The title of the message this
morning is The Intercessor and the Standard. The Intercessor
and the Standard. In verses 16 and 17, the Lord
God uses language so as to condescend to fit our understanding. He says, and he saw God looking down upon man as though
he were searching, as though he were looking or trying to
find out something. And it said, God saw in his searching
that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor. God then, in the end of verse
16, He gives a vivid description of His intercessor that He provides. He said, Therefore, His arm brought
salvation unto Him, and His righteousness, it sustained Him. Now, an intercessor. What is an intercessor? An intercessor is one that comes
between two opposing parties for the purpose of reconciliation. To reconcile two opposing parties. To reconcile the offender with
the offended. Now, behold, The breach between
God and man is very great. The breach is sin. Sin hath separated us from God. Sin is the cause of man's separation
from God and therefore, man needs an intercessor and God looking. Among the inhabitants of the
earth says this, there was no man, there was no intercessor. There was no intercessor. And
this is my first point that I want us to see by God's grace this
morning. Is man's need, a need, Man has
a great need, and it's not of wealth, it's not of relationship,
it's not of earthly things. Man has a great need. What man
needs is an intercessor between him and God. God, if you remember
the Scripture tells us, God created man upright. He made man in His
own image, set man in the best environment possible, that the
earth yielded her strength to Him. Adam, as though he would
be walking in the garden, could stick out his hand and the fruit
would ripen into the very palms of his hand. Whatever he needed,
it was provided. He had everything. God, in goodness
and mercy, gave him authority over all creation. And God set one limitation, one
law. One command. He said, You may
have of all the trees of the garden you may eat freely, but
of this one tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt
not eat of it. For in the day thou eatest thereof,
thou shalt surely die. This was the one thing God restrained
and kept for Himself. But man, in rebellion, took that
which God forbid and openly, willingly, knowingly defied God
by these four words, death entered into all mankind, listen to these
four words, and he did eat. By those four words, man was
separated from God. Man had offended the holy justice
of God, and in rebellion said, I will not have God to tell me
what to do. I will not have God to rule over
me. And what happened? You remember
that Eve ate this first, but what happened to her? What happened
when she ate this? Nothing. Nothing. Nothing happened to Eve and nothing
happened to Adam when she ate because she was representing
no one. Eve was not a representative
of anyone. Adam was the representative man.
was the one, and when he did eat, not being deceived, he ate
in rebellion and defied God. Therefore the Scriptures are
clear. Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and
death by sin, so death passed upon all men. Listen, for all
have sinned. All have sinned. Now listen,
Satan is the father of sin. He's a murderer and a liar from
the beginning. If anybody is the originator
of sin, it is that being Satan. But I tell you, sin did not enter
the world by Satan. Satan represented no one. He represented no one. Sin entered by one man. And by one man's fault, all were
made sinners. Now Satan could have tempted
all of Adam's race. Say that God were to allow Adam
to live for thousands and thousands of years and produce many children.
Do you realize that any one of those children could have ate
and you know what would happen to Adam's race? Nothing. They
would not represent anyone. Adam was the only representative
for his race. He represented every one of his
posterity. And when he sinned, the judgment
of God fell on him, and death covered his soul. For God said,
In the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. And he
did die, spiritually died. He died spiritually. Remember
what it says, and he did eat. And immediately both of their
eyes were opened. To see what? They were naked.
You see? That Adam was the representative.
