Good morning. It's so nice and
quiet in here. Let's open this morning's service
with hymn number 62, Crown Hymn with Many Crowns. Let's all stand
together. Number 62. Crown Him with many crowns, the
Lamb upon His throne. Hark how the heavenly anthem
drowns all music but its own. Awake, my soul, and sing. of Him who died for thee, and
hail Him as thy matchless King through all eternity. Crown him the Lord of love. Behold his hands and side. Rich wounds yet visible above,
in beauty glorified. No angel in the sky. Can fully bear that sight But
downward bends his wandering eye At mysteries so bright Crown
him the Lord of life, who triumphed o'er the grave, who rose victorious
to the strife for those he came to save. His glories now we sing,
Who died and rose on high, Who died eternal life to bring, And
lives that death may die. ? Crown Him the Lord of heaven
? One with the Father known ? One with the Spirit through Him given
? From yonder glorious throne ? To Thee be endless praise Please be seated. No angel in
the sky can fully bear that sight. The Lord said that his people
were standing in judgment of the angels. We see things about
Christ in his work of redemption that the angels can't enter into.
What a blessing. Pray the Lord to be pleased to
show us more of his glory, give us more hope and comfort in his
finished work. Mary Wiginton's mother, Carol,
has been here on a few occasions recently. She moved in with Mary
and Donnie several months ago and in the last six weeks or
so has been bedridden and looks as if she's in her final hours
maybe today. Mary, of course, is home. She's
at Mary and Donny's house and hospice is coming in and out.
I want us to pray for Mary and Donny and for Carol. The Lord
will be pleased to have mercy on her soul. I guess everybody's heard that
Olivia had her baby, so Sailor Grace is now in the world. We're very thankful that everyone's
well. So let's pray together. Our merciful heavenly father,
we come before your throne of grace in the name of thy dear
son, thanking you that we have full and free acceptance in the
beloved, knowing that we have a righteousness in him that's
pleasing and acceptable in your sight. We ask, Lord, that you
would be merciful to Carol in these final hours. Pray that
you would give her hope in Christ. Pray, Lord, that the things that
she's heard with her physical ear would be heard now with her
spiritually or have mercy on her soul. We pray
for Carol, I mean for Mary and Donnie and the family and ask
Lord that you would give grace and comfort and hope in this
hour of great need. We thank you for little Sailor
Grace and we ask Lord for your hand of protection to be upon
her and we pray that you would call her out in your time and
reveal Christ in her. Pray for Libby and Jake and ask
that you'd give them the grace, the wisdom to raise her in the
nurture and admonition of the Lord. We ask now Father that
you would be pleased to speak to our hearts by your word and
reveal to us once again the glory of thy dear son. For it's in
his name we ask it. Amen. Will you open your Bibles
with me to Isaiah chapter 58. Isaiah chapter 58. I originally titled
this message A Chosen Fast a chosen fast. That comes from verse 5. Is it
such a fast that I have chosen? What sort of fast has God chosen? But I've decided to change the
title just this morning to Guard the Back Door Also. Guard the Back Door Also. If you've been hearing anything
from this pulpit over the last 20 years, you have set a guard
at the front door of your heart. It's locked and bolted shut in
that you will not allow a freewill works gospel to enter in. You're not going to do it. You've
heard the difference. You know that you're saved by
grace. You know that salvation is of
the Lord. You know that whom He has foreknown,
He also predestinated to become, to be made in the image of Christ. And those whom He predestinated,
them He also called. And them which He called, He
also justified. And them which He justified,
He also glorified. You know. that you didn't have
anything to do with your salvation. You know that you've got nothing
to bring to God to persuade Him or manipulate Him to save you. That the hope of your salvation
is completely, completely dependent upon the finished work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. That He is your salvation before
God. And the front door of your heart
is, well, you've got security cameras on it, don't you? I mean,
you're not going to let anybody take that away from you. Or do we? You see, there's another door
into our heart. And though a home invader may
try to break down the front door, A wise burglar is going to find
an unlocked back door to slip in and do his damage. And so I want to encourage you
to put a guard on that door also. What is the back door to your
heart? Not that we're saved by works. Not that we're saved by
our will. but that we get assurance of
our salvation by looking at something in our lives. Not a day goes
by in my life that I'm not tempted to look at my life, what I do and what I don't do,
to get evidence of my salvation. That's the back door. That's the back door. What is
the evidence of our salvation? I talk to folks all the time,
and they say, well, you know, I used to do this, and I used
to do that, and I don't do this anymore, and don't do that anymore,
and that's the hope that I have. I know I was saved by grace.
