Good evening. We're going to
begin this evening's worship service by singing 298, God Leads Us Along, 298. If you'd like to stand, we can sing
this 298. Shady green pastures so rich
and so sweet, God leads his dear children along. Where the water's cool flow bathes
the weary wood's feet, God leads His dear children along. Some through the water, some
through the flood. Some through the fire, but all
through the blood. Some through great sorrow, God
gives us all. In the night season and all the
day long. Come out where the sun shines
so bright, God leads His dear children along. Sometimes in the valley, in darkest
of night, God leads His dear children along. Some through the flood, some
through the fire, but all through the blood. Some through great
sorrow, but God gives us some in the night season and all the
day long. Sorrows befall us and Satan opposes,
God leads his dear children along. Through grace we can conquer,
defeat all our foes, God leads his dear children along. Some through the water, some
through the flood, Some through the fire, but all through the
blow Some through great sorrow, but God gives us all In the night
season and all the day long Away from the fire and away from
the clay, God leads His dear children along. Away, up in glory,
eternity's day, God leads His dear children along. Some through the waters, some
through the flood. Some through the fire, but all
through the blood. Some through great sorrow, but
God gives us all. In the night season and all the
day long. 256. It is well with my soul. 256. When peace like a river untendeth
my way, when sorrows like sea bellows roll, my love thou hast taught me to
say it is well, it is well with my soul. It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. ? Though Satan should buffet ?
? Though trials should come ? ? Let this blast assurance control
? ? That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate ? ? And hath
shed his own blood ? for my soul. It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. My sin, O the bliss of this glorious
thought! My sin, not in part, but the
whole, is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord,
O my soul. It is well. with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. The Lord haste the day when my
face shall be sighed. The clouds be rolled back as
a scroll. The trumps shall resound, and
the Lord shall descend, even so. It is well with my soul. It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. I'd like to read from Psalm 144. Psalm 144. A Psalm of David. Blessed be the
Lord my strength, which teacheth my hands to war and my fingers
to fight. my goodness, and my fortress,
my high tower, and my deliverer, my shield, and he in whom I trust,
who subdueth my people under me. Lord, what is man that thou
takest knowledge of him, or the son of man that thou makest account
of him? Man is like to vanity, his days
are as a shadow that passeth away. BOW THY HEAVENS, O LORD,
AND COME DOWN, TOUCH THE MOUNTAINS, AND THEY SHALL SMOKE, CAST FORTH
LIGHTNING, AND SCATTER THEM, SHOOT OUT THINE ARROWS, AND DESTROY
THEM, SEND THINE HAND FROM ABOVE, RID ME, AND DELIVER ME OUT OF
GREAT WATERS FROM THE HAND OF THE STRANGE CHILDREN, WHOSE MOUTHS
SPEAK AS VANITY, AND THEIR RIGHT HAND IS THE RIGHT HAND OF FALSEHOOD. I will sing a new song unto thee,
O God, upon a salt tree, and an instrument of ten strings,
while I sing praises unto thee. It is he that giveth salvation
unto kings, who delivereth David his servant from the hurtful
sword. Rid me, and deliver me from the hand of strange children,
whose mouth speaketh vanity, and their right hand is a right
hand of falsehood. That our sons may be as plants
grown up in their youth, that our daughters may be as cornerstones,
polished after the similitude of a palace, that our garners
may be full, affording all manner of store, that our sheep may
bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our streets, that
our oxen may be strong to labor, that there be no breaking in
nor going out, that there be no complaining in our streets.
Happy is that people that is in such a case, yea, happy is
that people whose God is the Lord. Our heavenly and merciful Father,
we thank you once again. You have permitted us this great
privilege of coming together, assembling with your saints. And Father, will you remember
us this evening? For Father, without your blessing
and without your presence, your spirit, it shall be in vain. But will you remember us and
pour out your grace and mercy upon us? Father, we thank you. for delivering sinners. The Great Shepherd has taken
full responsibility and done everything necessary for the
salvation of your people. And Father, we thank you for
this and for the Gospel that we hope to hear again this evening.
