Yeah, so that's why I was trained
for double volunteer. I think it's a double volunteer.
There's a single one, and there's a few. I don't know them all.
I only know the other ones. The ones that you're coming towards
like this, go over. That's what I'm going to do. Yeah, that's what this is. This
is the simplest one. Yeah, you pull it up, and you
flip it around. Oh, no, you're thinking one that
goes around, down, around again, and up and through, right? This
one I think you go around two times, up and through. So it's really sharp. It takes
some practice, but you do get it. Yeah, I'm not sure if I was forced
that way, but yeah, I was. I had to go to the internet later
and learn how to do it. One of these days, Bob, I mean,
he's left-handed, and I was riding him, and I was trying to teach
him. There's something good in just
looking at each other, taking a mirror and just looking at each other.
He used to tie them and put them over my head. Everything I've read, they're
like, it's okay if you're wrong. They don't say nothing, though.
They don't give you any grace, but you do. So that's weird. I've never heard of it. Well, I've never heard of it. I mean, I've never heard of it. Never? You've never heard of
it? Yeah, no. I know. I've never
heard of it. It doesn't sound like that. You
haven't heard of it? No, I didn't. Although, I'm very likely to
do that. Although, I always think it's
not good enough. But one guy told me that you're still interested
in alcohol. It's for everyone. No, I know
that I'm... Yeah, he had a beautiful thing. Yeah, I think beer. Yeah, that's right. It was a small stripe, but thicker. It wasn't a big one.
Well, those, I mean, you're supposed to be in certain suits that you're
supposed to wear for certain things. If you need power, you're
trying to impose your will on someone. That's what you're doing. Oh yeah, thank you. Good evening. We're going to
begin by standing and singing out of your softback, Hail Sovereign
Love, 141. Hail Sovereign Love, 141. We're singing from 141, Hail
Sovereign Love. Hail sovereign love that first
began the scheme to rescue fallen men. Hail matchless, free, eternal
grace that gave my soul a hiding place. Against the God who rules
the sky, I fought with an uplifted heart, despised the mention of
His grace, too proud to seek a hiding place. And wrapped in thick Egyptian
night, And fond of darkness more than light, And thee I ran the
sinful race, Secure without a hiding place. But thus the eternal counsel
ran Almighty love arrests that man I felt the arrows of distress
And found I had no hiding place Indignant justice stood in view,
to Sinai's fiery mount I flew. But justice cried with frowning
face, this mountain is no hiding place. There long a heavenly
voice I heard, and mercy's angel form appeared, who led me on
with gentle pace to Jesus Christ, my hiding place. Him almighty
vengeance fell that must have sunk the world to hell. He bore it for a chosen race
and thus became their hiding place. The fires of hell reserved
for me hath been expanded on the tree. There I shall never
want for grace in Jesus Christ my hiding place. Could storms of sevenfold vengeance
roll, And shake this earth from pole to pole? No flaming bolt
could daunt my face, For Jesus is my hiding place. A few more rolling suns at most
shall land me safe on heaven's coast. There I shall sing the
song of grace to Jesus Christ, my hiding place. If you would turn to 101, Electing
Love Adored 101. ? O glory to the great I Am ? ?
Who chose me in the blessed Lamb ? ? O millions of this fallen
race ? ? Shall never know or taste his praise ? ? Praise,
honor, power, and glory be ? ? To Christ, the Lamb of Calvary ?
? Who gave his life's atoning blood ? ? And reconciled me to
my God ? ? Praise to the spirit must be given ? ? Who frees from
sin and leads to heaven ? ? Chosen, redeemed, and called by grace
? I would like to read from Hebrews
6. Hebrews 6 Therefore, leaving
the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go unto perfection,
not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works,
and of faith towards God, of the doctrine of baptisms, and
of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and
of eternal judgment. This we will do, if God permit.
For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened and
have tasted of the heavenly gift and who were made partakers of
the Holy Ghost and have tasted the good word of God and the
powers of the world to come if they shall fall away, to renew
them again unto repentance, seeing they crucified to themselves
the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame. For the
earth, which drinketh in the rain, that cometh oft upon it,
and bringeth forth herbs meet for them, by whom it is dressed,
receiveth blessing from God. but that which beareth thorns
and briars is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing, whose end
is to be burned. But beloved, we are persuaded
better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though
we thus speak. For God is not unrighteous to
forget your work and labor of love, which ye have showed toward
his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister,
And we desire that every one of you do show the same diligence
to the full assurance of hope unto the end, that ye be not
slothful but followers of them who through faith and patience
inherit the promises. For when God made promise to
Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he swore by himself,
saying, Surely, blessing, I will bless thee, and multiplying,
I will multiply thee. And so after he had patiently
endured, he obtained a promise. for men verily swear by the greater,
and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife.
Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise
the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that
by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to
lie, we might have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay
hold upon the hope set before us, which hope we have as an
anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth
into that within the veil, whether the forerunner is for us entered
even Jesus, made in high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Our Heavenly Merciful Father,
we thank you for allowing us once again to gather together
this evening. Father, what a great, great blessing
it is. It is one of the highest blessings, this side of heaven,
to be able to come together with like-minded believers. Father,
we have no other hope but in the Lord Jesus Christ. And what
a great blessing it is that we have our own pastor that comes
before us from week to week and declares the finished work of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, will you continue to
be with him and his wife as they work among us. Give them the
health and the strength to continue. And Father, remember him especially
this evening. Once again, it is a new time.
Father, he has prepared his lessons and he hopes to bring forth this
message. Father, will you pour out your grace and spirit upon
him and also upon us as we hope to listen. Father, remember us
as a small group in this community. All things are perfectly on schedule
and on time and in your hands. Father, will you call out your
sheep from this community and call them unto this little flock
that they may also receive comfort from this gospel message. Remember
those of us, Lord, that are struggling. You know all things perfectly,
especially those that are undergoing health treatments for their medical
conditions. Father, remember us in mercy.
Be with our loved ones, our children, Lord. From our side, Lord, then
it is often bleak and perhaps disappointing. But Lord, with
you all things are possible. And will you break through their
hearts and pour out your mercy upon them, that they may also
receive a hunger and a thirst after you and your righteousness.
For Jesus' sake alone, amen. Good evening. It's good to see
you all. Alright, we're going to be in
Isaiah 29, verses 9 through 14. Isaiah 29, 9 through 14. Now,
the last time we were here in Isaiah, we were looking at the message
that was titled, Woe to Religion Without Christ. And that message
lays a good foundation for what we'll be seeing in tonight's
message and in our text now, nine through 14. And that's because
by nature, us men and women, we're corrupt, right? We're corrupt sinners that are
easily pleased with our own works and easily fooled by the shiny
things of religion. But, even though we're corrupt,
we do see that we are a very religious people, right? We're
a religious people. when we meet people and people
that we know, we find that even those of us that have the slightest
epiphany, a sudden realization about spiritual things or suddenly
seeing things in a new light, especially about God, it can
cause us to become quite religious. And we can suddenly get very
serious about morality and doing good and finding some religion
to worship him. And so having these realizations
and becoming religious, it can have quite an impact on us. And so we can get very diligent
and very serious about our religious works. And even while doing that,
the issue is, the problem is, that we could totally miss Christ. we can be very religious and
yet miss our salvation, the salvation that God has provided for his
people and his son Jesus Christ. And so, I can say these things
and a lot of people in religion would say, yeah, that's right,
that's a great danger for us all in religion. And then go
right on back to their religious play, which is void of Christ
and void of the Spirit of God. And so, we're very, very susceptible
to that, to being self-deceived in our own false religion, trusting
in ourselves and missing Christ entirely. So our passage tonight,
we see that the Lord is dealing with this people, this people
in Israel, and they're very religious, right? They were going about
doing their sacrifices which were prescribed in the Law of
Moses. They were very diligent and very
good about keeping that going, and yet they didn't know the
Lord. And so with all their works and In all their worship, in
all their will, everything that they were doing, they never came
to a knowledge of the Father's salvation in His Son Jesus Christ. They never saw Christ in the
Scriptures. They didn't see the coming Messiah. They didn't know
that He was to come and to suffer and why He was to suffer. They
didn't understand these things. They didn't see what he was to
accomplish for them. And so I just don't want us to
miss it as we go through this, because it's very easy for us
to say, yeah, yeah, that's true. That can happen. I want us, each
of us, to realize, wow, we don't want to miss Christ. We don't
want to miss Christ. We want to make sure that we
don't forget and that we don't begin to look to our own works
and our own self for righteousness. We want to look to Christ and
not reject him as the religious world seems to so easily do. They reject him and put him aside
in favor of their religious works. So what we see here in the Lord's
dealings with them, because they rejected the salvation of God,
the Lord seals them up with a spirit of drunkenness. He describes
it as a drunken spirit, although it's a drunken, it's not drunkenness
in strong drink or alcohol, but in a false spirit. They're just
sealed up to that false religion, entrusting that very religion
for their righteousness. It reminds me of what Paul said
in Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians 2 11, when he said, for this
cause, because they received not the love of the truth, when
God revealed Christ, It says that God shall send them a strong
delusion that they should believe a lie. And that's the worst lie
of all, is looking, being religious, looking at the scriptures even,
having the Bible, and being very religious, and reading about
Jesus Christ and what he did, and yet entirely missing him.
