Good morning. Let's open this
morning's service with hymn number 21 from your Spiral hymn book,
hymn number 21. The Covenant, Ordered and Sure.
Let's stand. We haven't done that in a while.
Let's stand together. Number 21 from your gospel hymn spiral
hymn book. God the Father and the Son and
the Spirit three in one in eternal ages past made a covenant sure
and fast God my Father chose his own in the person of his
Son and ordained that I should be one with Him eternally. God the Son agreed to come in
the flesh to bring me home. ? He would keep God's holy law
? And retrieve me from the fall ? Christ did love so willingly
? Stood as my great surety ? For my price he offered blood to
appease the wrath of God. God the Spirit, heavenly dove,
promised to come down in love, bringing life and peace and grace
to the chosen, purchased race. He seeks the lost, heals the
lame, and He brings us to the Lamb. By His mighty sovereign
call, God's elect are gathered all. This poor sinner is secure,
for God's covenant will endure. It is sealed by God's own word,
by His Spirit and His blood. O Holy Covenant God, I am yours
by ties of blood, ties of grace and ties of love. Hold me to my God above. Please be seated. I love that hymn. As much gospel
in that hymn as anything we sing. What a blessing. Good morning. Before we begin, most of you
know that Hugo's father passed away unexpectedly Tuesday morning
very early. And I want to remember Hugo and
the family as they grieve his loss. It was very unexpected.
And I know most of you know Hugo. He's been here. You go senior
On several occasions also Jerry Salzberg's mother is in the hospital
not doing well and so I remember to Pray for her as well Kaylee
good to have you with us Kaylee just went to work for Mickey
Mouse and she's gonna be doing that until January. She's from
Crossville. We're Donnie Bell pastors and
And we're glad she's here. I asked Laura Grace to upgrade
our website and make it look simple enough for somebody like
me to be able to use it. And she did. And so Jeff has
been working on our live streaming and Laura Grace is working on
it. I think we've got everything fixed. So I'm thankful for them. And if you haven't seen the new
website, go check it out. It's real user-friendly and it's
very comprehensive. So hopefully it will be helpful
to everybody. All right, we're going to be
in the last chapter of Isaiah. We'll begin at verse 17. By way of introduction, if you'll
turn with me in your Bibles to Job chapter 25, I'd like to introduce
this message with the words of Bildad in Job 25. Let's ask the Lord's blessings
on our time together. Our merciful and gracious Heavenly
Father, We come before you in the name of thy dear son, thanking
you that we have acceptance in him. We have an advocate. Righteous one. One who is able
to plead our cause and one is able to make us justified, accepted
and sanctified in thy sight. We ask, Lord, that you would
enable us in these hours to have our eyes fixed on him, that you
would cause us, Lord, to be able to put aside the things of this
world and give our attention and our hope in the glorious
person and the finished work of thy dear son. Father, we pray that in the passing
of life that you would remind each one of us of the brevity
of life. Lord, that this time of grief
for the Torres family would be a time of hope and renewal in
Christ as they find their comfort and their rest in thee. We pray for you, God, as he brings
the gospel at his father's funeral. And Lord, pray that you would
use it to call out your lost sheep. Pray for Jerry's mom and ask,
Lord, that you'd give the doctors and nurses the wisdom to be able
to treat her well and ask, Lord, for your mercy there. We pray it in Christ's name and
for his sake. Amen. All right, if you'll open your
Bibles with me to Job chapter 25, Bildad was one of the three
of Job's miserable comforters in that Bildad asked the right
questions but he had no answers. And he made some statements that
were certainly true but he wasn't able to give any hope to Job. When Elihu comes on the scene
in Job chapter 32, Elihu is the gospel preacher who's bringing
the truth to Job and the scripture says that Elihu was angry because
Job and his friends justified themselves. Justified themselves. Job makes arguments all throughout
this book. insisting on his innocence before
God, insisting that the things that he was suffering were not
fair. And when he finally heard the gospel, you remember what
Job said? He said, I had heard of thee
by the hearing of mine ear, but now mine eyes have seen thee,
and I repent in dust and ashes. He said, surely I spoke without
knowledge. I didn't know what I was saying.
