Let me talk to you tonight about
what I thought I was going to talk to you about this morning.
The Unbelieved Report. The Unbelieved Report. Now, I'm
sure that you know Isaiah lived and wrote during the days of
King Uzziah, and it was a time of great prosperity. I'm sure
you will remember from your studies of the history of the Bible that
after the death of King Solomon, the kingdom of Israel divided
into two sections. You know that. There was a northern
kingdom. The capital was Samaria. They
never had a godly king. That's what you can remember
about Israel. That's how it's referred to so
often in the Old Testament. Israel, the northern kingdom,
those ten tribes, they're sometimes referred to as Ephraim. But they
never had a godly king. Never. Then there was the southern
kingdom, that's Judah. The capital was Jerusalem. They
did have some godly kings. But they also had some ungodly
kings as well. But they had King Uzziah. Now Isaiah preached the gospel
under the kingdom during the rule of King Uzziah. It was a
day of great prosperity, a day of great economic achievement,
a day of political stability. In fact, under the reign of King
Uzziah, Israel, that is Judah, and I'm talking about the southern
kingdom now, so if I say Israel, you'll understand I'm talking
about the southern part of Israel, that is Judah. Under his reign,
great things happened, wonderful things happened. And they rose,
Judah rose, almost to the glory, not quite to the glory, but almost
to the glory of the days of David and Solomon. Wonderful, wonderful
time to live under his rule. But, as is almost always the
case, where God sends and blesses with temporal prosperity, people
forgot God. They forgot God. As the nation
grew in riches, It also became more degenerate. The blessings
you see that the Lord gives daily. We're talking about mercies of
the Lord. The mercies of the Lord over
all of the nations of the earth. Did you know that? Grace is effectual
and specific and particular only to God's people. There's no such
thing really as what some people call common grace. There's nothing
common about grace. Grace is to a specific people
chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, redeemed by the
Lord Jesus by his blood, justified by his imputed righteousness
sometime in life, called by the Spirit of God through the gospel,
effectually regenerated, brought to believe and embrace the things
of God. We know that. We know that. But these temporal blessings,
they don't lead anybody to believe the Lord. These temporal mercies,
mercies are given to everybody, but they never draw anybody to
Christ. You see, our hearts are covetous. We're wrapped up with the things
of the world. And the more of the world that
God is pleased to give us, the further away from God we will
go. They don't ever draw us to the Lord. Some people might think,
well, you know, if the Lord gave more to people, they'd be more
thankful. It just doesn't work that way,
does it? Instead of drawing us to Him, we just go away from
Him. And we take pleasure in the things
of the world, which we know are only for a season. Well, Isaiah
lived in such a day. We live in such a day. We live
in such a day. We know vice and corruption and
immorality have increased. God has prospered our nation.
He has given us things materially. We haven't used them for His
glory. They've not drawn us to Him.
We can only be drawn to Him by effectual grace, can't we? We
can only be drawn by the preaching of the gospel. That's what God
uses. Days of prosperity lead a country
further away from the Lord. Isaiah lived to see the worship
of God degenerate into a lifeless, meaningless ritualism and useless
ceremonialism. He saw the nation that he loved
forsake the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. Religion in
Judah in Isaiah's day had fallen into decay and ruin. It had lapsed into false religion. Now we know there are only two
religions in the world, true religion and false religion. What is true religion? It's the
religion of God. The religion of God, of grace,
of Christ Jesus, of salvation conditioned upon the obedience
of our Lord Jesus. That's true religion. It's a
religion that says salvation is of the Lord in its origin. in its purpose, in its purchase,
and in its power, and in its preservation. There is that true
religion, God's religion, and then there is every other religion
which is false. And it doesn't matter by what
label it goes by. It doesn't matter what brand
name it is. You may call it Baptist or Catholic
or Mormon or Jehovah's Witness. If it's not the gospel of Christ
Jesus, if it's not true religion, it's false religion. Just two religions. I was talking
to somebody several years ago in the great state of Kentucky. I'm trying to be politically
correct. I'm trying to get along. If you cut me, it bleeds blue,
see that? Except when I'm in Ohio, it bleeds
scarlet. Whatever. But anyway, I was talking
to a fellow, and he was talking about it, and I don't want to
offend any of you, but he was talking about Rush Limbaugh.
