Isaiah 40. Our text this morning
is going to be verses 6 through 9. But before we get into it,
I'd like to read verses 1 through 9, just kind of put everything
in context. So if you would pick up in Isaiah 40, verse 1. Verse 1, comfort ye, comfort
ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem,
and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished. that her iniquity
is pardoned, for she hath received the Lord's hand double for all
her sins. The voice of him that crieth
in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight
in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted,
and every mountain hill shall be made low, and the crooked
shall be made straight, and the rough places plain, and the glory
of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together,
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it. The voice said, cry. And he said, what shall I cry?
All flesh is grass. And all the goodliness thereof,
all the glory, is as the flower of the field. The grass withereth,
the flower fadeth, because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon
it. Surely the people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower
fladeth, the flower fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand
forever. Oh Zion, that bring us good tidings. Get thee up into the high mountain.
Oh Jerusalem, that bring us good tidings. Lift up thy voice with
strength. Lift it up, be not afraid. Say unto the cities of
Judah, behold your God. Now down in verse six, the Lord
gives his prophet Isaiah a command. And that command is to cry, to
preach. And then Isaiah has kind of a
peculiar response, doesn't he? The Lord had given Isaiah plenty
of things to say up to this point, but Isaiah says, Lord, what shall
I cry? Now I can kind of, I can empathize
with Isaiah here. I can enter into what he's saying,
because I can't begin in verse one either. Verse one says, comfort
ye, comfort ye my people, sayeth your God. We can't comfort a
man whom the Lord has not already comforted. It says, tell him
his warfare is accomplished. Can't tell a man his warfare
is accomplished if he is still at war with God himself. So tell
him his iniquity is pardoned, that he's received the Lord's
hand double for all his sins. You can't tell a man that his
sins have been pardoned unless the Lord truly has pardoned that
man's sins. Now I can empathize with Isaiah's
response, and I don't think it's as calm and collected as it may
appear. I imagine a relatively frustrated
Isaiah. I imagine a man who is crushed under this sweet burden
of crying, of preaching. And I imagine him thinking, Lord,
I'll go anywhere you'll send me. I'll go to the top of the
tallest mountain. I'll go into the deepest cave,
bottom of the sea. Anywhere you'll sustain me, I'll
go. But I have to know what to say. I got to know the message. What is the gospel message? And Lord and mercy, he answers
Isaiah. He says, you want to know? You wanna know what the
gospel message is? You wanna know what the message
is that men need to hear? Okay, I'll tell you. I'll even tell
you where to begin. You have to begin where men are at. Let's
read verses six and seven together. Let's find out where we're at.
Isaiah 40, verse six, and the voice said, cry, and he said,
what? What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the
goodliness thereof is the flower of the field. The grass withereth,
the flower fadeth, because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon
it. Surely the people is grass. Talks about the flesh, doesn't
it? The flesh, it has a couple different meanings. First, the
flesh is on the surface. It's the muscle. It's the skin.
It's the fat. It speaks of the physical body.
It's physical life. And truly, this life is just
like grass, isn't it? Grass springs up, it's lush,
it's green, it looks good for a while. But what is the end
state of all grass? It withers and it dies. That's
the end state of you and me, everyone in this room. One day,
maybe much sooner than we think, we are going to die. And we're
going to wake up in the presence of a holy God, and all that's
going to matter is, am I found in Christ? Did I awake in his
likeness? And why do we die? It's a simple
answer. Romans 6.23 says the wages of
sin is death. We die because we are sinners
and nothing more. And this leads us to the other
definition of flesh, the deeper meaning. It talks about the spiritual
flesh, the natural man. It's the wicked and evil nature
that every man is born in this world possessing. And Isaiah
says that the natural man, the natural flesh, the spiritual
flesh, It says withered, dead grass. And the goodliness of
the man, his glory, it says a worthless, dead, faded flower. Now what
do you mean? What do you mean by that? Turn
if you went back to Isaiah 37. Isaiah actually uses this comparison
with grass at another point. I'd like you to see it. We're going to use verse 27 here,
but let me give you a backstory on chapters 36 and 37. In these
two stories, the Assyrian army had come upon the defense cities
of Judah, and they had conquered them. They had conquered these
cities. And now they had Jerusalem surrounded. And behind the walls
of Jerusalem, there's King Hezekiah. He's the king of Judah. And the
Lord goes and he comforts Hezekiah through Isaiah. Isaiah goes to
Hezekiah, he says, Hezekiah, don't worry. They're not even
gonna shoot an arrow behind your walls. Everything's gonna be
fine. You don't have to worry about a thing. The Lord is gonna
destroy the Assyrian army. He's gonna destroy the Assyrian
king. You have nothing to worry about. And he goes on to tell
Hezekiah why the Assyrian army had been so successful up to
this point, why they had won the battle against the cities
of Judah. It was for one reason, it was because the Lord had purposed
it. And because the Lord had purposed it, these people of
the defense cities of Judah, they had particular attributes.