Well, by grace are you saved through faith and not of yourselves.
It's a gift of God, not of works. I know that. I know that. And yet every time a child of
God is tempted by the remaining spirit of pharisaicalism that's
in our old man to look to our life to get evidence of our salvation,
the damage is the same. See, the problem is that, in
other words, we're looking to ourselves rather than looking
to Christ. And there's a good article in
your bulletin this morning that Todd Nybert wrote on what it
is to be double-minded. You see, when you look to yourself
for the evidence of your salvation, you become double-minded, don't you? And you lose your
assurance, don't you? And Satan takes advantage of
that back door to accuse the brethren and to say to us, well,
you can't be a child of God because look at the way you act. Look
at what you said. Look at the things you think.
Look at what you did. Look at what you don't do. If
you look to yourself for the cause of your salvation or if
you look to yourself for the evidence of your salvation, the
result is the same. You lose your hope. You lose
your peace. You lose all comfort. Put a guard on that back door.
Lord, don't let Satan come in the back door. Don't let him... Well, the scripture speaks of
him as being wise and the wiles of the devil and shooting fiery
darts. He just soon come in the back
doors, he would come in the front door. He would. He can do just as much damage.
Rob Christ of his glory and rob you of the hope of your salvation. Now, Isaiah chapter 58, guard the back door too. Cry aloud, God's speaking to
the prophet now, telling the prophet what to preach. Cry aloud,
spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet and show my people
their transgressions and the house of Jacob their sins. Now, most preachers would understand
that as a command from God to preach against the sins of the
flesh, the sins of the world. Preach against things that they're
not guilty of. Isn't that what most preachers
do? or they will cover up what they're
guilty of by preaching against something that they really are
involved in. So they'll preach against all
the sins of the world and point their finger out there. Oh, look
how evil those people are. Look at what they're doing. We're
not like that. And we fall prey to the very
temptation to get evidence of our salvation by thinking well
we're not doing the things that the world does. First Corinthians chapter 5 the
Lord tells us not to keep company with fornicators and idolaters
and then he goes on to say but I'm not speaking of those people
in the world. He said, otherwise you would
have to come out of the world. And that's what a lot of religious
people do. They cloister themselves in a little
walled up safety place. You know, I'm not going to be
infected by the world. So they build for themselves
walls against the evils of the world. But the Lord goes on in
that passage in 1 Corinthians chapter 5 and says, I'm not talking
about the people of the world. I'm talking about those who would
call themselves a brother. He's talking about shunning and
separating yourself from a person who is in the church. who's engaged
in that kind of behavior that they might be shamed by that
and be brought to repentance. Galatians chapter 6 verse 1 says,
if a brother is overtaken in a fault, you which are spiritual
Restore such a one in the spirit of grace And do it with meekness
and fear lest you also be tempted Now what is it to be spiritual? What is it to be spiritual It's
to be looking to the Lord Jesus Christ for the cause and the
evidence of your salvation That article that I just mentioned
that Todd wrote, it's to have a single mind, a single eye toward
the Lord Jesus Christ. And what happens when a brother
falls into a fault? He's taken his eyes off of Christ.
It's what he's done. So the Lord says, those of you
which have a clear view of Christ right now, go help that brother
with the spirit of grace. and take yourself into consideration
because he's not doing anything you couldn't do. Nothing. Isn't that true? So we're not here to point our
fingers at the world and to take comfort in the fact that we're
not doing things that the world does as the evidence of our salvation. I'm not here to do that. That's
exactly what this passage is talking about. Let's read on.
Look at verse 2. So the Lord told the prophet,
point out their sin. What is the cause of all sin?
