Sweet fellowship, isn't it? So
very thankful. In Isaiah chapter 65, verse 1,
God says, I am sought of them who ask not for me. And all that means is we didn't
initiate our relationship with the Lord. He's the one that put it in our
hearts to seek Him out. And we love Him because He first
loved us. I am found of them who sought
me not. Pray the Lord will enable us
to seek Him and to know Him. through the preaching of his
gospel and through the worship. So let's stand together, Brother
Tom, you're gonna lead us in number 199, number 199. ? Amen,
amen, amen, amen ? Yeah. ? Sinners Jesus will receive ?
Sound this word of grace to all ? Who the heavenly pathway leave
? All who linger, all who fall ? Sing it o'er and o'er again
? Christ receiveth sinful men Make the message clear and plain,
Christ receiveth sin free. Come and He will give you rest. Trust Him, for His word is plain. He will take the sinful last. Christ receiveth sinful men. Sing it o'er. and or again. Christ receiveth sinful men. Make the message clear and plain. Christ receiveth ? Now my heart condemns me not
? ? Pure before the law I stand ? ? He who cleansed me from all
spot ? ? Satisfied its last demand ? ? Sing it o'er and o'er again
? ? Christ receiveth sinful men ? ? Make the message clear and
plain ? Christ receiveth sinful men ? Christ receiveth sinful
men ? Even me with all my sin ? Purged from every spot and
stain ? Heaven with him I enter in Sing it o'er and o'er again,
Christ receiveth sinful men. Make the message clear and plain,
Christ receiveth sinful men. Please be seated. Turn with me, please, in God's
Word to Luke, and we're going to start reading that Luke chapter
14, verse 33. You know, the Lord's Word talks about growing
in grace, and it's not what religious folks think it is. It's just
the opposite. I learned very painfully and
convincingly Growing grace. I'm more convinced every day. The Lord lets me live Of my ability
my inability to do anything to save my soul even sustain me
And I become more convinced of my need for his ability To do
it for me God doesn't do it. It won't be done. That's all
there is to it I want us to look here at verse
33. The Lord's speaking, he says,
so likewise, whoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that
he hath, he cannot be my disciple. Salt is good, but if the salt
have lost his Savior, when shall it be seasoned? It is neither
fit for the land, nor yet for the dunghill. But men cast it
out. He that hath ears to hear, let
him hear. That's what God's doing in his
call to worship. He's telling us, if you can hear,
you hear me. And the only way I can hear is
he enables me to. And then the next two is what
I want you to see. Then drew near to him all the
publicans and sinners for to hear him. And the Pharisees and
scribes, the religious, murmured saying, this man receiveth sinners
and eateth with them. I don't know, I can't even speak
about that. I can say I'm so thankful God
eats with sinners. Because if he didn't, he'd never
eat with me. That's what he's here today. If you're a sinner,
going to preach some food to you. If you're not a sinner,
there's nothing for you. You're wasting your time. And
he spake this parable unto them, saying, What man of you having
a hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety-nine
in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he
find it? And when he have found it, he
layeth on his shoulders rejoicing. And when he cometh home, he calleth
together his friends and neighbors, saying unto them, rejoice with
me, for I have found my sheep, which was lost. I say unto you
that likewise, joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth,
more than over 99 just persons, which need no repentance. Needs no repentance. What a comfort
it is to know that the Lord's gonna, he's gonna get his sheep.
That's the only encouragement I have for my lost loved family
members. I don't see any encouragement
in them, I can just tell you that. All I see is heartache
and despair. But the good news is, he eats
with sinners. And if they're his, he'll eat
with them. And I pray that he might be willing to save him
because we know he's able. Please join me as we, Lord, we, we confess to you this morning,
our inability to do anything on our own behalf. Pray that
you would send your spirit to us and enable us this morning
to worship you, to love you, to desire you. And we pray for the servant that
you've chosen, Brother Greg, and your other gospel preachers
that you would speak through them this morning, Lord. Give
them freedom that your spirit would be upon them. And we ask
that you would give us the ability to hear and to believe. And we especially pray, oh, that
there might be one this morning one that's a stranger to your
grace, that we might rejoice in seeing you come and eat with
them. We ask this for your glory alone. Amen. Let's all stand together once
again. We'll sing the hymn that's on the back of your bulletin.
