Good evening. Turn with me to
Isaiah 28. Isaiah 28, we'll be looking at
verses one through 13 this evening. This text here begins with a
reference to the 10 tribes of Israel. That is, the Lord calls
them Ephraim, and that's who he means. He has the 10 tribes
of Israel in view here. And what he's showing us is the
hardness and the deadness of man's natural heart, that apart
from the divine influence of God, apart from the power of
God giving a dead sinner life, they will not hear the truth
of God. They won't hear the word of God. They won't receive it. They may
listen to it for a time, but they won't receive it. They won't
hear it because they can't. They have no power in themselves
to receive that word. And so we see this people, these
Ephraimites, or the ten tribes of Israel, they would not repent
from their wicked ways, though the Lord declared it to them.
And though they were threatened with certain destruction, they
would not turn from their evil and wicked ways. Now we also
see, as the text goes on about verse 5, it transitions to where
the Lord directs his word to Judah, and Judah is a type of
the remnant of Israel, those that are the Lord's people. They
picture the Lord's people, and yet even among them we see that
there is but a remnant saved. And these saw Ephraim, they heard
the prophet Isaiah, and they saw the destruction which would
come upon Ephraim and all of Israel, but they too refused
to hear the word of the Lord. And that's a sober message to
us, that even in the midst of the Lord's people, they would
not hear the word of the Lord, and we'll see how that is a picture
of Christ, but it's a warning to us. It's a picture to us here
that are gathered together. Our title is, They Wouldn't,
But Will You Hear? But Will You Hear? And we'll
have two divisions. We'll see first the promise of
destruction, and then this word of exhortation to us, don't refuse
God's promise, rest. Don't refuse his rest. All right,
so let's begin here with the promise of destruction. Now,
as we go through our study here, you that do not believe Christ,
you that do not confess that Christ is your Savior, you have
no faith in him, you don't believe him, you don't know if he even
exists or if he's real, you're not a believer. Listen, listen,
listen to this word because it concerns you. you need to hear
what the Lord is revealing to us. So the people here, these
inhabitants of the earth, and we're inhabitants of this earth,
and he's promising that there's a day of destruction coming upon
the earth. And if you are a believer, listen
closely as well. Listen closely as well because
here was a people in Judah that heard it and were told that they
would not hear. They wouldn't hear the word.
So, the Lord through Isaiah begins here pronouncing a woe, a woe
upon Ephraim. And a woe is a judgment without
mercy. That's what a woe is. It's a
judgment without mercy. Look at verse 1. He says, Woe
to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious
beauty is a fading flower. which are on the head of the
fat valleys of them that are overcome with wine." Now he speaks
of Ephraim, and Ephraim is representative of the ten tribes of Israel that
departed from the king of Judah. And they didn't have any godly
kings, whereas Judah did have several godly kings. They were blessed with a couple
of, a few godly kings in their time. But these men And women,
they were steeped in idolatry. They were worshiping a false
god. And that's exactly where the
people of the earth are today. Worshiping a false god. They
worship lies and things that are not true. And even if they
don't worship, anything that they call God, they still worship
themselves as God. And we are naturally idolaters. We're idolaters. We worship self. We glory in self and not in the
true and living God until He reveals Himself to us and makes
Himself known, coming with power. Power, which He does through
the Gospel of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Now, these people are
described as being proud and being drunkards. Proud drunkards. They were drinking wine and strong
drink to excess. They were getting drunk. Now,
pride is that first sin which is listed among the six things
which the Lord doth hate. In Proverbs 6, he says a proud
look. The Lord hates a proud look.