Now in verse 27, Isaiah describes those attributes in a threefold
manner. But understand, he's not just describing the physical
attributes of the people of Judah. He's talking about the spiritual
attributes as well of a natural man. Now look here in verse 27.
It says, therefore, their inhabitants were of small power. They were
dismayed. and confounded. They were as
the grass of the field. That's a similar comparison from Isaiah
40. And as the green herb, and as the grass on housetops, and
as corn blasted before it be grown up. A three-fold description,
and it begins with this term, of small power. And the little
translation there is feeble-handed. Now, just as these people, the
defensees of Judah, they looked out, they saw the vastness of
the Assyrian army, and they knew they had no power to deliver
themselves from the hand of the Assyrians. They had no personal
power to do so. We, the natural man, the way
you and I are born in this world, we have no power to deliver ourselves
from the power of sin or the rightful punishment which accompanies
it. Now, understand this. If the natural man ever does
take any type of interest in salvation, he always goes about
it the same way. He attempts to purchase it. He attempts to
purchase it. He may give assent to things
like the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, give assent to
his death, but he believes it in such a manner as to make it
of no effect. And we see that through the preaching
of universal redemption in our day. Men get up in pulpits all
the time and they say, God loves you, Christ died for you, he
wants to save you, but you must do something, fill in the blank,
to make his work effectual for you. Here's the problem. First problem is it's not true.
It is not the teaching of this book. Understand, if you believe
that, you do not believe what's written in this book. Plain and
simple. Two, here's the greater issue. We are of little power,
which is translated of no power. We cannot do. You and I are incapable,
in and of ourselves, of producing any type of work that the Lord
could be appeased with, that he could find pleasing. And you
can write this down, this is true of you and me. Whatever
my best work is, whatever I think it may be, whatever you think
your best work may be, it is sheer iniquity. It was conjured
in a wicked heart and it was backed by self-serving motives
and self-serving intentions. We are of no power. We have no
power to create some sort of pleasing work that the Lord could
find acceptable. The second term that's used here
is dismayed. dismayed. And when you read the literal
translation here, it's actually broken down. Broken down in fear. Now the people of the cities
of Judah, they looked out, they saw the vastness of the Assyrian
army and they were huge army. Just absolutely huge. They looked
out and they saw the army. They couldn't stand before them
and they found themselves in a broken down and fearful state. And I tell you this, if the natural
man ever catches a glimpse of the true God, the holy God, the
sovereign God, He finds himself in a broken down and fearful
state. But understand it's a different
fear. It's not the fear of the Lord which is the beginning of
wisdom. This is a fleshly fear. It's an evil fear. It is a fear
that is intermingled with a hatred for the Lord's holy person. I
wouldn't tell you that unless I had an example for you. Turn
back to Genesis 3 if you don't mind. We see this attribute very clearly
in Adam. Genesis 3 and look at verse 7.
And I'll give you the back story here. Adam had just disobeyed
God. He had just eaten the fruit. He had lost his innocent and
his upright nature and he had taken on his sinful, evil nature. Let's read here, beginning in
verse 7, and let's see how Adam reacts to the presence of the
Lord. Genesis 3, verse 7. And the eyes of them both were
opened, speaking of Adam and Eve. And they knew that they
were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together
and made themselves aprons. And they heard the voice of the
Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam
and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God
amongst the trees of the garden. And the Lord God called unto
Adam, and he said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard
thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked,
and I hid myself. And he said, Who told thee that
thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded
thee, Thou shouldst not eat? And the man said, The woman whom
thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did
eat. Now look at what Adam's natural
reaction is to the presence of the Lord. It's to flee from him.
Adam had just sinned, and instead of running to the Lord, begging
his mercy, he hides from him. He wants nothing to do with him.