Remember Brother Eric. Father, we thank you for him.
will you continue to give him strength and wisdom, that he
may continue to rightly divide the word before us and comfort
us and feed us as your sheep. Remember him this evening and
be with us, Lord, as we hope to listen. Give us, Lord, the
mental clarity and the energy. And Father, remember those also
that listen on the YouTube channel and through various internet
measures, O Lord, will you bless those means also. And remember
us, Lord, as a small group here in this community. All things
are perfectly in your hand. Father, that we may rest in your
power and your strength. But Father, if it pleases you,
will you call out your sheep from this local community, that
they may also come and feed off this gospel. Father, remember
our children wherever they are, our loved ones. Nothing is too
difficult or too wonderful for you. And Father, will you remember
them and grant them also a hunger and a thirst after your righteousness.
Awaken them, Lord, and call them out. For Jesus' sake alone, amen. Good evening. Alright brethren,
we're going to be in Isaiah 29. Begin our chapter in Isaiah 29.
And our text is from verses 1 through
8. And it's a sober message the
more I think about it. because it's a woe of judgment
that the Lord pronounces upon Jerusalem. And, you know, Jerusalem
and Judah, they picture the people of God. They were a picture of
the Lord's people, and it just makes me think of our nation,
which claims to be a Christian nation, and claims to be people
of the Lord and the word that goes to this people here in Jerusalem
is a word that all of us who claim to believe Christ and trust
Him alone for our salvation, it's a good word for us to hear
and to examine our own hearts by the Spirit, by the Spirit
because in the flesh we deceive ourselves. but only in the Spirit
do we hear the Lord, and by the Spirit does He draw us near to
Himself, and to confess our faults, and confess our sins, and to
confess our need of Him, and only by the Spirit are we brought
to depend upon Him, and hope in Him, and love Him, and walk
before Him in Spirit and in truth. And this people here, You know,
they're blissfully going along in their religion, in their religion,
and the Lord pronounces a woe against them. And so they're
busy practicing their religion, void of the Spirit of God, void
of the worship of God. All right? Now, the Lord sends
his prophet, though. He sends his prophet. The Lord
raises up the prophet, and he sends him out, and his people
hear him. His people hear The Lord, it's by grace that we are
saved, not because of anything we do or work up in ourselves. It's always in grace that the
Lord saves his people. But to the arrogant man, to the
one who's self-confident and self-righteous, and disconfident
in his ways and in his works, he doesn't hear the warnings. He doesn't hear the judgment
that the Lord is speaking. That is, until judgment falls
upon him, as it says in verse 5, at an instant, suddenly. Suddenly comes upon him. And
so what we see here tonight is that man may be very religious. Very religious. Man, many people
are very religious, but man is nothing. It doesn't matter how
religious he is, he's nothing without Christ, and his flesh
is nothing in the sight of God. The Lord doesn't, he isn't pleased
or impressed with the works that we do according to the flesh,
no matter how beautiful they may seem, no matter how flowery
and lovely they are. If we labor in the flesh, we
cannot please the Lord. It's only by the Spirit that
we bear fruits of righteousness which are pleasing and acceptable
to the Lord, because He's the one that wrought them in us by
the Spirit of Christ. It's Christ in us. And so we
need the Lord Jesus Christ. And I say to all those who profess
and confess the Lord Jesus Christ, remember the word He said in
Psalm 2, Verse 12, where he says, kiss
the son lest he be angry and ye perish from the way when his
wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put
their trust in him. And that's what the Lord calls
us to do. It's not about being religious. It's about loving,
serving, walking in Christ by faith, trusting him, believing
upon him. And the Lord will work all things
He'll establish His kingdom in Christ, in Christ. And they that
trust Christ and believe Him and lean upon Christ, they're
blessed. They're a happy people because
the Lord has done the work. He's done that work in them.
So our title is, Woe to Religion Without Christ. Woe to Religion
Without Christ. And we'll first spend the majority
of our time looking at the woe pronounced. The woe pronounced,
and then we'll see the destruction that's coming upon Jerusalem
outlined for them. Alright, so our text begins in
verse one. Woe to Ariel! To Ariel the city
where David dwelt, edgy year to year, let them kill sacrifices,
yet I will distress Ariel. there shall be heaviness and
sorrow and it shall be unto me as Ariel." Now Ariel is a symbolical
name which is given to Jerusalem. Jerusalem is where the altar
and the temple of the Lord were. That's where they would sacrifice
the animals in Jerusalem. In Jerusalem they would burn
their sin offerings and the free will offerings and everything
that required an animal sacrifice, it was done there in Jerusalem
at the temple upon the altar. And the Lord gives us a commentary,
a view, an insight into Jerusalem and what they were doing there.
