The title of my message tonight
is readiness. Readiness. But I don't have a
single specific subject or a single text in mind that I want to pursue. Instead, I hope to weave several
texts of scripture together, each one with a different subject,
each one with a different message. But they all have one recurring
word, one connecting theme. The recurring word in all these
texts is ready. And the recurring theme is readiness. If you'll follow me through the
scriptures, I'm confident that you will find a message specifically
for you in at least one of these texts. Let's begin in Isaiah
27 and verse 13. Isaiah 27 and verse 13. Here
the prophet of God speaks of sinners ready to perish. In this passage,
Isaiah is telling us about how God gathers his elect one by
one. He's talking to us about God's
method of grace. And he says, they shall come,
which were ready to perish. Look at verse 12. It shall come
to pass in that day that the Lord shall be off from the channel
of the river under the stream of Egypt. and ye shall be gathered
one by one, O ye children of Israel. And it shall come to
pass in that day that the great trumpet shall be blown and they
shall come which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria
and the outcast of the land of Egypt and shall worship the Lord
in the holy mount at Jerusalem. I spend my life looking for sinners
who are ready to perish. I've got good news for sinners
who are ready to perish. I know that all men and women
by nature are ready to perish forever under the wrath of God,
justly so, but there are few who know it. Isaiah is here talking
about men and women in danger of wrath. danger of divine judgment
and know it Would do God I could find some
sinners Ready to perish. I have good news for sinners
ready to perish a Person is ready to perish When
he's convinced he deserves to perish Convinced he deserves to perish
Job said I have sinned That's the essence of it It is a man
a woman recognizing that they are guilty before God When you're
ready to perish You not only know that you deserve to perish,
but you feel that you must perish, because the soul that sinneth,
it shall die. And knowing that you must perish,
you recognize that you are perishing. Those who are ready to perish
are people upon whom the sword of justice is swinging close
to them. And they sense it, they know
it. They're pricked in their hearts
by the justice and the truth of God. Pricked in their hearts
like those on the day of Pentecost when Peter preached and they
cried, sirs, what shall we do? They're ready to perish. We're
not saved by feeling, I'm aware of that. We don't look for a
feeling. We don't look back to a feeling.
God keep us from doing so. I don't talk a great deal about
my experience of grace and I don't like to listen to others do so
because we have a horrible propensity of wanting to match our experience
with that of another. Brother Mark, I just read back
in the office, Acts 22, as Paul discussed his experience on the
road to Damascus. And everybody wants to have an
experience like that. Don't be so foolish. Yet recognize
this. Holy Spirit conviction seizes
a man's heart who's ready to perish and makes him feel it. God will never lift you up until
He throws you down. He will never bring you to heaven
until He sends you to hell. You will not be saved until you
know you're damned. That's just fact. We wait for
God to do His work upon men and women by His purpose, by His
grace, convincing them and making them to know they are ready to
perish, being convinced of sin. Now, turn over to Nehemiah, the
ninth chapter of the book of Nehemiah. Nehemiah 9, verse 1. Now in the 24th day of the month,
the children of Israel were assembled with fasting and with sackcloths
and earth upon them. And the seed of Israel separated
themselves from all strangers and stood and confessed their
sins and the iniquities of their fathers. And they stood up in
their place and read the book of the law of the Lord, their
God, one fourth part of the day and another fourth part they
confessed. Oh, what a day that must have
been. And worshiped the Lord their God. Then stood up upon
the stairs the Levites, Jeshua, and Bani, and Kadimeel, and Shibaniah,
and Buni, and Sherebiah, unto the Lord their God. Then the
Levites, Jeshua, and Cadmiel, and Bani, and Hashbaniah, and
Sherabiah, and Hodijah, and Shevaniah, and Pethaliah, said, Stand up
and bless the Lord your God forever and ever. And blessed be thy
glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise.