You see, Adam, he knew the Lord was holy. That hadn't changed.
But he knew now that he was a shameful thing, and he could not stand
before that holiness. And then when the Lord does come
to Adam, where he's at, when he calls him out and he questions
him over his disobedience, notice, Adam's not repentant in any way,
is he? There's no remorse over his sin. There's no ownership
of his sin. What does he do? He begins to blame. He starts
with Eve. But who does he ultimately blame
for his disobedience? The woman thou gave us to be
with me. This is your fault. I tell you what, this is the
natural man's reaction to the Lord's holiness. He will run
from him, he'll flee from him, he'll hide from him, and he will
blame him. And it is for one reason, one
reason alone, he hates him. He hates his holy person. And
that's why the God of the Bible is not preached often in today's
religion. Men aren't comfortable with that
God. They hate that God. They don't like the sovereign
God. They don't like the holy God. So what do they do? They
conjure their own God. They conjure a God who is not
holy. He doesn't demand perfection. He doesn't demand anything, as
a matter of fact. Just do your best. He's not sovereign. He doesn't
have a will. And his will is always carried out. No, he's
a defeated God. And men must give him leave to do whatever
it is he wants to do. And he can't move a muscle until
that man allows him to. They conjure that God, and they
like that God. But the God of the Bible, the sovereign God,
and the holy God, natural man always flees from Him, hides
from Him, and blames Him for his own sin. That's for one reason.
He hates Him. That's true. Of small power,
dismayed, the third term is confounded. Confounded. And the literal translation
here is dried up. Dried up. I don't know what you
all think of when you hear that term dried up. but I think of
a desert. And I have spent a lot of time
in various deserts all over the world, more time than I ever
want to. I actually lived in one here in the States. And here
in the States, we have deserts, it's hot, it's dry, it's sandy,
but there's stuff there. You look out, you see a cactus,
you see a snake, there's a buzzard overhead, there's something there.
I'll tell you what, when I got to the Middle East for the first
time and I looked out and I saw a desert, a real desert in the
Middle East for the first time, I looked out and all I could
see was sand. just as far as the eye could
see for miles and miles and miles. And the chief attribute of that
desert, that real desert, it was abundantly clear. It was
void of any type of life. And that is the chief attribute
of the natural man. Void of any type of spiritual
life. Nothing there. We are dead in
trespasses and sins. That's how we are born in this
world. And our spiritual death leads to our complete and utter
inability to do that which is spiritual. So somebody says,
what are you talking about? Let's go over some basics. Hearing. Take the natural man,
sit him in that pew. Preach the gospel to him all
day long. He won't hear a thing. He'll hear words. He'll hear
concepts. He'll hear audibly, but it'll
do nothing for his heart. He must be given ears to hear.
Sight. Point him to Christ. Point him
to the Lord Jesus Christ. Tell him who he is. Say, look,
he's blind. He can't see. He must be given
eyes to see. Repentance. What is repentance? Repentance has something to do
with a change of mind, doesn't it? When your mind is changed
about who God is and who you are. It has something to do with
alliances. It's actually taking sides with God against yourself.
No man has the power to change his own mind or change his own
alliances. He must be brought to repentance. Faith, the ability
to trust solely the Lord Jesus Christ, his person, his work
alone, as your only grounds of acceptance before God the Father.
No man can muster faith in and of himself. It is the gift of
God. And it leads to belief. The call
of the gospel is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt
be saved. But we temper it with this. I can't believe. You can't believe. Unless we
are enabled to believe. We are spiritually dead. That's
the way we're born into this world. Now let me ask a question. Did I just describe you by nature? Did I just describe me by nature? Now, mind you, by nature, I understand
that there's a lot of believers here. I'm talking about the natural
man. I just described you by nature.
Now, some would say, yes. Preach this anywhere. Someone
would say, yes, that is me. I see that. That is me. That's been
revealed to me. Someone else says, no. I'm not of little power. I have some power. You put me
in the right circumstances, I can work up a good work. I'm not
dismayed. I'm comfortable with the God
I've created. The one I've created, I'm happy with him. I'm not confounded. I have some spiritual life. I'm
not dead in trespasses and sins. Now understand, this is true
of everyone. Everyone born in this world is this way, dead
in trespasses and sins, of no power, and absolutely dismayed.
