I want you, if you will, to just
hold your Bibles open on your laps at Isaiah 45, verses 20
through 25. And I want to tell you how things
are going to be when God gets done. Here in these verses of
Scripture, the Lord God himself speaks to sinners and tells us
who he is. what he has determined to do,
what the end result of all things shall be, and how we may be saved
by his grace. First, in verse 20, we have God's
description of all lost religious men. Now, I'm giving you God's
description of things tonight, not mine, not those of the Baptist
Church, or not those of this group or that group. The creeds
are meaningless except in light of Holy Scripture. Historic precedent
is meaningless except in light of Holy Scripture. We bow our
reason and all the creeds and confessions of men to what the
Scripture says. Now here is God's description
of all lost religious men. He says in verse 20 that those
who worship at the altar of a God who cannot save Have no knowledge. Look at it for yourself. God
says assemble yourselves and come. Draw near together ye that
are escaped of the nations. They have no knowledge. Underscore those two words. No knowledge that set up the
wood of their graven image and pray unto a God that cannot save. Now they don't think they're
praying to a God who cannot save, otherwise they wouldn't pray
to him. They imagine in their hearts that their God is just
as powerful as anybody else's, or more so. But God says they
pray to a God that cannot save, and those who do have absolutely
no knowledge. Now all men and women by nature,
by God's creative act, are religious. Everyone has some kind of religion,
some concept of God, and some form of religious faith and hope,
even those who claim to be atheists. The fact is, most people are
very religious. I don't suggest for a moment
that they're spiritual. I don't suggest or think for
a second that they are saved. But most people are very religious. Your family and mine. Your friends
and mine, folks you work with, folks you meet on the street,
folks you go to school with, they are people who are very,
very religious. The vast majority of those we
meet, even those who don't darken the church door more than maybe
on Easter Sunday and the day before or after Christmas, maybe
a New Year's Eve service or a sunrise service, even they are very,
very religious people. Our Lord speaks plainly and tells
us that most people in this world, have entered in at the wide gate
and walk in the broad way that leads to destruction. We're told
twice in the Book of Proverbs that they have entered into and
walk in a way that seemeth right unto a man. But the ends thereof
are the ways of death. Now the wise man, by divine inspiration,
speaks of a way that seems right, and an end, the specific end. And he says concerning those
things that the way and the end thereof are the ways, plural,
of death. Now he didn't make a grammatical
error. He was using his words precisely and by inspiration,
because all the ways of the religious world Whether you talk about
the Baptist way, the Protestant way, the Papist way, the Buddhist
way, it doesn't matter. All the ways of men in this world
are the ways of death, and they're all the same way. They're all
the way of man. They are the way of free will.
They are the way of works. They are the way that seems right
unto a man. Now, in this 20th verse, God
tells us three things about all lost unregenerate religious people. First he says they have no knowledge. He doesn't say they have a little
knowledge but are just slightly misguided. He doesn't say they
have some knowledge but not perfect knowledge. He says they have
no knowledge. Lost unregenerate religious people
have absolutely no spiritual knowledge. And they display their
ignorance blatantly almost every time they open their mouths.
Just listen to folks. When they talk about spiritual
things, you think where on earth did you get that nutty idea?
What makes you think like that? But all men say about the same
thing. They have absolutely no spiritual knowledge, no understanding
whatsoever. You see, in order for a person
to know anything spiritual, in order for a person to have any
spiritual perception, any spiritual, I didn't say doctrinal, I said
spiritual. In order for a person to have
any spiritual understanding, he must be born again. Our Lord
had Nicodemus come to Him by night. Now, Nicodemus was not
a peanut. Nicodemus, he wasn't an uneducated,
illiterate fellow who didn't know what was going on. Nicodemus
was a brilliant man. He was a theologian and a teacher
of theologians. Nicodemus was, he was up there
in the highest echelon of respectability in the Jewish church and kingdom.
And this man Nicodemus came to the Lord Jesus and he thought
he'd be very complimentary. He said, Good Master, we know
thou art a teacher come from God, for no man could do these
miracles thou doest, except God be with him. What he didn't understand
is he wasn't a teacher come from God, he was God come to teach.
