In Isaiah chapter 8, we'll begin
reading in verse 11. Read down to our text for this
morning. Isaiah 8, 11. Isaiah said, For the Lord spake
thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me that I should
not walk in the way of this people, saying, Say ye not a confederacy,
or make not an unlawful alliance to all them to whom this people
shall say a confederacy, neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid. Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself,
and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread, and he
shall be for sanctuary. But for a stone of stumbling,
and for a rock of a fence to both the houses of Israel, for
a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And
many among them shall stumble and fall and be broken and be
snared and be taken. Bind up the testimony, seal the
law among my disciples. Still the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Lord of hosts speaking, And I will wait upon the Lord that
hideth his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for
him. Behold, I am the children whom
the Lord hath given me for signs and for wonders in Israel from
the Lord of hosts which dwelleth in Mount Zion. Now here's our
text. And when they shall say unto
you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards
that peep and that mutter, should not a people seek unto their
God? For the living to the dead, to
the law and to the testimony, if they speak not according to
this word, it is because there is no light in them." The believer is made to truly
rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ whenever Christ sends forth one
of his messengers preaching the gospel. And the reason that believer
rejoices in the heart is because Christ Jesus, the Lord, through
the Spirit, testifies, bears witness to his word in the heart
of the believer. He teaches us through the Spirit
in our hearts. Isaiah there said in verse 11,
he said, for the Lord spake thus to me with a strong hand and
instructed me. This word here is the Lord spoke
to me in power. And the Lord instructed me irresistibly
by His word of grace. Either we've been instructed
by the power of God, and we trust Christ alone, or we've not been
instructed at all. There's no gray area there. And
so, when we come to this text there, the Lord says in verse
20, to the law and to the testimony, to this word of my grace, if
they speak not according to this word, it is because there is
no light in them. Look with me at 2 Corinthians
2. I want to go through here a little
lengthy passage of Scripture, but I want to make a few comments,
and I want you to see that Christ is the one who teaches in the
heart, and there's no guesswork about this. In 2 Corinthians
2, in verse 14, Paul said, Now thanks be unto God, which
always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest
the savor of his knowledge by us in every place. God always
causes his messengers to preach the word in truth. And it's God
in Christ who continually manifests the sweet savor of His truth
in His messengers, to His messengers. And therefore when they preach,
That gospel they preach is unto God, a sweet savor unto God,
because it's the message of His Son. It's the glorious, sweet
message of the full, accomplished redemption of His Son. And wherever
He's put that message in the heart, wherever He sent forth
His messenger with that message, He causes them to always triumph,
always. And look here with me, verse
15, for we are unto God a sweet savor of Christ. Now notice this,
in them that are saved and in them that perish. To the one
we are the savor of death unto death, and to the other the savor
of life unto life. And who's sufficient for these
things? For we're not as many which corrupt the word of God,
but as of sincerity But as of God, in the sight of God, speak
we in Christ. Paul says God's so triumphant
in effectually teaching his children the truth. He says, our gospel
is sent forth as of God, as if it's God speaking to you, because
it is. Now look, read on. Chapter 3. Do we begin again to commend
ourselves, or need we, as some, epistles of commendation to you,
or letters of commendation from you? Ye are our epistle, now
listen to this, written in our hearts, known and read of all
men. Now listen how God affectually
teaches those who hear his messenger, who hear his gospel. For as much
as you are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ,
ministered by us. They were the vessels used as
Christ wrote this epistle. But now look where it's written.
Christ wrote it, but it's written not with ink, but with the spirit
of the living God. Not in tables of stone, but in
fleshly tables of the heart. That's how he bears witness and
writes His law in our hearts, writes His word, makes His everlasting
covenant with us is through the Spirit of God. The babe in Christ,
the babe in Christ who's been born of the Spirit of God may
not be able to dissect the various branches of the doctrine of Christ
and tell you what they are and this and that as the Spirit bears
out. But everyone that's born of the
Spirit of God, from the first hour they're born of God, they
know, they know fully, as fully as they'll know it in this lifetime,
they know fully that all spiritual blessings are freely, freely
given to us in Christ Jesus. They're free. They're absolutely
by the sovereign grace of God in Christ Jesus, not according
to our works of righteousness whatsoever. The babe in Christ
knows that because that's the fundamental. When God purges
our conscience from dead works to serve the living God, it's
because He makes us behold that everything else is vanity. Everything else but Christ is
vanity. And we trust Him alone from the
first hour. Now look, read on with me here.
