Good morning. I told someone
recently, if we all showed up at the same time, we might not
have enough room. So, uh, Psalm 115 verse 1 says, not unto
us. Oh Lord, not unto us. It's not
about you. It's not about me. But unto thy
name. Be glory. For thy mercy. And for that truth sake. This
is about Christ. Might. He be pleased to draw
us to himself. Enable us to forget about ourselves.
and worship him. Tom's going to come and lead
us in number 442. Praise him. Praise him. Jesus,
our blessed Redeemer. Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus
our blessed Redeemer. Sing, O earth, His wonderful
love proclaim. Hail Him, hail Him, highest archangels
in glory, strength and honor. Give to His holy name like a
shepherd. Jesus will guard His children
in His arms. He carries them all day long. Praise Him, praise Him, tell
of His excellent greatness. Praise Him, praise Him, ever
in joyful song. Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus
our blessed Redeemer. For our sins He suffered and
bled and died. He our rock, our hope of eternal
salvation. Hail Him, hail Him, Jesus the
crucified. Sound His praises, Jesus who
bore our sorrows. Love unbounded, wonderful, deep,
and strong. Praise Him! Praise Him! Tell of His excellent greatness. Praise Him! Praise Him! Ever in joyful song. Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus
our blessed Redeemer. Heavenly portals flout with hosanna's
ring. Jesus, Savior, reigneth forever
and ever. Crown Him, crown Him, Prophet
and priest and king, Christ is coming. Over the world victorious,
power and glory, unto the Lord belong. Praise Him, praise Him,
tell of His excellent greatness. Praise Him, praise Him, ever
in joyful song. Please be seated. Good morning. For a scripture
reading, would you turn to Philippians chapter 2? Philippians chapter
2. I hope as we read this that God,
the Holy Spirit, would enable us to enter into this passages
here that I could never explain, but I believe in my whole heart. glorious passage, a reminder
once again of Him. Verse 1, if there be therefore
any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship
of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies. Fulfill ye my joy
that you be like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord,
of one mind. And I am so grateful and thankful
that this body, the spirit of unity, is here. Single eye, single
mind, looking at one person. And I am so thankful for that.
Verse three, let nothing be done through strife or vainglory,
promoting ourselves, self-centeredness, thinking more highly than we
ought. Does that sound familiar to you?
But in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than
themselves. That's a work of grace. We can't
do that. And you'll see here later on
that there is one who esteemed himself. Verse 4. Look not every man on
his own things, but every man also on the things of others.
I've been the recipient. I've received this from you,
brethren. I've been this guy and you all have done this to
me. Let this, in verse 1 to 4, It can only all be possible because
of verse 5. Here's the reason. Let this mind
be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. Verse 6, from verse 6
to verse, this is the gospel we're about to read. Who being
in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with
God, but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of
a servant and was made in the likeness of man. This is the
creator sovereign God who created me and would come and fashion
himself to be like me, sound like me, talk like me with one
exception, no sin, perfect. And being found in fashion as
a man, he humbled himself and became obedient, perfect faithfulness
to the Father all the way to his death. As he said, Father
into thy hands, I commend my spirit, faithful all the way
to the end. And he did so unto death, even
the death of the cross. If you want to know anything
about your sin, if you want to know anything about who God is,
and you want to know anything about the Lord Jesus Christ,
everything, everything that you need to know is on the cross.
This is what Paul says, if I determine not to know anything among you,
say Jesus Christ and Him crucified, we never go beyond the cross.
Wherefore, God also has highly exalted Him and given him a name
which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee
should bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things
under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. That's what I
want to do right now. My heart, I want to bow to Him.