and still trusting in your own works of righteousness. Now,
the glory here for the elect is that the Lord will work marvelously. He'll work salvation for his
people. Even though the religious are
shut up to these things and they're blinded to these things, the
Lord works this salvation for his people. And what the Lord
is doing, what he's showing us here in Israel, is man left to
himself. Man left to himself in having
all these things that God's provided, yet left to himself, God is showing
us unequivocally, plainly, that we will never come to a knowledge
of God. We won't believe him. worship
him. We won't trust him, but we'll
always favor our own religious works. And so tonight's title
is The Revelation of the Sealed Book. The Revelation of the Sealed
Book. And we'll see first the cause
of blindness, and then we'll see Christ, who reveals this
book to his people. Alright? So our text begins here
with a word to these Jews that are self-confident and self-righteous. They're full of religion and
yet void of God. They don't worship God or know
God in spirit and in truth and so they are ignorant of the salvation
that God has provided for his people to put away their sins
and to cause them to rest in him. and to know him and worship
him. So Isaiah 29.9 says, stay yourselves,
stay yourselves and wonder. He's saying pause, pause and
wonder. Think about what I've declared
to you by my prophet Isaiah. Pause and wonder. And so think
about what the prophet has been saying to this people here. He
has been declaring the word of the Lord to them, that the Lord
is going to consume them. and he compares it to their sacrifices
on the altar, the altar of the temple in Jerusalem. They're
doing what is prescribed in the law. And he's saying, you that
are doing that, and you lay your sacrifices up there, and you
behold, the fire comes and consumes your sacrifice, that's how the
Lord is going to consume this people. That's what they've been
hearing, how the Lord's going to consume them, and that in
spite of all their religion, in spite of all they're doing
what they're supposed to do in the law as prescribed under the
law of Moses. And so the Lord's showing us
that God is not pleased with empty, dead-letter religion and
dead-letter service. We are. We look at those things
and we measure our righteousness by our religious service and
how well we're keeping the law or how well we're doing the duties
in religion. We trust those things. But God
doesn't look to those things. He's not impressed with those
things, and it doesn't matter how much our heart is into it,
or how passionate we are, or how zealous we are, because we're
trusting in those things, and not looking to the righteousness
that God has provided in His Son, Jesus Christ. So the Lord
isn't pleased if Christ isn't there. If He's not in it, the
Lord isn't pleased. And that's because what we do
as religious people is we get very zealous and we get worked
up and we get very focused on our religion. but we begin to
trust in those things and we trust in our works rather than
Christ. So really we're refusing, we're
rejecting the salvation that God has provided in his son.
So now the prophet says in verse nine, cry ye out and cry. Because I've been telling you
these things and you're just going on in your dead religion,
cry ye out and cry. That is, go on, go on and just
live in your riotous pleasures, go on now, Just go on and do
it because you're going to be destroyed for these things. Alright,
so what the Lord is doing here for us, we that are hearing this
and we that are reading it and beholding what we see here in
Israel, it's a note for us to pause, to pay attention and to
consider. We're to consider our own hearts,
because if those people that had the oracles of God, and had
prophets sent to them, and had the law, and knew all these things,
had the altar, had the temple, in Jerusalem, exactly as the
Lord had set it up for them, if they had all these things,
and they could be deceived in dead letter religion, well then
how much more can we not be deceived by the same things, right? And so, we don't want to hear,
we should never hear the gospel with the ear of flesh. We don't
want to hear the gospel with the ear of flesh. Now, our flesh
doesn't have power or control over that. We know that. That's
the Lord who does that. And so I say these things knowing
that we can't change that, but it should soften the heart. It
does humble us to know that I can't cause myself to hear. I can't
cause myself to want to hear. Lord, you alone must do this.
You have to do this for me, Lord. But do you have a desire? Do
you desire to hear? what the Lord has done for his
people and how that he's the one who reveals Christ to our
hearts and makes him known to us and gives us that desire for
him. And so he says that this people
They have all these things, but they are drunken, but not with
wine. They stagger, but not with strong
drink." So he's telling them, and we're seeing it as well,
they have a false spirit. They're full of a spirit, but
it's a false one. It's not the true spirit. And it reminds us of the Whore
of Babylon, where we read last time in Revelation 17-2, with
whom the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the
wine of her fornication. And so, here what we see is that
these religionists, they're actively, they're actively, willfully rejecting
Jesus Christ. They don't want to hear him.
