May God be pleased to bless us
together this morning as we consider his word. Let us turn to the
prophecy of Isaiah, chapter 45, and we'll read verse 22. The
prophecy of Isaiah, chapter 45, and reading chapter 22. Look unto me, and be ye saved,
all the ends of the earth. For I am God, and there is none
else. This is really a very clear and
a very positive statement from Almighty God to all of mankind. And the words direct us to the
Lord himself, And the need there is that we are saved, every one
of us, and wherever that may be, throughout the whole earth. And it's spoken by God himself. Look unto me, therefore, and
be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and
there is none else. This is the great God that worked
so wonderfully on that day of Pentecost that we read together
this morning in that second chapter of Acts. And of course that was
an amazing occasion, a great work of the Holy Spirit, but
the result was really that those who were convinced of their need
of a Saviour, What did they do? They looked to the Lord Jesus
Christ. They looked unto Him. And so,
as we have these words this morning, look unto me and be saved. We may say, well, what makes
us look? What do we need to look for?
Well, as I was just pondering this yesterday, this hymn I thought
was very appropriate, and it's hymn 1104. and it speaks of those
who are needy, and it tells us, convinced as a sinner. And that
clearly is the essential thing that all of us needs to know
in our hearts, the conviction of, by the Spirit of God, of
being a sinner. The hymn writer tells us, convinced
of a sinner, and if that is so, then he says to Jesus, I come,
informed by the gospel, for such there is room, or whelmed with
sorrow for sin. Would I cry, lead me to the rock
that is higher than I? So here we have an example of
a man who was overcome with sorrow for sin. He was really oppressed
by it. overwhelmed with sorrow for sin
will I cry lead me to the rock that is higher than I. I'm sure
most of you have heard of Charles Haddon Spurgeon and when he was
a young man he was I think about 15 years of age he was in in
this position really he was overwhelmed with sorrow for sin and he just
needed to be saved and he needed some blessing and he needed something
and he was going around from church to church on Sundays trying
to find someone who could preach and would speak into his heart
and he came to this particular Sunday when it was very snowy
and the place he intended to go to he couldn't go to and he
went down this narrow alleyway and came to a primitive Methodist
church And he'd heard about them, and he says, he heard about them,
they were all very loud singers. And anyway, he went in, there
were only a few people there, I think he said something like
15 people, and he sat down. And it was so snowy, the preacher
didn't arrive. So eventually, one of the congregation,
an old thin man, who was I think a shoemaker, got up and gave
out his text. And the text was this. look unto
me and be ye saved all the ends of the earth. And initially that
didn't really take hold of Spurgeon, but the man, he wasn't a very
eloquent preacher, but he was obviously used of God and he
said, he came and said, look, look, look, and he looked directly
at Spurgeon and it went home to his soul. and it was the means
of his conversion. Well it was a wonderful statement
and a wonderful occasion for him and he was brought into that
wonderful liberty. He realised that there was a
Saviour and although he was indeed a black sinner, yet the Lord
had come and he'd been directed to the Saviour. Now all of us
need to know a similar experience. And the hymn writer goes on and
says, oh, blessed be Jesus for answering prayer. See, this man,
he was convinced of his sin. Spurgeon was convinced of his
sin. And yet, what a wonderful thing it is in our lives if we
know this favour and can say, oh, blessed be Jesus for answering
prayer. and raising my soul from the
pit of despair. In every new trial, to him when
I cry, lead me to the rock that is higher than I. And the last
verse, and he assured him, when sorely afflicted and ready to
faint, before my Redeemer, I'll spread my complaint amidst storms
and distresses, My soul shall rely on Jesus, the rock that
is higher than I. Well, that's a good testimony
of the hymn writer, and it'd be good for us today if that
is our testimony. And so may we know what it is
to come into a time of need, convinced by God of our sin. Well, I wonder this morning if
you're able to confirm that the Holy Spirit, and it's only the
Holy Spirit, has convinced us of our true condition before
a holy God. And if that is so, we will know
that we are a sinner, and a sinner deserving endless punishment
in hell. We won't be able to look around
and think, well I'm not too bad, and I think I've done a lot of
good. All those things will be swept away and we'll stand guilty. before a holy God and longing
and praying that we may have the evidence that we are saved. Now, here we have the remedy
for such a condition. And the remedy is very simply
here, look unto me and be saved. Be saved. We go back to the Old
Testament and we go to the book of Numbers, you may remember
there, There was that occasion in the history of the children
of Israel journeying through the wilderness when they disobeyed
God again and again like we have. And the effect was that they
were bitten by poisonous serpents. And those who were bitten died
very quickly. And Moses was commanded by God
to make a brazen serpent and to put it on a pole and to hold
it up and to command the people to look to that serpent. And
all those that looked lived. All those who had been bitten
were cured. They lived. Those who did not,
they died. And that's a very wonderful account
and a very simple and wonderful illustration for us here today. Now, you put yourself in a place
like that, or perhaps not quite in that situation, but there
are many places in the world where there are very poisonous
snakes, that if you're bitten, you can die very, very quickly. Now, if you were in such a place,
and you were bitten by a very poisonous snake, What would be
your reaction? You wouldn't sit down and say,
well, I don't think I'm too worried about that. I just let it pass
by. I'm sure if you were aware of
the poisonous nest of that particular snake, you would be very urgent
to try and get some cure for it and to find there was some
treatment that could be given so that you would not die. It would be a very dramatic scene,
wouldn't it, in your life? As it is in many people today.
