Undeniably, mankind has made
remarkable achievements across the span of history and has accomplished
many extraordinary feats. But we need to understand that
God Almighty is spiritual and eternal things operate on an
absolute higher level than man is capable of functioning. God's ways and standards are
infinitely, infinitely above ours. So with that said, turn
with me to Isaiah chapter 55 in your Bibles, and I wanna look
at two verses here. Verses eight and nine. Isaiah
55, beginning in verse eight. Now this is God speaking. And
when God speaks, we better listen. What does God say? Well, He says
in verse eight, for my thoughts are not your thoughts. Neither
are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. And then God says in
verse nine, for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so
are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your
thoughts. Now we live in a world today
that tells man that he can do anything if he puts his mind
to it. But the truth is, that that mindset
is dangerously incomplete and ultimately false from a biblical
perspective. Man is limited. Scripture declares
even crippled, spiritually, morally, and physically.
Man's wisdom is short-sighted and it's self-serving. No matter
how determined or smart someone is, they cannot overcome their
fallen nature of sin or the sovereign will of God by sheer willpower
alone. Now the world's you can do anything
mentality and philosophy ignores the reality of human brokenness. God's very quick to point it
out in his word. It hardens men and women from
feeling the need of divine grace. You tell a man he can do anything
and everything, he'll believe you. And he won't have a need
of God. I remember a dear friend one
time playing the lottery. He played it one time and he
was nervous. And I said, what are you nervous
about? He said, I'm afraid I'm gonna win it. And I said, well,
why does that concern you? And he said, because I know what
I'm capable of doing. If the Lord blessed me with a
bunch of money, I'm in trouble. Kind of the same thing with the
same mentality that man can do everything. He doesn't need God.
That's what my friend was saying. If I win all that money, I'm
afraid I won't need God. It causes men and women to ignore
that our strength and our success are ultimately under God's control,
not ours. The Bible, God's word is clear.
Apart from Christ, we can do nothing. That's not easy for some to take.
We can do nothing of any eternal value. That's what that's talking
about. First, man is not self-sufficient. Just not. Christ said in John
15, 5, He said, for without Me, you can do nothing. Do you believe
what Christ said? That's what He said. You can't
do nothing without Me. Not a few things, not some things,
not enough to get by. You can't do nothing. You've
got to have Me. When the Lord said, without Me,
you can do nothing, That's what he meant. Nothing. He said, I
am the vine, you are the branches. He that abideth in me and I in
him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. Our fruit comes from
the vine, which is the Lord Jesus Christ. If we're connected to
him, we bring forth fruit. If we're cut off and we don't
abide in the vine, then we dry up and die, just like a branch
does. It's severed from a tree. Can't do anything. What's it
good for? To be burned, that's it. We can't
bear fruit. Listen, we can't live right.
We can't save ourselves. We cannot please God. Paul said
that, he said, because the carnal mind, the fleshly mind is enmity
against God. That word enmity, that's a strong
word. It means hostile. It doesn't
mean that we're just a little upset with God, but it means
that we're hostile towards God. And our carnal flesh and mind
is not subject in subjection or submission to the law of God. And then he adds, neither indeed
can it be. Not in and of itself. That's
what that means. Man is powerless to submit to
God unless God intervenes. and brings him into submission.
Right? That's what God says. The Lord
Jesus said, no man can come to me. We've got people saying,
I came to Jesus. I gave Jesus my heart. No man
can come. No man has the ability to come
to me except the Lord said, the father which has sent me draw
him and I will raise him up at the last day. Does he raise himself
up? No. And a few words later in
verse 65 there, He said, Therefore said I unto you that no man can
come unto Me, except it were given unto him of My Father.