And when he fell, we all fell. For in him we all sinned. Did you hear that? Your first
sin was not one that you committed. It was one Adam committed. Now, I know this, this is repulsive
to the carnal mind. This thought of representation
is repulsive. It's repulsive to the lost religious
man, but it's nonetheless true. I don't care if they hate it
or not. It's just so. God made that man a representative
of you and me and everyone else, and he fell, we fell in him. When he sinned, we sinned. He
is our representative. David confessed this. He said
when he sinned against God, he confessed. He said in Psalm chapter
51 verse 5, Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my
mother conceive me. Paul writing to the church of
Ephesus reminds them that we who are quickened, you who are
believers, you know this to be true because you were dead. in
trespasses and sins. And what was the evidence of
that death? Did you not walk according to the course of this
world, according to the prince and power of the air, the spirit,
and now worketh in the children of disobedience, and were by
nature even as haters of God, even as others? That's our evidence. You sin? Have you sinned? Well, that's just evidence of
your spiritual corruption. That's not the root cause of
your spiritual corruption. That's evidence of it. That you're
corrupt. And so death passed upon all
men for all of sin. Listen, if you were never dead
in sin, surely it's because you're not raised from the dead. If you've never been dead, how
dare you tell me I was dead. Well, that's because you've never
been raised from the dead. If you've ever been raised from
the dead, you know you were dead. Don't you suppose Lazarus knew
he was dead? Don't you know he knew he died? I imagine Lazarus
can remember full well him sucking in that or breathing out that
last bit of breath he had in his body and expired. And so when Christ raised him
from the dead, there's one thing Lazarus knew, I was dead, now
I'm alive. Same with us who believe in Christ.
We know this. I was dead. Now I'm alive. I was blind, but now I see. If you've never been blind, it's
because you don't see. If you see, it's because you
knew you were blind. God gave you sight. And then
see the truth of this. Because of this sin, every man
needs an intercessor. There's an offense. We have caused
an offense to God. God is the offended party. And
we are the offenders. And therefore, we need someone
to intercede. Someone to plead before God for
us. Who needs an intercessor? Sinners. That's who. Only sinners need
an intercessor. You got no sin, you don't need
an intercessor. You got sin. You need an intercessor. You need someone to intercede
before God for you. Listen. Listen to God. He says
this, And he saw there was no man, and wondered there was no
intercessor. Bego the holiness of God, God
in holiness looked down and saw there was no man. There was no
intercessor. Holiness is essential to God's
being. And by no means can God ever
suspend His holiness. God can't dismiss sin. Did you know that? How often
do you dismiss it? Someone offends you, you take
it with a grain of salt. You know why? You're not holy.
You're a sinner. So you can tolerate sin. God
is no such being that He can tolerate sin. He must punish
sin, nor can He show mercy to any man without justice being
satisfied. Unless full payment is made for
sin, God will never accept you. So far has then our sin removed
us from God. So far that no man can please
God, and no amount of suffering under the full measure of God's
holiness could ever pay for one's sin. Do you get that? Not one
thing you can do. There's not one thing you can
do to please God. There's not one offering you
can make. There's not one sacrifice you
and I could give, because sin is mixed with all we give and
all we do. It's tainted, it's polluted,
and God will not accept a tainted offering. His justice demands
perfection. Behold, O man, that there is
no representative... There's only one. There is no
representative among Adam's race. But listen, God here says, therefore. I like this. He saw there was
no intercessor. Therefore. He talks of one. He speaks of an intercessor.
He said there's one. There's going to be one intercessor. But I tell you, you who are of
Adam's race, there was one who represented you and he sinned
and death has swallowed his whole race so that all we do and all
we offer is only sin continually. In the beginning of this chapter,
he said, no man desires justice. In verse 4, no man desires justice,
no man pleads for the truth. Why? Because we're all corrupt.
In verses 5 and 6, look what he says about our works. This
is what God says about the race of Adam and his works. He says,
they have hatched cockatrice eggs. You know what that is?
It's an adder. It's a viper. Snake eggs. and weaved spiders'
webs. Listen. He that eateth their
eggs dieth. These cockatrice eggs are a picture
of all false freewill works religion, which appear on the outside like
good edible eggs. You take a cockatrice egg and
you put it up there, it's oval. It has a similar color to birds'
eggs. But what happens if you eat a
cockatrice egg? It's full of poison. Poison. So is false religion of salvation
by free will and works religion. It is a cockatrice egg. These poisonous eggs appear good
and fit on the outside because they use the same language as
true religion. False religion calls Jesus Lord,
don't they? False religion professes to be
saved by grace, yet their Jesus is not fit to
be consumed because He is a failure. There Christ is a failure, because
He cannot save anyone, nor did His blood redeem anyone, unless
man intercedes for Him. That's a false religion. It's
a false Christ. It's nothing but poisonous eggs.
And I'll tell you, that religion is poison to the soul. Poison
to the soul. And surely those who eat a Christ
of this doctrine of false universal atonement is only venom and poisonous. And I'll tell you what happens.