Nicodemus didn't know anything. And our Lord's first word to
him was, Nicodemus, you don't know anything. His very first
word. He said now Nicodemus you've
come to me and you've come presuming that you are a teacher in Israel
And I want you to understand first thing out of the chute
that you have absolutely No knowledge at all. He said except the man
be born again. He can't see the kingdom of God
And he's not told my physical sight because the kingdom of
God is not a physical thing he's told about spiritual perception
You take a blind man out on a brilliant brilliant day and turn his face
toward the sun and tell him now open your eyes and he opens his
eyes and you say can't you see? He said no man I'm blind I can't
see. Now he may have lots of notions
and ideas about what the sun is He may have lots of notions
and ideas, even be well-trained scientifically, and have some
perception of all the guesses that make up the subject, but
he's never seen it! And he can't see it, because
he's blind. Now you understand what I'm saying?
No? It doesn't matter what I'm saying.
Understand what God says here in his book. They have no knowledge. Hold your hands here and turn
to 1 Corinthians chapter 2. 1 Corinthians chapter 2. Verse 14, the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God. You wonder why you talk
to folks about election, predestination, God's sovereignty, effectual
atonement. You tell them about how Christ
put away sin and you're just excited about it and they look
at you like, huh, what's so great about that? How come? The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God. For the foolishness of it. Neither
can he know them because they're spiritually discerned. Verse
15. But he that is spiritual judgeth.
The word, Rex, is discerning. He that is spiritual discerns
all things, yet he himself is discerned of no man. Nobody understands
him. He's judged of no man. For who
hath known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct to him?
But we have the mind of Christ. Now, it doesn't matter how religious
people are. It doesn't matter how long they've
studied the Bible or studied what men say about the Bible.
It doesn't matter how much experience they have or how phenomenal their
experience is. The natural unregenerate man
has no knowledge of himself. None. He has no idea what he
is. He has no idea what he's capable
of. He has no idea of the corruption
that's in him. He has no understanding of sin.
He understands sin by checklist. You know, he reads the commandments,
and he says, now, breaking these is sin. Breaking those is the
fruit of sin. I wish we could learn that. It
is sin, sure enough, but the problem is not in the deed. The problem is what we are. Sin's
what's in us. Sin is not what we say. Sin is
not what we do. Sin is what we are. And the reason
we do the vile things we do and say the vile things we say is
because that's what we are. The natural man has no understanding
of righteousness. He has no comprehension of what
righteousness is, particularly the righteousness of God. He
has absolutely no understanding of salvation. He doesn't understand
how God saves sinners. This is the reason the Lord said
to His disciples and to us. He says, when He, the Spirit
of Truth, has come, whenever He comes, when the Spirit of
Truth comes to a sinner like Sammy Walls, everybody there,
I like Larry Criss, I like Don Fort. When the spirit of truth
comes, now you can get religion without this, you can get all
kinds of religion without this, but when God the Holy Spirit
comes into your heart, he's gonna convince you of sin, your worse,
what you are, what you are. And you'll quit talking about,
you know, who I used to be and I used to do, you'll understand
what you are. God be merciful to me, the sinner. That's the prayer of one convinced
of his sin. We confess our sin, open up our
hearts before God and acknowledge what we are. He's faithful and
just to forgive us our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
And he will convince you of righteousness. Not yours, but his. He'll convince
you of righteousness accomplished. The righteousness of God in Jesus
Christ the Lord. The righteousness of God is that
which was accomplished for sinners by the substitutionary sacrifice
of God's Son. And He'll convince you of judgment.
And that judgment is judgment accomplished. It's not a matter
He's going to convince you of judgment to come. Now, certainly
that's so. But Mark, you were born with
that. You're born with that. Every man born with a sense of
judgment to come, read Romans chapter 2. God stamped it on
your conscience. That's the reason folks are willing
to sacrifice their babies in barbarian lands and worshiping
pagan gods because they know there's judgment to come. But
the believer, the man who's taught of God, he's convinced of his
sin, of God's righteousness in Christ, and God's final, complete
judgment of sin in his son, the Lord Jesus at Calvary. So that
God has put away my sin. And that's the thing that gives
us peace. We are sin. He is righteousness. He has put away our sin and brought
in righteousness for us. Then our Lord tells us here,
they set up the wood of their graven image. They worship of
God that they have whittled out of the dark forest of their own
depraved mind. Now, turn to Romans chapter 1.