But here's the question that Bildad asked that each of us
have to find the answer to. Job chapter 25 verse 1, then
answered Bildad the Shuhite and said, dominion and fear are with
him. He maketh peace in his high places. Is there any number of his armies? No. Is anyone going to be able
to stand up against God? No. And upon whom doth not his
light arise? Upon whom does not God have sovereign
control? Upon whom does not God provide
everything that they have? These are rhetorical questions.
The answers are obvious, aren't they? Verse 4, how then can man
be justified with God and how can he be clean that is born
of a woman. If God is holy, God is sovereign,
and man is unholy and sinful and weak, how can a sinner stand
in the presence of a holy God and be justified in his presence? Verse 5, Behold, even to the
moon, and it shineth not, yea, the stars are not pure in his
sight. Now here's amoral objects. These are planets in the sky,
and Bildad says the stars are not pure in his sight. How are
you going to be pure in God's sight? They've never sinned. And yet they're not pure in the
sight of God. How can one who has sinned stand in the presence
of a holy God? How much less man that is a worm
and the son of man which is a worm. There's the answer to the question
hidden in the question, but Bildad didn't know the answer. The Lord
is speaking through this man some truths that we're able to
see. Yes, we are worms, and yes, the
Son of Man is that worm. He's that worm who bore our sins
on Calvary's cross and satisfied once and for all by the sacrifice
of himself what God required of sinners. He satisfied God's
law. He satisfied God's justice. All right. Turn with me to Jeremiah. I'm sorry. I said that this morning.
The reason why, the last chapter of Isaiah is on the same page
in my Bible as is Jeremiah. So when I look at it, I just
see Jeremiah. Isaiah chapter 66, verse 17. They that sanctify themselves
and purify themselves in the garden. Now, the garden is used
in the scriptures to represent that place where God meets with
his people. We see it in the Garden of Eden,
don't we, at the very beginning where God walked with Adam in
the cool of the day and fellowshiped with him. And when Adam sinned,
he lost fellowship with God and consequently was cast out of
the garden. We see it in the garden of Gethsemane
when the Lord Jesus Christ begins his sufferings. He meets with
his father there in the garden and pours out his soul to his
father, doesn't he? We see it in heaven, revelation. Heaven is called paradise. It's
the garden restored where we have fellowship with God. And
in the book of the Psalm of Psalms, the garden is used to illustrate
the church. God says, well, the Lord says,
I will go down into the garden and there I will meet with my
bride and the sweet spices of my grace I will give to her in
the garden. This picture of the garden is
a picture of where God meets with his people. It is a picture
of the church where God's people gather together and where God's
people offer up worship and praise to him. That's the garden. Now
this passage in the end of Jeremiah, now Jeremiah is summarized, Isaiah
is summarizing everything that he's been prophesying throughout
all these 66 chapters. And here at the end, he says,
there are some in the garden that justify themselves, that seek to purify themselves. Now that's exactly what Job's
problem was. What a description of what men
do when they go to church. They seek to justify themselves. They seek to purify themselves. and their false prophets comfort
them by assuring them, giving them assurance that they have
justified themselves because they made the right decision
or they prayed the right prayer or they performed the right work
or they participated in the right ceremony or they took part in
a sacrament. Most religious groups would call
the ordinance of the Lord's table and the ordinance of the baptism
a sacrament, which defined means that it infers grace. So if you
participate in this ordinance that God has given to us, in
most gardens, they would say that your participation in that
ordinance is really a an opportunity for having the grace of God inferred
to you. And so men justify themselves. They justify themselves by religious
ceremony. They seek to purify themselves
before God. That's exactly what Job was doing.
