Brethren, let's turn to Isaiah
chapter 55. Let's read verses 4 through 6. Behold, I have given him for
a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people.
Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not, and nations
that knew not thee shall run unto thee because of the Lord
thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel. For he hath glorified
thee. Seek ye the Lord while he may
be found. Call ye upon him while he is
near. Now in this chapter, God bids
every sinner that is thirsty, every thirsty sinner, He says,
come to the waters. And then He says, come buy wine
and milk without money, without price. He says, eat that which
is good. He tells us to let our soul delight
itself in fatness. He says that He promises our
soul's life. And then He says He promises
to make an everlasting covenant, even the sure mercies of David.
And now here in our text, He tells us where all of those things
are to be found. They are to be found in one place,
in one, Christ Himself. Behold, I have given Him. He is speaking of Christ. Let
me show you that. Turn to Acts 13 just a minute.
He said there at the end of verse 3, I will give you even the sure
mercies of David. Turn over to Acts 13. And look
at verse 34. He's speaking about Christ being
risen from the dead, and he's given some scripture to back
up the claim that Christ is risen from the dead. And he says, And
as concerning that He raised Him up from the dead, Acts 13,
34, As concerning that He raised Him up from the dead, now no
more to return to corruption, He said on this wise, I will
give you the sure mercies of David. Wherefore, he saith also
in another psalm, Thou shalt not suffer thine holy one to
see corruption. For David, after he had served
his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep, and was
laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption. But he whom God raised
again saw no corruption. You see, he is not talking about
David. He is talking about Christ. So when he says, I give you the
sure mercies of David, he is talking about the sure mercies
of Christ. Then he goes into verse 4 and he says, Behold,
I have given him. I have given Christ. Christ.
Christ is the sum and substance of our gospel. He begins with
Christ. It's carried forth and worked
out by Christ. It's brought to our hearts by
Christ and it will be consummated by Christ. The sum and substance
of the Gospel is Christ. When we come here as believers,
what we're doing is we're feasting upon the fatness of Christ Jesus
Himself. The feast that He's laid out
before us. The feast of wine and milk and
water. The feast of fat things. And
for you that's never cast your care upon Christ, I pray, I do
pray for you that today God will make this word clear in your
heart and bring you to cast all your care, all your eternal well-being
into Christ's hand. I want to show you the gift of
God, and then the purpose God gave the gift, and then the promise
God makes concerning the gift, and then the reason God makes
that promise, and then God's exhortation to us concerning
the gift. God has given His Son, and He's
exalted Christ, and therefore God promises us that Christ shall
save His people from our sins. And so God exhorts His people,
cast your care on Christ. Cast your care on Christ. Here's
the gift of God. He says, verse 4, Behold, I have
given Him. God the Father gave His only
begotten Son. God the Father gave His Son. His only begotten Son. as a gift,
a free gift to His people, to save His people. And in doing
so, God the Father gave Himself. When we say God gave His Son,
it's not like God gave His Son because God wouldn't do it. That's
God doing the work. God gave Himself when He gave
His Son. And Christ consented to this
work. Christ gave Himself in this work. Behold, I've given
Him. The Scripture says, Thanks be
unto God for His unspeakable gift. Can you imagine a greater
gift? God giving God? God giving His
Son who is God? That's the unspeakable gift.
What was a need? What was so needful, so dire
of a need that God sent His own Son? That God Himself came forth
to do this work. What great need was it that caused
that to happen? the people that God chose to
be His holy people, to be His own choice people, to be His
forever, we turned rebel against God in Adam, in the garden. We said, God gave us one law
and He gave it saying, this is to show you I'm your authority,
I'm your ruler, I'm your power, I'm your God." And we said, no
God. That's what we said. We said,
no God, and we won't have you reign over us. And we turned
rebel against God. And when we did that, we sinned,
we died, and justice demanded we suffer eternal hell for our
sins, for what we did. The only way, brethren, for God
to receive all the glory in saving us from ourselves is if God comes
forth and does all the work Himself. You see, this is the Gospel,
brethren. The Gospel is not about your
works and my works. The Gospel is about God's works.
God's works. We're here to talk about God's
works, not our works. God's works. If you find out
about God's works, it will constrain you to good works. I guarantee
you. But not until then. Not until then. So for God to
receive all the glory, He has to come forth and do all the
work. If God is going to be the justifier,
is God the justifier? Scripture says He is. It says
God justified His elect. Who is going to lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justified it.