He says this in that same verse 5. He said, And that which is
crushed breaketh out like an adder. In other words, you try
to break into this religion and expose it, and you know what
they're going to do? They're going to come at you
like an adder. That's what they're going to do. Tell you tell them
their religion is false. You tell them it is a viper's
egg And you know what? They'll do they'll break forth
on you as a viper That's what false religion does when you
try to expose it Behold, Isaiah says that all
men's works are as spiders' webs. Look at that in verse 6. Their webs shall not become garments,
neither shall they cover themselves with their works. Isn't that
what our Father tried to do when He sinned? He tried to cover
his nakedness with fig leaves. Isn't this what His race does?
Try to cover their nakedness with good works. Look at me! Look at what I'm doing, God!
I'm doing all this for You! God said, No, you're not. No,
you're not. This question was asked in Micah
6. Wherewithal shall a man come before the Lord and bow himself
before the Most High God? That's a good question, isn't
it? Is that not a good question? Wherewithal? With what? How shall
you approach unto God? That's a good question. His answer
was horrible. Shall I come before Him with
burnt offerings and with calves of a year old? Will the Lord
be pleased with ten thousand rams and ten thousand rivers
of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for
my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? Isn't this what men are trying
to do? They're trying to give the fruit of their own labors,
their own works. That's what Cain did. Cain presented
the fruits of his labors, and God rejected him. And I tell
you, God will reject you if you bring the fruit of your labors.
They are spider's webs. They are carpenter's eggs. They
are nothing but poison to your soul. Reject them. Leave them. Repent. The answer is no, God
will not accept any of these things. The only thing God will
accept is holy perfection. That's it. It's not complicated. Law makes things complicated,
doesn't it? I remember reading a legal document, and every word
in that document I understood. But those sentences, I had no
clue what they were saying. I could not read that to save
my life. It was confusing. And I tell
you, law is confusing. But I tell you, this is the matter
in simplicity. Be ye holy for I am holy. Does that not clear up everything?
Holy. If there is a shadow of doubt
that your work is holy, it's not holy. If you got a shadow
doubt about it, it's just not holy. Nothing you can do is holy.
God demands holy perfection. The Lord has shown the old man
what is right, do justly. Well, who's done that? So what do you need? Need someone to intercede for
me And now look at the intercessor
go back to your text and look at the intercessor therefore
Because there was no intercessor because of man's great need of
an intercessor therefore God's arm brought salvation to him
and His righteousness it sustained him How far has our sin separated
us from God? Do you grope in the dark trying
to figure this out? How may I be reconciled to God? That's all men can do by nature
is grope. You've seen a blind man trying
to reach for something. He doesn't know where it's at.
He can't find it unless what? Somebody either give him sight
or put his hand on it. He can't do it. And this is what
we do by nature is we grope. We grope in the dark trying to
find something and we find nothing. That's what he tells us in verse
11 and verse 10. He said, We grope for the wall
like a blind man. We grope as if we have no eyes.
We stumble at the noonday as at night. We are in desolate
places as dead men. Oh man, if God ever bring you
here, this is the beginning of grace. This is the beginning
of grace when you begin to see you have no hope. When you begin
to see that you are in dead places, when God moves your soul to roar
like bears and mourn sore like doves. Have you mourned for your
sin? Do you see your need of an intercessor? Then behold, here God's showing
you one. He says, I. He said, therefore
God's arms. God's arm brought salvation. What is this but the intercessor? That's my second point, the intercessor.
I'm going to show you who he is. It is none other than Jesus
Christ. That's who the arm of the Lord
is. What does this mean, arm of the Lord? Does God have an
arm? No. He's talking about his strength.
His strength, the strength of God's salvation is Jesus Christ,
the intercessor. In Isaiah chapter 53, look over
there. In Isaiah chapter 53, Isaiah,
like most preachers, he's asked this question, who
has believed our report? Not many. Doesn't seem like many. Who hath believed our report?