You know what I call this? I call it God's divine exception. That's what it is. Except the
Father draw us. Except it were given unto us
by God the Father. So Paul finishes with, so then
they that are in the flesh cannot please God. You can't please
God in the flesh. Romans 8, 7 and 8. Man claims
to be able to do many things. Man claims that he can do anything
if he puts his mind to it. Well, that's what the folks at
the Tower of Babel thought. God stopped that, didn't He? Man in and of himself cannot
please God, not unless God intervened. Secondly, human strength and
willpower are just, they're insufficient. Jeremiah 10, 23 says, Oh Lord,
I know that the way of man is not in himself. It is not in man that walketh
to direct his steps. You see, the way is not in us
to direct our own steps. James said in another place,
he said, don't say you're going to go into another city and you're
going to do this and you're going to do that and you're going to
start a business and you're going to work hard and get great gain. But what I say then, James said,
if the Lord wills, I'll do this and I'll do that. Don't leave
that out. Because if the Lord don't will,
you won't do it. In our sin, we're limited. Our
iniquities have made us directionless. We don't just lack power, friends. We lack wisdom to know which
way to go. Man doesn't have the ability
to guide himself rightly without God. The world says you can do
and become anything. The world says if you work hard
enough you can accomplish anything. Christ says without me you can
do nothing. Now who are we going to believe?
I'm going to believe the Lord. The world's religion is a religion
of self. The belief that man is his own
savior and strength. But Scripture consistently exposes
this dangerous delusion And thirdly, the world's message is prideful
and deceptive. The root of the lie is pride.
Do you know that? First of all, sin is the reason
for pride, and pride is the reason for a lot of our problems. At
the heart of this world's message is pride. The same pride that
caused Satan to fall, and the same pride that caused Adam to
disobey. The wise man Solomon wrote in
Proverbs 16, 18, pride goeth before destruction and a haughty
spirit before a fall. What does? Pride. What does? A haughty, prideful spirit. The beloved John wrote in 1 John
2, 16, the pride of life is not of the father, but is of the
world. The lie of self-sufficiency. And that's what it is. It's appealing
because it flatters our flesh. Now listen, we all like to be
flattered. We all do. But what can man actually do?
Well, the Bible's pretty specific. First, man can sin. Sin is a universal human condition. Sin is not just making mistakes. Sin is rebellion against God's
holy standard. Men can rebel. From the Garden
of Eden onward, mankind is chosen to reject God's authority and
act independently. Frank Sinatra and Elvis Both
sung, I did it my way. How'd that turn out? Well, there's
a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof is
the way of death, destruction. Isaiah 53, 6 says, all we like
sheep have gone astray. We've turned everyone to His
own way. That's the problem. We've turned
to our way, not His way. His way is Christ. Christ is
the way, the truth, and the life. And no man, no woman, nobody
comes to the Father except the divine exception, but by Him. The heart is deceitful above
all things and desperately wicked." I didn't say that. God said it. There's a way that seems right.
It's not the right way. It seems right. But it's a way
of deception. Self-deception. The Bible doesn't
hide these truths. That's one of the things to me
that just proves the Word of God to be so true, is it doesn't
hide these truths. It shows mankind's capacity for
failure. It shows mankind's skill for
destruction. Are there some things that you're
good at? Yes, there is. Sinning is one of them. The capacity to self-destruct
is another one. This shows man's state of separation
from God. And it should. It should point
men and women to God's grace and redemption and restoration
in and by and through the Lord Jesus Christ. Because He's the
only one that can do this for us. It should cause men and women
to recognize their need of sin and need to repent. The first step is to admit that
we're wrong. That we've sinned against God.
Acts 3.19 says, Repent ye therefore and be converted. That word converted
means turn back. That your sins may be blotted
out. Repent and turn back. Repentance isn't just feeling
sorry. You know, that's the way... There's a particular, very popular
preacher that comes on TV now in a little commercial and he
says, all you have to do to be saved, just say you're sorry.
