I want you, if you will, to just hold your Bibles open on your laps at Isaiah 45, verses 20 through 25. And I want to tell you how things are going to be when God gets done. Here in these verses of Scripture, the Lord God himself speaks to sinners and tells us who he is. what he has determined to do, what the end result of all things shall be, and how we may be saved by his grace.

First, in verse 20, we have God's description of all lost religious men. I'm giving you God's description of things tonight, not mine, not those of the Baptist Church, or not those of this group or that group. The creeds are meaningless except in light of Holy Scripture. Historic precedent is meaningless except in light of Holy Scripture. We bow our reason and all the creeds and confessions of men to what the Scripture says.

Now here is God's description of all lost religious men. He says in verse 20 that those who worship at the altar of a God who cannot save have no knowledge. Look at it for yourself. God says assemble yourselves and come. Draw near together ye that are escaped of the nations. They have no knowledge. Underscore those two words. No knowledge. that set up the wood of their graven image and pray unto a God that cannot save.

Now they don't think they're praying to a God who cannot save, otherwise they wouldn't pray to it. They imagine in their hearts that their God's just as powerful as anybody else's, or more so. But God says they pray to a God that cannot save, and those who do have absolutely no knowledge.

Now, all men and women by nature, by God's creative act, are religious. Everyone has some kind of religion, some concept of God, and some form of religious faith and hope, even those who claim to be atheists. The fact is, most people are very religious. I don't suggest for a moment that they're spiritual. I don't suggest or think for a second that they are saved, but most people, are very religious.

Your family and mine, your friends and mine, folks you work with, folks you meet on the streets, folks you go to school with, they are people who are very, very religious. The vast majority of those we meet, even those who don't darken the church door more than maybe on Easter Sunday and the day before or after Christmas, maybe New Year's Eve service or sunrise service, even they are very, very religious people.

And our Lord speaks plainly and tells us that Most people in this world have entered in at the wide gate and walk in the broad way that leads to destruction. We're told twice in the book of Proverbs that they have entered into and walk in a way that seemeth right unto a man. But the ends thereof are the ways of death.

Now the wise man, by divine inspiration, speaks of a way that seems right. And an end, the specific end. And he says concerning those things that the way and the end thereof are the ways, plural, of death. Now he didn't make a grammatical error. He was using his words precisely and by inspiration. Because all the ways of the religious world Whether you talk about the Baptist way, the Protestant way, the Papist way, the Buddhist way, it doesn't matter. All the ways of men in this world are the ways of death and they're all the same way.

They're all the way of man. They are the way of free will. They are the way of works. They are the way that seems right unto a man.

Now in this 20th verse, God tells us three things about all lost, unregenerate religious people. First, he says they have no knowledge. He doesn't say they have a little knowledge, but are just slightly misguided. He doesn't say they have some knowledge, but not perfect knowledge. He says they have no knowledge. Lost, unregenerate religious people have absolutely no spiritual knowledge. and they display their ignorance blatantly almost every time they open their mouths. Just listen to those. When they talk about spiritual things, you think, where on earth did you get that nutty idea? What makes you think like that? But all men say about the same thing. They have absolutely no spiritual knowledge, no understanding whatsoever.

You see, in order for a person to know anything spiritual. In order for a person to have any spiritual perception, any spiritual, I didn't say doctrinal, I said spiritual. In order for a person to have any spiritual understanding, he must be born again.

Our Lord had Nicodemus come to him by night. Now, Nicodemus was not a peanut. Nicodemus, he wasn't an uneducated illiterate fella who didn't know what was going on. Nicodemus was a brilliant man. He was a theologian and a teacher of theologians. Nicodemus was, he was up there in the highest echelon of respectability in the Jewish church and kingdom. And this man Nicodemus came to the Lord Jesus and he thought he'd be very complimentary. He said, he said, good master, we know thou art a teacher come from God for no man could do these miracles thou doest except God be with him. What he didn't understand is he wasn't a teacher come from God, he was God come to teach. Nicodemus didn't know anything. And our Lord's first word to him was, Nicodemus, you don't know anything. That was his very first word. He said, now Nicodemus, you've come to me, and you've come presuming that you are a teacher in Israel, and I want you to understand first thing out of the chute that you have absolutely no knowledge at all. He said, except the man be born again, He can't see the kingdom of God. Can't see it. Can't see it. And he's not talking about physical sight, because the kingdom of God is not a physical thing. He's talking about spiritual perception.