I want to exalt Him. I pray His Holy Spirit would
enable us to do that now. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we come
to You in the precious name of Thy dear Son, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Lord, we We can't come into thy
presence. We can't even be here. I can't
stand here. We can utter words back up to
you unless he accomplished what he did. Lord, we so desire to
want to exalt you. We want to lift you up. We want
to heap upon you all the glory and honor for truly, Lord, you
are the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And one day very soon,
We will see you face to face and we will be able to worship
you forever. Oh, would you do that for us
now? Lord, we know you're here. You said we're two or three are
gathered in your name. You are here. Lord, we believe
that by faith and pray that you would be pleased now to speak
to our hearts once again. reminding us that this is all
about you, and it's to your glory. We thank you for our pastor. We thank you for your gospel
preacher. Faithful, Lord, faithful to speak of you. I pray you would
do that now for him and for us. Bless your word to our hearts,
for we ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Let's all stand together once
again and we'll sing the hymn that's on the back of your bulletin.
The hymn that's on the back of your bulletin. We have thy promise, gracious
Lord, Thou wilt be where thy people meet. O now fulfill thy precious word,
and make our happiness complete. We ask thy holy presence here,
The sweet enjoyment of thy love. From worldly thoughts, O keep
us clear, And set our hearts on things above. We ask thy Holy Spirit's aid
While we engage in prayer and praise We ask from our great
Sovereign King To be supplied with every grace We ask to feel
a union sweet. We ask thy blessings on thy word. We ask but all our askings meet. In this we ask thy presence,
Lord. Please be seated. Pat, thank you for playing for
us this morning. Pat, it's Pam Bellaro's sister
who was here yesterday for Brian's funeral and she stayed over and
was gracious to play for us this morning. We appreciate it. If you'd like to turn with
me in your Bibles, we're going to be looking at Isaiah chapter
6. Isaiah chapter six, those of
you that have been with us for some time know what a favorite
passage of scripture this is to me. Um, it's been such a blessing
to our fellowship over the years. Last Sunday, we looked at the
woes that Isaiah pronounced the Lord pronounced against the wild
grapes of Israel. And we saw that everything that
we produce, in spite of the fact that God has been merciful and
kind, He's given us everything that we could ever need, everything
that we produce is but wild grapes. And then in chapter 6, we have
a verse of scripture here that is the most often quoted passage
from the Old Testament into the New. As you know, the preachers,
including the Lord Jesus Christ himself, in the New Testament
and all the apostles, had nothing to preach from but the Old Testament. I'm amazed how some people think,
well, the Old Testament's not really for us. Oh, no, don't
think that for a moment. in the volume of the book it
is written to me and beginning with Moses and the Psalms and
the prophets he expounded unto them those things concerning
himself this book's all about Christ John tells us in John
chapter 12 that the one that Isaiah saw high and lifted up
was none other than the Lord Jesus Christ himself so here's
Christ on his throne that the prophet sees and in chapter 6
the attention is turned to the prophet. And the Lord gives us
this precious promise along with a warning. in chapter 6 that,
as I said, is most often quoted in the New Testament. And so
that tells me the importance of this passage, that the Lord
would make it so often repeated to say to us, this is crucial. This is necessary for the salvation
of your soul. Give special attention to this
text because I have In Isaiah chapter 6 you remember
in 2nd Chronicles chapter 26 King Uzziah Was blessed of God. He was a good king and yet like
for all of us His power went to his head And he thought, I
can go into the presence of God without the assistance of a priest. I can make my own sacrifices
to God. And he went into the temple with