Verse 4, and such trust have we through Christ to Godward. Not that we're sufficient of
ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency
is of God. who also, by this same power
of divine revelation in the heart, who also hath made us able ministers
of the New Testament." You know, there are some ministers who
stand, who preach and claim to preach the everlasting covenant.
They claim to preach the New Testament. There's a difference
in the way God's messengers teach it and the way those who haven't
been sent of God teach it. Paul says here, We don't, not
of the letter. We don't preach this message
of the letter. Some people read this, whether
they're reading the Old Testament, the Law and the Prophets, or
the Psalms, or they're reading the New Testament, as it's translated,
called in our Bibles. If they're reading the Gospels,
or they're reading the Epistles, it's just a letter. It's just
a letter. They go to it to see, okay, how
can I obey God? What can I do to please God?
It's just a letter to them, is all it is. He says, that's not
how we minister, but of the Spirit. For the letter killeth. That's
all it does. It killeth. But the Spirit giveth
life. Seeing then that we have such
hope, that Christ has done this in us, He's made us able ministers
of this Gospel and He's able to teach His people in the heart.
Seeing we have this hope. Listen, we use great plainness
of speech. Oh, what liberty to be able to
just tell the truth and trust God to do with it as he's pleased.
And he says, and not as Moses, he gives us an example here,
which put a veil over his face that the children of Israel could
not steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished. That
which is abolished is the law, and the end of it is Christ.
Those unbelieving Israelites who didn't have the Spirit of
grace working in them, couldn't see to the end of that law. They
couldn't see Christ coming. They couldn't see the Messiah
is the one of whom the Scripture spoke. And he says, But their
minds were blinded, verse 14, for until this day remaineth
the same veil untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament,
which is done away in Christ. But even unto this day, when
Moses is read, the veil's upon their heart. Nevertheless, when
it, or when the Holy Spirit shall turn them to the Lord, the veil
shall be taken away. And not until then, but notice
the certainty of this word. But when He turns them, it shall
be taken away. They'll know Him. They'll know
Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. Now look,
will they partly hold that salvation is by the works of man's righteousness
and partly that salvation is of the Lord Jesus? Will they
halt between two opinions? Paul says there's not the slightest
possibility that they will. Why? Verse 17. Now the Lord is
that Spirit. And where the Spirit of the Lord
is, there's liberty. Liberty to behold Him. Liberty
to have the veil taken away from the Scriptures that we might
behold Him in God's Word. And behold that from cover to
cover, this is a hymn book. It's all about hymn. Every bit
of it. And he says here, And those who are born of the Spirit,
taught by the Lord Jesus Christ in the heart, have this veil
removed, and they behold Christ. Verse 18, but we all, talking
about the one who this Spirit dwells, with open face, beholding
as in a mirror the glory of the Lord. We look into this book,
not for anything that we're in weak in glory, but we look into
this book and behold the glory of the Lord. And we're changed
into the same image from glory to glory by the Spirit of the
Lord. Now, next Paul says, it's by
this ministering from the Lord Jesus Christ in the hearts of
His messengers that His messengers are not swayed by opposition. They're not swayed by what men
are going to say or how men are going to hate the message. Now
listen to it. They continue because Christ
continues to teach them and to give them this understanding
that our sufficiency is of Him. This is for His preachers and
for the believer, for all of us. We have boldness to be able
to just simply declare the truth because He continues to teach
us. Look at chapter 4, verse 1. Therefore, seeing we have
this ministry, Where did he say we got it? From Christ, as it
was ministered to their heart. Seeing that we have this ministry,
as we have received mercy, that's how we received it, therefore
we faint not. The same way that we received
it, we continue in it by Him teaching us, and therefore we
don't faint. Now listen, but we've renounced the hidden things
of dishonesty. Not walking in craftiness, not
handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth,
commending ourselves to every man's conscience and the sight
of God. What about those who don't believe though? What about
those who continue to craft this word and use deceitfulness in
the way they present this word? Verse three, but if our gospel
be hid, it is hid to them that are lost. in whom the God of
this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest
the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, Christ who is the
image of God, should shine unto them. But for those who have
the light of Christ, this is their gospel. This is their Word.
