All right, brethren, let's look in Isaiah 57. Let's read it together one more time. Isaiah 57, verse 1. The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart. And merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come. He shall enter into peace, they shall rest in their beds, each one walking in his uprightness.

I've titled this Consider. Consider, and I pray the Lord will make you consider and lay this to heart, everything you're about to hear.

First, I want you to see a description of God's saints. It says in verse 1, the righteous. The righteous. And then he speaks of God's saints as merciful men. The righteous and merciful men. True believers. True believers, God's saints. are righteous. You're righteous. With God, when you speak of someone being righteous, there's only one kind. Perfect. Absolutely, totally, perfectly righteous. No sin, ever. No sin on record. Only perfect righteousness. And that so, if you have been given faith by God and you trust Christ, that's so of you. You are righteous.

We are not righteous of ourselves. Look with me in Romans chapter three. Romans chapter three. Here's what we are in our flesh. The way you're born in Adam, this is what you are in your flesh right now where you sit. Even if you believe him, this is what you are still in your flesh. Romans 3, in verse 10. As it's written, there is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable, There is none that doeth good, no, not one.

In other words, in our nature, our flesh that we got from Adam, we have broken God's law, and that's all that comes from the flesh is sin. How then are we the righteous? How is God's people the righteous? Go with me to 2 Corinthians 5, Here's how God's people are the righteous. 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 21. Speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ, by God's grace, this is what the Lord Jesus did for every elect child of God. Here's what he did. He hath made him sin for us. who knew no sin. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the only holy, sinless man since the fall. He's the only one. And he knew no sin. He never sinned and he never became a sinner.

But when he went to Calvary, he made him sin for us. He made him sin for his people. That means what it says. I don't know how the Son of God was made flesh. I can't explain it. I don't know how that water was made into wine. and I don't know how he was made sin, but that's what he was made. He was made sin for us. This book never says that our sins were imputed to Christ, never. The fact is, this book declares over and over, that God only imputes what a person has been made. Adam sinned in the garden. He broke God's law, and for that reason, God imputed sin to Adam because he broke the law. And because all of us were in Adam and broke God's law in Adam, God imputed sin to us. He charged us with what we had been made.

And our Lord Jesus, sinless, went before God, and in a way only God could do, he made him sin for us. He laid on him the iniquity of us all. Lord Jesus never sinned. He never was a sinner. A sinner's a rebellious person. Adam was a sinner. Our Lord, Adam was made sin by disobedience. Our Lord was made sin by obedience. This is what he agreed to do from before the foundation of the world. He went there as the spotless lamb of God, and the Lord made him sin for us. and by Him bearing our curse. This is the truth. He did it that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. That's how we're righteous. That's where we're righteous. We're not righteous in ourselves. We are the righteousness of God. It don't get more righteous. The righteousness of God. God. To be accepted of holy God, you have to be as holy as God. You have to be as righteous as God. That's how righteous and holy we are in Christ. That's so of all his people. And this is where we're righteous. In him. In him. The righteousness of God in him.

Daniel prophesied and declared what Christ would accomplish. And here's what he accomplished. He said, he will finish the transgression. He will make an end of sins. He will make reconciliation for iniquity. He will bring in everlasting righteousness. He will seal up the vision and prophecy, fulfill everything that's written, and he'll anoint the most holy. Our Lord Jesus Christ did this for his holy city. He did this for his people. He did this for those the Father gave to him. He said, Father, I pray for them that thou has given me. I pray for them. I pray not for the world. I pray for them thou has given me. And he made us the righteousness of God.

He said, surely, this is from Isaiah 45, 24. He said, surely shall one say, In the Lord have our righteousness and strength. Even to him shall men come. He brought that to pass for you. He's the only one that can feel that. He's the only one that can come to his people and speak this gospel affectionately in our hearts and give us life and faith so that we surely say, in the Lord have our righteousness. He's my only righteousness.

Look at Romans 6. Every time I speak of this thing of imputation, and Lord, here's the good news. I said that God only imputes what you've been made. Because we see it in Adam, he imputed sin to Adam because Adam was made sin by his disobedience. imputed sin to Christ because Christ was made sin for us. He numbered him with the transgressors. But now, because Christ made us the righteousness of God in him, God imputes righteousness to you because you've been made righteous. Look here, Romans 6, 11, likewise reckon, that's the same word as impute, reckon, impute ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in the lust thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness under God, for sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under the law, but under grace. That's what you are in Christ.