an attempt to approach God without a priest. Don't ever try that. Don't ever try to approach God
without the Lord Jesus Christ as your high priest. He's the
only one God's pleased with. God's made him to be our priest,
and the only hope of access to the throne of grace is to have
the Lord Jesus Christ as our intercessor, presenting himself
to God for our righteousness, presenting his shed blood to
God for the hope of our justification, and presenting himself to God
for his pleasure and our hope. So Uzziah tried to go before
the Lord without a priest. And as a result of that, God
afflicted him with leprosy. And he died in shame. Isaiah would have been on the
king's council. He would have been one of the
advisors to the king. Isaiah, being a prophet of God,
was grieved to think that what the king did might result in
the Lord completely removing his hand from Israel and cursing
the whole nation. And so in fear that God was going
to leave Isaiah and the children of Israel to themselves, Isaiah
goes to the temple and cries out for mercy. And the scripture
tells us right here in Isaiah chapter 6 verse 1, in the year
that King Uzziah died, in such shame and in such hopelessness,
I also saw the Lord. So, with this sin, where sin
abounds, grace does much more abound. We can see ourselves
like Uzziah. Lord, I've been afflicted with
leprosy from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet. I'm
nothing but sores and wounds. They've not been mollified. They've
not been healed or bound up. Lord, I'm a sinner. There's not
a square inch of clean flesh anywhere on my body. I'm like
Uzziah. And I need to know that I have
a priest. I have an intercessor. Lord,
would you open the eyes of my understanding? Would you enable
me to set my affections on things above, where Christ is seated
at the right hand of God? And to know that I have access
and acceptance into the very presence of God, not based on
my sin, but based on His perfection, His sinlessness, and His righteousness. I also saw the Lord high and
lifted up. His train filled the temple."
Now, as is true today, when heads of states get together for important
meetings, there's a pecking order. There's certain people come into
the room at certain times and certain people sit in certain
places in order to show who's got more authority. Well, in
the days of these kings, the authority was measured by the
length of the king's train. And so when Isaiah sees the Lord
Jesus Christ, his train filled the temple. There was no room
for anybody else's authority. He had all authority. Does he
have that for you? Have you seen him? How do I know
if I've seen the Lord? Have I had some sort of ecstatic
experience where, you know, I've gone into some sort of vision?
No, we see Him through His Word. We see him through the eye of
faith. We're able to say, Amen, this
is who I believe. I know I'm leprous. And I know
that he's upon his throne. And I know that his train fills
the temple. He's not in contention with anyone
else's authority. He has all authority and all
power and all glory belongs to Him. Not unto us, O Lord, not
unto us, but unto Thy name. Unto Thy name be glory and honor
and mercy and truth for Thy name's sake. Here it is, look. And above
it stood the seraphim. Each one had six wings. With
twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet,
and with twain he did fly. So here are these angelic hosts
hovering over the throne of God. And the glory of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now these are sinless creatures. They're innocent creatures. They've
never fallen like the other angels and they're not like us, battling
with sin. They've never known anything
but the presence of God. And yet, they're having to cover
their eyes because of His glory. They're having to cover their
feet of clay because they're creatures and they're in the
presence of the Creator. And they're flying, oh Lord,
just anxious to serve him, whatever he bid them to do, their willingness. And they're hovering over the
throne of God. And one cried unto another and said, holy,
holy, holy. Now many of the attributes of
God, all the attributes of God are expressed somewhere or the
other in his word. And we know that our God is sovereign.
We know that he's merciful. We know that he's a God of love.
