All right, let's find our seats. Good morning again. One thing that's become clear
to us in studying the Psalms on Wednesday night is that all
these Psalms are to be understood first and foremost as the prayers
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Even when he said, the Lord is
my shepherd, I shall not want, the only one who never wanted
anything beyond what his father was able to give him was the
Lamb of God. Psalm 25, unto thee, oh Lord,
do I lift up my soul. Oh my God, I trust in thee. Let me not be ashamed and let
not mine enemies triumph over me. A believer knows his number
one enemy is his own sin. Lord, don't let my sin triumph
over me. Make me, make me to trust you. Let's open our hymnals
together to number 58 and Tom's gonna come lead us, number 58. Jesus, the very thought of Thee,
With sweetness fills my breast, But sweeter far Thy face to see,
And in Thy presence rest. ? Nor voice can sing, nor heart
can frame ? ? Nor can the memory find ? ? A sweeter sound than
thy blessed name ? ? O Savior of mankind ? O hope of every contrite heart! O joy of all the meek! To those who fall, how kind thou
art! How good to those who seek! But what to those who find? Ah, this nor tongue nor pen can
show The love of Jesus, what it is None but his loved ones
know Jesus, our only joy, be thou as thou our prize wilt be. Jesus, be thou our glory now
and through eternity. Please be seated. Good morning. It's a great blessing
to be here. Thankfully, the Lord is gracious. Turn with me, please, to Psalm
51. Psalm 51. I was thinking to myself, I thank
the Lord that I'm not a very smart man. And I think that's
a good thing for me. As Brother Greg says, you know,
Those much smarter than I want to debate about this is messianic
and this was I'm not that smart. See, I thought this whole book
was about the Messiah. So to me, it's not very bright
from Genesis to Revelation. It's a messianic book. And how
could the Psalms not be any less? And this Psalm is both of Christ
and of David. And the more I thought about
that, this is a book about Christ and his church, how he saved
sinners. So I pray he would bless the
reading of his word and speak to his people. David cries out,
and Christ cried out on the cross, have mercy upon me, oh God, according
to thy loving kindness, according unto the multitude of thy tender
mercies, blot out my transgressions. wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me." That's a believer, isn't it?
We know our sins forever before us. And verse four, against God
and God only have I sinned. And done this evil in thy sight,
that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest and be clear
when thou judgest. That's why he's crying for mercy,
George, when judgment comes, you're justified in sending me
to hell. And unless Christ intervenes,
that's what I've deserved. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall
be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter
than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness
that the bones which thou has broken may rejoice. You ever
had your bones broken? Has Christ broken you? If you're
a believer, he has. Hide thy face from my sins and
blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart Oh
God and renew a right spirit within me. This is our call today. Cast me not away from thy presence. And renew a right spirit within
me. This is what I want to see, verse
12. Restore unto me the joy of that
little three letter word. Thy salvation. You know that's in God's Word
28 times. Thy salvation. And uphold me
with thy free spirit. That is our daily plea. Christ at the cross, he needed
God the Father to restore to him the fellowship he had. with his father. It was lost
at Calvary for just a few brunts when God turned his back and
poured his wrath out on his son. But we also need God to restore. That's to replace that which
was no more. You know what, to restore furniture,
to put it back to its original condition. You know, Greg, he
said, restore that which was lost. I need God to restore to
me the, you see that word, joy. And we try to teach the young
people there's a difference between joy and happiness. Happiness
depends on our circumstances. Joy is that deep river that never
dries up. And that's how the believer can
pilgrim through this world, knowing that the salvation of my soul
is written in his salvation. It was his salvation. He gave
it to me. That's a comfort I have. I'll
tell you that thrills me. I don't know if it excites you,
but that's the only reason I'm able to get up in the morning
and continue going. I know that Christ is our salvation
and it's my joy. I pray that be yours. Let us
go to the Lord in prayer. Lord, we confess to you this
morning. We agree with what you said about us that we are nothing
but sin, and we can do nothing in our own abilities to save
our souls, that we are completely dependent on you, Lord, for all
things. And we ask that you not hide
your face from us. We ask, Lord, that you would
send your spirit to us, and especially to your chosen servants, our
brother, that you enable him, Lord, to speak Christ to us and
