This world is rightly described
in the scriptures as a sea tossed to and fro by the repercussions
of sin. And in the life of a believer
it's no different. All the Lord's children know
something of this struggle. We desire to live for Christ. We desire to honour our God in
all our thoughts, our words and our activities. We desire to represent the Lord
in such a way that leads others to trust in him. And yet, as
the Apostle Paul says in Romans 7, that which we will to do we
do not do. Is that your experience? I know
that it's a good description of my own walk in this world. The same problem is at the heart
of the letter to the Galatians. They, in love and sincerity,
long to live lives that honoured the Lord and was in service to
his people, just like all born-again children of God. It's actually
this desire that made them vulnerable to the false teachers who had
turned them back to the Lord to achieve what they longed so
much for. Paul deals with this eternally
serious issue, and it is an eternally serious issue. He does so by
drawing a contrast between the way the false teachers suggest
this holiness of life is produced and the way that God the Holy
Spirit works within his people. Don't get me wrong, both Paul
and the false teachers desire the Galatians to live lives that
reflect the holiness of God. It's just that both their motives
and their methods are as different as heaven is to hell. You see,
Paul seeks the glory of God by encouraging the saints to look
to him for all their salvation. The false teachers, seeking their
own glory, encourage the saints to look to their own wisdom and
their own works. In Genesis 3, When Satan influenced
our father Adam to reject the sustaining grace of God for the
wisdom and strength of man, he very effectively turned all our
eyes, all our hopes and all our confidence from the secure and
finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ to the futile and yet
ongoing bondage of man's obligation to God. And today, if our God
is willing I'd like us to look at just what really works in
the lives of these people to please the Lord. We're looking
at Isaiah 45, 22. Look unto me and be ye saved,
all the ends of the earth, for I am God and there is none else. It's just a small verse, and
yet as with all scripture it declares volumes in regard to
the salvation of men's souls. Angus has quoted the verse a
number of times as we work through Galatians, because this is what
the Apostle Paul, led by the Holy Spirit, is encouraging the
Lord's people to do when they're confronted by the agonies of
their own failings. Look to Christ. The false teachers
in Galatia and throughout all the ages would have the Lord's
people under the guidance of the law look to their own wisdom
and works, not only for spiritual security but also for an indication
of their spiritual progress. Now while to our fleshly wisdom
this does seem helpful and often for a time it does produce some
sort of outward morality. It's actually a blasphemy against
God. It's a perversion of his Gospel
and it's leading multitudes into hell on a daily basis. Paul's and any faithful pastor's
solution to the problem is to turn people's attentions from
themselves, from their activities and from the activities of others
back to the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. But there's
a question. Just what is that look that saves? And to answer that I pray the
Lord would allow us to consider our verse today. Look unto me
and be ye saved all the ends of the earth for I am God and
there is none else. May our gracious God reveal His
glory in our salvation by opening the eyes of our understanding
and by growing our faith. Let's pray before we go any further.
Heavenly Father, it must be you that works in our hearts and
in our souls, that works in our lives to open the eyes of our
understanding. We do thank you, Heavenly Father,
that you gather us here together and that you have your churches
throughout the world and you have a place that witnesses of
the wonders of your grace in the lives of your people. Father,
I thank you that as you gather us together, You fulfil that
promise to walk amongst us and to minister to each one of us,
and I pray that that's the case today, Father. For those that
know you, I pray you just encourage and strengthen us. For those
that don't know you, Heavenly Father, I pray that you work
so mightily here today that they would know that there is only
one place of salvation and that they would look to you and plead
with you, Heavenly Father, rather than be comforted by the peace
of men. I pray Heavenly Father that today
you'd be merciful to us and that you would lift your Son up and
you would reveal your glory in Him and that you would cause
us to honour Him as we should. I thank you again and pray your
mercy upon us in Christ's precious name. In religion throughout the world
there are so many looks to so many gods for so many reasons. But there's only ever been one
look that truly saves. I just want us to consider what
this look is and how it saves. And it will be helpful for us
to do it in light of the context of our passage. So it was good
that Angus read it for us today. I want us to examine each section
of this verse, but I want to do it a little bit differently
today. I'd like us to examine it from back to front. So I want
to start with the statement, for I am God and there is none
else. And that for there is a because.