Hymn that's on the back of your bulletin. O Lamb of God, still keep me
near to thy wounded side. Tis only there in safety and
peace I can abide. What foes and snares surround
me? What loss and fears within? The grace that sought and found
me alone can keep me clean. This only in Thee hiding, I know
my life secure. Only in Thee abiding, I steadfast
shall endure. Thine arm the victory gaineth
For every hurtful foe, The love my heart sustaineth In all its
care and woe. Soon shall my eyes behold thee
with rapture face to face. The half hath not been told me
of all thy power and grace. Thy beauty, Lord, and glory,
the wonders of thy love, shall be the endless story of all thy
saints above. Please be seated. That's the endless story of all
the saints below, too, isn't it? I just am amazed how the Lord
has brought two passages of scripture together this morning. Will you
open your Bibles with me to Isaiah chapter 63, please? Isaiah chapter
63. And those of you that were here
for the first hour will think this is a continuation. I suppose
it is. because the Lord is dealing with
the same subject in both the passage we looked at in Mark
chapter 4 and this passage in Isaiah chapter 63. Those of you
that are here regularly know that we just go verse by verse
through books of the Bible. And so the Lord has purposed
us to have both of these passages today. And I hope that he will
drive the message home to our hearts. Isaiah chapter 63 verse 8, for
he said, surely they are my people, children that will not lie. So he was their savior. How do I know? that the Lord
is my Savior. The answer is in that verse. They will be children that will
not lie. They will not lie. You say, well, preacher, doesn't
the Bible say that we come from the womb speaking lies? Yeah,
we do. We do. That's what we are by nature.
Scripture says all men are liars, God alone. tells the truth. I was thinking about how our
children, most times, the very first word they speak is no.
And generally speaking, they use
that word in response to a question that we ask them knowing that
they're guilty. They respond by saying no. And
even before they can speak, even before they can speak, when an
infant acts as if they're dying because they've got a wet diaper
or because they're hungry, they're lying. They're lying. They're not dying. So, you know,
what does this mean? God's children will not lie. So, He was their Savior. Now, there's another sense in
which everything we do and everything we say is a lie. Let me show you that. Turn to
me to Psalm 15. Psalm 15. The Bible says that the heart
of man is deceitful. That means the heart of man lies.
Wicked above all things, who can know it? We can't even know
our own hearts, can we? In another place in Genesis chapter
6, the Lord tells us that when he looks down from heaven and
peers into the heart of man, he sees that every imagination
of the thoughts of the heart are only evil and that continually. And then in Romans chapter three,
when the Lord looks down through our throats, what does he see?
A sepulcher. What's he saying? Well, here's
what he's saying. Look at chapter Psalm 15. Lord,
who shall abide in thy tabernacle and who shall dwell in thy holy
hill? Life has a lot of questions.
I know you're faced with questions and I'm faced with questions
every day. Some important, some not so important, but there is
no question in all the world as important as this question.
There's no question more important that we know the answer to than
this question. Who's going to abide in the presence
of God? How can a man born of a woman
stand in the presence of a holy God? How can I be saved? How can I know that I have acceptance
with God? And now the Lord's gonna answer
that question. He that walketh uprightly, every
step. Now, the interesting thing about,
we looked at this passage Wednesday night, most of you weren't able
to be here, but the verbs in this passage, walketh, worketh,
speaketh, back biteth, doeth evil, and taketh up." They're
all a continuous unbroken action. That's the meaning of this passage. So God's answering the question,
who's going to stand in the presence of God? Those who walk uprightly
every step of their life. Can't stumble, can't fall, can't
make a mistake, can't sin. You got to walk uprightly every
step all the time. Who's gonna stand in the presence
of God? Those that work righteousness. Those that keep the law of God
to the letter of the law. Somebody's thinking, how am I
gonna stand in the presence of God? I've never been able to
do that. No, the truth is you've never been able to keep one of
God's laws one time. So what's the Lord telling us? Look at
the next one. Look at the next one. He who speaketh the truth in
his heart all the time. So that's not just
what comes out of your lips, that's the thoughts and imaginations
of your heart have to be truthful before God all the time, continuously,
unbroken, perfect. What's our hope? There's only
one man that ever met that qualification. Who can stand in the presence
of God? He who has a clean hand and a pure heart, who's never
lifted up his heart to vanity, nor spoken deceitfully. Never, never. He's perfect. Perfect. You see, the religious world
just says, you know, you just be a good person, do your best.