remind us of the joy that he has done all the saving. And
we ask that you give us the faith to believe it, put it in our
hearts and our minds, and that you would give us the ability
to give you all the glory. And we plead, Lord, for those
who are gathered with us who are strangers to this joy, that
you might be willing, we know you're able, to save them. We ask that Christ take this
prayer and that he make it acceptable. Amen. Let's all stand together once
again. We'll sing hymn number 44 from your Spiral Gospel Hymns
hymn book. Number 44. Precious Savior, friend of sinners,
we as such to Thee draw near. Let Thy Spirit dwell within us
with that love that casts out fear. Matchless Savior, let us
know Thee, as the Lord our righteousness. Cause our hearts to cleave unto
Thee, come and with Thy presence bless. Open now thy precious
treasure, let thy word here freely flow. Give to us a gracious measure,
tis thyself we long to know. Come and claim us as thy portion. Let us all find rest in thee. Leave us not to empty notions. We would find our hope in thee. Please be seated. Adam, Sharon's
going to bring special music. Pass me not, O gentle Savior, Hear my humble cry. While on others Thou art calling, Savior, Savior, hear my humble
cry. While on others Thou art calling, do not pass me by. Let me at throne of mercy Find
a sweet relief Kneeling there in deep contrition Help my heart be healed Savior,
Savior Hear my humble cry While on others Thou art calling ? Did not pass me by ? Trusting
only in Thy merits ? Would I see Thy face ? Heal my wounded, broken
spirit Save me by Thy grace. Savior, Savior, hear my humble
cry. While on others Thou art calling,
? Do not pass me by ? ? Thou the spring of all my comfort
? ? More than life to me ? ? Whom have I not decided? ? ? In heaven with blood on His hands
? Savior, Savior ? Hear my humble cry ? While on the earth Thou
art calling Do not pass me by. Thank you, Adam, for that. That
was a blessing. Sinners are always humbly calling. Lord, make me. Don't pass me
by. Don't send me away like the rest
of that crowd. Will you open your Bibles with
me to Isaiah chapter 65? Somebody may have thought that
The term or phrase holier than thou was just something that
we came up with to describe the self-righteous. But here it is
in the scriptures. You have your Bibles open to
Isaiah 65. Look at verse 5. Which say, stand
by thyself, come not near to me, for I am holier than thou. And God says, these are a smoke
in my nose, a fire that burneth all the day. There are but two opinions that you and I and every single,
every person, every single person of this world has of themselves. One of two. You're either holier than thou,
or you are the chief of all sinners. There's no in-between. No exception. All the righteous believe themselves
to be unrighteous. And all the unrighteous believe
themselves to be righteous. So you are either holier than
thou, which God says is a smoke in my nose, or you are the chief of all sinners. in need of grace more than anyone
else. Now I hear someone thinking,
well you know there's a lot of things that people do that we
don't do. I pray to God he'll restrain
us from doing some of the things that the world does. Lord keep us, don't let us. But
we're not judging ourselves by the world. You see the difference
between those who believe themselves to be holier than thou and those
who believe themselves to be the chief of all sinners is the
standard by which they judge themselves. That's it. Man by nature judges himself
either by himself and tries to convince himself that he's getting
better. and he has a holier than thou
attitude or he compares himself to other men and he's convinced
that he is better than most and he has a holier than thou attitude so you either believe yourself
to be holier than thou or you believe yourself to be the chief
of all sinners, because the chief of all sinners has but one standard
by which he is able to judge himself, and that's the sinless
one. He's found himself standing in
the presence of a holy God, and he's naked in his presence. God sees everything, and he realizes to whom much
is given, much is required. And he knows his sin better than
he knows anybody else's. He knows the unbelief that remains
in his heart. And he thinks to himself, I don't
know of another person in this world. that's been afforded as
much blessing, as much light, as much grace, as much privileges
as I have and remain as unbelieving as I am. And he says with the
Apostle Paul, this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation,
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am
chief. And the more he grows in grace
and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, the more he sees
of the perfection of that sinless one, the more he sees of himself,
and the more he becomes the chief of all sinners. So I ask you, who's the standard
by which you judge yourself? The conclusion will be either
that you are holier than thou, or you will find yourself to
be the chief of all sinners. There's no in between. There's
no middle ground. There's no exceptions. You're
the one or the other. You stand in the presence of