We know that he's a God that's immutable and a God that's omnipotent,
but none of those attributes of God are brought to the third
level of repetition. When the Bible repeats itself,
it does it for the purpose of emphasis. And so when the Lord
Jesus Christ would say, verily, verily, I say unto you, he was
giving emphasis to about what he was about to say, saying,
this is very important and read the Psalms. And many times one
verse, we'll just repeat the verse before it in a few different
words, but saying the same thing, God's emphasizing the importance
of a point never in the word of God is an attribute of God
brought to the third level of repetition, except here is holiness. He's holy. He's not like us. He's other than we are altogether. Man errs in thinking that God's
like him. You thought that I was altogether
as yourself. I'm not. As the heavens are above the
earth, so are my thoughts above your thoughts. My ways are not
your ways. I'm God. I'm holy. How do I know I've
seen Him? I'm bowing to His holiness. I'm saying with that Syrophoenician
woman, when the Lord called her a dog, truth Lord, compared to
you, that's what I am. I'm just a mercy beggar. I don't know anything to do but
to bow in Thy presence and plead Thy mercy. That's what's going
to happen to Isaiah. Look what he says. Holy, holy,
holy is the Lord of hosts, and He is the Lord of hosts. He's
Lord over the living and the dead. It grieves my heart when
I hear people talk about making Jesus Lord of your life. Too
late. God's already done it. He is
Lord of your life, whether you believe Him or not, whether you
bow to Him or not, whether you follow Him or submit to Him,
He reigns sovereign over your life. He is Lord of hosts. He is the Lord of the living
and the dead. The armies of heaven and all the inhabitants of the
earth are under His domain. No man can stay His hand. No
man can say unto Him, what doest thou? He's sovereign. And I love it that way, don't
you? I need a God who's done everything for me. I need a God
who's not looking to me for anything. I need a God who has satisfied
his own holiness on my behalf. If I've got to make any contribution
to my salvation, I have no hope of salvation. No hope, because
God's eyes are too pure to look upon sin, and that's all I am. I need the Lord Jesus Christ,
who's holy, undefiled, and separate from sinners, to present himself
before God on my behalf. For man to think that he can
be saved by his will or that he can be saved by his works
or that he can be saved by anything other than the glorious person
and finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ is nothing but sinful
pride and will result in the damnation of a man's soul if
he holds on to that. Here's what the scripture says,
holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts. Heaven and earth
is filled with his glory. And the post of the door moved
at the voice of him that cried and the house was filled with
smoke. Here's the smoke of the sacrifice
that goes up into the nostrils of God. God receives the sweet
aroma of the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the only
sacrifice He's pleased with. God's not pleased with any sacrifice
that you make. He's not pleased with any sacrifice
I make. He's pleased with Christ. And
the only way He's going to be pleased with me and you is if
He finds us in Him. And the only way He's going to
find us in Him is if He puts us in Him. Lord, give me faith
to believe what you've declared here about the Lord Jesus Christ,
and let me be 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. That's the righteousness that
I need. Lord, I can't stand in Thy presence apart from being
found in Him. Moses had to be put in the cleft
of a rock, didn't he? The only way that Moses, the
holy man of God, survived his experience with the Lord Jesus
Christ on Mount Sinai is that God put him in a rock. You and
I are not gonna be able to stand up to the mountain of the law
unless God puts us in Christ. He kept the law for us. And that's
what Isaiah's seeing. Then said I, how do I know if I've seen the
Lord? How do I know if I've seen Him? Woe is me, for I am undone. I am a man of unclean lips, and
I live among a people of unclean lips. My eyes have seen the King. I'm a dead man. Nobody can help
me. I can't help myself. It is not
of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth. God, man thinks
in his pride he's going to help himself. Well, I'll just make
a decision. I'll just try a little harder.
I'll work a little bit more. If that's what you're thinking,
you've not seen Christ. When Daniel saw the Lord Jesus
Christ, he said, my comeliness, my strength, my beauty was turned
into corruption. When Job saw the Lord finally,
he said, behold, I am vile. Vile. Lord, I've got no righteousness. I've got no strength. I've got
no way to save myself. I'm completely dependent upon
thy mercy and thy grace. Woe is me. I am undone. I'm not comparing myself to anyone
else. I'm standing naked in the presence
of a holy God, and He sees everything there is to be seen about me.
