56. The Lord willing, we'll be looking
through this portion of the end of 56 through Isaiah 57 this
morning. The title of the message this
morning is, A Divine Description and a Blessed Conjunction. A
divine description and a blessed conjunction. In verse 9 of chapter
56, down through verse 13 of chapter 57, halfway through verse
13 of 57, we have a description. A description of God given to
us concerning all men by nature. A divine description. This is
not my opinion. This is rather God's perception. This is God's, how God views
men by nature. And then in verse 13, you'll
see in the middle part there, He uses the word but. There's
our divine conjunction. So just so you know the divisions
of it. So first of all, let's see this, a divine description
of man by nature. God says, all you beasts of the
field, Come to devour, yea, all ye beasts of the forest. His
watchman is blind. They are all ignorant. They are
all dumb dogs. They cannot bark. Israel, again,
had forsaken the worship of God and turned to the worship of
idols. This nation was given the oracles of God. They were
given God's very presence in the temple. They were given God's
worship. And all other nations were neglected
of this. God did not give this to all
nations or people. He gave it to the nation of Israel. And yet time and time again we
see this nation so rebellious, so stiff-necked as to forsake
God who has delivered them time and time again from their enemies. They forsook Him once again. They continually forsook the
worship of God for the false gods of those that God had conquered
for them. But this history of Israel is
given to us as a picture. We know. We know this. That Israel is a type. It's a
picture of God's church. Of God's church. And here it
is, God gives through this picture of Israel a divine description
of all of us by nature. Even though God has been good
to man, even though God has given him life and breath and all that
he has, God made man upright. God put
man in the best situation possible. Gave him the best environment
possible. And yet man By man came sin into
the world. And as a result of sin, death
came into the world. Death by sin. So death passed
upon all men. Upon all men. For all have sinned. And notice
how God describes us by nature. Man who was created upright,
God now calls a beast. A beast. Man is blind, is a blind, ignorant
dog that cannot bark. I don't know if you've ever had
a watchdog. But how useless is a watchdog
who is blind, dumb, and can't bark? That is the most useless pathetic
dog ever imaginable. And yet that's what God says
about you. You and I are the most useless
and worthless thing on God's creation. By nature we are useless. All men know there is a God,
and that He must judge all men. But the watchdog of man's conscience
is useless to help him. He's dumb, he's blind, and he
cannot call out. He cannot warn us. You see, there is a judgment coming, but
only God can cause us to see that. Man by nature is not going
to get some epiphany, some vision, and warn himself of the judgment
to come. Remember what John said to those
Pharisees. He said, Who has warned you to
come? He said, Why are you here? Why are you here? Because you
know it can't happen by nature. By nature, man is ignorant of
the righteousness of God and goes about to establish his own
righteousness by the deeds of the law. That's what he says.
He says, you're a dumb, ignorant dog. Your shepherds, they can't
understand. They all look to their own way. Their own way. Man, by nature,
always looks to his own way. Isn't that true when you come
across men and you tell them the gospel and then they say,
well, I think... Who cares what you think? Your
thoughts don't matter about this. My thoughts really don't matter
about this. It doesn't matter. Our opinions
about this. So we each go our own way. Everybody
thinks they have it down. Everybody thinks they've got
it pegged. I can do this. In verse 11, God says, you're
greedy dogs which can never have enough. You can't understand
and you look to your own way. Does this not describe you? Does
this not describe you? Are you greedy for the things
of this life? Do you follow the lust of your
flesh like an ignorant dog following a bone? This is the nature of man to
lust, to want, and to desire, but never to be satisfied. Ecclesiastes 5 verse 10 says
this, He that desireth silver shall not be satisfied with silver. If all you want and all you crave
is carnal sensual and worldly pleasures, I tell you it will
never be enough. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity,
said the preacher. This is man by nature sinful,
ignorant and full of pride. Man vainly says, In verse 12,
come ye, say they. I'll fetch wine, and I'll fill
ourselves with strong drink, and tomorrow shall be as this
day, and much more abundant. Lost man says, let me have my
fill of this world. Lost man says, let me have my
sin. I'll fetch my wine, I'll fetch
my joy, and I'll have it now. The natural man fills themselves
with strong drink. Why? Why do men fill themselves
with strong drink? Why is that? So they can mask
the pain. Isn't that why? Isn't that the
purpose of strong drink? Isn't it just to mask over the
hurt of our sin, the guilt of our conscience? That's all it
is. The man says, I'll have my party
now. I'll be happy today. And in their
drunken stupor, they suppose that tomorrow will be better.
Tomorrow will be just like my joy today. I'm having fun today
and tomorrow will be the same. Matter of fact, it'll be better.