That arrogant, haughty look that we naturally get on our faces
when we judge others. who we believe to be beneath
us and not like us. And pride is said to be that
sin of Adam when he took the fruit, the forbidden fruit, that
he might be as God. He wanted to be like God when
he plunged himself and all his seed into condemnation, into
death. We died in Adam that day. We died spiritually so that we
lost fellowship with God. There's no light in us. There's
no divine flicker in us anymore. We are dead in trespasses and
sins. We have a great need of a Savior
and we cannot save ourselves and we know not how to save ourselves. But God in mercy is revealing
to us His rest, the rest from our labors and trying to save
ourselves by our own works of righteousness which cannot save. Now don't confuse the sin of
pride with working hard, with doing your best, right? When
you men and women go to work and you labor you want to do
your work very well. Whether it's a hobby or it's
your work, you want to do that very well and be as good as you
possibly can be in that. But the issue of pride is where
we despise others. We despise others and think that
you can't do what I do. What are you? You're worthless.
You don't do what I do or you can't be the way I am. That's
pride and that's despising others and the Lord hates it. The Lord
hates it and tells us not to do it. We see pride in things
like race, thinking that one race is not like our race. We see pride in face, thinking
ourselves to be beautiful and others to not be beautiful. We
see pride in place. Some people might think that
this is the greatest place to be and if you weren't born here
or from here, They're not as good as they are, right? And
others in other parts of the country might think that, and
other parts of the world. And there's that pride there
as well. And believe it or not, there's even the pride of grace,
which is ridiculous, right? Because grace, if anything, it
teaches us that we don't deserve the mercy and the grace which
God has shown to us in his son, Jesus Christ. So Ephraim here,
wore his pride like a crown, like a crown. He wore it very
proudly and thought that he was better than others. And the Lord
said, your glorious beauty is as a fading flower, a fading
flower. Now, I asked you in the beginning
to listen, to listen. And the reason why is because
like Ephraim, that's us naturally. We're like Ephraim. We that don't
believe, you that don't believe, that have not heard the gospel
and do not believe on Christ, we're like Ephraim. We're very
proud, very arrogant, very confident in self, believing ourselves
to be something when we're nothing. And the Lord tells us, you're
a flower that's fading. A flower that's fading fast.
And your beauty is going away very quickly. You and I, we may
not drink or get drunk with wine or strong drink. We may not drink
it to excess and get drunk, but apart from Christ, even we that
now believe, we too all had our part in what Paul described as
walking according to the course of this world, according to the
prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in
the children of disobedience. So even we ourselves that do
believe Christ, what do we have to glory in? We too walked among
the children of disobedience, among the children of wrath.
We did that which warranted and caused us to be deserving of
eternal hell and separation from Almighty God. and now our glorious
beauty is fading away. And you that don't know Christ,
you that don't believe Christ, you that have no trust or confidence
in Him, we're going to die one day. You see it all around you.
We all know people that have died, and yet we go on in our
confident pride, just doing what we will, carelessly sinning,
without any regard to the fact that one day we're going to stand
before God. And Paul tells us, these things
that we do, these things sake the wrath of God, for these things
sake the wrath of God cometh upon the children of disobedience. So we're to hear these things.
And many, they hear it, they hear of Christ, and yet they
go on in their lusts and their vain religious practices thinking,
well, God doesn't seem to care, so I guess it doesn't really
matter if I do these things. Or, some who are quite religious
think, well, God must be pleased with my works. He hasn't condemned
me yet, and I'm telling others to do religious things and how
to get their lives straight and be more disciplined in religious
things. and they don't see that their
hope and trust and confidence is in their religious service
and in their religious works, not in Christ and what he's done
for his people. And so they go on in their careless
ways thinking that there's plenty of time to work these things
out and I don't need to hear that now and one day maybe I'll
settle down and believe that, but we're not promised another
day. Now turn over to Isaiah 40 verse six, Isaiah 40. Isaiah 40 verse 6 says, the voice
said, cry. And he said, what shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the
goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field. The grass
withereth, the flower fadeth, because the spirit of the Lord
bloweth upon it. Surely the people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower
fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand forever. So, what the Lord is telling
us in His Word, and you that come here regularly and you hear
the Gospel, listen, hear what the Lord is saying to us. Hear
what He's saying. Hear His Word. Seek Him now for
mercy and seek Him for forgiveness. Seek Him through the Lord Jesus
Christ. Because that's the rest that
God has provided for His people. He's provided the salvation.
