Thank you, Mike. It's been a
while since I've heard that song. That was good. Save that in a
couple of weeks. Bring it out again. We get to
Isaiah 53. Just keep that warmed up. All
right, let's turn again to Isaiah chapter 50. The title of the
message this evening is Sin Source and Its Remedy. This is a very
important subject for every person who needs a Savior. Sin Source
and Its Remedy. I have three simple points. The
first one is this, the source of sin. The source of sin is
man. It's all man's fault. Look at
verse one of Isaiah 50. Thus saith the Lord, where is
the bill of your mother's divorcement whom I have put away? Or which
of my creditors is it to whom I've sold you? Behold, for your
iniquities have you sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is
your mother put away. Now, man by nature inherently
knows this. There is a separation between
God and man. There's a gulf fixed between
us that needs to be crossed. Now, we don't know how to cross
it. We don't know, have any idea how that's to be done, but we
know there's a separation between God and man. But now, whose fault
is that separation? Whose fault is this? It's not
God's fault. It's our fault. And he gives
us two examples from the Old Testament law here. And the first
one's marriage. Now the law said, God gave the
law, he said that a husband could divorce his wife for almost any
reason. If she displeased him, he could
divorce her. If she made him suspicious in
any way, he could divorce her. But if he divorced his wife,
he had to give her a piece of paper, the legal document, saying
he abandoned her. He cast her out. and she's free
of it. Now that didn't mean that divorce
was right. God gave us this bill of divorcement
for the hardness of man's heart. You know, marriage is given to
us as a picture of Christ and His bride, the relationship,
the union between Christ and His bride. It's a beautiful picture
of God choosing a people and saving them and making them His,
making them one flesh with Him. And in our day, Marriage is held
in very low esteem. And I hope we won't do that.
I hope we don't fall into this trap of holding marriage in low
esteem. We ought to hold it in very high
esteem. Not only is marriage good for families and the community
and all those things, we must remember this. Marriage is a
picture of Christ and his brides. It must be held in high esteem.
Dale and Jackie just celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.
I was told we ought not have a party for that, but I'm telling
you it ought to be celebrated. It ought to be celebrated. Because
of the picture of Christ that this is, it's very important. But God said, I gave you a bill
of divorce, because I knew your heart, the hardness of your heart.
But what our Lord is telling us here, God's a whole lot better
husband than man is. Whole lot better husband. You
see, we're the ones who left God. God didn't leave us. We're the ones who left Him.
We displeased God by our sin. We gave God every reason to be
suspicious of us, but we're the ones who left Him. And the Lord
says, now prove it now. Where's the piece of paper I
gave you saying I cast you out? You don't have one. And you don't
have one because it's our fault we're separated from God. Look
over a few pages of Isaiah chapter 59. This is what he tells us. Isaiah 59 verse 1. Behold, the Lord's hand is not
shortened that it cannot save, neither his ear heavy that it
cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated between you and
your God, and your sins have hid his face from you that he
will not hear. For your hands are defiled with
blood, and your fingers with iniquity. Your lips have spoken
lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness. That's why there's
a separation between us and God. It's our sin. It's our iniquity. It's our perverseness. It's our
insistence on sin. It's not God's fault there's
this separation between us. It's our fault. The second example
he gives us here is, this was given in the law, a father, if
he became so deeply in debt he could not pay his debt, he could
sell his children to pay off his debt. Now the law allowed
that, allowed a father to take his children and sell them if
he had a debt to pay. And that child would be a slave,
either until the debt was paid or the year of jubilee came.
Now, can you imagine how awful that would be? This week as I've
been studying, I thought about this as a parent. How awful would
it be to sell your child to pay your dad? I just, I can't imagine
how awful that would be. And how awful would it be to
be a child? Sidney, how'd you like it? Your dad sold you to
pay your dad. I mean, that'd be horrible, wouldn't
it? Horrible. But you know what God tells us?