Romans chapter 1. I want you to see this. Romans
1. Verse 21. Paul's talking about
the result of reprobation as well as the cause. He says in
verse 21, because that when they knew God, that is when they had
a perception of God stamped on their minds and consciences,
seeing the power of God in creation and seeing the righteousness
of God in some measure stamped because of the law written on
their hearts. When they knew God, they glorified Him not as
God. Neither were thankful but became
vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened.
Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools and changed
the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like unto
corruptible man." Now if ever there were words
that described the age in which we live, that's it. That's it. I know that the refined, civilized,
educated people to whom I preach around the country and across
the world don't worship images carved out of tree stumps. I
have yet to meet anyone personally who worships a stone. They don't
worship images chiseled out of granite. Do any of your neighbors,
any of your neighbors have images of some kind of an imaginary
God chiseled out of granite, polished up, sitting in their
living room? I don't know anybody who does. They don't worship
images that are molded even from gold and silver. And yet most
people in Baptist churches Well as all others without exception
in this country and around the world Worship a little peanut
God which they have whittled from the dark forest of their
depraved imaginations of God who no more resembles the God
of the Bible than a gnat a worthless God is a God who cannot say Read
the next line They worship serve and pray unto a God of that cannot
save. Now that's the problem. That's
the problem with this religious generation. They pray unto a
God that cannot save. Now let me show you what I'm
talking about. You're familiar with that passage in 1 Timothy 3, or 2
Timothy 3 verse 5, when Paul describes these perilous times
in which we now live, and he tells us in verse 5 concerning
this religious age, this rebellious, chaotic religious age. This religious
age that has no sense of responsibility, no sense of commitment. You can't
trust anything anybody says. And he's not talking now about
the fellows out on the road. He's talking, Paul, about religious
people. And he says this in verse 5. They have a form of godliness. They go to church, read the Bible.
Some of them wear robes. Some of them wear collars. Some
of them wear crosses. Some of them don't. Some of them have stained
glass windows. Some of them don't. Some of them
have altars. Some of them don't. Some of them have laws and ceremonies
and rituals. Some of them don't. But they
go to their various places of worship. They have a form of
godliness, but denying the power thereof. They deny the very essence
of it, for they deny the power of God. This is what our Lord
said to the Jewish leaders of His day. He said, You do err,
not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. Now that's
the problem with this age. This is what I say concerning
this religious world in which we live. Arminian, free will,
works religion, does not know God, nor the power of God. Not the word of God, nor his
power. And we're talking about the power
of God here. We're not talking about omnipotence. No, no, no,
no. No, no. It's talking about the gospel
of God, which is the power of God to salvation. The Apostle
Paul tells us that the religious age in which we live, those who
preach up another gospel, are preaching another God, another
Jesus. Another spirit and another salvation. People tell me all the time,
but they preach from the Bible. Do you reckon really, now just
stop and think about it. Do you reckon that if Satan really
wanted to deceive you, if he, I mean if he was really out to
get you, he'd get a book here and put on it skull and cock
bones, and he'd stand up here with a long red tail and pitchfork
and say, I'm here to deceive you. Oh no, no, no, no. No, his ministers become an angel
of light and preachers of righteousness. The only thing is they preach
your righteousness, not God's. And they preach your light, not
Christ's. You understand what I'm saying? There's a form of
godliness, but they deny the power of it. Now, this is what
that means. A form of godliness says God
wants to save everybody. Denying the power of it says
he can't save anybody unless you let him. A form of godliness
says God has a wonderful plan for your life. Denying the power
of it says you have to let him have his way with you. A form
of godliness says Christ died on the cross to put away your
sins, but it's all in vain unless you do something. That denies
the power of it. A form of godliness says the
Holy Spirit knocks at the heart's door of every sinner wanting
to come in and bring salvation. Denying the power of it says
you have to open the door. All of these silly, idolatrous
religious pictures. Those would be pictures of Jesus,
you know. They all make him look like something, you know, limp-fisted
and sissified. Almost homosexual looking thing.
Long-haired, pretty-faced thing. And they've got him with all
kinds of pictures. But the most silly, absurd one
I've seen yet is that one supposed to be Christ standing at the
heart's door. You ever observe it? Here he stands. Somebody
told me one time, said, You have to look close at the picture.