Now, by experiencing God's mercy for the sake of Christ, God's merciful to us because of Christ, for his sake alone, he's been merciful to us, and by making you to know this, he's made you merciful. These are the two descriptions of God's people, righteous and merciful. Righteous and merciful. Psalm 37, 21 says, the wicked borroweth and payeth not again, but the righteous showeth mercy and giveth. Why do you do that? Because the only way we're saved, brethren, is because God showed us mercy. Did God give to us? He gave His only begotten Son. Did Christ give for us? He gave the life of His blood. He gave His body to be broken. He gave His blood. He bore the hell, the eternal condemnation that His people would have had to bear He bore it, He gave everything that could be given. And then He came to us and He gave us a new heart, and gave us life, and gave us faith, and gave us repentance, and gave us everything that pertains to life and godliness. and everything you have, from the moment you take your first breath till you draw your last breath, all things spiritual, all things temporal, everything you have, He gave it to you.

I hear men say, I don't like it when a preacher preaches on giving. That's the only thing I do preach. That's all I do preach. Because my gospel is God has given everything to us. We don't have anything but what we were given freely by the grace of God.

Oh boy, and that makes you merciful. That makes you merciful. When you see that when you woke up this morning and you opened your eyes before you moved up toe, you had enough sin to plunge you into hell. laying flat on your back in your bed, if it was up to you. And God was merciful to you. And from then all the way to about this minute, He's been merciful to you, merciful to you. And all our days, He's merciful to us. And He does it for the sake of His Son. And brethren, that's gonna make you merciful. That's gonna make you merciful. Makes you love mercy.

Go with me to Titus 3. Here's what we were before, and here's what we are by God's grace. Look here, put them in mind, verse one, Titus 3, put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers to obey magistrates. In other words, just submit to the police officer, just submit to the governor, to the mayor, to the president, whoever's in power, your boss, just submit to them. And be ready to every good word. Speak to speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, showing all meekness unto all men.

You know how you could sum that all up? Be merciful. Be merciful. Why? What's my motive now? What's the new motive of your heart now? For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving different lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. That's all we were when we were dead in sin, that's it. That's all our flesh is.

But after that, the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy. according to His mercy. We're talking about being merciful. What'll make you merciful? According to His mercy, He saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ, our Savior. that being justified by His grace, Him having already justified by His grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

That's why He called you and regenerated you, because Christ justified you. This is a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly. You constantly tell God's people that they are vile, ungodly sinners without strength who deserve nothing from God, and that God, according to his great mercy, saved us by his kindness and his grace in Christ Jesus. You keep telling them that every time you preach, Paul said, for this reason. that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable to men.

You know how you're gonna be merciful? You know how you're gonna love to show mercy and give what somebody hadn't earned from you and give them kindness and be forgiving and merciful? You know how you're gonna do that? It's gonna be by hearing the constant good news of how God has been merciful to us and gracious to us in Christ for no other reason but himself, for the goodness that's in Christ, the grace that's in Christ toward us. That's what'll make you wanna be merciful.

What would you say is the most prevalent prayer that you pray? As a child of God, one made holy and righteous by Christ, right where you are every day, What would you say is what you pray more than anything else? I have to say, it's exactly what David said. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving kindness, according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. I find myself praying that more than anything else. More than anything else. Lord, if He saves me, it's going to be entirely by His grace and His mercy. Not because I deserve it.

When God afflicted Job, He said this, He said to him that is afflicted, pity should be showed from his friend. Those men came to Job. He's lost his family, he's lost his riches, he's lost his health, he's sitting there with nothing. And these supposed to be comforters came to Job, and this is basically what they said, you did something wrong, Job, that's why God did this to you. And Job said, to him that's afflicted, pity should be shewed from his friend.