You can satisfy what God requires. No, you can't. It's what God
says. You've got to be perfect. How
am I going to be perfect? Well, if I'm found in Him. Not
having my own righteousness which is of the law, but that righteousness
which is by the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ. I can
have acceptance before God. in the beloved, in the beloved. The Lord Jesus Christ, every
step continuously, he walked uprightly. Everything he did
was righteousness and every thought, every thought of his heart was
truth. You and I have never been able
to have a holy thought. That's all he had was holy thoughts, all
he had. So when we consider comparing
ourselves to the Lord Jesus Christ, which is God's standard. He's the plumb line. He's the standard by which everything
is measured by God. Then the only conclusion we can
come to is that every time we speak, we're lying. You know,
we're covering our tracks, we're trying to present ourselves as
best we can, we're hiding things that we don't really want to
say, things we think and intents of a heart that we don't want
anybody to know about. And we ought to. We ought to. But the point is it makes every
one of us liars. Before God. Now, we ought to
be honest people. We ought to speak the truth.
We ought to be faithful and reliable in terms of our relationships
with men. I'm talking about your relationship with God. God says
all men are liars. God alone tells the truth. And
yet, here He says, the way they'll know they're saved, the way they'll
know that I'm their Savior, is because they are children that
will not lie, will not lie. Turn with me to 1 Timothy chapter
4. This is where this passage meets the Mark 4 passage from the previous
hour. 1 Timothy chapter 4 verse 1, now
the Spirit speaketh expressly. You know, I love God's Word. God is never ambiguous. He never,
you know, that Mark 4 passage, the light, nothing is going to
be hid. I'm going to just speak the truth and it's going to be
clear and simple and the truth always is. And so the Spirit
of God speaketh expressly. He's not speaking in riddles. He's not speaking in veiled language. He's speaking expressly that
in the latter times some shall depart from the faith giving
heed to seducing spirits. Now what did we see in 1 John
chapter 4? Try the spirits whether they
be of God for many false prophets have gone out into the world.
So now the Lord is saying there's going to be seducing spirits,
they're going to seduce you. How do you seduce a person? By
lying to them. And doctrines of devils. Now, every time the word doctrine,
and doctrine is a precious word, it means teaching. It's the teaching
of God. But every time it's used with
the letter S at the end of it, as a plural. It's always referring
to something bad. God never says the doctrines
of God or the doctrines of grace. God has one doctrine, one doctrine. And every time the word doctrines
is used in the scriptures, it's speaking of something evil. And
so he says, He says they will give heed to liars, seducing
spirits, doctrines of devils, speaking lies and hypocrisy,
having their conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to
marry and commanding to abstain from meat. So there's lots of
touch not, taste not, handle nots in religion, isn't there?
Lots of rules and regulations. God's calling them the doctrines
of devils which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving
of them which believe and know the truth for every creature
of God is good and nothing is to be refused if it be received
with thanksgiving for it is sanctified by the word of God in prayer. Let me give you a good rule of
thumb in terms of trying to discern
right from wrong. If you from your heart can thank
God for it, enjoy it. If you can from your heart express
gratitude and thanksgiving to God for it, enjoy it. If your heart smites you and
you've got to hide from God about it, stay away from it. That's easy enough, isn't it? That's what the Lord is saying
here, but here's the seducing spirits and doctrines of men.
