from your hardback tendril, number
186. So let's all stand together. The church is one foundation. The Church's one foundation is
Jesus Christ, her Lord. She is His new creation by water
and the Word. From heaven he came and sought
her to be his holy bride. With his own blood he bought
her and for her life he died. Elect from every nation, yet
one o'er all the earth, her charter of salvation, one Lord, one faith,
one birth. One holy name she blesses, partakes
one holy food, and to one hope she presses with every grace
endued. Mid toil and tribulation and
tumult of her war, She waits the consummation of peace forevermore. Till with a vision glorious,
her longing eyes are blessed, And the great church victorious
shall be the church at rest. Yet she on earth hath union with
God the three in one, and mystic sweet communion with those whose
rest Oh, happy ones and holy, Lord,
give us grace that we, like them, the meek and lowly, on high may
dwell with thee. Please be seated. I heard Henry Mahan say one time
that And the reason why there were so many good hymns written
in the past is because there was good preaching taking place
in the past. And I think there's a connection
there. That's a great hymn. The church
is one foundation. The Lord asked the disciples,
whom do you say that I am? When Peter say thou art the Christ,
the son of the living God. and the Lord said, upon this
rock I'm going to build my church. He is the rock rejected by the
builders and yet God has made him the head of the corner. He's the foundation of everything.
The strength of any building is in its foundation. The church is likened to a building,
lively stones put together built on Christ. Well, good morning. Cyril's surgery
went well and he's home recovering, so let's ask the Lord's blessings. Brad and Pam, it's good to have
you all with us today. Let's pray together. Our merciful
Heavenly Father, oh, how hopeful we are that you would enable
us in these hours to to see and to believe and to
rest upon that one foundation, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Rock
of Ages. Lord, enable us to find firm
footing through the gift of faith on Him and to place all the hope
of our salvation in His accomplished work of redemption. We thank
you, Lord, that we have a Savior who is not frustrated and who
cannot fail. Lord, how dependent we are now
on Thy Holy Spirit to give us eyes to see and ears to hear
and hearts to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. For it's in
His name we ask it. Amen. We're going to reverse
our order this morning. We've been using this first hour
to study the book of Mark, but I want to bring a message from
Mark in the second hour, so if you'll turn with me to Isaiah
chapter 63. Isaiah chapter 63. I've titled this message, The
Cry of a Sinner. The Cry of a Sinner. It's a wonderful
prayer. Might God be pleased to put these
words on our lips and in our hearts enable us to cry out for
mercy. The Lord Jesus Christ came into
the world to save sinners. Paul at the very end of his life
said, of whom I am chief. Every believer believes themselves
to be in need of grace more than anybody else. God makes you a
sinner You realize you have no righteousness whatsoever outside
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Notice in verse 5 of Isaiah 64,
thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness. Who
is it that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness? It's the Lord
Jesus Christ and all those found in him, those that remember thee
and thy ways. Look to the Lord Jesus Christ
He is the way. He is the way. He said, I am
the way. I'm not going to show you the way. I am the way. And
to remember His ways is to remember Christ and what He's accomplished
to secure the salvation of His people. Behold, thou art wrath,
for we have sinned. The fiery wrath of God's justice
that fell on Calvary's cross was for one reason, sin. Sin. Sins of his people. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. In those, in those sin is continuance. Continuance. What is sin? Falling short of the glory of
God. Everything we do in the presence of a holy God is sin. In the book of Numbers, when
the Lord anointed Aaron to be the high priest and to intercede
on behalf of the people, the Lord said that he will intercede
for the holy things. In other words, Aaron will bear
the guilt of the sin that God's people bring into worship. Into worship. Let me see if I
can find that passage of scripture. I have a reference here to it.
I think it was in, actually it's in Exodus chapter 28. Turn with
me there. Exodus chapter 28. Now, verse 36, and thou shall
make a plate of pure gold and engrave upon it like the engravings
of a signet holiness to the Lord. Holy, holy, holy. He's the only
one that's holy and sin is everything that falls short of his holiness.