Thou, even thou art Lord alone. Thou hast made heaven the heaven
of heavens with all their hosts. the earth and all things that
are therein, the seas and all that is therein, and thou preservest
them all, and the host of heaven worshipeth thee. Thou art the
Lord, the God, who didst choose Abram, and broughtest him forth
out of Ur of the Chaldees, and gavest him the name of Abraham,
and foundest his heart faithful before thee, and madest a covenant
with him, to give the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites,
the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Jebusites, and the Girgashites,
to give it, I say, to his seed, and has performed thy words,
for thou art righteous. And didst see the affliction
of our fathers in Egypt, and heardest their cry by the Red
Sea, and showedest signs and wonders upon Pharaoh, and on
all his servants, and on all the people of his land. for thou
knewest that they dealt proudly against them. So didst thou get
thee a name as it is this day, and thou didst divide the sea
before them, so that they went through the midst of the sea
on dry land, and their persecutors thou threwest into the deeps
as a stone into the mighty waters. Moreover, thou leadest them in
the day by a cloudy pillar, and in the night by a pillar of fire,
to give them light in the way wherein they should go. Thou
camest down also upon the Mount Sinai, and spakest with them
from heaven, and gavest them right judgments, and true laws,
good statutes, and commandments, and madest known unto them thy
holy Sabbath, and commanded them precepts, statutes, and laws
by the hand of Moses thy servant, and gavest them bread from heaven
for their hunger, and brought us forth water for them out of
the rock for their thirst and promised them that they should
go in to possess the land which thou had sworn to give them.
Now what a word we read next. But they and our fathers dealt
proudly and hardened their necks and hearkened not to thy commandments
and refused to obey. Neither were mindful of thy wonders
that thou didst among them, but hardened their necks, and in
their rebellion appointed a captain to return to their bondage. Now
hear these astounding words, but thou art a God ready to pardon. Thou art a God ready to pardon. Gracious and merciful, slow to
anger, and of great kindness, and forsookest them not. Oh, he who is our God, is God
ready to pardon. That's good news to my soul.
The God I have offended, against whom I have sinned, whose wrath
I deserve, is a God ready to pardon. David said unto thee,
O Lord, do I lift up my soul? For thou, Lord, art good and
ready to forgive, and plenteous in mercy unto them that call
upon thee. What can those words mean? Thou
art a God ready to pardon. If you're ready to do something,
you're prepared for it. Thou art a God prepared to pardon. A man is not ready to go on a
trip until his bag is packed in his hand and he's headed out
the door. A highway is not ready for traffic until the surface
is paved and the barriers are removed. Nothing is ready until
it's prepared. Now hear this, God is ready to
pardon. Everything is prepared by which
God in His holiness, in His justice and truth can and will forgive
sin. The road used to be blocked up, but the Lord Jesus has come.
By His blood, by His righteousness, He has tunneled through every
mountain, filled up every valley, bridged every gulf so that now
All things are ready. God in Christ is ready to pardon. The hymn writer put it this way.
Behold Christ's blood upon the throne and know that all your
sins are gone. God's wrath on his dear son was
laid and justice owns the ransom paid. There's nothing for us
to do. No preparation for us to make.
He who is our God is a God ready to pardon. And because he's ready
to pardon, the implication is the work is easily done. All
it takes with sin forgiven, justice satisfied, righteousness brought
in, all it takes is for God to speak. Thy sins are forgiven
thee. Thy sins are forgiven thee. and God alone can speak the word
to your soul. The moment a sinner believes
and trusts in his crucified God, his pardon that once he receives,
redemption in full through his blood. Now, all of those things
are true with regard to sinners ready to perish. Hear me, my
brother. my sister, in the midst of your
countless faults, in the midst of our countless corruptions,
in the midst of our innumerable sins, God is a God ready to pardon. He says, if we confess our sins,
he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. John said, these things write
I unto you that you sin not. That's what I would have for
you, don't sin. That's what I would have for
me, don't sin. But Mary Lou Duff can't stop
sinning. But what would God have us to
do if any man sinned? That word if, I think I would
circle that somewhere in the margin of my Bible in 1 John
2. One, and write out the word when. When you do sin. When you do sin. We have an advocate
with the Father. Jesus Christ the righteous. And
he's the propitiation for our sins. Therefore he who is our
God is God ready to pardon. The word ready implies a cheerfulness,
not only a willingness, but a cheerfulness. He who is God delighteth in mercy. We're told the Lord thy God in
the midst of thee is mighty. He will save, he will rejoice
over thee with joy. He will rest in his love. He
will joy over thee with singing. Who can imagine such a thing?
