to bless us together this evening
as we meditate in his word. Let's turn to the prophecy of
Isaiah chapter 57 and we'll read the first verse. The prophecy
of Isaiah chapter 57 and reading the first verse. The righteous perisheth and no
man layeth it to heart. merciful men are taken away,
none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to
come. Well, these words were clearly
appropriate back in the days of Isaiah. and truly they have
not become out of date or old-fashioned and they're as relevant for us
today as they were then. And if we think of the truth
which contained really the whole thrust of these words is to tell
us that although we see signs and desperate things occurring
and lives being removed, Yet people don't take it to heart. It doesn't really have any effect. Everyone considers that they
won't be the next person to die. It's not our nature, isn't it? We look around and yet you see
we just don't know. When you consider that our brother
Frank was here Tuesday before last, well, as far as we could
see, and without any difficulty, and then the Lord took his life
on the Friday. You see, the Lord gives no reason
to us, and none of us know. We remember those words, the
old must die, but the young may. And none of us tonight should
think, well, I'm only a young person or I'm a very fit person. And therefore, you know, these
things won't come upon me. Yes, I remember not so long ago,
somebody who spoke to me and said, oh, I'm really fit, you
know, I'm really well and gave the inference that he thought
he would live for a long time. And yet it wasn't long after
that he was struck down and soon died. You see, the Lord God holds
our life in his hands. And there is a time, a set time
for every one of us to leave this earth. And no one knows
when that will be. And even amongst us here tonight,
no one knows who will be the next one who will be called from
time into eternity. And there's no resisting that
position. When the Lord comes and the Lord
calls, no one can stop the hour of death happening. And so therefore
the Prophet here directs us to this great truth and he speaks
about the righteous perishing. And of course it's referring
really to our natural life. You see, the righteous will never
perish eternally. Those whom the Lord has called
will live eternally. But there will be a perishing
of our bodies. And therefore, the righteous
perisheth. And I'm sure as we look around
and we consider our lives and look back and many people perhaps
that we've known over the years and perhaps even you who are
young may remember there have been those who at one time you
were familiar with but now they are no longer. They have perished
from this earth. Their life has been taken. Now
the great relevance of this is, as we are aware of these situations
occurring, do we lay it to our heart? Do we take notice of it? Does it have an effect upon us? And does it cause us to consider
how stands the case my soul with thee for heaven? Are thy credentials
clear? Is Jesus Christ thy only plea? Is he thy great forerunner there? How necessary it is that all
of us do have a good hope, but it is well with our soul. You may remember there's that
hymn which speaks, is it well with your soul? Is it well with
our soul? Is it well with my soul? That
really is the most important question For all of us here tonight,
is it well with our soul? What I was to ask you tonight,
is it well with your soul? Could you put your hand up and
say, by the grace of God, it is. Because the gracious God
has come to me and spoken to me and called me and made me
aware of my condition, and directed me to the need of a Saviour,
and has brought me to none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, it comes back then to this
question, are such things laid in our hearts? And has there
been a gracious effect in our soul. You see, some people are
just affected in an outward way. The death of somebody may have
an effect, may affect the person connected with, but that doesn't
mean to say that it has had a gracious effect upon our heart. That means our innermost being. That means really the seat of
our soul. That's a great question that
all of us need to be able to answer. It's very easy to push
these things into the back of our mind and to think, well,
I'm fit and I'm young. You see, so easily, any of us
could be killed in an instant by one thing or another. We only have to observe from
the media, day by day, how many people suddenly are taken from
this world. You only have to think of the
war in Ukraine, how many people there have lost their lives so
suddenly. No time then to think, oh, what
shall I do? No time then to repent of their
sins, because with them, time has been no more. And how true
that is. With everybody, when that call
comes, time, our life, will be no more. And you see, once we
are in eternity, there's no coming back. There's no recovering the
position. We are in time. And put another
way, very wonderfully, we are still in a day of grace. And that means a day when we
can receive the wonderful favor of God. But once we have passed
out of time, our eternal state is forever fixed. and it can
never be changed. We need to realise the reality
of these things. And so, as Isaiah tells us here,
the righteous perisheth and no man layeth it to heart. Well, you know, and you only,
you see, I don't know. The person sitting next to you
doesn't know the condition of your soul. The only person that
knows is you. The condition of your soul with
a holy God. And therefore to be able to come
and say, by God's grace, it is well with my soul. The devil wants you and me to
not consider these things. He wants us to think of everything
else. And he will try and distract us And you'll try and turn us
away from such considerations. But the word of God is very true. And the word of God speaks to
us very clearly about the shortness of life. And you only have to
read through the word of God. And many people were struck down,
struck down, never had an opportunity further to repent of their sins. And the truth is that every born