You take a blind man out on a brilliant, brilliant day, and turn his face toward the sun, and tell him now, open your eyes. And he opens his eyes. And you say, can't you see? He said, no, man, I'm blind. I can't see. Now he may have lots of notions and ideas about what the sun is. He may have lots of notions and ideas, even be well-trained scientifically, and have some perception of all the gases that make up the sun. But he's never seen it! And he can't see it, because he's blind. Now you understand what I'm saying? No? Doesn't matter what I'm saying. Understand what God says here in his book. They have no knowledge.

Hold your hands here and turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 2. 1 Corinthians chapter 2. Verse 14. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. You wonder why you talk to folks about election, predestination, God's sovereignty, effectual atonement. You tell them about how Christ put away sin and you're just excited about it and they look at you like, Huh, what's so great about that? How come? The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they're foolishness to him. Neither can he know them because they're spiritually discerned. Verse 15, but he that is spiritual judgeth. The word Rex is discerning. He that is spiritual discerns all things, yet he himself is discerned of no man. Nobody understands him, he's judged of no man. For who hath known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct to him? But we have the mind of Christ.

Now it doesn't matter how religious people are. It doesn't matter how long they've studied the Bible or studied what men say about the Bible. It doesn't matter how much experience they have or how phenomenal their experience is. The natural unregenerate man has no knowledge of himself. None. He has no idea what he is. He has no idea what he's capable of. He has no idea of the corruption that's in it. He has no understanding of sin. He understands sin by checklist. You know, he reads the commandments, and he says, now, breaking these is sin. Breaking those is the fruit of sin.

I wish we could learn that. It is sin, sure enough, but the problem is not in the deed. The problem is in what we are. Sin's what's in us. Sin is not what we say. Sin is not what we do. Sin is what we are. And the reason we do the vile things we do and say the vile things we say is because that's what we are.

The natural man has no understanding of righteousness. He has no comprehension of what righteousness is, particularly the righteousness of God. He has absolutely no understanding of salvation. He doesn't understand how God saves sinners. This is the reason the Lord said to His disciples and to us. He said, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, Whenever he comes, when the spirit of truth comes to a center like Sammy Walsh right back there, or like Larry Criss, or like Don Porter. When the spirit of truth comes, now you can get religion without this, you can get all kinds of religion without this, but when God the Holy Spirit comes into your heart, he's going to convince you of something, your words, what you are, what you are. And you'll quit talking about, you know, who I used to be and I used to do, You'll understand what you are. God, be merciful to me, the sinner. That's the prayer of one convinced that he is sinner.

We confess our sin, open up our hearts before God and acknowledge what we are. He's faithful and just to forgive us our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And he will convince you of righteousness. Not yours, but his. He'll convince you of righteousness, the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ the Lord. The righteousness of God is that which was accomplished for sinners by the substitutionary sacrifice of God's Son. And he'll convince you of judgment. And that judgment is judgment accomplished. It's not a matter he's going to convince you of judgment to come. Now, certainly that's so. But Mark, you were born with that. You're born with that. Every man born with a sense of judgment, come read Romans chapter 2, God stamped it on your conscience. That's the reason folks are willing to sacrifice their babies in barbarian lands and worship in pagan gods because they know there's judgment to come.

But the believer, the man who's taught of God, he's convinced of his sin, of God's righteousness in Christ and God's final, complete judgment of sin in his son, the Lord Jesus, shall tell you, so that God has put away my sin. And that's the thing that gives us peace. We are sin. He is righteousness. He has put away our sin and brought in righteousness for us.