Look at verse 5. For we preach not ourselves,
but Christ Jesus the Lord. and ourselves, your servants,
for Jesus' sake." For God, who commanded the light to shine
out of darkness back there when He said, let there be light in
the beginning. In the same way, He hath shined
in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And we have this treasure in
these earthen vessels, just these dying shipwrecked bodies of flesh,
that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. Look with me at John 7. at John
chapter 7. The Lord Jesus Christ, when He
came as the mediator, as the servant of God, listen to what
He said. John chapter 7, verse 14. Now about the midst of the feast,
Jesus went up into the temple and talked. And He's preaching. He's preaching the Gospel. John
7, verse 14. And the Jews marveled, saying,
How knoweth this man letters, learning, having never learned,
having never been taught. He's never been to our schools.
He's never been taught. How does He know? This is how
God's messengers know the Gospel. Right here. Listen to what He
said. Jesus answered them and said, My doctrine is not mine,
but His that sent Me. If any man will do his will,
if any man will believe Him, what did He tell Martha? If you
believe, Martha, You'll behold. You'll see. If any man will do
his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God
or whether I speak of myself. He that speaketh of himself seeketh
his own glory, but he that seeketh his glory that sent him, the
same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him. Did not Moses give
you the law, and yet none of you keep the law? Why go you
about to kill me? Now look with me back at our
text. And that's why we read here in
Isaiah 8, 19, the Lord teaches in power in the heart. And there's
no question as to whether or not those He teaches understand
that Christ is salvation. That all things are free. We
can't earn them. We can't merit them. And that
by His blood we've been bought. We've been redeemed, purchased,
purged. And where He is, we're set apart
from this world, never again to be allowed to return to it.
And He says, So therefore, when they shall say unto you, Seek
unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that
peep and that mutter, should not a people seek unto their
God? Verse 20, To the law and to the testimony, if they speak
not according to this word, it's because there is no light in
them. Now, who are they? Who are they? Notice the phrase here in verse
19, when they shall say unto you, these are instructors who
will be instructing you, teaching you. These are instructors. And their motive sounds very
honorable. Their motive sounds very honorable.
Should not a people seek unto their God? But where do they
say you should seek? There's two places they tell
you to seek. This is how you're going to know who these ones
are. They tell you to seek unto them
that have familiar spirits. The word there is, seek unto
the dead. Go to the dead. If you want to
find God, if you want some assurance of your salvation, if you want
to know God, seek unto the dead. And then their second message
is this, also they shall say, and unto wizards that peep and
that mutter. The word here is a necromancer. It's somebody who talks to the
dead. So when we hear this word, we
think of like palm readers and tarot card readers and psychics
and such. And it's meant to, it includes
them. And it's meant to put that image
in our mind of witchcraft and sorcery and just the evils of
something like that. So these are the two places these
instructors will tell you to go. They'll tell you to go to
the dead, and they'll tell you to go to those who claim they
can communicate with the dead. Now let me ask you a question.
Would you consider it wise instruction if a man said, if you want to
seek God, Go to the graveyard. Go out to the graveyard and seek
God. You'd say, that's outlandish,
that's foolish. Would you consider it wise instruction if a man
said, if you want to seek God, look to your flesh, look to yourself,
look to the law and see what it is you've got to do to bring
yourself to God. There's no difference in going
to the graveyard and seeking God among the dead there than
seeking it among our dead flesh. Scripture says we're dead in
trespasses and in sins. In Romans 8.10, the Scripture
says, if Christ be in you, that's after conversion, if Christ be
in you, the body, the flesh is dead because of sin. When the
Lord said, that which is flesh is flesh, And that which is spirit
is spirit. That which is born of the flesh
will always be flesh. That which is born of the Spirit
of God is spirit. He's saying that flesh is going
to always be what it is until it returns to the dust. It won't
ever be anything but that. So if you hear a man say, this
is how you're going to find some assurance now. Look to yourself. What have you done? What have
you been doing or not doing? That's the same as a man saying,
go out there to the graveyard and try to get some assurance
from a dead man. You're not going to find it there.