It's presenting us with the reason that men are encouraged to look
to the Lord for salvation. Throughout that chapter, The
Lord plainly declares, eight times in fact, that He alone
is God and that there is no other. He does it in verse 5, twice
in verse 6, verse 14, 18, twice in verse 21, and in our verse
today, verse 22. He also declares throughout that
chapter that He is the only source of true salvation. He does it
directly in verses 8, 15, 17, 21, 22 and 25. But he also does it indirectly
throughout the whole chapter, declaring his sovereignty over
creation and especially over the lives of men. And that's
the point, isn't it? Men can manufacture all sorts
of gods, can't they? We're all by nature, as verse
16 says, makers of idols, whether it's the obvious and outward
idols like statues, whether it's the idolatry of religion, believing
that salvation depends on our association with some denomination,
or even more dangerously the idols of self, trusting in our
own wisdom or ability for all or even part of our salvation. Whatever it is, we naturally
set up graven images, don't we? And as a result, as verse 20
says, we're praying to gods that can't save. All these things are fallible,
and that means that they're just as easily torn down as they are
set up. There's only one secure hope
for salvation and it lies in the ability to completely control
every element, every being and every circumstance in all of
creation. It's no wonder that Jonah says
salvation is of the Lord. God alone is where true salvation
lies because all things are subject to him. This is why the Lord
declares His sovereignty throughout that chapter. Only our God can
save, and that's why the Gospel, which is essentially our God
reigns, is declared to all the ends of the earth. Now that's
the next section that I want to deal with, but the first thing
I need to say is that this is not speaking about universal
redemption as if God wants all men to be saved. That's a perversion
of modern day Christianity and it's completely contradictory
both to our passage and to the rest of scripture. Now what this
is saying is that our God will have his people. He will have
them amongst every nation, every religion, every tongue. These are those in verse 20 of
our chapter who have escaped of the nations. No matter whether
they are black or white, it doesn't matter if they are Jew or Gentile. If the Lord chose them in eternity,
he will cause his spirit to blow on the four corners of the earth
and he will draw his lost sheep to himself. This verse is actually talking
about how our God saves. It's talking about that creative
Gospel call which is declared throughout the passage. The call
which in verse 4 surnamed his people. Brothers and sisters, there is
just one God. There is no other. He is the
only source of salvation and only those in whom the Holy Spirit
is caused to see their need of salvation will receive this call. All others, as verse 24 says,
will be incensed and ultimately they will be ashamed. No matter
what family you come from, no matter what religion you belong
to, no matter how moral you think you are, all men are deserving
of the eternal agonies of hell, and their only hope is that our
God would speak his creative call into their souls, as he
does here to his people, saying, Be ye saved. There are so many opinions in
religion as to what salvation is. Some say it is about reincarnation,
Some talk about an entrance into purgatory to pay off your debt
to God. Some say it's about a particular
time when you, by your faith, receive salvation. And others
say it's about that final evaluation of your activities on earth as
to your entry into Heaven. Did you notice that all focus
on man's activities in his own salvation and all centre around
one moment in time? The Apostle Paul needed to be
saved completely and continuously throughout all his life. He said
in 2 Corinthians 1.10 that it is God who delivered us from
so great a debt, and doth deliver, in whom we trust that he will
yet deliver us. God's salvation isn't just one
moment in time as many in religion believe. It's actually a state
of existence. No matter what we appear to be
on this earth, especially in our own eyes, it's actually how
God sees us and what he continuously does to maintain that view that
keeps his people saved. Every moment in the life of God's
children, every circumstance of their lives, is a gracious
and saving activity of God's mercy towards them. You think
about it. God's choice of us in eternity,
our union with Christ before time, the hedging of our lives
prior to our conversion that he might bring us to himself.