They're willfully being ignorant of what God is showing us in
his word concerning our salvation, and instead of looking to Christ,
they're trusting, they're going on trusting in their own religious
practices. And so, you might be very active
in religion. You may be involved in a lot
of programs. You may be involved in a lot
of good things and trying to help people and serving. You
might even lead Bible studies or preach from the pulpit from
time to time or lead the singing and yet still not know Christ. still not know the salvation
that God has provided, and not know the power of Christ to save
his people, in both justification and in sanctification, what he
does in his people. And so a person that's doing
those things, that doesn't know Christ, is they will trust those
things. They'll really put their trust
and confidence in those religious works and say, well, I've been
doing a lot of volunteering lately, or I've been doing a lot of helping
lately, and so that's the danger, is that we trust those things
rather than, Lord, I'm a sinner. I'm nothing without you. I have
nothing to bring to you. Lord, have mercy on me. Help
me, Lord. And so that's what he brings
his people to do, to cry out to him, because we don't have
any confidence in this flesh. We see how we're insufficient
for these things and that we ever need the Lord and his power. We need his spirit, we need his
glory to keep us and to give us that spiritual ear of understanding.
Then we're told why this is in verse 10. Why this religious
people are in the state that they are now in, verse 10. for
the Lord hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep,
and hath closed your eyes, the prophets and your rulers, the
seers hath he covered." And so, we saw this, they're telling
us right here, this people that Isaiah is talking to, they were
guilty of this, and we know that this same thing occurred with
the Jews when Christ came. So when John the Baptist came
and he was declaring the word to them, they were willfully
ignorant of it. And when Christ came and he was
baptized of John and then he began his earthly ministry, They
were willfully ignorant of Christ. They rejected Christ. They didn't
want to hear that maybe this is the Christ whom God sent. Let us look into this. No, they
didn't do that. They were offended very quickly.
They saw his popularity increasing, they saw the people listening
to him and desiring to hear him, and so they immediately just
assumed this guy can't be of the Lord because he's rejecting
us. Well, we don't want him. He's not praising us and glorifying
us and lifting us up before the people, so this cannot be the
Christ. And so, We see that there back
in Isaiah's day, we see it with the Jews there. And so they were
crying out loudly in judgment against Christ. They were judging
him and saying, this cannot be the Christ, all right? And so
they thought themselves to be wise, all right? They were trusting
in their religious studies and what they knew of the scriptures,
and they were trusting in these things. And they were trusting
in the law as well, and their practices in the law. And so
the Lord, rather than, well what he does is he reveals his wisdom
because he doesn't reveal himself to these who are wise and mighty
in their own eyes and their own works. Instead he reveals himself
to the low and the meek and the humble and those who have nothing
to boast him. And our Lord says this in Matthew
11, verses 25 through 27, this is where Christ was speaking to the Jews,
and then he says he prays out loud so that all could hear him,
because he knows the truth of this, but he says it out loud
so that the gospel writers would hear it, and they would record
it for us here in Matthew 11, 25. It says, at that time, Jesus
answered and said, I thank thee, O Father. Lord of heaven and
earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and
prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, father,
for so it seemed good in thy sight. All things are delivered
unto me of my father, and no man knoweth the son but the father. Neither knoweth any man the father
save the son, and he to whomsoever the son will reveal him. And so, what we see in this is
that we're never to get too big for our britches. We're never
to get too big that we think that we don't need the Lord.
But we see in this that we ever need to lean upon Christ our
Savior. We always need Him to keep this
heart soft, to keep this ear open, to keep us willing to receive
and to hear His Word, and to know our needs. and to hear His
voice, and to be led to Him continually. That's what we see in this, because
there go the Pharisees rejecting Him, and there goes all these
other religious people rejecting Him. We're told in Proverbs 25,
2, that it's the glory of God to conceal a thing. The Lord
sealed these people up, because He's showing us that man cannot,
he's not going to be able to save himself, and though he's
a sinner and corrupt and dead, the Lord leaving him to himself,
He's showing us just how dead and dark the human heart is,
and He's showing us just how dead we are in Adam, and just
how unwilling we are for Him to save us. We want to do it
ourselves. That's why He shows us this.
And so because they were like that, He seals them up to it,
but He reveals it to babes. He reveals it to nobodies. He
reveals it to unlearned ones and people who weren't seeking
after Him. He reveals it to His people.
