If you would turn with me this
morning to the book of Isaiah chapter 8. I want to look at a verse here,
verse 20. Isaiah chapter 8, verse 20. It's here that God, through the
prophet Isaiah, declares to the child of God that they are to
look to the law and to the testimony. You see that in verse 20? Now
what's that talking about? What is this law and this testimony? This is talking about the word
of God. This is talking about the standard of truth. This is talking about the Holy
Bible that you hold in your hands this morning. God has preserved
his infallible word for thousands of years. And it's been put in
a book that we can obtain free of charge most anywhere and everywhere. According to verse 20, if any
preacher, if any pastor, any teacher of God's word does not
speak according to this word, the holy scriptures, it's because
there is no light or no illumination in them. And I'll be the first
to tell you this morning that if you despise the wisdom of
God that is from above, God will allow you in the end to prove
your own ignorance. The man who will not bow before
the Most High God immediately builds for himself an idol of
his own hands. You see, if a man does not attribute
his salvation to God, he will in the end attribute salvation
to himself. I've seen it happen time and
time again. If men and women would but search
the Scriptures, they would find that God's Word testifies of
the Lord Jesus Christ. We say it all the time. It's
nonetheless true. This book, the Bible, God's infallible
Word, is a hymn book. Not H-Y-M-N, but H-I-M. It's about Him. It's about the
Lord Jesus Christ. Who He is. That's what this book
is about. It reveals to us that He's a
just God and a Savior. Not just God, but a Savior. And not just a Savior, but a
just Savior. What has our God done? He came
to save His people from their sin. Isn't that what the Word
of God says? This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world
to save who? Sinners. That's who He came to
save. That's who He's accomplished
salvation for. He came into the world to save
sinners, those that God gave Him before the foundation of
the world. Well, preacher, you're always
adding that, because it's so. God chose His people before the
foundation of the world, before the sinner had done any good
or evil, that the purpose of God, now listen, that the purpose
of God, according to election, according to God's choosing,
might stand. It's not of Him that wills, it's
not of Him that runs, but it's of God that showeth mercy. If
you and I are to ever be saved, it will be God who saves us. And it will be God who saves
us through the Lord Jesus Christ. Why did the Lord Jesus come to
save His people from their sin? Because it pleased the Lord. to make you His people. No reason
apart from that. It just simply pleased the Lord
to make you His. That's good news. The salvation
of God's elect people is to the glory of God, the Father, the
Son, and the Spirit. Salvation is of the Lord. The
Lord gets all the glory for salvation. No saving apart from the Lord
Jesus. And these things are clearly
taught, declared, and revealed in the Bible, the Word of God.
to the law, Isaiah says, the old covenant, the covenant of
works, to the law, God's holy law, that law that requires perfection,
that perfection that you and I cannot provide. Tell me, ye
that desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law? The
law demands perfection. For whosoever shall keep the
whole law and yet offend the law in one point is guilty of
the whole law, guilty of all of it. I, who cannot keep one
point of the law. I had a man tell me one time,
he said, I'm doing pretty good with about seven out of the 10
commandments. I've never kept one of them. Not perfectly. No, sir. I who can't keep one
point of the law find all my hope in the one who kept the
law for me. That's what the gospel is about.
It's about what God has done for sinners, not what we do for
God. That's what this book declares.
It's the testimony to which we look. The word testimony in verse
20 means evidence. This book is the evidence of
how God saves sinners. That word testimony means proof. This is the proof that God saves
sinners. This is the means that God has
left us to see that. This is the witness. That's what
the word testimony means. This is the witness that Christ
came into the world to save sinners. Paul said, of whom I am chief.
Now, I'm not an eyewitness to this evidence. I wasn't there
2,000 years ago when they nailed the Lord Jesus to that cursed
tree. But I have proof, and I am a
witness to these things because of what this book declares. I
guess you could say I'm not an eyewitness, but I'm a heart witness.