God. depending upon the Lord Jesus Christ to present Himself
as your righteousness and looking to His shed blood as the only
hope of having your sin put away. Well, you're just like everybody
else in this world, comparing yourself to other men. Well,
I don't do that. I don't do that. Here's the glorious blessing
to this truth that I've just declared to you. The way God
sees people is just exactly the opposite of the way they see
themselves. Now whose opinion is most important? You see, God sees those who believe
themselves to be the chief of all sinners. He sees them in
Christ. He sees them righteous. He sees
them truly holy. A person who would say, stand
off from me, I'm holier than you. They have no idea what holiness
is. Absolutely no idea. you can achieve holiness i don't
care how many things you you you restrain yourself from doing
or how many good works you do this truth is so clearly illustrated
in the story that the lord told about the publican and the pharisee the scripture says that the pharisee
went to the temple and he prayed thus to himself. Pretending to pray to God, he's
actually talking to himself. He's bolstering his holier-than-thou
attitude and he says, God, I thank thee that I'm not as other men. Extortioners, unjust, adulterers,
I don't do those things. And I'm especially thankful that
I'm not like that publican over there. and the publican, standing afar
off, would not so much as lift his eyes up to heaven, but smote
himself upon the breast, and he cried, Lord, have mercy upon
me, the sinner, the sinner. I'm the only one. I don't know
about anybody else. I don't know about anybody else's
life. I don't know about anybody else's
heart, but I know my own. or on the center I'm the chief
of all centers what a contrast holier-than-thou
or chief of all centers which is it for you one of the other now The way God sees us is just the
opposite of the way we see ourselves. And in our text, beginning in
verse 12, the Lord tells us what these
holier than thou people look like to him. And he says, but
thus sayeth the Lord, behold, I will extend peace to her. I'm sorry. I'm on the wrong page. Isaiah chapter 65 verse 2. Isaiah
65 verse 2. Remember verse one is, I am sought
of them that ask not for me. The Lord calls out those who
would not show any interest in him. And that's why we are brought
to say, why me, Lord? Why me? And now in verse two,
he's going to describe these ones who believe themselves to
be holier than thou. And he says, I have spread out
my hands all the day unto a rebellious people. They continue to rebel
against me. They will not bow. They will
not believe. They're an obstinate rebellion
against my grace. They hold up themselves to be
holy in and of themselves, and they will not come. which walk
in a way that is not good after their own thoughts. They're not
walking after Christ. They're looking to their own
righteousness. They're believing that, well,
the Lord gave another example of those who will stand before
him on the day of judgment when he divides the sheep from the
goats. And the goats will say to him,
but Lord, but Lord, we've done many wonderful works in your
name. We've cast out demons, we've
been around the world, we've evangelized, we've preached,
we went to church. And what's the Lord say to them?
Depart from me, you workers of iniquity. I never knew you. Depart
from me. And then he looks to the sheep
and he says to the sheep, I was hungry and you fed me and I was
thirsty and you gave me a drink and I was naked and you clothed
me and I was a stranger and you took me in. And what did the
sheep say? What did the sheep say? Lord,
when did we do those things? You see, believers don't take
notice of what they're doing as their righteousness before
God. These people, God says, are walking in a way that's not
good. They believe themselves to be
good. That's why the Lord asked the rich young ruler, why callest
thou me good? There's none good but God. There's none able to do that
which is good in the sight of God but God. That's why Christ
came. He came to do that which was
good. That's why the Lord said to Moses on Mount Sinai, I'm
going to put you in the cleft of this rock and I'm going to
cause my goodness to pass before you. And that's why we preach
Christ crucified. The Lord said, and I, if I be
lifted up, I'll draw men to myself. And as the serpent was lifted
up in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.
Oh, Lord, enable us to look to Christ for all our goodness.
I have no goodness outside of Him. But they walk in a way that's
not good according to their own thoughts. Why are their thoughts
so perverted? Because they've got the wrong
standard. you see the holier-than-thou folks are comparing themselves
to themselves or they're comparing themselves to other men and so
they're walking according to their own thoughts thinking I'm
doing good I'm doing good and God's describing now those who
believe themselves to be holier-than-thou who say stand off from me and
God says they're rebellious people They're not walking in a way
that's not good, that's good. They're not walking after Christ.