And so Aaron as a type of Christ is serving as the priest interceding
on behalf of the people and he's to wear this headdress, this
miter, the scripture calls it, and on it is to be holiness to
the Lord. And thou shalt put it on blue
lace and it shall be upon a miter, upon the forefront of the miter
it shall be, and it shall be upon Aaron's forehead that Aaron
may bear the iniquity of the holy things. which the children
of Israel shall hallow in all their holy gifts. And it shall
be always upon his forehead that they may be accepted before the
Lord. What God's saying to you and
me is that when we come to worship, we come with the most sincere
desire that we can possibly have to enter into the very presence
of God to offer to him the worship that he's so worthy of and to
hear from him, to hear from him. And yet our holy things, our
gifts are in need of a priest to atone for the iniquity that's
in our worship. Now that's what sin is. That's
what sin is. What a description of our condition
If we're in need of an advocate, if we're in need of a sin bearer,
if we're in need of one to bear the iniquity of our holy things,
what does that say about the rest of our lives? Most folks don't see themselves
that way. Well, you know, the one time I'm not sinning is when
I come to church. Oh, no. No. Has God made you to be a
sinner? Well, here's the hope, we have
an advocate with the Father. Jesus Christ, the righteous one. So you see, he said, in these
is continuance. We're not capable. Paul said,
Romans chapter seven, he said, we know the law is holy, but
I'm carnal. I'm carnal. sold under sin. I'm a slave to it. I can't do
anything that's not sinful. I can't offer God worship. I
can't offer him a prayer. I can't offer him anything that
would be acceptable in his sight without the Lord Jesus Christ
interceding on my behalf and making me acceptable. That's why the Lord said in Ephesians
chapter one, They shall be accepted in the Beloved. In the Beloved. Sinners are always looking to
the Beloved for their acceptance before God. In those is continuance. And notice the last phrase in
verse 5 of Isaiah chapter 64, and we shall be saved. You see, the only people that
are going to be saved are those who see themselves as continual
sinners. Those are the people that are
going to be saved. That leper who can't
find a clean spot of flesh on him from the head at the top
of his, crown of his head to the sole of his foot, he's the
one who's declared clean. The one who looks over his life
and finds some patch of goodness. Unclean. Unclean. In those is continuance, and
we shall be saved. As God made you a continuance
sinner. That's the biblical definition
of a sinner. Oh, how we need Aaron to stand
in our stead, to bear the iniquity of the holy things. of the holy
things. Now, the cry of a sinner begins
in verse 10 of chapter 63, and in all their affliction, verse
9, he was afflicted and the angel of his presence saved them in
his love and in his pity he redeemed them and he bare them and carried
them all the days of old, but, but they rebelled against him. Now, how is it that they rebelled
against Him? You and I rebel against God.
You and I quench the Spirit of God. And yet, the Lord says here
that in light of their rebellion, He became their enemy. And He's
talking about those children of Israel in the Old Testament,
wandering through the wilderness and rebelling against God. What
was the essence of their rebellion? Well, look what he says. But they rebelled and vexed His
Holy Spirit. Therefore, He was turned to be
their enemy and He fought against them. Oh, here's the cry. Here's the first cry of a sinner.
Lord, don't be my enemy. You see, God's either going to
be your enemy or He's going to be your friend. There's no in
between. He has perfect love for his children,
for those who he's made to be sinners, and perfect hatred for
those who reject the gospel. When the scripture speaks of
these children of Israel in the Old Testament vexing the Holy
Spirit, he's talking about their rejection of the gospel. You remember when Korah led a
rebellion against Moses? What did Korah say? Who are you?
Who are you above us? We've got the right. We've got
the power. We've got the authority. Now
Moses in that regard was a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
Clara was saying, I don't need you. I can get access to God
all by myself. And Moses divided the people.
He said, if you're going to be with Clara, stand over there.