He's provided the Savior. He's given us the name whereby
we must be saved. And there's no other means of
our salvation. There's no other name given to
men. under heaven whereby we must be saved. It's by the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now the day of destruction is
already determined. It's been determined. and yet
God is still sending forth the gospel. To this day, the gospel
goes forth, the gospel declaring salvation by the Lord Jesus Christ
apart from the works that you and I do. It's by grace. It's
by grace shown to us through His Son, Jesus Christ. Now, it's
already determined, but look here in the next verse. He tells
us even that it's already ready to go. It's upon this people,
upon Ephraim. He says, verse two, behold, the
Lord hath a mighty and strong one, which as a tempest of hail
and a destroying storm, as a flood of mighty waters overflowing,
shall cast down to the earth with the hand. And that same
confidence that brethren, that believers have, that God has
provided everything for them and shall continue to provide
everything for him is the same confidence that the wicked should
have that God is going to fulfill his word. And he's telling us
that he's going to destroy the earth. And here, for this people,
historically, for Ephraim, this is referring to Assyria, who
was just waiting in the wings, getting stronger and stronger
by the day, just waiting for the Lord to say, go ahead, go
ahead and destroy them, take them away into captivity. And
that's what happened. Eventually, Assyria went in and
they took them into captivity. And what it shows us is that
the word of our God shall stand forever. So you can be confident. You that believe are confident
that Christ shall honor his word. He shall come again just as he
promised. And you that don't believe, understand. His word is good. He's going
to follow through on his word just as he said. So we may feel
invincible now. We may feel like tomorrow is
going to be just like it was yesterday and today, and it's
not going to be any different. You may think that, but suddenly
it comes upon you. Now he says there in verse 3
and 4, the crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim shall be
trodden under feet, and the glorious beauty which is on the head of
the fat valley shall be a fading flower, and as the hasty fruit
before the summer, which when he that looketh upon it seeth,
while it is yet in his hand, he eateth it up. And what he's
saying there is that the wicked are going to be trodden down.
They are going to perish. They are going to be destroyed.
And that poetic language there in verse four, what he's saying
is, well, just think about springtime, late in spring when the first
fruit is ripe. and you go out into your garden
or to your tree and you see that first fruit and you pick it,
it doesn't even make it into the house because you're so excited.
It's been a long time since you had fresh fruit from your own
garden and you eat it immediately. And that's what he's saying is
that it'll happen suddenly and quickly. It'll all be over. And so, the Lord tells us that
he's coming quickly. I was thinking about that. And
in Revelation 22, verses 11 and 12, the Lord tells us, he that's
unjust, let him be unjust still. He which is filthy, let him be
filthy still. And he that is righteous, let
him be righteous still. And he that is holy, let him
be holy still. And behold, I come quickly, and
my reward is with me. to give every man according as
his work shall be." Right? The unjust and the filthy, they
will receive according to what they have done. And those that
are righteous and holy, that is righteous and holy in Christ,
because of his faithfulness, because of his work, they shall
have the reward of eternal life in Christ. And it says quickly,
and I would imagine many people stumble over that, thinking,
well, the Lord said he's coming quickly, Why, it's been now some
2,000 years, approximately, since the Lord came. And what he's
saying there isn't necessarily, time-wise, a speedy time in the
sense that we understand time. But what he's saying is that
the day is appointed. The day of judgment is appointed
for every man. And we don't know when that is.