I saw once when I was in Africa, there was what they called a
black mamba. It was a very poisonous snake
and the natives had spotted this snake and they were desperate
to kill it because they knew what it would do and they did
manage to beat it and kill it. They were so relieved. It hadn't
actually bitten them. Well, how much more are people
relieved if they're not bitten, and if they are bitten, to be
able to find some solution to cure them and to save their life? Well, we're familiar, aren't
we, with that kind of picture. And we think, yes, well, I would
be very concerned about it. And yet, you know, all of us
here today are bitten by the poison of sin. And you know,
that will kill us. And that will send us to hell,
unless we're cured of it. Unless there's a remedy. And
so this morning, we all stand ready as though we have been
bitten and are all ready to die. Unless there's a remedy. And therefore we have such gracious
words as these. Here is the remedy. Here is the
solution. Look unto me and be ye saved. If there is no looking to the
Lord Jesus Christ, there is no salvation, we shall die in our
sins. And that's a terrible thought,
isn't it? That's a dramatic consideration. And yet you see, as you compare
it, we've been bitten by a deadly snake, you would be really concerned.
And yet, it's worse than that. We've been bitten by a terrible
poison of sin. And we're often unconcerned. Well, what a blessing if the
Holy Spirit would make us really concerned to, as the Word of
God tells us, to flee from the wrath to come. And where are
we to flee? We're to flee to the Saviour. We're to flee to the Lord Jesus
Christ. We are to look unto Him, look
unto me and be saved. This is the only way of salvation,
the only way that you and I will be delivered from the curse of
our sin. I hope that the Holy Spirit may
powerfully awaken us to our great need, so that we are able to
echo the words that the Apostle Paul wrote when he said, and
you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and in sins. May we know what it is today
to be made alive spiritually so we realise our desperate condition
and we come seeking for that glorious salvation to be saved
from all our sins to the Saviour and they're given that faith
to look to him. Those people on that occasion
in the wilderness, they listened to what Moses spoke, but they
needed faith to believe the words that were spoken, so that they
would look to that serpent. Naturally, they might have thought,
well, what's the point in in looking to just a brazen serpent
that won't do us any good and therefore many no doubt did not
look. But there were those who were
given faith to believe that it would be a solution to their
problem. And so what a blessing for us
today if God gives us this great and glorious gift of faith to
come and to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that means,
does it not, looking to Him. Yes, looking to Him. We have wonderful evidences of
those people who have looked to the Lord. We go to the Hebrews,
you know, there was all those worthies listed in the 11th chapter
of the Hebrews, who were found looking to the Lord for help
and for salvation. And as we move on to the 12th
chapter, The Apostle tells us, wherefore, seeing we also are
compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us
lay aside every weight, and the sin which does so easily beset
us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
looking unto Jesus. It's quite clear, isn't it? We
don't need to have a degree in English to understand that. But
it's very important. And it's very important because
the Apostle here tells us that there is a cloud of witnesses
around us. We read of in the Word of God
and we have witnesses today. Those who have been made spiritually
alive. The evidence of the work of God
in their souls. We're thankful today we have
those who do testify of what God has done for them. And so
with this wonderful evidence then, the Spirit of God directs
us here in this way to lay aside every weight and the sin which
does so easily beset us. And that means in our race, in
our life, Our life on this earth, it's pictured as a race, and
in order to run that race, we don't want a lot of weight to
hold us down. The more weight you have, the
slower you'll be able to run, until the weight's so heavy you
won't run at all. Athletes don't want a lot of
weight, do they? You don't see athletes with big
bags on their back, do you? You see them as little as possible.