The crushing work of the Holy Spirit as He prepares us for
the hearing of the Gospel. The bringing of that Gospel not
only into our lives, but powerfully into our hearts. The gift and
exercising of faith. The grace that sustains us and
works good in every circumstance of our lives, even in the greatest
of our falls. The grace which brings forth
fruit in our lives. That grace which draws us back
and rescues us as we saw with Peter in Galatians 2. The grace
that carries us safely over the Jordan into the kingdom and presence
of our God. And finally that grace that will
sustain us in his presence for all eternity. All these things make up our
salvation, and every single one of them are the gracious activities
of God the Father toward undeserving sinners like ourselves. All are
distributed by God the Holy Spirit, and every single one of them
are based completely upon the finished work of God the Son. Brothers and sisters, salvation
is of the Lord. because we are accepted based
solely upon the finished work of Christ at Calvary. Even in our most righteous deeds
of filthy rags we have absolutely no righteous standing of our
own before our God. But in our Lord Jesus Christ
we have an everlasting righteousness by which our Father in Heaven
only ever sees us as holy, spotless and blameless. Because of our
sin we have absolutely no way of satisfying the wrath of God
against us, but because of the sacrificial death of our Lord
Jesus Christ on our behalves we have an eternal redemption
and therefore we have peace with our God. The children of God
are eternally sustained in their salvation for one reason and
one reason alone. It's not because of anything
we do. It's not because of anything we will do. It's only because
our great Advocate and Saviour forever appears in the midst
of God's strain as that Lamb slain. Our Lord Jesus Christ
in His advocacy presents us as perfectly sanctified and fit
to enter our Father's Kingdom and Presence every single moment
in time. As our verse declares, there
is just one God over all creation. He truly is sovereign and therefore
He is the only source of secure and eternal salvation. no matter
who you are or where you come from. But there's still that
question remaining, isn't there? What is that look that saves,
which God is talking about when he says, look unto me? Isaiah
in this passage speaks of those who look to idols and graven
images that cannot save, and things aren't any different these
days, are they? We've already established that
there's just one God. in whom we find true salvation.
But there are still many looks to our God for many reasons which
can never result in real salvation. So just briefly I want to mention
some of the more common looks that cannot save and then we
can consider the look that can and actually does save. Now some
men look to God in troubled times hoping for temporal relief. Others looked to him thinking
that in doing so they might receive some sort of prosperity in the
world. Still others, like the false teachers in Galatia, looked
to God for a grace plus kind of salvation, hoping to receive
some kind of glory for themselves. It should be obvious to us that
these kind of looks are not the looks that our verse is talking
about. They cannot save men's souls. There is also another look that
we need to talk about today which is far more dangerous. While
it appears to be helpful and biblically sound, it very subtly
turns our attention to our own strengths and the strength of
others rather than the finished work of Christ. I heard one professing
Christian describe it like this. He said, We just need to feed
the white dog and starve the black dog. Some of you have heard
that before. It sounds simple, doesn't it? What he meant was we need to
stop doing unprofitable things. If we want to live a better life
for God, we need to start to pray more, to read our Bibles
more, to concentrate on the promises of God more, to attend church
more, etc. All these religious activities
he believed that would help. And while looking at these things
can be helpful in our Christian lives, they of themselves can't
add a thing to either our sanctification or our salvation. See what this
guy really thought, and what so many really think, is if they
do something, something religious, acceptable, then God will reward
them with a more sanctified life if there is such a thing. What's really troubling about
this kind of look to God is that because of the nature of our
own flesh, we are all just as susceptible to it as this guy
was. Our first reaction is to say,
well not me. I'll give you an example. How often have you heard a faithful
message, either from this pulpit or on the internet, a faithful
message on grace, and you've come away thinking, I need to
start to live differently, I need to start living for God more. What do I do? I'm going to read
my Bible more, I'm going to pray more, I'm going to meet with
God's people more. Even worse than that, how often
do we look at others and say, man, you know, if so and so would
just do this and this, etc, etc. As I said, these things can be
helpful in our Christian life, but, and this is a really serious
but, they have to be God's work within us. Rather than saying I need to,
or they need to, those that know something of the saving grace
of God, those that know something of the sin that dwells within
them, we should really be saying, Lord, please, please work these
things in me. Please work them in my brother
also, and not for our glory's sake, but for yours. You see,
it's easy for us to say, look to the Lord. But because of our
fallen nature, it's just as easy for us to make a work of looking.