But when that day comes, it'll all come upon us very quickly. It'll all come down very quickly. and everything will unfold very
rapidly so that there won't be time to figure things out. There
won't be time for us to go and get oil in our lamps. But while
those foolish virgins go off looking for oil, to know the
Lord, to hear the Gospel, to hear of the Spirit, to be filled
with His Spirit, that oil, to know Christ and to know what
salvation is, He'll already come and be gone and have taken His
people with him. So that's what he's saying with
regards to quickly, that it's going to happen very rapidly,
very quickly in that sense. So we can play games, we can
pretend to deny it all that we want, but the Lord warns us,
he warns us that there's a day coming. He says in Proverbs 16,
18, pride goeth before destruction and in haughty spirit before
a fall. So don't be caught trusting your
own works Don't be caught trusting your own righteousness. Don't
be confident and cocky, thinking that the Lord will not keep his
word. He shall keep his word. We see it. We see it over and
over again. I will, they shall. For his people, he promises,
and they shall. And for the wicked, he's determined
a day of destruction, and it shall come to pass for the wicked. And we're told because he hath
appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness
by that man whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given assurance
unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead." And
so the Lord's telling us that there is righteousness, there
is a perfect righteousness that we must have to stand before
him, to be accepted of him, to stand faultless before his throne. and the one who determines what
is perfect and righteous and holy and acceptable is the Lord
Jesus Christ himself. So get you to Christ. Get to
Christ and beg him for mercy to receive you. All right, now
this leads us nicely to our next point. Don't refuse God's promised
rest. What I've been saying to this
point is that now is the day of salvation. Today is the day
of grace. hear his word. Seek him to hear
his word. First, this salvation that the
Lord has given us, he's provided for his people. And he reveals
to us that this salvation is for sinners. This salvation in
Christ is for sinners. Those who are needy, those who
are worthless, those who are outcasts, those who are strangers,
those who are hungering and thirsting and have no righteousness of
their own. That's whom God has provided
this righteousness for. That's whom God has sent his
son for, the sinners, the sick, the weak, the helpless, those
that cannot help themselves. So come to the Lord, you that
are sick and weak and dead and have no hope in yourselves, come
to the Lord, seek him, believe on him, and you shall find in
him a gracious and a willing Savior. He's a gracious and a
willing savior. It says, look there at verse
five and six in our text, Isaiah 28, five and six. In that day
shall the Lord of hosts be for a crown of glory and for a diadem
of beauty unto the residue of his people and for a spirit of
judgment to him that sitteth in judgment and for strength
to them that turn the battle to the gate. Jesus Christ is
that diadem of beauty. He's the crown of our righteousness.
He's the crown of our glory. He speaks this word to the residue
of his people. And that shows us just how few
seek the Lord for mercy and how few seek the Lord for righteousness. Even though his word is very
kind to those who will hear, to those who have an ear to hear,
to those who are sinners He's very kind, he says in Acts 10.43,
to him give all the prophets witness. And that includes Moses,
who represents the law. To him, both the prophets and
the law give witness that through his name, whosoever believeth
in him shall receive remission of sins. Now the Lord here has
transitioned from Ephraim, just those that were utterly dead
in trespasses and sins and had no part Christ. He turns from
them and he's speaking to Judah. And Judah, as I mentioned, represents
the people of God. They represent the remnant of
the Lord. He tells us in Romans 9 6, but
they are not all Israel which are of Israel. Not all that are
in Israel are of Israel. The Lord has a remnant, a people
of whom he will save. And he says to Moses, he said,
before he say it to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have
mercy. And I will have compassion on
whom I will have compassion. All right, and so the Lord does
that for his people. But understand, you that struggle
and worry, did he die for me? And you fear and worry, well,
I don't know if I can go to him. He tells us in His Word, His
Word is so tender to you that are sinners, to you that are
broken, to you that are of a contrite heart, that have no confidence
in the flesh. He's such a merciful and a willing
Savior, and all who come to Him shall find Him a merciful and
gracious Savior. You shall find Him a very welcoming,
and a gracious Savior, right? John 6.37 says, all that the
Father giveth me shall come to me. Declaring to us that God
has separated out a people and given them to his Son and elect
chosen people that he's given to his Son and he tells us, You
that are fearful, you that wonder, well, am I one of the elect?