Then God had to come forth and do the justifying. And God came
forth. He said, Behold, I've given him.
That's why I gave him. If God's going to receive all
the glory for being just, for not allowing any blemish to be
upon His holy character, for any blemish to be upon His holy
law. If He's going to see to it that
every law has been obeyed perfectly and every law, every sin has
been punished to the exact measurement that satisfies justice, then
God's got to come forth and satisfy that justice. Can you imagine? Nobody, no nation in the earth
has ever created a law for their nation that's been obeyed perfectly. Nor have we ever punished sin
perfectly. But in God's holy nation, His
law has been upheld perfectly. And every sin has been punished
perfectly. So that God, it's holy. Everything about His kingdom
is holy and righteous because the God of that kingdom is holy
and righteous. That's why He gave His Son. This
is the gospel. This is what's attacked when
men deny total depravity. This is what is attacked when
men deny God's electing grace, the limited atonement of His
people, the irresistible grace. It's God's own holy, righteous
character that's attacked. Because if you and I can do any
part of this work, if we can choose, if we can help to make
the blood effectual, if we can bring ourselves to God, if we
can keep ourselves in God, any part of the work we do, God doesn't
get all the glory. And it means that the work's
not done perfectly if you and I put our hand to it. Only will
the work be holy and just and right if God does it all. And
God had to do the whole work. That's why He gave His Son. If
He's going to receive the glory for reconciling His people, He
must come forth and reconcile us. And He did. Romans 5 says,
when we were enemies. We were just enemies. We weren't
friends. We were enemies. When you reconcile
somebody, you reconcile them because they're your enemy. And
He came forth, even when we were enemies. And God laid down, He
gave His Son and His Son laid down His life. And if when we
were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son,
much more than being now His friends, brethren, being His
reconciled friends, you don't have to worry if He's going to
save you now. If He saved you when you was a blatant, God-hating
enemy, you sure don't have to worry now that He's reconciled
you that He's going to save you. You see, but if you don't preach
depravity, if you don't preach that every sinner is a God-hating
rebel, you take that whole beautiful, glorious good news that I just
declared to you, throw it out the window. You'll never hear
it because you got to be a blatant God-hating enemy for Christ to
have come forth and laid down His life and done this so that
now He can say, if He did that for you when you were His enemy,
now you got nothing to worry about. See what I'm saying? There's
great comfort in knowing that I was a God-hating rebel, and
yet God chose me, God saved me, God reconciled me. Because if
He did that for me when I hated Him, now that He's given me a
heart to love Him, I don't have anything to worry about. That's why it was necessary God
provide Himself a Lamb, to declare, I say, His righteousness, that
He might be just, that he might be the justifier of him that
believes in Jesus. And now, because the work's done,
because the work is finished, there's only one thing left to
be done. It's to bring the news to everyone for whom it's done
and give them a heart to believe it. That's right. You would think
everybody would believe this. You would think that the person
that this is done for, that you would just hear this and you'd
think, I don't know if it's done for me or not, but I won't in
on that. Because that's such good news. But men won't. Men
won't even... The doors open. Come to the waters,
he said. But men won't come. Men won't
come. Why? Because their wills are so free,
they can't. That's why. That's why. Their wills are so free, they
can't come. They can't come. The only work left is to reveal
it. And this is all free, brethren. Will had a birthday this week.
He turned 11. and we gave him some gifts. He didn't pay for
any of them. Not a one of them. They were all free. He didn't
offer to pay for them either. He just received them. That's
what you do with a gift. You just open up your empty hands
and take it and enjoy it. It's free. It's given. It's a
gift. That's what he gave. The righteousness
of God, justification of God, everlasting life is a free gift
given by God. Listen to this, 1 John 5, 11.
This is the record. Here is the gospel right here.
God has given to us eternal life and this life is in His Son.
He that hath the Son hath life and he that hath not the Son
of God hath not life. Do you have life? You can be sitting here today
with a perfect health, in the best shape your physical body
can be in and be dead as a hammer. I'm saying do you have life?
Do you have the Son of God? Do you believe on the Son of
God? Believe God. God made you. God feeds you. God clothes you.