He reveals to us who were at one time content in dead religion,
and tried to make a go of dead religion. But he delivered us
from that, brought us down to nothing, showed us Christ, and
received us to himself in Christ, all by his glory and power, apart
from any works of righteousness which we've done. So it's the
glory of God to conceal a thing, but the honor of kings is to
search out a matter. Well, who are these kings? Who
are these kings that are called of God to search the matter out,
the matter of salvation? Because the Lord has concealed
it from the wise and the prudent, as we saw in Matthew 11, 25.
So these kings, they're the chosen elect people of God. They're
the kings who are blessed to search out this concealed matter
of our salvation. to search out the revelation
of God which was kept hidden from the world for thousands
of years until he revealed it. through the law and the prophets,
though they didn't see it, it was concealed, but the prophets
were making it more and more clear, and then he revealed it
through John the Baptist, and Christ came, and then the apostles
came, and so he's made it known to us plainly now, and we see
that that's still not enough if we have not the Spirit of
God. Otherwise, it's still concealed. So you, you that are his people,
you are the kings that are called to search out the matter of Christ. We have an example of that in
1 Peter 2, verses 9 through 10. 1 Peter 2, 9 and 10. We're told that, you know, Peter's
talking about the religious Jews, those people that were advanced
in religion, those people that were so good and so righteous
and moral and holy and esteemed in the eyes of the common man,
They saw Christ and they stumbled over him. He was just a tripping
stone, a trip hazard for them that they fell over because they
were so confident in their religious works and service. And so they
tripped over Christ because we know now it's by grace that we
are saved. But they didn't need grace. They
were doing pretty good in their religion in their own eyes. And so they were rejected, but
there's a people whom God has chosen in grace. And Peter writes
in 1 Peter 2, 9, but ye are a chosen generation. a royal kingly royal
priesthood and holy nation a peculiar people that ye should show forth
the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his
marvelous light which in time past were not a people but are
now the people of God, which had not obtained mercy, but have
now obtained mercy." And so we see this is the glory of the
Lord to conceal a thing from the wise and the prudent and
reveal them unto babes. You that are a royal priesthood. made so by the precious blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord said in John 9 39 that
for judgment he came into this world that they which see not
might see and they which see might be blinded, made blind
to these things. And so Paul tells us, he speaks
of the Jews, he's telling us about these Jews, he says that
they rejected Christ And those that rejected Christ in Christ's
day are no less the people that Isaiah had in view. So that Isaiah
is preaching and declaring this word to the Jews that were there,
but he's also prophesying of those Jews that would be alive
when Christ came. He's prophesying and telling
us they would reject him. And so he records this, Romans
11, and He's drawing from this chapter
Isaiah 29 and and so this is one of the most You know this
this these passages in Isaiah are some of the most quoted passages
in the New Testament Speaking about how how the religious are
just shut up to the things of God to his salvation in the Lord
Jesus Christ and in Romans 11 verse 7 He asks, what then? Telling us, Israel hath not obtained
that which he seeketh for, but the election hath obtained it,
and the rest were blinded. According as it's written, and
this is from Isaiah, God hath given them the spirit of slumber,
eyes that they should not see and ears that they should not
hear unto this day. And so we hear this. And do we
really imagine that our religion has so evolved that this isn't
true of us in our day? We see that if they heard the
prophets and were blinded, and the Jews who didn't see Jesus
in Jesus, they had the Lord of Glory standing before them and
they couldn't see. the Son of God standing before
them and the apostles and the power and the works that they
saw, how, why should we think that in our day that there's
many religious people who are wise in their own eyes and puffed
up in their works and rejoicing and glorying in their religious
service that they too are dead in trespasses and sins and completely
missing Christ and trusting in their own works and their religious
services. Alright, so, you know, when they
read this, when religion reads this, their application is, well,
we better get more religious, we better get more serious, we
better dig deep, we better get, you know, we better tighten the
belt and get really serious about our religious good works. Because
that's what they hear, that's what they think the Lord is telling
them. Oh, you're religious, but you ain't religious enough. No,
no, no, no, no. They're religious, but they're
missing Christ. And so we don't want that. And
so we're ever mindful. We don't look back to something
we did back when we were 12 years old, or something that we did. We don't even look back to what
we did yesterday. We're ever, ever coming to the Lord Jesus
Christ. And though you failed yesterday,
though you failed the moment before you came here, though
you failed while you're sitting here and sinned, leave those
things behind. Keep coming to Christ. Keep looking
to Christ because we ever need Him. I don't care if it's good
or bad. Don't look to those things, like Paul said. Forget those
things that are behind. Let us ever press towards the
mark, towards the Lord Jesus Christ. Always be coming to Him
because They never came, and we don't want to stop coming.