Well, brethren, guess what? We got a friend that sticks closer than a brother that will always show his people pity when we're afflicted. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ, because he knows what it's like to be the one afflicted more than anybody. and not to receive any pity from a sinner. He said, I looked for some to take pity, but there was none. And for comforters, but I found none. He bore that cross by himself. He didn't get mercy from God. He didn't get mercy from any of the enemies that were crucifying him. But he justified his people. And he saved his people. And now that God meant from his cross, from his throne in glory, when you are afflicted, he will be merciful to you. And you experienced that. You've experienced it as a child of God. And what it does is it makes you be merciful.

He says, I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and their iniquities while I remember no more. And we know this, it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed. His compassions are new every day, they fail not. Who is a God like this? Who is a God like the true and living God that pardons iniquity and passes by the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He does not retain His anger forever because He delights to show mercy. Oh, that'll make you merciful. So, our Father and our Savior, He made us righteous, and it's all by His mercy, and thus He made us merciful. all of him.

Now secondly, I want you to behold God's hand of providence upon his believing child. Here's God's providence upon his believing child. Verse 1, the righteous perisheth and merciful men are taken away. You say that's God's hand of providence? Yep. This refers to a believer's death, physical death, but it's only to the death of the believer's body. That's it. That's it. Our Lord said, I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. The great blessing, brethren, is that when the Spirit of God gives you life, you have life. But the life's in the new man, the life's in the new spirit he's given. So, Christian just asked me about that maid when the Lord came there and they'd come and they told her father, they said, your daughter's dead. And she physically was dead. But when Christ walked in, he said, she's not dead, she sleepeth. And they laughed at him. What did he mean by that? He said, those that he gives eternal life, they never die. They never die. Scripture says we sleep. He said to Lazarus, when he came to his tomb, he waited three days till they knew Lazarus was dead and married. He was physically dead. But when Christ came to him, he said, he's not dead, he sleeps.

Well, how can both be true? How can I be physically dead, but then the Lord say, you're not dead, you're sleeping? You can only understand that spiritually. Our physical body dies, because it's sin. But it's just sleeping in the grave. It's just sleeping in the grave. Our spirit, our soul, goes to be with Christ immediately. But only our body is sleeping. And when he comes again, he'll raise your body perfectly, Perfect with him.

So, right here when he says perish, it's just the body, it's just that she died. And then he says here, the merciful man's taken away. We're gonna see, that's a gracious thing of our God. There is a sense in which we can say Christ said, we can say what Christ said. He said, no man taketh my life. And there's a sense in which every believer can say that. in this way right here. Another sinner may be used to take your life, but they can't do it unless God appointed it. And when they do it, all they gonna do is take away your physical life and open a door for you to go right into glory with him. So they can't really hurt you. And they'll never separate you from Christ.

See, God ordains the time of our death. It's appointed unto men once to die. He's appointed it. He ordains the place we will die. He ordains the means of our death. But that's not really what's important, how you die or when you die. It's dying in faith. That's the important thing. Dying looking to Christ only. That's what's important. I want to be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law. but that which is through the faith of Christ, his obedience alone, the righteousness which is of God, which he provided, that he freely gives me through faith in Christ. That's where I want to be found.

Look here at this next thing. Consider the hardness of heart of the wicked. The righteous perisheth and no man layeth it to heart. Merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come. I said, when a believer dies, it's a mercy of God, it's grace of God, because he's taking you away from the evil to come. Now that says, this verse says a lot of things concerning all sinners by nature. Now, God's saints lay this to heart. When a believer dies, a fellow brother or sister in Christ dies, we lay it to heart. We consider it. And we consider what I'm trying to say to you here. God appointed this. He's not dead. His body's sleeping in the grave, but he's with the Lord. We consider that this is a mercy of God. He's taken him away from the evil to come. We lay it to heart.

But unregenerate men, especially vain idolaters in religion, they don't lay it to heart. They certainly do not lay it to heart that it's God saving his people from them, and that's what it is. It's God saving his child from vain religionists and wicked sinners. None considering the righteousness is taken away from the evil to come. The evil's men. Evil don't just spring out of the earth. Evil is men. He's taken away from evil men, taking his saints home to glory. And few look upon that as a public loss. Few people look at that as a loss to this world when God takes one of his saints to glory. But that's what it is.

You see, God's people are the salt. That means This world is preserved by God because he has a people in this earth. And he's using us to preach the gospel because he still has some that he justified that are lost that must be called. And the only reason this world's held in store is because of them. And for God to take his people out of this world, if a man had any sense at all, he'd lay that to heart. Because the only reason this world's held in store is because of God's people.

When the righteous are taken, their influence is removed. David said in Psalm 12, help, Lord, for the godly man ceaseth. For the faithful fail from among the children of men. They speak vanity to everyone with his neighbor, with flattering lips, and with a double heart do they speak.

People, you know, you'll hear people talking about trying to describe hell and what is hell and all this. I don't care, I'm not concerned with where hell is, but I can give you some idea what hell is. Once God removes all his people to be with him and takes his hand off, everybody that's left and left to their will, that will be hell. That will be hell. Man being able to do whatever comes into his heart. That's the gnashing of teeth.

It's better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for that's the end of all men, and the living will lay it to his heart. You know, all men who are alive, they do, it hits you, even for a lost man, it hits him when somebody close to him dies. And for a little while, It has a profound effect on it, but it's very brief, very brief.

But the Lord teaches his people something through the death of loved ones. He keeps you remembering we don't have life in this world. Our life's not in this world. We don't belong to this world. Our treasure's not in this world. This world is perishing and everything in its perishing, your flesh is perishing. The new heaven and the new earth that cannot be shaken and cannot be removed is only that which Christ has created in his righteousness and his holiness. That's his people. That's the new Jerusalem made by Christ.

So brethren, death's not the end. And Lord's people remember this, when you see somebody die, we remember the death's not the end. We have an eternal soul and we shall spend eternity somewhere. You young folks listen to this. When you die, that's not the end. Men commit suicide because they think that'll get me out of my misery. Oh no, you just starting. Death's not the end. You got a soul and you're gonna live somewhere forever. You're either going to live in the glory of Christ because of his grace and mercy, or you'll live separated in outer darkness forever. But you're going to spend eternity somewhere.

That's why you'd be wise to get in this book right here and get down on your knees to God and beg God, have mercy on me, because you are a sinner. And the only way anybody's going to enter into God's presence is if God does it. God's going to do the saving.

Lastly, here's the end God's ordained for his people. Verse one, the righteous is taken away from the evil to come. Every sinner that has not cast their care on Christ is the evil. And so all sinners are gonna do is get worse and worse and worse, and more evil's coming. And each sinner tries to come to God in their own works. Look down at verse 10. Here's what God said. Thou art wearied in the greatness of thy way, yet settest thou not, there is no hope. Thou hast found the life of thine hand. Therefore, thou wast not grieved. You've never really mourned over your sin because you're looking to your own hand for life. And of whom hast thou been afraid or feared, that thou hast lied and hast not remembered me? nor laid it to heart. This is what the Lord's people laid to heart. We realize everything's of God's hand. But he says of the evil man, you've not remembered me, you've not laid this to heart, you've not been grieved over your sin. I have not, I held my peace even of old, Lord said, and thou fearest me not. I will declare thy righteousness and thy works, for they shall not profit thee.

Now that's what God says of every man trying to come to God by his own works. They won't profit you. You're gonna meet God outside of Christ, death will be the beginning of an eternal, never-ending torment of everlasting wrath from God. And I don't know what all that involves, but I do know it has something to do with this. That rich man that was in hell that our Lord spoke about, He could see Christ in all God's people. And there was a gulf fixed between him and them, and they couldn't come to him, and he couldn't go to them. You ever had something you wanted so badly, and you couldn't have it? There's sort of a torment to that. Well, imagine if you saw perfect glory, delight, perfect, a perfect world with no sin in it, and joys that you can't even comprehend right now, and you can't have it, because you wouldn't have it in this world right now. You wouldn't have Christ, who's the only one that can take you there. Hell will have something to do with that, not seeing what you could have had and knowing you'll never have it.

but not one of God's elects gonna perish. Not one of them. Christ redeemed us, brethren. He bought us. We're there with him now. That's what the scripture said. Your life's in Christ at God's right hand. What'd he do before he reigned? It had never rained before God reigned. One drop of water in Noah's day. What'd he do before he did that? He put Noah and his family and shut them in that ark. What'd he do in Sodom and Gomorrah before he rained down one fiery hailstone, what'd he do? He brought Lot out. And before the Lord sends judgment on this world, he's going to bring all his people into Christ our ark, every one of us, every one of them. And he's not gonna lose one.