He tells them at the end of verse 1, add ye year to year. let them kill sacrifices. That
is, year after year after year after year, they're doing the
sacrifices. They're killing the animals there
in the city where David dwelt. That's how we know it's Jerusalem.
And they're just sacrificing animals and doing it very faithfully,
very consistently. Right? And now think about it.
This is those people that we were told back in Isaiah 28. He's continuing on there from
Isaiah 28. These are the people back in
verse 7 there that are swallowed up of wine, they are out of the
way through strong drink, they err in vision, they stumble in
judgment. And he tells us in verse 15 they've
made a covenant with death and they've made lives their refuge. And yet one thing we see about
this people is they didn't forsake their religious practices. They
went right on sacrificing and doing those things that are prescribed
in the law of Moses. So while they're drunken with
a false spirit, right, they're believing lies and a false spirit
and trusting their own covenant of works before the Lord, they
go right on doing their religious service and their religious practice
and they think everything is fine. So what does that say about
religion? What does that tell us about
religion itself and man's practice of religion? Is the Lord pleased
with us being religious? Is that the end goal for us to
be religious people? And the Lord is pleased with
us just believing something and just having faith and going on
doing our religious services? Is the Lord impressed with that?
And I was thinking about that because, you know, I go on Sermon
Audio, we post sermons there, and I think Sermon Audio is a
really great platform. It's an excellent platform, and
they have a lot of great messages that push out all around the
world. I have no problems with the platform
of sermon audio. But I noticed that they have
this banner, and it says that we're in the fifth week now of
52 weeks of what they call a joint resolution of united prayer.
So I said, well, that's interesting. So I clicked into that little
banner to read up on it and see what it was about. And according
to their own words, it's for the revival of religion. revival of religion, and that
was first. And then second, they said, and
the advancement of Christ's kingdom on earth. So I read a little
further and I read their stated concerns, which I don't have
a problem with. I thought they were good concerns
and relevant, certainly, and their motivation for praying.
And I agree, we should pray about these concerns that we're seeing
and witnessing in our world here. They even lifted these words
from Jonathan Edwards. He wrote about this in 1748,
I believe is when he first did this. And so they're picking
up from Jonathan Edwards and praying for this revival of religion.
But that's what struck me. That's what jumped out at me
was that was their primary highlighted item, for the revival of religion. The revival of religion. It's so obvious to us who love
Christ, but it isn't more religion that we need. It's not religion
that man is lacking. Man is religious enough, he's
plenty religious. It isn't religion that we need
more of, it's Christ. We need the spirit of Christ. We should pray that the spirit
of Christ fall upon his people and draw them to himself because
men and women who are Christ's, they live upon and feed upon
the Lord Jesus Christ. And so those people out there
that don't believe Christ, they need to hear Christ, not be sucked
more into religion and become more religious. And so that the
people need to serve Him in spirit and in truth. Isaiah says there
in verse 2, add ye year to year, year upon year upon year, just
keep on racking them up, let them kill sacrifices, let them
go and do their religious services, yet I will distress Ariel and
there shall be heaviness and sorrow. And so for all their
religious practices, that tells us it didn't turn away the wrath
of God from them. It had no effect on on curbing
the wrath of God that was ready to be poured out upon them. And you see this throughout Isaiah.
He's constantly declaring to them and warning them and blowing
the trumpet, the gospel trumpet, to let them know, what are you
guys doing? You're just stuck in this religious
service, this just doing your religion. He said in Isaiah 1
verse 11, To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices
unto me? Sayeth the Lord, I am full of
the burnt offerings, of rams, and the fat of fed beasts, and
I delight not in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of he
goats. And he goes on telling them,
I hate your new moons. I hate your feasts and your new
moons. I despise them. I'm sick of them. I'm tired of
these things. But you know what the Lord never
said He's sick of? Christ. He never once speaks
ill of Christ. He never once threatens punishment
or woe or wrath to those who love Christ, to those who come
to Him needing mercy, needing grace. seeking Him for forgiveness
and for that mercy that we need. The Lord never despises a sinner
who comes to Him seeking mercy in the name of Christ. And even
Christ, when He was on the earth doing good to all men, anyone
that came to Him always received mercy. He was always kind and
merciful and gracious to them. And so that tells us Come to
the Lord in Christ. We need Christ. That's how we
come to the Lord, in Christ. Turn over to Hebrews 10. Hebrews
10. And in verse 14, we see here that
Christ has made an offering. He sacrificed himself. He shed
his own blood to make atonement for the sins of his people so
that when he died, We died with Him, and He shed His blood to
put away the sins of all His people. He made atonement for
His people once and for all. Verse 14 For by one offering
He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified, because
He sanctified them, whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness
to us. For after that He had said before,
This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days,
saith the Lord. I will put my laws into their
hearts and in their minds will I write them. What law is that? It's the law of faith, the law
of Christ, the law of liberty. We're delivered from just dead
letter religious things and we serve Christ. We worship the
Lord Jesus Christ and their sins and iniquities will I remember
no more Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering
for sin. And so, the wicked, they continue,
they make covenants with dead letter religion, and they make
covenants with their death, but the Lord delivers His people
out of dead letter religion. Just trusting in those vain things
that cannot save. And so we don't need more religion.