Just not going to find it there. Well, here's the second question.
Would you consider it wise instruction if a man told you to seek Christ
by going to a palm reader or a psychic? Well, would you consider it wise
instruction if he said, go to a man who calls himself a priest? Would you consider it wise instruction
if He said, now, we got the music pumping just right to work up
your emotions and we got a crowd back here standing by, go to
them. And they'll instruct you on what to pray and what to say
and they'll walk you down the Roman road. Would you consider
that wise instruction? Same as going to a psychic. Same
as going to a palm reader. And this is the message of these
two. This is the message of what they'll say. They'll say, look
to yourself, and they'll say, and look to us. What Brother
Hyman just bring out? You know what they say who sit
in Moses' seat? Now, notice this word about these
wizards. They mutter and they peep. Now,
we just saw Paul said God's messengers use great plainness of speech.
These false instructors, compared to those who use witchcraft and
sorcery, but they're far more subtle than that. Far more, you
can detect a psychic, you can detect a palm reader, somebody
like that, and you got, if you got good sense, common sense,
not even having the sense from the Holy Spirit, you know that
you're not gonna find God there. Hopefully you know that. I hope
you know that. But these fellas here and women now in our day,
they're going to make statements that are going to be true. More
than likely, most everything they say will be true. It will
be scriptural. It'll be taken out of context
and used in a way to where it means exactly what their message
is for you to seek to you or to them. That's the motive. That's
the message. But they'll handle this word
so deceitfully, so carefully, they'll craft it. And they'll
handle it deceitfully. And both of their teaching style
and their doctrine is going to use flattering words. It'll use
words that they speak, the way they speak, and the doctrine
that flatters the flesh. We're warned that they're so
subtle. The Lord Jesus Christ said, for
false Christ and false prophets shall arise and shall show signs
and wonders to seduce and deceive, if it were possible, even the
elect. And He said, but take ye heed. Be careful. Be on guard, He said. And He says, for behold, I foretold
you all these things. The Apostle Paul, speaking to
the Corinthians, he said, I fear, I fear. And I can sometimes,
I can enter into what he fears here. I fear, he said, less by
any means. Now listen to this. As the serpent
beguiled, tricked, fooled, deceived Eve through his subtlety, So
your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity, the singleness
of salvation, that it's in Christ. Let me give you an illustration.
Have you ever read a horoscope? You can say you have, I know
you probably have. A horoscope. You read a horoscope. And you
read it, and your situation, your state of life, what you're
in and your circumstances and all that. You read it and you
think, man, that's true. That is true. It's written just
for me. Another person in a totally different set of circumstances,
going through a totally different way of life, facing totally different,
will have different things come to pass in their life than anything
remotely resembling your life, can read the same words and say,
boy, they wrote that about me. That's muttering and peeping
that wizards do. The same kind of muttering and
peeping that wizards do from pulpits. They speak a message
in such a way that if you've learned the five points of Calvinism
and you're holding to the five points of Calvinism, you can
hear them speak and say, boy, that's good. But if you put yourself
in the shoes of, what if I was just a raging, legalistic, antinomian
Armenian that just didn't believe, that believed Christ died for
everybody and that it's up to me somehow to make his blood
effectual, listen to it like that. And if you can't say, if
you say, well, I don't know really if he's saying what I thought
he was saying as clearly as I thought he was saying. That's the opposite
of plainness of speech. When you heard the Apostle Paul
speak, look, for instance here, when you hear the Lord of hosts
himself say, if they speak not according to this word, it's
because there is no light in them. Do you have any trouble
understanding what he means? Pretty clear, isn't it? Pretty
clear. Whenever the Apostle Paul spoke, he spoke so that if you
want to take something that he said out of context, you can
take it out of context and you can make it mean anything you
want to. When a true messenger of God preaches, you may be able
to take something that he says, a statement out of context, and
make it say what you want it to say, accuse him of whatever
you want to accuse him of. But if you listen to the whole
message from beginning to end, If you read all of Paul's writings
from beginning to end, you have to be willfully ignorant of what
he's saying, because he qualifies everything he says to where there's