He knows my thoughts before I think them. He knows every word that
has proceeded out of my mouth, and I've got nothing to offer
Him. I need a Savior. I need an advocate. I need a
righteous one. I need one that God's pleased
with to stand in my stead and be my sin bearer. I need a substitute. I need a surety. A surety is
one who does everything on behalf of another. Here's your hope, child of God,
if the Lord has given you faith to believe what we've said up
till now. Here's your hope. One of the seraphim flew over
to the altar and took a live coal off the altar. Here's the fire of God's wrath
that fell from heaven upon the Lord Jesus Christ. When Moses
saw that burning bush, it was burning with fire, and there
again we have a picture of Christ in that burning bush. That was
the Lord Jesus Christ speaking to Moses. All we're ever going
to know, Bert, what you said about the cross is so true, all
we're ever going to know about God we're going to find in the
person of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you've seen me, you've seen
the Father, for I and the Father are one. And that bush was burning,
wasn't it? But what caught Moses' attention?
It wasn't being consumed. It wasn't being consumed. It
wasn't being destroyed. And we're going to see that imagery
again in this chapter in just a moment. But here's a picture. The live coal that was taken
off the altar. And it touched Isaiah's lips. That'd be painful, wouldn't it?
I mean, to have a hot coal put to your lips? John, when he was given the Word
of God in Revelation, took the scroll according to the direction
of God and he ate it. And it was sweet to his taste
like honey, but when it got to his belly, it was bitter. It was bitter. God exposes our
sin. There's a bitterness to it. The
belly is a picture of the flesh all throughout the scriptures.
This gospel is bitter to the flesh. It's contrary to everything
that's in the flesh. It's sweet to the taste. It's
the only hope of salvation there is to the soul. But it exposes
the flesh for what it is. And from that moment forward,
there's a conflict, a warfare, as we saw the previous hour,
between the spirit and the flesh. And that warfare is not fought
with carnal weapons. Christ is the weapon of our warfare.
We're looking to Him and the Spirit and the Bride say, come,
come to Christ. He's the only one that's able
to defeat Satan. He's the only one that's able
to put away our sin. He's the only one that's able
to preserve us in this life and present us before the throne
of God. Christ Himself is the weapon
of our warfare. But here we have the altar, the
fiery coal that's been put to his mouth, which was taken from
tongues without the altar. And he laid it upon my mouth
and said, lo, this has touched thy lips and thine iniquity is
taken away and thy sin purged. That's what you need. That's the greatest need that
you have. And it's the greatest need I
have. I know that. I know that. You've got to have
your sin taken away. You've got to have it hid from
the presence of God. You've got to have Him separate
your sin from you as far as the East is from the West. so that
he remembers it no more. And the only hope for that is
to have it covered by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. When
I see the blood, I'll pass by you. Blessed is the man to whom
the Lord imputeth not iniquity. Lord, don't charge me with any
part of my sin. That's the glorious accomplished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. He didn't die on Calvary's cross
to make an offer of salvation by which you make it effectual
by something you do. That's a works gospel. And it's
a lie from the pit of hell. And if you trust that as your
hope of salvation, it's Christ plus your works. Christ plus
your will. Christ is all. He's all. He successfully accomplished
the salvation of God's elect when he bowed his head on Calvary's
cross and said, it is finished. It was finished. It was finished. Everything that God requires
of his children, he looks to Christ for. He put away all the
sins of all of his people, once and for all, by the sacrifice
of himself. That's our hope. There's no place
else to go. This coal has touched thy lips,
and thine iniquity is purged, and thy sin is put away, taken
away. And I also heard the voice of
the Lord, verse 8, saying, whom shall I send, and who shall go
for us? Whom shall I send? That's the
Lord Jesus Christ speaking. Who's going to go for us? He's
speaking of the triune God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit, who have entered into this covenant of grace from before
time began. God elected a particular people
according to His will and purpose. before time ever began. Wrote
their names in the Lamb's Book of Life. The Lord Jesus Christ
entered into that covenant with the Father and said, I'll redeem
them. I'll be their righteousness and
I'll take away their sin. And the Holy Spirit entered into
that covenant. This didn't have anything to
do with you and me. The Holy Spirit entered into that covenant
with God the Father and God the Son and said, I'll go and I'll
make them willing. And I'll open the eyes of their
understanding, and I'll take out the heart of stone, and I'll
put in a heart of flesh, and I'll cause them to come. Is there
anything that can keep that from happening? You got anything to add to that? No. No. I try to add anything to that.