That is the way it is. Why does one know it and one
not? Well, the answer actually lies
in Isaiah 40. It says, because the spirit of the Lord blows
upon him. And Henry Mahan, Luke's granddad,
he had a saying that I liked very much. He said, it blows
upon him like a blowtorch blows on a spiderweb. The flame consumes
him. It tears out all his false foundations.
It burns up everything he's got until he is absolutely and utterly
whittled down to nothing. Now the question arises, though,
is why? Why is that necessary? Why must
we be brought down to nothing? I think the answer lies in the
law of the leper. If you would, turn to Leviticus
13. As you all know, this plague
of leprosy, this is the great picture in the scripture of sin.
And the leper is a picture of the sinner. So Leviticus 13,
look at verse 9. Talk about the law of the leper. says, when the plague of leprosy
is in a man, then he shall be brought unto the priest. Now,
the word that jumped off the page of me there is that word
shall. He shall be brought unto the priest. And this is true,
my friends. If you and I, if it's ever revealed
to us truly who we are and what we are by nature, that we are
nothing but wretched, sinful men, it's going to cause us to
get to the priest one way or the other. It's non-negotiable. We will not be without Him. Now,
we're not going to try a home remedy. There's nothing a mere
man can do for us. We're not going to go to a doctor.
There's nothing a mere man can do for us. There's nothing we
can do for ourselves. We ever see exactly who and what we are
by nature, we're going to get to the Great High Priest, the
Lord Jesus Christ, because He is the only one who can do anything
for us. Now look down at verse 12, it
says, And if a leprosy break out abroad in the skin, and the
leprosy cover all the skin of him that hath the plague, from
his head even to his foot, whereversoever the priest looketh. Notice the
extent of the disease, the head, an evil mind. It trails down
the heart, which is exceedingly wicked, all the way down to the
soles of the feet, our walk, our works, which are absolutely
nothing but sin. And then pick up in verse 13.
Then the priest shall consider. Now understand this consideration
is going to be done in the light of day. No stone is going to
be left unturned. The eyes of the priest are able
to pierce the deepest cavities of our soul. He's going to look
us over, up, down, left, and right, and everywhere in between.
Then the priest shall consider and behold if the leprosy have
covered all his flesh. The priest looks you over and
there is not one spot of clean unpolluted flesh on you. Not
one speck of personal righteousness to be found. You come as a sinner
from the very top of your head to the very sole of your foot
and everywhere in between. That's the way you come and if
you do See what it said here. It says, he shall pronounce him
clean that hath the plague. What confidence that word inspires. He shall, he is faithful to do
this every time to make the same declaration. Any man that comes
to him, just a sinner, no personal righteousness, no good works,
just filth, just as I am. Every time he makes the same
declaration, clean. It's all turned white. He is
clean. So why is this necessary? Why
is it necessary the Spirit must whittle us down to nothing? Because
it is only when we see that we are nothing, that we have no
personal righteousness, that we are just a sinner and nothing
more, it causes us to flee to the Great High Priest. And the
Great High Priest is always faithful to make the same declaration
to any sinner, any true sinner, who comes begging for mercy.
He's clean. Now let's ask this, what are
the implications of this? Of the withering work of the Spirit?
What are the implications? If you would, turn to our scripture,
turn to John 3. The question we're asking here
is what are the implications? What we're saying is no man will
be saved apart from coming to or believing on the Lord Jesus
Christ. And no man will come unless he has a need. And no
man will know his need unless the Spirit of the Lord blows
upon him. Now what is the implication of this? Look at John 3 and look
at verse 8. It says the wind, or the Spirit,
that's what this verse is talking about, the Spirit bloweth where
it listeth, or where it chooses to blow. Not where you and I
choose for it to blow, but where the Lord chooses for it to blow.
The Spirit bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof,
but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth.
So is every one that is born of the Spirit." So what is the
first implication here? It's that God is sovereign in
salvation. You and I are in His hand, and
He can do with us as He sees fit. He can save us, or He can
damn us. And he is just and holy either
way. That's the implication here.
Now let me ask you this question. How does that sit with you? What's
your reaction to that? As far as I can tell, you can
only have three major reactions to this revelation. One, you
might get mad. You might say, that's not true. I can believe
anytime I choose to believe. I can be saved anytime I choose
to be saved. I'll offer you this. Your understanding
is contrary to the scriptures. Contrary to the scripture I just
read. You're on your own. Someone else may become apathetic. They
say, salvation is the Lord. Nothing I can do. I suppose we'll
wait around for judgment day and see how things shake out.