Okay? So whatever your political views
are, whatever you think of him, it don't matter to me. It's neither
here nor there. But anyway, he had kind of disagreed
with me about some things. And I knew he was a big fan of
Rush Limbaugh. And I said, well, Rush Limbaugh
doesn't believe the gospel. I pray that God will reveal the
gospel to him and others as well. But I said, he doesn't believe
the gospel. He's not a Christian. He said, he's as close to being
a Christian as you can be without actually being one. Listen, you either are or you're
not, right? Either in or you're out. It's
either true religion, all of grace, all of Christ revealed
in the Scriptures, or it's false religion, whatever you want to
call it. Whatever you want to call it.
You see, false religion is any system, any doctrine, any religion,
any denomination that makes salvation dependent upon, conditioned upon
man's will, man's work, or man's worth. If you've got a salvation
that is dependent upon something you must do, you've got false
religion. Because God's religion is a salvation
in which all of it is dependent upon God. and upon God alone. We believe the doctrine of Jonah. Salvation is of the Lord. But the natural man believes
salvation by works. We're born Armenian, aren't we?
Uh-oh, I forgot to set my stopwatch. So those first few minutes don't
count. Every man by... sometimes I even
tickle myself. Every man by nature is a free
will Arminian. Every man is a free will Arminian.
And we believe that if we do something for God, then God will
reward us and give us that which we seek. That's just natural. Now, I grew up liking the music
of the 60s. Probably some of you did as well. Forgive me for using a secular
reference, but there was a song called The Last Kiss. And this guy, he borrows his
daddy's car, I think it was, and they go out and they have
a wreck. His girlfriend dies. And he says, oh where, oh where
can my baby be? The Lord, some of you could sing
the lyrics, the Lord took her away from me. She's gone to heaven. So what? I've got to be good. I've got
to be good so I can see my baby when I leave this world. That's
the thinking of false religion. That's the thinking of the natural
man. That's just the way we're programmed
due to the fall. We think God expects something
out of us and in return we'll get something out of God. And
the more I do for God, the more God will give me. That's just
natural thinking. But it's all wrong. Because salvation
by grace is altogether free. It costs you nothing. It costs
Christ Jesus His blood. His blood, His life, His life
laid down. That's what paid the price of
redemption. That's what satisfied the offended
justice of God. God demanded death. Christ Jesus
came and He died for our sins, according to the Scriptures.
And He is buried and He rose again the third day, according
to the Scriptures. Salvation conditioned upon the
obedience unto Christ's death. That's what we believe. That's
what this book teaches. But the religion of man, salvation
by personal goodness, salvation given as a reward, salvation
by works, salvation attained by the efforts of man, and that's
just according to human reasoning. The more I do for God, the more
I'll get from God. And that's even bled over into
some people who say they believe grace. And they've got a reward system.
When you die, you go to heaven. The more you've done, the more
you'll get. I don't know why songs just pop
in my mind. I bet y'all remember, will there
be any stars, any stars in my crown? When at evening the sun
goeth down, when I wake with the blessed in the mansions of
rest, will there be any stars in my crown? You remember that
song? How many of you sing it? How many of you singing that? We don't sing that anymore. But
you see, that's even bled over. This idea has bled over even
to some people who say they believe grace. We're rewarded for what Christ
did. We're rewarded for His obedience. You see, all of our sins were
charged to the Savior. His righteousness has been imputed
or charged to us. And God receives us, God accepts
us in the Beloved. We say, well, what about the
good works we do? Don't they count for anything?
Well, not before God. And the fact of the matter is,
our good works are so filled with sin, tainted by depravity,
they're not fit for God's presence and God's acceptance unless Christ
presents them to the Father. And the good works that we do, we were ordained to do them.
You know what it says? We're His workmanship. Ephesians
2.10. We're His workmanship created
in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained. It said it wasn't you after all.