They're walking in a way after their own thoughts and God says,
my thoughts are not like your thoughts. You see, everything
that God, everything that's true, everything is true, is just the
opposite of what man by nature believes. What he believes to be good,
God says, your righteousnesses are as filthy rags before me.
And the believer says, yes, Lord. Yes, Lord. Truth, Lord, as that
Syrophoenician woman said, truth, Lord, I am a dog. But the dogs
eat the crumbs that fall from the master's table. Would you
spread a few for me? Would you be merciful to me?
I know I'm a sinner, Lord. I know I have no goodness. I
know I have no righteousness. I can't walk after my own thoughts.
I have to walk after your thoughts. So God is giving us His thoughts. The way God sees us is just the
opposite of the way we see ourselves. You want God to see you holy?
You want Him to see you accepted, sanctified, perfect in His sight? You're going to have to believe
yourself to be the chief of all sinners. The only way you're going to
believe yourself to be the chief of all sinners is if God's pleased
to reveal Christ to you. It gives you a different standard
by which to judge yourself. The holy, harmless, undefiled,
separate from sinners, Son of God. God's pleased with him. He's pleased with him. And all
those who stand in his presence say with brother Job, behold,
I am vile. Look at verse three. A people that provoketh me to
anger continually to my face. Now what is it that provokes
God to anger? I am absolutely certain that
the God of glory, the holy God of glory, is provoked to anger
much, much more by what happens in lighted church buildings,
with folks that are dressed up and outwardly moral and being
outwardly religious than he is by darkened bars and whatever
you want to imagine, what I'm saying to you is that our God's
more offended on Sunday morning than he is on Saturday night.
Now, what are those folks on Sunday morning doing? They're
pointing at those folks on Saturday night, aren't they? which problem
is most the folks on Sunday morning are the folks on Saturday night. They're coming to church to try
to atone for their sins. What is it that provokes God
to anger? Self-righteousness. Self-righteousness. You see the
person that's bound up in some sort of debilitating sinful behavior
is more likely to look to God to be delivered than the person
who's going to church on Sunday morning thinking, I'm holier
than thou. I'm holier than thou. And men
do it all the time. They cast out one demon and get
seven more, more stronger than themselves. The demons of religion
are much stronger than the demons of this world. And when God says they provoke
me continually to my face They gather together in church buildings
on Sunday morning and they open my book and they use my name
and they pervert my truth by their self-righteousness. They
believe themselves to be holier than those folks and they provoke
me to anger continually to my face. And the child of God says, Lord,
I just need some mercy. I'm a sinner. I'm worse than
those folks out there. I hope that God will restrain
every one of us from doing the things that would shame Him. You know, people talk about wanting
to live for Christ. I'm much more concerned with
God restraining me from shaming Him than I am trying to figure
out how to live for Him. There's a whole lot of folks
out there in the world that are promoting themselves as living
for God, being a witness for Jesus. They don't even know the Lord
Jesus Christ. Lord, restrain us from that behavior.
But here's the thing about it. The chief of all sinners sins
in his heart against the light. He's sinning against truth. He
is sinning against what he knows to be true and right. And he is so grieved by his unbelief. Those folks outside of Christ
are just doing what is natural to them. Sin is not natural to a believer.
It is just not. It is contrary to everything
we believe. And yet we keep doing it. They, those holier than thou
folks. He's talking about religious
people here. He's not talking about the Saturday night folks.
He's talking about Sunday morning folks. And he's saying they provoke
me to anger because they walk after a way that's not good,
after a Jesus who can't save. They worship a God who doesn't
exist. They pervert my truth. They talk
about me as if I'm powerless. and they put themselves on the
throne of God, and they provoke me to anger daily, continually,
to my face. They sacrifice in the gardens.