What is the sin that doth so easily beset each and every one
of us? What is the fountain, the polluted fountain that brings
forth every type of uncleanness and every type of sin? It's unbelief. It's unbelief. That's it. It's not resting all the hope
of your salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's why,
for a child of God, the times when we are most comforted is
when we're hearing the gospel. Isn't that true for you? That's
why you want to keep coming back because you get out there and
you lose sight of Christ and you begin to judge yourself by
what you do and you begin to judge the world and you've got
to come back and have a laser focus on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why every gospel preacher
preaches Christ and Him crucified because He's the one we need
to hear. And I'm at rest with my soul. I'm at rest with God.
I'm comforted when I'm hearing about the glorious person and
accomplished work of the Lord Jesus Christ for all the hope
of my salvation. I'm comforted when I'm brought
by the Spirit of God to take my eyes off of myself for both
the cause of my salvation and the evidence of my salvation
and to be brought to look to Christ. Doesn't work good for you, does
it, to look to yourself for the evidence of your salvation, does
it? Not if you're an honest person. And particularly if you're a
child of God, it doesn't work. Only the hypocrite, only the
liar, only the Pharisee finds comfort in looking to themselves
for the evidence of their salvation. They're the only ones. The child
of God can never find comfort there. So keep that front door guarded.
Keep the security camera up. Keep it locked. But know that
you've got a back door, too. And Satan will just as soon come
in that way as any other way. Rob you of your glory. Rob you
of your hope. Rob you of your joy. Verse 2, the Lord said, point
out their sin. Yet they seek me daily and delight
to know my ways as a nation that did righteousness and forsook
not the ordinance of their God. They ask of me the ordinances
of justice and they take delight in approaching to God. They're
very religious. in response to their behavior,
in response to what they're doing religiously, they say, wherefore
have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? Wherefore have
we afflicted our soul and thou takest no knowledge? Behold,
in the day of your fast, you find pleasure and exact all your
labors. Many times over the years, I've
heard some of you say of your friends and family members that
you've brought to hear the gospel, and there, hearing of the gospel
sounds just like verse three are you saying that all the stuff
i do doesn't count are you saying that the things
that i'm comforting myself in i mean i go down to the rescue
mission i give my money to the poor i do this and i do that
lord i've done many wonderful works in thy name And when a self-righteous Pharisee
hears the gospel, this is the conclusion they came to. Are
you saying this is no benefit to me? You know, all my prayers, all
my church attendance, does this not give evidence that I'm saved? Now, a lot of them look at those
things as the cause of their salvation. But you're tempted,
just like I am, to look at these things as the evidence of your
salvation, aren't you? You see, there's a sense in which
we say the same thing, don't we? Verse 4, You fast for strife
and debate and to smite with the fist of wickedness. Some of us have been there, haven't
we? We loved to compete with one
another to see who was more spiritual, who was more religious. And we
debated doctrine and we debated this and debated that to see
who could get superiority over another. That's what he's talking
about. Verse 4, you shall not fast as
you do this day to make your voice to be heard on high. is
it such a fast that I have chosen? You see, it's not a matter of
whether or not these things count for anything. The scripture makes
it clear, do good unto all men, especially those who are of the
household of faith. It'll be a blessing to them. It'll be
a benefit to them. You'll love one another. you should be given to you know
pray for those and care for those that are that are that are afflicted
you know we we want to do those things but as soon as our eyes taken
away from Christ and we begin to look at those things as the
evidence of our salvation now we've lost sight of the Lord
Jesus Christ and now that ugly head of the Pharisee has reared
itself, hasn't it, in our hearts. Is this such a fast that I have
chosen? Verse 5, a day for a man to flict his soul? Is it to bow
down his head as a bulrush and to spread sackcloth and ashes
under him? Wilt thou call this a fast, an
acceptable day of the Lord? Now Isaiah Chapter 1, the Lord
rebukes the children of Israel for the same thing and he says
that when you offer a lamb to me with an eye toward that being
your acceptance before God, because you did it, you might
as well cut off a dog's head. That's what God said. Might as
well just offer up for me a dog. So if this is not the fast that
the Lord has called us to, if this is not the means by which
we get assurance of our salvation and before that get acceptance
of our salvation before God, what is the fast? Well, it's
the gospel. It's the gospel. Look what he
says. Is not this the fast that I have
chosen, verse 6, to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo
the heavy burdens and to let the oppressed go free that they
may break every yoke? First Corinthians chapter 10,
For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh,
for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. They're not fleshly. They are mighty through God to
the pulling down of strongholds and bringing every thought into
captivity to the obedience of Christ. How are you going to
lose the bands of wickedness? Look into the Lord Jesus Christ.