God keeps you in your right mind. God could just let you go for
a minute and you'd be waddling around on the ground like Nebuchadnezzar
was, like a beast. Believe God. Don't call Him a
liar. Every second that you don't believe
Him, you're saying, God, I think you're a liar. Believe God. Sometimes it's not laying hold
of the truth that causes the greatest defense. Sometimes it's
letting go of the lie. There's a lot of folks who don't
mind, who hear the good news and say, oh, I like that. I like
that. I want to be saved that way.
But they won't let go. of some vain false act that they
did 20 or 30 years ago or yesterday. To be saved by Christ, we got
to be saved totally by Christ. Not by anything we've done, we
got to let go of it all. Every believer justified, reconciled,
redeemed, made righteous. And God is just to show us mercy
because He gave Christ. And He keeps giving Christ. The
Scripture says the gifts in calling on God are without repentance.
He keeps giving Christ to my heart and your heart who believe
every day. New glimpses of Christ so that
we are renewed daily by His life within us. The gifts in calling
of God are without repentance. He never takes them away. There's
nothing I did to gain this gift. There's nothing I can do to have
this gift taken away from me. It's grace, all of grace. Alright,
number two. The purpose for which God gave
Christ is in verse four. He says, I gave him for a witness
to the people, a leader to the people, and a commander to the
people. God gave Christ for a witness
to the people. Now, the only way you and I are
going to know God, know how God saves, know anything at all about
God, is Christ will have to reveal Him to us. He gets the glory. This is why again, this is why
we're not preaching man's will and man's seeking and man's wisdom
and man's ability to find out God. Because, here's why. Christ's glory is to bear witness
of God. He came, the invisible God came
and took flesh like our flesh so that me and you with this
limited capacity to understand and our limited ability to perceive
things could see God who is invisible. Now we can see Him. Now we can
understand Him. He speaks to us on our level.
He speaks to us like a man to a man. Because He came and took
flesh, and He walked this earth, and we can see Him, and we can
understand Him this way. Otherwise, we wouldn't be able
to understand who God is. We would have no indication of
who He is. He reveals Himself to us in a way we can understand
Him. And He said this, He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father. That's how we see God. We see
Christ. People act like if you preach
Christ too much, you're dishonoring God. That's honoring God. Preach Christ all the time you
want to honor God. People will say, you know, I
had a fellow in college tell me one time, I just don't want
to go to that church anymore because they don't preach the
Spirit of God enough. I say, yeah, we do. I say, we
preach Christ. Well, no, that's not preaching.
Christ said when the Spirit of God has come, He's not going
to speak of Himself. He's going to preach me, He said. Now, you
can't dishonor God by preaching Christ. If you've seen Christ,
you've seen the Father. Look at Matthew 11, verse 27.
I'm showing you He's a witness. Matthew 11, verse 27. Let's begin reading verse 25.
At that time, Jesus answered and said, I thank Thee, O Father,
Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these things from
the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babies. Even
so, Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight. All things
are delivered unto me of my Father, and no man knoweth the Son, but
the Father. Neither knoweth any man the Father,
save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him." You
see, Christ is the witness. The only way you're going to
know God is for Christ to bear witness of Him. And Christ is
a witness of the holiness of God. Don't you see that? We see
the holiness of God's law, the holiness of God. God spared not
His own Son. When He made Him to be sin for
us who knew no sin, God spared not His own Son. You talk about
strict justice now. You think He's going to spare
me or you, who are rebels against Him, if He spared not the just
one? When our sin was found on Him
and He spared Him not, you think He's going to spare me and you?
No, sir. Now you see, you've got to come
to God in Christ. You see the righteousness of
God in Christ. Christ reveals the covenant mercies
of God. That's how we know how God's
merciful. Where do I see grace? Look at Christ. How do I know
God's love? Look at Christ. This love of
God loves everybody, but then somebody goes to hell. If God
loves you, does God change? Does He change? Is His love everlasting
or is it changing? Is it conditional? Does it depend
upon you and me? Well, if I say God loves everybody,
and yet He stands by and watches men perish in hell, then does
He love them while they're in hell? God's love changed, if that's
the case. His love's not everlasting, if
that's the case. And here's another thing too. If God could not save them, If
He loved them, but He couldn't save them, what's the point of
His love? Why even mention love? Who cares
then? What kind of love is that? You've
got a child, he's laying out here in a field somewhere, deserted,
just left to starve to death, and you're going to say, but
his mother and father sure do love him. You'd say, no, that's
not love. They left to die. Love saves. Love feeds. Love clothes. Love cares for. Love provides. You see, the love of God is in
Christ. You want to see where God's love
is? Look at Christ going to the cross and suffering the wrath
of God in the place of His people. That's love. That's love. Love that saves. Love that saves
everlastingly. Everything you want to know about
God, you are going to find in Him. The Word was made flesh.