no gray area in it. It's truth. And that's why he
said, I'm rude in speech, but not in knowledge. He knew Christ,
and when he spoke the doctrine of Christ, when he's told somebody
that God separated a people when He put them in Christ before
the foundation of the world, read Ephesians 1 and see if you
have any problem understanding. You may not believe it, but you're
going to understand what he meant there when he said what he said. When He preached about, when
He talked about Christ putting away the sin of His people, when
He said that He purged us of our sin, that the law made nothing
perfect but the bringing in of a better hope did. When Christ
came in, He made some perfect. He hath by one offering perfected
forever them that believe. That's clear. That's clear. You don't have a problem wondering
what He meant. And when He taught us to walk
in the Spirit and not in the flesh, When he said, if you walk
in the Spirit, you won't fulfill the lust of the flesh. I'm going
to try to show you here in just a moment how when he said those
things, you know what he's saying. It's not grey. It's not crafted
in such a way that some can take it one way and some can take
it another way. You know what he said. That's the plainness
of speech he's talking about. It's not necessarily that he
didn't use educated words. It's not that he didn't craft
what he was going to say so that he made sense and had some kind
of cohesion to what he said. It's not that. It's that he spoke
so that when you got through hearing him, you either have
to reject Christ or say, that's truth. I believe him. And that's
why people hated it. That's why folks hated what the
Lord said. And that's why they hated what
Paul said. Because God's Messengers speak in such a way that when
you hear them, you're either going to say, it's going to force you
into a corner. It's going to paint you into
a corner to where you're going to have to either say, truth
Lord, or you're going to say, well, if that's Christ, I don't
trust Him. You know, one of the two. And here's the point. God's
provided messengers. God has provided true messengers
that He's taught in the heart that speak with this plainness
of speech so that you don't have to leave questioning what they
meant. And since He's provided those,
why harm, endanger your eternal soul by listening to those fellows
that you're not really sure what they're saying? The Lord said,
let them alone. They be blind leaders of the
blind. And if the blind lead the blind,
both shall fall into the ditch. You know what that means, don't
you? You understand that, don't you? A first grade level can
understand that. It means leave them alone. No
ambiguity about it. Now, so what is this Word? What
is this Word? Well, what is it God's true messengers
preach? Look with me here. The Lord said,
When they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar
spirits, And unto wizards that peep and that mutter. After all,
shouldn't a people seek unto their God? Now listen to the
Lord's Word. For the living to the dead? A rhetorical question has to
answer in the question. The Lord says, Should a people
seek the living Redeemer among the dead? You're going to seek
for the living, risen, resurrected Christ among the dead? Some tried
that one time. Mary and some others came to
the tomb of the Lord seeking Him. They saw the stone rolled
back and they looked in and His body wasn't there. And two men
that stood by said, why do you seek the living among the dead?
He's not here. He's risen. He's seated at God's
right hand. I'm going to take you here real
quickly. Go to Galatians. You know this is one of my favorite
verses of Scripture, past books, when it comes to dealing with
these wizards. The word that God's messengers
preach is to repent from your flesh, turn from men, and look
to Christ who is living and risen. That's the message. Now look
here. Apostle Paul, when these wizards,
these sorcerers, these beguilers slipped in, slithered into the
Church of Galatia, their message, their muttering and their peeping
was, you can trust Christ, believe on Christ, but now if you want
to be perfected, then you have to Go back to the law. You have to look to your flesh.
And you have to come to us so we can teach you. Sit in Moses'
seat and instruct you so you can behold what righteousness
is. And Paul said, who hath bewitched
you? That's what wizards do. They bewitch. But now look what
Paul says in Galatians 1.11. He first begins where he's going
to end up. And he declares how he had this
life. He says in Galatians 1.11, but I certify you, brethren,
You see how he's just laying this thing down in black and
white? So you see what he's saying?
I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached
of me is not after man. For I neither received it of
man, neither was I taught, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. Look down at verse 8. He says,
for he that wrought effectually in Peter to the apostleship of
the circumcision, the same was mighty in me toward the Gentile.