It's gonna be better tomorrow! That's what they keep telling
themselves. And yet it's never better, is it? Never better. The flesh does not get better,
but worse. Sin always promises happiness. It says we can fill ourselves
now and tomorrow be better. Lies, lies, and yet man still
knowing falls for it. Man by nature is an ignorant
dog that returns again to his own vomit. That rich man the Lord Jesus
Christ spoke of, he said, to his soul, eat, drink, and be
merry, for thou hast much goods laid up for thyself. And God
said, you fool, this night is thy soul required of thee. Whose
shall these things be? If this is your heart, you're
a fool. You're an ignorant, dumb, blind dog. You've gone after
your own way to establish your own righteousness, and you've
filled yourself with sin, and you know it's not enough, and
you want more, and it's not enough, and you want more, and it's not
enough, and it'll never be enough. It'll never be enough. All who
follow after sin are servants of sin, enslaved to sin, chained
to their lusts and passions of their flesh, Be not deceived. Listen to me. Be not deceived. Don't deceive yourselves. God
is not mocked. Neither fornicators, nor adulterers,
nor effeminate, homosexuals, nor abusers of themselves with
mankind, nor drunkards, nor gossipers, shall enter into the kingdom
of heaven. And such were some of you. Believer, do you not identify
with this? Can you not see yourself there? Because I do. I do. You have rebelled against God,
you sons of Adam's fallen race. Do you not know who you defy?
How many children think they're defying their parents? How many think they're hurting
someone else by their sin. Look at what God says. God says
in verse 3 of chapter 57, But draw near hither, you sons of
sorcerers, you seed of adulterers and the whore. Against whom do
you sport yourselves? Against whom do you make wide
your mouth and draw? Who do you stick out your tongue
at? That's what He's saying. You
know, a little child, that's what he does when he, When you sin, that's what you're
doing. But who do you do it against? Who is it against? It's against God. You've stuck
out your tongue. You've shaken your fist in the
face of God and said, I will not have Jesus Christ to rule
over me. That's what the natural man says. You have rebelled against God
who is your judge. He has made you. He sustains
your life. He holds it in the palm of His
hand, and yet you defy Him. How ignorant is that? How ignorant is man to say to
God who made him, who sustains his life, and he spits in the
face of his Maker? Man by nature, God says, is like
a whorish woman. He said, you inflamed yourselves
with idols under every green tree. He said, you like a whore
have given yourself to every one, every other God but me. Man will give himself to every
other God except the true and living God. except God. Man by nature is
as a whorish woman that gives himself to any man, any God. Israel at this time openly killed
their children for the sake of another God. Isn't that what man is doing
today? Can you not see it? Can you not see this is what
abortion is? It's killing your own child for
the sake of another God. Who's the God? The God is your
pleasure. That's what abortion is about.
It's about offering a sacrifice to the God of self. I don't want
that child. So I'm just going to offer it.
To who? Myself. That's what you're doing. When
men do that, that is what they're doing. They're offering to the
God of self. In verses 7 through 9, man by
nature desires to worship a God that must be submissive to his
will. A God that will accept his useless,
pointless, religious sacrifices. You know what that If you come
here this morning, and you expect God to appreciate your sacrifice
this morning, I tell you, you are worshipping another God,
because my God will not accept the sacrifice of you just being
here. That's not the sacrifice He accepts. The free will works religion
of our day, of this age, is nothing more than the bed of the great
whore of religion, and it seems to enlarge itself. That's what
God says, Thou hast enlarged thy bed, and made thee a covenant
with them. Thou lovest their bed when thou
sawest it. They who worship such a false
god are surely to weary themselves. False religion at first seems
beautiful to the natural man. But eventually, he's going to
get tired of it. Eventually, it's going to be
too much. They're going to ask too much.
And he's going to start to be wearied. And that's what God
says in verse 10. He said, Thou art wearied with
the greatness of thy way. Yet, you have not said, There
is no hope. You know why men skip from place
to place and service to service, religion to religion? They change
from one denomination to another denomination. They go from this
church to that church, to over here, to over there, to over
this. Why? Because they're wearied. They're tired. They want to hear
something different. They've got to hear itching ears. They've got to have something
different. You who believe the Gospel, have I not preached the
same Christ to you this whole time? And yet, why do you come? You come to hear that same message. You don't want to hear anything
else. But this world, this lost nature desires to hear something
else. Something more. It gets weary. False religion heaps law upon
law and tradition, binding their congregation under burdens that
they cannot bear themselves. Is sin not wearisome? Always wanting but never satisfied. Is false religion not wearisome?