The Word, the Logos, the communication of God was made flesh, and He
dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the
only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. The
Law came by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
He's the witness. And then it says here, He gave
Christ for a leader to the people. A leader to the people. Christ
is the leader who leads His people in the way that we must go. We
won't go in the way we must go unless we're led by Christ, because
He gets the glory for this. And you and I are blind and we
can't go the right way unless He leads us. Look at Isaiah 48,
17. Isaiah 48, 17. Thus saith the Lord, thy Redeemer,
the Holy One of Israel, I am the Lord thy God, which teacheth
thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldst
go. You see that? He's the leader.
He's the leader. Now look at John 3. I want you
to see something. John 3. I hope you can just try
your best to get this. Try to hear what I'm about to
teach you right here, okay? Just listen. Listen to what this
is. John 3, verse 16. For God so loved the world. The context of the whole thing
here is Christ is teaching Nicodemus the manner in which God loves.
The manner in which God loves. He says here, For God, after
this manner, loved the world. Here's how He loved the world.
That He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth
in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. And that's
true. Everybody that believes in Him
is going to have everlasting life. But now look, in there,
this is why He gave His Son right here, after this manner God loves. God sent not His Son into the
world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him, through
Christ might be saved. He that believeth on him is not
condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because
he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
So if Christ had never come, we'd all perish in hell, because
we're all condemned already. Already condemned. But God, after
this manner of love, He sent Christ forth so that those that
believe on Christ, whosoever believes on Christ, shall be
saved. He didn't send Christ to condemn us. He sent Christ
that through Christ we might be saved. So we're going to be
saved by believing on Him, trusting Him. Alright? So now keep going
with me. Verse 19, and this is the condemnation,
that light is coming to the world. And men loved darkness rather
than light because their deeds were evil. For everyone that
doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light,
lest his deeds should be reproved. Alright, we got a problem now,
don't we? God has sent Christ into the
world so that whosoever believes on Him may have everlasting life.
And yet here you got a bunch of condemned rebels that God
says hates the light and won't come to the light. They won't
come to Christ. Because they know that deeds
are going to be reproved. Everything they've called righteousness
is going to be reproved as sin. Everything they've ever thought
was good is going to be reproved as evil. Everything that they
called light is going to be reproved as darkness. So they stay back
in the darkness with their vain religion and their vain, sinful,
ungodly, hellacious religion and won't come out into the light
to Christ the true light. So how is he going to save those
that he sent Christ to save? Is love just going to sit back
and say, they're all condemned. They're all dead. I'm just going
to watch a bunch of dead folks float down the river into hell.
Is that love? No, that's not the manner in
which God loves. He sent His Son to bring them to the light.
He sent His Son to bring them to Him, to believe on Him that
they might be saved. He didn't condemn them. He sent
them that through Him they might be saved. He said, I've given
Him to be a leader. So preacher, you're saying that
it's going to take Christ to bring me to Him? It's going to
take Christ to bring me out of the darkness into the light?
It's going to take Christ to bring me out of my prison cell
of my sin nature and bring me to Him? God said, I gave him
to be the leader. Can you show me that in Scripture?
I think I can. Turn over with me to Isaiah 49
and verse 9. When you're going to come out
of the darkness, when you're going to come to Christ, when
you're going to believe on Him, He says here, In verse 9, an
acceptable time I've heard thee, and a day of salvation I've helped
thee, and I'll preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant
of the people to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the
desolate heritages. This is speaking of Christ. Now
He says this, that thou mayest say to the prisoners, go forth. To them that are in darkness.
Where are they? Darkness. Where did Christ say
in John 3 that His people are? They're in darkness. They hate
the light. They won't come to the light. They're in darkness.