It's easy enough for us to say, look to God. But how? How can we look to God? If it's
a matter of our attitude and activities, then we've fallen
from grace. If we teach others that looking
to Christ is just reading the scriptures more, praying more,
coming to church more, And we've not only fallen from grace ourselves,
we've led others to do the same. This look cannot be produced
by men in any way at all. It must be God's work within
our hearts. All we can do, both for ourselves
and for others, is to declare that God alone is the only source
of true salvation, just like Isaiah 45 does. You can look
to Him, you can plead with Him, you can wait upon Him, but it
depends if He's willing. And if He is willing, then He'll
not only work salvation in your hearts, He'll work it in your
lives also. And if He does that, you'll know,
you'll know without a doubt that salvation really is of the Lord. Let's consider the look that
can and does save. For a start, in all born again
children of God, we already know this look, because it's the look
that our gracious God used to draw us to himself in the first
place. In John 16.8 it's God the Holy
Spirit who first convicts us of our sin. He convinces us that
we are completely unable to produce anything acceptable to God. He then convinces us of righteousness,
revealing that any righteous standing before God must come
from the Lord Jesus Christ. Brothers and sisters, it's actually
these activities of the Holy Spirit that produce in us, within
our hearts, that look that saves. You see, it's a look. of sheer
desperation. It's a look that now has no confidence
in the flesh. It's a look of absolute dependency
upon God because it's convinced that He alone has the words of
eternal life. This look is a look that will
wait on the Lord because it knows that there is no other hope for
salvation. As painful as this process is,
the Lord may leave His children in this state for quite some
time, but even that is part of His perfect wisdom and only ever
for our good. However, when the Lord's children
have waited long enough, the Holy Spirit then convicts them
of judgement. He declares to our souls that
in the Lord Jesus Christ our judgement has passed and that
we are the grace children of God. So that's how our God first
creates this look that saves within his people. But what about
the problem that face the Galatian believers? What about the problem
that we all face as children of God in this world? The problem
of how to live lives of faithfulness to God and to His Church, especially
when sin influences every single thing we do. When we fall, as
we so often do, when we are confronted with our failings continuously
sometimes, how do we turn our lives around to honour our God
and to bring forth fruit to Him? We can't, and we need to remember
that we can't, that our God can, and that's the point, isn't it? Paul said in Colossians 2.6,
As you will therefore receive Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk
ye in him. You see, the Holy Spirit deals
with God's children throughout their lives. just the same way
he dealt with them in their conversions. He allows enough of our failings
to overwhelm us in this world, and then he reminds us of the
only true source of salvation, the Sovereign Lord Jesus Christ.
He regrows that look within us, that saving look of reliance
that comes up out of the wilderness, leaning on her Beloved. He regrows
within us a look of faith. How about we look at it this
way. In the everlasting covenant our Lord Jesus took full responsibility,
not partial, but full responsibility for all those that the Father
had given him. It stands to reason that producing
fruit in the lives of his people is as much His responsibility
as our final entry into Heaven. That sounds right, doesn't it?
So when our heart and our eyes are where they should be again,
focused on our Saviour, it's actually God the Holy Spirit
who brings forth His fruit into our lives. Turn in your Bibles to Matthew
14, I know we have to be brief here,
but it's a great example of how God creates this look in the
lives of these people. It's the story of Peter walking
on water and I know we all know it, but it really is a good description
of how to navigate the world and the many difficulties we
face in it as children of God. We are going to read from Matthew
14 verse 22. And straightway Jesus constrained
his disciples to get into worship, and to go before him under the
other side, while he sent the multitudes away. There is a time
in the life of every child of God when we travel in this world
on the basis of our own wisdom and our own activities, at least
until our Lord comes in our conversions. Verse 23, And when he had sent
the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray.
And when the evening was come, he was there alone, but the ship
was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves, for the wind
was contrary. As I said at the start of this
sermon, the Scriptures describe the world as a sea tossed to
and fro by the repercussions of sin. It is a sea that's overwhelming
to us, especially in regard to the saving of our souls. Verse
25, And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them,
walking on the water. What is this world really to
our Lord Jesus Christ? He's sovereign over all things.