He said, God teaches and His work's effectual. He doesn't
have to depend on the flesh of man, the ignorance of man. If
that was the case, none of us would ever know Him if He wasn't
able to reveal Himself in a dead sinner. He's not dependent on
our flesh. He creates a new spirit. Now listen. So Paul says here,
with great plainness of speech, that justification is by the
faithfulness of Christ Jesus our Mediator Himself and not
by anything done by man. Look at Galatians 2.16, knowing
that a man is not justified by the works of the law. But by
the faithfulness, the faith, the fidelity of Jesus Christ,
even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified
by the work Christ did, by the work he finished, by the faith
of Christ, and not by our own works, by the works of the law.
For by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. This is the law and testimony.
which the Lord of Hosts Himself said, if they don't speak according
to this Word, it's because there's no truth in them, no light in
them. Now look, moving on, Paul states that the believer's sanctification
is also by the faithfulness of Christ Jesus, because He separates
us from the evil of our flesh, from unbelief, through sanctification
of the Spirit and belief of the truth. He takes up residence
in the believer, in His redeemed. Look at verse 19. For I, through
the law, am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. I had to die before the law before
I could ever be alive unto God. I'm crucified with Christ. When
he died, I died. Nevertheless, I live. Now listen. Yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me. And the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved
me and gave himself for me. That's how He said, that's how
I obey God. That's how I serve God. That's
how I trust Him. It's because He lives in me.
Now, so He says now that the sinner is brought into this grace
of justification and sanctification from the iniquity of looking
to the flesh. How? How? Listen, Galatians 3.2. This
only would I learn of you. Receive ye the Spirit because
of something you did. because of something you did
in your flesh or by the hearing of faith. The hearing of whose
faith? The hearing of the faithfulness
of Christ. And by the hearing of the sign
and wonder of Christ's accomplishment for His people, the Spirit entered
in and you received this Spirit so that now Christ lives in you
and you know Him. Now, He says, This gospel that
these wizards were saying was the gospel which he said is not
another but was a perversion. They said now after you, but
that's okay, you can believe on Christ. You can say that,
that's how you received the Spirit, but now you've got to be circumcised.
This was their law of choice was circumcision. It had been
the same as if they would have said, It picked any other law.
But that one of circumcision speaks volumes because it is
actually the physical act of taking away the filth of the
flesh. And so it speaks of what they're saying is, it's up to
you to take away the filth of your flesh. It's up to you to
do that and you do that by yourself in your obedience to the law.
That's what they were saying. So what does Paul say? Verse
3, Are you so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, having
begun by the gospel of faith, by the gospel of Christ in Him
crucified declaring you, and the Spirit came to you that way,
how are you going to then be separated from your flesh? Are
you now made perfect by your flesh? Did you do it? That's
Paul's after conversion. He said, I know in me, that is
in my flesh dwells no good thing. Not in my flesh. He called it,
O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body
of death? But then in Galatians he said,
Yet I live, yet not I. But Christ liveth in me. In the
life I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved
me and gave Himself for me. He continues just as faithfully
as He became my surety in eternity. Just as faithfully as He came
at the appointed hour in the fullness of time and was made
sin for me and went to the cross and put away my sin by the sacrifice
of Himself. by the same faithfulness whereby
He sent a messenger of His to me, and through the Gospel that
declared what He accomplished, He sent forth the Spirit to guide
me into the truth. By that same faithfulness, He
lives in me now and causes me to walk in obedience, and causes
me to walk after Him and not go back, not go back to those
weak, beggarly elements anymore. That's why I'm not without law.
I have Christ Himself instructing me in the heart. No, there's
something above the law. It's the one who gave it. And
if you've got the one who gave the law abiding in your heart,
He's the one who instructs you and teaches you in the way of
righteousness. And how does He do it? Through this gospel that
declares Him and His faithfulness. He says here, he paints them
in a corner. Look here how he doesn't mince words. Galatians
2, 5. He brings it down to where the rubber meets the road now. He said that Christ ministered
in him and Peter effectually and mightily. Now he asked them,
he therefore, Christ the Lord that ministereth to you the spirit
and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the
law because of something you did or by the hearing of faith? Does He do it now a different
way than what He did in the very beginning? When He brought you
out of darkness into His marvelous light, does He instruct you any
other way? What is the message that causes you to walk in truth?