Just admit that you're sorry, you repent of your sin, and say
these words, Jesus come into my heart, and blah, blah, blah. Repent is to turn, is to change. That's what the word means. It
means to change your God. It's a deliberate turning away
from sin and turning to God. And this should cause us to have
faith in Christ. Salvation and restoration doesn't
come any other way. Christ is the way, the truth,
and the life. And again, I tell you, no man, no woman, nobody
comes to the Father, except how? But by Him. Pretty narrow, isn't
it? Pretty narrow. Seeing these things
should cause us to cry out for God's grace and forgiveness.
Grace is not earned. Grace is undeserved, unmerited
favor. It's given to those who repent
and believe. Everything I am telling you this
morning is coming from God's Word. It's by grace that we're
saved through faith. And that faith and that grace
is not of ourselves. What is it? Where'd it come from?
It's a gift of God. It's not by works that any man,
any woman, anybody should boast. Boasting is excluded. Nobody's
going to heaven boasting about what they've done. Now they may
boast on what their Savior did for them. But they're not going
to boast on anything they did because they did nothing to be
saved. Without me, you can do nothing. The Bible declares that
salvation is of the Lord. It's the work solely of the Holy
Spirit. The Spirit of God empowers us
to believe. We can't even believe apart from
God's Spirit. It strengthens us to be conformed
to Christ. It causes us to trust in God
to transform our hearts and our minds. And if we're in Christ,
we're new creatures, a new creation. I love that. I love the thought
of that. Because this old me is not going
to do the trick. It's not going to do the job.
I've got to be given a new heart. I've got to be made a new creature,
a new creation. I've got to have God put His
Spirit in me and give me life. And sadly, as long as we dwell
in this flesh, these bodies of death, Paul called them, and
that's a good name for them, they're bodies of death, we're
gonna fail. However, the child of God aspires
to be rid of their sin because of sin, like Job, when we truly
see God. We see Him in His holiness and
in His justice and in His majesty. We abhor, we hate ourselves. That's what Job said. He said,
I've heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear, but now my eyes see
of Thee and I abhor myself. This world encourages us to love
ourselves. Why? It's the greatest love of
all. Learning to love yourself. No,
it's not. It's a curse. It's a curse. But seeing the holiness of God
will bring the opposite. Man's sin is real and destructive,
and the Bible doesn't offer any shortcuts or any self-help gimmicks. Only a surrendered life to Christ
will suffice. Now, I'm telling you this because
I love you. I had a man tell it to me, and
many that still do, because they love me. If a man loves you,
he'll tell you the truth. A life empowered by God's Spirit
is what we must have. One enabled to live in obedience
and faith. There is no other way. Friends,
the only hope we have is Christ's sufficiency. Paul cried unto
the Lord three times to take a particular thorn in the flesh,
he called it, away from him. And what did the Lord Jesus say
to him each time? My grace, my grace is sufficient
for you. It's all you need. But we want
some kind of miraculous hoodoo, don't we? Kind of like Naaman.
Naaman was a leper. He went before Elijah the prophet.
Elijah didn't even come out to see him. He was a great man.
Elijah sent his little servant out there and said, go and wash yourself in the Jordan
River. and you'll be clean." And he
was offended. He was mad. He said, well, I
thought, I thought this great prophet would come out and see
me because I'm a great man. I thought he'd wave his hands
and do some kind of dance and make a big hoodoo because I'm
somebody. No. Doesn't matter what you think. He went and washed. And he was
cleansed. Oh, Paul said in Philippians
chapter four, verse 13, I can do all things through Christ
who strengthens me. I thought you said we couldn't
do anything. We can in and of ourselves, but
we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. You
know, I go out to the YMCA, and that's hung on the wall right
there to see. I see it every time I go. I can
do all things through Christ that strengthen me. Listen, friends,
that's not a motivational quote for athletes. Men have made it
that. It's a declaration of dependence. Not independence, but a declaration
of dependence. I can do all things only through
Christ which strengthens me. Paul is saying that he can endure,
he can serve, he can suffer, not through any of his own willpower,
but only through Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians
3, verse 5, not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything
as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God. We're not enough. But He is,
He is sufficient, and so is His grace. Oh, dear sinner, we're
held to a higher level. We're held to a higher standard
than that of this world. If we're to be saved, we've got
to be set apart. Only God can set us apart. We
can't set ourselves apart. We've got to be holy and sanctified.