The triune God singing over us as He pardons us through the
blood and righteousness of His Son. Now, turn to Romans chapter
1. Romans chapter 1. Here we see a man who is ready
to preach the gospel. Verse 15. So as much as in me
is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome
also. For I'm not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ. For it is the power of God and
the salvation to everyone that believe it. To the Jew first
and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith. For it is written, the
just shall live by faith. Because Paul had once been ready
to perish, because he had met and knew a God ready to pardon,
he counted himself a debtor to all men. A debtor to all men, which made
him ready to preach the gospel, even to the heathen at Rome,
where men worship gods of their own imagination and gods of their
own will, gods made by their own hands. He's, I'm ready to
preach the gospel to you that are wrong because I'm a debtor.
I'm a debtor. This is a debt I've got to pay.
This is a debt I can never pay. I'm ready to preach the gospel.
This gospel I know is the power of God to salvation. This gospel,
the message of righteousness in Jesus Christ, the Lord, this
gospel, by which God saves sinners, I'm ready to preach it. This
past week, I got a couple of emails and then a FaceTime call
from a young man down in Australia. Brother Angus Fisher introduced
us in a roundabout way. He attends the work in, now we're
in Australia, where Brother Angus is pastor, and Angus encouraged
him to contact me. 22-year-old man interested in
preaching. And he asked me, he said, how
did you know when the Lord had called you to preach? Well, I
didn't. I never volunteered to preach,
never surrendered to preach, never told anybody God had called
me to preach. But shortly after God saved me,
I was asked to preach. minister to folks at various
meetings in the church, asked to take a Bible study group in
high school when I went back to high school, just asked to
speak at different times, and then at last asked to preach
at a public assembly with a fellow that Shelby was in school with,
had a mission work out outside of Winston-Salem, and I couldn't
read. let alone preach. I couldn't
read. I'm not exaggerating. I couldn't
read. When I was 17 years old, I couldn't read as well as my
daughter did when she was six years old. I just flat couldn't read.
I'd bluff my way through school, all the way through school. Well,
what are you going to do? Somebody asked me to tell Eternity
Bound sinners How God saves sinners, and what God has done for me,
how can I not? How can I not? When God opens the door, be ready! Whatever the door is, ready to
do God's bidding. Turn back to Ecclesiastes chapter
five. Ecclesiastes chapter five. Here
the wise man Solomon speaks. And he tells us that when we
come into the house of God, we should come as worshipers ready
to hear from God. Ecclesiastes 5 verse 1. Keep
thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready
to hear than to give the sacrifice of fools. for they consider not
that they do evil. Be ready to hear. When you come
to the house of God, come seeking to hear God speak and be ready
to hear. And when God speaks, listen. Speak, Lord, thy servant heareth
thee. Hear what God says by his word
to you. I get more than a little upset,
and I usually show it. Somebody says to me, well, you've
given me a lot to think about. My response is I didn't give
you anything to think about. I gave you a word to obey. I
didn't come here to offer something to you. I came here to declare
God's truth to you. I seek his message. You come
ready to hear. Cornelius put it this way when
Peter came to Joppa. He said, now therefore are we
all here present before God to hear all things that are commanded
thee of God. Now, turn to the New Testament
again. The Gospel of Luke, chapter 22. Luke, chapter 22. Let's look at Peter for just
a minute. Simon Peter was an exemplary
disciple of Christ. Now, to many, that will seem
shocking. I recognize Peter's faults. I recognize Peter's quick response to things. He's
too quick to speak at times. But Peter was a remarkable, exemplary
follower of our Savior. Look here in verse 31. And the
Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you
that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for thee that
thy faith fail not. And when thou art converted,
strengthen thy brethren. And Peter said unto him, Lord,
I'm ready to go with thee. both into prison and to death. Just a short while later, he
denied him three times. He cursed and denied it. But
Peter's words here in verse 33 expressed his heart in truth. I'm ready to go with thee both
into prison and to death. And when the time came, he proved
it so. He went with his Lord both to
prison and to death. Are you ready to go with your
master? Ready to go. A disciple, a follower
is one ready to go into whatever place of service he is needed. He's ready to go into whatever
trial his master leads. Nathan was sent of God to speak
to David and expose his sin. Ezekiel was sent of God to Pharaoh
to expose his sin and they went readily because God said go. The disciple is ready to go into
whatever path his master leads, into whatever suffering and sorrow
obedience brings, and he's ready to go home with the moment's
notice, without notice, or with long and painful notice. Master,
I am ready to go with you. I'm ready to follow you wherever
you lead. I'm ready to go with you to prison
and to death. That's a disciple ready to follow
his master. Look at 1 Timothy chapter 6.