again, sinner will repent of their sins. That means they'll
be sorry to God for all that they've done wrong. They will
recognize that they have offended a holy God. And if we've offended
a holy God, which we have, we need to be made right with that
Holy God. And you and I can't make ourselves
right, but what a blessing it is that we have the Gospel. And what is the Gospel? The Gospel
tells us that Jesus Christ came into this world for this wonderful
and divine purpose, to save sinners. What a mercy that is. I hope
tonight all of us can rejoice and praise God that there is
such a wonderful Saviour who came into this world for that
divine object to save sinners. And then, of course, the great
question is, am I one of those saved sinners? Well, without
any doubt, every one of us needs to know that we are a saved sinner. You may ask the question, how
am I to be saved? How could I be saved? Well the
reality is that you and I have offended God and when we offend
God that means that we've disobeyed God and what that means is that
we've sinned against God and if we've sinned against God we
shall never get to heaven unless those sins are taken away unless
those sins are removed and you and I will not be able of ourselves
to remove their sin, those sins. So what must we do? My friends, we need someone to
remove those sins from us. And the reason it's so important
is that there is no sin in heaven. You and I will never get to heaven
if there are any sins remaining. All our sins need to be taken
away. There's no such thing as a small
sin, because what we might term a small sin condemns us to hell
forever. Therefore, we need all our sins
to be removed. And how can that be done? You
and I can't do it. We are unable to remove our sins
ourselves. And that's why we hear and read
about the great and glorious saviour of sinners, the Lord
Jesus Christ, who came, as I've said, into this world to save
sinners. And if he saved us, because he's
taken away our sin. But how was he to take away our
sin? How was our sin to be taken away? It had to be removed. And in order for it to be removed,
there was a price to be paid. You see, naturally, if somebody
disobeys the laws of the land and does something which is wrong,
and they're found out, then payment has to be made for that wrong
which they've done. It may be that they have to pay
a fine. It may be they go to prison. But one way or another,
it has to be paid. If they are guilty and found
to be guilty, that has to be paid. And it's exactly the same
with regard to your and my soul. The sins which we've committed
and all of us, all of us have sinned. Every one of us here
tonight and every one of us needs our sins. to be taken away. And that means our sins, the
price has to be paid to take away our sin. Now, that could
not be done with something tangible like silver and gold. That currency
is not acceptable with God. There was only one payment that
could be made. And that was the death of the
Lord Jesus Christ. That was the price that God the
Father required so that all the children of God could have their
sins removed. The price was the death of the
Lord Jesus Christ. So tonight, every one of us needs
to have the wonderful evidence in our hearts that Jesus Christ
has died for us. That means, putting it in a context
of Scripture, that we have been redeemed. That means the price
has been paid. And the Word of God tells us,
redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. That, my friends,
is the only currency which is of value in heaven, the precious
blood of Christ. So every one of us here tonight
needs to know that we are indeed redeemed with the precious blood
of Christ. The Word of God is very wonderful. And the Word of God gives us
this wonderful picture of shed blood. And the Bible tells us
in the Hebrews, without shedding of blood, there is no remission,
there's no forgiveness. of sin. And we can look back right through
the Old Testament to so many evidences of blood being shed
so that sin could be forgiven. And it's good just to go right
back to the days of Genesis, the creation of the world, when
Adam and Eve sinned. And you might think, well, that
was a very minor thing, when Eve was tempted by the devil
to eat of that forbidden fruit. But what she did was to disobey
God. And therefore she was guilty. You may say, well, where does
blood come in? Adam and Eve at that stage were
naked. And therefore they endeavoured
to cover themselves after they'd sinned. Before they sinned, they
didn't have any guilt of walking about being naked. But after
they'd sinned, they realised it was guilty to do so. So they needed a covering. And we're told they stitched
fig leaves together to cover them. But that wasn't really
adequate. And when Jesus met with them,
what did he do? He provided a covering for them
in the skins of animals. And he made that covering for
them. Almighty God, it's a wonderful picture. God made that covering
for them, so they were covered. And in so doing, In order to
produce that covering, the animal's skin was taken from, had to be
slain. And what do we see? We see the
death of the animal and we see the blood that was shed. So you go right back to the days
of the Garden of Eden, you see the wonderful picture there of
the necessity of blood being shed so the covering could be
made for Adam and Eve. And of course, bringing that
into New Testament context, it represents the robe of righteousness
which the Lord Jesus Christ gives to all his people. And that can
be given to his people because he imputes it, he gives it to
us. And in return, he takes upon himself all our sin. And in order to therefore pay
the price for our sin, he himself died upon that cross at Calvary
and shed his most precious blood. He completed the work his father
gave him to do so that by the grace of God, you and I can be
saved from all of our sins. You can go back through the Old
Testament, I won't go through in detail, but we have the wonderful
occasion when Abraham offered up his son Isaac, and that's