If you're not with Clara, you better get over this side. And
the people divided and what happened? God opened up the earth and they
all were swallowed up. They were swallowed up. Why? Because they didn't believe the
gospel. That's the vexing of the Holy Spirit. That's the rebellion
against God that will make him to be your enemy. Your enemy. In Numbers chapter 11, The people
complained about the manna. They said, we're tired of this
light bread. We loathe this light bread. I
mean, it's manna for breakfast, manna for lunch, manna for dinner.
Is this all we're going to get is manna? And God sent a fire from heaven,
and 3,000 of them were consumed by that fire. Why? Because they weren't satisfied. with the bread that God had given
from heaven. They did not believe the gospel.
Now here's the cry of a sinner. Lord, yes, in my sin is continuance,
but all how I need to be saved and the only hope of my salvation
is to not reject Christ, to not vex the spirit of God, to not
rebel against the gospel. When When Aaron led the people
to build the golden calf, Moses came down off the mountain and
Moses said, who's on the Lord's side? Who's on the Lord's side? Who's going to worship the false
god? Who's going to worship Jehovah? And again, 3,000 people separated
themselves on the side of the calf and God told Moses, he said,
tell the Levites to take up their swords and go slaughter those
people. They slaughtered everyone of
them. Why? They had made God to be their
enemy by their rejection of the gospel. And then when the children of
Israel refused to go into the promised land, Joshua and Caleb
said, God's given it to us, let's go. And the rest of them said,
oh, there's giants in the land. We can't take the land. And the
Lord judged them. by killing them in the wilderness.
They spent the next 40 years in the wilderness, and every
one of that generation, 20 years and older, died. And Joshua and
Caleb were the only two that entered into the promised land.
What is the promised land a picture of? It's a picture of salvation,
isn't it? Crossing over the Jordan, the
word Jordan means death, crossing over into that promised land
is a picture of of God saving his people. And here's where
God became their enemy. Why? Because they rejected the
gospel. Now turn with me to Hebrews chapter 3. Hebrews chapter 3. Here's what the Lord said about those to whom He became their
enemy. He became their enemy. As I said,
God will either be our enemy or he will be our friend and
it's all based on whether or not we believe the gospel. That's the divinity. That's the
blasphemy of the Holy Spirit that the Lord said will never
be forgiven of you. That's what the scripture means
when the Bible says they vexed the spirit of God. It doesn't
mean that they did like you and I do. They quenched the spirit
and were active disobedient. They did not believe the gospel.
Here it is. Look at Hebrews chapter 3 beginning
at verse 15. While it is said today, if you
will hear his voice, harden not your hearts as in the provocation. They provoked God. to jealousy. He's talking about those children
of Israel there in the wilderness and when they didn't believe
the gospel. For some, when they had heard, did provoke. Howbeit
not all that came out of Egypt by Moses, but with whom was he
grieved forty years? Was it not with them that had
sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness? and to whom
swear as he that they should not enter into his rest, but
to them that believe not." Now that's the sin, unbelief. So we see that they could not
enter in because of unbelief. That's why they died in the wilderness.
That's why God turned and became their enemy, not all of them,
but most of them. Most of them. Let us therefore,
and here's the application of that truth to me and you. Here's
the application to what the Lord said in our text in Isaiah 63
verse 10. Let us therefore fear lest the
promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should
come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached
as well as unto them. But the word preached did not
profit them." Why didn't it profit them? Not being mixed with faith
in them that heard it. They didn't believe it. They
didn't believe that Moses was a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ.
They didn't believe that that manna coming from heaven represented
the redemption of the Lord Jesus Christ. They didn't believe that
the water coming out of the rock and that the rock itself was
the Lord Jesus. They didn't believe any of that.