Colossians chapter 2 verse 21, the Lord says that they will
have doctrines of men and commandments of men which are to perish with
the using after the commandments and doctrines of men. Touch not,
taste not, handle not. We have one doctrine. It is the doctrine of God's free
and sovereign grace in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our doctrine. He's our
doctrine. So when the Lord says they will
be children that will not lie, they're not going to be seduced
by a works gospel. They're not going to be seduced
by a free will gospel. They're not going to be drawn
away by the doctrines of devils or the doctrines of men. They're
going to have the hope of their salvation completely bound up
and settled in the finished work and glorious person of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He will be their doctrine. In Revelation chapter 22 verse
15 it says those that will be left out of heaven, the sorcerers
and the whoremongers and the murderers and idolaters and whosoever
loveth and maketh a lie. God says if you love a lie and
you make a lie You're not going to be accepted
into heaven. When does the child of God speak
the truth? When they say amen to what God
says. God said it, that settles it. You've seen the bumper sticker,
God said it, I believe it, that settles it? No. Whether you believe
it or not, God said it, that settles it. That settles it. So what has God said? What has God said? Well, he said
a lot, hadn't he? He said a lot. And in the volume
of the book, it is written of me. This book is all about the
Lord Jesus Christ. This is not a book of doctrines. It's not a book of rules and
regulations. It's not a rule book for Christian
lit. It is a book about the Lord Jesus
Christ. It reveals Him and His glory
and gives the children of God one in whom they put all their
hope and trust so that they are children that will not lie. And we believe all of God's word. All scripture is given by inspiration
of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction,
for instruction in righteousness that the child of God may be
thoroughly furnished unto all good works. and it was not given
by private interpretation but holy men of God wrote as they
were moved by the Spirit of God. We don't have creeds, we don't
have confessions, we don't have traditions, we don't have any
of that. God's children will not lie. They're not going to lie against
the Word of God. They're not going to rely upon
the words of men over the word of God and every religious organization has some
sort of a creed, some sort of a confession, some sort of a
church tradition that they rely upon and in the end it always
overrules God's word. In other words, if church tradition
says this, God's Word says that, well, we're just gonna go with
what our fathers went with. God's children won't do that.
They're not gonna lie about the authority of the Word of God. They won't do it. They believe every word of it.
Understand it all? No. No. But you won't hear a
child of God say well yeah I know what the Bible says but notice
the goats that are budding against the Word of God. Now God's children
bow to His Word. They believe it all. I hear people
say well how much of God's Word do you have to believe to be
a believer? Every word of it. Every word of it. That's what a believer does.
A believer believes everything God says. I believe a whole lot more than
I do, but I believe it. God's children will not lie.
God's children will not lie about themselves. Michael, what you said was the
truth. growing in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus
Christ is coming to the realization more and more of my dependence
upon Him. I have no righteousness. I have
no ability. You listen to those who are not
God's children and they're gonna tell you about something good
they're doing, aren't they? I was telling the folks Wednesday
night, I was trying to do business with somebody last week And we got into a discussion
and had a chance to talk about scripture. He knew just enough
of the Bible to be dangerous. And, you know, he prided himself
on being very religious. And so we had a good conversation
and I was hopeful. He said he wanted to come to
church and, you know, so we'll see. But at the end of the conversation,
I'm getting, you know, and everything I said about grace and about
salvation, about Christ, he agreed with. He agreed with. And I went
to get in my car and he wanted to convince me to do business
with him, so he was quick to tell me. He said, well, you know,
he said, I just need to let you know that 11 percent, not 10
percent, but 11 percent of everything that I make in my business, I
give to charities. If you were here last Sunday,
that's plastic mangoes. That's all that is. And I thought,
you know, but that's so typical, isn't it? I mean, men, everybody
wants the right hand to know what the left hand is doing.
Everybody wants to boast in what they're doing for God and what
they're accomplishing. God's children don't lie about
themselves. They don't lie about themselves
to God. They don't believe that their salvation has anything
to do with what they do. They don't believe that they
have the ability to make a decision. You hear people who are not the
children of God who claim to be the children of God talking
about a decision that they made. Well, I accepted Jesus. I invited
Jesus to come into my heart. You won't ever hear a child of
God talk like that. Why? Because God's children don't
lie. That person's lying. God's children know that they
were born dead in their trespasses and sins and that if God had
not opened the eyes of their understanding, had God not opened
their ears, had God not taken out the heart of stone and put
in a heart of flesh, they would never have believed. Coming to
the Lord Jesus Christ is not a decision. It's not a choice. I'll tell you what I want you
to do. Take your bulletin, if you will,
please. And open it up. There's an article
there. The most believed lie. The most
believed lie. There's a lot of soul damning
lies being told in the world that men believe. But the most
unanimously believed lie which God's children don't believe.
This is what it means. How do I know that Christ has
saved me? Because I'm not a liar. Oh, I
am in the sense that we've already talked about. But I'm not a liar
when it comes to speaking the truth about myself. I do not
believe myself to have a free will. Now, if by free will a person
thinks that they can because they have the right to choose
between two different options that therefore their will is
free, that's not, let me, if by free will, this is the third
paragraph, man believes that he is free when given two or
more options to choose the one he wants, that is without dispute. As a matter of fact, that is
always the case. We could even go so far as to
say that it is important to select an option That it is impossible,
I'm sorry, to select an option that is not your preference.