Here he is. He's supposed to be the light
of the world and he's holding a lantern. That's nuts to begin with. But
I said, you notice there's no knob on the outside because you
have to open the door from the inside. He's God who creates
the heart. He can't get in. Oh no, when
the Son of God comes in, he knocks the door down bolt and bar and
he brings his welcome with him. First time you know he's there,
you're crying out, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. But he's already
inside, but that happens. You throw the door open. Yes,
indeed. But it's cause he threw it open.
He brought himself in. But what are we to do with such
people? The apostle says, from such, turn away. A God that cannot save is no
God at all. And if you worship such a God,
You're not saved. If your mama worshiped such a
God, she's not saved. If your sons and daughters worshiped
such a God, they're not saved. Anybody who worships a God who
cannot save is not saved. Now that's just plain as it can
be. Now look at Isaiah 45 and verse 21. Here we see God's description
of God. Well, who is God? He who is God
indeed is sovereign, just, and save him. Tell ye, bring them
near, yea, let them take counsel together. Who hath declared this
from ancient times? Who hath told it from that time?
Have not I the Lord, and there is no God else beside me, a just
God and the Savior? There is none beside me." Now
what does the Lord tell us here? This is how God declares who
God is. Whoever and whatever God is,
He has an absolute purpose. A purpose. A purpose which cannot
be turned down. A purpose which cannot be stopped.
A purpose which cannot be hindered. A purpose that sure can't be
defeated. A purpose that can't be changed. It's an absolute
purpose. He who is God indeed Tells us
in the opening of this 21st verse that he challenges me and to
bring all their peanut gods bring them all together Let them all
take counsel together And they said I can put it in language.
You can't possibly misunderstand. I I was preaching As a matter
of fact, I was preaching pretty much the same message that I
prepared to preach to you tonight Last thursday night in san jose
and there's a fellow sitting right down here in front row
and he got to hooping and hollering acting kind of funny and But
he acted like he was just tickled to death with everything I said.
And he'd preach it further, preach it further. After service was
over, he came out and made great comments. I was sitting there
listening, just waiting. Everything I said, Larry, just,
it either flew right over his head or right through his ears.
It didn't even stop on the way. Didn't even slow down. He didn't
hear a thing I said. Last word he said to me, he said, I'm a
Pentecostal preacher and teacher. Well, let me be so clear, even
Pentecostal will get it. This is what I'm saying. You
gather all the gods of men in Danville, Kentucky together.
I don't care whether they're Russellite or whether they're
Romanist. I don't care whether they're Baptist or whether they're
Methodist. I don't care whether they're Pentecostal or whether
they're Presbyterian. Gather them all together, every one of them.
Find me one in the whole bunch who has declared absolutely,
unequivocably, unchangeably, from eternity, what's going to
happen in time. Find me one. Find that one, Laird,
you found God. You found God. This is what he
said in Isaiah 14. Satan said, I'll be as the most
high God. I'm going to lift myself up,
and boy, you're going to watch out for me. This was God's response
to Satan. The Lord of hosts hath sworn
and said, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass. As
I have purposed, so shall it stand. The Lord of hosts has
purpose. Who shall disannul it? And his
hand is fixed up. Who can turn it back? Turn over
one page to Isaiah 46. Look at what it says. Verse 10,
God says, I'm God. There's none like me. In verse
10, he says, here he is. This is what I mean when I say
I'm God. I declare the end from the beginning. And from ancient
times, things that are not yet done, saying, my counsel shall
stand. I will do all my pleasure. That ought to put him in saying
God wants to do what he can't do. I will do all my pleasure. My counsel will stand. What I
purposed, I'll bring to pass. He says in verse 11, calling
a ravenous bird from the east, a man that executed my counsel
from a far country. Yea, I've spoken it. I will also
bring it to pass. I purposed it. I will also do
it. All right, look at this. He who
truly is God has got an absolute purpose. And he's the boss. He's
Lord. He says, I am the Lord. Everywhere, over everybody, forever. I'm the Lord. I'm the Lord. Look
in Isaiah 45 verse 12. Just look at this one. He says,
I made the earth and created man upon it. I, even my hands,
have stretched out the heavens All their host have I commanded. Whatever yonder in the heavens,
I've commanded it. Look in verse 5, I am the Lord,
there's none else. He says in verse 6, concerning
Cyrus, he said, I girded you. Now he said, I did it for this,
that they may know. So that everybody topside of
the earth may know. from the rising of the sun and
from the west there is none beside me I'm the Lord and there is
none else here's the Lord God I form the light and create darkness
I make peace and I create evil behold I the Lord do all these
things he who is God is absolutely in control of everybody and everything
absolutely and he who is God the solitary God of the universe.