He tells us, you that are sinners, that have no hope in yourselves,
he that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. So all you
that need him, go to him, and you shall find him a gracious
Savior, a gracious Savior, and he'll receive you. You don't
need to fear that. Christ stands ready to embrace
all those who need Him, all those who have no hope in themselves. they shall find him to be merciful
and compassionate and kind and gracious to them." Right? Now,
there's many that hear and many that see, that don't believe,
right? Those words of warning are to
those who will not hear, who will not hear the salvation rest
that God has provided for his people. He's warning them. And
it shows us who do believe that this is what it is. This is what
the natural heart of man is like. He refuses. He will not believe
on Christ. There's nothing that can happen
to him. There's nothing that can be said
to him that will change him. If God isn't in it, if God's
influence isn't there, if the Spirit doesn't save that person,
they'll never believe. So you that do believe, and you
that do hope, you that do hunger and thirst, why do you delay? Why tarry any longer? Why are
you so afraid? He's a gracious and a willing
Savior to all who come to him. But there are some that won't
hear. He said to the Jews, that ye also have seen me and believe
not. And he preached to them in John
5, and he said, but ye will not believe on me. That's the will
of man. Except God gives life to that
person. The will of man is, I'm not believing
you. I won't hear you. You're not
my Lord and Savior. You're not my king. That's the
heart of man, the natural heart of man, but the Lord, he's the
one who has mercy, but he's showing us that. He's showing us that
we who do believe don't think more highly of ourselves than
we ought to think, that we see this is all the grace and the
mercy of God that has brought us here, and we'll see that more
as we go. The next two verses here, it shows the sin of those
who should have been hearing the gospel, those who should
have been glad to hear what the Lord was saying and ready to
receive the Lord Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ when he came,
but they didn't. Now look at verse seven and eight.
But they also have erred through wine and through strong drink
are out of the way. The priest and the prophet have
erred through strong drink. They are swallowed up of wine.
They are out of the way through strong drink. They err in vision. They stumble in judgment. all
tables are full of vomit and filthiness so that there is no
place clean." Now first of all the Lord's showing us here that
even in Judah they were going after the same sins as Ephraim. Those that are unbelievers, those
that had no part in the kingdom of God. And they're out there
doing the same riotous living and practices that those who
have no hope in God are practicing. And those things ought not to
be. Those things shouldn't be. And so they were getting drunk
as well. They were also doing, drinking
to excess and getting drunk to that point. But it's also shown
us here that these people, these priests and the prophets that
were among the people, They weren't teaching them the truth. They
weren't speaking the gospel. They may have been speaking about
some religious things here and there. They may have been going
through the motions, and the Lord may have been on their lips,
but their hearts were far from them. And what they were saying
was They were erring in vision and they stumbled in judgment
so that they spoke by a false spirit. They spoke according
to lies and things that cannot help and things that cannot save. The Lord calls it vomit and filthiness. And therefore they err in vision,
they stumble in judgment. What we see is that this historically
happened in Israel, but it even happened in the day when Christ
came to the Jews. When he came there, they wouldn't
hear. They were believing, drinking
the spirit of the age. They were drunk with a false
spirit. They were full of lies, and they didn't speak truth,
and they didn't understand what the Lord was revealing people by the Lamb of God, by
the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, shedding his own blood to put
away the sins of his people. So that in John 1 11, it said
he came unto his own, but his own received him not. His own
received him not. Speaking of the Jews, they largely
rejected Christ, they crucified him, so that to this day there's
not many that believe him. And even now, as we see more
and more, there's a movement that professes to believe, they
call themselves Messianic Jews, but What's sad and disappointing
is that they're still going back to the law, and they're still
looking to the law and going back into the ceremonies. Rather
than seeing how Christ has fulfilled all those pictures and types
and shadows in the Old Testament, they were all speaking of Him,
and rather than seeing Him, they're just bringing back and incorporating
religion and religious practices into what they do. It's Christ, our salvation is
Christ. He fulfilled everything. He nailed
it to his cross, putting away those ordinances and those laws
to deliver us from those things which men and women were burdened
with and yoked with so that they couldn't serve the Lord. They
didn't see the liberty that we have in Christ. All right, now
the Lord asks in verse nine. He says, whom shall he teach
knowledge? And whom shall he make to understand
doctrine? Now, we find these same phrases
a little bit later in Isaiah, in Isaiah 53 verse 1, where the
prophet there, we know that chapter, Isaiah 53, is that holy ground
that declares Christ our Savior being crucified for his people,
bearing their sins, bearing the wrath of God, being whipped and
beaten and suffering to purge us of our sins, to put them away.
And Isaiah opened that chapter saying, who hath believed our
report? That's what he's saying here
in verse nine. Whom shall he teach knowledge? And to whom
is the arm of the Lord revealed? In Isaiah 53 one. As he said
here in verse nine, and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? Who's hearing it? Is anyone hearing
it? All these things that the Lord
is showing us. Is anyone hearing what the Lord
is showing us? So the Lord teaches that all
who come to Him, and all who ask, all who seek Him, all you
that are ignorant, you that are unwise, you that don't know,
and are insufficient for these things, He says, come to Me.
you seek me, I'll show you the truth of these things, I'll reveal
my salvation to you." But what is written, there is none righteous,
no not one, there's none that understand it, there's none that
seek it after God. That's the report for natural
man. for the flesh, who reasons, who
senses, and our reason is all natural, fleshly, dead in Adam,
having not the Spirit of God. But the Word does go forth, and
the Word from the prophet Isaiah and other prophets, they spoke
to these people as children, as children who had no knowledge.
They were very kind, and very patient, and very tender to them,
and they preached the Gospel. We declare the Lord Jesus Christ. As Paul said, I knew nothing
among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. We preach Christ
because that's That's the simplicity of Christ. We preach the gospel,
how God saves sinners, because we don't know when the Lord's
gonna break open that heart and give life to that dead sinner
and cause them to hear, to feel, and to know their need of a Savior,
and to hear that word, and to receive it by His Spirit, to
understand and to know that Christ really has put away their sins,
their sins, and delivers them from bondage. All right, now,
they spoke to them as children. Look at the second half of verse
nine. He says, them that are weaned from the milk and drawn
from the breasts. He's describing young children,
very young children who are just being weaned. For, this is how
they preached, for precept must be upon precept, precept upon
precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little and
there a little, for with stammering lips and another tongue will
he speak to this people." So he's showing us that the Lord
broke it down very simply. We're all sinners. We cannot
save ourselves. We cannot save ourselves by our
works of righteousness which we have done. The law was given
to show forth that sin is exceeding sinful. Before the law, they
didn't understand the depths of sin, but the law was given
to the Jews so that they might know, wow, I cannot work righteousness
for myself. So that when Christ came, they
would see, ah, this is the salvation that God has provided. That they
were looking to the lamb that God would provide in his son,
the salvation that God would provide in his son, but they
were so dead that they thought that through the law they were
keeping, that they were working righteousness that God was pleased
with. But he was showing them very
simply, very plainly, that you can't keep the law. And so he
broke it down for them, but like children, they weren't hearing
it. Like children who couldn't understand, they were not hearing
it. They wouldn't receive that word. And so Today, we do the
same thing. We preach the Gospel. We preach
Jesus Christ. We keep declaring what God has
done for His people through His Son, Jesus Christ. And we see
the need because here, even in Judah, right, among believers,
among the remnant, they needed to hear it over and over again
because they were going off and looking at the wicked deeds of
Ephraim and going after those same sins and living like that. But the Lord has done everything
necessary for his people. He sent his son, Jesus Christ. That shows us that there isn't
a law. There's nothing we can do to
save ourselves. If there was a law given that
could have produced righteousness in us, whereby we could have
produced righteousness in ourselves, Christ wouldn't have come. He
wouldn't have need to come. But that shows us that there's
nothing we can do to save ourselves. We are desperately in need of
the salvation that God has provided in his son. And Christ came and
walked perfectly among us, fulfilling all the law perfectly, doing
good to others, healing the sick, casting out demons, doing many
wonderful works in the sight of the people, and he spoke the
truth to them. He exposed the fallacy and the
foolishness of the Pharisees and showed that we can't work
a righteousness for ourselves. And he was so tender to his people,
so kind to the sinner, so drawing them in and receiving sinners,
so that the whores and publicans went into the kingdom of God
before the righteous Pharisees, the self-righteous Pharisees.