They rebelled and vexed his spirit and the Lord's saying, don't
be like that. For we, verse 3, which have believed do enter
into rest as he said as I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall
enter into my rest, although the works were finished from
the foundation of the world." The Lord Jesus Christ is the
lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world in the
covenant of grace when God ordained the salvation of His people in
the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. That work was finished
as far as God was concerned. Now, it had to be accomplished
in time. We understand that. But that work was finished from
the foundation of the world. What God has purposed is done,
is done. So the Lord is saying to me and
you, oh, believe the gospel. Enter into His rest. The work's
finished. Don't look to your works. Don't
look to your will. Don't look to your wisdom. Look
to the Lord Jesus Christ for all the hope of your salvation.
And if you read on in chapter 4 of Hebrews, it makes it clear
that Christ is our Sabbath. Sabbath is the rest. All right? Go back with me. Now, what is
the hope for a sinner? I want you to notice in the next
few verses that Moses does not plead on behalf of the children
of Israel who have vexed the Spirit of God and who have rebelled
against God by saying, Lord, they'll do better. He does not plead to the Lord
for His mercy by saying, you know, God, they really didn't
mean it. They've got a good heart. They just stumbled. Can't you
just overlook this? Don't you have pity towards them,
Lord? Can't you see that Moses doesn't
bring any of those arguments before the Lord? No, what does
Moses say? Lord, your name is at stake here. The only reason that God forgives
sin is for His namesake. For His namesake. It's all for
His glory. We come before His throne of
grace seeking forgiveness for our sins. We claim the name of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at verse 11. He wrote back
in Isaiah chapter 63 verse 11, then he remembered the days of
old Moses and his people saying, where is he that brought them
up out of the sea with the shepherds of his flock? Where is he that
put his Holy Spirit within him that led them by the right hand
of Moses with his glorious arm dividing the waters before them
to make himself everlasting name that led them through the deep
as a horse in the wilderness that they should not stumble
as a beast goeth down into the valley the Spirit of the Lord
caused him to rest so did I lead thy people to make thyself a
glorious name to make thyself a glorious name Prior to this,
the Lord told Moses when they were in Egypt about the sacrificial
lamb, the Paschal lamb, the lamb that was to be slain on that
fateful night when the death angel came through, the Passover. What did the Lord say? Put the
blood on the doorpost and the linen of the house. And when
I see the blood, I'll pass by you. I'm gonna do this for my
namesake. and Moses in pleading. At one
point God said, I'm just going to wipe them all out. I'm going
to start over with you, Moses. And what did Moses say? Lord,
if you do that, what will all the pagans say about you? About
you? You let us out of Egypt? Lord,
your name is at stake here. Now that's the plea for a sinner. So our first plea is, Lord, don't
be my enemy. And the hope of God not being
your enemy is to believe the gospel. And the second plea is,
Lord, the only claim that I have for your mercy is your namesake,
your glorious name. Lord, maintain your reputation,
your glory. That's why David said in Psalm
115, not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name, thy
name. It's all about his glory. He has a glorious name, doesn't
he not? Now the religious world and the
free willers and the works men will take the name of our God
and blaspheme it. Blaspheme it. The name of the Lord Jesus Christ
is most blasphemed in religion. They're the ones who speak it
more often than those who are irreligious using it as a byword
or a curse word. Men in religion blaspheme the
Lord a lot worse, don't they? They call him Jesus. And then they say, he wants to
save you. He's doing his best to save you.
He's made an offer to save you. Won't you accept him? Well, the
Lord say, you shall call his name Jesus for he shall save
his people. The name Jesus, Jehovah saves. He accomplished the salvation
of his people on Calvary's cross. He wasn't making an offer to
sinners. He was making an offer to the father and the father
accepted that offer. The father was pleased with the
shed blood of his dear son. And that's why God said, when
I see the blood, I'll pass by you. Nothing else. Not when I
see your good intentions, not when I see your commitments,
How does a sinner come? Lord, I didn't really mean it.
Oh Lord, I'll do better. How many times have you had that
thought? I'll do better. God have mercy on me. Making deals with God. Come to the fountain and drink
freely. Freely. Why do you spend money
for that which satisfies not? Don't barter with God. Believe
Him. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. Rest all the hope of your salvation
in the sacrifice that He made. And forget these ideas of, you
know, Lord, I'll be a better person. That's not how a sinner
comes. A sinner comes on the foundation of the Lord Jesus
Christ alone. Christ is all I have and He's
all I need. And he's all God wants. And if
I add to him, if I add to him, the curses of this book will
be added unto me. And if I take away from him,
the promises of this book will be taken away from me. There's the God that we fear,
isn't it? Oh, it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands
of an angry God. Lord, I want you to be my enemy.
So, okay, take heed. Don't be like those unbelieving
Israelites who vexed the spirit of God and rebelled against God
and didn't believe the gospel. Believe on the Lord, you enter
into his rest, enter into his rest. The work was accomplished
from the foundation of the world. Come not based on your commitment,
but based on his glorious name. What a glorious name he has.
He's called Jehovah Sidkenu. We sing that hymn here, don't
we? The Lord, our righteousness. David said, I will speak of thy
righteousness, even of thine only. And all our righteousnesses,
Isaiah goes on to say, are as filthy rags. Look at verse six
of Isaiah chapter 64. But we are all as an unclean
thing and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags, and we do
all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away.
And our sin is continuance, and we shall be saved." He's going
to save us for His glorious namesake. He's called the Alpha and the
Omega. the beginning and the end, the
first and the last. He's the one according to his
own will and purpose that chose a people before Adam was ever
created. He's the one that redeemed them. He's the one who regenerates
them. He's the one who keeps them and
presents them faultless before his throne. The Alpha and the
Omega, the A to Z and everything in between. But what do men say? What do men say? They provoke
the Lord. They vex His Spirit by saying,
well, yeah, He's going to keep me because one saved always saved,
but I've got to take the first step. And so they believe in
the Lord Jesus Christ as the Omega, but they reject Him as
the Alpha. And then there's other Calvinists
who say, oh no, no, he's the alpha, he's got to choose you
and he's got to make you to believe and faith is a gift of God, but,
and then they deny him being the omega, don't they? What do
they say? But you gotta go back to the
law. You've got to measure your salvation by the law. You see,
if you go to the law, either for the cause of your salvation
or for the evidence of your salvation, you've rejected the finished
work of Christ. There's no hope of salvation
in the law. He's the Alpha and the Omega. The beginning and the end, the
first and the last, He's our advocate. John said, My little
children, I write these things unto you that you sin not. Oh,
God's people hate their sin. When we talk about sinning continually,
we're not justifying rebellion against God. We're just saying
that's what we are. Romans chapter 7, Lord, O wretched
man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is
good I find not. When I would do good, evil is
ever present with me. I'm carrying around this body
of death. John said, My little children, I write these things
unto you that you sin not, but if any man sin, we have an advocate
with the Father, one who stands in our stead, one who presents
himself on our behalf, one who pleads his case with the Father
by presenting his name, Jesus Christ, the Righteous One, the
Righteous One. He's called the Branch. This
is his glorious name. If he saves, he's going to save
for his namesake. He's not going to save because
we've made, you know, we've made a renewed commitment, we've rededicated,
we've said, we've made promises to God we're going to do better.
No, he's going to save for his namesake. That's what Moses pled
with the Lord. This is why, what is our hope? That the Lord would remember
his covenant promises and for his namesake, he would have mercy
upon us. He's called the branch. The one
who comes forth as a tender shoot out of the root of Jesse. And that branch is the only branch
that produces fruit. The only branch that produces
fruit. And those branches that are grafted
in, the only way they can produce fruit is if they abide in the
branch, in the vine. So he's that branch. Sometimes the Lord sends some
cold weather to stunt the growth of his trees of righteousness.