a wonderful picture of substitution. The ram was substituted for Isaac. My friends, the blessed truth
is the Lord Jesus Christ was substituted for us. Isn't that
a humbling realisation? And then, on that Passover night
when Israel came out of Egypt, they had to offer that perfect
lamb. The blood was shed, the lamb
was offered, the lamb was roasted in the fire, again indicating
what the Lord Jesus Christ had to endure under the wrath of
God to save his people from their sins. And that was carried on,
that Passover lamb, right until the time when the Lord Jesus
Christ, on that Passover night, in the upper room, instituted
then the Lord's Supper, represented by the bread and wine, setting
forth the sacrifice of his body, which was therefore that which
took the place of those Old Testament sacrifices. And so, from that
day right up till now, we are wonderfully favoured to be able
to remember, as he tells us, remember the cost of our salvation,
remember his dying love. What a wonderful gospel we have. Well, here we have this great
truth this evening. The righteous perisheth and no
man layeth it to heart. Well, what a blessing if tonight
you and I can lay these great truths in our heart and see the
wonder of the Gospel, to the glory of it. Now the blessed Saviour, the
Lord Jesus Christ, died that agonising death upon the cross
at Calvary so that our souls could be eternally blessed, eternally
saved, and all our sins forever washed away. through the precious
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, it's a wonderful gospel,
and you see how detailed it is. As you read through the Bible,
you see again and again this glorious picture of without shedding
of blood, there was no forgiveness. And it's exactly the same today.
Without the shedding of blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, there'll
be no forgiveness for you or for me. So as we think of these
things, and I hope you do, and I hope you will, and you won't just brush them aside as
something of no relevance, because these things are vital for your
and my eternal life. as to where we shall spend eternity. If we are, as the Word of God
tells us, under the blood, and let me just retrace my steps
for a moment, when Israel were in Egypt, and they came out of
Egypt, and the avenging angel came and took the life of all
the firstborn, there was only safety if there was the sign
of that blood upon the doorposts and lintels from that lamb which
was slain. If the people weren't in the
house and had gone under that blood, there was no safety. The picture today is exactly
the same. If you and I are not under the
blood, that means if you and I do not possess the evidence
that the Lord Jesus Christ has died upon Calvary's cross to
take away our sin. There's no safety. There's no
safety. There is only safety in what
Christ has done and to know that the Lord did it on our behalf. You see, you and I need the wonderful
application of the Word of God to our souls So that as you and
I stand before God as individuals, no one will stand with us. No
one will stand with us. You and I will be before that
God of the whole, whole universe to receive that verdict, either
to depart from me forever or come in. Now, blessed are my
father, inherit the kingdom reserved for you. from the foundation
of the earth. Well, I hope we are all really
concerned to know that we shall hear the second verdict. Not
condemnation. And it's only not condemnation
because of what Jesus Christ has done on our behalf. You see, real religion is a very
personal thing. It's not something which is just
general. It means that your soul and my
soul have personal dealings with Almighty God. Ponder that. Think about it. How wonderful to think that such
an unworthy sinner as you are or I am, before a holy God, God
graciously and gloriously comes to and shows us what we are and
shows us what He is and leads us to Himself as our great Saviour. And we are blessed then with
faith to believe that that which was done at Calvary was done
for us, done for me. That's what it means. It's a
personal salvation. Well, my friends, think upon
these things and remember what we read here, the righteous perish
as people come and die. and no man lays it to heart. We've had this position, we're
frank, taken from us. Have we thought about it? Have
we thought what it really means? Have we thought about ourselves? What if it had been me? What
if it had been me? Where would I be now? Where would
my soul be now? Would it be in glory with a saviour? Or would it be in hell with a
devil? Remember eternally. And so the righteous perisheth
and no man layeth it to heart. Well, I hope that's not true
of us tonight. I hope that we do lay these things to heart
and that we have laid these things to heart. And if you never have,
may you perhaps do it even tonight. No man layeth it to heart. Then he extends it a little and
he says, and merciful men are taken away, none considering
that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come. Well, the Lord is very gracious. He does sometimes remove those
who are younger. It's interesting, if you go through
history, you will find there are a number of good preachers
who never lived to old age. The Lord removes them from this
earth. Well, God alone knows whether
that had an effect upon those who had heard the gospel or whether
it had not gone over their heads. And let us recognize that the
devil wants us to never consider these things. The devil pretends
to us that, well, we won't die yet. He pretends to us, in essence,
that we'll live forever. Well, you know that's not true,
of course. And it's important that we may be amongst those
who are ready. Be ye also ready, for we know
not what a day nor an hour may bring forth. That was the words
of the Saviour. We are needed to be ready. You see, if the Lord God was
to come tonight and take us from this earth, are we ready? Are we ready? Have we the evidence
in our hearts? Again, I say that specifically
because it's not just in your head. The work of God, the work
of the Spirit of God comes and touches our innermost being.