1 Timothy chapter 6. The apostle Paul told Timothy
to teach us to be saints ready to give. ready to distribute
our goods to others, willing to communicate what God has given
us to his people as they may need it. Look at verse 18, that
they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute,
willing to communicate. meaning women who've experienced
such rich, free, bountiful, saving grace as we have, ought to be
the most open-hearted, open-handed people in the world. God loves
a cheerful giver. Oh, God teach me to give a possession
of time, of labor, to give with a willing heart, to give as you
prospered me, to give with forethought and purpose, hoping for nothing
in return, trusting you to supply all my need. God, teach me so
to give. For you know the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ, How that though he was rich, yet for our sakes
he became poor, that we through his poverty might be made rich. God teach me to willingly give
myself and give whatever I have wherever it's needed for the
glory of God and the good of your people. Turn over a couple
of pages to Titus chapter three. Titus the third chapter. Along
the same line, Paul tells Titus to teach us to walk before God
as servants ready to every good work. Put them in mind to be
subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates,
to be ready to every good work. Good works, you well know, have
nothing to do with salvation. Good works have nothing to do
with earning crowns in heaven. Good works have nothing to do
with God's bountiful grace heaped upon us in Christ. But the grace
of God experienced in the heart, the grace of God experienced
in the soul always always produces good works, good works. Not good works that men look
at and say, my, how holy he is. What a godly woman she is. Brother Todd and I were talking
the other day and chatting, he said, somebody said, it makes
you feel so carnal, so worldly. You get around, some people do.
You get around them and you feel like, I'm just, I'm so unspiritual,
so unholy, so worldly. And I said, when that happens,
that's because that's the way they intended to make you feel.
I'm not talking about the kind of good works that men look at
and brag on and brag about how good you are. No, I'm not talking
about dressing funny or dressing peculiarly. I'm not talking about
talking in a certain way or acting religious. Good works in this
book, In this book, all ways have to do with works to benefit
people. Always. Feeding the hungry, giving
drink to the thirsty, housing the traveler, taking care of
one another, watching out for one another. Good works. always
had to do with doing good to men. Paul says to Timothy, and
to me, your pastor, you teach my people, you teach my people
to abound in good works. Three times in this third chapter
of Titus, Paul speaks of this. Why? Three times in one chapter. Because good works are contrary
to the flesh. We all like to do things for
ourselves and have things done for us. We all like to do things
that men see and approve of. They're contrary to our flesh.