And Christ, to put away our sins, bore us in Himself, bore our
sins in His own body, and went there to that cross, bearing
the judgment and the wrath of God, satisfying God perfectly,
to put away the wrath of God toward us, so that that wrath
now for His people is removed forever. And because Christ did
that work for His people, right, what does it say in Hebrews 10.14? one offering he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified." He did the work. He's put away
the sin of his people. The work is done, and because
of that, he sends his word, the gospel word, and he attends that
word with his Holy Spirit, making that word effectual in the heart
of his people. That's the regeneration. He gives
life to his people. Our Lord said, ye must be born
again. For except the man be born again,
he cannot see the King of God. And many think that, well, it's
my faith that then gets me born again. No, you have faith because
God has made you born again. given you that faith and revealed
this gospel to you whereby you believe and know Christ did all
the work. Otherwise, it's just the work
of the flesh that we're hoping and entrusting him. So you that
hear him, he spoke of this in 1 Corinthians 14 20. Paul actually
is quoting from this passage. He said, So in other words, you
that have heard the gospel, you that have been gathered together
and heard this gospel, he's saying, don't be careless with what you
hear. Don't be careless, but believe the Lord. Trust the Lord
concerning salvation. Trust him concerning his return. And Paul tells us in Romans 117,
for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith, the
faithfulness of Christ, to faith, the faith which he's given. As
it's written, the just shall live by faith. The just, how
are we justified? By our works? No, by Christ.
And those that are justified shall live by faith. The faith
which he's revealed to us and given to us. So hear his word,
be gathered, come and hear the word of our Lord, praying that
he teach it to you. And read his word, take up the
Bible and read his word, praying, Lord reveal it to me. Let me
not be a hard-hearted, cold, dead wretch that doesn't hear
it, because we are hard naturally. We don't hear, but Lord, pray
to him to reveal it and seek to walk in Christ by his spirit,
hearing his warnings against sin, hearing his warnings that
there's destruction coming for those that refuse to hear this
truth. And he tells us there, this was
Paul speaking to the Romans, and he says, for the wrath of
God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness
of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness. So Paul went
on to say, you know, don't be children in your understanding.
And he continued to quote this passage here. And he says in
1 Corinthians 14, 21, in the law it is written, right, he's
speaking from Isaiah 28, 11, and 12, and he says, with men
of other tongues and other lips will I speak unto this people,
and yet for all that will they not hear me, saith the Lord. All right, natural man will not
hear what the Lord is saying, what is revealed to us in Christ. So don't be like these stumbling
Jews in Judah. Don't be content just to sit
there. You that don't believe Christ,
don't be content that seek him, beg him because he's coming again
and he shall keep his word and and the wicked shall be destroyed
and have to bear their own punishment for their own works. Now many
didn't receive Christ but there were some that did receive Christ
when he came and it says in John 1 verses 12 and 13 he says but
as many as received him them gave he power to become the sons
of God, even to them that believe on his name." Right, and that
sounds like, wow, it sounds like they received him and then he
gave them power. Well, watch the next verse, "...which
were born, not of blood." All right, we don't come to know
and believe on Christ through our lineage, because our parents
believed or somebody that we're related to. That's not how we
believe, nor of the will of the flesh. All right, so that tells
you that the free will of man is dead. That's not how we believe,
not by that power, by our will, nor of the will of man, right?
