Isaiah chapter 59. Isaiah chapter 59. Verse 1, Behold, the Lord's hand
is not shortened, that it cannot save. Neither is His ear heavy,
that it cannot Now, this passage of Scripture comes by way of
those in the previous chapter who were seemingly religious,
but were complaining that God had not delivered them or God
had not visited them. Look at this in the previous
chapter in verse 2. Let's read verse 1. God says
to the prophet, cry aloud, spare not, Lift up thy voice like a trumpet,
and show my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their
sins. Yet they seek me daily, and delight
to know my ways, a nation that did righteousness, and forsook
not the ordinance of their God. They ask of me the ordinance
of justice. They take delight in approaching
to God. And yet, listen to what they
say. They say, Wherefore have we fasted, and thou seest not? Wherefore have we afflicted our
souls, and thou takest no knowledge? See, these people were outwardly
religious. These people were very faithful
people to attend the ordinances of God. They attended the feast
days, they brought the best of their flock, they gave their
tithes faithfully. These were very religious people,
very devoted people. God said, they seek Me daily. They were devout and faithful
men, yet these men were aware of something was wrong. They
were faithful. They did everything they thought
they should be doing. But there was something wrong. There was something missing and
they knew it. What was missing? God. God was missing. These men were aware that in
their hearts God had took no knowledge of all their work.
All their work, all their faithfulness, and yet God did not acknowledge
it. He did not give them a pat on
the back and say, good boy. That's what they were looking
for. All their labor and the fastings of their souls, God
took no knowledge. He said, man, look at all we've
done for God. Look at all we've done. We've
fasted. We've afflicted our souls. Man, look at all I've done for
you. And you won't even come down
and bless it. You won't even come down and
acknowledge it. God, have you not seen the things
that we've sacrificed? Look at what we've done. God,
I'm seeking you. I'm going to church. I'm praying. I'm doing everything I think
you think I should be doing. Why have you not come and saved
me? Here's God's answer. He said, Behold, in the day that
you fast, you find pleasure and exact all your labors. You fast
for strife and debate and smite with the fist of wickedness.
You shall not fast as you did in this day to make your voice
to be heard. Do you see why they were doing
it? They were doing it to be heard
of God. They were doing it to be accepted
of God. God said, you fasted because
you wanted to, not because I told you to. You fast for your own
pleasure. so that you should be seen of
men." What does that remind you of? Is it not the Pharisee that
prayed thus with himself? Go over to Luke chapter 18. Look
at this. This is exactly who the Lord
is talking to here. He's talking to these outwardly
religious people who seem to be doing well. He says, two men
went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other
a Republican. Listen, the Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself,
God, I thank Thee that I'm not as other men are, extortioners,
unjust, adulterers, or even like that publican. That old wicked
man sitting over there, I'm so thankful I'm not like him. I fast twice in the week. I give
tithes of all that I possess. Is this not even how some who
profess faith in Christ pray? Have you not prayed like that
before? Well, God, I thank You that I'm
not like that drug addict. I thank Thee, Father, that I'm
not like those Arminians. I thank You, God, that I'm faithful
to attend church. I'm not like those slackers. I thank you, God, that I'm born
in a Christian family. I thank you that I'm one who
believes in the sovereign grace of God. I thank you that I, I,
me, me. May God open our eyes to see that we are just as wicked as
everyone else. that we are by nature just as
depraved as any other of Adam's fallen sons. Surely, if we are kept from gross
outward manifestations of sin, we know it must be by God's grace. It must be the fact that God
has restrained me from doing what this flesh desires to do. But know this, you desire to
do it. Your flesh is still just as vile as it ever was. We must know it's by God's grace,
but we Aren't we just as guilty of the inward thoughts? How dare we raise our voice to
God and demand to be heard because of what we've done, when all we've done is sin? Listen, if you and I could obey
the law of God, What should you ever expect from God? If you could, if you could be
perfect in obedience to the law of God, what would you expect
God to do? Would you expect God to praise
you? Would you expect God to lift
you up because you did obey the law? What did Jesus say about that?