But He gave Christ to be a leader that He might say to them that
are in darkness, Show yourselves! Come forth! They shall feed in
the ways, and their pasture shall be in all high places. They shall
not hunger nor thirst, neither shall the heat of the sun smite
them. For He that hath mercy on them shall lead them. Even
by the springs of water shall He guide them. So, the reason
I don't preach, whosoever will, now that means your will. No,
it doesn't. No, it doesn't. It means whosoever
that Christ makes willing in the day of His power, that's who's going to come. That's
who's going to be saved. Because Christ led them. He led
them out of darkness. He led them to the light. So
who gets the glory? Christ does. Christ does. Look
with me. Look with me at the next thing. He said, I gave Christ for a
commander to the people. For a commander to the people.
One, it's as a king commanding his subjects. That text I just
read in Isaiah 49 says, that thou mayest say to the prisoners,
would you please come out? Would you please come out? No. That you may say to the prisoners,
go forth. And to them that are in darkness,
show yourself. I tell you what, I can sit here and plead with
you, and a preacher can plead with you, and your mama can plead
with you, and your daddy can plead with you. All Christ's
got to do is say, come forth. You're coming forth. Lazarus,
come forth! Here comes a dead man to life,
wrapped up in grave clothes, walked right out of the tomb.
That's what's going to happen inside when Christ says, come
forth. Because Christ has given him to be the witness. He's given
him to be the leader. He's given him to be the commander.
That's right. And as the commander, he's the
captain of his army. So that he can say to us, speak
ye comfortably to my people. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem.
Tell her that her warfare is accomplished. That I've rewarded
her double for all her iniquity. That's our message, brethren.
Our message is not You've got to pick up your arms and start
fighting. Our message is the warfare is over. It's accomplished by Christ.
He's the commander. He's the commander. And then
He leads us in the way of humility. He teaches us to wash one another's
feet in humility. He teaches us how to suffer.
He says He opened not His mouth, but He committed it all to Him
that judges righteously. And He said He left us an example
in this. When Christ came and he said,
here I am, when he washed our feet that night, He wasn't saying,
here, now get you a bucket of water and literally wash one
of those feet. He's saying, do what I've been doing for you
this whole time I've walked this earth. I came down from heaven
just like I stooped down here to your feet. I came down and
robed myself with your flesh just like I took off these garments
and put on this towel. I came down to wash you from
your iniquity by laying down my life just like I'm washing
your feet right here. So now, If I the Lord have done
this for you, you do this for one another. Come down and serve
one another. That's what He's saying. He teaches
us that by example. He leads us in that. So then
brethren, it's not of Him that willeth, it's not of Him that
runneth, it's God that shows mercy. Thy people shall be willing
in the day of thy power. Do you know that verse? Turn
over to Psalm 110. I want you to put an eye on it.
I want you to see I'm not making it up. Psalm 110. A beautiful psalm here speaking
of Christ our Lord. It begins, The Lord said unto
my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand till I make thine enemies
thy footstool. The Lord shall send the rod of
thy strength out of thine. What's the rod of His strength?
This Gospel. This Gospel. This is the rod
of His strength. Rule thou in the midst of thine enemies. Thy
people shall be willing in the day of thy power. In the beauties
of holiness from the womb of the morning thou hast to do of
thy youth. How am I going to be made willing? God doesn't
save anybody against their will. He doesn't save anybody against
their will. He doesn't. The old man, he leaves him with
his will. And our old man is still willing
to sin and willing to rebel against God and willing to hate God.
It's still there. God creates a new man and puts a new will
in a person so that now we're willing to believe God and trust
Him. And from that day forward, that old man with his will and
that new man with his will is bumping heads all the time. There's
a war going on within us all the time. But there's a good
news about it. It works two ways. In Romans 7 he said, That which
I would do, the good thing I want to do, I can't do it because
sin dwells in me. But then in Galatians he said,
But that evil thing I would do, I can't do that either because
his spirit dwells in me. He keeps us right where we need
to be. Right where we need to be. It's God doing it. God doing
it. This is why we renounce that free will works garbage because
we want Christ to have all the glory as the leader, commander
and what have you. All right, now look here. Before
we leave this point, notice he says he gave this to the people.
He gave him to the people, the leader, commander and witness
to the people. This people is a chosen people,
everlastingly loved of God, redeemed by God, will be regenerated by
God, be preserved by God, be raised by God, be glorified by
God, be saved by God. But this people right here is
not a little number. This people right here is a number
no man can number. It's a great number of people.
It's a people that is going to be an amazing host that's going
to be there in that day. The only thing that determines
that you're not this people brethren is God Himself. God determines
who His people are. He determines who His people
are. There are all sorts of people,
young and old, rich and poor, bound and free, Jew and Gentile,
educated, uneducated. The one thing that the people
all have in common is that we are sinners saved all together
by the grace of God in Christ Jesus apart from any works contributed
on our part. That's what all these people
have in common. We didn't contribute a thing. God did it all. Now, is Christ your leader? Is He your commander? Is He your
witness? If He is, He's all your salvation.
Nothing you did, He's all. He can't be all and you be some
part. He's got to be all. Alright, here's the third thing.
I will skip some of this. God gives us a promise of what
Christ shall accomplish in His people. Verse 5. He says, Behold,
thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not, and nations
that knew not thee shall run unto thee. What does that mean? Christ is going to call a nation
that He knows not? Christ is not calling nations.
This is the first thing to get from this. He is not calling
nations. The Word speaks of individual sinners from among all nations. He is talking about His elect
people scattered in all the nations. That is what He is talking about.
But Christ knows each individual sinner that He is going to save.
Their names were written in the Lamb's Book of Life before the
foundation of the world. That's right, He knows who He's
calling. 2 Timothy 2.9 says, "...the foundation of God standeth
sure, having this sealed, the Lord knoweth them that are His."
He knows us even when we're lost. But what does it mean here, you're
going to call a nation you knew not? You're going to call a people
you knew not? When we're in our sin and our
rebellion, brethren, in our nature, We're such foul sinners that
Christ does not acknowledge any work we have ever done. We can say it's in His name.
We could have given our bodies and given our every last cent
to feed the poor and the world give us the Nobel Peace Prize. Christ says, I don't know. And
that day, he said, there's going to be a whole stand before him
and they're going to say, Lord, Lord, didn't we do many wonderful
works? Didn't we preach in your name?
And he's going to say, depart from me, you that work iniquity.
You're working it right now, trying to come into my presence
based on what you've done rather than what I've done. Depart from
me. I never knew you. That's what
he'll say. He does not know anybody trying
to come to him another way. And we're such vile sinners,
it looks like God does not know us at all. At all. That's who we are. And it says,
and they don't know Christ either. It says, verse 5, In nations
that knew not thee. They may know another Jesus,
that the Scripture says is not another. They may have another
spirit. They may be under another gospel.
But they know not the true and the living God, nor do they want
to know Him. They don't want to know Him.
They don't want to know Him. They might bring their body to
hear about Him, but they in their heart don't want to know Him,
saying in their heart, I'll never bow to that God. I'll never bow
to that God. You will if He gets you. That's
right. But here's the good news. This
is grace. Behold, thou shalt call them,
and they shall run unto thee. Thou shalt call a nation that
thou knowest not, and nations that do not thee shall run unto
thee. I'm thankful that Christ shall
call his people. Aren't you? He said, I'm going
to hiss for them. I'm going to hiss for my people.
The word's whistle. I'm going to hiss for my people.
Like you whistle for your dog. Your dog, and here's the thing. We're dogs. That's what we are.
Caleb took that place. He's a faithful dog. And that
woman took the plate, that Syrophoenician woman, she said, the master's
not giving out this bread to dogs. She said, but a dog gets
the crumbs from the master's table. Melinda gets on me all
the time for feeding Peanut. That's why I feed him. For one
reason, he sits right there by, he don't go to her, he don't
go to Melinda, Emma, he don't go to Will. You know who he comes
to? He comes to me. He sits right by me. Because
you know why? He knows I'm the one that's going to feed him.
You know where we go? We don't go to anybody else but
Christ, because we know the Master is the one that's going to feed
us. And we take our place as dogs under his table. And he
feeds us. But he said, I'll whistle for
them. When you whistle for your dog, your dog knows your whistle. Your dog won't answer somebody
else's whistle. My dog won't answer. You come in and whistle
for him, and he may look at you, but he's going to answer when
I call him. When I say now, that's when he minds me. Now. And he
does what I say. But you think you're somebody,
you think you're mighty, big and strong and can do things.
You try to tell somebody else's dog what to do. You'll find out
right quick, their dog won't even pay any attention to you.
And Christ's dog's not paying any attention to other masters
either. He said another man's voice they won't hear, but his
voice they'll hear. And he's able to hold up his
dog. He's able to give us grace and
keep us and turn us and move us and teach us. He'll call His
people. And the effectual result is they
shall run to Him. They're not going to run to a
nation. They're not going to run to a people. They're not going
to run to a church. They're not going to run to some
wooden bench they call an altar. They're going to run to Christ!
Because Christ is our all. Now look, here's the reason.
Here's the fourth thing. Why is this? Man has a will. How can he say with certainty
that he's going to call and men are going to answer? They're
going to run to Him. What preacher, what preacher
could honestly say, stand up and say, I can call and they're
going to run? Nobody. How can God say He's
going to call and they shall run to Christ? How can He say
that? Man's got a will. Man's got a will. And Scripture
says that will is adamantly opposed to God. The carnal mind's enmity
against God. So how's they going to be called
and made to run to Him? Here's how. Here's the reason. Verse 5. Because of the Lord
thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel, for He hath glorified
thee. That's why they're going to run
to Him. You see, the sinner gropes about in darkness for years and
years and years. He reads the Word of God and
he goes from this place to that place and he has maybe two or
three scriptures that he likes to go to because he can kind
of get a little bit of comfort from them. But really the Word
of God is a closed book to him. He looks in it and he's looking
for life in it. He's thinking, okay, what should
I do? Do I do this? He does it. Don't feel like I
got any life from it. He does some else. Don't feel
like I got any life from that. Just a little while, temporary
little A little soothing of the conscience, but then right back
into the same old, same old. Done no peace. So he joins the
church and he says, well, I'm going to do what they tell me
to do. He does whatever thing they tell him to do. He's passed
out so many tracts. He's about to make the dear ministry.
He's done all these things and still he don't have any comfort.
Still he's not satisfied that he can meet God without doing
one more thing. I've got to do something. I've
got to do a little more. And then one day God turns the light
on. He said, I've glorified thee. I glorify Christ. He turns the
light on in His people so that we behold the glory of God. Just like He said in the beginning,
let there be light. The text we saw this morning.
He shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus. And He shines
that light because of the Lord thy God. He did the work. He turned the light on for the
Holy One of Israel. He makes us to see there's just
one Holy One. That's Christ. And when you see
there's one Holy One... You know what you have to conclude
from that if you've got any sense whatsoever? I ain't holy. I'm not holy. If there's one
holy, I'm not holy. Indeed, He makes you to see He's
the Holy One of Israel. He's the Holy One of a particular
people. And He makes you believe that.
Otherwise you wouldn't believe that. You realize then that Israel
he's talking about, it's not a political nation. It's a chosen
people. And he makes you understand that.
He makes you see that because he turned the light on. And then
you find yourself saying, I want to be in that number. I want
to be that people. I want to be saved by him. I
need to be saved by him. I've got to be saved by him. And it's because He's glorified
Christ. Before your eyes, He's glorified
Christ. For the first time, the Holy
Ghost bears witness in our heart. This is what He says to you.
He says to you in your heart. He says, there are priests every
day offering the same sacrifices that can never take away sin.
And you think and you say, you know what? That's true. I see
men, preachers, Protestant papacy free will Sovereign grace all
different types and colors I see all these men trying to offer
sacrifices that can never take away sins and Here I am trying
to offer sacrifices that can never take away sins And then he says in your heart,
but this man Christ Jesus the Lord, when He
had by Himself made this one offering, He by Himself perfected
forever them that are sanctified. And you find the first time you
say, He perfected His people. He put the sin of His people
away. He accomplished the work He came
to do. Everybody that he died for are
saved. They're redeemed. They're perfected
forever And you begin to find yourself saying I want to be
in this number I want to be one. I need to be one. I need to be
saved by Christ And the reason you know this now Hebrews 10
says is where of the Holy Spirit is a witness to it And then he
tells you this, when he brought you to the point to where you
think, I don't have a hope. Nothing I've done is righteous.