I'm just robbing God of His glory and setting myself up on the
throne of God. That's the gospel. Believe the
gospel. Believe that salvation is of
the Lord. It's all of Him. It's all of
Him. Bow. He's holy. And so the Lord
says, whom shall I send? And who will go for us? The Lord uses the means of preaching
the gospel. Is God dependent on any man to
accomplish the salvation of His elect? No. No. If I'm not faithful to preach
the gospel, I'm confident that He'll raise up a man who will
be. I know He will. The gospel is going to get to
His sheep, one way or the other. The Lord uses the means of preaching
through the foolishness of preaching. One sinner telling another sinner,
about the Savior. One beggar telling another beggar
where to find bread. Why is it so? Why would God use
this means? Why wouldn't He just speak audibly
from heaven to each one of His children and reveal Himself without
the means of preaching? Faith comes by hearing, and hearing
comes by the Word of God. The Lord's going to make us passive
in our salvation. That's why we don't have Bible
study groups where everybody gets together and pools their
ignorance and throws in their two cents worth and, you know,
what do you think about this and what do you think about that?
That's not the means that God... Men in religion take pride in
that because they have an opportunity to make a contribution. God's gonna make his children
passive in their salvation. And what you're doing right now
is passive. I'm not asking you for your opinion. I'm just telling
you what God says. Isn't that glorious? How humbling
that is. And to have to hear it from a
man like me? A sinner no better than you? God uses what the world calls
foolishness to save them which believe. He's gonna humble all
of us. And so this process of preaching
not only humbles you, but trust me, those who've tried to do
it, it humbles the preacher. There's nothing more fearful,
nothing that I'm less qualified to do than to stand and preach
the gospel. No one's sufficient for this
responsibility. So everyone's humbled. Everyone's
humbled, and everyone's brought to see their need for Christ. So the Lord says, whom shall
I send? And who will go for us? And Isaiah, having received the
grace of God, said, Lord, behold me. Look over here. That's what Isaiah is saying.
When you say, here am I, send me, the literal translation is,
behold me. It's like Isaiah is kind of standing
over in the corner, listening in to this conversation, and
he says, Lord, is there any way I could go? I'll tell them what
you've done for me. And that's all we're doing. When God calls you to witness
for Christ, Be ready always to give an answer to them who ask
you for the hope that's within you. Do it with meekness and
do it with fear. Thank God for the opportunities
that he gives us to tell people about Christ. Or is there any way you could
use me? Here's the verse that's most
often quoted in the New Testament. And he said, Go and tell this
people, hear ye indeed, but understand not, and see ye indeed, and perceive
not, and make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears
heavy, and shut their eyes, lest they see with their eyes, and
hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and be converted,
and be healed. Most of the folks that you preach
this gospel to are going to hear your words, they're going to
have some intellectual understanding as to the historical events that
you're talking about, but they're not going to be saved. They're
not going to be saved. They're going to have eyes, but
they're not going to see. The Lord told Nicodemus when
Nicodemus said, to the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, we know that
you've been sent of God for no man can do the things that you
do unless God be with him. These miracles that you're performing,
obviously God's with you. What did the Lord say to Nicodemus? Nicodemus, you can't see the
kingdom of God unless you're born again. Here's the warning, here's the
importance of this verse. Don't think So many folks, they
hear a preacher talk about Jesus and talk about the cross and
talk about these things in scripture and they think, well I know that,
I believe that. Lord, don't leave me short of
being born of the Spirit, being born again. Don't let me deceive
myself in thinking that because I've got some information, therefore
I have revelation, I have the new birth. Lord, I need you to
save me. In Isaiah chapter 53, Isaiah
begins that chapter by saying, Who hath believed our report? Who hath believed our report?