He's God alone. He said, He said, I am God and
beside me there is none else. There's none else. There's no
one up here with me. I'm God all by myself. Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit. Now most people these days are
really pantheist or polytheist. They really believe that God
is in everything and everybody. They believe that just about
every man's notion of God really is God. Be it Buddhist, Mohammedan,
Jewish, Atheist, Mormon, Islam, it doesn't matter. Barbarians,
whatever. Whatever notion you have of God's all right, God
will accept that. In this educated society of ours, we have these
folks who worship Mother Earth. Everybody worships Mother Earth.
Commercials on television talk about Mother Earth. Because everybody's
convinced everything came from Mother Earth. It says that Mother
Earth came from God Almighty, and He's in control of Mother
Earth. She's not the mother of anything. This Earth is not God,
but the creature of God, His creation. And when He gets done
with it, He'll go and burn it up. He who is God is a just God. Look at it. Much could and should
be said about God's justice, but I'll just say these two things.
He says, I am a just God. That means I'm a God who must
and shall punish sin, because I have said the soul that sinneth,
it shall die. And that means I am a God who
cannot save sinners apart from the satisfaction of justice,
for by mercy and by truth, iniquity is purged, but not in any other
way. I will pardon iniquity, transgression,
and sin only, however, in a way that is consistent with justice.
And that is through the substitutionary sacrifice of God's own Son. And he who is God, why, he's
the Savior. Look at it. He says, I am a just
God and a Savior. Blessed be his name. Now, look
at God's description of salvation. I listen to preaching. I try
my best to listen without a critical ear. So much of the time, people,
you know, they make simple things so complicated by confusing things
with noise. They make things so, just plain,
those on your face seem to be such deep, deep abysses of mysteries
you can't possibly understand them. And such it is with faith.
Most of the things I read about faith could be said a whole lot
better in this one sentence in Isaiah 45, 22. The only way a
sinner can ever be saved is by looking to this great and glorious
God who reveals himself in his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. He
says, look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth,
for I am God and there is none else. Salvation is in Christ. He alone is the Savior of men.
And the only way you can get God's salvation is looking to
Him. Well, what does it mean to look?
That's a mighty dumb question. I mean, just dumb. Who doesn't
know what it means to look? You know how a baby looks to
its mama? Mama's holding that infant child
on her breast Just as soon as that baby opens his mouth and
the breast is exposed, that baby looks to mama for everything
and takes what she has. Looks to her. You know how a
wife looks to her husband? You know how a family looks to
a father? You just look to them. You look
to them, you trust them. Daddy'll take care of it. Daddy
knows what's going on. Daddy'll provide for us. Daddy'll
protect us. A family just looks to daddy
for everything. Look to Christ just like that. That's what it
is. Israel was bidden, look to the
serpent, held up on the pole. Moses was commanded of God to
make a serpent of brass and stick it up on a pole. That's just
exactly what preachers are, just poles. And they're useful for
only one thing, holding up Christ crucified. And when they get
involved in anything else, they're out of line. They're in the wrong
place and in the wrong business. What do we do? Hold him up, say,
look. And every sinner in Israel who
had been bitten of the fibrous serpents, no matter how far off
he was, no matter how dim his vision, no matter how little
he saw, no matter how little he understood, no matter how
much he understood, no matter how clearly he saw, as soon as
he looked, the immediate land was made whole. And I'm telling
you that every sinner in the world who looks to this God revealed
in Christ. Immediately he's saved by God's
free grace. That's what it is to believe
on him. Look. Look to Christ now. Look to Christ always. Look to Christ forever. Look
to Christ for everything. God help you to look for Christ's
sake. Amen. All right, Lindsay, you
come lead us in the hymn please.