to run the race. And so here we today are encouraged
to lay aside, to take off all the things which hinder our Christian
race. And those things are the things
of time, and the things of the world, and the things which don't
prosper, don't benefit our soul. In actual fact they just drag
us down, perhaps drag us backwards. is that we find we're backsliding
because we've given in to some lustful thought or some lustful
experience and the effect is we're not making any progress
forward we're actually going backward because we've allowed
things to come upon us and we've grasped them and they're just
a weight. Well here the Holy Spirit tells us to lay aside
not just one weight not just one little thing, but everything
that hinders our race in our Christian life, to lay everything
aside. Now, I don't have to go through
a list, do I, this morning. You're all quite able to look
into your life and to see whether there are things which hinder
your progress, your spiritual progress, in the things of God. And instead of looking to the
Lord, instead of looking to the Lord Jesus Christ, you're looking
at these things and they're bogging you down. And therefore you become
very poor and you find yourself becoming rich as it were in the
things of time and poor in the things of God. We read, didn't
we, on Friday, that parable of the rich man and Lazarus. And there was that rich man who
loaded himself with all the things of time. Yes, and he dined wonderfully
every day and everything he wanted, and yet the time came when he
died. And where did he go? Where did his spirit go? He opened
his eyes in hell. In hell. And there was no escape
from that. And by comparison, there was
another man, Lazarus, who was very poor. And yet, you see,
he died and he was carried to the bosom of Abraham in heaven.
And the rich man, he looked and he saw this. I know he was so
distressed, he was so thirsty because of the heat of the fire
in hell. He wanted a drop of water to cool his tongue, but
it wasn't available. He said, please send someone
to all my brothers back on the earth, so that they might realize
there is a hell. And the Lord said in that parable,
they have the prophets. That means they have the word
of God. That's the instruction to them. Even if some went from
the dead, they wouldn't believe. And so how true it is. And we
today are wonderfully blessed in our country with the Word
of God, the Bible, in our own language. And yet, how many there
are who do not turn to it, turn away from it, and they have these
weights which do so easily beset them. And he tells that it is
really the sin which does so easily beset us, and so let us
run with patience, the race that is set before us, looking unto
Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. Well, my friends,
today, how absolutely essential it is that all of us are found
looking to the Lord Jesus Christ. Look unto me. And Buyi said,
we can't be saved from all our sins. We can't be saved from
a deserved hell anywhere else. It's only found in looking unto
the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, on this day of Pentecost
that we read, all those people were assembled together to celebrate
that occasion. And it was the Lord's wonderful
purpose and providence to bring, on that occasion, the evidence
of the Holy Spirit amongst them. And of course, many of them didn't
understand it, and they said, these men are men full of new
wine. Well, it wasn't so at all. And
the apostle was able to stand up and to tell them, no, it wasn't
so. These men were fine, there was
no problem with them at all. But then you see, he directs
them to the Lord Jesus Christ. And he spells it out very simply
as we read together and as he comes down to the Last verse,
he said, therefore, let all the house of Israel know surely that
God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both
Lord and Christ. Now the wonderful work of the
Spirit was this. When they heard this, they were
pricked in their hearts. Well, again, I wonder this morning
if we have the evidence in our lives when the Holy Spirit has
pricked our hearts, That means it's made us consider, made us
think of what we're doing. If we're doing the things that
are right or if we're doing the things that are wrong. If the
Holy Spirit is coming and pricked us and it's made us start perhaps. Well these men were pricked in
their hearts and what did they say? They said, men and brethren,
what shall we do? They were in a really bad scene,
they didn't know what was going to happen. They knew they were
guilty and they cried out, what shall we do? But again, what
a mercy if you and I have cried out like that to God, what shall
we do? They were needy, so are we. What was
the response of Peter? Repent and be baptised, every
one of you. in the name of Jesus Christ for
the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the
Holy Ghost for the promise is unto you and to your children
and to all that are far off even as many as the Lord our God shall
call. So God had clearly called these
people to make them spiritually alive to consider their condition. It would be a wonderful blessing
if the Holy Spirit has called us out of darkness into his marvellous
light to recognise our true condition and state as a lost and ruined
sinner and to look to the Lord Jesus Christ. Look unto me and
be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God and there
is none else. You might think, well, this is