our hearts to know that we are born again. As the Lord Jesus
said, as we spoke this morning, you must be born again. You must
be born again. And Lord repeated it. It wasn't
something which was optional. Things perhaps in our natural
life are optional. We can do this course at school
or take this exam and it may not be essential. But you see,
that position is essential for every one of us. We must be born
again. Note that important word, must. You and I are born in this world.
We live on this earth. We're here, as soon as we're
born we possess a never-dying soul which lives forever. Lives forever. All of us have
a never-dying soul which lives forever. And therefore to have
the wonderful evidence that it is well with our soul. You and you alone know whether
The truth of God is such. You know, it's a wonderful blessing
if it is so. Some very instructive words in
the word of God to direct us as to the right way and the wrong
way. And in the little book of prophecy
of Micah and in the second chapter, we are told 10th verse, second chapter. Arise ye and depart, for this
is not your rest. This world is not our rest. And Micah tells us, because it
is polluted, it shall destroy you, even with a sore destruction. Well, this world is definitely
not the rest of the people of God. It is polluted. There is
so much sin all around. I wonder whether you appreciate
that, whether you understand it as such. It is a polluted
world. And then the Apostle Paul tells
us when he wrote to the Hebrews, And the last chapter in the Epistle
of Paul to the Hebrews and the 14th verse tells us very clearly,
for here we have no continuing city. We have no continuing city. We will not live forever. We'll
only live for a very, very short time. And so here we have this
statement. For here we have no continuing
city. But the Apostle Paul said something
more. And this is what you and I need
to be able to say. It's true of all of us. We have
no continuing city. But Paul tells us here, but we
seek one to come. A heavenly city. The heavenly
Jerusalem. the place of glory. Well, are
we seeking that heavenly city? Many of you are young. Are you
seeking the heavenly city? It would be a wonderful blessing
if you are, a wonderful favour if you are. In the book of the
Revelation, written by the Apostle John, the revelation given to
him on the Isle of Patmos, there are some wonderful truths in
it, and we get glimpses of heaven here and there in the book of
the Revelation. And we get a picture of the Church
of God, and we're told in the seventh chapter and the 13th verse. And one of the elders
answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in
white robes? And whence came they? That's
the saints of God clothed in the righteousness of Christ.
And I said unto them, that's John, Sir, thou knowest. And he said unto me, These are
they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed
their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore
are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night
in his temple. And he that sitteth on the throne
shall dwell among them, They should hunger no more, neither
thirst any more, neither shall the sun light on them, nor any
heat. For the lamb, which represents
the Lord Jesus Christ, go back to the Passover, it was a lamb
that was slain. And here we have the same picture,
a lamb. For the lamb which is in the
midst of the throne shall feed them and shall lead them unto
living fountains of water, And God shall wipe away all tears
from their eyes. Yes, you see, there will be no
crying in glory. No, there'll be nothing to sadness.
All will be peace and happiness because we shall be pure and
righteous because of what Christ has done. Remember, having washed
their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Well,
may we all have that evidence in our hearts that we are amongst,
therefore, the redeemed for whom Christ has died. Yea, he is risen
again and now in glory, interceding us before his father. What a
wonderful blessing it is to be able to understand the favor
and blessing of Almighty God. And when the Apostle wrote right
to the end of Revelation, the 21st chapter, he tells us, And
I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and
the first earth were passed away and there was no more sea. Remember that no more see. And
I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem coming down from God
out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. Yes, what a mercy it is if you
and I are part of that company. And I heard a great voice out
of heaven saying, behold, the tabernacle of God is with men.
and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people,
and God himself shall be with them, and be their God, and God
shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be
no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there
be any more pain, for the former things are passed away. Yes, the former things, the things
of time are forever passed away. And that gives us a little glimpse
of eternal blessings. Well, then let's come back to
this statement. The righteous perishes. And no
man lays it to heart. Do we today consider these things? Do we lay them to our heart? Merciful men are taken away.
Yes, they are. None considering that the righteous
is taken away from the evil to come. Will it be a great blessing
if the Spirit of God enables us to consider these important
things and to be blessed with the evidence that we are born
again of the Spirit of God, that we are found looking unto Jesus,
the author and finisher of our faith, and that by his grace,
his free unmerited favour, one day we hope to be with him in
glory, singing his praises throughout eternity and redeemed with the
precious blood of Christ. Amen.