And here's what's gonna happen to God's people. It's gonna be well with the righteous, while it's woe for the wicked. But here's what he's gonna do for his people. Verse two, when you die, lay down this body of flesh. It says, verse two, he shall enter into peace. They shall rest in their beds, each one walking in his uprightness. What does that mean? It means you're gonna enter into peace. Christ is our peace. He's our peace. You're gonna enter into glory with Christ. Having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. He's the Prince of Peace. He is our peace with God. He came to preach peace to us. Everything about peace with God is Christ. And we're gonna enter into his peace. We're gonna enter into glory with him. And it says here they gonna rest in their beds like I said to you before your body's gonna go to its bed the grave And it's just gonna rest there You're gonna be with the Lord in glory right then in spirit with it your body's just gonna be resting in a bed in a grave And he's gonna raise that body in the end glorified to be with him, but look each one of walking in his uprightness.

You know, when you came into this world, before the Lord called you, you were not upright. You were upside down. Every man by nature is upside down. And here's something about being upside down. Listen to the world speak about these scriptures and about God. They reason upside down. They filter this book and what God does through the lens of what man can do and what man can't do. That's how they read this book, as they attribute to God limitations because of man's limitation, and they only attribute to God ability that a man is able to do. And so they reason, everything is reasoned from man, making him the standard up to their idle, vain, false God. That's how a man sees the scripture and understands God.

But let me tell you something. Everything about salvation, everything about salvation, every aspect of it, every work involved in it, everything about it is impossible to you and me. So if you're gonna reason through what a man's able to do and attribute, say God's able to do it based on what you're able to do, no, no, no, no. Everything about salvation is impossible to you and me.

But when God gives you a new heart, he turns you upright. And you start, you begin with God. And you see salvation began with God. He chose whom he would by grace. Christ came down and saved his people and went back to glory. And there his people are seated. He sends the gospel. He gives the new heart. He gives everything to you. And it's all of grace. You didn't merit any of it. And you couldn't do any of it. All things are of him and through him and to him, to whom be the glory and the dominion. And you see now, you start with God. and you reason now to us little worms and see it's all of God. That's walking in your uprightness.

Walking in uprightness is walking in Christ who's made us upright. When Peter got up from that table and went over to that other table, he brought the law back in, he was looking to himself, and Paul said, I saw that he walked not uprightly according to the truth. When you walk uprightly, you look into Christ and you know He's my wisdom, He's my righteousness, He's my sanctification, He's my redemption, so I'm glorying only in Him. He's going to save me. He's going to save me. I can't raise my body from that bed of sleep to be with Him. He's going to have to do that. And as surely as you cannot raise your body from that bed of the grave and give yourself a glorified body, every other aspect of salvation is just that impossible to you and me. Every bit of it. It's all of him.

Jesus said, I'm the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever believeth in me shall Never die.

Go with me to Revelation 21. I didn't do it this time, Ben. I preached 30 minutes before, but I'm going a little longer this time. I'm done right here, though, once you read this.

Revelation 21.

I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth were passed away, and there was no more sea. You know why there's no more sea? The sea came into being at the Tower of Babel. God divided the earth, not just the people. He divided the earth. Sea is division. There won't be any more division in glory.

And I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven prepared, not anything for you to do, it's all finished, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. That New Jerusalem is his people. already prepared and adorned in the snow-white garment of Christ's righteousness.

And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. No more tears, because there'll be no more death, Neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain. That sounds good, don't it, Jeff? No more pain. For the former things are passed away.

And he that sat upon the throne said, behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, write, for these words are true and faithful. And he said to me, it's done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. You know what that means? It's all of God. He does it all. Christ Jesus, author and finisher.

Look, I will give unto him that is a thirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. He that overcometh shall inherit all things. And I will be his God, and he shall be my son.

But listen now, anybody trusting in themselves, Anybody looking to their works? Anybody who just don't want to lay this to heart, thinks this is all wasting your time? Here you go.

But the fearful and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. If you partake of this first generation, this regeneration, and give faith in Christ, you won't ever partake of that second death.

And I pray, Lord, give you grace to lay it to heart and consider what you have heard. Amen.

All right, brothers. Very good.