I'm a heart witness to these things. The Spirit of God bears
witness with our spirit, with our heart, that we are the children
of God. We are present tense. We are right now. We are, not
will be. We are and will be forever the
children of God. If Christ died for my sin, my
sin is put away and I will forever be a child of God. This is a
sure thing, but this is sure because it deals with the surety. Jesus Christ. who is our surety,
he cannot fail. And that's why I rejoice in this
gospel that we preach, because it's not dependent upon what
I do, but it's totally dependent upon what he has done. And he
did a perfect work. He kept God's law perfectly. He satisfied God's justice completely. And now when I stand before God,
God smiles. And God says, no sin on that
sinner. It's been paid and full. It's
been put away forever. What does this book teach? Does
God save sinners or do sinners save themselves? We need to find
out. Did Christ pay the wages of sins
dead, or does the sinner pay for their sin themselves? We'd
better find out. Does God receive all the glory
and the salvation of sinners, or does man somehow share in
His glory as a contributor in Christ's work of righteousness?
We had better find out. The truth of the matter is this.
The sovereignty of God is offensive to natural-minded men and women. God can be God of creation. Yeah, and God created the heavens
and the earth. Amen, brother, preach on. God can be the God
of providence. Yes, he works all things after
the counsel of his own will. He works all things together
for the good of them that love the Lord, who are called according
to his purpose. I attest to that, brother. I
give you my amen on that. But God can't be God in salvation. Now that's taking it just a step
too far. He can rule in the waves. He
can rule in the wind. He can rule in the storms of
life, but he can't rule in the heart. No, sir. He can't have
mercy on whom he will. He can't be gracious to whom
he wills. He can't have compassion on whom
he wills. He can't harden whom he desires
because that's not there. He's God. God doesn't have to
be fair. God has to be holy. God has to
be just. God has to be righteous. God
can by no means clear the guilty. God has got to make a way to
justly put our sin away that we might be reconciled to Him
justly. He's a just God and a Savior. God says in His Word, shall the
thing formed say to him that formed it, why hast thou made
me thus? Hath not the potter power over
the clay of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor and
another unto dishonor? The sovereignty of God is offensive
to man. The election of God is offensive
to man's religion. So much so that there are preachers
in some denominations that won't even mention the word election. even though it appears in the
Scripture. And it's the same with that word predestination.
Why have these become such ugly words in the scheme of religion? Men and women say things like,
well, everyone deserves a chance. But salvation is not by chance.
Salvation is by choice. And it's God's choice. A man
chooses his bride. But man won't allow God the same
privilege. God chooses His bride. God chooses
His bride. And when we choose something,
it's okay, but when God chooses something, it's not. Is there
unrighteousness with God? Paul said that's what you're
gonna ask. You're gonna ask if God can have mercy on whom He'll
have mercy, if He can have compassion on whom He'll have compassion,
if He can harden whom He wills, then you're gonna ask this question,
is there unrighteousness with God? Is it not right for God
to choose one and pass by another? It's God. You better believe
it's right. God can do what He wills. Our
God's in the heavens. He's done whatsoever He's pleased. In the armies of heaven, among
the inhabitants of the earth, that which the Lord willed, that
did He. This is the God with whom you
have to do. You might say, that's not my God. Well, it might not
be, but that's the God. That's the God of the Bible.
That's the God of heaven and earth. And you're going to do
business with Him whether you want to or not. This is a matter
of life and death, that being eternal life and death, and this
is why. Paul said in Galatians 2, verse
21, he said these words. He said, I do not frustrate.