And to whom is the, what? Arm of the Lord revealed. And then he begins to describe
this arm of the Lord. Who is he? Well, this arm of
the Lord, he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, as a root
out of dry ground. Isn't that what he's talking
about, David's seed? Consider David's line, how low
it had fallen into the couple, Joseph and Mary. You see how
low that they couldn't even get into a hotel when she was pregnant.
They had no money. They had nothing. He came from
a low line. A root out of dry ground, no
form or comeliness that we should desire Him. No beauty we should
desire Him. He is despised and rejected of
men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. We hid, as it were,
our faces from Him. He was despised and we esteemed
Him not. This is the arm of the Lord. Surely this is plainly teaching
of Jesus, the Son of God, born of the virgin's womb. Behold how He went about doing
good, healing the sick, raising the dead, preaching the gospel,
and He was... Was He well-received? No. Listen to me. Jesus, even today,
is not well-received. Not among this world and its
religion. He's not well received at all. He is despised. Despised. Even as he was in his day, rejected
of his own. And yet Jesus came down and took
the nature of a man, not of Adam's corrupted seed, but of the seed
of the woman. You see how He escaped the corruption
of our nature is that He came by the seed of the woman, not
by the seed of the man. The Spirit of God came down upon
that virgin and conceived in her the Holy Son of God. And
thus he escaped our corrupt nature, but he grew up as a tender plant,
as a man. Oh, you see, you and I fell by what? A man, a man, one man. How is it then you and I could
be accepted by another man, another man? As Adam's failure brought death
upon his people, even so Jesus, by his obedience and victory,
should bring right life and righteousness to all of his race. All the seed and race of Christ
were surely born of Adam's fallen race. Therefore, Christ, as their
intercessor, must bring salvation. He must bring salvation. And
notice who the arm of the Lord brings salvation, not to you. It's for you, but it's not to
you. It's to Him, to God. This arm of salvation brought
salvation to God. Remember, it was God who was
offended. So who needed to be satisfied?
Who needed to receive the payment? It was God. And therefore, He
provided His Son so as He should make the payment and intercede
for us on our behalf. In Hebrews 7, verse 25, talking
about Christ's priesthood, he said, Wherefore He is able to
save them to the uttermost that come to God, listen, by Him. There's intercessors. To come
to God, you must come by this intercessor, by faith in Him. And He is able to save you to
the uttermost, those that come to God, by Him, seeing He ever
liveth to make intercession Who does He make intercession to?
To God. For us. He intercedes to God
for us. Therefore, what we could not
do in the weakness of our flesh, God sending His own Son in the
likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin did what? Condemn sin
in the flesh of His Son. in the flesh of his son. What we could not do, listen,
this is what the intercessor came to do. He came to provide
both righteousness and atonement. That's what the work of the intercessor
was doing. These are the two things that
we could not provide. These are the two things we have
failed miserably to provide unto God so that we could be accepted.
This is what He came to do, to bring salvation, to bring righteousness. Listen, in our text He said this
about the intercessor. He put on righteousness as what? A breastplate. What does a breastplate
protect? heart. So he put on that breastplate
of righteousness that was near to his heart. What does the scripture
say? Lo, in the volume of the book
it is written of me to do thy will. He said, I delight to do
thy will, O God. I delight to do thy will. Do
you need righteousness? Do you hunger and thirst for
it so that you may be able to approach unto God? I'm showing
you one who's already provided it. One who's already accomplished
it. And the only way to God is through
righteousness which Jesus Christ alone obtained by His perfect
obedience. Listen, there's no mixture here.
If you are ever to be saved by God, you must have a pure righteousness. And it is never a mixture between
our works and His. It's not a mixture. Don't be deceived. There is no
mixture of His righteousness with your own. That message contains
the poison of Adders. And it is the death of the souls
of men, such as like progressive sanctification or progressive
holiness, where men believe to begin by grace and finish by
works. That is poison. No. We are only saved by the work
of an intercessor, a mediator, one who does righteousness completely
and absolutely alone. When Adam sinned, did you have
any part in it? No. Really, you didn't. You weren't
there. But I tell you, you fully received His death. Even so,
by the righteousness of one, even though we had no part in
His perfect righteousness, we didn't add anything to it, yet
now, by faith, we receive the full measure of His righteousness
and mix none of our own in it. This is the work of an intercessor.