We can't make ourselves so, only God can. We can't do anything
on our own. Without me, you can do nothing.
We've got to be consecrated. We've got to be dedicated to
God's purpose. How does that come about? By
Him doing it for us. We can't accomplish that ourselves.
We're held to a greater accountability. To whom much is given, much is
required. Luke 12, 48. The Lord said that. We've got to be found above reproach.
Anyone here this morning above reproach? The only way we can
be is through the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. We
spent the whole first hour this morning talking about that and
seeing that in the Psalms. God must impute Christ's righteousness
to us in order for us to be counted as blameless and above reproach. The scripture calls it unreprovable.
I like that. That means that I am so perfect
in Christ that I'm above reproof. You can't get on me about nothing
because everything I do in Christ is perfect. Now, we don't continue
in sin that grace may abound. You know that. You've heard that
for many, many years now. We don't want to sin. We hate
our sin. We abhor our sin. and you that were sometime alienated
and enemies in your mind by wicked works. That's me, that's me. Yet now hath he, the Lord Jesus
Christ, reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, did
you hear that? Through death, to present you
holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight. That's the only
sight that matters. He's the only one to condemn.
If I am perfect in His sight, then everything's going to be
all right. So in our text here in Isaiah 55, we find great hope
in knowing that our God and Savior is capable to do such a wondrous
work in us. And to those who say, well, I
don't know about that. Oh, His thoughts are higher than
your thoughts. His ways are higher than your
way. Well, how much higher? Higher than the heavens are from
the earth. Huh? Higher, higher, higher. We're
still finding galaxies out in space that we can't reach, we
can't see. Heaven's beyond those galaxies. So that means God's thoughts
and ways are infinitely higher than ours. And this points to
God's mercy and grace because His ways are higher. He can do
what we can't. I don't want to serve a little
pigmy Jesus who can't do anything unless I let Him do it. I want to serve the one whose
thoughts and ways are much higher than mine, higher than the heaven
is, over the earth. How? He can offer forgiveness
and salvation through the ability of another, the Lord Jesus Christ. Even though we don't deserve
it, and even though we don't fully comprehend it, God has
the ability to make us righteous, holy, perfect, unblameable, unreprovable
in His sight. Amen. And this challenges our human
pride and self-reliance. We can't fix ourselves, but Christ
can. We're commanded to trust our
God. We bow to his purpose as the sovereign, as the believer's
father. Did you hear that? He's your
father if you believe in him. This is all accomplished in His
redemptive purpose. It comes from His unfathomable
mercy and wisdom and grace, not from human effort or understanding.
Look up at verse 6 here, 55. Seek ye the Lord while He may
be found. Call ye upon Him while He is
near. Let the wicked forsake His way and the unrighteous man
his thoughts, and let him return. There's that word again, repent.
Let him repent, return unto the Lord, and he, God, will have
mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon."
I wonder why he put abundantly in there, because that's what
we need. We need abundant pardon. The gospel is a straightforward
message. It doesn't pull any punches. There's an urgency to seek God.
Did you hear me? There's a limited opportunity.
Seek Him while He is accessible, while He may be found. Seek Him
while He is near. His Spirit will not always strive
with man. That's what He said in Genesis
6. My Spirit will not always strive with man. Sometimes God
has enough. He lets men have their way. He
lets them go. Go ahead. Have it your way. Have it your way. Sinners are urged to abandon
their sinful ways. True repentance is a deliberate
turning from sin. The gospel declares God's mercy
and forgiveness. That's what we want to hear.
Don't tell me what I got to do to be saved because I can't do
anything to save myself. When sinners repent and confess
their sins to God and turn to Him, He is faithful and just. Faithful and just. To forgive
us our sins and to what? Cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Christ has all righteousness. We have all unrighteousness.