Which God hath ordained that we walk in. And if we do anything, if we
have any love, if we show any kindness to anybody, if we forgive
anybody, it's because Christ lives in us. I'm crucified with
Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not
I, but Christ which liveth in me. And the life which I live
in the flesh right now, I live by the faith of the Son of God
who loved me and gave himself for me. It's never us. It's never
us. That's what the natural man just
cannot grasp. It's not us. It's never been
us. It's always been him. Accepted
in him. Well, Israel viewed things this
way. Salvation by the deeds of the
flesh. Salvation by keeping the law.
They didn't need imputed righteousness. while they were going about to
establish a righteousness of their own. But now watch this. It wasn't that they ceased to
be religious. They kept on being religious.
They kept on going to the temple. They kept on offering their sacrifices. They kept on going through the
motion. But God wouldn't have anything to do with it. In fact, God says this, turn
over to chapter, is it chapter 66? Yeah, look at chapter 66. This is what God says. Look at 66 verse 1. Thus saith
the Lord, the heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool.
Where is the house that ye build unto me? Where is the place of
my rest? For all those things hath mine
hand made, and all those things have been, saith the Lord. But
to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a
contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word. He that killeth an
ox, which God commanded, bring the burnt offering. He that killeth
an ox, as if he slew a man. He that sacrificeth a lamb, God
told him to bring a lamb, firstling of the flock, male, without spot
or blemish. He that sacrificeth a lamb, as
if he had cut off a dog's neck. He that offereth an oblation,
as if he offered swine's blood. He that burneth incense, as if
he blessed an idol. Yea, they've chosen their own
ways, and their soul delighteth in their abomination, no heart
in it. Listen, for true worship, two
things are necessary. There's got to be truth. It's
got to come from the heart. Isn't that right? You can't worship
God without truth. So I think as long as a man is
sincere. I'll tell you, Saul of Tarsus,
before his conversion, he was very sincere. He was very sincere. But he was wrong. And I would
say that when he went, he was on his road to Damascus and he
had papers to arrest anybody and throw them in prison, anybody
that didn't believe in the way, I'd say his heart was in that,
wouldn't you? I don't doubt that. I believe
his heart was in that. He's fully devoted to what he
was doing. But there was no truth. There
was no truth. On the other hand, here you have
the truth. You got to believe it in the
heart. In the heart. God demands truth in the inward
parts. You got to have truth. There
could be no worship where there is no truth. And you know who
the truth is? Christ Jesus. He is all the truth
of God in a body. He said, I am the way, the truth,
and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by Me. He is the truth. And we worship
God in truth and in spirit from the heart by the enabling power
of the Spirit of God. Israel didn't do that. They didn't
do that. Well, it was into this atmosphere
God brought His preacher. Isaiah, about 800 years before
the death of Christ Jesus. In the midst of this spiritual
decay, God raised up this man, he preached the certainty of
judgment, and he set forth the absolute surety of the coming
of our Lord Jesus Christ, his sufferings, and his glory. You go through the New Testament.
In that passage in 1 Peter chapter 1, if we'd read just a little
bit further, the Old Testament prophets spoke of His sufferings
and His glory. His sufferings and His glory.
In Luke chapter 24, Joe read to us this morning, Christ said,
ought not Christ to have suffered these things and then enter into
His glory? Enter into His glory. And in
Isaiah chapter 53, we see the sufferings of Christ Jesus. And
we see His entering into glory. He wore the crown of thorns. And that's the way to get the
crown of glory. That's how He got the crown of
glory. By His sufferings and by His death. Well, let's look
at this just briefly. Look at verse 1 of chapter 53.
Isaiah says, Who hath believed our report? Report. Look up that word report. It
means message or news. I'm here to give you the report
again. There's only one report to give.
There's only one message to give. There's only one gospel. It's
the gospel of God's grace. There are not many reports. There
are not many messages. There are not many gospels. There's
just one. It's the glorious gospel of the
blessed God. It's the gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ. This is the good report, and
I'm just a reporter. That's all a preacher is. He's
just a reporter. It used to be. Some of you older
than I am, you'll remember this even better than I do. It used
to be you watched the television news and reporters, they just
reported the news. They just reported the news.