He's a whole lot better father than man. A whole lot better
father. God's in debt to no one. There's
no debt he can't pay. There's nobody he owes. God didn't
sell his people under the law. He didn't sell us into the sin.
We did that ourselves. See that at the end of verse
one, Isaiah 50. Behold, for your iniquities have you sold yourselves. And for your transgression as
your mother put away, It's your sin. It's our fault we're separated
from God. And to make matters worse, God
calls men to come to him. God sends his gospel. He commands
us to repent and to come to Christ. But what do we do? We refuse
to come to him. Look at verse two. Wherefore,
when I came, was there no man? When I called, was there none
to answer? God said, I came, but nobody came to me. I called,
but nobody answered. God has called men through His
Word, through the Old Testament, through His Word, God has called
men. Nobody comes. God called men
through the law. He gave us the law to show our
need of Christ, to show us our need of somebody's got to keep
this law for me because I can't do it. God gave us the law to
show us our utter inability and our sin. I like what Brother
Chris Cunningham said, that the law is not given to us to give
us a way to live. The law is given as an indictment
against us to reveal our sin and our need of the Savior. God
gave the law to call us to Christ, but men didn't come. Instead,
they turned the law into a way they could earn righteousness
themselves. God called men to all the ceremonies and the pictures
of the Old Testament. But nobody came. They trusted
in the ceremony, not the person. They trusted in the ceremony
of the Sabbath, but they wouldn't rest in Christ. They trusted
in the ceremony of the Passover, but they wouldn't look to Christ
or Passover. And then God sent his own son.
He sent his word, he sent his prophets, he sent the law, he
sent the ceremonies, and last, he sent his son. Christ came
unto his own, and what happened? His own received him not. They
rejected him with both hands. They said, we'll not have this
man to reign over us. Their cry was crucifying. We have no king but Caesar. And
that's not just the Jews. That's us Gentiles too. This
all men by nature reject the Lord Jesus Christ. When our Lord
cried, if any man thirst, then come unto me and drink. Nobody
came because nobody's thirsty. When our Lord cried, if any man's
weary, let him come unto me. I'll give him rest. But nobody
came, because nobody's in need. Our Lord cried, if you're a sinner,
you come to me for forgiveness. If you're blind, I'll make you
see. If you're dead, I'll make you live. If you're deaf, I'll
make you hear. But nobody came, because nobody's a sinner. Nobody's
helpless. Our Lord cried, if any man hath
ears to hear, let him hear. But nobody heard. because man's
deaf by nature. Nobody wanted to hear. You can
hear if you wanted to, but nobody wants to hear. And today, God
calls to the preaching of his gospel. The gospel is preached
throughout this world more now than ever in the history of this
world. But nothing's changed. Men still
will not come unto Christ that they might have life. So the
source of sin is man. God and man are separated and
it's our fault. It's all our fault. It's not
God's fault in any way. We can't lay any of the blame
at God's door. It's all our fault. Second, salvation
is the work of the Lord. This is gonna be kind of the
same outline I gave you Sunday morning. Salvation's of the Lord.
And there are several ways that salvation is the work of the
Lord. First, salvation is the work of the Lord because it takes
the power of God to save. Look here, read the rest of verse
two. Is my hand shortened at all that it cannot redeem? Or
have I no power to deliver? Behold, in my rebuke, I drive
the sea. I make the rivers a wilderness.
Their fish stinketh because there's no water and dieth for thirst.
I clothe the heavens with blackness and I make sackcloth their covering. Now what this is talking about
here is when the Lord delivered Israel from Egypt and he brought
them to the promised land. He did that with the power of
his might, didn't he? This was his power that delivered
them. How can a bunch of slaves who
are unarmed, never been trained in anything military or anything,
how are they going to escape the greatest military power on
earth? Well, they're not going to do
it by their own strength or their own ingenuity, are they? They're
gonna be delivered by the power of God. And that deliverance
is given to us as a picture of God's power in salvation. If
you're lost, if you're dead in sin, God has the power to save.