Always doing but never done. Yet man still does not see his
hopeless condition. Man by nature cannot see the
vanity of his sin or his false religion. In Job, Elihu says
this, man cries out continually in vexation and disappointment,
but he will not cry to God for deliverance. I know men want to be delivered
from the circumstances of their sins. Isn't that right? Men cry
out to God for that. They get in trouble and they
say, Oh God, help me, help me. They'll cry out to God for that.
Men will cry out to God because of the consequences of their
sin. But never for deliverance from their sin. From their sin. Oh sinner, who will not see his hopeless
and helpless condition. You run greedily after sin. You trust in self-righteousness.
and false religion, hear what God says He will do. Look at
verse 11, I mean verse 12. This is what God is going to
do to every dog, to every sinner who will not know His hopeless
and helpless condition and cry out. He said, I will declare
Thy righteousness and Thy works. What righteousness? What works?
You don't have any. For they shall not profit thee. What you think to be righteousness
and good works will not profit you. Will not profit you. God will call everyone to judgment. The day of judgment is coming.
And though God has kept silent and held His peace, one day He
will require of you and me absolute perfect holiness. He will. That day is coming. Whether you
believe it or not, that doesn't matter. I can't make you believe
it. I know it so. It's coming. And then God will expose your
works, your thoughts. What you thought would save you
will be of no value to your soul. In Isaiah chapter 29, he said,
you have made a covenant, you said you made a covenant with
death and hell, but one day that covenant will be disannulled.
Your refuge of lies, what you thought would save you, will
be only to your damnation. The lost will then cry out to
God, and what will God say? Let your companion save you. Remember? Isn't that what He
told the rich man in hell? Son, remember? Remember how you spit in the
face of God? Remember how you heard His Word?
And you stuck your tongue out at God? And I'll tell you, your companions
will be vanity. They will not be able to save
you in that day. In that day, it will be too late for hope. He said, When thou criest, let
thy companions deliberately, but the wind shall carry them
all away. Vanity shall take them. And here's
the second part. A divine, blessed conjunction. But, but, he that putteth his
trust in me shall possess the land and shall inherit my holy
mountain. O sinner, this is the only gospel
message to you. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt have eternal life. How do I know this? Well, I know
this by experience. All of those things I've just
described to you about the ignorant, blind, dumb, barkless dog, I've
just described me. I've described me. I am by nature,
as God said, I am by nature. I was an ignorant, useless dog
to God of no profit to Him or to my soul. My works were nothing
but sin. I ran greedily after my lust.
I said to myself, I will not be ruled by God nor His Christ. I tried works religion and found
it to be nothing but a burden that I could not bear. And yet
in the vexation of my own soul, I would not cry to God. I would not cry until God came
to me. And I tell you, you will not
cry until God comes to you. And when God comes to you, you
will do nothing but cry. You will do nothing but cry for
deliverance. Until He opened my blind eyes
to see that I was a dog." Does this offend you? I've called
you a dog, I don't know how many times, because God called you
one. I've called you that how many times? Does that offend
you? Does that offend you? If it does, if you're offended
by that, you've got some company. There were other men who were
offended by that. Goliath was one. Goliath, when David came
out, he said, Am I a dog that you would bring out sticks at
me? Oh, so if that offends you, you
got good company. There's Goliath. You're with him. Hazel, the servant
of a wicked king, he came to Elisha, and Elisha told him,
he said, you're going to go back and kill your king, and you're
going to come back to my land and smash the children's heads
against the rocks. And he was offended. He said,
am I a dog that I would do such a thing? You've got company. Abner, that
wicked captain of Saul's army, When Saul's son came to him and
accused him of adultery with one of the king's concubines,
he said, Am I a dog that I would do it? So you've got company.
If you're offended at that, you've got company. The problem is,
every one of those men are in hell. So if this offends you,
you've got company. But everyone who's made to see
themselves by nature willingly confess this to be true. I am
a dog. Mephibosheth did. He said, what
is thy servant that thou would look upon such a dead dog as
I am? The Gentile woman, Christ said,
is it me to give the children's bread to dogs? And what did she
say? Truth, Lord! Truth, Lord. She confessed she
was a dog. Today, I preach to you as a dead
dog sinner, unprofitable, and confess my sins. But by the grace
of God, I put my trust only in the perfect righteousness of
another, Jesus Christ. I trust in God. And God says, but he that putteth
his trust in me shall inherit the land and my holy mountain. Shall inherit eternal life. See in verse 15, then God's commands
to preachers, verse 14, sorry. This is God's command to everyone
who sees themselves as a dead dog, to everyone that puts their
trust in Jesus Christ. He says, cast ye up, cast ye
up, prepare the way, and take up the stumbling blocks out of
the way of my people. God calls us to build a highway
for the people of God. And even so is the gospel a highway
that was cast up by God for His people. Listen to me. Today I set before you a way. A way. I set before you actually
two ways. There's life and there's death. Life and death. The way to death
is very wide. It's very broad. Takes in a whole
bunch of people. Takes in all kinds of gods. Takes
in all kinds of thoughts and imaginations. It takes in all
kinds of sin. It takes in all kinds of things.