Job on many, on several occasions during this book, during the
book of Job, he says, let me bring my case before your court
and I'll prove to you that I'm innocent. I'll prove to you. And Elihu said, I'll turn with
me to Job chapter 32. Verse 1, so these three men ceased
to answer Job because he was righteous in his own eyes. Then was kindled the wrath of
Elihu, the son of Barshel, the Buzite of the kindred of Ram. Against Job was his wrath kindled
because he justified himself rather then God also against
his three friends was his wrath kindled because they had found
no answer. They asked the right questions
but they didn't give Job any answers. And now Elihu is going
to give Job the answer. How can a man be justified with
God? How can he be, that's born of
a woman, be pure in the sight of God? When the stars are not
pure before him, how can a sinner have acceptance before God, not
by justifying himself, not by going to the garden and performing
some work that God's going to accept and make you acceptable
in his sight. Ephesians chapter 1 makes it
clear, we are accepted in the Beloved. The only way that we're
going to have acceptance before Holy God is to be found in Him,
in Christ, not having our own righteousness which is of the
law, but that righteousness which is by the faithfulness of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And when we're not faithful,
He remaineth faithful, for He cannot deny Himself. All of our justification, all
of our acceptance, Yes, we do go to the garden, that's where
we are right now. And yes, this is where God meets
with His people, sinners. And this is where He comforts
their hearts, letting them know the answer to this question,
how can a man be right with God? Oh, I hope He'll do that for
us this morning, don't you? Don't you? Enable us to set our
affections on Christ. to rest all the hope of our salvation
on his accomplished work, and to cease from justifying ourselves. We all do it. We do it in our
relationships with one another, don't we? And every time we complain and
accuse God of wrongdoing, what are we doing? We're justifying
ourselves. or this isn't fair, this isn't
right, I don't deserve this. It's just the natural way, isn't
it? It's the work of the spirit that
stops us from such. That's what most gardens are
about, men justifying themselves, men purifying themselves. Go
back with me to Isaiah 66 verse 17. They that sanctify themselves
and purify themselves. Isn't that what religion's all
about? Eat this and don't eat that. Drink this and don't drink
that. Wear this and don't wear that. And you can purify yourself. And the Lord said in the book
of Colossians, touch not, taste not, handle not. Rules and regulations
and the traditions and commandments of men, if you'll just follow
these things, you can be justified. And the Lord is summarizing everything
he said to us in the book of Isaiah by saying, there are folks
that go down to the garden. There are folks that go to church.
And their whole objective is to justify themselves, to purify
themselves before God. Who is it? Now, this sanctify. in verse 17 of Isaiah 66 is the
word to be made holy. To be made holy. Now what are
you and I going to do to make ourselves holy? To make ourselves
pure and perfect in the sight of God? Turn with me to John
chapter 17. And here's the only one, John
chapter 17, is our Lord's high priestly prayer, where he is
interceding on behalf of his church. He's serving as our high
priest, our advocate with the Father, praying on our behalf. And he says in verse 19, and
for their sakes, I sanctify myself. that they also might be sanctified
through the truth. Through the truth. I am the way,
the truth, and the life. No man come to the Father but
by me. But because the natural man has no love for the truth,
therefore God has turned him over to reprobate mine. And he's made him to believe
a lie. So the Lord here in his high priestly prayer makes it
clear that he's the only one who can sanctify himself. Men go down to the garden all
the time and they're given things to do to sanctify themselves
before God. And the Lord's saying, Father,
you sanctify them. Sanctify them by the truth, the
truth of who I am, the truth of what it is I've accomplished
on their behalf, the truth of their inability to sanctify themselves. Sanctify them through the truth. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter
10. Verse 9, then said he, lo, I
come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first that
he may establish the second. The new covenant. The new covenant
is older than the old covenant. The new covenant is that covenant
we sang about at the opening of the service. It's the covenant
of grace that God established in eternity past. And the Lord
Jesus Christ came in order to fulfill that covenant. And then he says, by the witch
will, we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus
Christ once for all. Once for all, there's how we're
sanctified. Men go down to the garden to sanctify themselves. and to purify themselves before
God, to make themselves acceptable in the sight of God. And in so
doing, they're showing their hatred for the Lord Jesus Christ.
They're denying him his glory in what he accomplished in sanctifying
us by the sacrifice of himself once for all. Look at verse 11
of Hebrews chapter 10, and every priest standeth daily ministering
and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices which can never take
away sins. The sacrifices that men make
can never take away sins. The sacrifices that you and I
make can never take away sins. We cannot act as our own priest. And we certainly don't need another
man to be our priest. We need the only priest that
can sanctify us. We need the only priest that
can purify us because he sanctified himself. But this man, look at verse 12,
but this man, which man? The one who came to do God's
will. the one who satisfied the demands
of God's law, the one who was able to sanctify his people by
the offering of himself once and for all. This man, after
he had offered one sacrifice for sins, forever sat down on
the right hand of God from henceforth expecting till his enemies be
made his footstool, for by one offering he hath perfected forever
them that are sanctified." So there's the answer. There's
the answer to Bildad's question. How can a man be right with God?