He cleanses us from our unrighteousness and freely gives us His righteousness. Have you ever heard any better
news than that? My salvation is based solely upon Christ's
mercy, because as a wicked man by nature, I cannot forsake my
evil ways. Naturally, being an unrighteous
man, which is what I am, I cannot abandon my thoughts of depravity.
Do you ever have a bad thought come into your mind and you go,
oh no, I don't want to go there, and you go there anyway? Depravity. It's my union with
Christ that abundantly pardons me. A scriptural pardon means
to be released from guilt and the penalty of sin. It means
to be forgiven and set free from the judgment that I deserve. It's a legal and moral release
granted by the righteous judge. The only judge in the matter.
The one that sets on the judgment seat of God. The original Hebrew word for
pardon, I believe it's pronounced salach. Not a Greek or Hebrew
scholar by any means, but the only time that word is used in
the Scriptures is when it speaks of God's forgiveness. You can
take a concordance and find it for yourself. It's never used,
that word pardon, is never used in human-to-human forgiveness.
That shows and proves to us that real pardon, heavenly pardon,
scriptural pardon, is divine. The Lord forgives, pardons all
your iniquities. Psalm 103. Who does? The Lord
does. Men and women get in a little
booth and confess their sins to a man. Why? He can't forgive
your iniquities. Only God can. Preacher can't
save you. Priest can't save you. Only God
can. In a world that says all men
can, the Word of God says no man can. And that, my friends, is why
salvation is of the Lord. And again, I ask you, are we
going to believe God or are we going to believe man? This can't
be understood by man's intelligence. It can't be understood by man's
education. The gospel is not mere information
to be analyzed. It's a divine truth that's got
to be spiritually revealed. The Bible is blunt. I've grown
to appreciate bluntness. I don't want to have things sugar-coated,
not anymore. There was a time I did. Somebody
say something good about you and start bragging on you, and
I'd say, I'll give you an hour to stop that. But we don't want
that. We want a straightforward answer. This is the kind that God gives.
The Bible is straightforward and blunt. The natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God for their foolishness
unto him, neither can he know them because they are spiritually
discerned. Listen, education may sharpen
the mind, but it cannot regenerate the heart or open the eyes. 2 Corinthians 4, 3 and 4 says
that the gospel is hid to them that are lost. It doesn't say,
hid to them that are dumb, hid to them that are uneducated.
It's hid to them that are lost, in whom Satan, the God of this
world, hath blinded the eyes of them which believe not. Now,
I just want to say this because I've had someone ask me before
that statement about Satan being the god of this world. He doesn't
own this planet. That's not what that means. The
earth is the Lord's in the fullness thereof. This belongs, the whole
shooting match belongs to God. All that dwell therein belongs
to Him. The world here is in the context means this current
sinful, rebellious order of human society. That's who he's the
god of. And that's what Satan controls.
And that's what he's the little g god of. And again, we're given
the divine exception. He says, lest Unless, or except,
the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of
God, should shine unto them. That's the exception. Unless
God shine His light, we'll never see. Paul said we don't preach
ourselves, we preach Jesus Christ the Lord. For God, who commanded
the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts." To
what? To give us the knowledge of the
glory of God. Where? In the face of Jesus Christ. The intelligence of man can understand
historical facts about the Bible. There are men that I know who
can know more about the Bible and its history. They've forgotten
more than I know. But they don't know Christ. That's
right. That without the Holy Spirit
and without His work on the heart, a man cannot grasp the Scripture's
true meaning. He'll never see its true and
personal relevance or his need to submit to the Lord Jesus. There are many Bible scholars,
doctors of theology, that miss Christ and die in hell. Just
like the Pharisees did. I remember when the Lord first
began to deal with me, and I believe saved me. I'm not one of these
who can tell you the day and hour I was saved. I was saved, I'm being saved, and
I'll continue to be saved. But I remember the people, acquaintances
anyway, I wouldn't say friends, said, David Edmondson got religious.