Remember when He, in, let's see, yeah, He said in Luke 17, He
said, which of you having a servant? If you have a slave and he goes
out and he works all day long doing what he's supposed to,
would you at the end of the day say, come and sit down and rest?
and then I'll fix your food." No, you would expect the servant
to come in from a hard day's work and fix the master's food,
and then when he is done, what should the master say? Good job?
No. The servant did only what he
was commanded to do. He said, if you've done it all,
you are still unprofitable to God. You not see that? That anything you do is not going
to add to God one thing. Nothing you do adds to God one
thing. You would just be an unprofitable
servant. See then, the purpose of God's
law was to show us that we cannot please God. That's the purpose
of law. Therefore God in great mercy
has sent to us the gospel not of works. This is the good news. The gospel is not of works, but
of grace, of rest. Go back to your Isaiah and look
in 58 and verse 13. He said, If thou turn away thy
foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day,
and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable,
and thou shalt honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding
thine own pleasure, nor seeking thine own words. Behold, the
gospel is a gospel of the Sabbath. Rest. And the Sabbath of the
law is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the rest. He is the rest of the saints. You remember how the Sabbath
was God instituted the Sabbath? Six days God worked. Six days
God created the heavens and the earth and all that's in them.
And on the seventh day, God said, I'm finished. The work is done. I hallow this day because the
work is finished. It's time to rest. The work's
done. Listen, even so did Jesus Christ
come into the world to do the work of God. He come to do the
will of God. Which was what? To finish salvation. To finish it. To accomplish it. The Lord Jesus, the eternal Son
of God, came down in the flesh. He became a man. And being found
in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself. He emptied Himself. He became obedient. You see, He became a servant. He became a servant of God. He
who is worthy of all honor and praise, and yet He subjected
Himself, and He did it willingly. This was not coerced. This was not forced upon the
Lord Jesus Christ. This was His will. This was what
He desired to do. To be made a servant. To do for
us what we could not do for ourselves. which is accomplished salvation. He did this to accomplish the
righteousness of God as a man. You remember when Jesus was baptized,
he said, it becometh us, it behooves us to fulfill all righteousness. Except your righteousness exceed
the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no
wise enter into the kingdom of heaven." How can that be? Jesus
Christ came to do it. He came to accomplish righteousness
by His own making. Jeremiah said, in his days, Judah
shall be saved and Israel shall dwell safely. And this is His
name. whereby he shall be called the
Lord our righteousness." It was the will of God that Jesus should
be made an offering for sin, and that sin should be imputed
to him, and he should endure the wrath of God upon the cross. And what did Jesus say concerning
this will of God? He said, I came not to do mine
own will, but the will of him that sent me. You know what you
and I did? We did our own will. We did our own will and expected
God to praise us. Jesus Christ is the only one
who has truly done the will of God. He said, I came not to do
mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me. What was the
will of God that sent Jesus Christ? It was that He should accomplish
salvation for His people. He said, this is the will of
the Father that sent me, that of all which He hath given me,
I should lose nothing. Lose nothing, but raise it up
again at the last day. And this is the will of Him that
sent me, that everyone that seeth the Son and believeth on him
may have everlasting life, and I'll raise him up at the last
day." In John 17, in the high priestly prayer, Jesus said,
Father, I have finished the work. I have finished the work you've
given me to do. And when Jesus Christ was hanging
upon the cross, In the last fulfillment of Scripture,
he received the vinegar. And he said, it is finished. It's finished. What's finished? Salvation is
finished. Jesus, by His one offering for
sin, had done what no priest or sacrifice could ever do. He did what you and I could spend
millions and millions of years and never do. He finished the
work. Finished salvation. And behold,
the proof of His success is the empty tomb. How do we know He
did it? How do we know God was satisfied
with Him? because God raised him from the
dead. God raised up Jesus Christ from
the dead. And even now God has sent forth
his Holy Spirit to call everyone of his chosen race, and Jesus
Christ has redeemed by his blood. I'll ask you, are you one who
is trying to get God to save you? Are you trying to get God to
save you? If you're trying to get God to
save you, then that means you're trying to get his attention by
what you're doing. Are you one who tries to demand
of God to save you because you think you deserve it? then look at the scripture. Look
what God says to these men. He says, behold. He says, stop
working. Stop your efforts. of trying
to get God's attention by your works. Trying to receive some
reward for your efforts. Behold! Stop! Listen to what
God says. Cease from your efforts and look
at this. Listen. The Lord's hand is not
shortened that He cannot save. If you're not saved, it's not
because God can't. That's what He's saying. If you're not saved, it's not
because God is failing. Oh my soul, may you get a hold
to this by the grace of God, that there is no sinner too great,
no rebel of Adam's race, that God is hindered in any way to
save. Now I'll tell you, Think of the
worst. Well, if you do, you should think
of yourself. I know that many of us, my mind
slipped to someone else. Immediately, when I even thought
of that, my mind's, no, me! There is no sinner too great that would hinder God from saving
him. Not one. All of the elect of God are made
up of such sinners, and not one of us has escaped the depravity
of Adam's fallen nature. Friends, there is no sin too
dark, no wickedness too vile that God cannot make as white
as snow. He said, Come, let us reason
together. Though your sins be as scarlet Though they be dark
and stained, I will make them white as wool. O great sinner, vilest sinner,
you should behold this scripture and you should cling to it with
all your life. Come now to Jesus Christ and prove this word to
be true. Prove it. God's arm is not shortened to
save anyone. Has God made you to see all your
efforts to be vain, to be foolish, and that in no
way to improve your state before God. Have you seen that? Have
you seen that all of your efforts and works are empty efforts? That God is never going to get
you a pat on the back for doing good. You may get it from your
family, you may get it from your friends, you may get it from
me. I like to see people do good. I like when people are, when
my children are obedient or that, you know, husbands loving their
wives. That's something that's good in our eyes, isn't it? It's
acceptable to us. But know this, that that will
not improve your state with God. Have you seen that? I've seen
that in myself. There's no way I can improve my state to God.
There's no way that I can build, as it were, the Tower of Babel
up to heaven by my works. If you're seeking God and He's
not saved you, listen, the fault is not God's. The fault does not rest in God's
lack of ability. Christ's blood is sufficient
for the justice of God. But if you're trying to add anything
to it, all you're doing is spitting on God's Son. Do you realize
that? When men add anything to the
work of Christ, if they come to God with their works or with
their self-righteousness, do you realize that all they're
doing is spitting on the face of the Son of God? They say,
I want to be saved. I know I need Jesus, but I've
got some other stuff that I want to bring along with it. In Hebrews chapter 10, the Apostle
tells us that all you're doing is calling the blood of Christ
an unholy thing. In other words, you're saying
that his blood's not enough. Well, I just don't believe Jesus
can save me. What are you saying? Well, you're saying that you
don't believe His blood was enough. God, you said His blood was enough. You said you were satisfied with
His offering. You said if we should believe
on you, you should save us. But I really just don't think
that's possible. Nothing I can say for you. You just spit in the face of
God. That's all you're doing. Consider the judgment of God
and punishment of God for those who have trodden under the foot
the Son of God and hath counted His blood an unholy thing and
done despite to the grace of God. Do you see what you've done
when men reject God, when men refuse to believe in God? All
you're doing is doing despite. You're manifesting your hatred
for the gospel. Consider all who believe the
blood of Jesus Christ is for all men without exception. What
are they saying? They're saying the blood of Christ
is just a common thing. It's just common for everybody. No, the blood of Christ was a
blood of the covenant of the grace of God, and those who He
has redeemed by it will come, not insulting the Spirit and
not by adding any works of their own, they will come knowing this,
God must save me. If I am to be saved, It must
be by the power of God alone without anything I can offer. Don't stand before God as the
Pharisee boasting of what you've done and complaining that God
hasn't saved you. If God hasn't saved you, I'll
tell you why. It's because of your sin. Because you refuse to bow. Don't come boasting and complaining,
but come like that publican came. How did he come to God? God, be merciful to me, the sinner. I don't know if anyone else is
a sinner, but this I know I am. And if you're going to save me,
it has to be by free mercy. I can't earn it. All I can do
is lay out and beg, plead for the mercy of God. And you know
what Jesus said of that man? He said, that man went home safe. That man went home justified
rather than the other. Rather than the one thanking
God that he wasn't a sinner, the one who confessed to be a
sinner and needed a mercy seat. He needed blood. That's what
he said. Be merciful. Be propitious. In other words, Lord, I need
a sacrifice that I can offer. And behold, the Lamb of God,
He's already offered the sacrifice. Why would you try to earn it?
