Ready? Here we go. Good morning. Would you open
your Bibles to Isaiah 45? I will begin reading at verse 20,
Isaiah 45. But before we read, let's ask
for God's blessing. O God, our Father, we seek Your
blessing this morning because without it, it will have been
a waste of time to meet. It is written, who can do us
any good? We know the answer, only You. But when we ask, Lord, for Your
blessing, we don't do so as though we wouldn't expect
them. You are a Father who delights
to bless His children. Indeed, You make everything a
blessing for them, whether it's pleasant or not. You order all
things for their eternal welfare. Father, we want to hear about
Your Son this morning, and we pray that You will make Him known
to us by Your Spirit as we read your scriptures. Lord, bless
me as I preach that I will say things that are true, that I will be enabled to direct
the hearts and minds of those who have assembled here to look
to Christ, to behold His glory, to trust
in Him, and find their salvation and their safety in Him. And
we don't pray this only for ourselves, Lord. I pray for Eric as he preaches
back in Iowa in my place. Lord, bless him. We pray for
our brethren whom we know, other men who stand in pulpits in various
places in this nation and declare the same message You've shown
to us. Lord, bless them. Uphold them. remove fear and
distraction from their mind, that they may with liberty set
forth Christ Jesus. And then, Lord, we know there
are many who preach Your Word, who preach Your truth. We don't
know them, but we know You do. The foundation of God stands
sure having this seal. The Lord knows them that are
His. And we pray, Father, for them and for others in foreign
countries. For, Lord, the earth is the Lord's
and everything in it. And while we may think of this
as our nation and there are other nations, all of them are Yours,
Lord. And You claim all the earth for Yourself. So, Lord, bless
them wherever they are. Bless them with Your truth and
a reapplication of the Gospel of Christ. And it is in that
blessed name we pray. Verse 20, Assemble yourselves
and come. Draw near together ye that are
escaped of the nations. They have no knowledge that set
up the wood of their graven image, and pray unto a God that cannot
save. Tell ye, and bring them near. Yea, let them take counsel together. Who hath declared this from ancient
time? Who hath told it from that time?
Have not I the Lord? And there is no God else beside
Me, a just God and a Savior. There is none beside Me. Look unto Me, and be ye saved,
all the ends of the earth. For I am God, and there is none
else. I have sworn by myself the word
has gone out of my mouth in righteousness and shall not return that unto
me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear. Surely shall
one say in the Lord have I righteousness and strength. Even to him shall
men come and all that are incensed against him shall be ashamed. In the Lord shall all the seed
of Israel be justified and shall glory. Now much error has arisen
from misapplying Scripture. Now when I say misapplying the
Scripture, I'm not referring here to applying Scripture to
circumstances that it doesn't apply to. I'm talking about applying
scriptures to people that it doesn't apply to. Not all of
the scriptures is written to everybody. In fact, not much
of the scriptures is written to everybody. The scriptures
have some things to say about everybody, but it has very little
to say to everybody. Let me give you an example of
how things written to specific groups are misapplied as though
they were written toward everyone. that God commended His love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
And there are preachers that will read that. Then they'll
stand in the pulpit and there will be before them an indiscriminate
crowd. He doesn't know their spiritual
state. He doesn't know whether they believe or don't believe.
And then he'll say, you see, God loves us. He loves you. Christ died for us. Christ died
for you. Back up the bus. When Paul said,
God commended His love toward us, and that while we were yet
sinners, Christ died for us. Before you can tell someone that
applies to them, you've got to find out what us Paul meant. Paul didn't write the book of
Romans to everybody. To the saints which are in Rome
begins the book. Now we know that Paul intended
his letters to be passed around. And while it was initially directed
towards the church in Rome, and there were a few things that
would have applied only to that church because it regarded people
at that church that he would greet and stuff, nonetheless,
the doctrine and the exhortations were for all the saints everywhere.
And when he said that God commended His love toward us, who's the
us? The saints of God. Now, I wouldn't
go out and say to someone, God doesn't love you. I don't know.
But I can't say. I don't have the right to tell
a person God loves them unless that person has, through faith,
proven that he's one of God's saints. Because that's who the
Word is directed. So we have to be careful. We can't apply every statement
of Scripture to everybody. We can tell everybody what the
Scriptures say. But we can't say, this was said
to you, unless they're within the group that it was addressed
to. You know, if you get a letter in the mail, I mean, it's in
your mailbox and you open it up and it says, you've won a
million dollars. Well, before you get happy, look
at the front of that envelope. Was it addressed to you? Did
it start with, dear you? Usually if it says you've won
a million dollars, it's addressed to resident. And then there's
an asterisk and down the bottom it says if you meet certain criteria
or we draw your name out of the hat or whatever, you know. But
that's just because people are liars and they want to get your
attention. But you get the point I'm making.
Unless it's written to you, you can't take it to yourself. But here we have a portion of
Scripture. And I can say, it's to you. Everybody hear. Verse 22 says, Look unto Me,
and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth. The only way that
this Scripture, this exhortation from God, the only way it could
not be applied to you, is if you're not on earth. if you're from someplace else.
Is there anybody here not from earth? If you're not, you may
as well leave because none of this applies to you. But if you
are an earthling, this is God's Word to you. I want you to think
about that. This is not my Word to you. I'm
speaking it, but I didn't initially speak the Word. I'm just repeating.
what God spoke. And He says, Look unto Me, all
ye ends of the earth, and be ye saved, for I am God. In this there are no distinctions
made among earthlings. It applies to every earthling. There are no distinctions in
age. This morning we have people here
that at least so far as the standard length of human life, we've got
pretty much the whole spectrum covered. We've got young here. We've got
older here. We'll just say older, not old.
Not because we aren't old, we just don't want to admit it.
And we got in between. But it doesn't matter what your
age is here this morning. This word is from God to you. One of the problems in the way
we do church, and I don't know another way to put it, but it
almost becomes like a spectator sport. And the people sit in the pews
and they watch the folks up here perform religion. And this is
true among us. I'm not just saying this to them,
because there's no use you and I talking about them. Let's talk
about us. It's real easy to come in here
and we sit down and the preacher preaches and we listen and we
say amen at the right time and we pat his back at the end and
say that was a good message, but we never receive it as a
word to us. It doesn't change us. It doesn't
move us. We don't act upon it. We went
and heard a good religious concert. Oh God, protect us from that
this morning. Listen to what God has to say
to you. You may be sitting here this
morning thinking, I'm glad so and so is here to hear this.
Stop that. It's okay to be glad someone
else is here. But don't think about how good
this is going to be for them. Take it as unto yourself. When the gospel was first preached
in Acts chapter 2. That is, first preached in its
full-blown revelation. Peter said, For the promise is
unto you and unto your children and to them that are far off,
yea, as many as the Lord our God shall call. And people read
that up, read that, and you know it. They say, See, the promise
is unto you and to your children. And they'll talk about covenant
theology. I come from a town full of Dutch
Reformed churches. And when their children are born
at an appropriate time, whenever they think it's right, they sprinkle
some water on their head, call it baptism, and say, now they've
been brought within the covenant because the promise is for them.
And I've never yet been able to rationally understand it because
most of them will say, well, they're not saved, but they're
safe, or something like, you know. Well, you can't give a
rational explanation of what's not true. So, of course, it doesn't
make sense. But nonetheless, they think that
at least they've got a leg up over those whose parents weren't
believers and didn't get them baptized. They'll justify that. It's for your children. And it's for them that are near.
Of course, what Peter meant by that was Jews. People see that, oh yeah, I can
go to my neighbors. It's for my neighbors. Well,
that may be true. But then there's those who say,
are missionaries, of a missionary mind. And it's that all the promises
to them that are far off, and I'm going to go far off, and
I'm going to tell them. Good. That's great. And then you read, to as many
as the Lord our God shall call, and we put on our Calvinist straitjacket,
say, there you see it, it's just for those God calls. Well, the
fact of the matter is, when we make those points, we're missing
the most important point of all. The promise is unto you. Don't sit here this morning And
listen to this sermon as a religious performance and judge it. Listen
for God to speak to you. And there's nothing wrong with
being glad others can hear it too, but don't worry about others
hearing it until you've heard it and you've understood this
is a message to me. How many people will there be
that stand in that day? Utterly shocked that they are
among the condemned because they never heard God's Word as unto
them. They were so interested in everybody
else it applied to. They never applied it to themselves. There's no distinction in age,
no distinction in gender. It's for male. It's for female. And it's for all the other fake
genders that are becoming supposedly important in our day. You say,
well, they don't exist. I know what people think they
do. And I want you to understand this. This works for them too. You say, but they're so wicked.
Yeah, kind of like you, huh? Do you think that look unto me
and be ye saved doesn't apply to them? They're in need of salvation,
aren't they? And God's the only one who can
save them. And understand, I'm speaking
after the manner of men. I understand that we are all
alike sinful. But you can go out to the freakiest
person you know, or ever run into, and you can tell them this,
God says to you, look unto Me and be ye saved. And you can go up to the most
righteous person you know. who does everything right, as
far as men thinks right, and you can say to him, look unto
me, that God says to you, look unto me and be saved. You can
say to the abortionist, God says to you, look unto me and be saved. And you can say to the abortion
protester, God says to you, look unto me and be saved. It's for
Democrats and Republicans and all the other little parties.
It's for Americans. It's for British. It's for Russians. It's for Africans. It's for Muslims and Buddhists
and Christians. If you're on the earth, it's
for you. It doesn't matter your ecclesiastical
position. In this little audience I'm looking
at, there's at least two pastor elders. It's for you. God speaks to you
this morning. There's some other men who preach.
It's for you. here who never have preached
and never will. It's for you. I have grandchildren in this
audience. Bruce, you've got grandchildren
in this audience. Young people, this is for you.
I'm so glad you're here. I really am. I'm glad your parents
bring you. because you get to learn about
the truth. What a blessing God has bestowed
on you that you should be brought up in a home and in a church
where the gospel of Christ is preached consistently. But don't
go through your life thinking, I'm in the right church, I'm
okay. No, that's not how it is. You have to hear this Word as
unto you. You say, but I'm so young. It
doesn't matter. You say, I'm too young to believe. Age has
got nothing to do with faith. Don't just let your mind wander.
I know it certainly wasn't easy for me. It still isn't easy for
me to pay attention. But do the best you can. And
as you listen, say, this is for me. Take it to heart. Hear from the Lord. and act on
what He says. Who's this to? It's to the man that's standing
here telling you about it. God says to me, look to Me and
be saved, Joe, for I am God and beside Me there is no other. Not to get ahead of myself, but
when we read that word saved, we've got to understand that
encompasses more than that one moment when God opens the eyes
of a person to see the truth and he believes. We normally
say, well, I got saved when I was so-and-so. Well, in a sense,
you're still being saved. And we're not only being saved
from hell to come, we're being saved from things here. Last
night, and this is just part of the nature of my person, but
I'm in a quandary. What am I going to preach? What
am I going to say? I feel such a burden, and I'm
going to be honest with you, it's not a spiritual burden.
I'm thinking, what am I going to say that they're going to
like? As though that's an important issue. What can I say that's
going to make it look to them like I'm a good preacher? Irrelevant. Every time I preach, God's got
to save me from that nonsense. Because I get trapped, get wrapped
up in it. And you know what I do? Virtually
every time I preach, somewhere along the line, I say, oh God,
help me. Help me. I don't know what to
say. And He does. It's for us all. Who sent this
message? Look unto Me and be saved, all ye ends of the earth,
for I am God. Matters of salvation are divine
matters. For you that don't know what's
meant by divine, it means pertaining to God. These are matters about
God, and the only one who has authority to speak about that
is God Himself. I have authority to repeat what
He said. I don't have any other authority than that. The only
one who's allowed to say, this is the way it is, is God Himself. People say, I like to think of
God as... It doesn't matter what you like to think of God as.
God is what He is, no matter what you think would be a good
kind of God. Sometimes we preach the Gospel
and we talk about God as He is and people say, well, I can't
worship a God like that. Well, you're right. But that
doesn't mean He's not that way. We're not allowed to put God
under judgment. We're not allowed to say God shouldn't do that.
What do you mean He's God? He's allowed to do anything He
wants. None of us can lay a claim on Him. And when it comes to determining
what God is like or finding out what God is like, there's only
one who can speak with authority on that issue, and that is God
Himself. We don't know anything about
God until He tells us. And then we can repeat it with
authority. So this is God speaking. In order to speak this with authority,
you must be God. Well, are you God? Well, to be God, you must be
able to prove two things about yourself. And if you fail on
either one of these, you are not God, and you don't have an
authority to judge this statement. First is look over at Psalm 96. Verse 5. Well, I'll get there. 96, 5, For all the gods of the
nations are idols, which is to say, they're not God. But Jehovah made the heavens. Can you speak with authority
about God? In order to, you must be God.
So here's the first thing you must, first test you must pass
to be God and have authority to speak on this matter. You
must create the heavens. Did you? Now, we're considered backward
for believing that God created the heavens and the earth. They
think it's a myth. Well, it's an important matter. Because if there's no creator,
there's no God. Because to be God, you have to
make the heavens. I read a quote from a scientist,
and I'll give him credit for being honest. You know, I can
have respect for a person I disagree with as long as he's honest about
it. And this was a notable scientist. I can't remember which one it
was, but this was a notable scientist, well-known. And he said this,
evolution is not believed because we can present evidence and cogent
argument, but because the only alternative is special creation,
and that's unbelievable. Now, we're being told that we're
rubes because we believe creation. This scientist, who knows the
facts of the case, he said, really the only reason we believe evolution
is special creation is unbelievable. Well, I disagree with him. It's
not perfectly believable to me. It makes perfect sense. I mean, I can't prove it happened
scientifically, so to speak. The only one that was there to
witness it is God. But why should it be incredible
that God made the heavens and the earth and all that in them
is? That we should start with that
which has no life and then it turns into something with life
and over a period of eons multiplies and gets more and more complex.
That's impossible to believe. spoke, and it was. He commanded, and it stood firm. And if that's not so, there is
no God. And you and I are wasting our
time meeting here. Because we're born, we live a useless, vain
life, and we die and turn to worm food. Really, that's what
the book of Ecclesiastes says. If all there is is what's under
the sun, and they perceive God as beyond the sun. If what's
under the sun is all there is, it's utterly vain and useless. Because we're born, we live,
we die for no reason and no purpose. But God is. Alright, did you
make that in the heavens? If you didn't, you don't have
a right, you don't have the authority to declare or determine what
God is like. Now, if you look at the 115th
Psalm, verse 2. Psalm 115, verse 2. First test for being God is that
you created the heavens, which would have meant to them everything.
Secondly, verse 2, Wherefore should the heathen say, Where
is now their God? But our God is in the heavens.
He hath done whatsoever He hath pleased. Now, has there ever
been a time when you wanted to do something and you didn't do
it? If there's ever a time that that
happened, you're not God. Maybe you didn't do it because
you didn't have the power to pull it off. Maybe you didn't
do it because you changed your mind. But if there's ever been
something you wanted to do and you didn't do it, you're not
God. And you can't speak with authority
about what God is like. Anybody here God? I almost never
do what I want to do. And it's mostly because I think
I can do far more than I really can. And I'm kind of lazy. I want
to do such, I've got to get out of my chair and do that. Maybe
not. Do you know something? God not
only can do everything He wants to, He does do everything He
wants to. And yet preachers stand in pulpits
and say, God wants to save you, but you won't let Him. If that's
true, He's not God. I don't know who He is, but He's
not God. You say, God wants to save everybody. Then why isn't everybody saved?
He's in the heavens. He does whatever pleases Him. You say, now why should we make
an issue out of God's Creatorhood and His absolute sovereignty.
This just causes division and distraction. Here's why. If He's
not the Creator and He's not the absolute sovereign, His Word
means nothing. What confidence can I have in
the Word of God that says, Look unto Me and be ye saved, all
the ends of the earth, for I am God and beside Me there is no
other? If He's unable to do what He wants to do, If I can stop
Him from saving me, I'll guarantee you there's a lot of beings in
this universe stronger than me, and if they didn't want me saved,
they could stop Him. If it's not Him who spoke and
it was, and commanded and it stood firm, that makes this promise,
what good is the promise? Let's go back to Isaiah. Look unto me. It applies to everyone. It's spoken by God. What is the
exhortation? Look unto me. Those of you that
know the history of Spurgeon, you likely know that this is
the scripture. that was being preached the day the Lord opened
His eyes to the truth. And he talked about the simplicity
of it because the lay preacher, as they call it, who was preaching
that day was a very simple man. In fact, Spurgeon said he could
barely do anything more than keep repeating the Scripture.
But he said, the exhortation is to look. That's
not hard. You don't have to do so much
as wiggle your little finger. It's look. Look is simple. You don't have to be smart to
look. You don't have to be good to look. And young Spurgeon, what was
he, 15 I think at the time, and much in distress of soul over
his sinfulness and he knew that he was guilty before God and
under the judgment of God, and he's back there looking miserable. And that preacher, and I've never
done this, and I would not tell preachers to do this, but the
Lord impressed upon that man's heart. He looked at Spurgeon
and said, young man, you look miserable, and you're going to
be miserable until you look. Until you look. Oh, God has not called upon us
to do that which we consider should consider to be hard. We
can get all theological, and I did last night, and nothing
wrong with this. I understand we don't even have the capacity
to look, apart from Him giving us that desire and capacity.
But you know, God's not here trying to be theological. He's just giving an exhortation.
And it's true. It's real. Look. And I say to
you this day, every one of you here, young, old, all those classifications
we mentioned, look. Well, what right do I have to
look? God said, look. And if God says, look, nobody's
allowed to tell you, it's not for you. Look. But this word has more than the
sense of look. It's hard to find a single English
word that would capture all that this word, this Hebrew word means,
because it also means turn. And the idea is we would have
to make an English phrase, turn and look to me. Now, what's that
implying? Right now, you're looking somewhere
else. And to look to Him, you must
turn. Now, you say, well, I am looking
to Him. And I know what you mean. You say, so see, this doesn't
apply to believers who are already looking to Him. Really? Are you
always looking to Him? This morning I am. But between this Sunday and next
Sunday when I preach back at home, I won't be looking to him. It's so easy for us to turn our
eyes away. And I don't mean just by being
distracted by other things. I mean, we've still got that
old legal spirit in us. And we try to do the things that
must be done spiritually under our own strength. And we get
ourselves in a mess. And the Lord says, turn and look
to Me. You're looking in the wrong place. But that's also His exhortations
to those who have not yet ever turned and looked to Him. He's
saying, you're looking somewhere. Everybody here knows there's
a judgment to come. It's written in our hearts. I
don't have to tell you that. You know it. And you also know
that if you are judged based upon the things you've done and
judged by the strict judgment of a perfect God, it's not going
to go well with you. So right now, every one of us
here is looking at something that we think is going to get
us by. Now, I can't judge your hearts.
I don't know what you're looking at, but I know the kinds of things
people look at. They look at their own works
of righteousness or what they think is righteousness. And what
they're going to find out is, no, it wasn't righteousness. They look at their works of morality.
You know what? I wish people were more moral,
but morality is not righteousness. They look at their good deeds,
that is, their charitable endeavors. And they may give themselves
and sacrifice themselves to such charitable endeavors as, for
example, Mother Teresa. And I'm not going to take away
from her whatever respect she deserves from human beings for
devoting her life to serving the poor. And while I cannot judge her
heart, I think she reveals it fairly well. that she had some
confidence before God in what she was doing. And so do we. We're looking in the wrong spot,
and God says, quit looking there. There's no salvation for you
there. There's no salvation for you in your doctrine. I haven't
a word to say against good doctrine, but if you think God's going
to save you because you've got your doctrine squared away, you're
in for a rude awakening when you meet Him. The doctrine is
there simply to point us to Him, that's all. And if it doesn't
cause us to turn and look to Him, it was not only a waste
of time that we ever learned the doctrine, it was worse than
that. It put us in a worse position than had we been utterly ignorant
of the doctrine. Doctrine is not an end in itself.
It serves the purpose of causing us to turn from the nonsense
of anything we can produce and look to Him and Him alone for
the salvation we need. And we need this exhortation
all of our lives. Because we turn and look at all
the glory that God pours in our soul when we first look to Him.
But we're stupid enough to look somewhere else. And the Lord
comes and, now, you're in a mess. And you got yourself in it. And
there's no way you're going to get yourself out. But turn and
look to me. You'll be saved. The exhortation,
turn and look. All this morning realize that
most of the time you're looking in the wrong place. And turn and look to Him in whom
alone is righteousness and strength. He says, turn to Me and here's
the promise that goes with it, and be saved. Now when we're
in a religious environment, you hear the word saved and immediately
people think of just one thing. when God first opens a person's
heart to receive the gospel and he, you know, testifies to them
that he has saved them. That's not all there is to salvation.
And we better, it would be good if occasionally we change the
word so that we don't just get in a pattern, we hear it and
it doesn't mean anything to us anymore. You know what the word
means? Rescue. Turn to me and be rescued. You
see, people have turned being saved into a virtue. I got saved
when I was 12, and that's better. You know, you're better than
the guy that waited until he's 25. Do you realize being a Christian
is not a virtuous thing? Now, you think about it. First
of all, if you are a Christian, that means you confess that there's
no good in you. Then why are you going around
boasting about that? I heard a man once say, well, I may not be good, but at least
I know I'm a sinner. He's just told you what his righteousness
is. His belief that he's a sinner. As though, for some reason, that
justified God in saving him. No, that justifies God in condemning
him. I'll tell you another thing about
Christians that's not very virtuous. They are willing for someone
else to take the punishment they deserved. What would you say to somebody
that did that? What would you say for someone who was guilty
of the murder, but he stood by while someone else was charged
with it, found guilty of it, put in jail, and then put to
death? And you knew it. What would you think of him?
That's what believers do. They are perfectly willing that
Jesus Christ was charged with their sins, convicted, counted guilty of
their sins in the sight of God, and he received from God the
just penalty due unto their sins, and they are happy for it to
be that way. That's not very virtuous. We're rescued. To be rescued
means you got yourself in a mess. Well, I boast about that. Now,
understand this. I'm not ashamed of my Savior,
but I'm not proud that I'm a Christian. Because me being a Christian
is not my fault. God made me that way. And as I said, there's
no virtue in it. You say, well, yeah, but I had
sense enough to believe it. No, you didn't. And after all,
just how much glory is there in knowing that 2 plus 2 equals
4? And the Gospel is that simple. No, we need to be rescued because
we're in a mess and we're in trouble beyond our ability to
do anything about it. So he says, turn from what you're
looking to now. You're in your boat and it's
sinking and you've got a bucket and you're trying to bail it
out fast enough but the water's coming in faster than you can
do and you've been doing it a long time and still the water's rising.
Why don't you give up? Turn from what you're doing.
Look to me because I don't need a boat to save you. I don't need you to bail the
water out of your boat. I can walk on the water. Look to me. Turn and look. Well, if you turn and look, what will
you see? Turn to Revelation chapter 1. Revelation chapter 1. John's
on the Isle of Patmos and God comes to him, gives him visions, and he hears a voice saying to
him in verse 11, I'm the Alpha and Omega, the first and the
last, and so forth. And John says, I turned to see. I turned and I looked. Turn to see the voice that spake
with me, and being turned I saw seven golden candlesticks, and
in the midst of the seven candlesticks one likened to the Son of Man.
Clothed with a garment down to the foot and girt about the paps
with a golden girdle, his head and his hairs were white like
wool as white as snow, and his eyes were as a flame of fire,
and his feet like undefined brass. as if they burned in a furnace,
and His voice is the sound of many waters. And He had in His
right hand seven stars, and out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged
sword. And His countenance was as the
sun shineth in its strength. And when I saw Him, I fell at
His feet as dead." Who did He see? Jesus. Does this sound like the Jesus
you hear about? from the TV preachers and the
radio preachers that set up Jesus as though He's some kind of pal
and buddy? Does this sound like the Jesus who's up in heaven
and He did all He could to save you and now He's just seeing
if it's going to work out and He's just begging you to let
Him save you? Who would ever fall down before
such a One as though He were dead? Who would be so smitten
with the glory of the One He beholds? He can't stand what
He sees and yet He can't look away. Now God's not going to
give you a vision. But He will give you something
of what John experienced when he saw Christ as He is. One so glorious It's too much
to take. One so glorious that you don't
go up and put your arm around Him and say, well, Jesus, You
can save me now. You're my friend. He fell face down and just laid
there. And if you'd have been looking
at Him, you'd have thought He was dead. And He laid His right hand upon
me, saying unto me, fear not. If you have never met a Jesus
that made you afraid, you have never met the Jesus of Scripture. If you've never met the Jesus
who had to tell you, don't be afraid, You've never met the
Jesus of Scriptures. No one who ever met Him as He
is. Now, in the days of His natural
life, He veiled that glory. He kept it shut up because He
knew what would happen. Nobody could have come near Him.
He laid aside His divine glory and He came here in the form
of a servant. Why? So that He could be among
us and not kill us. But now, He's in the full glory,
not only of God, but of perfect man, perfect mediator, glorified
Son of God. And that's what you're going
to see in your heart if you ever turn and look to Him. Isaiah saw Him. Isaiah chapter
6, I saw the Lord high and lifted up. And He described the scene
He saw. And what was His response? And
this is Isaiah the preacher, Isaiah the believer. Isaiah the
prophet. He said, and I said, woe is me!
I'm a man of unclean lips. Why do you say that, Isaiah?
You've been preaching the truth. Yeah, but I've been preaching
it with unclean lips. And I am ruined, for I have seen
the King. You say, well then why would
I want to turn and look at that? Because sooner or later you are.
Sooner or later you are. But it will be your death, not
your life that results. What did it say there in Isaiah? Every knee shall bow. Every tongue shall swear. Every
tongue shall confess. You are going to see this Jesus
someday. Right now you can see Him, turn
and look to Him, and though the sight will fill you with fear,
He will say to you, fear not. The day is coming, and if you
have not turned and looked to Him, you will, and there will
be no fear not. It will be, depart from Me into
outer darkness, ye that work iniquity. But Lord, I thought
it didn't matter what you thought. You didn't listen to what I said. That's what you'll see. Now look
at Revelation chapter 5. Here's something else you'll
see. John's in heaven and he's crying.
You thought, well, I thought there weren't any tears in heaven.
Well, there was tears in this heaven and I'll tell you why.
At that point, there was no Christ in it. There was God in all of
His majestic glory. And he had a scroll in his hands,
and that scroll was actually the entire decree of God concerning
all things, but in particular, the decree of God and the redemption
of His people. And it was said, is there anyone
worthy to take that scroll and loose its seals and unroll that
scroll? Which he meant to bring to pass
the things that are in that scroll. And there was not found anyone
who was worthy. And John said, and I began to
weep. Why? Nobody could open the scroll. Nobody could make
it happen. Nobody was worthy. Nobody had
the authority and power. And an angel came to him and
said, don't weep. The Lion of the tribe of Judah
has prevailed, and He is worthy to loose those seals and open
that scroll. And then John said, In verse 6, I beheld, I looked,
and low in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts and in
the midst of the elders stood a lamb as it had been slain,
having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits
of God, sent forth into all the earth. Now, this shows us these
are symbolic visions representing what our Savior is. The Lord
Jesus does not look like a lamb that's been killed, nor does
He have a sword coming out of His mouth literally, nor does
He have seven horns and all of that. All of these symbols tell
us something about Him, but here's the one I want to focus on, a
lamb having been slain. When you turn to the Lord, if
you turn to the Lord, you will be turned to one who is sacrificed
for the sins of many. And if you are to turn to Him
in a saving way, you will perceive Him as one who is sacrificed
for your sins. And you will realize the only
way that you could ever appear in the presence of God in safety
was for Him to bear your sins. So you will see the glory of
His person, which will overwhelm you. And you will see the wretchedness
of your own state when you realize it took the sacrifice of a one
so glorious as that to save me. You know, the seriousness of
a disease is measured by the power of the medicine necessary
to cure it. If it ain't so bad, then why
did it take the death of the glorious Son of God to save you? If you weren't that bad, maybe
one of those lambs of the old covenant would have been enough.
It took nothing less than God slaughtering His own Son to save
your wretched soul. These are the things you'll see
if you turn and look. And what's the promise? Be ye
saved. You'll be saved. It's not, turn
and look and then we'll see if, you know, I'll think about it.
Turn and look and be saved. And what's your warrant? For
I am God. One of the dominant churches
in our area, they said, well, you know, there's a promise,
but you can't come to Christ until you've seen how bad your
sins are. Wait a minute, God didn't say
that. God said, turn to Me because I'm God. There's your warrant.
Is He God? Then you've got all the warrant
you need to turn to Him. Here's your warrant. He said,
turn and look. And you don't need permission
from anyone else to turn and look to Him and be saved. So, what are you going to do? Are you going to say, boy, that's
a good message. You say, yeah, that's the sovereign
grace. Love that. Well, I hope you think
those things. But are you going to turn and
look? Or are you just simply going
to affirm that's the truth? Here's God's word to you, every
last one of you and me. Turn and look to me. and be saved, for I am God, and
there's no other God to look to. Well, God bless His Word. Thank you, Joe. Where will um...