That's what Isaiah 45 said, isn't it? Walking on water Even as
it pictures the chaos of this world, it's just not a problem
to the great King of Kings, is it? Verse 26, And when the disciples
saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is
the Spirit. And they cried out for fear. But straightway Jesus
spoke unto them, saying, Be of good cheer. It is I. Be not afraid. When the Lord first comes to
us in conversion there is fear and there is confusion, but by
God's grace there is also that first saving look which cries
out to Him. And then when our eyes are opened
and we see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, He
speaks peace into our souls. Verse 28, Peter answered Him
and said, Lord, if it be Thou bid me to come unto Thee upon
the water, Do you remember how eager you were when the Lord
first came to us? Do you remember how excited we
were to live for Him and how keen we were to follow Him no
matter what the cost? It would be wonderful to feel
that way all the time. And I don't want you to lose
heart because there is a time coming very soon when all the
Lord's children will feel that way all the time. Read Revelation
5. And when Peter was come down
out of the ship, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. It's
amazing, isn't it? As we look to our Saviour, the
new man within us naturally gravitates towards Him. And as we do, that
same water, or world, that previously overwhelmed us now by God's grace,
actually supports and sustains us. That's what Romans 8.28 is
talking about when it says all things work for our good. Verse 30 But when he saw the
wind boisterous, he was afraid, and beginning to sink, he cried,
saying, Lord, save me. Do you notice that it's only
when we look away from our Lord and we focus back on the world
that we become unstuck? This is what happened to the
Galatians, isn't it? Paul said you ran well. They had run well. They'd run well because they'd
begun in faith. But the false teachers turned
their attention back to what? Their own activities and what
happened? They fell from grace. Now that's what happens in our
own lives, isn't it? No matter what our lives look
like, no matter how much chaos surrounds us, While our attention
is on the Lord, somehow He just brings forth His fruit into our
lives. And then what happens? We just
have to look again at our surroundings, don't we? We just have to gauge
our progress and the progress of others, and before we know
it we are overwhelmed all over again. But there is good news
in that, brothers and sisters. The good news is that this is
how the Holy Spirit recreates within us that look that saves. He allows us to be overwhelmed,
either by Satan, the world, our own failings, or all of the above,
and then He reminds us again of the only true source of salvation,
that salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ which we have already
experienced. And then by His work in us we
look, we look again knowing that only His grace is sufficient. Verse 31, And immediately Jesus
stretched forth His hand, and caught him, and said unto him,
O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? You notice
that it's when we reach this place of dependence The place
where we are completely empty of our own self-reliance. The
place where we cry out to Him. Immediately, our Lord catches
us. Only our gracious Saviour can
restore His people, but when He does, our faith is grown that
little more. Our dependence upon Him is grown
that little more. And we are that little more convinced
that salvation, salvation really is of the Lord. And this is why
our God has left sin in the world. This is His purpose for leaving
that struggle of the two natures within His people. And this is
how He recreates within us that look which really does save. Verse 32, And when they were
coming to the ship, the wind ceased. Then they that were in
the ship came and worshipped him, saying, Of a truth thou
art the Son of God." You see this whole process is
very wisely designed by God to create the fruit of our lips.
His people singing His praises for His grace in their life and
all of it All of it is declaring His glory as the only God and
Saviour, just like Isaiah 45 did. Brothers and sisters, look around
you for a moment. This ship in this story is a
lot like church. You think about it. We are pretty
insignificant in the world's eyes. All the churches throughout
all the ages have been pretty insignificant in the world's
eyes. Outside those doors there, that world is still raging. All
your failures, all your trials and tribulations, they're just
waiting at that door for you to go back out again. Satan is
crouched at that door waiting to devour God's people. But in here for the few brief
moments that we're gathered together, The wind has ceased and we worship
our God together for the grace that has always sustained us. Salvation must be all of God's
responsibility or it must be all of man's responsibility.
Romans 11.6 doesn't leave any room for compromise in that.
Where we look to for salvation actually reveals whether we are
under obligation to God's holy and inflexible law, or whether
we are dependent upon and sustained by his merciful grace. Those who look to God's grace
for salvation will, and this is a promise from Romans 14,
they will be made to stand. whereas those who look to their
own wisdom and activities for all or any part of their salvation
actually stand condemned. Because of our fallen nature
we look at our lives and the lives of others as a kind of
litmus test to Christian performance or progress. Now that's just
the case. It's the nature of our flesh. But when we look to Christ to
gauge our progress, or the progress of our brothers and sisters,
what is it that we see? We should see the perfection
of Christ in every one of God's children, shouldn't we? It's
no wonder that the Apostle John in 1 John expects those of true
faith to love their brethren. because no matter what their
lives look like, true faith only ever sees them as perfect in
the Lord. May our great God continue to
create that look of dependence within us, even in our greatest
failings, that we might see each other as our Father in Heaven
does, holy, spotless and above reproach. May he keep us from being drawn
away by the constant turbulence of this world, especially our
own fleshly struggles. And may he always cause us to
see our Lord Jesus Christ, as all and in all.