Remember Israel, they left Egypt and then they're trapped by the
Red Sea. They thought, well, Moses, he brought us out here
to get killed by the army. Now, just be still. Just stand
still and see the salvation of the Lord. And God revealed his
power. He made that water to stand up
in walls. And he made that seabed dry ground
so the people could walk over with no difficulty. They walked
over on dry ground. And when they all walked over
and turned around, God brought the water back down and buried
Pharaoh and his host in the sea. That's God's power. After 40
years of wandering around, and why did they wander around for
40 years? Why didn't they just go straight into the promised
land? They would not enter in because of unbelief. But after
40 years, God finally brought them to the promised land. Oh
my, the Jordan's flooded. What are we going to do now?
God did the same thing. He made those walls stand up,
walls of water stand up. made the seabed dry ground, the
people walked into the strolled into the promised land. Now,
who has power to do that? I mean, who has power to make
water stand up in walls and make the seabed dry ground? Nobody but God. That's a picture
of God's power. He will do whatever it takes
to perform every miracle to save his people from their sin. All
those plagues that God sent to Egypt, He sent them so Pharaoh
would let his people go. And Pharaoh wouldn't do it, and
what happened? Because of his rebellion and unbelief, he buried
in the Red Sea. And he mentions two of those
plagues here. Remember when God turned the
waters of Egypt into blood? All their fish dried up. They died, they stank up the
whole country, because God turned water into blood. He made the
water something it wasn't. He made it into blood. And God
sent darkness into Egypt. He sent darkness that was so
dark. Scripture says you could feel
it. So dark you couldn't see your hand in front of your face.
But now, down there in Goshen, where the children of Israel
live, you know what's going on down there? Oh, there's light. Plenty
of light. They weren't in darkness. But
the rest of Egypt was in such darkness, you could feel it.
Well, those are pictures of God's power in saving his people from
their sin. When Christ died, God caused
a river of blood to spring forth. And that river of blood, it didn't
kill anybody. It cleansed God's elect from
all of their sin. It was a life-giving flow of
blood. The songwriter said, there's
a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins.
It centers plunge beneath that flow. lose all their guilty stains,
cleanse from every sin in the blood of Christ. And as our Savior
suffered unimaginable suffering, He took His blood behind the
veil into the presence of His Father. And this is so horrible,
God turned the sun off. Nature refused to shine its sun
on this travesty, the suffering of the Son of God. Blackness
was in all the land. What's going on at this time,
at this time of blackness, darkness, is something that's so great
and it's so powerful, man cannot understand it. We can't enter
into it. But when the suffering was done, Christ gave up the
ghost and there is light again. There is eternal light for God's
people by the power of God through the death of his son. Now only
God has the power to save and he's done that for his people.
Salvation is the work of the Lord because it takes the power
of God to accomplish it. The second way salvation is the
work of the Lord is it took God's son to be the prophet of this
salvation. Look at verse four. The Lord
God hath given me the tongue of the learned. I should know
how to speak a word in season to him that's weary. He wakeneth
morning by morning. He wakeneth mine ear to hear
as to learn. Now the Lord Jesus Christ is
the prophet of God. He's the prophet. God spoke by
his word. He spoke by his prophets. He
spoke by the ceremonies. He spoke directly to the fathers.
But in these last days, how has he spoken to us? by a son, by
the word. And God says, this is my son. Now you hear him. He's the prophet. The only way you and I'll ever
hear from God is if we hear from the Lord Jesus Christ. And you
know, we would know nothing of God's purpose of salvation, salvation
of his elect, if it weren't for Christ. We wouldn't know nothing
about God's mercy and grace to sinners. We'd know nothing about
God's grace to the Gentiles if it weren't for Christ. We wouldn't
have any idea how God saves sinners if it weren't for the Lord Jesus
Christ. We'd still think it's through
the law or through the ceremonies or all these things. If it weren't
for Christ, we'd never know. God's going to save his people
through the sacrifice of his son. And the father gave his
son, the Lord Jesus Christ, he gave him the tongue of the learned.
He gave him the words of life. He gave his son the message and
he gave his son the ability to preach that message. Now look
at first John chapter three. Here is the tongue of the learned. John three verse 31. John the Baptist witnessing here
of our Savior. He says, he that cometh from
above is above all. He that is of the earth is earthly
and speaketh of the earth. He that cometh from heaven's
above all and what he has seen and heard that he testified. What is it that Christ is saying?
Everything the father taught him, everything the father showed
him, everything he knew of the father, Christ was that prophet. He testified of that in the world,
but look at our nature in verse 32, and no man received his testimony. We don't, we refuse his testimony. But now look over at John chapter
15. The Lord Jesus Christ is that
prophet. God, remember he told Moses,
Moses, I know the people are rebellious. They're stiff necked.
I know they won't listen to you, but one day I'm going to raise
up a prophet like unto you. Him, the people will hear. Him,
spiritual Israel will hear. Well, here's that prophet. Look
what he says, John 15, verse 15. Henceforth, I call you not
servants. For the servant knoweth not what
his Lord doeth. But I have called you friends.
And all things that I have heard of my Father, I have made known
unto Everything I've told you from my father, I've made you
know it. I've given you the faith to believe
it. Well, of course they believed
him. No man ever spake like this man. When he speaks to his people,
they hear and they know. When he speaks, his sheep hear
his voice and they follow him. But I want to give you a word
of comfort here. Look back at Isaiah chapter 50. Look here
what he says at the end of right here in the middle of verse four,
he says that I should know how to speak a word in season to
him that's weary. Christ our Savior is able to
speak a word of comfort to his people, because whatever it is
we're suffering, he's already suffered it. And since he's already
suffered it, he knows how to give a word of comfort. When
we suffer the loss of a loved one, He knows how to comfort. Our Lord stood outside of Lazarus'
tomb and wept. He sorrowed. And when you find
yourself standing outside that tomb in sorrow, He's able to
comfort. He's been there first. When we
suffer hatred, our Lord knows how to comfort. He's despised
and rejected of men. He had a few friends and at the
time of His greatest need, they all deserted Him. He knows how
to speak a word of comfort to those who are hated and deserted.
And when we face death, he knows how to comfort. He's already
died and rose again for his people. He's able to speak a word of
comfort. He's taken the sting of death
away. He's able to give a word of comfort. This prophet is able
to give a word of comfort in season to the weary. Well, here's
the third way. Salvation is the word. of God. Christ had to accomplish this
salvation as the willing servant. Verse 5, he says, the Lord God
had opened mine ear and I was not rebellious, neither turned
away back. Now this is speaking of the bond
slave and you all know the law of the bond slave. If a man was
in severe debt and he had to sell himself, and I guess this
fellow didn't have any children to sell, he had to sell himself
into slavery. pay off his debt. He would serve his master. And
during that time as a slave, his master gave him a wife and
he had children. Well, when the debt was paid
and it came time for the man to go out free, he's going to
go out like he came in. If he had no wife and children
when he went in, he'll not take them with him. They're still
his master's. So if that slave said, I love my master. I love to serve my master. I
love to serve in my master's house. I love my family. I love my wife. I love my children.
I'm not going to go without them. I don't want to go free without
them. I want to remain a slave. I'm willing to remain a slave
to be with my wife. What they do is they take him
down to the town square and they get an awl and they bore a hole
in his ear and they put a ring in it. And that would be a token
to tell everybody this man's a bond slave. He's not serving
his master to pay off a debt now. He's serving his master
because that's what he wants He's serving Him willingly, lovingly. I don't know all the reasons
why the Lord gave the law of bond-slave, but I do know this. He gave it as a picture of our
Savior. The Lord Jesus Christ, God's
Son, became a willing bond-slave to His Father. And you know why
He was so willing to become that servant to His Father? Because the Father gave Him a
bride. And he loves her. Oh, he loves her. And in order
to have that bride with him forever, he had to get to work. He had to go pay her debt. So
he became a man. God's son became a man. Willingly, he humbled himself
to become a man, to be joined to that bride. And he did all
the work that was required to redeem her. He kept the law for
her. He did what she couldn't do.
He kept the law. And then he suffered and he died to pay the
redemption price for her. When he agreed to become that
bond slave of his father, he did exactly what he said he'd
do. He didn't renege. He didn't turn his back on his
father. He didn't turn his back on the
agreement. He didn't turn his back on his wife. He was bored
through at Calvary because he loved his wife and he willingly
redeemed her. Fourth, Salvation is the work
of God, because in order for salvation to be accomplished,
God's Son must suffer for his people. Verse 6, he says, I gave
my back to the smiters and my cheeks to them that plucked off
the air. I hid not my face from shame and spitting. The suffering
that our Savior endured but not something that happened to him
against his will. You know, he told Pilate, you
have no power over me except my father gave it to you. He
meant it. Now this didn't happen against
his will. Never look at the cross and see Christ suffering. Never
look at those hours leading up to the cross, all the suffering
and the humiliation and the torment that he endured and feel sorry
for him. Modern day religion wants you
to look at poor little Jesus and feel sorry for Him and commit
to Him because you feel sorry for Him like you feel sorry for
starving children in Africa or something. Never feel sorry for
the Son of God. See Him in awe. See Him in wonder
because He is there willingly suffering for His people. Don't
feel sorry for Him. He's there willingly. He's not
there being defeated. He'd be there winning the victory
for his bride. He's there willingly. He could
have called twelve legions of angels to put a stop to this
whole thing at any point. But he never did it, did he?
Because he suffered willingly. He gave his back to those who
had beat him with the cat of nine tails. They wanted to pluck
out his beard by the handfuls he gave him his cheeks to do.
Those that would spit in His face. He didn't turn away, He
gave His face to those who spit on Him. He gave His body, He
gave His hands and His feet to be nailed to that cross. Because
in order for the law to be satisfied, the Savior had to die. But the problem is no man could
take his life from him. They couldn't take him from the
garden unless he went willingly. Well, they certainly can't take
his life from him. So he willingly laid it down.
He gave up the ghost and died so that the law would be satisfied
and his bride would never die. And when the law was satisfied,
the law had no more claim on anyone for whom Christ died.
When the law was satisfied, that means the law is not looking
for you if Christ died for you. It's not looking to lay anything
to your charge because the law knows there's nothing to charge
you with. Christ died. And he willingly
suffered. He willingly endured all of that
because he loved his people that the Father gave him. He had to
suffer everything that was required in order to redeem them. And
he willingly suffered it because he loves his bride. And you take
comfort and you take assurance in this. Do you think for a single
moment that the Savior who has all power, this one who has all
powers necessary to redeem, nobody can stay his hand, nobody can
ask him, what are you doing? Do you think that Savior who
suffered and died to redeem the people that he loved, You think
he's going to let one of them perish in hell? Not a chance. No. That brings me to the fifth
thing. Christ, when he suffered, was
assured of his victory and his success. Verse seven, for the
Lord God will help me. Therefore, shall I not be shall
I not be confounded? Therefore, have I set my face
like a flint? And I know that I shall not be
ashamed. Christ says here, He knows He'll
get the job done. He said, because the Lord God
will help me. Now we've dealt with this in the past weeks.
Let's review. The Son of God needed no help. In order to redeem, in order
to do everything that was necessary, He needed no help. He's gone.