We need Christ. We need the Lord Jesus Christ
and his spirit. And I don't have a problem with
the discipline that we show here, the respect that we show here,
and coming and gathering together. I think that's good and necessary.
The Lord calls us to public worship and to assemble together. That's
not what I'm talking about. It is good for us to be gathered
together, to sing hymns, to pray together, to read the Word together,
to hear the preaching of the Word, to hear the preaching of
Christ, to exalt Him and lift Him up. That the Lord commands
us to do and He gathers us for that purpose. And it's good for
us to consider what we're coming to do and who we're coming before
and to worship Him and trust Him and believe Him. I'm not
knocking that and And the sobriety in that, what I'm saying is,
just like the Jews, people today are practicing religious things
and trusting in those religious works and thinking that God is
pleased with their their practice of religion and trusting in that,
that that's what saves them and that's why God is pleased with
them. But the Lord sends His Spirit
into the hearts of His people so that we are born of the seed
of Christ and that's how we know Him and that's how we worship
Him, is in the Spirit, being born of His Spirit, born again,
not of Adam's seed. That's not where we worship the
Lord. It's in the new man, in the creation
of Christ. And these bodies are servant
to the Spirit, which says, I'm coming here to worship the Lord
and to praise His name and rejoice in Him. And so we see there even
how these bodies, these bodies of flesh are brought to be servants
of righteousness in that sense. Not that they've done anything
good, but the Spirit in us has, and these things have yielded
themselves to what? To serve the Lord, to worship
Him and rejoice in Him. And so this is all by His Spirit
bearing the fruits of righteousness in us, where we rejoice in the
Lord Jesus Christ. So what I would say to religion
And to those who trust in religion is don't despise the Son of God. Don't despise the Lord Jesus
Christ. And, well, let me just read in
Hebrews 10, 28 there, don't despise the Son of God in favor of your
religious works. Four, verse 28 says, he that
despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses.
That was Moses' law. Of how much sore punishment,
suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden underfoot
the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith
he was sanctified, an unholy thing. and have done despite
unto the Spirit of grace." And that's, you know, the Jews that
Paul was writing to here, they were turning away from Christ
to the things in the law. And that's what a lot of Christianity,
so-called, does today. It's they hear of Christ, but
they're taught to turn from Christ back to the things of religion,
back to the law of Moses, and to trust that that is their sanctification,
and that is their righteousness, and that's their holiness, rather
than continuing to look to Christ. And that's wicked. That's where the sin is, is turning
away from Christ and trusting those things which we do in the
flesh. Now, historically, Jerusalem
was destroyed, we know, by the Babylonians. and then again by
the Romans in 70 AD. But we also hear of spiritual
Babylon, that whore of every false way. And we read of her
in Revelation 17 too which says, with whom the kings of the earth
have committed fornication and the inhabitants of the earth
have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. It's
using the same language that was in Isaiah 28 where he told
them, you're drunk with wine and strong drink and you've erred
in vision and you're following every false way, you're stumbling
in judgment. And that's just like what we
see in Revelation 17 too, the inhabitants of the earth have
been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. It's just,
we're to be aware of false religion. In fact, we won't really be looking
at it, In Isaiah 29 verse 9, he even comes back to it saying,
stay yourselves and wonder. Cry ye out and cry, they are
drunken, but not with wine, they stagger, but not with strong
drink. It's because there's another
spirit in them. It's a spirit of stupor and slumber,
and they don't see that in their practice of religion, they've
just pushed out Christ, and he has no place and their hope,
their confidence, their trust, it's back to the works. It's
back to the works of the flesh, and that's where religion, that
which is called Christianity, is back to again today. And so,
for this cause, the religion without Christ, the Lord pronounces
woe against Ariel. That's what he's saying. You're
religious, but woe's coming upon you because you don't love my
son. You're not looking to him and trusting him. And that's
why I've given you the law. It's a shadow of good things
to come. It's to point you to Christ and you don't, you're
not looking for him, right? And so Paul writes of this too
when he's, he shows how Israel was trusting him in their religion,
their works of righteousness. And he said in Romans 9 31, Israel
had not attained to the law of righteousness. They haven't attained
to the law, which they were seeking after. They didn't attain to
the law of righteousness. Why? Because they sought it not
by faith, but as it were, and faith, who's the faith in? It's
in Christ. But as it were, by the works
of the law, stumbling at that stumbling stone, which is Christ. Christ is the stumbling stone
that they stumbled over, which is what Isaiah spoke of him,
Isaiah 28. This is what he's talking about.
That drunken spirit is what causes men to stumble over Christ and
not look to him and trust him and see that he is the very righteousness
of God's people. He himself is. And so that's
where men are today in religion. That's Christianity. That's the
bulk and the majority of it. You can say that, and a lot of
churches, so-called, will accept that. In a very broad sense,
they can accept that, yeah, I'm sure that that's very true, and
they'll hear that and be okay with that, but the thing is,
we can never take it too narrow. We need to take it narrow for
ourselves when we hear it and be reminded and say, wow, these
people had everything and still missed Christ, and I never want
that for us. I don't want that for me, and
I don't want that for you, my brethren, at all. We don't want
to miss Christ. And so, what are we trusting
in? Is it our religious practices?
Is it our diligence in doing religious things that God is
pleased with? Or do we keep looking to Christ? We keep looking to Christ. We
keep coming back to Him and the Lord turns us back to Him because
we do go off. And this old man does look back
to the world and gets caught up with the shiny trinkets of
this world that are all perishing and passing away. But the Lord
keeps bringing us back to show us the thing most needful is
the Lord Jesus Christ and that we desperately, desperately need
Him and He keeps us stayed upon Him. And so, we see that except
the Lord have mercy upon us, that we'll go off that way just
like Israel did, bearing Christ's name among men, acting like we
have Him as our Lord and our Savior, and yet having a dead,
empty, cold, black heart within, trusting in ourselves and in
our own works, having a form of religion in the appearance
of godliness and then men just go on doing what their denomination
prescribes for them to do and trusting in those things. But
the Lord delivers us. And so Paul went on to say there
in Romans 9, 27 where Isaiah cried concerning Israel saying,
though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the
sea, a remnant shall be saved. A remnant shall be saved. You know, that's the burden that
I feel because this country is so full of churches and so full
of Christianity and they don't hear Christ and they don't love
Christ. They love religion and they love
their practices and their law-keeping. You know, Isaiah would say, if
you look over in Isaiah 53, Isaiah 53, verse 1, he asks the sober
question, Isaiah 53.1, he says, he asks, who has believed our
report? Who hears us? Who listens to
this? Who hears what we're declaring
concerning Christ? And to whom is the arm of the
Lord revealed? And you know what Isaiah does?
You know why I'm so confident to preach Christ and to keep
preaching Christ and to trust him? Because Isaiah proceeds
after he says, who's believed our report? He doesn't go on
and talk about religion. The next two, well, all the verses
after, he declares Christ. But those verse two and three
really hit my heart where he says, for he, he preaches Christ,
for he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root
out of a dry ground, he hath no form nor comeliness. Why do
you preach Christ? Why do you preach the simplicity
of Christ and keep declaring? what Christ has done for his
people and the hope that his people have in Christ. Why do
you preach Christ and trust him? He has no form nor comeliness
to man. They don't want to hear it. And
when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire
him. Men don't mind when you preach,
when you talk of religion. Most people are kind of okay
when you just talk about religion and religious things. They can
deal with that in church services. That's what they want to hear.
