Okay, we'll be in Isaiah chapter
20. Isaiah chapter 20. Now tonight I want to try and
preach this word the way the Lord gave it to me, the way it
came to me. And I sat down to read Isaiah
20, the text that we'd be looking at and prayed about it. waited
and this is how the Lord gave it to me to understand the sense
and the meaning of what's being said here and to understand the
sense and the meaning that God was giving to Isaiah for the
people of Israel there. Now some that hear this message,
they don't know that they are of the house of Israel. They
don't know that they're of Judah, that they're believers in the
household and the family of God. But God will make them to know
it. And some that hear this message may think and believe themselves
to be part of the house of Israel and the people of Judah, but
they shall find that they are lost and don't know the true
and living God. And God will make them to know
that. It may be for the purposes of being merciful to them, gracious
to them, and kind to them, to break them of the things that
they're hoping in and trusting in, rather than trusting in the
Lord Jesus Christ. So I pray that the Spirit of
God would help us to hear His voice, to hear His word, to hear
His message that He has for His people. Our title is, The Sinner
Stripped. The Sinner Stripped. And first,
I want to speak about God's warning to men. God's warning to men. So the purpose of God, the purpose
of God in raising up a man and giving him a message and sending
him to the people, the purpose of a God-sent preacher, and that's
the only one worth listening to, right? It's the only one
that we should hear, a God-sent preacher. The purpose that he
serves is to go forth by the power of the Lord and to preach
that message which God has given to him for the people for that
hour. And that's exactly what Isaiah
was doing in our text. So a God-sent preacher, he isn't
to sugarcoat the Word of God, right? He's not to sugarcoat
it. He's not to make it come across or to say it in a way
that will make it easier for the people to accept what he's
saying and to say, alright, I can handle that. You said the things
that I need to hear and so I can handle that. He's not to pull
his punches or to make it sweeter to you so that you'll accept
what God is saying. And he's not to bury the truth
so far that you don't know what he's trying to say. Some men
are very good at reading the crowd, they're good at reading
the room, and they know, well I know these people over here,
they're expecting to hear a little bit of this. And those people
over there, they're expecting to hear a little bit of that.
So I'm going to say a little bit of this, and a little bit of
that, and then everybody will be happy, but nobody knows what
you're really saying. It's just confusion. Nobody can
really follow you. And Paul said, Paul said in Galatians
5.11, And I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, If I yet
preach circumcision, he's saying if I yet preach confusion, saying
that a man must do his best to keep the law of Moses or else
he cannot be saved. It's okay if he believes on the
Lord Jesus Christ. It's okay if he believes Christ
and believes that he was sent of God as the Christ, but he's
got to keep the law of Moses to the best of his ability or
else he can't be saved. And Paul said, if that's what
I'm preaching, that cutting in the flesh, that work of the flesh,
to get the flesh involved and to get the flesh to conform,
if that's what I'm preaching, he said, then why do I yet suffer
persecution? All men want to hear about the
flesh. All men want to hear what they can do to save themselves.
Why am I suffering persecution if that's what I'm saying? Then
is the offense of the cross ceased. The offense of the cross is ceased.
I'd like to speak for a few minutes just giving you a couple of examples
in which men preach the flesh to avoid offending people through
the preaching of the cross. One example is in decisionism,
what we know as free will, free willism, people believing that
we have a free will and that we must make a decision to believe
on Jesus, that we have to cast the deciding vote whether or
not Christ's blood will be made effectual to us or not. There's
many people that teach that, that God did all that he can
do in salvation. He did the best that he could
in sending the best that he had, the Lord Jesus Christ, but there's
nothing more that he can do. He's done his best, now it's
up to you to finish the work. You've got to make that deciding
choice. You've got to make that good
choice to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. So they present
Christ, they speak of Christ in such a way that they're saying,
God's holding him out here, he's dangling him out here, and now
you've got to make the good choice. Go fetch! Go fetch him. Go get him if you can get him.
Go on, you've got to believe. Go after him. Go fetch. You know,
that's exactly how they're presenting them. And if that was true, I'll
give you a little assignment. If you think that it's by your
free will that you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and I'll
give you a little assignment. I was thinking of Penny, actually,
and some of us, you know, we have a dog that was a great family
pet. Penny's still alive, but if you
have a dog that loved to play catch, you know, with a stick
or a ball or something like that, but it's dead. You know, sometimes
people love their pet and they bury it right on their own property.
If you have that in your case, or you know somebody who has
a pet like that, go out there with a stick or a ball, go to
the grave, and bang on the grave there, puppy! Puppy! And then throw the ball and say,
go fetch! Go fetch, puppy! Do you think
the puppy will do that? Do you think that dog can get
up out of that grave and go after that ball or that stick? No, you know that the dog can't
do that. The dog doesn't even have a will to do it. The dog
can't even hear you. There's no desire in that dog
to go after that, no matter how much they loved going after that
when they were in the flesh, when they were alive, still on
the earth. And the dog can't run after those things. It has
no power or ability to run after it. And that's what it is when
man preaches Christ in such a way to say that you have to go and
make a decision for Christ. Otherwise you cannot be saved.
because they're presenting it in such a way, they're speaking
about salvation as being in the man's hands, something that the
man or the woman must do to get themselves saved, to make the
blood of Christ effectual for them. And that's why Paul said
in Romans 9, 16, so then it's not of him that willeth, nor
of him that runneth, but it's of God that showeth mercy. God's got to do it. God the Father,
God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, God will work in the sinner's
heart. God will transform and change
that sinner's heart. God will give that sinner faith.
God will give that sinner to see that they're the sinner.
that they can't save themselves or do anything for salvation. God is the one who does the work
in his people. Then there's another example,
right, the law keeper. They know that salvation is by
grace. They know that salvation is by
election, God choosing a people that he loved and put into Christ. They know this and they would
never make it sound like it's free will that saves a person.
They wouldn't talk like that. But the problem is that their
understanding of these things is an intellectual understanding.
They're no different. The Arminian brothers are no
different. He's just a little dumber than they are. He doesn't really
understand that God has an elected people that he loved and put
in Christ and saves in that way. The problem is One, that they
still call the Arminian gospel, which is no gospel at all, a
gospel, and they call them brethren, but they turn away from Christ. It's just an intellectual understanding.
So they go on from Christ, they've conquered that, they understand
that, they think, and then they move on to looking to the law. They're looking to add to the
work of Christ. They don't have confidence in
what Christ has done. There's something that man must
do now. He's got to look to the Law of
Moses to perfect, to keep, to maintain that which is started
by the Spirit. He thinks that, alright, I went
into Jesus now, but now I've got to turn back to the Law of
Moses, else I cannot be saved. And that's what the men who came
from James, from Jerusalem, said when they went to Antioch. and
met up with Paul and Barnabas there and they said, except ye
be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved. And what those two examples show
us is that man is always looking for a way to contribute something
to his salvation. He cannot understand, he doesn't
even Understand at all that it's a spiritual work. It's apart
from the flesh. It's nothing that we work up
and whip up in ourselves to contribute to the work of salvation. And
we know that they don't believe it because their practice, their
very practice reveals that they have no confidence in Christ
to save them or to keep them. They don't understand that it's
a spiritual work in the people, keeping us looking to Christ,
creating that hunger and that thirst in us for righteousness,
keeping us stayed upon the Lord Jesus Christ and looking only
to Him, not to our works, not having any confidence in the
flesh. But the Lord strips us of those vain confidences which
we once held to ourselves. Now, the reason why is that,
well, that's the offense of the cross. And that's exactly what
man-made preachers are trying to avoid. They're trying to avoid
the offense of the cross. So they keep people happy and
occupied, looking to their own flesh to believe that they're
doing something, they're building them up in some way. Now, in
John 12, John 12, you don't have to turn there, but this is what's
informing this thought here, is that there was many that saw
Christ with their own eyes. Many that heard Christ speak.
Many that saw his miracles, and the scriptures say they believed.
They believed that this was the Christ. but they would not confess
him before men. Because the Jews said, if you
confess that that man is the Messiah, then we're putting you
out of the synagogue. You have no part in us, no part
in our religion, no part in our community, no part in our fellowship. You're out! And you have no salvation. You're done. You're out. You
have no part in us. So they kept their mouth shut.
They were ashamed of Christ. They wanted the praise of men
more than the praise of God. And that's what the scripture
said. They loved the praise of men more than the praise of God. Or rather than the praise, no,
more than the praise of God. And Christ, everything he said
was an offense to our flesh. He wasn't trying to be offensive,
although he was getting the attention. He was purposely doing that.
But he was just speaking truth to the people, and they were
angry. You know, there was a time when he was in the synagogue,
and there was a man there with a withered up hand. It was weak
and deformed, and he couldn't use it. And Christ said, stretch
forth thine hand. And the man looked at Christ
and believed, and he stretched forth his hand. That little crippled
old thing just unfurled and unfolded and became whole again. And the
people were angry with him. And Christ said to them, it was
in John 7, 23, He said, if a man on the Sabbath day receives circumcision,
that the law of Moses should not be broken, are you angry
with me? Because I've made a man everywood
whole. See, the problem was, it was
the Sabbath day. They were amazed that He healed the man, but it
was the Sabbath day. And then they said, wait a minute,
this can't be of God. You can't do that." And he said,
excuse me, you're angry with me? You, on the Sabbath day,
you don't do it the day before, on the seventh day, to avoid
doing it on the Sabbath day. You don't do it on the day after,
on the ninth day. You do it on the eighth day, even if it lands,
on the Sabbath day, and all you're doing is cutting the flesh. You're
just doing an outward work in the flesh. You haven't changed
the man's heart, his mind, his thoughts, nothing. I've made
a man every whit hole. I healed his hand and I healed
his heart. I gave him life. He's over there
rejoicing in God right now for what I just did for him. and
it's a Sabbath day, and you're mad at me? And he told them,
Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment. Judge righteous judgment. And
then, only a little while later, he stands up and cries out in
the temple as he taught, saying, Ye both know me, and ye know
whence I am. And I am not come of myself,
but he that sent me is true, whom ye know not. But I know
him, for I am from him, and he hath sent me. And then they sought
to take him for saying that, but no man could lay their hands
on him because it wasn't his time. And all he did there was
speak the truth, but they were offended because he spoke the
truth to them. He told them the truth that they
need to hear. You don't know God. You don't
know the Christ that He sent, and it's because you don't know
God. And they needed to hear that. That's exactly what the
people need to hear, that naturally we don't know God. We have no
part in Him. We have no fellowship with Him.
We don't know how to worship Him or serve Him. But because
Christ spoke the truth, They wanted to kill him. But the man-made
preacher, he does everything he can to dress you up. He wants
to dress you up. He wants to make you look good.
He wants to make you feel good. He wants to dress you up for
success so you get involved with the church and do things gladly
and give your money. He wants to do all those things
to get you involved. So he dresses you up. He tells
you all the things that you want to hear. But we know, right,
if you have that dog, when it pooped on your carpet, maybe
tried to spray something on it to hide the smell but you know
that underneath that perfume smell it's still a hot steamy
mess. It's still what it is. It's still
polluted and defiled and corrupt and rotten. And so you can dress
a man up and make him look good on the outside, but sooner or
later that perfume wears off and you know he's just a hot,
stinking mess inside. He's just a filthy, polluted
sinner who hates God and wants nothing to do with Him. So God
faithfully sends a preacher to strip the people of their vain
confidences, to strip them down, to take away those things which
they have confidence in, that they're looking to and believing
that these things are going to help me, that these things that
I'm doing here are going to speak well for me in the day of judgment. And he comes to show that at
best all we have on us are filthy rags. That's at best. We're naked. We're polluted. We're in shame. And he does it now so that we
don't find out, hopefully, we don't find out later when we
stand before God in judgment. We want to be stripped now. If
we're not saved, we want to know now that there's a problem. We
want to know now how it is that God saves sinners. If it's not
by my works, If everything I've done up to this point is worthless
and hasn't helped me at all, well then how does God save?
How does God save a sinner? How does He deliver him from
his death? A man doesn't want to hear that.
He doesn't want to be stripped down and so he typically gathers
men around him that are going to say those things that puff
him up. that keep him in his delusion
and his nonsense and the things that are not helping him. And
that's what Paul said in 2 Timothy 4 verses 3 and 4. Paul told Timothy, for the time
will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after
their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having
itching ears. They're not going to endure sound
teaching, sound doctrine. Don't tell me I'm a sinner. Don't
tell me I can't work righteousness. You just said I got myself into
this mess. You preach the depravity of man.
I'm going to get myself out of it. Let me get myself out of
it. Tell me what I need to do to work this off. How can I be
acceptable with God? Don't tell me what Christ has
done for sinners. Tell me what I can do for Jesus.
Tell me what I need to do. And I'll do that. And Paul said,
they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned
unto fables. Unto fables. So, what's a fable? A fable is a short story to convey,
to teach a moral principle. To teach you a moral lesson.
moral lesson, right? And they give a short brief point
that either edifies the hearer or gives them a word of caution.
Don't do that now. Don't be like that person. It's
to help you. It's to make you be moral. And
that's what preaching is in the world. That's what man-made religion
does. It's to make you moral. It's
to set you apart so that you can be more savable to God. That God will have mercy on you
and not on the other guy who isn't moral. That's what fables
are for. Another definition which I like.
It's a falsehood. A lie. A lie. And that's what
men want to hear. Tell me a lie. Don't tell me
the truth. I don't want to hear the truth.
Tell me a lie, preacher! Make me feel good about myself.
Tell me what I can be doing. Tell me how God needs me to be
His eyes and His mouth and His feet and His hands. What can
I do? Tell me about the God who can't
do anything for me unless I let Him. Tell me about that God. That's what I want to hear, preacher.
Tell me how He misses me and is begging me to come back to
Him. Tell me how it's been a long time since I've come and how
badly Jesus wants to see me again and have me do something for
Him. Tell me that, Jesus. And maybe,
maybe I'll let Him do something for me. Maybe I'll do something
for Him. Maybe I'll believe, since your God is weak and phony
and powerless and fake, and if you're persuasive enough, if
you make me laugh when I need to laugh, and you make me feel
a little sorrow when I need to feel some sorrow, maybe If you
can convince me that God is happy with me as I'm happy with myself
and content with me as I'm content with myself, maybe, maybe I'll
make a decision for your Jesus. Maybe I'll walk that aisle and
say a prayer with the prayer team down at the front. Maybe
I'll let you baptize me and, you know, you can put my name
on the church roll. And maybe, after five or ten
years, when I have kids, I'll come back around Easter and Christmas
time and I'll let you tell them the same lie you told me and
maybe you'll convince them of the same thing. And men are happy
with that. That's what people are happy
with. They just want this little bit of religion, a little bit
of moral teaching, just so they can feel good about themselves
and feel like that's what God wants from us. And that kind
of religion, that kind of Christianity that people call it today, it's
a lie. And someone's convinced them that you're robed in righteousness
now. God is pleased with you. But
they're naked. They're saying, you can see now.
But they're blind. They're saying, you know, your
good works and what you're doing, they smell good to God. It smells
good. Yeah, but you stink. That's what's
really going on. You stink. Oh, tell me about
the law. The smell of your breath is so
sweet. Just tell me about the law of
Moses, what I could be doing. Your breath reeks. That's what
it is. That's what we are. That's what we need to hear and
nobody wants to hear it. And many will hear that and say,
why are you saying that to me? Why are you speaking like that
to me? I don't need to hear that. You know how hard I've worked?
You know how many years I spent in the church laboring, doing
everything you said I had to do, and now you're telling me
God's not happy? Do you know what kind of sacrifices
I've made? Do you know what kind of hardships I had to put up
with just to be here? Surely after some time I can
say I'm a Christian. I've done this long enough now,
haven't I? Can't I just believe? Can't I just say that I'm a Christian
now? Isn't that good enough? I'll tell you what the problem
is. The reason why it's not good enough is because that's where
your hope and your confidence is. It's in your works. That's
what man needs to hear. That his confidences, his hopes,
his security, his good standing, his refuge that he's hiding behind
is all in his works. Something that he has done. That's why God doesn't accept
it. It's in his own work. He's not looking to Christ. He
barely even knows anything about what Christ did. He just knows
a few things. He doesn't believe on Him and
rest in Him. That's why God won't receive him. He's trusting in
his works. No matter how good or shiny or
perfect they look to the rest of the world, God knows the heart.
And our hearts corrupt and defiled and wicked. You're trusting in
your law-keeping, or your decision, or your aisle-walking, or your
baptism, or something you've done, that your name is on a
church roll, that your parents were believers, that your daddy
was a preacher, or your family has a missionary in it, or something
like that. That's what people are hoping
in. that they gave a little bit of money at the office. They're
hoping in that. Or they put it even in the church
plate. Or they sponsored a kid for adoption
in another country or something. They're trusting in their own
works. And that's why God won't accept
it. That's why God says it's filthy. I won't have it. Because
we're sinful, we're corrupt. Our works are works of wickedness. And this is exactly where Judah
was in Isaiah's day. They were trusting in their works,
their religion, their law keeping, their decision. Everything of
the flesh. That's exactly what they were
doing. And this is where we are today in this country and all
throughout the world in religion. We're trusting in our works.
We're trusting in that we have confidence in the things that
we are doing in the flesh. And so God won't receive it.
And that's where every man is, every day of every age, trusting
in his own works. All throughout history, man is
trusting in his own works. You know, it could be said that
America isn't any worse than it was 50 years ago, 100 years
ago, 200, 300 years ago. We're the same. There's no difference. Maybe they were a little more
moral than we are. But so what? Morality doesn't
save. It doesn't make us any nearer
to God. It doesn't help us. It doesn't
make us any more savable than we were without the morality.
And yet people, all that religion is preaching out there is getting
back to morality, getting back to the law. Stop doing this,
don't accept this and don't put up with that political decision.
That's wicked. It's all wicked. Everything we
do is wicked and corrupt. And so don't teach men that if
they do that, that God's going to be pleased with them and God's
going to save them and have mercy on them in that regard. And God
has been sending messengers to tell men this truth ever since
the garden fall of Adam. Ever since Adam fell in the garden,
the Lord has faithfully sent this message. It's never changed.
He keeps showing men that what you're trusting in isn't going
to save you. And so he destroyed all men,
he wiped out all the men save Noah and his family and the animals
that he brought. and man went right back. It was
only a brief time and man went right back, what was it, Nimrod
went right back to building the temple after he was born, trying
to build up a stairway to heaven. Right after the flood, it was
only a few years after the flood, I guess a few generations after
he grew up and became a mighty man. The Lord delivered Egypt,
and it says all those people, all those adults, fell in the
wilderness. Of all of Israel that came out of Egypt, of the
adults that were, I think, over 20 years old, only two entered
the Promised Land. Even Moses didn't enter the Promised
Land. They all fell in the wilderness. At least the adults. I wouldn't
say that about Moses, but he fell for another reason, but
they all died in unbelief. And they all had the law, all
of Israel, and the Lord's showing us over and over again with all
these things. I create a perfect nation in
Israel where everybody is to follow the law and we still see
wickedness. None of them can keep the law.
To show to us that no matter what you do, you and I can't
save ourselves. There's nothing we can do. And
so the Lord's been doing that and showing us that the issue
is we all died in Adam. When Adam sinned, we sinned.
When he rebelled, we were right there consenting with him. And
when he threw off God and said, I can do this myself and provide
for myself, now I know good and evil. I'll work it out. I'll
do what's right. And he doesn't do what's right.
And that's exactly where we are. We see that very truth in our
own heart and we see the enmity that we have against the true
and living God. A man gets angry because he keeps
trying to convince himself, keeps trying to tell himself, I'm good,
I'm making progress and yet you keep telling me that God's angry
with me and that I'm worse today than I was yesterday because
I think I'm better today by the things that I've done. The Lord
shows us that the more we try to work righteousness, that the
more we try to do that's good to try and earn God's favor,
He says you're going further and further and further and further
back in the line so that whores and murderers and drug users,
thieves and liars enter the kingdom of God before you. They're going
in before you. What? Then how can I be saved? If every good work I do sends
me back further into the line. If you're honest though, you
know that God is just to condemn you and me. To condemn us all
to hell for our works. If it comes down to what we've
done or haven't done, we all deserve hell. And it was the
good people The good people of Jerusalem that rejected Christ
and nailed Him to a cross. The good people did that. The
best of the best there in Jerusalem. They're the ones that rejected
Him and nailed Him to a cross, which was a representative of
us all. We all did it. We all tried to cast off God.
We all show our hatred for God and seeking unto our works and
trusting our own works and pushing out what he says as best as we
can. We don't want the truth of Christ
shining on our dark hearts because there's things in there that
we would rather nobody know about. We don't want to be reminded
of them and see them. So we don't want the truth and the light
shining there. And yet God sends a preacher
with his word to tell you and to strip you of your good works
and me of my good works so that we have no confidence in this
flesh. It's to show us that we can't
do it. He didn't give the law because we can keep it. He gave
the law to show us you can. And as long as you and I are
trusting in those things, we have no part in God's inheritance. We have no part in Him. But when
the Lord attends the preaching, that's why we preach the gospel,
to strip men of their false confidences, to strip them down of those things.
And when God attends that word, then He takes all their refuge
and He shatters it before their eyes. He breaks it right before
their eyes so that they say, yeah, I see Lord, that's not
going to save me. I see that you don't accept my
filthy works now. I see that. And we get plunged
into darkness and we're afraid and we're scared and worried. How then does God save a man?
How then does God save a man? How can a man be saved if he
doesn't accept my works? and he prepares the heart to
hear grace, to hear how he saves by grace. That's why he sent
his son, Jesus Christ. And this is what the Lord was
doing for Judah in sending the prophet Isaiah to strip them
of their vain confidences, to strip them of that because Judah
They saw Assyria. They saw the rising power of
Assyria. And they were worried. And so
rather than turn to the Lord for help, they looked to Egypt
and to Ethiopia for their strength. They thought, we've got salvation
in these people there. Do you see them? They're mighty
and strong. They're going to deliver us.
The Lord, he's going to deliver us with those people there. They
weren't looking to the Lord, they were looking to the flesh.
And God won't receive those dead fleshly works. Alright, so that's
what the Lord was doing in sending Isaiah at this time here. Turn
over to Isaiah 20, verse 1. Isaiah 20, verse 1. It says, in the year that Tartan
came unto Ashdod, Ashdod is a chief city in Philistine. It's not
occupied by the Jews, but by the Philistines. When Sargon
the king of Assyria sent him and fought against Ashdod and
took it, and took it. Now this was a time where Judah
knew about this, because this was amazing to them. When they
heard what Assyria did to Ashdod, they said, wow, wow, we've been
fighting against the Philistines for hundreds and hundreds of
years and little by little we defeat them and take them and
gain a little ground and subject them to us and then they break
themselves free and they trouble us and it went back and forth.
But Assyria goes down there and just smashes them, just wipes
them out. It got their attention and they
saw the strength and the power of Assyria because it wrecked
it. And one day, God said, I'll take that mighty city with all
their defenses and their mighty, brave, strong men and I'll destroy
them. I'll destroy them right before
your eyes. You could see that no matter how proud and arrogant
and cocky and confident you are, that I can destroy it in an instant.
It ain't going to stand before me when I'm determined to destroy
it. And so he showed him that. And
so God sends a preacher, verse 2, at the same time spake the
Lord by Isaiah the son of Amos saying, Go and loose the sackcloth
from off thy loins and put off thy shoe from thy foot. And he
did so, walking naked and barefoot. So God told Isaiah, strip down
before the people. Get naked, get butt naked before
the people so that you're showing them that the sinner has nothing
to be confident in. The sinner has nothing to be
proud about and arrogant about before me. Show them what shame
and nakedness looks like. I want them to see it. I want
them to see that what they're trusting in is shameful. It's naked. It's before me. I
see right through them. They can't hide behind the things
that they're hiding in. And that's what God does in grace
in declaring to us, faithfully declaring to us, all are guilty. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. All are dead in trespasses and
sins. All come forth under the power
and the dominion of sin and the evil one, the wicked one, doing
the things that children of wickedness and wrath and disobedience do.
We're all like that. None of us can boast and be proud
and think that we're doing something for God. Even the preacher standing
here preaching to you, I've got nothing to boast of. And that's
what Isaiah, his nakedness is showing. He's naked just like
the rest of the people. He's got nothing to boast in
himself. He's dependent on the grace and the glory of God to
do something for him, just as he's declaring to all the people.
And so the purpose of God is to show us, as Titus 3.5 says,
it's not by works of righteousness which we have done, but it's
according to His mercy He saved us. By the washing of regeneration
and renewing of the Holy Ghost which He shed on us abundantly
through Jesus Christ our Savior. That being justified by His grace,
we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
And so the Holy Spirit Attending that gracious word strips the
sinner of all the things that they're looking to and hoping
and showing us how I'm still holding on to that. I'm trusting
in that. I'm looking for that sign to
know if I'm saved. I'm looking to see if I'm doing
that better. Is this being done consistently by me? Then I'd
feel so much better about my salvation. I'd feel so much better
about my standing. Before the Lord, if I could just
do this better and that better. You're looking to your works
and your own flesh. You're not looking to Christ
and resting in Him. Because this flesh ain't getting
better. It ain't going to make things
any easier on us. And so the Holy Spirit makes
it known to us that we're sinners. And He makes it known to us that
Christ alone is salvation. So when the Holy Spirit, when
God attends the Word for the first time, when God attends
that Word, that's when we as sinners begin to fear and tremble
as sinners. That's when we're made afraid,
and that's what we see here In verse 3, the Lord speaks. They
hear the Lord speak. So when Isaiah is stripped down,
it says, and the Lord said. The Lord said. Now they didn't
hear him audibly, they were looking at Isaiah. And the Lord was speaking
in their heart. Just like when I'm preaching,
if I'm preaching the truth, and if the Spirit attends it, you
hear not the words of a man, but you say, Lord, and you see
how the Lord deals with you, and the Lord strips you, and
the Lord puts your eyes and focus on His salvation on Christ. And it says, verse 3, the Lord
said, like as my servant Isaiah hath walked naked and barefoot
three years for a sign and wonder upon Egypt and upon Ethiopia. You see, Egypt had that mighty
Nile River, right? That river which was a natural
defense against all their enemies. It was a river that enabled them
to provide and work the river for food and to grow food inland
and to get fish and to have trade and commerce. And they trusted
in the strength of that river. And Israel looked at them and
said, they've got a powerful army because of all their trade.
They had a strong army and mighty men. And then Ethiopia Beyond
then, they're called the land shadowing with wings because
in that country it was raised up and they had a mountain range,
a big mountain range around it and it compared it to the wings
like a chick covering and protecting her little chicks and protecting
them, right? And that's what the land of Ethiopia had and
they were tall people and dark people and strong people and
mighty people and they thought surely these people are going
to save us and deliver us from Assyria. But the Lord made known
through Isaiah, those who put their trust and confidence in
man, whether it be yourself as a man or your works or what someone
else is saying about good works and what we need to be doing,
those who put their trust and confidence in man are going to
suffer shamefully. They're going to suffer the same
fate and the same shame as those people. Just as Ethiopia and
Egypt are brought to shame, you who trust a man, you'll be brought
to shame just like them. And if you die trusting in those
things, you'll stand before God, who is holy and righteous and
just. Though you don't believe it now,
it has nothing to do with the fact that one day we'll all stand
before the judgment seat of Christ. either covered in His blood and
righteousness or in our own works. And that's when we'll know what
shame and nakedness really is, when we stand before Him outside
of Christ. And so, in verse 4, he said,
So shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians' prisoners
and the Ethiopians' captives, young and old, naked and barefoot,
even with their buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt. So, Lord,
he stripped them down so that they would see everything you're
trusting in is coming to nothing. It's not going to save you. I'm
telling you right now. And he sent it in mercy before
before the day of judgment came. He sent it to them so that they
would know, don't put your trust over there. Put your trust in
me. Look to me. I'm your salvation. Verse 5,
the Lord brings it home to their heart. He makes them to see and
know this. It says, and they shall be afraid and ashamed of
Ethiopia, their expectation, and of Egypt, their glory. So
it's God who does that. He's the one who does it for
the sinner. He convinces the sinner of their
vain confidences and exposes all their wickedness to them
and all their filthy rags. He exposes it to them. I had recently an occasion where
I had done something and a dear brother of mine was witness
to it, he saw it. You know, I wasn't sure why it
had all unfolded the way it unfolded. And I was thinking about it and
praying about it and feeling pretty bad about it. And then
a brother, this faithful brother, you know, wrote to me in an email
and said some things to me that were very helpful, very helpful
to me. And I was appreciative. And I
thought, wow, Lord, you know, I can see now why it all unfolded
the way it unfolded because it made it very obvious to my friend
to see those things and to articulate those things. You burdened his
heart to say those things and he wrote it down so well, it
was so good. And I can see now why it unfolded that way, because
it really helped him to see and say what I needed to see. And
then after I was preparing this message, I realized, no, it unfolded
that way so that I was made ready to hear. what the Lord laid on
his heart for me to hear, what he was saying to me. I said,
I knew it. I was like, you're right. You're
absolutely right. I was made right. Maybe he did
it that way for him, but it was for me. I needed to see I'm the
one at fault. I'm the one who's in the wrong.
So you see how the Lord brings it home to us. We need to see
that we're the sinner, that it's our works that are wrong. I'm
the fool. I'm the sinner. I'm the corrupt
one. And the Lord makes that known to His people. Each one,
as each one has need, He's the one who brings it home to the
heart. For that purpose, that we won't die trusting in those
things, but that we'll be looking to the Lord Jesus Christ, and
hoping in Him, and not our proud, arrogant confidence, knowledge,
and wisdom, and things that man so foolishly trusts in. So the
spirit then, in verse 6, causes them to cry out, and the inhabitants
of this isle, or the inhabitants of this country, that is, this
is Judah, shall say in that day, Behold, such is our expectation,
whither we flee for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria,
and how shall we escape? How shall we escape? Is there
a naked sinner here asking that question? Lord, if all I have
is these works, and this is my confidence, how shall I escape?
Is there a sinner that hears this message, that hears these
words, how shall I escape, Lord? If it ain't my filthy works,
what is it? Paul tells us in Ephesians 2.4, it's throughout
the scriptures, but Ephesians 2.4, he says, but God. But God. But God, who is rich
in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were
dead in sins, hath quickened us, made us alive together with
Christ, for by grace are ye saved, we're the sinners, so don't trust
in our works, trust him, and hath raised us up together and
made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. that
in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of
his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus our Lord.
Though we see through a glass dimly now, we'll know in the
ages to come, we'll know what he's done for us and how he's
provided richly and bountifully for us in his son Jesus Christ. For by grace are you saved through
faith and even that, that faith that you and I have is not of
ourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man
should boast. 4. We are His workmanship. We'll bring forth good works,
surely, things that praise Him and glorify His name. But it's
His work in us. It's by His Spirit. And we're
not looking to those things or trusting in them or even seeing
them as tokens. We're not looking at them in
that way for any confidence. We keep looking to Him, trusting
in Him, begging Him for mercy, for we're His workmanship created
in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them. So I ask, is there any confidence
that you're holding on to? Is the Lord stripping you of
some confidence, of some work that you're trusting in? Is he
stripping you of it? Has he shown you Christ? He delivers
His saints from trusting in their works. He strips every one of
His people down. We've all got to be stripped
down of our confidence in our own works. And He shows them
Christ. And I know that there are some
people probably here tonight even that are worried and don't
know if the Lord loves them. They don't know. They wonder,
does the Lord love me though? I am stripped. I'm stripped down. I know that my works can't save
me. I know that nothing I do can help me or deliver me or
recommend me to God or make me acceptable to God. I know that.
Well, who taught you that? Is that your flesh? Or is that
the Spirit of God? Because God teaches his people.
He's the one that strips them of those vain confidences. And
then they say, well, okay, I know that I'm a sinner. And I know that Christ is a Savior,
but is He my Savior? Did He come for me? Did He shed
His blood for me? Does His blood avail for me? Are my sins put away and washed
in His blood? I know He's the Savior. I know
that He's the only Savior. I can't save myself and nothing
else out there is salvation. God sent Christ to save His people,
but is He my Savior? Well, who revealed to you that
Christ is the Savior? Was it your flesh? Is it your
wisdom that did that? That convinces you that Christ
is the Savior? Or is it the Spirit of God who
does that? It's the Spirit of God that strips the sinner. It's
the Spirit of God that reveals to the sinner that Christ is
salvation. God has revealed that to you.
That's not your flesh. And the Word of God says, it
says in Revelation, the Spirit and the Bride say to them, to
that one who has nothing, who's bankrupt and has nothing to give
to God, nothing to recommend them, no hope in themselves,
but they see and know Christ is the Savior, the Spirit and
the Bride say, come. Come. Come to the fountain freely. That's why God sent him. That's
why He keeps sending the message to show you, to strip you of
your vain confidences, and to show you, Christ, come, believe. To those who have no hope and
confidence in themselves and know that Christ is the Savior,
come. Rest in Him. Rest. Believe in Him. Trust Him. That's why He sent you this message.
That's why He's faithfully sent you the Word and broken you and
separated you of your confidences, separated you from those things.
And that's why He sent Christ, because Christ came, the righteous. He's the righteous one. He's
the Savior. His blood avails for many, for
His people, all who look to Him and hope in Him. And keep looking
to Him. Keep trusting Him. Keep resting
in Him. And if you do, it's all the Lord's
mercy and grace and power. It's His Spirit. That's why we
don't tell a man, now make a decision for Jesus. It's God who's revealed
it to your heart. Who's revealed to you that you
are a sinner. I don't have to convince you of that. It's God
who reveals to you that Christ is the Savior. I don't have to
convince you of that. He convinces you of that. So
believe. Just trust Him. That He gave
that to you. Rest. Rest in Him and don't look
back to the flesh. It ain't your decision and it
ain't your law keeping or anything in between. None of that. It's
Christ and Christ alone. Pray the Lord to bless that word
to your heart and cause you to rest in Christ the Savior. That's
why he sent him. To bless his people and deliver
them from their sins. Alright, let's pray. Our gracious
Lord, we thank you, Father. Lord, because we're nothing,
and you showed us that we're nothing. You didn't leave us
looking to our works like so many wicked people left to themselves
without the Spirit of Christ, just looking to something they've
done and having some confidence and trust in that. Lord, we're
so thankful that you destroyed those works, stripped them down,
showed us how naked and bare and shameful they are and did
it for us now before we die and stand before you in judgment.
And more than that, Lord, we thank you that you've showed
to us Christ, that you've revealed Christ, that He is a complete
Savior, the Savior, the only Savior, a full, complete salvation. Lord, help us. Help us to rest
there in Christ, to come just believing. Keep delivering us
from any vain confidence and keep us looking to the Lord Jesus
Christ alone. And pray that you would pour
out your spirit upon your people. Comfort us in the Lord Jesus
Christ. We pray this in his name. Amen.