Oh, they come together in beautiful edifices of religious worship,
and they make their sacrifices to God. And they burn incense. upon altars
of bricks. Now, God said he made it clear
in the law in the Old Testament when they were to make an altar,
not only was it not to be made out of bricks, which are handmade,
but it wasn't even to be made with stones that had a hand put
to them. They had to stack up stones that
had never been hewn, they'd never been chiseled, they'd never been,
you know, you don't take the edge off the gospel. You don't
try to take the offense out of the gospel. Those stones are
Christ, and Christ is offensive to these holier-than-thou folks." And now he says, there, they
didn't just take rocks and hewn them to take the offense out
of the gospel, they're actually presenting their bricks as a
means of the altar on which they... You remember the Tower of Babel?
After the flood? Scripture says the people met
together in the valley of Sinai, which was the name for Babylon
before Sinai. And it was changed, the name
of it was changed after that to Babylon. And Babylon is seen
all throughout the scriptures as man-made religion. And Babylon
in revelation is being destroyed by God. These are the holier
than thou folks. These are the folks who dress
themselves up and talk about God and live for Jesus. And the Lord says, I'm gonna
destroy, but where'd Babylon get started? It got started at
the Tower of Babel. And the scripture says they had
brick for stone and slime for mortar. And they built this city with
a tower reaching up into heaven. What were they trying to do?
They're trying to get to God. trying to reach heaven. And that's
what man-made religion is all about. You know, if you just
submit yourself to the rules and regulations of our religion
and you pretend yourself to be better than other folks, you
can achieve holiness. You can get into the presence.
You can work your way into the presence of God. Just keep stacking
bricks. And what were the children of
Israel doing in Egypt when they were slaves? The taskmasters
had them making bricks, didn't they? And that's all religion
is. Religion, man-made religion,
is just slavery. It's bondage. Bondage to the
law. But what did they put those bricks
together with at the Tower of Babel? By the way, why do we
call it the Tower of Babel? Because God confused their language
after they built this tower. And what do we hear in the world
today? A lot of confusing language. Well, they say I've got to do
this and they say I've got to do that. And the truth is the only
difference between one man-made religious opinion and another
are the sets of rules and regulations that that particular group puts
down for you to live by. They're not preaching Christ.
They're holier than thou. Now, They put these bricks together
with slime. Now, that's tar. That's pitch. You don't have to know much about
construction to know that over there in Babylon, if you build
a building out of brick and put it together with slime, it might
stay together for a little while in the wintertime, but as soon
as it gets to be about 120 degrees, all that slime is going to melt.
And that brick, that building is coming down. The word slime is the same word
that Noah spoke of when he pitched the ark from within and from
without. Now tar works really good as
a water repellent. And it worked on the ark. The word there is the word atonement
or covering. And Noah pitched the ark on the
inside and on the outside in order to keep the judgment of
God's wrath from coming in on him and his family. And the only
thing that's going to keep the wrath of God from us is the atoning
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, that our ark would be pitched
within and without. And pitch works, as I said, good
as a water repellent. It doesn't work good as a mortar.
But what do the holier-than-thou folks do? They take the death
of the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's cross, His atoning work, and
they try to hold together their works that they put together
with their hands by the truth of the gospel and they mix law
and grace. Rarely will you hear of a message
of salvation that's purely works. It's always a mixture of works
and grace. Always. You see nothing's changed. Men are doing the same exact
thing today that they did in Babylon. They're worshiping God
in gardens and they're putting together altars of brick. And God says if it is of grace,
it can no longer be of works. Otherwise, grace is not grace.
You can't mix grace and works. Either God did it all or he won't
do it at all. He does it all by himself. He's
going to get all the glory. He said, I'll not share my glory
with another. Not going to do it. And the chief of all sinners
says, amen. Amen, Lord. Oh, I would never
think, Lord, I don't want to rob you of your glory. I want
you to get all the glory, Lord. What glory do I have? What do
I have to offer? What can I do? All I've got is
my sin. So I say again, either you and
I believe ourselves to be holier than thou, upon which God says
you are a stench in my nostrils. or we believe ourselves to be
the chief of all sinners, upon which God says, justified. That publican and the Pharisee,
after the publican smote himself upon the breast and the Lord
said, which one of those two men went down to his house justified?