But there is another way that leadeth to life. And it's very
narrow. Not in legalistic terms, not
by law is it narrow, but I tell you it's a way. The way is a
person. The way is a person. It's not
a set of rules. It's not a set of laws. It's
not a set of catechism. It is a person. I set before
you a way, and I take out every stumbling block I can. Listen,
this is a faithful saying, and worthy of every one of you to
accept it. Jesus Christ came into the world
to save sinners. Sinners. Dogs. Ignorant, foolish, barkless,
greedy dogs. When I say dogs, I'm not talking
about the cute puppies. I'm talking about the mangy,
stinky, useless, wild dogs. Are you in that category? Well, I've got good news for
you. He came to save such sinners as that. But my sin is too great. No,
it isn't. No, it isn't. He came to save
sinners, unqualified. Whether you think you're a good
sinner or a bad sinner. A sinner is a sinner. Christ
came to save sinners. You know what the only obstacle
is? Your hatred for God. That's the only obstacle. There's
no obstacle between you and Christ. The only obstacle is you. Your
unwillingness to believe. Do not think inability is an
obstacle. God says no man can come to me
except the Father which has sent me draw him. That's true. You
are incapable of coming to God. But rather than being an obstacle,
it should be the greatest motivation. When somebody tells you you can't
do something, isn't that what causes you to really desire to
do it? I tell you, when God the Holy
Spirit comes to you, there'll be nothing to stop you from coming.
And everyone who comes shall inherit eternal life, pardon, free forgiveness of sin. This is God who says this, not
me. For I am the high and lofty one
that inhabit the eternity. I dwell in the high and holy
place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit.
Who is that? Who does God dwell with? He dwells
with the humble and the contrite man, Jesus Christ. He is the humble man He said,
Come unto Me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, I will give
you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn
of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find
rest unto your souls. He said, I am meek and lowly
in heart, And he that is meek and lowly in heart has given
himself for sin. He has accomplished righteousness
by his obedience. And what does he do? He says,
to revive the spirit of the humble. And to revive the heart of the
contrite ones. You know what God will not despise?
A broken and a contrite heart. Are you broken over your sin? Have you been humbled to see
there's no hope in you? Well, that's good because that's
the one God revives. That's the one God saves. And
they all come to Him. They all come to Him. He said,
ìFor I will not contend forever, neither will I always be mad,
be wroth. For the Spirit should fail before
Me and the souls that I have made. For the iniquity of His
covetousness I was wroth and smote Him. I hid Me and was wroth,
and He went on forwardly in His way of His heart. Iíve seen His
ways, and I will heal Him.î Even though God has seen your ways,
you wicked dog, He still promises to heal you. Isn't that a comfort? He says, I will. I've seen what
you've done. I know what you've done. I know
your heart. But it is my heart to heal you.
It's my heart to save you. I create the fruit of the lips. Peace. Peace to him that is afar
off and to him that's near, saith the Lord, and I will heal him. God says peace. But who has to create these lips?
God does. God creates the fruit of the
lips that say peace. Oh, that He would speak peace
to every one of you this morning. that He would show you how He
has made peace by the blood of His own precious Son. And everyone who believes on
Jesus Christ alone, God will heal him of all his sins. Every one of them every one of his sin. But the wicked are like the troubled
sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt.
There is no peace, saith God to the wicked. This morning you'll
go away from here. And you'll either be saved or
lost. The wicked are constantly stirring
up excuses. Why? Because they love their
sin. They want their sin. And they will not come. But I tell you, if you won't
come, you won't find rest. But to everyone who comes, they
find rest. Rest. Rest for my soul. When I sing that song, it is
well with my soul. That's true. No matter what goes
on out here, it's well with my soul. Because Christ has offered himself
a sacrifice for my sins. Christ is risen again and sits
at the right hand of God the Father. Ever living to make intercession
for us. Are you a dog? May God let you see what you
are. And in seeing what you are, may
He give you grace to come to Him. and all who come will be
healed. He said it. That's not my opinion.
That's God's Word. That's God's Word. May God comfort
you with this. Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer.