Isaiah 53. We are going to begin
reading here in the middle part of verse 2. He hath no form, nor comeliness. This is speaking of the Lord
Jesus Christ when He came into this earth. He hath no form,
nor comeliness. And when we shall see Him, there
is no beauty that we should desire Him. No beauty that we should desire
Him. He is despised and rejected of
men. A man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces
from Him. He was despised and we esteemed
Him not. You know, the things which men
highly esteem are an abomination to God. And
the things God highly esteems is despised and rejected of men. Our text tells us here that when
Christ came, there was nothing about Him that would appeal to
a sinner. To the base, carnal, natural
desire of a sinner. There was nothing about Him that
would appeal. He hath no form nor comeliness. Majesty is what it means. And
when we shall see Him, there's no beauty that we should desire
Him. Now Christ Jesus was and is God. Equal with God. We know that
from Philippians chapter 2. It tells us who being in the
form of God. There's where he was in the beginning.
He was in the form of God. And thought it not robbery to
be equal with God. He's God. God the Son. Unto us
a child is born, unto us a son is given, the government shall
be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful
Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince
of Peace. They shall call his name Emmanuel,
which is God with us. That's who he is. He's God. But
when He came here, when He came to this earth to save His people
from our sins, He didn't come with that form. He made Himself
of no reputation, and He took upon Him the form of a servant,
and was made in the likeness of men. He had no form, nor comeliness. Let me tell you about a story.
Something that happened to a girl that lived just down the road
from me. This girl was poor. Very poor. And she was not married. And
this girl got pregnant. Came up pregnant. And she went
out of town to have the child. Probably because she didn't want
her family to be disgraced because she was having this illegitimate
child. Now, when folks sat down at the
dinner table, these are the kinds of things they were saying about
Mary. That's what they were saying
about Mary. They were saying this girl has, she got pregnant
and she's having an illegitimate child and she had to go off to
save her family disgrace. But that wasn't the case at all.
That's the conclusion we draw from looking at the appearance
of things. That's what we think about when
we just look at what we can see with these eyes. The scripture
says of Christ he won't judge after the seeing of the eye like
we do. God looks on the heart. He doesn't
judge things with the seeing of the eye. The truth of the
matter was, this girl was a sinner alright, but she was a chosen
child of God. And she was saved by God's grace
just like every other sinner saved by His grace. The Holy
Ghost had overshadowed her, and that holy thing formed in her
womb is called the Son of God. That was the truth. That was
the truth. She left town, not because she
was trying to hide her family from disgrace. She left town
because it was written in the Scriptures, and Christ is fulfilling
the Scriptures. You see, We do wrong to try to
judge by the form and by the comeliness, by the outward appearance. Sinners are truly, sinners who
were truly bastard sons of Adam, truly sons of the devil, look
Christ in the face and they implied to the only begotten Son of God
that He was an illegitimate child. They said, We be not born of
fornication. We have one Father, even God.
What do you think they meant by that? He backed them in a
corner and told them, your father's the devil. They said, no, we're
not an illegitimate child. See, our Savior's despised and
he's rejected of men because men see things about our Savior
that there's no form, there's no comeliness about him to desire
him. Christ was born into poverty. Luke tells us that she brought
forth her firstborn son, wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and
laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in
the inn. They went to Bethlehem to be taxed. The scripture's
being fulfilled. They went to Bethlehem to be
taxed. And that town's crowded with a bunch of folks because
everybody's in town to be taxed. And so they go to the inn and
the inn's all booked up. But you know, if Joseph had been
a man of means, with a nine-month pregnant wife, don't you reckon
the inn would have said, we can find someplace for you to sleep?
This man was poor. He went to a cow barn. That's
where they went. They went to a cow barn. When
Mary gave birth to the great physician, they didn't even have
money to have a physician present. There wasn't a midwife. We don't
read anything about that in the scripture. God the Son wasn't
laid on clean sheets in a nice little crib somewhere. They laid
him where they put hay and feed a feed trough. That's what a
manger is. It's a feed trough where they
put the feed for the cows and the donkeys and everything to
come eat out of. I was thinking about all the
fanfare that went on a couple of months ago when Prince William
had the prince. You know, the one that's in line
for the throne. Man, it was headlines all over
the world. because of this one that was
born. And here's the one we're talking about. He's the prince
of life that was born. And it wasn't like it is at Christmas
time when he was born. Folks weren't standing on every
corner ringing bells and singing joy to the world. Herod was trying
to kill every male child because he was trying to get him out
of the earth. Satan was trying to get him from accomplishing
the purpose God sent him for, to redeem his people. You see,
there's no majesty in poverty. No form in poverty. No majesty
in poverty to attract sinners. There's no beauty about poverty. When's the last time you heard
a mother or a father or a young person say, Oh, I hope she grows
up to live in poverty. We don't want that. We attach
negative connotations to that. The scriptures attach nothing
but negativity to riches. But that's what we go after.
And say, I don't want them to be in poverty. You see, we attach
things to poverty like this. We think, well, we assume that
God hasn't blessed a poor person. This one who came into the earth
is God-blessed forever. We assume when we look at a poor
person that they're uneducated. This is He who made the world.
We assume when we look at a poor person that there's something
wrong in their past. This is the spotless Lamb of
God. We assume when we look at a poor
person that we're better than they are. This one was better
than every single person on the planet. Past, present, and future. So judging things by the outward
appearance and looking at the poverty of somebody, that's probably
not a good idea, is it? Probably not a real good idea. The first time Christ was brought
to the temple, we see something of how men would have found no
form of comeliness in the way he would later worship. Look
over it. Well, you don't have to turn there. I'll just give
it to you. But when they came up to Jerusalem after eight days
to circumcise him, Mary and Joseph offered the sacrifices that God
provided in the law for poor folks. They came up there and
offered a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons. That was
what poor people were to offer who couldn't afford a lamb. God
is so gracious. He provided this in his law for
his poor children that they could offer pigeons or turtle doves. And so as he grew older and he
comes to the temple with Mary and Joseph, the scribes and the
Pharisees, everybody there recognized him. They know who he is. That's
the boy whose mom and daddy always offered the pigeons. You see,
church folks, good, pious, holy church folks, they don't put
a man's name on the back of the church bench who offers pigeons. He's got to offer a lot more
than that. to get his name on a parking spot because men esteem
great sacrifices, great works, great offerings, great buildings,
great, great, great, that's what men's looking for, great, great,
great thing. Self-righteous formalists do
not esteem menial sacrifices at all. While they're looking
at the rich man who's offering this abundant amount of money,
Christ is looking at the poor widow who's giving more abundantly
than they all because she's giving what everything she's got. It's
just two little mints. Formalists esteem great things
because they equate those things as meaning that God is present. You know what? When you don't
have God in your heart, in your spirit, and He's not speaking
to you and witnessing to you in the heart, in the midst of
your religion, you gotta have something outwardly to keep you
going. You gotta have something that
makes you appear God's in it. Don't you? Let me tell you what Christ said
about places so highly esteemed of men. Matthew 24. Matthew 24
and verse 1. It says there, Jesus went out
and departed from the temple and his disciples came to him
for to show him the buildings of the temple. Can't you just
picture it? And those were some impressive
buildings. They were impressive buildings. And they stopped the
Lord Jesus and they said, Lord, just look at these buildings.
Would you just look at this temple right here? Would you just look
at how grand this place is right here? With the courts and all
the furniture and everything in it. And you know the truth
of the matter? God had not been in that place
until Christ walked in that place. For hundreds of years He hadn't
been involved in it. There wasn't an ark in the holy
place anymore. The Shekinah glory was gone from
that place. Everything that was going on
in that place was a charade. a form of religion, a form of
godliness, but the power was gone. The power was gone. And Christ said to him, verse
2, Jesus said unto him, See ye not all these things? Verily
I say unto you, there shall not be left here one stone upon another
that shall not be thrown down. Boys, you're looking at the wrong
temple. That's what he's telling them. These things right here
are going to be destroyed. But he told them, you destroy
this temple. And he's talking about himself. And he said, in
three days I'll raise it again. I'll raise it again. That's the
temple to look to. Matthew 23, there in verse 27. Listen to what he said. Woe unto
you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like unto whited
sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within
full of dead men's bones and of all uncleanness. Even so,
you also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within you're full
of hypocrisy and iniquity." We were down in New Orleans a couple
years ago and it was after Hurricane Katrina had come. And we went
to a cemetery down there. And you know, if you've ever
been in New Orleans at the cemeteries, the sepulchers are above ground
down there because it's marshy. You can't bury folks in the ground.
And we were walking through this cemetery, and there was one of
them there, and it had just been painted. I mean, it was bright
white, pretty. They took care to paint it, but
it was open. It was open. I walked up to it
and looked in it, and Emma walked up, we looked inside it, and
it was black and dusty. and had cobwebs all over it and
just dirty, dirty inside. That's what the Lord's saying
about these folks, these folks who were in this big nice building
and had all these works and they would stand and make these long
prayers and they wore these nice robes with the commandments written
on them, on the hem of the garments and all these things and people
were saying, man, God's in the middle of that. And God said,
no, it's just a whitewashed building, sepulcher, whitewashed grave,
and inside it's just full of dead men's bones. I don't want
to be like that. Do you? So we see here, we don't
need to be judging by the appearance of, well, they got a lot of big
stuff. That doesn't mean God's not in
big stuff. But that don't mean God is in
big stuff. Now look here, then men esteem
a noble occupation. Look at Mark 6, Mark chapter
6. Men esteem a very noble occupation. But the trade that our Savior
held was one of no esteem. He worked with Joseph as a carpenter. And look at what they said here
in Mark 6 and verse 3. They said, Is not this the carpenter,
the son of Mary? The brother of James and Josie
and Judah and Simon are not his sisters here with us. And they
were offended at him. They said, we don't want to hear
a carpenter preaching to us. A carpenter? Sinners pay high
regard to form, to a form of religious education. They like
that, you know. John, look at John 7. John 7
and verse 15. Christ knew the Scriptures. You
know why He knew the Scriptures? Because He gave the Scriptures.
He gave the Scriptures to the Holy Prophets to write them.
Peter said they wrote what the Spirit of Christ moved them to
write. That's why they wrote them. So He knew the Scriptures.
He could tell you anything about them. He wrote them. And they
heard Him preach and they said in John 7, 15, the Jews marveled
saying, How knoweth this man letters, having never learned? And you know what they were saying?
They were saying, How does he know the scriptures like he knows
them? He hadn't been in our schools. He hadn't been in our seminaries.
He hadn't been in our universities. How does he know what he knows?
They were probably thinking, if we could get him in here with
us, we could get a lot of people to come just to find out how
much he knows. They'd come in here just to hear
him quote scripture. They knew he wasn't trained at
their feet. But remember who they were speaking to? You know
who they were talking to? I'll tell you who they were talking
to. The one of whom it said, who hath directed the Spirit
of the Lord, or being his counselor, hath taught him. with whom took
he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path
of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and showed to him the way of
understanding. Look at John 1. I'll show you
who this is. This is ironic, I guess, lack
of a better word. John 1, look at this. John 1.1,
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and
the Word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. All things were made by Him,
and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was
life, and the life was the light of men, and the light shined
in darkness. And the darkness comprehended
it not. Look at verse 10. He was in the world, and the
world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto
his own, and his own received him not. Now you just think of
that. Here's these men that's proud of their grand education
they've got. And they're confronting the incarnate
word. As if he's an uneducated sinner. So, I don't guess if we hear
a man and he's preaching the gospel and he's saying ain't
every now and then and he's not saying things correctly as he
ought to I don't reckon we ought to pay that too much attention,
do you? Here's a man who didn't have any education that they
had and yet this man is the incarnate word I don't care. I see, you know, folks go to
great lengths to put footnotes and stuff in their sermon notes
and things like that. I did all that for four years
in college. But you know what? I don't care
about that kind of form at all. I don't care if somebody takes
what I've written and preach it verbatim and say that they
prepared it and just so as they preach it verbatim. I don't care
if they use it, take some of it, cut it out and use it. I
got it all from somebody. And in worst case scenario, if
you trace it all right back, we all either got it from Peter,
James, John, Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah. You got it from a man. Somewhere
along the way. And every man got it from God. So I don't really care about
any of that stuff. I'm not trying to impress intellectual folks.
I don't really care about that. I want to see sinners brought
to a faith in Christ. That's what I want. I don't really
care about the rest of the stuff. Well, sinners esteem highly a
form of religious authority. Look at Matthew 21. Sinners esteem
authority, you know, position, a name, especially if it's a
religious authority. I never do tell people that I'm
a preacher because they'll just be talking and being normal and
carrying on with you and the moment they find out you're a
preacher, oh man, it's blessed day, have a blessed day, I was
blessed by that, it's blessing, everything's a blessing, blessing,
blessing, blessing, blessing. And it just, they quickly start
acting phony around you. Listen to this, Matthew 21, 23.
When he was coming to the temple, the chief priests and the elders
of the people came unto him as he was teaching. They said, by
what authority doest thou these things? Who gave thee this authority? These weak, worthless sinners
are saying to God, asking Him, where did you get your authority
to be in our temple teaching people and healing people and
doing the things you're doing? Let me remind you who this is
again. This is he of whom it's written, All the inhabitants
of the earth are reputed as nothing. And he doeth according to his
will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the
earth, and none can stay his hand or say unto him, What doest
thou? That's who this one is. They
couldn't take their next breath without God giving it to them,
the one standing right there in their midst, and they're using
the breath they got to question him and ask him, where'd you
get your authority? I knew an old farmer one time,
it was a grace preacher. Wasn't very much impressive about
this man. but he did know the gospel and he was talking to
this works preacher one day and I was sitting there listening
and he sort of backed this works preacher into a corner on his
doctrine and he was just telling the truth what he was doing and
it just exposed the error that this fellow was in and what he
was saying and you know how the works preacher responded? Who
ordained you? That's what he said. Who ordained
you? Where did you get your authority?
Alright, let's look here secondly. The thing that men despised and
rejected most about Christ, our Savior, was his gospel. His gospel. If he had promised them earthly
rewards and if he had told them, you know, that He would be a
king for them and give them temporal redemption and temporal gifts
and all these things. They'd have bowed to him and
they'd have followed him and they'd have done whatever he
wanted them to do. But when he said, all that the Father giveth
me shall come to me. What now? He said all that the Father gave
to him would come to him. And he said, except you eat my
flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in you. And they
said, man, this is a hard saying. Who can
hear something like that? When they came to Him of their
own accord, when it was by their own power, when they called themselves
His disciples by what they had done, then they'd follow Him. But when He said, it's the Spirit
that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak
unto you, they're Spirit and they're life. And then He said
this, right, I mean the next verse now, He said that, and
then He said, but there's some of you that believe not. And this is why he said it. Listen.
And he said, therefore, and he and he said, therefore, said
I unto you that no man can come unto me except it were given
unto him of my father. He said, he said, there's some
of you here that don't believe. That's why I just made this statement
that you can't come to me except my father draws you. And they're sitting there saying,
well we're your disciples. And he's saying, some of you
aren't. Because you can't come to me
unless my father sends you, draws you. And it says, and from that
time many of his disciples went back and walked no more with
him. What happened? Why'd they go
back? Well, Christ exposed that their discipleship was of their
own making. That's why they went back. You
see, before I was a pastor, and since then, before I was ever
a pastor and since then, I've seen quite a few men and women
who would sit under the gospel for a while. And some for a long
while. And then, they went away. They went away. And this is what
I have seen. This is what I have personally
seen. Several of them have told me
why they went away. And this is what I tell you about.
When they began to hear the gospel, they realized if this gospel
is the truth, then my profession and my experience is false. And I'm lost. But rather than let go of their
profession and bow to Christ, they hung on to their profession
and went away. That's what they did in John
6. That's exactly what they did. You see, that's what the gospel
does. The gospel is meant to expose
our sin. Here's what it does. Here's what
it does. It's when he says, except you
take up your cross and follow me. He makes a man, he draws a line.
He makes a man either choose to save his life or lose his
life and follow Christ and be saved eternally. Look over at
John chapter 10. John chapter 10. You see, when he was feeding
people and when he was doing miracles and he was doing all
those things, folks didn't have a problem with him. Here's what
they had a problem with. All those other things I talked
about Those other things we talked about at the beginning, those
were things they used to justify not hearing his gospel. This
man's not educated. This man is a sinner. We know his family, everybody.
Those were things they were using as the smoke screen. But the
issue they had was he had exposed their heart. That was the issue.
Look at John 10 verse 14. He said, I am the good shepherd,
and I know my sheep, and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth
me, even so know I the Father, and I lay down my life for the
sheep. And other sheep I have which
are not of this fold, them also I must bring, they shall hear
my voice. And there should be one fold
and one shepherd. Therefore doth my Father love
me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No
man takes it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power
to lay it down, I have power to take it again. This commandment
have I received of my Father. There was a division therefore
again among the Jews for these sayings. That's what the problem
was. Can you... Now listen, I'm going
to be fair with you. I'm going to be fair with you.
A person will say, you couldn't expect for me to honestly believe
that somebody walks up to me that I know personally and tells
me the child she just had, she had it and she had never known
a man. And that child is God, the Son of God. And then that
child grows up, you see him grow up in your community, you see
him every day, you know his mama, his daddy, his aunts and uncles,
and everybody, and then he starts preaching like nobody has ever
preached before. And you say, I don't know where
he learned how to do that, but he's saying he's God. And he's
saying God's his father. And he's saying God his father
gave him these people that are his elect. I thought I was the
elect of God. I grew up in Israel. Abraham
is my father. I've been walking under the law
of Moses and doing everything Moses told me to do. And this
man is telling me none of that matters. He came to fulfill the
law and he's the righteousness of the law. And that he is the
shepherd of his sheep. And that his sheep hear his voice
and they follow him. And he's telling me I don't hear
him. Now you couldn't expect somebody
in that position to believe on him. Honestly, I couldn't. It's just beyond a man to do
it. That's why he said, they hear my voice and I know them
effectually and they follow me. Because he has to give the faith,
he has to give the heart and they follow him. What caused
the division? It was his gospel. It was the
sayings. Look down at verse 24. What do
men find so offensive about it? Verse 24. Then came the Jews
round about him and said unto him, How long dost thou make
us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us
plainly. It's always the preacher's fault,
ain't it? That's what they said. It's your fault you won't say
it plain enough. And so he said, okay, I'll say
it plainly. I told you And you believe not. The works that I do in my Father's
name, they bear witness of me. But you believe not, because
you are not my sheep, as I said unto you. My sheep hear my voice,
and I know them, and they follow me. I give unto them eternal
life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand. My Father which gave them me
is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of
my Father's hand. I and my Father are one. Then
the Jews took up stones again to stone him. You know, it's
something that is not a comfortable thing to come to a place and
preach. I don't have this issue here. It's a delight to preach
here because you rejoice in the gospel. But I have preached in
places and I have preached at times when when you were preaching
it was a chore to preach because there were folks there that didn't
like what was being said. But I've never preached anywhere
where I had to worry about somebody picking up rocks and throwing
them at me. But when Christ preached, they picked up stones. And I'm
telling you, they were doing what they did. They thought they
were doing it according to the law, because the law said if
a man blasphemed God, stone him to death. And they weren't just
throwing a few little stones at him to run him off. They were
trying to kill him. Look here, in verse 32, Jesus
answered them, said, Many good works have I showed you from
my Father, for which of those works do you stone me? The Jews
answered him, said, For a good work we stone thee not. You can
feed us all you want to, you can heal our people all you want
to, you can preach a health and wealth prosperity gospel all
you want to, and we'll leave you alone. but for blasphemy, because that
thou being a man makest thyself God. We don't like the fact that
you are taking the work of salvation out of our hands. We don't like
the fact that you're telling us that your Father chooses whom
He will and that He gives them to you and the Son comes forth
and works out a righteousness for them and puts away their
sins by laying down His life and then takes it again and goes
to the Father and then sends forth the Holy Spirit and calls
His sheep by name and calls them out. We don't like you being
God. That's what we don't like. And
that is what all Will works religion has a problem with. They don't
like God being God. He can be absolutely sovereign
over that blue bird out there. But he can't be absolutely sovereign
in salvation. They hate that. They hate that. Because it takes all the work
out of the man's hand. And it declares the whole works
of God. And man hates that message. The second thing men hate is,
is that man can't bring himself to believe our gospel by his
own will. He knows he can't do it. Neither
can he contribute any of his own works. Not even man's own
wisdom avails him anything, and that offends a natural, unregenerate
religious man. A man may listen for a while,
he might listen for a long while, but eventually the sharp edged
sword penetrates down to the thoughts and intents of his heart.
And when it does, judgment is laid to the line. Righteousness
to the plummet. The hell sweeps away the refuge
of lies. The water overflows the hiding
place. His covenant with death is disannulled. And his agreement with hell,
it doesn't stand anymore. And the overflowing scourge passes
through, and he's trodden down by it. And from the time that
it starts going forth, from morning by morning, it passes over him
day by night, and it's a vexation just to understand the gospel
anymore. If you could see him from the
pulpit, he looks like his veins are about to pop out of his head.
His face turns to red. That's what happened. That's
what happened. Because all of a sudden, he was
stretched out on this big bed he made by himself, and he was
sleeping fine in it. And the more he hears that gospel,
the narrower that bed gets, and the more them sheets start shrinking
up, and all his bed of works and all his sheets of religion
that he's been in gets too narrow for him and too short for him
to stretch out on. Now, let me give you a few things
here to remember. First of all, it's no accident. Now listen to me carefully. It's
no accident that the only thing that some of you here see in
Jesus of Nazareth is a man with no form nor comeliness and no
beauty that makes you desiring. That's not by accident. By Christ
appearing without form and without comeliness, He teaches us how
insignificant in God's sight are all the flattering distinctions
that men so highly esteem. He said this, You are they which
justify yourselves before men, but God knoweth your hearts,
for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the
sight of God. If you don't believe on Christ
and you're fond of saying, well, I believe this or I believe that,
then let me assure you of something. Now listen carefully. The things
you highly esteem are an abomination in the sight of God. There's a way which seemeth right
unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. The natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God because
they're foolishness unto him, neither can he know them because
they're spiritually discerned. We're so impressed and we're
so swayed by circumstances of noble birth and of imminent rank
and of great power by riches and pomp and superficial flash
that we're eager to show respect to stately, majestic fellows.
But Christ had none of those worldly attractions. And we can't bring ourselves
to esteem Him. We just can't. I couldn't. I couldn't. I'm not
talking down to you, whoever you are. I'm just telling you,
I know it. I was there. I know what that's like. You
just can't. You can't. Yet in despising Christ, in using
His lowliness and His manhood, saying it's just like us, and
saying that's all proof that He was just another man, What you do is you condemn the
ways of God. By saying that virgin birth business
and that business of him taking our flesh and all that when he
looked just like a man just like us and he was born just like
we are and he came out just like we are and you use that to say
that's why I can't believe it. What a man's doing is he's condemning
God's way because that's the way God chose to send him in
there. By Christ coming in a humble,
suffering state, God shows that earthly poverty is no proof of
a bad character. It's no proof of a fraud. It's
no proof that unbelievers so pompously and vainly used to
judge. That's not proof at all. The
truth is, look at 1 Corinthians 1.25. Here's the truth. 1 Corinthians 1.25. Here's the
truth. Here's why God chose this way. Look at verse 25. The foolishness
of God is wiser than men. And the weakness of God is stronger
than men. For you see your calling, brethren,
how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not
many noble are called, but God hath chosen the foolish things
of the world to confound the wise. God hath chosen the weak
things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.
and base things of the world, and things which are despised
hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught
things that are, that no flesh shall glory in his presence.
This is God's way of bringing us to nothing. So judge not according
to the appearance, Christ said, but judge righteous judgment. And remember, remember this,
the Lord, remember what he told Samuel when he sent him to call
out David? He said, look not on his countenance or on the
height of his stature, because I have refused him. The tall
man, the built man, the strong man, it looks like he would make
a good warrior king. He said, that's not the one I
chose. He chose this boy that had a soft complexion and was
pretty, but he didn't look like a soldier. He wasn't a man's
man. He wasn't the one they'd look
at and say, now that right there is a king. No, no. David was redheaded with white
skin, cream porcelain skin, and looked like a little boy. God said, that's the one I'm
gonna choose. Not because he was pretty, but because that
was the opposite of what men would esteem. You see, God called
Paul and used Paul. And men always say, see there,
He called a mighty one there. No, He called one that men would
not esteem. He called one that men would
look down on with disdain, because Paul was one of the elite Pharisees
of Pharisees, who was a ruler over everybody, who kept that
yoke on everybody. They despised those men. He was
a man who went around, and if anybody said something contrary,
he'd whip them. And if they said something about
Christ, he'd stole them to death. And he said, there's one right
there, people. People will run from that one.
I'm going to use him. and make him so meek and so mild
that people will just be amazed that he's one I'm using. He said,
don't look on the outward appearance. The Lord seeth not as man seeth. For man looketh on the outward
appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart. Secondly, here's
the second thing. You know by appearing in this
uncomely form, this state, without any form to make men desire him,
by choosing a bloody cross, by allowing men to nail him to a
cursed tree, by choosing to use the foolishness of the preaching
of the gospel, by calling out fishermen and despised men that
he used. All of these foolish things God
used. You know what God manifests by
that? That it's the power of the dunamis. That it's the power
of the gospel that calls a man to faith in Christ. It can't
be the messengers he's using. There's nothing about them. It
can't be any of the... I mean, these things we just
said. You look at these things and you think, I cannot believe
on those things. And then yet you have men who
see Christ with the eye of faith and this one who was despised
and rejected and had no form about him and no beauty about
him and all you saw was just something to despise. Now, we
see him, and his countenance is as Lebanon, excellent as the
cedars, his mouth is most sweet, yea, he's altogether lovely.
And you say, what did that? Not by might, and not by power,
but by my Spirit, saith the Lord. By the gospel, the power of God,
that did it. That proves, we behold the branch
of the Lord, beautiful and glorious, the fruit of the earth, excellent
and comely for them that are escaped of Israel. Where before,
we just beheld a man. A poor man. where squatters see
a bloody, pathetic victim hanging on a cross. That's what we saw.
That's what we looked at. Now, because of the dynamite
exploding inside of us, we see a conquering monarch there now.
We see one by whom our warfare is accomplished and our iniquities
pardoned, in whom we're made the righteousness of God, one
that we've been accepted in. That's what we see now. We see
precious blood, blood that redeemed us and ransomed us from the fall.
while the wise and the prudent look down their holy noses and
they won't receive Him? What made the difference? The
grace of God made the difference. The power of God came and by
His grace we've been brought down off that same high horse
and been brought down to the dust of our depravity. And now
we look up at Him in adoration for what He's done for us. He
made us to behold His glory, the glory as of the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth. Perfect love that
we once rejected, now we receive. Perfect purity that we once reviled,
now we rejoice in. Perfect holiness we once blasphemed,
now our beloved. Perfect mercy we once scorned,
now our Savior. Nothing changed about Him. Everything
changed about us. And he gets the glory for doing
it. So the first thing, don't look on the appearance. The second
thing, know that by all these foolish things he uses, he said,
I've done it to make you see that it's my glory that accomplished
it. Of God are you in Christ. Of
God is he made unto you wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. That no flesh should glory in his presence,
but glory in him only. And then thirdly, Believer, consider
what a great blessing it is for us that our Savior willingly
took that giant step from heaven's glory to that manger. Because
he had to grow up in wisdom and stature as a man. And he had
to suffer men ridiculing him and mocking him and making fun
of him. And he had to suffer when he
preached the gospel to men that he wanted them to hear the gospel. He wanted his father glorified.
He wanted men bowing to his father. But yet when he preached the
gospel, he had to suffer men turning their backs on him and
going away from him and saying, we won't walk with you. He had to suffer men that were
his true apostles that he had called walking side by side with
him for a long time and then one day asking him some off-the-wall
question like they ain't never even heard the gospel before.
And he said, have I been with you this long and you don't know
what I'm talking about? But you see, because he suffered
all those things, brethren, when our mamas and daddies and sisters
and brothers are forsaken us, and when they're disowning us,
and when we're trying to tell somebody the gospel and we're
just praying that God will give them a heart to understand it,
and they just won't hear it, they won't hear it, they turn
back on us, and they won't do it. When that dear brother or
that dear sister that's walked with us for so long starts tripping
and stumbling for some reason that you just can't figure out,
and you say, You've heard the gospel this whole time, why are
you having trouble with it now? You see, when all that happens,
Christ Jesus, our Advocate with the Father, our High Priest,
who's touched with the feeling of our infirmities, cause He
took that step and came up from a child all the way back up to
where He is now in glory. He can take one hand and reach
down into your heart and lift you up and turn your chin up
and point you to Him and spill out grace into your heart and
make you to see that He's got you and He's carrying you and
He will not ever let you go. And while He's doing that, at
the same time, He's your advocate with the Father and He's making
intercession for all the sins that you're committing while
you're doing it. So that God's smiling with approval and saying,
Keep them, hold them, save them. Don't let them go. And he's holding
them and keeping them and saving them and won't let them go. We
got to go between brethren. He knows what it's like. We've
been touched with the feeling of our infirmities and in all
points tempted as like as we are. Let us therefore come boldly
to his throne of grace. When's the last time you went
to God's throne of grace? I don't mean just mumbled some
prayers, I mean went there. Every now and then he brings
us there, don't he? Sometimes we pray. When he puts the prayer
in our heart, on our lips, and brings us to his feet, now and
again we pour out our heart to him. And when you do, you know what
happens? You always obtain mercy and find grace to help in time
of need. Always. Always. Always. So this is what I'm saying to
you. In a day when perception is all that matters, aren't you
just sick of superficial junk that men esteem so highly? The business, you know, I tell
you, it's not what the reality is. Perception's all that matters. Get you some, something that
glitters. Get you something that looks like you own a lot of,
what do they call it? Like you got some ice. Jewelry
and stuff, what do they call it? Bling, yeah, bling. Get you some bling. That's all
that matters. Bling. It don't matter what's underneath,
they say. And that's all that matters with the world. That's
all that matters. I'm glad, I'm glad in a world
when our leaders are voting themselves pay raises and they're in an
ivory tower too tall to even have anything to do with the
common poor man anymore. They're going to live for the
rest of their lives with a silver spoon and we're going to pay
for it. They're gonna dance and we're gonna fiddle. That's right. I'm glad in the midst that I
have a Savior who walked where I walked, suffered what I've
suffered, and has redeemed me from all iniquity so that though
He's exalted higher than them all and has every one of them
in His hand, doing what He'll have them to do, I can rest in
knowing He's given me a heart and He knows that heart. That's
not a bad thing for a believer. He knows it. He knows it. When we don't know it and we're
looking at our works and trying to find something in us, so foolishly
trying to find something in us, He knows the heart He put there.
That's right. And He knows the faith He's given
and He's created. And He keeps us. That's a comfort. We have a Savior ruling everything. So, I say unto you, he said, verily,
verily, I say unto you, except you be converted and become as
little children, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.
That's what he became. And he said, whosoever therefore
shall humble himself as this little child, the same is the
greatest in the kingdom of heaven. You see, what I'm trying to tell
you is don't look on the outward appearance. All this world is,
it's a glittered up, bedazzled basket that was made in China
and is going to hell. That's what it is. Don't get
in that basket. Don't get in that Broadway. Don't
you want to look deeper? Don't you want to have some more
substance to yourself? Don't you want to have some more
root to yourself? Go to Christ, go to Him and ask
Him to fill you with that love and that peace that passes knowledge.
Ask Him to make you rooted and grounded. He'll give you some
substance, real substance. He'll give you faith to see where
the real substance is. I pray he'll give us grace to
come down off of that bedazzled throne of self-made dominion
and get down at the feet of Christ in the dust where the real joy
is and where the realness is. Amen.