None of us can will another person to salvation, to believe. We
try and we labor. We want them to believe. We care
for our loved ones and our friends, but he says it's of God. So they
were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of
the will of man, but of God. And Paul speaks to that as well,
saying, so then, it is not of him that willeth, right? Forget
your will. Left to yourself, you and I would
never believe. We'd be just like those dead
Jews who would not hear. Nor of him that runneth, right?
For your good works, no matter how hard you work at it and try
and labor, they will not save you. But of God that showeth
mercy. It's of God. He's a welcoming
and a receiving Savior to all who need him. those that come
and receive him and trust him and believe find that they have
nothing the glory and of themselves but in God alone and they give
him all the praise and the glory that they have faith and that
they believe because that's a gift of God apart from our works. It's out of his grace and mercy.
So we will hear, we will receive him and praise him. He's the
crown of glory and a diadem of beauty unto the residue of his
people. So it's all All right, now, this
is what he said of those who refused. And speaking of the
rest in verse 12 there, the rest that the Lord speaks of, it says
in verse 12, to whom he said, this is the rest wherewith ye
may cause the weary to rest. And this is the refreshing, yet
they would not hear. All right, they wouldn't hear.
To them, it was just that same old word. Look at verse 13. To
them, it just came across as simple words and nothing special,
the same old thing, and they got tired of hearing it, right?
Verse 13, but the word of the Lord was unto them precept upon
precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line,
here a little and there a little, that, right? That they might
go and fall backward and be broken and snared and taken. You know,
we'll see next week that the Jews, the Lord gave them the
foundation stone. He provided, he sent Christ,
just as he promised in the prophets, all the way back to Genesis 3.15,
when he promised the seed that should come, that should save
his people. And that stone came, and the
Jews, they didn't hear it, they didn't receive it, they didn't
believe it. They rejected that one. And it turns out, that's
the chief stone. That's the one that holds the
whole thing up. That's the salvation. has provided and so they wouldn't
hear it and the Lord says to them therefore say I unto you
the kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation
bringing forth the fruits thereof and whosoever shall fall on this
stone shall be broken but on whomsoever it shall fall it will
grind him to powder." that's what he's speaking of there.
It's cool. He's talking to them of what Isaiah said. And the gospel comes forth as
a full-on frontal assault to our works, to our righteousness,
to our comforts, to our satisfaction in ourselves. But the Lord comes in His people, so that they are
broken, their hearts are broken, and they come to the Lord, and
they fall upon the Lord, begging Him for mercy and grace. That's
why I say to you, you that are hungry and thirsty, and weary,
and have no hope in yourselves, come to the Lord. He receives
all that come to Him. He's a willing Savior, ready
to save His people, because that's His work. He died to put away
the sins of His people. He shall receive them. He shall
receive them. because he's making it known
to us that we are weary and sick and cannot save ourselves. But
to those who refuse, to those who have no need of the Savior,
they shall fall backwards and the stone shall fall upon them
and they shall be ground to powder and they shall come to nothing
in themselves. So believe on Christ and you
shall be saved. Refuse Christ and you shall pay
for your own sins in hell for all eternity. So I say, they
wouldn't hear. They wouldn't hear this word.
But will you? Will you hear the word? Has the
Lord shown you your need of Him? I pray the Lord will turn our
hearts and cause us to see our need of Him and to seek Him.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. All right,
let's, why don't you come up and close, do a hymn and then
I'll close this after. I have an announcement.