And then he comes along and prunes them. Remember I told you a few
weeks ago that hard freeze we had? I lost all, my mango tree
was in full bloom. Full bloom. And a beautiful tree. And the freeze was so hard that
it not only killed the blooms and the leaves, but the end of
the branches. And so the other day I went out
there and I cut it all the way back almost to the trunk. I mean,
it's the ugliest tree you've ever seen. I walked out there
this morning, and there's new growth coming out of that trunk
and out of those branches. And my hope is that it's going
to bloom again, twice in one year. Maybe I'll have more fruit
now than I had before. And I didn't put any plastic
mangoes on it. You know, that's what we do in
religion, isn't it? Tie some plastic mangoes to the tree and
take pictures of it, put it on Facebook, let everybody know how prolific we are in our work
for God. Sometimes the Lord sends a frost, and then he cuts us back, and
it's a hard thing. It's a hard thing, but it's always
for the purpose of producing more fruit. bear with the body. That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's called the Good Shepherd who laid down his life for the
sheep, the Day Star. You know what the Day Star is?
That's that sun that comes up in the morning in the east, over
that way. The sun of righteousness, the light of the world, the faithful
and true witness, the friend of sinners. He's called God. God. In the beginning was the
Word. The Word was with God. The Word
was God. It's God. He dwelt among us. And we beheld His glory as the
only begotten of the Father. He's the one full of grace and
full of truth. And when He saves, He saves for
His namesake. He's our high priest. Like Aaron,
He intercedes for the holy things and for the unholy things. and presents his holiness before
the Lord, able to sympathize with the weaknesses of our infirmities,
the feelings of our infirmities. We have a priest and he's the
glorious I am, the uncreated one, the uncreated one. Look at verse 15. Isaiah 63, look down from heaven. Lord, I can't look up. I can't
look up. If I'm going to be saved, Lord,
you're going to have to come to me. I can't get to you. That's
what religion is all about. Religion of every form and every
flavor is man's attempt to get to God. I was talking to somebody
yesterday and I've said to them what I've said to you on many
occasions. The only difference between Islam and Buddhism and
Catholicism and Baptists and Presbyterians and every other
form of religion, the only difference is what set of rules and regulations
does that organization have for you to get to God. That's the
only thing. It just changed the rules. It
just changed the rules. They're all works religions.
The gospel is the only message of salvation that stands out
in that we like that publican in the temple smiting ourselves
upon the breast and would not so much as even look up. Why? Because he's a sinner. God have
mercy upon me, the sinner. And which one went down to his
house justified? The Pharisee? Father, I thank
Thee that I'm not like other men. I fast, I tithe, I do this,
I do that. That's religion, isn't it? And so the sinner says, Lord,
look down from heaven and behold from the habitation of thy holiness
and of thy glory, where is thy zeal and thy strength, the sounding
of thy bowels and of thy mercy toward me? Are they restrained?
Lord, you're going to have to do this. You're going to have to save
me. You're going to have to present
yourself on my behalf. Doubtless thou art our Father.
Though Abraham be ignorant of us and Israel acknowledge us
not, thou, O Lord, are our Father, our Redeemer. Thy name is from
everlasting. What do those What did those
self-righteous Pharisees who vex the Holy Spirit say? Abraham
is our father. We'd be the children of Abraham.
And what did the Lord say? If you were the children of Abraham,
you'd believe in me. Abraham saw my day and he rejoiced
in it. He rejoiced in it. Abraham sought
a city whose builder and maker was God. You're not children
of Abraham. Now Isaiah says, Abraham doesn't
know anything about us. Abraham can't save us. Abraham's
dead and gone. Jacob's dead and gone. They're
in a grave. My heritage can't save me. My
past can't save me. Lord, thou art our Redeemer and
our God. And thy name is an everlasting
name. We have a God that changes not. He's the same yesterday, today,
and forever. And that's the reason why you
sons of Jacob are not consumed. The works were finished from
the foundation of the world. That's a sinner's prayer. It
goes on. We'll continue next time. But the prayer is glorious. Lord, put these words in my heart,
enable me to cry out with such a desire. All right, let's take
a break.