There's the answer to the error that men make in going down to
the garden to sanctify themselves and make themselves perfect.
We can't do it, can we? 1 Corinthians chapter 1,
the scripture says that God has made Him to be for us all our
wisdom, all our righteousness, all our sanctification, and all
our redemption. so that in Him, in Him, Christ
is all and He is in all. Every aspect of salvation was
completed by Him. He gets all the glory, doesn't
He? He gets all the praise. How am I going to be right with
God? I'm going to have to come to Christ. I'm going to have
to look to Christ. I'm going to have to rest all
the hope of my salvation on who He is and what He's accomplished.
All right, go back with me to verse 17 of Isaiah 66. Don't try to set yourself apart.
Can't do it, can you? Don't try to purify yourself.
Who can stand in the presence of God? Them who have clean hands
and a pure heart. How are we going to have clean
hands and a pure heart? In Christ. In Christ. We have His heart. In Christ we have His works that's
illustrated by the hands. They that sanctify themselves
and purify themselves in the gardens. Now it says in the King
James behind one, notice the word tree is in italics. The
literal translation here is one behind the other. The word tree
is not in the text. It's one behind the other. In
other words, they're all doing it. They're all doing it. Everybody
in religion is doing it. They're sanctifying themselves.
They're purifying themselves. They're being given things to
do in order to earn favor with God. They're asking, what work
can I work in order to do the works of God? And rather than
hearing the voice of God respond to them, this is the work of
God that you believe on him whom he has sent, they're listening
to the voice of a man who gives them some work to do. Why do
they have invitations? Why do they have mourners benches?
Why do they have things that men can do in church in order
to, you know, just, gotta have work. Gotta have something to
hang my hope on. Give me something to do. One after the other. And here's
what God says about everything that man does to sanctify himself
or to purify himself in the garden God says it's like eating swine's
flesh and the abomination and the mouse and it all shall be
consumed together, saith the Lord. Oh Lord, don't let me deceive
myself. I know my heart is wicked and
deceitful. And if you don't teach me, if
you don't open the eyes of my understanding, if you don't give
me faith, to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, I will deceive
myself. Look at verse 18. For I know
their works. God knows. He knows their works. The Lord
not say at the day of judgment when he separates the sheep from
the goats that the goats will say, but Lord, we prophesied
in thy name, we cast out demons in thy name, and in thy name
we did many wonderful works. And what's the Lord say to them?
Depart from me, you workers of iniquity. I never knew you. Your works are not acceptable.
You cannot sanctify yourself. You cannot purify yourself by
your works. Matthew chapter 23 verse 4 says,
all their works they do to be seen of men. Isn't that what
I was telling men this morning about someone that's, I've got
a member of my family that he'll text me or call me three or four
times a week to tell me what he's been doing. Tell me something
good he's been doing. And it's very sad, but he's seeking
to purify himself and justify himself before God. Self-righteousness. They do to be seen of men because
they want a man to tell them, you're doing good. You've nailed
it down. You're right with God. They want men to speak peace
to their hearts. And the false prophets will.
The false prophets will say, peace, peace, when there is no
peace. Turn with me to Revelation chapter
20. Revelation chapter 20. So where do good works come in? For by grace are you saved through
faith. And that not of yourself, it's
a gift of God. Not of works. Not of works. Lest any man should
boast. And what's verse 10 say in Ephesians
chapter 2? For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto
good works which he hath ordained that we should walk in them.
God's people are walking in good works when they're walking in
faith, and they're always walking in faith. You're not gonna find
a child of God that doesn't believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. They
may be in the depths of great sin, they may be in the depths
of great depression, they may be in the depths of great trouble,
but you ask a child of God, do you believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ? Oh, yes, I do. If you had asked Peter before
the Lord met him there on the Sea of Galilee and restored him,
if you had asked Peter, Peter, are you a child of God? He would
have said, no, no way, not after what I did. But if you had asked
Peter, Peter, do you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the
Son of the living God? He would have said, absolutely
without doubt, without doubt. And every child of God is going
to respond that way. So that they just always believe,
don't they? They always believe. Those are the good works. The
good works that He has ordained that we should walk in Him. Come
through faith and cause us. He's working in us. Causing us
to will and to do after His good pleasure. We're His workmanship. were created in Christ Jesus.