You see, reporters are not supposed to make the news or be the news
or adjust the content of the news or even interpret the news. Just give the news. Wouldn't
that be kind of refreshing? to watch them at 6.30 on national
television. They just give the news. They
don't try to tell you what the news means. Don't you love these
political debates and they do that and then the news reporter's
got to take an hour to tell you what that really meant because
you're not smart enough to figure out what they were saying. We're just reporters. We're just
reporters. I can't improve on the message.
I can't change the message. I can't alter the message. I
can't make the message more likable for you. I just report the message. That's all I'm doing. Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. Salvation by grace. God is sovereign. We're sinful. Man's a dead dog
sinner. Only God can save a man and He
does it by His own free grace and He doesn't have to if He
doesn't want to. I'm just reporting the news.
Just telling it like it is. That's all a reporter does. We're
not doctoring it up. We're not magnifying one part
of the news and then lessening another part of the news. Oh,
no. We preach God as He is and man
as He is. And thank God there's a mediator
between this holy God and sinful man. He's the man Christ Jesus.
That's the news. That's the news. That's the report,
Ron. We just tell the news, proclaim
the news of the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ. We report
the news of justification by the imputed righteousness of
the Lord Jesus. The gospel is not good advice. It's not filled with good suggestions. It's not about good instructions
as to what you can do for God. It is itself the good report
of what God's already done. Of what God's already done for
us in the Lord Jesus. It's the message of glad tidings
of a great work already accomplished. Timothy, young preacher, Paul
wrote to him and said, this is a faithful saying. and worthy
of all acceptation." Well, what is the saying? What is the news? That Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners. Of whom I'm chief, he said. It's the declaration of a work
that's finished, of sins put away, of righteousness brought
in. It's finished. Report. He says, who has believed
our report? Who has believed the news? Who's
believed the message? And you know this word report,
it also means, it not only means message or news, it means doctrine. Who has believed our doctrine? Now you're not like some of those
people who say, listen preacher, I don't want to hear any doctrine.
I just want to hear Jesus." Well, you can't preach the Lord Jesus
Christ without preaching doctrine. That's just an impossibility. I tell you, doctrine among some
circles gets a bad rap. It's like you don't have to believe
anybody or anything, you just believe Christ Jesus. But the
things about Christ Jesus, that's the doctrine of Christ. You can't
have Him without doctrine. I heard a preacher say not too
long ago, he said, there's no salvation in doctrine. Wait a
minute, there's no salvation without it either. What happened to the truths of
God's Word being proclaimed? I know salvation is in the person
of Christ Jesus. It's in the person of Christ
Jesus and what He did. Isn't that right? What He did and why He did it.
And where He is now. And who He is and what He did
and why He did it. And where He is now. You know
what that is? Doctrine. That's doctrine. Somebody says, well, election
didn't save us, there's no salvation without it. I know God saves
sinners, but He saves sinners by choosing them unto salvation. Election is not the enemy of
the sinner, it's a good friend. That ought not make you mad at
all, electing grace. Why, if He hadn't chosen you
unto salvation before the foundation of the world of His own good
pleasure, you wouldn't be here tonight. You wouldn't believe
this blessed gospel. You'd be off in some mega-church
somewhere, singing and clapping and waving your hands and caught
up in all the religious rigmarole like so many others are. Why
are you here? Who made the difference? You
didn't make it, did you? He made the difference. Who maketh
thee to differ from another? I tell you who makes the difference.
God makes the difference. That's doctrine. That's doctrine. Christ died for sinners. He died
for His elect. He's the Good Shepherd who laid
down His life for the sheep. He accomplished redemption, substitution,
satisfaction. What is that? But doctrine? You
tell me a man can be saved? Man's converted without believing
Christ died for sinners? The regenerating work of the
Spirit of God, isn't that doctrine? The resurrection of the dead
to life, isn't that doctrine? Who hath believed our doctrine?