Then our Lord tells us here, they set up the wood of their graven image. They worship of God that they have whittled out of the dark forest of their own depraved minds. Now turn to Romans chapter one. Romans chapter 1. I want you to see this. Romans 1. Verse 21. Paul's talking about the result of reprobation as well as the cause. He says in verse 21, because that when they knew God, that is when they had a perception, of God stamped on their minds and consciences, seeing the power of God in creation and seeing the righteousness of God in some measure stamped because of the law written on their hearts. When they knew God, they glorified Him not as God. Neither were thankful but became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. and change the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like unto corruptible man."

Now, if ever there were words that described the age in which we live, that's it. That's it. I know that the refined, civilized, educated people to whom I preach around the country and across the world don't worship images carved out of tree stumps. I have yet to meet anyone personally who worships a stone. They don't worship images chiseled out of granite. Do any of your neighbors have images of some kind of an imaginary god chiseled out of granite, polished up, sitting in their living room? I don't know anybody who does. They don't worship images that are molded even from gold and silver. And yet most people in Baptist churches, as well as all others without exception, in this country and around the world, worship a little peanut God, which they have whittled from the dark forest of their defrayed imagination, a God who no more resembles the God of the Bible than a gnat, a worthless God, a God who cannot save.

Read the next line. They worship serve and pray unto a God that cannot save. Now that's the problem. That's the problem with this religious generation. They pray unto a God that cannot save. Now let me show you what I'm talking about. You're familiar with that passage in 1 Timothy 3, or 2 Timothy 3, verse 5, when Paul describes these perilous times in which we now live. And he tells us in verse 5 concerning this religious age, this rebellious, chaotic religious age, this religious age that has no sense of responsibility, no sense of commitment. You can't trust anything anybody says. And he's not talking now about the fellows out on the road. He's talking, Paul, about religious people. And he says this in verse 5. They have a form of godliness. They go to church, read the Bible. Some of them wear robes, some of them wear collars, some of them wear crosses, some of them don't. Some of them have stained glass windows, some of them don't. Some of them have altars, some of them don't. Some of them have laws and ceremonies and rituals, some of them don't. But they go to their various places of worship. They have a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. They deny the very essence of it, for they deny the power of God. This is what our Lord said to the Jewish leaders of His day. He said, you do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.

Now that's the problem with this age. This is what I say concerning this religious world in which we live. Arminian, free will, works religion, does not know God, nor the power of God. Not the word of God, nor his power. We're talking about the power of God here, not talking about omnipotence. Oh no, no, no. No, no. It's talking about the gospel of God, which is the power of God to salvation. The Apostle Paul tells us that the religious age in which we live, those who preach up another gospel are preaching another God, another Jesus, another spirit, and another salvation. People tell me all the time, but they preach from the Bible? Do you reckon really? Now just stop and think about it. Do you reckon that if Satan really wanted to deceive you, I mean if he would really have to get you, He'd get a book here and put on its skull and crossbones, and he'd stand up here with a long red tail and pitchfork and say, I'm here to deceive you. Oh, no, no, no, no. No, his ministers become an angel of light and preachers of righteousness. Only thing is, they preach your righteousness, not God's. And they preach your light, not Christ's. You understand what I'm saying? They have a form of godliness, but they deny the power of it.

Now, this is what that means. A form of godliness says God wants to save everybody. Denying the power of it says he can't save anybody unless you let him. A form of godliness says God has a wonderful plan for your life. Denying the power of it says you have to let him have his way with you. A form of godliness says Christ died on the cross to put away your sins, but it's all in vain unless you do something. That denies the power of it. A form of godliness says the Holy Spirit knocks at the heart's door of every sinner, wanting to come in and bring salvation. Denying the power of it says, you have to open the door.