But, oh, you're speaking of Christ again? And their eyes just glaze
over. They want to hear practical things
and be told what to do so that they can feel confident about
their salvation. That's what man wants to hear.
but you declare and exalt the Lord Jesus Christ and they don't
want to hear it. They despise him and they loathe
Christ. Because verse three, he's despised
and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
And we hid as it were our faces from him. He was despised and
we esteemed him not. And that's what a religious world
is still doing. They're still hiding their face
from Christ. They don't want to hear about him. or if they
hear about them and they seem to rejoice for a little while,
it's not long before the veil just falls right back over their
hearts and they're back in the darkness again, seeking out religious
things. Because they don't hear it, they
don't understand it. They don't know what you're saying and they
don't understand how someone is saved trusting Christ and
looking to Him. They're still looking for the,
when do I get to the doing? When do I start? making this
effectual for me. How do I do that? What do I got
to do? You haven't told me what I have to do. And that's what
man wants to hear. What do I got to do to save myself? And you keep talking about Christ,
declaring Him the Savior. Yeah, exactly. Christ saves.
He's the one who removes the veil and circumcises the heart,
the flesh out of the heart there. So it doesn't matter how moral
we think our religion makes us. It doesn't matter how moral we
think we are in our religion or how doctrinally correct we
are, right? We could be very correct. We
know people that are super correct in their doctrine or at least
sound like they got a solid system of theology, but you know that
to despise Jesus Christ, to not want to hear him and to say that's,
I can't listen to that all day, I can't listen to Christ all
day, to despise Christ in favor of your religious works That's
really to work and to do the lusts of your own flesh, the
lusts of your own heart. That's walking in the flesh. That's just as hard walking in
the flesh as going out and becoming a whore, you know, fornicating
and committing adultery and stealing and lying and murdering. That's
all, all that. you know, trusting in your religion
and despising Christ, that's just as filthy. That's worse,
actually. That's what the Pharisees did
and what drove them to crucify Christ. It says in Romans 1,
Romans 1, 24 and 25, back in there, this is what the people
of old were doing and this is what religion is still doing.
They're following right along in those footsteps. Romans 1,
24, God also gave them up, they gave God up, he gave them up
unto uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts to
dishonor their own bodies between themselves who changed the truth
of God into a lie. Christ is the truth of God. But
they've taken that Christianity, they were first called Christians
in Antioch because they were disciples, followers of Christ,
looking to him and believing Him, they changed Christianity
into just another dead letter religion. And that's what religion
is doing today, celebrating man's religion and man's will worship
and trusting in himself and worshiped and served the creature more
than the creator who is blessed forever, amen. And you know,
it's just, there's such a heavy focus on the law the law, and
yet we just see the abundance of sin just growing and just
evolving to greater, more twisted and weirder things out there. But it's only Christ that is
able to transform the heart. And Christ said, if I be lifted
up, I will draw all men unto me. And we preach Christ because
he's the one that transforms the heart and delivers his people
out of darkness, out of the king of darkness, out of that body
of sin, out of all that mess, into the body of Christ, where
we hear Him having His Spirit, believing and trusting Him. I
like Joseph Hart's hymn which says, Law and terrors do but
harden, all the while they work alone, yet a sense of blood-bought
parting soon dissolves a heart of stone. And so it's preaching
Christ what He's done for us. He's delivered His people. He's
put away, effectually, the sin of His people and filled them
with His Spirit that we should walk in newness of life, having
a heart willing to serve Him, being drawn to Him, melted. When
we are hard, when we are cold and indifferent, He melts our
heart. He draws us back to Himself and gives us a desire for Him
and a hunger and thirst for Him that only He satisfies and He
draws us to Himself. And so it's not preaching religion. It's not preaching the law. It's
not preaching our practices. It's not declaring Bible stories
to be more moral and more holy in ourselves. It's preaching
Christ. And he's, because he's the one
that sanctifies. He's the one that makes holy.
He's the one that separates us unto himself. And that's exactly
what the church is to do, to preach Christ. She's the pillar
and ground of the truth, meaning she preaches the foundation stone,
the capstone, the stumbling stone. She preaches the Lord Jesus Christ.
You know, I know you brethren are here, but anybody hearing
my voice, listening to this message, you know, when they hear it later,
if Christ is not preached faithfully, if the gospel is not preached
faithfully, then get out. Get out of that church, because
that's just the whore of Babylon. She celebrates and loves religion.
She's drunk with religion. She's drunk with the spirit,
but it's a false spirit. And we don't want to be anywhere
near that, right? Because when they knew that when
they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were
thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their
foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise,
they became fools." And that's what the Lord has delivered us.