Who indeed? Our brother read to us, God said,
my doctrine shall drop as the rain. I tell you, before you
start criticizing doctrine, you better take a couple of steps
back and think a little bit now. Because it's God's doctrine.
God said, my doctrine shall drop as the rain. That's God's doctrine,
isn't it? That's God's doctrine. It's life-refreshing
rain. And He sends the showers where
He will. He doesn't have to send His reign
to you, the reign of His grace. He doesn't have to. Remember
Peter and John, remember after they healed that lame man there
in the temple in Acts chapter 3, was it? Or Acts chapter 4? Anyway, they got, you know, the
council, the Sanhedrin, they got on them. They fussed at them. And the council said this, Did
we not straightly command you that you should not teach in
this name? And behold, you filled Jerusalem with your doctrine." Well, that's just another way
of saying, with your gospel, with your message, with your
report. And you intend to bring this
man's blood upon us. And Peter said, we ought to obey
God rather than man. He said, The God of our fathers
raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree. Him hath
God exalted with his right hand to be a prince and a savior,
for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sin. So this
is the report. I'm just a reporter. I'm just
a reporter. Reporting the person of Christ,
the word of Christ, and the work of Christ. You see, this is His
doctrine. This is Christ's doctrine. I tell you, He taught the sovereignty
of divine grace. He said, all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. He preached the freeness of God's
election. And He said, even so, Father,
you have hidden it from some, you have revealed it to others.
Why? Even so, Father, for so it seemed
good in thy sight. What did He come to do for those
people that the Father set aside? The Savior said the Son of Man
has come to seek and to save that which was lost. How would
He do that? Christ said the Son of Man must
suffer many things. and be rejected of the elders
and the chief priests and scribes and be slain and be raised the
third day. For whom did he suffer? For whom
did he die? And for whom was he raised the
third day? He said, this is my blood of
the New Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of
sins. Why did he shed his blood? For
the remission of sins. When we preach the gospel of
Christ, we're declaring the good report. And Isaiah asked, who
hath believed our report? Well, I know every man should.
It's a good report. Every man should. God commands
all men to believe, repent and believe. And every man's responsible
to cast aside your idols. Get rid of them right now. Throw
them overboard. You go ahead and repent of your
dead works too. You turn from those. You turn
to Christ Jesus. Will you do it? You're responsible
too. But see, don't confuse responsibility
with ability. You don't have the ability. But I tell you, when God issues
that sovereign effectual call to you, you'll turn from your
idols, and you'll repent of your dead works, and you'll say, I
must have Christ Jesus, the Lord. I must have Him. Isaiah says, who hath believed
our report? Well, I can answer that for you,
Isaiah. All to whom God the Spirit gives
faith, that's who will believe the report. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves. It's the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. Who hath believed our report? Well, I'll answer it this way.
Like the Apostle Paul, he was in Antioch. He went and preached
to the Jews, and they said, we don't want to hear anything more
you've got to say. And we're not coming to hear
you preach anymore. Paul turned to the Gentiles and said, well,
I'm going to preach to y'all. Is that alright? And they were
glad. They were glad. And they glorified the word of
the Lord. And as many as were ordained to eternal life, that's
who believed. That's who believed. He asks, who hath believed our
report? Then he says, to whom is the
armor of the Lord revealed? Who is the armor of the Lord?
That's Christ Himself. He is the power of God. But to
whom is He revealed? And note, He does have to be
revealed. Our Lord Jesus talking to His
disciples one day said, who do men say that I the Son of Man
am? Well, they said, some say you're
Elijah, because you weep. Some say you're Jeremiah, the
weeping prophet, or one of the other prophets, or John the Baptist
raised from the dead. He said, who do you say that
I am? Whatever else other men may be saying, you've got to
bring this issue home to your heart. Who do you say that he
is? Who do you say that he is? Peter said, Thou art the Christ,
the Son of the living God. And you know what the Savior
said? Flesh and blood didn't teach you that. My Father who
is in heaven, He revealed it to you. To whom is the arm of
the Lord revealed? Oh Lord, reveal the arm of the
Lord to me and to you. Reveal the arm of the Lord. Watch
this, and I'll go quick here. Second verse, but he shall grow
up before Him as a tender plant, as a root out of dry ground.