The same message that first caused you to walk in truth. And then
He says this, and He tells them in plainness of speech, verse
7, that they which are of faith, the same are the children of
Abraham. He causes them to say either, I don't believe that,
I don't believe what you just said, I don't believe that's
how Christ operates, and therefore I'm not a child of Abraham. Or
He paints it to where they've got to say, I believe Him. I believe Him. He said there's
no other way. That's it. Now go back to Isaiah
6 with me. Isaiah 6 with me. We're passing
by a lot of scripture here, but I want to finish this up for
you. Now, we saw a New Testament saint.
We saw a saint who lived in the days after Christ. Now let's
see how God does this in one who lived before Christ came.
Look in Isaiah 6.1. Isaiah said, In the year the
king Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne
high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple. His dominion
filled my body. His dominion filled His temple
in glory, His temple in the church, His temple in my body. His dominion
filled it. Now you better keep those words,
I saw Him on a throne high and lifted up. Keep those in mind.
And he said, what was the effectual result of this? Verse 5. Then said I, woe is me. I'm undone. I'm a man of unclean
lips. He said, my word that's been
coming out of my lips has been without any light. It's been
without light. I'm unclean. You know what he
did when he heard that, when he saw Christ high and lifted
up? He's turning from his flesh. He's turning from his vain confidence.
And then worded, why, why? For mine eyes have seen the King,
the Lord of hosts. And then flew one of the seraphims
unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken
with the tongs from off the altar. And he laid it upon my mouth,
and said, Lo, this has touched thy lips. Thine iniquity is taken
away, and thy sin is purged. That's the sprinkling of the
blood of Christ, purging our conscience from dead works, to
see that we're complete in Him. And he says, what was the result? The Lord said, whom shall I send?
Who will go for us? And he said, here am I. Send me. I'll go. So then what
happened? Look at Isaiah 8.11. Isaiah 8.11. Isaiah said, the Lord spake thus
to me with a strong hand and instructed me. You know when
he did that? You know when he did that? Right there in Isaiah
6, when he saw the Lord high and lifted up, he spoke to him
with a strong hand of the Spirit of God and instructed him in
his heart not to look to man any longer. And so what was his
gospel now? Verse 13, sanctify the Lord of
hosts himself. see Him high and lifted up sitting
on a throne, that He's the King, the One who has dominion is the
King. And let Him be your fear. Reverence Him and honor Him and
He shall be for a sanctuary. Trust Him, He said. That's how
He saw Him. And He said, now the Lord told
me this, bind up the testimony and seal the law among My disciples.
Tell them this, in verse 17, It's in the past tense here,
but if you want to hear Christ speaking to you, believer, listen
to this. It's in the future tense, but
hear it in the past tense. Christ has come already. This
is what the Lord says when this Gospel is preached. This is what
He testifies into your heart. This is how He constrains you
by His love for you who know Him. It's that when you see your
sin and your iniquity and it's ever before you, and you hear
the Gospel of Christ's full redemption preached, He comes to you in
the heart and He says, I'll be for a sanctuary for you because
I waited upon the Lord that hid His face from you when I was
made sin for you. When He turned His face from
me, I never turned my face from Him. I trusted Him, and I looked
for Him. And therefore, I'm a sanctuary
for you. I've purged you. That's how I
purged you. And then you hear that, and then He says this to
you in verse 18. He says, now don't look any place
else for assurance. If you want to hear this word
like it's supposed to be heard, verse 18, take the R out. The
R is added by a translator. What He's commanding in the heart,
this is what He says. through the Gospel, the Lord
Jesus Christ. It's more than a statement of fact. It's a command
to the believer. And He commands us in our hearts. And He says, you want assurance?
You want to see God's amazing wonder of grace? You want a sign
of assurance? Behold, I am for signs and for
wonders in Israel from the Lord of hosts which dwelleth in Mount
Zion. He says, look to Me. You want a sign of assurance?
Quit looking to your flesh, the Lord says, and look to Me. I began to see my sin. I see
it. The Lord makes you see your sin. He makes me see it and I question,
I think, who? Clay, who in the world? Who are
you to go forth and attempt to preach the gospel to the Lord's
people? And it's so, it's depressing. It comes and I'll just get so
down because I think that's true. I am utterly nothing but sin
in my flesh. My thoughts wander and they're
here and there and I see in the law, I hear what the law says
and I hear the spirit of the law that there's just nothing
good in me. And I need assurance. I need
to know from Him, Lord, I need help. I need to know that You've
purged me and washed me and made me whole. And what He says here
in verse 18, He says, you want assurance? You need assurance? Behold, the children whom God
hath given Me, they're seated with Me. You, Cheryl, you want
to know your sin's purged? Arch, you want to know that He's
perfected you forever? Sharon, you want to rejoice and
know that He won't ever forsake you? He won't ever leave you?
He says, don't look to your flesh. Don't go to a preacher who thinks
he's a priest. He says, behold, I, I am given
for a sign. of assurance. And you, whom God
gave me before the foundation of the world, who I took to the
cross with me and laid down my life for, You're right here seated
at My right hand with Me. Behold. Can you look with the
eye of faith? Can you behold Christ seated at God's right
hand and see how the Father delights in Him? Just behold God the Father
just delighting in how His Son glorified Him and finishing the
work. He says, Behold. When you behold
me, know that as the Father delights in me, so He delights in you
because of what I've done for you." Now there, there you can
find assurance. That's what Paul said. That's
what Paul said when those real worshipers, those folks who can
actually, they can communicate with the dead. The dead eat it
up. They hear, look to my flesh, and they hear, come to a priest,
and the dead, they say, okay, I'll do it. They really are necromancers. They really do communicate with
dead folks, spiritually dead. But here's what he said to the
believers at Colossae. He said, if you be risen with
Christ, Seek those things which are above, where Christ sits
at God's right hand. Because you're dead, and your
life is hid with God in Christ at His right hand. And right
after that, you know what He says? Mortify therefore the deeds
of your flesh. And He lists them. He lists them
in detailed order. Well, how am I going to do that?
How am I going to do that? If you be risen with Christ,
seek those things which are above, where Christ sits at God's right
hand." The Lord said, Behold Me! Behold Me! I'm for a sign
of assurance to you. Behold Me! And you know what
His messengers go forth preaching? Isaiah, because He had seen Him
high and lifted up, and He knew Him, and He knew that His Word
wouldn't return to Him void because He had saved such a wretch as
Isaiah, He went forth saying, Now I can have boldness to just
preach plainness of speech and lay this out there. for whomever
the Lord has it in store for, and He'll apply it to their hearts,
and He'll draw their attention up heavenly, so that they see
Him seated there. When you're looking at Him, you
can't look at this flesh, and you can't look at a preacher.
You can't. When you're looking at Him, you're
not looking at your sins, you're not looking at how short you've
come of obeying the law, you're not looking at any of that thing.
You're looking at Him. And then, you rejoice and you
have the full assurance of faith. That's it. It's in Him, not anywhere
else. And so then, that's why the Lord
said, Now tell My people this, verse 19, When they shall say
unto you, Seek to your flesh, to the dead, to them that have
familiar spirits. And some false instructor tells
you, Come to Me now so I can peep and mutter and tell you
what you're not doing or are doing and give you some kind
of assurance in your flesh. Because you know you should seek
God. He said, when they tell you that, you tell them. You
can't find the living Redeemer in dead flesh and dead men. You've got to seek Him where
He is. And He says to the law and to the testimony, if they
speak not according to this Word, it's because there is no light
in them. I've used this over and over.
I'll use it again. I'll use it again. I'll tell
you what, I'll use Nathan and Brooke as an example. I guarantee,
I got a feeling, I got a hunch, I got a hunch, that whenever
they get back off their honeymoon and they come back and we see
them next time, and they start telling us about their wedding,
I got a hunch, if you talk to Nathan, everything he's going
to have to say is going to be about his bride. Every bit of
it. You know why? Because his heart
is overflowing in love for her. You know what happens when life
is in a sinner and he's in love with his Redeemer? You know who
he talks about? Christ. That's all he talks about. Because
he loves him. And that's how you can tell the
difference. That's how you can tell the difference.