But He said, the Lord God will help me. Well, the reason He
said that is the Son of God didn't need any help, but the Son of
Man did. The son of man needed to be strengthened to endure
this, and the father strengthened the man, Jesus of Nazareth, so
he would be able to accomplish everything that was necessary.
Whatever needed to be done, he'd do it. And he was confident that
he'd get the job done because he had the power of God with
him. As he went into battle with sin and Satan, God would be with
him. The power of God would be with
him. He knew he'd be victorious. This thing was never, the outcome
was never in doubt. That's why he was so determined
to go to the cross. It's not like I might go into
battle and get defeated. I was watching a movie about
World War II the other day and these soldiers were getting ready
to go into battle and they were worried. They didn't know if
we were going to win or not. We don't know. The resistance is stiff. Our
Lord never felt that way. When he went into battle, he
knew he was gonna win. That's why he set his face like
a flint to go to Jerusalem. Look in Luke chapter nine. Here's
the fulfillment of this. He set his face like a flint
because he knew he would go there and save his people from their
sins. Luke chapter nine, verse 51. And it came to pass when the
time was come that he should be received up, he steadfastly
set his face to go to Jerusalem and sent messengers before his
face. And they went and entered into a village of the Samaritans
to make ready for him. And they did not receive him
because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem. And
when his disciples, James and John saw this, they said, Lord,
will thou that we command fire to come down from heaven and
consume them even as Elias did? But he turned to rebuke them
and said, you know not what manner of spirits you're of. For the
Son of Man has not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. And they went to another village.
And here the people rejected him. They didn't want him in
that town for whatever reason. The Savior was not deterred because
somebody rejected him. He knew he'd only come to save
his people. And he knew he would do it. He
knew he would. So look back in our text here,
verse eight. Here is the Savior's challenge,
and he knew he would be successful. Here's his challenge to everyone.
So all creation will know beyond a shadow of a doubt, he has completely
saved his people from their sins. He won the victory for them.
Verse eight. He says, he is near that justifies
me. Who will contend with me? Let
us stand together. Who is mine adversary? Let him
come near to me. Behold, the Lord God will help
me. Who is he that shall condemn me? Lo, they all shall wax old
as a garment. The moth shall eat them up. Now
Christ says this of himself, he is near that justifieth me.
The Father who is always near, he knew would justify him. Well,
how would the Father justify the Lord Jesus? by raising him
from the grave. He justified, it was revealed,
everybody's sins gone because he raised him from the grave.
Now here's how this is comforting to us. Whatever is true about
the Lord Jesus Christ is true about his people because we have
union with Christ. He was delivered for our offenses
and raised again for our justification. When he was justified, we were
too. Now get a hold of this matter of justification. The sacrifice
of Christ is so successful, he so completely won the victory,
that everyone he died for is justified. Justified does not
mean just as if I'd never sinned. Justified means I have no sin. Justified means I have never
sinned. If Christ died for you, you're
justified. God says, you've never sinned. Now who's going to argue with
that? Huh? I mean, people want to argue
with that. Who's going to argue with that? Who can be our adversary? Look at Romans chapter eight.
Oh, I wish we'd quit arguing and start believing. Who's going
to argue with that? People will, but nobody can.
Romans 8, 31. What should we then say to these
things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared
not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how should
he not with him also freely give us all things? Now, who can be
our adversary? If Christ died for you, nobody
can. Satan can't be your adversary.
His head was crushed to Calvary. The law can't be against you.
Christ kept it and satisfied it. Who can say you're not justified? Who can argue about your justification
if Christ died for you? Nobody. Read on in verse 33. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
is he that condemneth? It's Christ that died, yea, rather
than is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who
also maketh intercession for us." Nobody, nobody can argue
against your justification. Nobody can lay anything to your
claim or to your charge. And I know these adversaries,
they're going to make an effort to condemn God's elect, but they're
going to fail. They'll wax old like a garment
that's been eaten up by the moth and it'll just disintegrate into
nothing. They'll just be gone. Nobody
exists anymore. and only Christ the Savior will
endure. They'll be gone, and Christ only
will endure, and everyone who's in Him will endure. Because I
can never be condemned, never, if Christ was condemned for me.