That word means despise. I don't reject. I don't bring
to naught. I don't make nothing of the grace
or the graciousness of God. And then he said this, for if
righteousness, That perfect righteousness that God requires in order for
us to be reconciled to Him. If that righteousness comes by
the law, then Christ is dead in vain. Those are strong words. Now this verse does not say that
if righteousness come by the law, that Christ would have died
in vain. I think I've read it that way
for years. But that's not what the verse says. The verse says
that if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead
in vain. He's still dead. He's of no profit
to you. He's of no purpose to you. If
salvation is not by grace, if salvation is not in Christ alone,
then Christ is still dead, as far as the believer's concerned,
and his death for sin was in vain, for no reason, for no purpose. You see, for a man or a woman
to claim that they can, somehow, by the work of their own hands,
do anything to earn, deserve, or merit God's favor, is in a
sense, murdering Christ. It's saying that Christ is not
enough. It's saying that what Christ
did for the sinner was not enough. That the salvation God provided
is not finished. It's saying that Christ is dead
in vain. When I hear preachers preach
and say the things that they say, I think to myself, how ridiculous
is it to think that God needs our help? He who just spoke the
worlds into existence. He who said, let there be light. And there was light. How could
he use my help? That's ridiculous. Does God need
for you to let go? Does God need for you to let
Him have His way? Does the sovereign God of heaven
and earth need our will or our cooperation to save us? I hear
people say, that's the way God made it to be. God made it so
that men and women would have to exercise their free will in
order for God to save them. You know, there's just one thing
wrong with that. It's not so. It's wrong. It's not true. You will not come to me that
you might have life. Who said that? Christ Himself
said that. You will not come to me that
you might have life. It's not of Him that will it.
So plain, so simple. It's not of Him that will it,
nor of Him that run it, but of God that showeth mercy. Now which
is it? Is it of you that willeth or
is it of God that showeth mercy? Can only be one of the two, can't
be both. I was not willing and God made me willing in the day
of His power. He gave me life, He gave me faith,
He gave me sight, He made me willing, He made me able. He's not dead in vain. He ever
lives to make intercession for us. That's what this book, the
infallible Word of God, that's what the law and the testimony
declares to us. It's the final authority. To
trust in a work of righteousness we do, to rely upon a work of
our will, to take credit for a decision that we made, it's
again to take God's perfect Son and crucify Him afresh in vain. But, by God's grace, every child
of God will say along with Paul, I will not frustrate, I will
not despise, I will not make nothing of God's graciousness
to me in Christ, for I know that righteousness, God's righteousness,
God's perfect righteousness did not come to me by the law. did
not come to me by me doing or keeping the law. And what I did
with that law, it came to be by Jesus Christ, who is not dead
in vain. Christ forever lives to plead
for those for whom He died. What a wondrous thought that
Christ, at the right hand of God the Father, forever makes
intercession for me. That means He pleads for me.
He pleads my cause. He pleads my case. Father, I
died for Him. His sins put away. All of it,
past, present, and future. Judy, your sin is gone. I rejoice
with you on that. At the end of verse 19, God,
through the prophet Isaiah, ask a most crucial question. I ask
you this morning, should not a people seek unto their God? Should not we seek unto our God?
Should we as God's people not seek unto our Lord? Shouldn't
we go to the one who created us? Shouldn't we go to the One
who formed man out of the dust of the ground and breathed to
him the breath of life and man became a living soul? Isn't that
who we should go to? Shouldn't we go to the One who
is life? Shouldn't we go to the One who
creates life? Shouldn't we go to the One who
sustains life? Shouldn't we go to the One who
died that we might have life? We live in a world where there's
pretty much a church on every corner of every town. One denomination
interprets the Bible this way, and another denomination interprets
the Bible another way. But only God can reveal to a
sinner the truth, and it's going to be out of this Word, out of
the preaching of it. Faith cometh how? By hearing.
Hearing by the Word of God. It pleased the Lord by the foolishness,
what the world calls the foolishness of preaching, to save them that
believe. And that's the preaching of God's Word. There's but one source of truth,
and that's God's infallible Word. God beget us. God born us. How? With the Word of Truth.
The Lord Jesus said to His Father, Thy Word is truth. Now I want you to listen to me.
I sincerely mean this. Now I will tell you this, if
I come next week and nobody's here, I'm going to be disappointed.