See that Jesus does not bring us back under the law that we
could never keep before. But Paul declares, and so do
I, Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believeth. Paul says of righteousness in
Romans 3, it is the righteousness of God which was obtained by
the faith of Jesus Christ. I'll ask you this, can you improve
upon that righteousness? If you suppose any such thing,
it's because you have no idea of the righteousness of God.
God forbid that you should add one act or personal obedience
to that righteousness. Anyone who adds anything to the
righteousness of this intercessor only pollutes it. You only pollute
it, and he becomes of no value to your soul. Secondly, this intercessor has
brought salvation by his one offering for sin. Look, he put
on the helmet of salvation upon his head, and he put on the garments
of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal like a cloak. This intercessor brought salvation
by His one offering for sin. How was this blessed Savior's
mind fixed on the work of His salvation? When Jesus walked
upon the earth, can you not see His mind was set? That He did everything absolutely
intentionally, on purpose. Everything He did was on purpose. His mind was set. It was set
to one goal, to one end. It was the cross from His birth
that He looked to, that He fixed His mind on, that He should die
as a sinner's substitute. And nobody could stop Him. In Isaiah chapter 50, it said,
The Lord God will help me, therefore shall I not be confounded. I
won't be confused. I won't be ashamed. In other
words, I'm not going to fail in my work. Therefore, Christ
says, I have set my face like a flint, like rock, like steel,
and nothing shall deter me from my work. What work was that?
It was the crucifixion. That was His work. Nobody could
stop Him from it. You remember when his disciples
tried, Peter pulled the sword and he thought he could stop
this. And he said, Oh, put that away. My Father hath given me
this cup. Shall I not drink it? How then
shall the Scriptures be fulfilled if I drink not this cup my Father
gave me? This was always Christ's intent
as our intercessor to suffer, to hang upon the cross, And to
bear the full measure of the vengeance of God, He put on the
garments of vengeance. Do you not see how that the vengeance
of God poured over His soul, over His soul, over His soul,
over His soul? How He was crushed underneath
the weight of God's vengeance against our sin. He was pressed
out. This is what it took for God
to have an intercessor, is that Christ should be made sin for
us, so that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
This is what it cost. It cost the Son of God His blood.
And this is the mystery of the godliness, that God was manifest
in the flesh, that the Son of God was made sin for us. And
you know what this intercessor said when it was done? What were his final words? It is finished. Finished. A man wrote a song
about this. A man named James Proctor, I
think his name was. He said this, Since I first discovered
Jesus to be the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believeth, I have more than once met a poor sinner seeking
peace at the foot of Sinai instead of at Calvary. And I have heard
him again and again in bitter disappointment and fear and groaning
out, What must I do? I said to him, Do? Do? What can you do? What can
you do? What do you need to do? And he
wrote this song. Nothing, neither great or small. Nothing, sin or no. Jesus died
and paid it all long, long ago. Till to Jesus' work you cling
by a simple faith. Doing is a deadly thing. Doing
is death. Cast your deadly doing down,
down at Jesus' feet. Stand in Him, in Him alone, graciously
complete. It is finished, yes indeed, finished
every jot. Sinner, this is all you need.
Tell me, is it not? You need an intercessor, and
I tell you, the intercessor has already pleaded your cause. He
has already provided all that you need. Cast out every other
doubt, cast out every other doing, and fall at his feet. And you
know what you find? You find it's finished. You find
it's done. Our message, our religion is
this. Four letters. D-O-N-E. Done. If your message is only two letters,
you don't have enough letters. D.O. If your message is due,
you don't have enough letters. Ours is done. That's the message
of the intercessor. And now then, I'll give you,
in closing, the experience of those for whom Christ interceded. Look at verse 19. So shall they
fear the name of the Lord from the west and from the glory of
the rising of the sun. You know what's going to happen because of this intercession?
God is going to save everyone for whom Christ intercedes. That's
just going to happen. Who's going to fear the Lord?
That's just believing on Jesus Christ. Who's going to believe?