probably just an Old Testament situation. Well, it's not, you
see. It's spoken of also in the Old Testament. And David, that
man of God, also realised the need there was of this favour. And he tells us in the 34th Psalm,
he says, I sought the Lord. Did he seek in vain? I sought
the Lord, and he heard me. Have you sought the Lord? And
has he heard you? If you haven't sought the Lord,
he won't have heard you, will he? I sought the Lord, and he
heard me, and delivered me from all my fears. They looked unto
him. They looked unto the Lord Jesus
Christ, and were lightened. The light came into their souls
and their faces were not ashamed." And he tells us then, referring
to himself, this poor man. When the Holy Spirit works in
our hearts and shows us something of our sinfulness, we become
a poor man. This poor man cried and the Lord
heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. What a wonderful
God we have. If we come to Him, if we seek
unto Him, to realise He comes and does save, He hears and answers
prayer. And more wonderful than that,
David goes on to say, the angel of the Lord encampeth round about
them that fear Him and delivereth them. See, God hears and answers
prayer and He does deliver. Not always instantly, not always
when we think he will, but he will if we pray in faith, nothing
wavering. And then he goes on and says,
Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man that
trusteth in him. Yes, and we are blessed. We're given that living faith
to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and not to rely on ourselves. And so we have these words, look
unto me and be saved all the ends of the earth for I am God
and there is none else. We can have confidence that we
are coming to the great God, the God who created all things.
It's not the God of the Muslims, or the God of the Hindus, or
whatever, who are just false gods, and are just idols, nothing
in them at all. You know the earlier verses in
this chapter, verse 20 tells us, assemble yourselves and come
drawn near together, ye that are escaped to the nations. They
have no knowledge. They set up the wood of their
graven image and pray unto a God. that cannot save. The majority
of the world today are doing just that, are praying to a God
that cannot save. I think I told you before, but
I remember it so clearly. when I was in India and people
there with what they call prayer wheels and they have a stick
or a pole and they have on that a can which revolves and they
have a little weight so that every time they twirl the stick
the can goes round and the faster they do the stick the faster
it goes round and on the inside of that can is written a prayer. And they think that every time
they twirl that prayer around, it's being said to their God.
Well, what a worthless and empty situation, because they're going
to a God that cannot save. He's dead. Dead. And the majority of the
world today are worshipping a dead God. But here we have such a
different condition. Here we have this wonderful statement,
for I am God. I am God and there is none else. There's no one else. Don't look
anywhere else. What a blessing it is if we are
found today worshipping the true God. Look unto me and be saved
all the ends of the earth for I am God and there is none else. Zachariah, he knew the true God
and what a blessing It is. And in the twelfth chapter of
his prophecy of Zachariah, we read, perhaps the ninth verse,
and it shall come to pass in that day that I will seek to
destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. And I
will pour upon the house of David, that means the church of God,
and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and supplications. Well, what a mercy if you and
I have had poured upon us His Spirit of grace, which is unmerited
favour, and of supplications, that means of true prayer. If God has poured into our heart,
it doesn't have to be a long prayer. It can be a very, very
simple prayer. But if it's from the Spirit of
God, it would be a real prayer. And the Prophet tells us, this
is the wonderful thing, you see, here we are told, look unto me.
This is what the Prophet is telling us. And they shall look upon
me, the Lord Jesus Christ. And he gives us some definition
of what this man is to look upon. Whom they have pierced. Whom
they have pierced. We may say, well, we haven't
pierced the Lord. We haven't pierced him at all.
It was only those people who actually drove the nails in.
It was because of our sins that it was necessary the Lord Jesus
Christ was nailed upon that cross. It was through your sin and my
sin. And so as we are in a time of
need to be found, looking to this great and glorious Saviour
whom we have pierced. Don't look around. Look at yourself,
look at myself, whom we are pierced. And they shall mourn for him
as one mourneth for his only son. And they shall be in bitterness
for him as one is in bitterness for his firstborn. Well, I'm
sure that when the Spirit of God convinces us of our sin and
directs us to realise that it's our sin, that has caused the
Lord Jesus Christ to suffer upon that cross at Calvary. What a mercy that has an effect
upon us. Just like it was in the case
of dear old Peter. Yes, foolishly thought he was
strong in himself and would do anything and would die for the
Lord and yet put to the test and he denies his Lord three
times. the cock-a-crow and the Lord turned and looked upon Peter.