Nothing I've done counts with God. It counts with men, but
who cares? It don't count with God. And
for the first time, you realize, I got no hope. I got nothing. Everything I thought was right
is wrong. And then you cry out for mercy
and say, Lord, I want, I need mercy. I can't, I'm not coming
on any other basis. I got no other basis. I'm coming
on Christ. In Christ, I'm coming asking
you for mercy for his sake alone. Save me for his glory. Save me
for his honor. Don't even, don't even do it
for my sake. Do it for his sake. And then the spirit of God whispers
in your heart and says, There's no more offering for
sin because God says He remembers your sin no more. Christ put
it away. Buddy, I'm going to tell you
something. That will make you drop all that
vanity, all that luggage that you've been carrying around trying
to please men and please your own self and please God. That
will make you drop that garbage, renounce it, hate it, despise
it, run away from it, leave it as far away from it as you can
get and hug up to Christ and say, Lord, I am yours. Take me
to glory. Carry me to glory. Why? Because of the Lord thy God. Because He has shown you the
Holy One of Israel. Because He has glorified Christ
before your eyes. Now, here is the next thing.
Here is the next thing. The exhortation to us from God
now. He says, verse 6, Seek ye the
Lord while he may be found. Call ye upon him while he is
near. God tells us in verse 5 what
He is going to do, what shall happen when He glorifies Christ
in the hearts of His people. They are going to run to Christ.
And then He tells us here, seek you the Lord, call you upon Him.
Is there any inconsistency here? He said He is going to do all
the work and He turns around and tells you, now you call on
Me. Is there any inconsistency there? You know over in Ezekiel
36, the Lord told him exactly how He was going to save His
people. He told him everything He was going to do to save His
people. How He was going to do the whole work and they were
going to do nothing but be saved. Passively be saved. But He said
this, I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel
to do it for them." In other words, God's going to do the
whole work, but He's going to have you sitting at His feet
while He does the work. Peanut comes to me and he walks
up beside me and he sits there and if I don't feed him he gets
to where he'll jump up and he'll just touch me with his paws on
my leg right here. He's wanting to let me know he's
there and he'll yelp at me sometimes because he want me to do it now. He want me to do it right then.
He want me to do it on his time like he wants it done and I was
telling Sit. Sit. Don't make a sound. Sit
here. Stop begging. Sit. And when He's
seated at my feet, and He's not begging anymore, and He's not
trying to make me give Him something, then I give it to Him. When Christ
tells us, call Him, He said, now you come to my feet, and
you sit down, and you ask me for this mercy, and I'm going
to give it to you. I'm going to give it to you.
You see that? He's going to have you. This
calling is all to the praise of the glory of God. But He's
going to have you come and call on Him. And you're going to have
to call on Him. Do you understand that? You're
going to have to call on Him. He's going to get all the glory for
making you do it. But you're going to call on Him
if you're going to be saved. That's so. That's not inconsistent
with grace whatsoever. Now, here's the good news. The
time is now. He says, seek you the Lord while
He may be found. Call you upon Him while He is
near. He is found now and He is near now. He can be found
now. He is near now. Call Him now. He is near. Call
on Him now. But that also means that there
is going to be a time when He won't be near and He won't be
found. So the time is now, brethren. The time is now. For you that's
never believed on Christ, you seek the Lord while He may be
with you. You call upon Him while He's near. In your heart, you
come to Christ confessing your sin and begging for mercy. Don't
come to me. Don't come to another person.
Don't come to a place. Go to Christ. In your heart.
You don't even have to move a toe to do that. Matthew's Scripture
says He left all and then He rose up and followed Christ.
He left everything before He even moved a toe. That's right. Come to Christ in your heart,
begging mercy. Come to His throne of grace.
Come to Him in His Word. Come to Him through the preaching
of the Gospel. Come to Him. Come to Christ. And for you that
do know Him, seek you the Lord while He may be found. Call on
Him while He's near. If He's spoken to you in your
heart today, it's because He's saying the same thing to you
and me. Seek me. Call on me now. And so we continue
to come to Christ. We don't ever stop coming to
Christ. We keep calling, keep calling, keep calling. We come
to Him in His Word. We come to Him through the Gospel.
We come to His throne of grace. But we come to Him. I pray God
will make you come to Him. This is the gift of God. The
gift of God. Amen.