Look into His obedience. Matthew chapter 23. Turn with
me there to Matthew chapter 23. Is this still going on in religion? And I fear that Well, I don't just fear, I know.
I know from my own experience. I lose my comfort. I lose my
assurance. Every single time I look to what
I'm doing or not doing for the evidence of my salvation. Verse three, I'm sorry. Well, let's begin in verse one.
Then spake Jesus to the multitude and to his disciples. And the
Lord Jesus Christ is still speaking to the multitude and he's speaking
to the disciples, saying, the scribes and Pharisees,
they sit in Moses' seat. That's the seat of the law. That's
the seat of looking to what you do in terms of the level of your
own obedience to God for the hope or evidence of your salvation. All therefore whatsoever they
bid you observe. Nothing wrong with doing those
things. Those things, that's right. You know, do what's right. that observe and do and do not
ye after their works for they say and do not do for they bind
heavy burdens and grievous to be born and lay them on men's
shoulders but they themselves will not move them with one of
their fingers. Now how do I move the burden
of sin off of your shoulders? Tell you about the one who bore
all our sins in his body upon that tree and put them away by
the sacrifice of himself once and for all. The sin's gone. It's been It's been covered by
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the only way. You see,
they want to put you under the law. They want to say, do this
and don't do that and use this as the means of evaluating your
salvation, but they won't take away the burden of sin. Well,
how did Isaiah 58 start out? Tell them about their sin. Our sin is unbelief. Our sin
is looking away from Christ. Our need is to have that burden
taken away. But all their works they do for
to be seen of men. How many times have we done works
to be seen of men? I'm not talking about you want
somebody else to see it but you're looking at it. You're looking
at it. Don't you love the story the
Lord told about separating the sheep from the goat on the Day
of Judgment and he says to the goats, he said, I was hungry
and you didn't feed me and I was naked and you didn't clothe me
and I was I was a stranger and you didn't take me in and what
did the goats say? Lord, we've been working, we've
been serving you all our lives. When did we do those? When did
we not do those things? That's all we've been doing.
We've dedicated our lives to serving God. And then he says
to the sheep, the same thing. Only I was hungry and you fed
me. I was naked and you clothed me.
I was a stranger, you took me in. And what does the child of
God say? What does the believer say? Lord,
when did we do those things? In that you did it to the least
of these my brethren, you did it unto me." You see, if you're
a child of God, you are participating right now in the declaration
of the gospel which clothes the naked and feeds the hungry and
takes in the stranger. It's the gospel that does that.
You see, the self-righteous Pharisee said, well, I'll go down and
work at the rescue mission. and that's fine you know if you
wanna help folks out like that then do it your neighbors in
need help them you see somebody in the church in need do what
you can but here's what the child of God says on the day of judgment
Lord I don't know when I did those things Ephesians chapter 2 verses 8,
9, and 10 Robert you quoted it Wednesday night thank you for
that message For by grace are you saved through faith, and
that not of yourself. It's a gift of God, not of our
works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus, unto good works which he hath foreordained that
we should walk in them. Now let me ask you a question.
Is it possible for the God of glory to ordain something and
it not come to pass? That's what the word ordain means.
When God ordains something, it's done. It's done. Now that verse says that we are
His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God
hath ordained that we should walk in them. Your life as a believer is ordained
to be a life of faith. We walk by faith not by sight. What were the children of Israel
saying? You mean all these things we're doing don't count for anything?
You mean this is not the fast that God has called us to? We're
looking to these things to prove that we're saved. And what does God say? This is
not the fast that I called you to. I called you to a fast of
faith. I called you to look upon the
Lord Jesus Christ for all the loosing of the bonds and putting
on. The Lord said, All you that labor
in a heavy land, come unto me. Take my yoke upon you. Now I don't know anything about oxen.