We want to ever be coming to the Lord Jesus Christ. All right,
and so Paul says, wherefore the Lord saith, Awake thou that sleepest,
and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. See then that ye walk circumspectly,
not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are
evil. And that's telling us, keep seeking
the Lord. Keep coming to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Keep looking to Him. Keep confessing
your need of Him. Pray that He ever stir up that
desire in our hearts and that need for Him. Because the days
are evil. The days are evil. And we don't
know what tomorrow shall bring. but let us ever be coming to
the Lord Jesus Christ, lest we should find ourselves like the
Jews in Isaiah's day and the Jews in Christ's day. All right,
so ever be coming to the Lord Jesus Christ. All right, now
let's look at this second point here. Christ reveals the book.
First, we see the manifestation of their blindness in verses
11 and 12. It says, and the vision of all
is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which
men deliver to one that is learned, saying, read this, I pray thee.
And he saith, I cannot, for it is sealed. And the book is delivered
to him that is not learned, saying, read this, I pray thee. And he
saith, I am not learned. All right, so they're showing
us two different people, both in religion, but the same outcome.
Neither one can interpret what the word is saying. Neither one
sees and understands what the Word is saying. And so, the Lord's
showing us that both the learned and the unlearned heart of natural
man, carnal man, is blind to the things of God. He's not going
to see or know the things of God so that he can understand
and rightly interpret what God's Word is saying. And so, the Lord's
given His Word in abundance. He has given, we have His Word,
and there are preachers that declare the word, and the Law
of Moses is even read on every Sabbath day. To this day, it's
still read, and the people don't hear it. They still have a veil
over their heart, and they just do not hear it or understand
what's being said. And so, what the Lord's showing
us by this blindness is that when they open the book, the
book is sealed to them. It's sealed so that they can
understand what the Lord's revealing in his word. Amos, the prophet
Amos, spoke of this in 811 saying, the days come, saith the Lord,
that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread
nor of thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. And even if we hear them, we've
got to hear it interpreted, and we've got to see what is this
word saying to us, or are we going to be kept shut up to the
things, and is it gonna be a sealed book to us, or is the Lord gonna
open this word to us? And so, whatever the root cause
is for their sealing, well, we know what the root cause is.
Man's dead in trespasses and sins. He doesn't have the spirit
of God. He doesn't know how to approach
God or how to worship him in spirit and truth, because he
doesn't have the spirit, and he doesn't know the truth. And
that's why it's sealed to him. But the learned one, some said,
well, maybe he knows what it is, but he doesn't want to say
what it is because it condemns him. It shows that he's a liar
and that he's instructing people to be religious and to do good
works. But if he interpreted the word,
they know this man's a liar. He hasn't been telling us the
truth. And so some say that that's why he says it's sealed. I really
think it's just because they don't say it. I mean, there are
some liars. Of course, there's definitely
liars, but there's a lot of people that just do not see. They really
think that this is driving us now to the law, to be holy. you
know, to make ourselves holy by keeping the law, to be moral,
good citizens under the law. And then the unlearned, they
don't know what it is and they're looking to the learned ones to
tell them what it is, but they're not hearing it. They're not hearing
what the truth is. It's not being opened up to them. And so we see, plainly, no man
of the flesh can open the book and to interpret it correctly. But there is one who does open
the book. He does unseal this book and
he does interpret it to each of your hearts and shows you
by his spirit what this book is saying. And I'll tell you
what the key is. I'll give you the key. I'm not
going to hold it as some power over you. I know what the key
is and I'm going to tell you what the key to this whole book
is. and many of you probably know
it already. The key is Jesus Christ. We're looking for Christ. When you know that this book
is preaching and teaching and declaring Jesus Christ and the
grace of God for us in Jesus Christ, then every time you open
this book, be looking for Christ, because that's what it's talking
about. It's declaring and showing you Christ. Sometimes it shows
you that you're a sinner, so that you don't trust in yourself,
so that you look for Christ. It's declaring to us Jesus Christ. That is the key. The key isn't
to be religious. But when you go to many churches,
what are they teaching you? religion. They're teaching you
how to be religious, how to be orderly and do the things that
they've prescribed for you, because that's how you're going to know
whether or not you're a child of God or not, if you're doing
what they're telling you to do, rather than just telling you
Christ. And trusting that Christ will give you his spirit, whereby
you'll know God in spirit and in truth, and joyfully walk and
worship him, and rejoice in him. being thankful in Him. And our
Lord Himself tells us the same thing, John 5.39, search the
scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life, you think
that you're going to know the right religion to do, right?