To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? This matter of having eyes and
not seeing and having ears and not hearing, God's got to change that. And I'm confident the Lord puts
it on your heart to fear yourself, to hold yourself suspect, to
not trust your heart. The heart is wicked and deceitful
above all things. Who can know it? Who can know
it? You hear people say, well, you
know, they've got a good heart. No such thing. Not in the child
of Adam. Lord, I need for you to be merciful
to me. I need for you to cause me to
be born of the Spirit, to look to Christ for all my salvation. These are people who have Jesus
plus. Well, I believe all that. And
then what do you hear them say? Isn't it amazing how the goats
are always butting? Yeah, I believe that. But, they have ears but they do not
hear. They have eyes but they do not see. They're not able
to say. I know whom I have believed and
I am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I've committed
unto Him. All my eggs are in one basket.
Christ alone is all my salvation. He's all my justification before
God. He's all my righteousness. He's
all my sanctification. And as I grow in grace and in
the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, I see more and more of
my need for Him. This thought, I can't compare
myself to myself and think I'm getting better. The more I see
of my sin, the more I see of my need for Him. Turn with me to John chapter
5, quickly please. John chapter 5. Look at verse 39, the Lord speaking
to the self-righteous Pharisee, outwardly moral, upstanding citizens
of the community, very religious, very versed in the scriptures. They studied their Bibles. Know
anybody like that? And the Lord says to them, search
the scriptures. Go ahead. Keep searching. For
in them you think you have eternal life. You think that your memorization
of scripture, you think that your understanding of some doctrine
and some historical events is your salvation. And you've been a diligent Bible
student. But you missed me? You missed me. You had eyes but
you did not see. You had ears but you did not
hear. For these are they which testify of me. And you will not
come to me that you might have life. You'll come to doctrine. You'll come to historical information,
you'll come to morality, you'll come to the law, but you won't
come to me that you might have life. Why? Because I receive
not honor from men. But I know you, that you have
not the love of God in you. I am come in my Father's name,
and you receive me not. If another shall come in his
own name, him you will receive. You'll go listen to a false prophet.
And you'll believe him, but you won't come to Christ. How can
you believe? Here's why men won't come to
Christ. How can you believe which receive honor one from another
and seek not the honor that comes from God? Men love the praise
of men more than the praise of God. They're more concerned about
what other folks think about them than they are about what
God thinks about them. And that's why they won't come
to Christ. That's what the Lord said. Do not think that I will accuse
you to the Father. There is one that accuseth you,
even Moses, in whom you trust. So that ears, and they thought,
well, I've got to have Jesus to help me keep the law. You know, that statement right
there categorizes most people who call themselves Christians
today. I gotta have Jesus to help me keep the law of God. You gotta have Jesus to keep
the law of God. You ever heard someone say life
is short and soon will pass and only what's done for Christ will
last? It's not true. Life is short. And it soon will pass. Only what's
done by Christ will last. Only what's done by Christ will
last. These are folks that think, you
know, I'm going to somehow measure up. And they've got carnal weapons
to fight a spiritual battle. And look what the Lord says. For had ye believed Moses, ye
would have believed me, for he wrote of me." Moses believed
me. Moses was writing about me. The
law of God is not your rule book for life. The law of God is a
picture of the glorious holiness of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
what the law of God is. You look at God's law, you're
seeing Christ. Moses wrote of me when he wrote this law. He
was describing my glory. And the truth is, you've never
been able to keep one of God's laws one time. He kept them all.
This is who He is. But if you believe not His writings,
how shall you believe my words? You didn't believe Moses, you're
not going to believe me. Let's close back with me to Isaiah
chapter 6, please. I can relate to Isaiah. You pray for me that God will
give me a hopeful expectation that when I preach the gospel,
somebody's going to believe it. Because I lose that sometimes.