It was a rhetorical question. We know exactly which one went
down to his house justified. I've told you this before, I'll
tell you again. The word Pharisee, the Pharisee sect of the Pharisee
started in the 2nd century BC and they were basically religious
separatist who saw the decline of Judaism and they were zealots
for the law. And the word Pharisee actually
means separated one. So does the word holy or sanctified. It means separated one. Now the
only difference between the holier than thou and the chief of all
sinners is who does the separating. That's the only difference. You
separate yourself, you're a Pharisee. You're holier than thou. God
does the separating. He calls you out. He makes you
to differ. And now he that sanctifyeth and
they that are sanctified are all as one so that he's not ashamed
to call them his brethren. The Lord loves his people. He's the one that made them to
believe themselves to be chief of all sinners. They've got altars of bricks
held together with slime. which remain, look at verse 4,
here's the definition, here's what God thinks about the holier
than thou. They remain among the graves
and lodge in the monuments. Some of us have been there. Some of us read way too many
Puritans and worshiped way too many dead theologians. And we
settled all religious arguments based on what Dr. So-and-so used
to say. You know the Puritans are the
ones that burned witches? And that made people walk around
with red letter A's on their coats? They were such legalists. But they were Calvinist. And we settled our theological
differences based on what some dead theologian used to say.
Here's the only thing that settles anything is what's at the scriptures. I don't care what Dr. So-and-so,
Dr. Sounding Brass, or Dr. Tinkling
Cymbal used to say. It don't matter to me. Now, there's
some men that I think preach the gospel, and I can't figure
out why they said some of the things they said, but you know what?
They're not our source of authority. People say, well, you know, Spurgeon
said or Calvin said or, you know, I don't know why they said it.
I can't go back in time and figure that out. I know what God says. His word, we're not living in
monuments. We're not going back to get our
authority from the grave, which eats swine's flesh. and
broth of abominable things in their vessels, unclean things. They're not feasting. The only
thing that's clean, once a month we celebrate the
Lord's table here and we eat that bread and the Lord said,
this is my body which is given for you. Take and eat. That's the only thing that's
clean. This is my blood which is given for you, take and drink. For lest you eat of my body and
drink of my blood, you've got no part in me. My flesh is meat
indeed and my blood is your drink indeed. And there's anything
else you eat, anything else you feast on as a hope of your salvation
is unclean. And yet, what does the world
do? What does religious world do? They look to their experiences. They look to their works. They
look to their wisdom. They look to some dead theologian.
They look to what they do on Sunday morning. And they're feasting
on these things. And they're satisfying their
flesh with these things. And what do they say? Stand by
thyself. You stand over there. Don't get
near to me. Don't get near to me. You see, the believer's heart,
believers don't think that way about it. I don't care what people
are doing. We look at folks and we think,
but for the grace of God, oh Lord. Lord, I could be an unbeliever. I could be bound in those things.
I could be doing these things. Stand by thyself, come not near
to me, for I am holier than thou." And a person who has that thought
or expresses that opinion about themselves in comparison to other
folks have no idea what holiness is. No idea. Christ is the only
one that's holy. There is smoke in my nose, a
fire that burneth all the day. Behold, it is written, verse
6, before me, I will not keep silent, but will recompense,
even recompense unto their bosom. Depart from me, you workers of
iniquity. You thought what you were doing
was measuring up to my standard of holiness, but it was iniquitous. It was uneven, unequal. Didn't
measure up. All your works were iniquity.
Those things you thought were good, those things that thought
stood you out above other men, made you better than other folks.
God says, I'm gonna recompense them to you. You see, the basis
on which you and I come to God is the basis on which he will
judge us. I'll say it again. The basis upon which you and
I come to God is the basis on which he will judge us. If we
come to God based on our works, based on our holiness, based
on our acceptance, he says, I'll recompense that to you. I'll give you what that deserves.
Judgment, eternal damnation, hell. You come to me based on
that one who is good, that one who is after my thoughts and
after my heart, that one who is holy, and I'll recompense
to you a reward for his sake. Holier than thou or chief of
all sinners, which is it? Don't you love being around the
chief of all sinners? I love being in this group. I know the vast majority of you
believe yourself to be the chief of all sinners and what a joy.
There's no controversy, there's no argument, there's no attempt
to try to prove ourselves above one another. It's not like religion.
Some of us have been in religion. I pray God will keep me. Oh,
I know I've got to be kept. Every day I've got to be kept. But I can never see myself, even
if the Lord was to take his hand off of me. Oh, I shouldn't even
say that. But if he was, I couldn't go
back to religion. That was the most miserable life.