Us fools, who aren't all that wonderful and smart and talented
and rich and successful, the Lord has called us to Himself,
to worship Him and to know Him and to feed upon the bread of
heaven who is Jesus Christ our Lord. Our next point here we
see the destruction for Israel outlined and again it's a warning
to us lest the Lord should do it to our nation who claims to
be Christian All right, so we see there, for all their practices
and services, the Lord says, I will distress Ariel in verse
two, and there shall be heaviness and sorrow, and it shall be unto
me as Ariel. And that word, the root word
of Ariel is a lion. And the picture there, the reason
why they called it Ariel is because that's where the sacrifices were
done. And on the altar, that fire that
they burned, the sacrifice would consume that it would consume
the offering. And the Lord's telling them,
I'm going to consume you. You're going to be consumed.
You're going to be to me as Ariel. You're going to be utterly consumed
and destroyed. And he says, verse three, I will
camp against thee, roundabout, and will lay siege against thee
with a mount, and I will raise forts against thee. And so the
Lord says to them who were opposed to that rest, They were opposed
to the rest that Isaiah spoke of in Isaiah 28 verse 12, that
rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest. That's Christ. We preach Christ. It's that you
who are weary of your sin, unable to work righteousness, having
no hope in yourselves or in your flesh, look to Christ. We're
to declare the rest, that you be brought back and know, Lord
save me, have mercy on me. I see now where I'm Going right
back to those things, and the Lord delivers us once again into
the arms of Christ. Look to him, but those who are
opposed, he says, verse four, and thou shalt be brought down,
and shalt speak out of the ground, and thy speech shall be low out
of the dust, and thy voice shall be as one that hath a familiar
spirit, out of the ground, and thy speech shall whisper out
of the dust. And so the Lord is saying, all
you self-righteous and will-worshippers, all you trusting in your works
and your religion, you're going to be humbled. You're going to
be laid in the dust. And so when you speak, it's going
to be of the earth, earthy, and it's not going to be the truth,
and you're going to have a false spirit, and those that hear you
will hear nothing but that of a false spirit. And our Lord
told them, right, when he was on the earth before Rome came
and destroyed them, he actually said in Luke 19.43, that the
day shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench
about thee, encompass thee round, and keep thee in on every side,
and shall lay thee even with the ground. You're gonna be put
into the ground there, and thy children within thee, And they
shall not leave in thee one stone upon another, because thou knewest
not the time of thy visitation. And so that's why they'll be
speaking and continue to speak by a false spirit and not the
truth. All right, so we don't, I mean,
we don't want this place to be a place where the filthy spirit
is the voice being heard. And the only way to do that is
keep preaching Christ, keep looking to him, begging him to be the
spirit that fills us with his glory and his power and honor. Alright, the Lord next, he speaks
of their nation being scattered throughout the world there. Look
at verses 5 and 6. Moreover, the multitude of thy
strangers shall be like small dust, and the multitude of the
terrible ones shall be as chaff that passeth away Ye shall be
at an instant suddenly, right, like a big fan just blowing away
the dust that's on the floor. Thou shalt be visited of the
Lord of hosts with thunder, and with earthquake, and great noise,
with storm and tempest, and the flame of devouring fire. All
right, it's like every calamity that could fall upon them is
hitting them all at once. And they look over here, and
there's another thing going off over there, and they look over
there, and there's another thing going off over there. It's going to
just run them ragged. and they're going to be brought
low and destroyed. And so don't wait for that to
happen. Get to the refuge now. Look to
Christ. Beg Him for mercy. I preach this
and declare it because it's the Lord that stirs up the hearts
of His people. And Christ told them, Israel,
behold, your house is left to you desolate. And that's not
good. It's when the Lord has forsaken
you and left you. He's pulled out, and now there
is nothing but flesh and nothing but a foul, evil spirit among
you. But the Lord's people delight
in Him. And that's where I'm driving
to is that, again, it's not religion. That's not what saves. It's not
the works and the practice of religion that the Lord is pleased
with. And it's Christ. So that when we're gathered together
for public worship, when we come together, it's in the name of
Christ. And it's looking to Him, it's
being reminded that He alone is our salvation and that we
need Him. Every day, every hour, every moment, we need the Lord
Jesus Christ to call us and keep us. And it's by His Spirit that
we walk and serve Him. It's under His praise and glory. And that's what Paul said in
Philippians 3, 7, and 8. What things? All the religious