But if I do not preach, if I do not speak according to the Word
of Truth, then you shouldn't hear me. And this is why. If
I do not speak, if I do not preach the things that are in accordance
with what is written in this book, it's because there's no
light in me. And you shouldn't hear me. But,
if I preach to you according to what God has written in this
book, the Holy Bible, the Word of God, you will be held accountable
to what I've preached and to what this book says. Search the
Scriptures. Search the scriptures. Don't
just take my word for it. Go to the word of God. Prove
to yourself the things that I'm telling you are so. I'll never
forget a man telling me years ago. I thought a lot of this
man. He was a kind man. But he told me years ago that
he didn't believe that the Bible was the Word of God. And I told
him that my only hope of salvation and my only hope of redemption
was found in the fact that the Bible was the Word of God. You
see, it's this book that tells me that God Himself became a
man and came to earth and did for me what I couldn't do for
myself. That's where I find all my comfort. The Word of God is
the book that tells me that God took upon Himself my sin and
gave me His perfect righteousness so that I might be reconciled
to God. But that man argued that the
Bible was written by men. I said it was written by men
under the inspiration of God. He thought that the Bible was
controversial. I said without controversy, great
is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh,
justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the
Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. There's no controversy here.
He declared that the Bible was inconsistent. The Bible no doubt
teaches things are controversial and inconsistent to man's natural
way of thinking. God's ways are not our ways.
His thoughts are not our thoughts. God's ways are past, now and
now. Our ways are wrong. But this is God. His ways are
not our way. His thoughts, not ours. God said,
let there be, let there be, and there was. That's the way it
still is. God says, let there be light
in the heart of that wretched sinner. And there was light. That's the hope that we have.
God made the world and all things therein, seeing that he's the
Lord of heaven and earth. How is it that all of a sudden
God is dependent on man? How is it that God Almighty needed
anything, seeing that He alone giveth to all life and breath
and all things? You see, it's God who gives life
and breath to every man. God's reign falls on the just
and the unjust. God's sunshine shines on the
wicked and the righteous. God is God to all, but He's only
Savior to some. God created all men and women,
but God saves only those that He chose in Christ. Christ did
not die for the whole world. Christ died for those in the
world that God gave him, and all that the Father giveth him
shall come to him, and he will in no wise cast them out. It's
a sure, certain thing. You can write it down. Christ
didn't die for the whole world. Christ died for those in the
world that God gave him. I want to give you quickly five
things that the infallible light of the Word of God shines forth
as truth. I'll be brief. The first thing
is this. Everything, everything that is
of eternal value is found in Jesus Christ. Everything. Every good and perfect gift is
from above and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom
is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. God doesn't change. He's the same yesterday, today,
and forever. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings. How
many? All of them. Every spiritual
blessing is in the Lord Jesus Christ. We're chosen in Christ,
we're accepted in Christ, in Christ we have redemption, in
Christ we have the forgiveness of sin. With the shedding of
Christ's blood, there is pardon. All that we have in the way of
eternal spiritual blessings are in Him, no place else. In Christ
dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are
complete in Him. This is what God's Word says.
This is what God says. Are you going to believe God?
All spiritual blessings are in Him. In 1 Corinthians 1, verse
30. But of God are you in Christ,
who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. Everything that we need is covered
there. Everything. And no flesh should
glory in His presence, because Christ has made these things
unto us. My wisdom, my righteousness,
my sanctification, my redemption, all found in Him. No place else. And here's the second thing.
The spiritual blessings that are found in Christ, they're
mine. They're yours. They belong to
you. The spiritual blessings that
are found in Christ becomes ours. God has put everything in His
Son. And if I'm to have any part of
it, I've got to be where God put it. I've got to be in God's
Son. Eternal life does not just believe
that there's a God. Eternal life is to know God and
to have the nature of God regenerated in you. Eternal life is not learning
correct doctrine. You can't know Christ apart from
correct doctrine, but that's not eternal life. And eternal
life is not having an emotional experience. All my life, men
pointed me to an experience. That's not where salvation is.