I can never die if Christ already died for me. Salvation is the
work of God that He accomplished in the person of His Son. And
here's my third point. I'll make an application of this
to you and me, to every person in this room. We've already seen
the source of sin. It's us, isn't it? The problem's
us. It's all our fault. The separation between God and
us is our fault, our sin. And we've seen the remedy for
sin. The remedy is the Lord Jesus Christ, salvation of the Lord.
Now God has a word for two classes of people and I said I want to
make this application to all of us. This word is to all of
us because each of us fits into one of these two classes. First
he has a word for the believer, verse 10. Who is among you that
feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that
walketh in darkness and hath no light? Let him trust in the
name of the Lord and stay upon his God. Now do you fear the
Lord? This fear is do you reverence
and worship the Lord? Well, you fear the Lord if you
obey the voice of his servants when they preach the gospel.
You reverence the Lord if you obey his commandment to repent
and believe. Oddly enough, the way it says
this here, you fear and reverence the Lord if you walk in darkness. What he's talking about here
is you walk in the darkness of your own nature. You realize,
I don't have any light of my own. All I am by nature is darkness. If God's taught you that, if
He's revealed to you all you have by nature is darkness, you
know what you'll do? You'll stay upon Christ. You'll
stay upon Christ the light and you won't leave Him. If God reveals
to you, you have no ability, that you're helpless, that you're
dead, that you're hopeless, you know what you'll do? You rely
on Christ to save you. That person will be saved. That
person will be kept. God help us to stay upon the
Lord Jesus Christ. He's our only hope. If Christ has saved you, you
know what? You will. You will stay on him because
he won't let you go. Now here's the second word to
the unbeliever. Verse 11. Behold all ye that
kindle a fire. to compass yourselves about with
sparks. Walk in the light of your fire.
Walk in the sparks that you've kindled. And this you have of
my hand. You shall lie down in sorrow."
Now, do you think you've got some light? Do you think you've
got some understanding of your own? You think, I've got some
ability here. I've got some worthiness. I can
see why Christ would save me. I hope not. Because if that's what
you think, all your light is, is sparks. It's just light from
a fire that you've kindled. It's not producing any real light.
It's not producing any heat. It's just producing sparks. And
sparks don't last very long. They go out quickly. Now hear
the warning. God will meet you on the grounds
that you wish to meet Him on. He will. If you want to come
to God in Christ, seeking mercy, He'll meet you there. You'll
have mercy. And if your desire is to come
to God on your own, God will meet you there. And He says,
if you do, this you'll have of mine. You'll die in eternal sorrow. My friend, come to Christ. Throw yourself on His mercy.
We've seen the problem, haven't we? I'm the problem. We've seen
the remedy. The remedy is the Lord Jesus
Christ. Then come to Him. You come to
him seeking mercy and you'll have it. You'll have life because
salvation is of the Lord. Let's bow and pray. Our Father, how we thank you
for such a clear and simple declaration of the gospel. The gospel of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Man is ruined in Adam. We're ruined in our own sin.
And it's all our fault. We've got nobody to blame but
ourselves. And how thankful we are that
salvation is of the Lord, that it's all of His doing. There's
nothing for us to contribute. There's nothing for us to do.
Salvation's of the Lord, of His doing, of His mercy, of His calling,
of His keeping. Father, we pray and we beg of
Thee that you'd apply this word to our hearts, that you'd cause
your gospel to be heard with faith, believed upon, that you'd
cause each one of us to run to the Lord Jesus Christ and stay
upon Him, to have life and forgiveness of sin and light in Him. How we thank you for our Lord
Jesus Christ. And we pray that you'd glorify
His precious name through the preaching of your word.