things I did and all those practices, those things that were gained
to me among men, I counted loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless, and
I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss
of all things, and do count them but dumb. Anything that men think
is a profit to them with the Lord, it's dumb, but that I may
win Christ, because that's all you need is Christ. If his blood
covers you, You need no other righteousness. To bring any other
righteousness means that you've cast off and turned from the
righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Trust him and him alone. Trust him to bear his fruits
of righteousness, the fruit of faith, the fruit of hope, the
fruits of virtue and good works. He bears them in his people. He gives us that heart and that
will and the ability to do those things, all right? And finally,
He warns them that those that he brings against them will not
be satisfied until they are utterly destroyed. Look at verses 7 and
8. And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel,
right, because it's going to be consumed, he calls it Ariel,
even all that fight against her and her munition, right, her
defenses, and that distress her shall be as a dream of a night
vision. It shall even be as when a hungry
man dreameth, and behold, he eateth, but he awakens. and his
soul is empty. Or as when a thirsty man dreameth,
and behold he drinketh, but he awaketh, and behold he is faint,
and his soul hath appetite, so shall the multitude of all the
nations be that fight against Mount Zion." And what he's saying
is, they're gonna be so voracious in destroying you, they're gonna
be as though they're the ones in the dream who think they've
eaten or drank And they wake up and they haven't, they're
still hungry or they're still thirsty and so they keep going
back at it. And they're just gonna keep going at Jerusalem
until it's utterly destroyed. And that's what the Lord did
in AD 70. He brought them down to nothing. So, I just pray that the Lord help
us to hear it. And I'm thankful for you brethren
that he's given you a heart for the Lord and that you love him. And I see that, and I'm so thankful
for that. But we look at our hearts and
just keep being faithful, just keep trusting the Lord. Cuz people come and people go. And when I see those things,
I think, Lord, is it me? Is it something I'm doing? Am
I preaching the right thing? And yeah, I see it throughout
the Word. It's Christ. Keep preaching Christ. Keep exalting Him and lifting
Him up. Because the Lord does have His
people. As our brother prayed, the Lord does have His people
here. I really believe that. I see that in you. And I believe
that He has a people that as He establishes and settles us
in the Gospel, He'll bring them in and settle them and establish
them in the gospel as well. And it'll be in His time, and
we can trust Him to bear that fruit. We don't gotta change
the message. We keep preaching Christ. I'm
fine, we'll mature. and do those things that we have
to. But it's the Lord. It's the Lord. We keep preaching
Christ. And so that's where that burden was born out of. And so you that don't believe
Christ, get to Christ. Get to Christ because there is
no other hope for sinners. Call out upon Him because He's
merciful to all those who seek Him for mercy. He's a merciful,
gracious Lord. And He'll never turn any who
come to Him in the name of Christ. He'll never turn them away. All
right, let's pray. Our gracious Lord, Father, we
thank you for your grace and mercy. Lord, that you should
be so kind to sinners like us, Lord, that you should remove
the veil that is upon the hearts of millions, dead in religion,
trusting in their works just like Israel. Lord, we thank you
that you have stripped us down of our works, stripped us down
of false refugees and false hopes and trusting in the things that
we do by the flesh and of the flesh. Lord, you've delivered
us through Christ's blood and we pray and ask that you continue
to deliver us and keep us because we know it's It's for Christ's
sake alone that we are your people. And Lord, ever teach us, grow
us in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ. Lord, help us to walk faithfully
before you by His Spirit, ever trusting Him in faith, Lord.
We pray that you be glorified among us. It's in Christ's name
we pray and give thanks. Amen. Stand with me as we sing 287
like a river glorious 287. The river glorious is God's perfect
peace, Over all victorious in his pride and praise. Perfect yet it floweth, fuller
every day, Perfect yet it groweth, deeper all the way. Made upon Jehovah, hearts are
fully blessed, Finding as He promised, perfect peace and rest. Hidden in the hollow of His blessed
hand, Never foe can follow, never traitor stand. Not a surge of
worry, not a shade of care, Not a blast of hurry, touch the Spirit
there. Stayed upon Jehovah, hearts are
fully blessed, Finding as He promised, perfect peace and rest. Every joy or trial falleth from
above, traced upon our dial by the Son of Love. We may trust Him wholly, all
for us to do. They who trust Him wholly find
Him wholly true. Seen upon Jehovah, hearts are
fully blessed, Finding as He promised, perfect peace and rest.