All of these silly, idolatrous religious pictures, supposed to be pictures of Jesus, you know, they all make him look like something, you know, limp wristed and sissified, almost homosexual looking thing. Long hair and pretty face thing. And they've got him with all kinds of pictures. But the most silly, absurd one I've seen yet is that one supposed to be Christ standing at the heart of the door. You ever observe it? There he stands. Somebody told me one time, said, now you have to look close at the picture. Here he is. He's supposed to be the light of the world, and he's holding a lantern. That's nuts to begin with. Then I said, you notice there's no knob on the outside, because you have to open the door from the inside. He's God who creates the heart, He can't get in. Oh no, when the Son of God comes in, He knocks the door down, bolt and bar, and He brings His welcome with Him. First time you know He's there, you're crying out, God, be merciful to me, the sinner! But He's already inside when that happens. You throw the door open, yes indeed, but it's because He threw it open. He brought Himself in.

But what are we to do with such people? The Apostle says, from such Turn away. A God that cannot save is no God at all. And if you worship such a God, you're not saved. If your mama worships such a God, she's not saved. If your sons and daughters worship such a God, they're not saved. Anybody who worships a God who cannot save is not saved. Now that's just plain as it can be.

Now look at Isaiah 45 and verse 21. Here we see God's description of God. Well, who is God? He who is God indeed is sovereign, just, and savior. Tell ye, bring them near. Yea, let them take counsel together. Who hath declared this from ancient times? Who hath told it from that time? Have not I the Lord, and there is no God else beside me, a just God and the Savior. There is none beside me. Now what does the Lord tell us here? This is how God declares who God is. Whoever and whatever God is, he has an absolute purpose. A purpose. A purpose which cannot be turned down. A purpose which cannot be stopped. A purpose which cannot be hindered. A purpose that sure can't be defeated. A purpose that can't be changed. It's an absolute purpose.

He who is God indeed, tells us in the opening of this 21st verse, that he challenges men to bring all their pinnut gods, bring them all together. Let them all take counsel together. You can't possibly misunderstand.

I was preaching. Matter of fact, I was preaching pretty much the same message that I prepared to preach to you tonight. Last Thursday night in San Jose, there's a fellow sitting right down here on the front row, and he got to hooping and hollering, acting kind of funny, but he acted like he was just tickled to death with everything I said. I said, preach it, brother, preach it, brother. After service was over, he came out and made great comments. I was sitting there listening, waiting. Everything I said, Larry, it either flew right over his head or right through his ears. It didn't even stop on the way. It didn't even slow down. He didn't hear a thing I said. Last word he said to me, he said, I'm a Pentecostal preacher and teacher.

Well, let me be so clear, even Pentecostal get it. This is what I'm saying. You gather all the gods of men in Danville, Kentucky together. I don't care whether they're Russellite or whether they're Romanist. I don't care whether they're Baptist or whether they're Methodist. I don't care whether they're Pentecostal or whether they're Presbyterian. Gather them all together, every one of them. Find me one in the whole bunch who has declared absolutely unequivocably, unchangeably, from eternity, what's going to happen in time. Find me one. Find that one, Larry, you found God. You found God.

This is what he said in Isaiah 14. Satan said, I'll be as the most high God. I'm going to lift myself up, and boy, you're going to watch out for me. This was God's response to Satan. The Lord of hosts has sworn, saying, surely as I have thought, So shall it come to pass, as I have purposed, so shall it stand. The Lord of hosts hath purposed, who shall disavow it? And his hand is stretched out, who can turn it back?

Turn over one page to Isaiah 46. Look at what it says. Verse 10, God says, I'm God, there's none like me. In verse 10 he says, here he is. This is what I mean when I say I'm God. I declare the end from the beginning. And from ancient times, things that are not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand, I will do all my pleasure. That ought to put him in saying God wants to do what he can't do. I will do all my pleasure, my counsel will stand. What I purposed, I'll bring to pass.

He says in verse 11, calling a ravenous bird from the east, a man that executed my counsel from a far country. Yea, I've spoken it, I will also bring it to pass. I purposed it, I will also do it.

All right, look at this. He who truly is God has got an absolute purpose and he's the boss. He's Lord. He says, I am the Lord. Everywhere, over everybody, forever. I'm the Lord. I'm the Lord. Look in Isaiah 45 verse 12. Just look at this one. He says, I made the earth and created man upon it. I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, all their hosts have I commanded. Whatever's under in the heavens, I've commanded. Look in verse 5, I am the Lord, there's none else. He says in verse 6, concerning Cyrus, he said, I girded you, now he said, I did it for this, that they may know, so that everybody topside of the earth may know from the rising of the sun and from the west, there is none beside me. I'm the Lord and there is none else.