Why would you try to merit it? Behold, the arm of the Lord is
not shortened that he can't save, nor is his ear heavy. Does your
ear get heavy? My ear gets heavy quick. Sometimes I call my mother and
she explodes with her complaints. I know I'm trying to listen and
be a good son. I'm not that good a son. A lot
of times I don't let her finish. But listen, God's ear is never
heavy. He's never tired of hearing sinners
cry for mercy. You'll never hear him complain
about you coming to him. His ear is never heavy. Come as the publican and find
the salvation of God. Seek God's salvation by faith
in Jesus Christ, work alone, and the arm of God, listen, will
save you now. You believe now, and listen,
he'll save you now. Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the word of God. Believe now. Venture on him, venture wholly. Let no other trust intrude. Do it now. But if you are seeking salvation
from God and he's not giving it, listen why, verse two, but
your iniquities have separated between you and your God and
your sins have hid his face from you that he will not hear. Oh, sinner, if you are not saved,
it is not God's arm that is the problem. It's your sin. It will be because you refuse
to come to God by His Savior. If you are not saved, it is because
you refuse, you refuse to let go of your
works, your religious deeds, and count them as done. Listen,
you cannot hold Christ and this world. You cannot have your works
and your sin and Christ. You should let go of everything
now and trust Him. But if you do come to Christ,
know this, it is because of Him. If you go to hell, listen, it'll
be because of you. You'll go to hell because of
your sin. But listen, if you come to God, it'll be because
of His grace. God saw that there was no man
and wondered that there was no intercessor. Therefore, His arm
brought salvation to him and righteousness. His righteousness, it sustained
him. Behold now the Redeemer that
Isaiah said shall come has come, and salvation rests solely on
Him. Why then will you die? Listen,
why will anyone in this room die in your sins? If God's arm is not shortened
to save any sinner, And the only reason you'll die
in your sins is because of you, not because of him. Listen, there
is no one in hell blaming God's election. No one. They're in hell because they
deserve to be there. And look, there's no one in heaven
bragging on their decision to believe
on Jesus. Everyone in heaven is saying,
singing the song in Revelation chapter 5. I'll read it for you. They sang a new song, thou art
worthy to take the book and open the seals thereof. Listen, for
thou was slain and has redeemed us to God by thy blood out of
every kindred, nation, tongue, and people. And thou hast made
us kings and priests unto God. Do you see any part of that that
there's praise to us in there? There's no praise to us. It all belongs to Him. Now then,
I'll ask you again, why will you die? You'll die because you hate God. And if you'll live, you'll forsake
everything and believe on Christ. And you'll live. You'll live. Why? The work is done. We believe on Christ because
it's finished. And you know what we do after
that? We believe on Christ because the work is finished. And you
know what we do after that? We believe on Christ because
the work is finished. And we do this until we die. That's the rule of my life. Faith. Faith. May God even now give you faith.
Pray, Lord, bless this to your hearts.