Just like that woman, the Samaritan woman, you know, and the Lord
said, the days are coming where you're not going to worship the
Lord on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. but they that worship
him will worship him in spirit and in truth. Spirit and in truth,
right? We'll be gathered together in
local assemblies to hear the word preached, but we have a
spirit whereby we know the truth because it points us to Jesus
Christ, the salvation that God has provided for his son, Jesus
Christ. So you search the scriptures
thinking that you have eternal life in these things, but here's
the key. They are they which testify of
me. He says, me, it's declaring the
Lord Jesus Christ, Christ who is our salvation, that Christ
came in the flesh because we're ruined sinners and he went to
the cross for his people as their substitute to put away their
sin, shedding his blood to justify us and was raised again by the
power of God to make us holy, to give us his spirit, to deliver
us from the dominion of death, that we should know him and walk
in him, believing him, trusting him by faith, trusting what he's
done. All right, we can see this in
Revelation 2. I'm sorry, Revelation 5, turn
there. Revelation 5, but go to verse 2. Here in Revelation 5 verse 2,
this confirms for us who it is that opens the book, who's opening
the book of the Lord to us. Revelation 5 2 says, and I saw
a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, who is worthy to
open the book and to loose the seals thereof. Now is one found
among the learned religious in religion? Is one found among
the unlearned in religion? No. We're told that no man in
heaven, nor on earth, neither under the earth, was able to
open the book, neither to look thereon. Doesn't matter dead
or alive, no one can open this book or unseal it. And John says,
I wept much because no man was found worthy to open and to read
the book, neither to look thereon. And had it ended there, we'd
all be in hell. There'd be no hope for us. But,
verse five, and the elders. tapped and said unto me, weep
not, behold the line of the tribe of Judah. The root of David hath
prevailed to open the book and to loose the seven seals thereof. It's perfectly sealed up to us,
but Christ has prevailed to open this book to us. And I beheld
and lo, in the midst of the throne of the four beasts and of the
midst of the elders, stood a lamb as it had been slain, having
seven horns and seven eyes. All power and authority is given
unto me, he said of his father. Seven horns is power, eyes is
the authority, which are the seven spirits of God sent forth
into all the earth. He sees all things, knows all
things, is implementing the will of God in the earth. That's what
Christ is doing. All authority and power is given
to him. And that's what he's saying. And he came and took
the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne. And so, that's why I say to you,
it's Christ who unseals this book. It's Christ that opens
this book up to us. And if you want to know what
this book is saying, Look for Christ and pray to Him and seek
Him because He's the one that opens it up to us. He's the one
who unseals it and reveals to us salvation, which is Jesus
Christ. I'll show you that in Luke 24.
Go to Luke 24 and look at verse 44 through 48 with me. This is where Christ had been
speaking to those on the road to Emmaus. They saw him, they
run back to the 11 apostles that were gathered together in the
upper room and Christ reveals himself to them. And he said,
these are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with
you. Verse 44, that all things must be fulfilled which were
written in the law of Moses and in the prophets and in the Psalms
concerning me. They speak of Christ. Then opened
he their understanding that they might understand the scriptures.
And said unto them, thus it is written, and thus it behooved
Christ to suffer. For us to know that, when we
have to talk about Christ's suffering, I've got to confess to you, brethren,
I'm nothing. I'm a sinner. I'm guilty before
God. And you're all guilty and sinners
too before God. We needed salvation. We needed
the Lord Jesus Christ. We couldn't save ourselves by
our works of religion. That's why we see the suffering
of Christ because He came to suffer in our place because we
can't save ourselves by our works. We needed a substitute because
if we suffer under the judgment of God, it's eternal. It's forever,
it's never gonna end for those outside of Christ. All right,
so it behooves Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the
third day. All right, so that we're declaring
when he died, he justified us by the shedding of his own blood.
He paid for our sins and put them away forever for us. And
when he rose, we're declaring his power is our sanctification. That same resurrection power
is the power whereby we know what He's done for us. That's
the revelation of faith. He's given us faith, and He's
revealed to that faith, I'm your salvation. I'm everything you
need to stand before my Father in heaven, before His throne
without fault. Faultless before the throne of
God. That's how potent and powerful the Lord Jesus Christ is. He
reveals that so that now, brethren, you walk by faith being delivered
from the law." And so that's what he goes on saying here,
verse 47, and that repentance and remission of sins should
be preached in his name among all nations beginning at Jerusalem.