Here's the Lord God. I form the light and create darkness. I make peace and I create evil. Behold, I, the Lord, do all these things. He who is God is absolutely in control of everybody and everything. Absolutely. And he who is God is the solitary God of the universe. He's God alone. He said, He said, I am God and beside me, there is none else. There's none else. There's no one up here with me. I'm God all by myself. Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Now, most people these days are really pantheist or polytheist. They they really believe that God is in everything and everybody. They believe that just about every man's notion of God really is God. Be it Buddhist, Mohammedan, Jewish, Papist, Mormon, Islam, it doesn't matter. Barbarians, whatever. Whatever notion you have of God's all right, God will accept that.

In this educated society of ours, we have these folks who worship Mother Earth. Everybody worships Mother Earth. Commercials on television talk about Mother Earth. Because everybody's convinced everything came from Mother Earth. Let me tell you something, Mother Earth came from God Almighty, and He's in control of Mother Earth. She's not the mother of anything. This Earth is not God, but the creature of God, His creation. And when He gets done with it, He's gonna burn it out.

He who is God is a just God. Look at it. Much could and should be said about God's justice, but I'll just say these two things. He says, I am a just God. That means I'm a God who must and shall punish sin, because I have said, the soul that sinneth, it shall die. And that means I am a God who cannot save sinners apart from the satisfaction of justice, for by mercy and by truth, iniquity is purged, but not in any other way. I will pardon iniquity, transgression, and sin only, however, in a way that is consistent with justice, and that is through the substitutionary sacrifice of God's own Son.

And he who is God, why, he's the Savior. Look at it. He says, I am a just God and a Savior. Blessed be his name. Now, look at God's description of salvation. I listen to preaching. I try my best to listen without a critical ear, but so much of the time people You know, they make simple things so complicated by confusing things with noise. They make things so... Just as plain as the nose on your face seem to be such deep, deep abysses of mysteries you can't possibly understand them. And such it is with faith. Most of the things I read about faith could be said a whole lot better in this one sentence in Isaiah 45, 22.

The only way a sinner can ever be saved is by looking to this great and glorious God who reveals himself in his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. He says, look unto me and be ye saved all the ends of the earth for I am God and there is none else. Salvation is in Christ. He alone is the Savior of men. And the only way you can get God's salvation is looking different. Well, what does it mean to look? That's a mighty dumb question. I mean, just dumb. Who doesn't know what it means to look? You know how a baby looks to its mama? Mama's holding that infant child on her breast, and just as soon as that baby opens its mouth and the breast is exposed, that baby looks to mama for everything and takes what she has. Looks to him. You know how a wife looks to her husband? You know how a family looks to a father? You just look to him. You look to him, you trust him. Daddy'll take care of it. Daddy knows what's going on. Daddy'll provide for us. Daddy'll protect us. A family just looks to daddy for everything.

Look to Christ just like that. That's what it is. Israel was bitten. Look to the serpent held up on the pole. Moses was commanded of God to make a serpent of brass and stick it up on a pole. That's just exactly what preachers are, just poles. And they're useful for only one thing, holding up Christ crucified. And when they get involved in anything else, they're out of line. They're in the wrong place and in the wrong business. What do we do? Hold him up, say, look.

And every sinner in Israel who had been bitten of the fiery serpent, no matter how far off he was, No matter how dim his vision, no matter how little he saw, no matter how little he understood, no matter how much he understood, no matter how clearly he saw, as soon as he looked, immediately that was made whole. And I'm telling you that every sinner in the world who looks to this God revealed in Christ, immediately he's saved by God's true grace. That's what it is to be reborn here.

Look to Christ now, look to Christ always, look to Christ forever, look to Christ for everything. God help you to look for Christ's sake. Amen.