I've never lived on a farm, never dealt with big animals, scared
of big animals. I'm scared of horses. I don't
like to be around something bigger than me that I can't tame or
control. But I understand from what I've
read and what I've heard that A young oxen has to be put into
a yoke with an experienced oxen in order to teach it how to plow. And that makes sense to me. You
put two young oxen together in the same yoke that have not been
proven, have not been trained, and they will kill each other
trying to get out of that yoke. But you take one that's already
been trained and put a young oxen in there with him and he'll
follow the lead of the other one. Take my yoke upon. My yoke is
easy. My burden is light. Learn of
me. There's the, look what he, go
back with me to our text. Verse 6, is not this the fast
that I have chosen to loose the bands of wickedness and to undo
the heavy burdens and to let the oppressed go free and that
you break every yoke? And the only way to have your
yoke broken is to be yoked with Christ. That's it. Verse 7, Is it not
to deal thy bread to the hungry? And that's what we're doing right
now. The Lord Jesus Christ is the bread of life. He's the one
that feeds our souls. He's the one that gives us hope
of our salvation. He's the cause. Looking unto
Jesus, the author and the finisher of your faith. Who for the joy
that was set before Him endured the shame of the cross. You see, you don't just look
to Christ for the cause of your salvation and then look to yourself
for the evidence of it. You look to Christ for the cause
of your salvation and you look to Christ for the evidence of
your salvation. Deal bread to the hungry. Are
you hungry? Oh Lord, I need you to feed me. And what'd the Lord say? Ask him for your daily bread,
daily bread. You see, you can't live off of
yesterday's manna. It'll get worms in it, won't
it? You can't live off of yesterday's experiences. You can't live off
of yesterday's grace. You can't live off of yesterday's
feelings or yesterday's accomplishments. You can't do it. That's why we keep coming, isn't
it? To whom? Coming. We have to keep looking
to the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, we're being saved just
as much right now as we were when the Lord first called us.
We're being saved from ourselves. And that thou bring the poor
that are cast out of thy house. Blessed are the poor in spirit.
Lord, I look to myself, I'm so ashamed. The Lord told a parable
about a man who has a servant who comes in from the field and
he says to the servant, I'm going to paraphrase, he said, you don't
say to your servant who comes into the field, oh, I know you're
tired, sit down and feed yourself and then you can feed me when
you've recovered from your work. He said, no, he comes in from
the field and he serves you first and then when he's finished serving
you, he sits down and feeds himself and he concludes that he is but
an unprofitable servant. There we are. There we are. We're just unprofitable servants. We don't look to what we've done
for the Master as the evidence of our salvation any more than
we look to what we've done as the hope of our salvation. Either way, we're looking to
self. And we become double-minded. Look at the rest of verse 7.
When thou seest the naked that thou cover him. Have you been
covered in the robe of righteousness? It's the only thing that covers
our nakedness. I mean, this goes all the way back to the garden,
doesn't it? We've still got our Adamic nature. We're still trying
to sew together fig leaves to cover up our nakedness. And that's
all they are. That's all they are, just fig
leaves. But there's only one thing that covers our nakedness.
And that's that fleece that came from the lamb that was slain
before the foundation of the world. The lamb that is without
spot and without blemish. The perfect righteousness. When
John saw the angels in heaven, he said, who are these? You know
who these are. Who are these that are robed
in white robes? You know who they are. They're the saints
of God. They're robed in the righteousness
of Christ. And that thou hide not thyself
from thy own flesh. Let folks know where your hope is. You know, people call themselves believers
and they hide themselves from their own family members. They're
shamed. Paul said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel. of the Lord Jesus
Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone
that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. The men hide, they say well I'm
trusting Christ but I'm afraid to let anybody know about it. Hide not thyself from thy own
flesh Oh, you'll suffer persecution for righteousness sake, not because
you're a better person than they are, but because you're declaring
the Lord Jesus Christ as the only hope of righteousness that
any sinner has. He's the only hope for both the
cause of our salvation and the evidence of it. Put a guard on that back door. And every time you're tempted
to look to yourself and to say what these children of Israel
say, all the stuff I'm doing, that doesn't matter? This is
not the fast that I've required of you. The fast is to believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, to rest all the hope of your salvation in
Him. All right, let's take a break. Bye.