Did you hear David Edmondson got religious? Some say that
I still am. Well, he's religious. You know
he's religious now, don't you? No, sir. No, sir. I did not get religious and I
am not religious. It was the religious Pharisees
and religious leaders in the day of our Lord that crucified
and killed the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm not religious. Religious. God gave me eyes to see. God
gave me ears to hear. God gave me a heart to believe.
It was God that made the difference. Who makes thee to differ from
another? Every time the answer is the same. God. God. What do you have that you didn't
receive? Nothing. God gave us everything
we've got. Life, breath, any ability that
we have, intellect, health, possessions, opportunities, every spiritual
gift we have came from Him. He made us to differ. Why the
mean glory is that they did not receive anything from God? That's
a good question. They do. Man shouldn't glory. Nothing originates with us. We
didn't create our own existence. It's received. We don't have
any boasting rights. Boasting is the theft of God's
glory. There's no self-made men and
women. Well, he's a self-made man. Where was God in? No legitimate grounds for pride. All credit belongs to God. To
glory in yourself is to claim ownership over what has been
merely entrusted to you. Let me read you a portion of
scripture and I'll finish up. It's found in Jeremiah chapter
9. This is God speaking straightforwardly. Thus saith the Lord. Let not
the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory
in his might. Let not the rich man glory in
his riches. But let him that glorieth glory
in this, that he understandeth and knoweth Me. that I am the
Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in
the earth. For in these things I delight,
saith the Lord." Now listen, there is a false glory in which
people tend to glory and wisdom and power and wealth. All those
things are temporary. They're fragile, they're ultimately
gifts of God anyway. And then there's true glory,
that's knowing God and understanding His character, His loving kindness,
His justice, His righteousness, as the verse that I just read
declares. The only kind of real glory there
is, is Christ-centered glory. That's the only kind of glory
there can be. It's the fact that the Lord Jesus is our wisdom,
He is our righteousness, He is our sanctification, and He's
our redemption. He's made in us those things. All the believer's confidence
is rooted in God's work, not in our self-achievement. Now
I do want to turn you to one passage, and I'll finish. 2 Corinthians 10, verse 17. This is worth taking the time
to look at. Two or three minutes at the most. 2 Corinthians 10,
verse 17. Here Paul is quoting the verse
in Jeremiah that we just read. And he writes here in verse 17.
I know I'm rushing you. But here he writes, Let him that
glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. In this chapter, Corinthians
chapter 10, Paul is defending his ministry and his preaching
against critics who are trying to elevate themselves in order
to tear him down. You know that's the way men often
do. They brag on themselves in order
to try to make you look less. Well, go ahead. Go ahead. God's already shown me what I
am. You can't claim me to be any
lower than what God's already shown me I am. These opponents measured their
worth by human standards, credentials, eloquence, popularity, outward
impressiveness. But Paul flips the script by
telling them that self-promotion is just meaningless, and it is.
Man's abilities, man's achievements, man's reputation, don't count
for anything in God's eyes. Only God's commendation matters. In verse 18, look what Paul says.
He says, for not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom
the Lord commendeth. For not he that commendeth himself
is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth is. Our boasting's
gotta be in the Lord. Nothing is by our works that
we can boast of. Here we have a call to redirect
glory away from self and toward God. Away from self and toward
God. The right kind of boasting and
glorying is this. Let him that gloryeth, let him
that boasteth glory in this, that he understands and knows
God and His Christ. There you have it. That God exercises loving kindness,
judgment, and righteousness in the earth, and these are the
things that the Lord delights in. Has God enabled you to glory
in Him alone? Do you know this Lord, this God,
this Savior? Have you experienced His loving
kindness? Are you still glorying in your own wisdom, in your own
might, and your own riches? That path ends in judgment. It robs God of His rightful honor. It blinds the sinner to their
true need of Him. This is eternal life. This is
life eternal that you might know the one true God and Jesus Christ,
whom He hath sent. That's salvation. Trusting in
what He's done, not in what you do.