So that word to declare, don't trust in your religion, be turned
from your dead works of religion, be turned from your labor under
the law, look to Christ. God sent him for this very purpose. put away the sins of the people
and to make them clean, to make them righteous by grace apart
from any works that we do. And so that now he gives the
spirit whereby we walk and serve him and know him and are enabled
by his spirit to love one another, right? And to bear those fruits
of righteousness by his spirit, which he works in us according
as it pleases him as he's ordained and brings these things forth
from us. And he tells us, verse 48, and
ye are witnesses of these things. All right, this is what we're
to preach and to teach, these things, these things. This is
what we preach and teach, not some dead letter religion, but
we preach and teach Jesus Christ. We're made a witness of him. Now to the self-righteous who
will not hear the word of the Lord, they will not beg God for
mercy, they're going to just go back to their works and try
to work a little harder, he says verse 13, wherefore the Lord
said, for as much as this people draw near me with their mouth
and with their lips to honor me, but have removed their heart
far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of
men. They appear to care. They appear
to be moving towards the Lord. but all the while they're trusting
in their own dead works. And that's what he's saying.
That's the scary thing is that religion can be such a trap because
you could think, I must be saved. I would have never done this
before, but now I do it. And they never see Christ. They
never know Christ. They don't hunger for Christ
and his righteousness because they found it in their religious
works. And they think, wow, this must be what he was talking about. You know, this must be it. It's
doing these things. This must be my holiness and
my righteousness now. And those that should know better
don't want to reveal the truth because then they lose their
power over you and their control over you. They can't manipulate
you and get you to do what they want you to do because now they've
got nothing to hold over your head. But open the word and read
it looking for Christ and praying. You know, because there are,
if the Lord doesn't open the book and show me, even knowing
that it's of Christ, I miss Christ. I ever need the Lord and He reminds
me of that. He reminds me of that so that
I don't ever forget that I need the Lord and to help me. Alright, so don't pass Christ
by just to get back to religious play. Stay with Christ. Pause and consider Christ. Look
to Him. Verse 14, therefore behold, I
will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, the Lord
says, even a marvelous work and a wonder for the wisdom of their
wise men shall perish and the understanding of their prudent
men shall be hid. All right, and that's exactly
what the Lord did with the Jews. The high priests and them that
were there, they did not, they didn't recognize him. And they
recognized him, Paul said, they would not have crucified the
Lord of glory. So they were shut up to these
things, but the Lord will have mercy on his people. You that
have no confidence in the flesh, you that know that you're nothing,
the Lord is merciful to you and revealing his word to you and
showing you that this word really is of Christ and settling you
in the Lord Jesus Christ. All right, I'll close with this
verse in 1 Corinthians 118, for the preaching of the cross is
to them that perish foolishness. It's a sealed revelation to them. They don't know what they're
talking about when they try to interpret it and open it up to
people. It's sealed to them. But unto us which are saved,
it is the power of God. It's His power that opens the
book and reveals it to your heart who our salvation is, that it
is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our very salvation. I pray
the Lord would comfort your hearts with Christ and bless you to
hear the voice of the Son of God and rest in Him and not refuse
Him for dead letter religion. All right, brethren, let's pray. Our gracious Lord, we thank you
for your mercy and grace toward your people. Lord, while millions
have this word concealed from them, that they are unlearned
or learned and yet it's sealed to them. And many don't know
nor understand. Lord, we're so thankful for Your
mercy that points us to Christ. Not that we are anything or think
anything as of ourselves. Lord, we know that in ourselves
we're insufficient for these things. But we thank You that
we see the Lord Jesus Christ Keep us ever seeing Christ and
Christ only. Keep us ever looking to Him and
trusting Him. Lord, for You are so merciful
and so kind and so gracious to all those who You've put into
the care of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, who alone has
wrought salvation for His people. Lord, keep us in Him. Keep us
ever looking to Him. Give us Your Spirit, Lord, keep
us walking by faith in Your Spirit. In Christ's name we pray and
give thanks. Amen. stand with me and sing 103, glory,
glory, I'm forgiven, 103. For me, glory, I'm forgiven,
All my sins are washed away, Christ, by His great blood atonement,
for my sin has put away. Sin imputed to my Savior when
He died upon the tree. As the substitute for sinners,
God will not impute to me. Glory, glory, I'm accepted, robed
in Christ's own righteousness. I'm a child and heir of heaven,
saved by God's almighty grace. Christ's obedience to the Father
is imputed now to me. In God's sight I'm pure and holy. He declares me so to be. Glory, glory, I'll not perish,
In Christ's hands I am secure. He who saved me sure will keep
me, By God's grace I shall endure. This is not a vain presumption,
I just take him at his word. Christ has sworn he shall not
perish, who believe on me their Lord.