You preach to so many folks and so many folks just don't have
any interest. And they'll say, yeah, but, or
they'll wag their head, or they'll say, that was good, I enjoyed
that, and they'll go off and listen to somebody else. And
I think, Lord, who has believed our report? Is anybody gonna
be saved? Lord, how long do I have to do
this? That's what Isaiah said. How
long, Lord? And look what the Lord says to
Isaiah. Until the cities be wasted without inhabitants and the houses
without man and the land be utterly desolate. Isaiah, if there's
anybody at all to preach to, keep preaching. Keep preaching
the gospel, Isaiah. Lord, give us faith to be faithful,
to keep lifting up Christ, to keep pointing men to Christ.
And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men to me. As Moses
was lifted up in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted
up. Lord, enable us to be faithful, to lift up Thy dear Son. Cause
your people to look. Keep me from being discouraged
about the fact that so many won't. What the Lord is saying is, as
long as there's life, there's hope. As long as there's life,
there's hope. And look at the last verse. But
in it, and the Lord, verse 12, hath removed men far away, and
there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land. There's
nobody left to preach to, Isaiah. Yet in it shall be a tenth, a
remnant. A small number of folks are going
to believe you, Isaiah. And they're going to return.
And they're going to be, you see that word eaten? You can
look it up. It's most often translated burned. The picture here is that of a
forest fire. The gospel is causing a forest
fire in the world. And the trees are being burned.
And after the forest fire, most of the trees are killed. Most
of the trees have no life to them. But the oak tree and the
teal tree, though the leaves have been burnt off of it and
it looks dead as the other trees, has a substance within it. It
has life within it. And when the life of those trees
comes back out, they're more full and beautiful than they
ever were before when they were lost in the forest. And so the
Lord says, there's going to be a tenth. A few trees are going
to survive this fire. When they shed their leaves,
the fire of God's wrath comes and they realize in them there
is no life. There's going to be a substance
within them. Christ in you is your hope of glory. And they're
going to be like trees planted by rivers of living water. Trees
of righteousness, the plantings of the Lord. And they're going
to live. They're going to live look and
yet in it shall be a tenth and it shall return and shall be
burned as a teal tree and as an oak whose Substances in them
when they cast their leaves. So the holy seed so the holy
seed What the Lord say to Eve? The seed of the woman will crush
the head of the serpent. The Lord Jesus Christ came into
this world to destroy the works of the devil and to set his people
free. So the holy seed shall be the
substance thereof. Lord, let my substance, all my
substance, be Christ. Because apart from the hymn,
I have no life. Come to Christ. Come to Christ,
just like you are. Come to Christ. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful
for your word, and we ask, Lord, that as the fire burns all around
us, that there would be found a teal tree here and an oak tree
there that would have the substance therein and that the seed of
the woman, the Lord Jesus Christ, would be our substance. For we
ask it in His name. Amen. Brother Tom. 168. 168. Let's stand together.
Even me, Pat. Even me. 168. Can you just share with me how
it goes? Da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da,
da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da,
da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da. Lord, I hear of showers of blessing,
How art scattering, full and free! ? Let some drops now fall on me
? Even me, even me ? Let thy blessing fall on me ? Pass me
not, O tender Savior ? Let me love and cling to Thee I am longing
for thy favor, whilst art calling, O call me. Even me, even me,
let thy blessing fall on me. Pass me not, O mighty Spirit,
Thou canst make the blind to see. Witness, sir, of Jesus'
merit, Speak the word of power to me. Even me, Even me, let
thy blessing fall on me. Love of God so pure and changeless,
blood of Christ so rich and free. Grace of God so strong and boundless,
magnify them all in me. Even me, even me, let thy blessing
fall on me. ? Pass me not thy lost one bringing
? ? Find my heart, O Lord, to thee ? ? While the streams of
life are springing ? ? Blessing others, O bless me, even me ?
Even me, let thy blessing fall on me. Amen. Thank you, Pat. Yeah.