He hath no form nor comeliness, and when we shall see Him, there
is no beauty that we should desire. He shall grow up. Doesn't that
still confound you? He shall grow up. He who is God
Almighty comes into the world and He grows up. He grows up. Your mom, your dad used to say
to you, when you grow up, will you amount to anything? When
you grow up. Our Lord Jesus grew up. Watch
it. He shall grow up. Don't overlook
these two words, before Him. I know the world ignored Him. They didn't know who He was.
He came unto His own and His own received Him not. But He
grew up under the watchful eye of the Father. He shall grow up. He shall. He shall grow up. Now, if the
old King Herod If he had had his way, he wouldn't have grown
up. He'd set out, he'd kill all them baby boys. He's going to
wipe them out. But no, the Lord had already revealed to Joseph,
take Mary and go over into Egypt. Why? Because he shall grow up.
He's got a work to do. He's got a salvation to accomplish.
He shall grow up. Don't you love the Lord's shalls?
His shalls. He shall grow up before Him. Before Him. Under His eye of
providence. His eye of omniscience. He grew
up before God. Because He came into this world
to do something for God. Satisfy His justice by His death. That's what He came to do. He
was a tender, just a tender plant. Like so many other babies born
into this world, just a little infant. He looked like any other
little infant. Back where we lived in Michigan,
back behind us is a big, great big corn field. Feed corn. And I'd see the farmer, he'd
go out there and he'd plow it up, disk it and all that kind
of stuff, and he'd plant the seed. And in a few days, you
could look almost as far as the eye could see, just rows and
rows, just little shoots of corn. Thousands and thousands of them. So tender. You can't tell the
difference one between another. Our Lord grew up as a tender
plant. He looked just like any other
shoot. Like any other little plant. Oh, there's something
special about Him though. He's the God-Man. He didn't have any form or comeliness. Nothing outwardly special about
Him. He didn't walk around with a
halo. You see these pictures of Wild Bill Hickok, got a halo
around his head. That wasn't the way it was, was
it? It looked like any other man. In fact, I think from what
I gather in the Scriptures, he was a rather unattractive man.
No physical beauty that we should desire him. And when we shall see him, when
we shall see him, no beauty that we'd go after him and say, oh,
this is the Savior. Now they went after him thinking
this, this is the Messiah who's going to deliver us from Roman
oppression. That's what the natural man wants.
He wants relief from his physical problems. That's why this health
and wealth so-called gospel, this prosperity gospel, that's
why it's so popular. Because it appeals to the flesh. We're going to get something
out of this. But when you preach to people
who this One is and what He came to do, they don't desire Him. But when the Spirit of God does
a magnificent work of grace in our hearts, then we say, I must
have Him. We desire Him with all our hearts
in, don't we? And we'll see him as the one
despised and rejected of men by us, by nature. But the one
who was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities,
and the one who by virtue of his death, by virtue of his life
laid down, he's been exalted. And he's the king. And you know
what we gladly do? We worship him. We honor him. We magnify his name. the name
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Who hath believed our report? It's an unbelieved report by
the natural man. Do you believe? Do you believe? I'm going to
tell you something. I do. I do. And guess what? I believe willingly.
You see, effectual, irresistible grace is not God picking you
up by the nap of the neck and throwing you in this kingdom
and saying, I'm going to save you. And if you don't even want to
be saved, if you have no desire for my salvation, you're just
going in. He gives new life. It's called
a new heart. That's a heart of faith. You
say, oh Lord, I come willingly. You've made me willing in the
day of your power. So I give you the glory. That's
what we're saying. I give you the glory. You've
made me willing. You've made me want Christ Jesus
more than life itself. And we thank you. And by your
grace, we believe this report. It's a good report. We bless
the name of God. Amen. Alright, Brother Joe, you
come lead us in a psalm. Bill, we'll have baptismal service
here in just a little bit and we'll get ready. Joe will lead
us in a psalm.