Good works are honoring to God. And good works are helpful to
others. And I'll turn back to Job for
just a minute. Job chapter seven, verse one. Job says, the graves, chapter
17, I'm sorry, the graves are ready for me. The graves are
ready for me. The Lord Jesus for his people
has taken away the fear of death, the sting of death, and the dread
of death. He's taken away the dread of
the grave. He's changed the nature of the
tomb. The graves are ready for me. The graves are ready to receive
my body at God's appointed time. They're ready to hold my body
until the resurrection and ready to yield up my body when Christ
comes again. Now, listen to me. I'm confident
when Job said this, the graves are ready for me. He was saying,
and I am ready for the grave. I'm ready for the grave. I've
been washed in the blood of Christ. I'm ready for the grave. I've
been born of God. I'm ready for the grave. I have
owned me the garments of salvation, Christ's spotless righteousness,
his holiness, his perfection. Now, go back to 2 Timothy. I
want you to see this. 2 Timothy chapter four. Here is Paul the aged, a prisoner
at Rome, awaiting the time of his execution as a believer,
ready for the grave. I am now ready to be offered
the time of my departure is at hand. I fought a good fight. I finished
my course. I've kept the faith. That's not
a statement of pride or self-righteousness. It's a statement of fact. I'm
ready to be offered. The time of my departure is at
hand. I fought a good fight. I finished my course. I've kept
the faith. Henceforth, There is laid up
for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous
judge, shall give me at that day, and not to me only, but
unto all them also that love his appearing. Christ will put
on every believing head this crown of righteousness. Paul
was about to leave this world, and as he did, he looked downward
to the grave and said, I'm ready. He looked backward. over his
past life. Since the day God called him,
he said, I've fought a good fight. I've fought a good fight. I've
kept the faith. I've not been moved away from
the hope of the gospel. I've kept the faith. He looked
upward to heaven and looked outward to eternity. And he said, I am
now ready to be offered. I don't think I will ever forget, I was 21 years old when I started
pastoring at Lookout West Virginia. And one of the deacons in the
church, Brother Harold Martin, asked me to go see his brother
who was dying in the hospital. And I went down to see him. And
when I walked in the room, he looked at me with a cold, steely
eye. And I introduced myself. I said,
I'm Don Portner. I'm your brother Harold's pastor.
And before I could get another word out or walk toward him,
he said, if you come to talk to me about God and Jesus and
salvation, you can go back where you came from. I've lived like
hell and I'll die like hell. And I turned around and walked
out. A little while later, a few years later, Mother Martin, one
of the deacons in the church at Lookout, a faithful man, had
cancer. And he flew out to Washington
to be with his daughter, his only living daughter, and her
husband for his last days, went out there for treatment, for
surgery. And I flew out to see him. I flew out in the morning,
got there early, and spent the day with Brother Martin. And
I heard his last cognizant words on this earth. We chatted and
he'd go to sleep and then he'd wake up and we'd chat a little
bit and he'd go to sleep and he'd wake up and we'd chat a
little bit. These were his last words. He said, it's good to
come here and know that everything is under the blood. What a contrast. I'm ready to depart. The grave
is ready for me and I'm ready for the grave. Do you hope to
die like that? Then look at one more text with
me. First Peter chapter three, verse 15. Sanctify the Lord God in your
hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man that
asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness
and fear. With meekness and reverence. He's not talking about terror.
He's talking about reverence. With meekness and reverence for
God. What is the reason for your hope? I look at you here and I think
probably everybody here has some hope on which you lean in the
prospect of eternity. You hope for eternal life. You
hope for heavenly glory. You hope to live forever with
Christ. How come? What's the basis of your hope?
The Lord is my portion, saith my soul. Therefore will I hope
in him. I've had the privilege these
last 53 years. 52 years, excuse me. I've had the privilege. of God making some things known
to me in remarkable ways. I've experienced some remarkable
things, miraculous things, things that you just can't put into
words and express. I've had some sweet times of
communion and fellowship with God, sweet revelations of the
Savior, sweet experiences of His grace. None of them. None of them give
me any hope before God. I don't look back to anything. Nothing felt, nothing done, nothing
experienced. Well, pastor, what is your hope?
Jesus Christ alone. This is my hope. His work of
righteousness. His work of redemption, His work
of regeneration, His work as my advocate in heaven, His work
as my mediator, His covenant faithfulness, His immutability. I have a good hope. It's called
a good hope through grace. which God gives to every sinner
who trusts His Son. Oh, may God make you then ready
in Christ the Lord. Amen.