Salvation is in a person, not in an experience. Eternal life
is in Christ. It's Christ in you, the hope
of glory. It's not Christ in a book. It's not Christ in a
creed. It's not Christ at the altar. It's Christ in you, Sharon. That's the hope of glory. Paul
said to the church at Galatia, I travail until Christ be formed
in you. We're being conformed into the
image of the Lord Jesus Christ. And all those spiritual blessings
become ours by our union with Him. Our Lord said, I'm the vine,
the life, and you're the branch. The branch has its life in the
vine. The branch is alive because of the vine. The vine says, without
me, you can do nothing. You cut the vine away from the
branch and the branch dies and withers away and is burned into
the fire. There is no life apart from Christ
the vine. The branch cannot bear fruit
of itself, except it abide in the vine. Do you see that? Christ
is the head of the church, and the church is his body. The head
is where the power and the life is. Now I can live without an
arm, and I can live without a leg, but I can't live without a head.
Christ is my head. In Christ I have life. A husband
and a wife. What a great mystery. What a
great mystery concerning Christ and His church. They're one flesh. He's the heir. We're joint heirs
with Him. We have our inheritance in Him.
Now we need to get this. All spiritual blessings are in
Christ. They are ours by our union with
Him. And that brings me to the third
thing. How is this union with Christ accomplished? We need
to know. The child of God wants to know.
I know from God's word that it's a gift of God. It's a gift, not
something I earned, not something I deserve, not something I merited.
I know that it's not by works so that I can boast. God is not
going to allow me to boast in this salvation of mine. It's
by grace through faith. Grace is God's gift. Faith is
God's gift. Without faith, it's impossible
to please God. He that cometh to God must believe
that God is, and he must believe that God is the rewarder. He's the only rewarder of them
that diligently seek Him. Now the question is, are you
diligently seeking Him? Good news if you are. He's a
rewarder of them that do. He that believeth on the Son
hath life. He that believeth not the Son shall not see life. He that heareth my word and believeth
on him that sent me, Christ said, hath everlasting life and shall
not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life. Everything's in Christ. Everything
is ours by union with Him. That union with Christ is through
believing God. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. And that's what this book teaches. It's the most prized possession
you have, whether you know it or not. The fourth thing is this,
this saving faith that we must have comes by hearing the word
of truth. That's how it comes. It comes
by hearing the gospel of your salvation. It comes by hearing
what Christ has done for us and whom you trusted after you heard
the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. That's what
this is. It's the gospel of your salvation.
It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. And we know these things according
to the word of God. We know these things according
to the divine revelation of God's spirit. We know these things
because God divinely intervened. God divinely butted in to our
life that was headed to hell as fast as it could. And He interceded
and He intervened and He said, let that sinner go free. That's
what God said, let that sinner go free. I died for Him. I shed
my blood for Him. And there's remission for his
sin. Last thing, how is the gospel going to be made effectual to
one who is dead? I think that's a fair question
to ask. How can one who is dead in sin
be made alive? Well, first, their sin is going
to have to be put away. How is one who is unrighteous
going to be made righteous? I know this much. According to
the law and according to the testimony, it's not by works
of righteousness that we've done. But according to His mercy, He
saved us. According to His mercy, He saved
us. We're saved by mercy. He saved
us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost.
How's God's gospel made effectual to me? Not by might, not by my
might. I had no might to save myself,
not by power. I had no power to call my own,
but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts." That's how, by His
Spirit. It's the Spirit that quickened
him. The flesh profited nothing. Oh, that He might speak to you
and me from His Word and cause us to grow in the grace and in
the knowledge of the Lord Jesus. May God command the light to
shine out of darkness into our dark hearts to give us more light,
more revelation, more and more about Jesus. More about Jesus
would I know. More of His grace to others show.
Show me, Lord. Give me more. I want more. Don't you want more? I want to
grow in His grace. I want to grow in His knowledge.
May God be pleased to give us the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God that's found only in the face of Jesus Christ. That's the only place it's found.
That's what I need most every hour of every day. May God be
pleased to make it so for my good, for God's glory, and for
Christ's sake.