But look at those who justify themselves in the garden and
those who purify themselves. Look what God says in the book
of Revelation chapter 20 at verse 12. And I saw the dead. Now that's the unbeliever. Small and great. The ones who
were very religious, the ones who were irreligious, the ones
who had made for themselves a great name in the world, and those
who were completely unknown. I saw, God's saying, I saw every
one of them, small and great, stand before God, and the books
were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book
of life, and the dead were judged out of those things which were
written in the books according to their works. So if you want
to justify yourself and purify yourself in the garden, if you
want to be saved by your works, God will judge you by your works.
Matter of fact, everyone that seeks to justify themselves are
going to be judged by their own works. I don't want to be judged
by my works, do you? Oh, no. And the sea gave up the
dead which were in it, and death and hell delivered up the dead
which were in them, and they were judged every man according
to their works. The dead are judged by their
works. If God judges us by our works,
we're going to hell. And death and hell were cast
into the lake of fire. This is the second death. The first death is not our problem. It's the second death we have
to be concerned about. And here's the glorious truth. Those who have been born twice
die once. Those who have been born once
die twice. And whosoever was not found written
in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. Whosoever
was not found in Christ justified, purified in the Lord Jesus Christ. Those who sought to justify themselves
were judged by the very things they were justifying themselves
by. They were judged by their works. And they were shown how
far short of God's glory and God's requirement their works
fell. We're all deserving of hell,
aren't we? Because none of our works measure up. None of our
works measure up. If God treats us fairly, if God
gives us justice outside of Christ, we don't have a hope. All right, go back with me to
Isaiah. Oh, while you're there in Revelation, let me close with
one last passage. Revelation chapter 15. I thought
maybe we'd get through Isaiah today, but I guess we're not.
Revelation chapter 15. Look at verse 3 of Revelation
chapter 15, and they sing the song of Moses, the servant of
God, and the song of the Lamb. Now, the song of Moses represents
the law, doesn't it? And the law has been made honorable,
the scripture makes it clear. The law has been fulfilled. The law has been satisfied. by
the Lord Jesus Christ and only by Him. And so here all the believers
in heaven are lifting up their voice and they're singing the
song of Moses and the song of the Lamb. Because without the
Lamb, Moses can only judge, Moses can only condemn, Moses can only
send us to the lake of fire. But with the song of the Lamb
saying, great and marvelous are Thy works, Lord God Almighty,
just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints. Who shall not
fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? For thou art sanctified. Father, I sanctify myself that
they might be sanctified by the truth. For all nations shall come and
worship before thee, for thy judgments are made manifest. Great and marvelous are thy works. I came to work the works of God. I must finish the work which
he gave me to do. And that's exactly what the Lord
Jesus Christ did. He finished the work, didn't
he? And God says, I know their works. I know their works. And I know
their thoughts. I know their thoughts before
they think them. And I know that every imagination of the thoughts
of the hearts of man are only evil and not continually. Proverbs chapter 21, God says,
listen to that, God says, the plowing of the wicked is sin. That means when a farmer goes
out into his field and works all day long plowing his field
and planting his seed to provide for his family, God says what
he's doing is sin. Man at his very best state is
altogether vanity. What work are we going to work?
What work are we going to work? This is the work of God that
you believe on Him whom He has sent. For I know their works
and their thoughts and it shall come that I will gather all nations
and tongues and they shall come. We're looking at verse 18 now
in Isaiah chapter 66. And they shall come and see my
glory see my glory oh we can't glory anything we've done can
we we can glory in what he's done we can rest in him and find
rest for our souls and the answer to that question that build that
ask how can a man born of a woman be right with God? How can he
be justified? How can he be sanctified? How
can he be purified? How can he have acceptance with
the Holy God? That's the message. The answer
to that question is the message of Christ, isn't it? Alright,
let's take a break. Thank you.