Everybody pretending to be something they weren't. What a blessing. We don't sacrifice in the gardens.
We don't offer incense upon. Altars of bricks. We don't lodge
in graves and monuments and eat swine's flesh. Come to the Lord
Jesus Christ. In faith, trusting him alone
for all our righteousness. Verse 7, your iniquities and
the iniquities of your fathers together, saith the Lord, which
have burned incense upon the mountains and blaspheme me upon
the hills. Therefore, will I measure their
former work unto their bosom. I'm going to give to them exactly
what they deserve. And I'm going to meet them on
the very ground on which they are coming to me. Look at verse 8, now close. Thus saith the Lord. Don't you
love hearing those words? Let man have all the self-righteous
opinions of himself he wants to have. Let him think that he's
holier than other folks all he wants. Here's what God says. As the new wine is found in the
cluster, one saith, destroy it not, for a blessing is in it. Now the Lord's talking about
that vineyard which he planted, that Jewish Israel, which the
Lord Jesus Christ appeared to. And he says, it's like a dried
up vine. It needs to be cut down. But
then somebody notices, wait, wait, there's a cluster of grapes
in there. Don't cut it down because there's
a blessing in there. You see, all the blessings of
God are in the Lord Jesus Christ. All of them. And He's that cluster. He's that blessing. And He's
not going to destroy the vine. No. He's going to graft into
the vine the Gentiles. He is the root that sprang up
from dry ground. He is the one that treaded the
wine press of the fury of God's wrath. He is the new wine which
cannot be put in to an old wineskin. But that's what the holier than
thou's try to do. Just like they try to mix the
atonement with their works of brick, they try to put the new
wine into an old wineskin. God says no. You don't need to have your heart
changed. Or improved. You don't need to turn over a
new leaf. You need to have it taken out. And you need a new
heart. A believing heart. A regenerated
heart. And the chief of all sinners
says, Oh Lord, give me that heart. Give me that heart. Lord, cause
me to believe on you. Cause me to find the blessing
of the new wine in this cluster that's hid in this grapevine
which is not producing fruit. The new wine is the blood of
the new covenant. And the Lord Jesus Christ took
that water. First miracle he performed. First
miracle, the wedding feast of Canaan. And isn't it significant
that it was a wedding feast? The Lord said, I'll not drink
of this wine again until I drink of it at the wedding feast. I gather together my church in
glory. This is the wine of the new covenant.
This is my blood, which has been shed for you, you sinners. Those of you who know you have
no holiness outside of Christ, but in Him, you're perfectly
righteous in the sight of God. He didn't make it look like wine. He didn't make it taste like
wine. He turned the water into wine. He changed it. Lord, I need to be changed. I see that lurking Pharisee in
my heart that would cause me to have thoughts of being holier
than thou. Oh God forgive me, make me to
be the chief of all sinners that I might depend upon the Lord
Jesus Christ and Him alone for all my holiness and all my righteousness. Our merciful Heavenly Father, that is our prayer Oh, how we
hope that you'd be merciful to us, cause us to rest our souls
on thy dear son. For it's in his name we ask it.
Amen. Let's stand together. Number
232, 232. We'll sing this without music. Christ, our Redeemer, died on
the cross, died for the sinner, paid all his due. Sprinkle your soul with the blood
of the Lamb, and I will pass, will pass over you. When I see the blood, When I
see the blood, when I see the blood, I will pass, I will pass
over you. Chiefest of sinners, Jesus will
save. All he has promised, that he
will do. Wash in the fountain, open for
sin. And I will pass, will pass over
you. When I see the blood, when I
see the blood, when I see the blood, I will pass, I will pass
over you. Judgment is coming, all will
be there, each one receiving justly his due. Hide in the saving, sin-cleansing
blood, and I will pass, will pass over you. When I see the
blood, when I see the blood, when I see the blood, I will
pass, I will pass over you. Oh, great compassion, oh, boundless
love, oh, loving kindness, faithful and true. Find peace and shelter
under the blood, and I will pass, will pass over you. When I see the blood, when I
see the blood, when I see the blood, I will pass, I will pass
over you. Thank you.