command? Those
who have heard His voice, heed His command. Because where the
Spirit is that reveals in the heart the deep things of God,
there's obedience to Him. So when you hear a man preach
that leaves it open-ended, just don't shut men up to the fact
that all flesh is great. It leaves it open-ended. If he
continues in it, if he persists in preaching that message, it's
because He don't know. As God says, the Holy Spirit
makes a man know. The man that knows by the same
Spirit speaks what he knows. And the wise man of this world
says, I believe I could get a bigger following if I preached it a
little differently. I believe I could get along with
everybody if I preached it a little differently. God didn't say,
go get along with everybody. He didn't say, go try to please
everybody. He said, go cry. Everybody's grass. Look to God. That's what He said to do. Either
we're going to do it and obey Him. That's where it's got to
start. It's got to start in the pulpit. And the man who preaches,
keep his commandments and acts like he's Christ and that he
can make you keep his commandments and tries to make you keep his
commandments, that man don't keep Christ's commandments. He's
disobeying Christ in what he's crying. how he's crying. He's doing it in his own flesh
and he's crying out, glory to the flesh. Is that clear? But it's not going to be brought
about by trying to just get everybody to hold hands. This is how God
does it. This is his word. Plainness can
be to us. This is how he does it. That's
how it's going to have to happen. Sentimental reasons got to go out the window.
Our personal friends and family and all that, that's got to go
out the window. God said, I didn't come to send peace, I came to send
a sword. A man's enemies will be those of his own household. Not if we don't say this word.
Not if we dress it up in the wisdom of men. We have friends
everywhere. But if we say it like God said,
we're going to have some enemies. We're going to have some enemies
in our own house. That's how He said, say it. We either love
Christ and trust Him and preach the gospel as He declared it
from God down instead of preaching it from man up as if God's waiting
on you. That's how it's got to be preached. That's how God's people preach
it. That's the difference. That's the difference between
the truth and a lie. All right.