What a look that was! He looked upon Peter, Peter was
looking at him. You see Peter wasn't just ignoring the situation,
he knew his condition and therefore he looked at the Lord and he
saw the Lord looking at him. What a mercy if you and I look
unto the Lord and see the Lord looking upon us. And by that look, we realise
it was because of our sins, the Lord Jesus Christ had to suffer
and had to bleed and had to die. These are great and solemn and
blessed truths, aren't they? And then you see again in this
prophecy of Zachariah, the prophet goes on to Encourage us and he
says and it shall come to pass in that day that the light shall
not be clear nor dark But it shall be one day which will be
known to the Lord Not day nor night, but it shall come to pass
at evening time It shall be light and it shall be in that day that
living water shall go out from Jerusalem Half of them toward
the former sea and half of them toward the hinder see in summer
and winter shall it be and the Lord shall shall be king over
all the earth. In that day shall there be one
Lord, and his name one. Well, that's giving us the evidence
of that which will come to pass at the end of time, and how needful
it is that all of us are found then in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that we've been found looking
unto him. Because if we are found looking
unto him, then surely that will be a blessing for us. Again,
that we read in the 12th chapter of Hebrews, we didn't continue,
but we'll just continue in this way, because the apostle says,
looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, and
what do we see? We see this, who for the joy
that was set before him, he endured the cross. despising the shame,
and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For
consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against
himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. Ye have
not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. Well, may
our minds be directed then, as we look unto the Lord, look unto
me, we see, as we look to the Saviour, what he's done, his
great and glorious finished work of salvation. We fail, we sadly
fail, and how true it is, again and again, that we sin, but the
Lord Jesus Christ did no sin. He lived a perfect, he lived
a pure life, he lived a very hard life, a very difficult life,
and he lived that life and died that death in order that you
and I might be saved, might be saved from all our sins. Look unto me and be saved. Well I wondered this morning
whether we know, have had, the wonderful experience of the need
to be saved, to be saved from all our sins. And therefore coming
back to that illustration of being bitten by a poisonous snake
and desperate to be cured of that sting, that poison taken
away, well, to put ourselves in a place where we're stung
with that poison of sin, and to realise that we're in a desperate
condition, that unless we are saved, we shall perish in our
sins. And the only way of being saved
is through the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, to know that he
has died in our place. He's borne the punishment instead. He's taken the curse, the curse
that was due to us. Yes, because of our sin, the
Lord has taken it and he's borne it. Well, oh may the Holy Spirit
give us that grace to look to him for our salvation. that we might have the wonderful
evidence that we are saved, and that we may therefore glorify
our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. It's so significant, isn't it,
that when the Apostle Peter preached that wonderful sermon that day
at Pentecost, and they cried out, what must we do? What was
the response? Repent and be baptised. A very straightforward statement,
wasn't it? Well, if the Holy Spirit works
in our hearts, enables us to look to the Lord Jesus Christ,
I'm sure it will bring upon us that concern, that desire to
repent, to be truly sorry for our sins, and to seek for the
Lord's mercy, and for the Lord's goodness, and to know his wonderful
love such an unworthy sinner and to be given that grace then
to take up our cross, which is only for a short time isn't it,
a few years at the most, take up our cross every day and to
follow Him with that blessed understanding and that wonderful
assurance that we are saved, saved from all our sins and we
have therefore set before us that wonderful prospect of spending
eternity in glory with this Saviour, who by grace we've been able
to look to and given that faith to believe that He can and does
save and unto the uttermost all that come unto God by Him. There's
no sinner too bad, no sinner too black that cannot be saved. That's the whole essence of the
great and glorious Gospel. Then it is to look to the Lord
Jesus Christ and to hear these words. No doubt they were precious
words to the Old Testament saints, as by faith they looked forward
to the coming of the Messiah, knowing that that was the only
way of their salvation. And today we can look back to
Calvary, we can look back to the glorious life of the Saviour,
and we can know Lord Jesus died upon Calvary's cross to atone
for all the sins of his church. And may we have the evidence
that we are amongst them, that we are amongst those who shall
one day, by his grace, be found with him in glory, be able to
praise him throughout eternity for his wonderful favour and
his wonderful blessing. Well, today, on this day of Pentecost,
May the Holy Spirit come upon us as it did upon those people
and enable us by his grace to do justice. Look unto me and
be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God and there
is none else. Amen.