When given an opportunity to select from one or two or more
possibilities, we always choose the one for which we have the
greatest desire always. Man's will is not free. It is subject to his natural
inclination. And therein lies the problem.
If you have a choice, Between Christ and anything else, you
will always choose something else. The only way you're going
to come to Christ is if God takes away all your options. When the Lord fed the 5,000 and
they all left after he said to them, the only reason you're
following me is so that you can have your bellies full, and nothing's
changed. People want to follow Jesus and
follow after God so that they can have their needs met in this
world. The Lord said to the disciples,
won't you leave me also? Aren't you going to go with them?
What did Peter say? Lord, where are we going to go?
Where are we going to go? You alone have the words of eternal
life. We know and are sure that Thou
art the Christ, the Son of the living God. You have shut us
up to Yourself. We don't have an option. We're
not believing on You because we decided to believe on You.
Our will was in bondage to our natural desires and our natural
desire was against You. You're the one that made us willing
in the day of Your power. You're the one that caused us
to believe. God's children will not lie about
their will, about their abilities, about their righteousness, about
their good works. They're not gonna lie. They're
not gonna do it. And they're not gonna pretend
to be getting better. They're not gonna lie about themselves.
So he was their savior. So he was their savior. You hear
somebody talking about making a decision and exercising their
will and letting Jesus save them? They talk like that because they're
not the children of God. They're liars. My children will
not lie. And they won't lie about God. You hear somebody talk about
how God loves everybody? They're lying. Jacob I've loved. Esau I've hated. I love righteousness. I hate iniquity. I'm angry with
the wicked every day. God's not capable of loving anything
outside of perfect righteousness. His eyes are too pure to look
upon iniquity. Somebody's talking about God
loving everybody. They are not the children of
God. They're liars. God's people don't
talk like that. You hear somebody talking about
God wants everybody to be saved. He's doing his best. He's trying
to get it done. But his hands are tied. You know,
he's subject to man's will. They are liars. God's children
do not lie. They don't talk like that. They
don't believe that. You hear people say, well, you
know, Jesus died for everybody. Lie. That's a lie. He didn't die for everybody.
He came to satisfy the demands of God's justice and God's righteousness
on behalf of those whom God chose in the covenant of grace before
time ever began according to his own will and purpose. That's
the truth. That's what God says. God's children
will not lie. You hear somebody say, well,
you know, He made an offer of salvation. Won't you accept it? That's a lie. He didn't make
that offer of salvation to us. He made it to the Father and
the Father accepted it and was pleased with it and was satisfied
and God the Father saw the travail of his soul and was satisfied. And everyone that the Lord Jesus
Christ died for was justified. before the sight of God. Anything else is a lie. And God says, my children, my
children, they will not lie. They're not going to lie about
themselves. They're not going to lie about God. They're not going
to lie about the Lord Jesus Christ. They're not going to lie about
God's Word. They're not going to twist the scriptures to make
it fit their doctrines They believe the doctrine of God's free grace
in the accomplished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. I've put the
candle on the candlestick and it's filled the room with its
light and they've seen the light. They will not lie. They're not
going to go back. So he was their savior. What about you? Are you a liar? In a sense, yeah, we all are.
We've talked about that. But when it comes to who I am,
who God is, what the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished, and how
it is that God's pleased to save sinners, my children will not
lie. So he was their savior. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
we're thankful for your word and we're thankful for your spirit
and ask you, Lord, to make us to be children that will not
lie. But we ask it in Christ's name.
Amen. Number Number 30, let's stand
together, number 30. Glory, glory, I'm forgiven. All my sins are washed away. Christ, by His great blood atonement,
All my sin has put away. Sin imputed to my Savior when
He died upon the tree. As the substitute for sinners,
God will not impute to me. Glory, glory, I'm accepted, robed
in Christ's own righteousness. I'm a child and heir of heaven,
saved by God's almighty grace. Christ's obedience to the Father
is imputed now to In God's sight I'm pure and holy, He declares
me so to be. Glory, glory, I'll not perish. In Christ's hands I am secure. He who saved me sure will keep
me. By God's grace I shall endure. This is not a vain presumption,
I just take him at his word. Christ has sworn they shall not
perish who believe on me their Lord. Okay.