Everyone that God purposed from the west to the east. Everyone
God will gather in and they all shall fear the Lord. Do you fear
the Lord? Do you reverence Him? Do you
serve Him? Do you love Him? Do you believe
on His intercessor? If you do, listen what's going
to happen. God doesn't hide this. He makes it very plain. Look
at this. When the enemy shall come in
like a flood. It doesn't say if the enemy come
in, just when. When the enemy comes in like
a flood. In Revelation chapter 12, in
verse 13 through 17, Satan is pictured as the dragon chasing
after the woman. You remember the woman. That's
a picture of the church. That's you and me, those who
fear the Lord. She was given wings to fly out
of His presence. Then what did He do? He released
a flood out of His mouth to drown the woman. And she flew into
the wilderness, but the Lord opened up the earth, and the
earth swallowed the flood, so that the woman was safe. Therefore,
let us take comfort in this, believer, our enemy floods our
soul with such vile thoughts and whispers and accusations
in our ear continually. Are you not flooded even now
with accusations of your sin? We are flooded continually with
these accusations. And when we are most prone to
this... Are we not most prone to this
flood? When are we most prone to this?
I'm sorry, when are we most prone to this? You remember, the woman
was lifted up and taken to the wilderness. Isn't it not after
our exaltations, our times of most refreshing, that we are
soon flooded with the enemy's presence? Isn't that so? Every
time in Scripture, it's always after something glorious. Always
after something prosperous. Always after Elam comes the wilderness
of sin. God always delivers us in this
manner. He always provides us wings to
be lifted up on eagles' wings. But soon after, we are taken
into the wilderness, and then the enemy floods us. You remember
Peter, after the Mount of Transfiguration, that was a time that he rebuked
the Lord. Paul, after he was exalted to
the third heaven, it was then that the thorn of the flesh was
given to him. The Israelites, after their greatest
victories, were most prone to pride. Even so, are we prone
to floods of every sin after our most gracious tokens of God's
glory are given to us. But here is the comfort. Here's
the comfort. Your enemy will always come in
and you will always be facing him. But when he comes in, listen,
the Spirit shall lift up a standard against him. The Spirit. You know what I love about this?
There's a high priest, In the Old Testament, I'm trying
to think of his name right now. It escapes me, but he's laid
out before the Lord in these rags, in these clothes, and they're
filthy. And Satan is standing next to
him, accusing him. And you know what he says? Nothing.
Nothing. He doesn't say anything. But
the Lord interceded for him and said, How dare you accuse this
man, one that I have plucked from the burning? And so then,
when Satan's flood of accusations come in, what do we have to say? Nothing. Because the Spirit of the Lord
will lift up the standard against him. What is the standard? Our
intercessor is the standard. Our Redeemer is the standard. The covenant of God's grace is
the standard. It is the banner that is set
over us is love. The banner, that's what the standard
is. It is a flag. So when accusation comes in,
what does the Spirit of God does? He lifts up the banner of the
gospel. And what does that do to our
enemy? It causes him to flee. He cannot stand under this banner. And this is the promise of God,
believer, that your Redeemer has come to
Zion. And you who have turned from
your transgression in Jacob, this is His covenant, saith the
Lord. My Spirit is upon thee. and my
words which I have put in thy mouth shall not depart from thee.
Isn't this a blessing? My spirit's in you and nothing
is gonna separate me from you. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God who says you're innocent. Yea, rather, it's Christ who
died to make you innocent and is risen again for your justification. Who then shall separate you from
his love? Nobody. Nobody. Your enemy come in like
a flood? The Lord will open up the earth
and swallow his flood. At this standard, it is finished. Is that not a standard? Oh, when I see that standard
fly, how it thrills my heart to know that Satan could find
no place. He has no right here. He has no right in this place. The blood of Christ that cleansed
me from all my sin. How can he accuse me? To accuse you, believer, He would
have to accuse your Savior. And He can't do that. Can't do
it. This is your comfort, that you
had a need of an intercessor. Your sin separated you from God,
but God has sent His arm of salvation. his intercessor, and he has brought
salvation to God. And you know what? God says,
I'm pleased. I'm pleased. Don't you think that should please
you? If God's pleased, why aren't
you pleased? I am. I'm very pleased with my Redeemer.
May God help us in the midst of our floods. give us such a
standard.