Now that is your reaction. I can assure you the spirit of
the Lord is never blown upon you. That's not what happens. It never breeds apathy in a believer. But there is a third category.
Now, perhaps today, maybe for the first time, someone here,
you are confronted with God's sovereignty in salvation, and
it causes you to cry out, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. Lord, save me. Send your Spirit
to blow upon me. Breathe life into this dead sinner.
Now, friends, know that is the reaction of a man whom the Spirit
of the Lord has already blown upon. It's the reaction of a
man the Lord has saved. So what is the first implication
here? It's that God is sovereign in salvation. What's another
one? Turn to Romans 9. Look down at verse 11. For the children, being not yet
born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose
of God according to election might stand, not of works, but
of him that calleth. What's another implication of
this withering work of the Spirit? It's that for the believer, election,
God in His sovereignty, choosing a people in Christ before the
foundation of the world unto salvation, election, it is not
only just true for us, for the believer, it is an absolute necessity. We love it. And the world, it
hates election, doesn't it? They hate election. And the picture
they paint is there's this large group of people who are crying
out for mercy and the Lord just holds them off. He says, no,
I didn't choose you. I just didn't choose you. But
Lord, save me, save me. And you just, no, I didn't choose you. That's the
thought process, isn't it? Let's see how that lines up with
the scripture. If you would, turn to John 5. We're gonna look at verse 36
through 40. Let's see how that thought process lines up. It
says, But I have a greater witness than that of John. For the works
which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that
I do bear witness of me, that the Father has sent me. And the
Father himself which has sent me hath borne witness of me.
You have neither heard his voice at any time nor seen his shape,
and you have not his word abiding in you. For whom he has sent,
him you believe not. search the scriptures for in
them you think you have eternal life and they are they which
testify of me now listen this last part is very important and
you will not come to me that you might have life see my friends the chief problem
with the natural man is that he is unwilling to be saved in
the manner by which the Lord saves a sinner natural man has
a will that is obstinate to grace You talk to him about when the
Lord saves a man, that man becomes a trophy of the Lord's power
in his grace. And the natural man wars against
that. He says, I'll have nothing to do with that. I will not have
Christ getting all the glory in my salvation. I will have
my own glory. And if I don't, I'd rather go to hell based on
my own merits than be saved by his. That's the natural man's
will. That's what he wants. But for
us, for the believer. We love God's sovereignty and
God's election because we know we had no power to change our
own will. We know that He came to us where we were at in that
state of being of no power, being dismayed, God-haters by nature,
confounded, dried up, spiritually dead. He came to us where we
were at and He sent the Spirit to blow upon us and it withered
us and it caused us to come and we received mercy and grace. We love Christ getting all the
glory and salvation because he's worthy of it. We wouldn't have
it any other way because we know, and you guys have heard this
said a million times, I'm gonna use the million one, if he wouldn't
have first chose us, we never would have chose him. So we've talked for a while about
who and what we are by nature. We've talked about the withering
work of the spirit, God's sovereignty, God's election. Let's ask this
question then. How can a sinner like me or you
be right with God? Very simple question. Turn back
to our text in Isaiah 40. Look at verse eight. Verse eight says, the grass withereth,
the flower fadeth. Is there any hope? But, gotta
love that word, the word of our God shall stand forever. Now, what does Isaiah mean when
he says, the word of our God shall stand forever? What is
the word? On the surface, the word is the
written words, the Bibles, the scriptures. And they do stand
forever in their absolute truth, do they not? Every word's inspired.
But what's the deeper meaning? What's the greater meaning? I'll
quote John 1, 1 to you real quick. It says, in the beginning was
the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. Isaiah is not merely speaking
of the written word, he's talking about the incarnate word, the
Lord Jesus Christ, who stands forever. And how does he stand?
As a surety for his people. Now, what does that mean? That's
an interesting word, surety. What does that mean? If you would,
turn to Genesis 43. And I know I've had you all turn
to a lot of scriptures, but I enjoy examples. I learn best through
them, so I'm gonna share them with you. And we're going to pick up in
verse 8. You all know this story very well. This is the story
of Joseph and his brothers. Joseph was Pharaoh's right-hand
man in Egypt. If you wanted corn from Egypt, you were going to
have to go through Joseph to get it. And Joseph's brothers, they come
to Egypt wanting corn. These are the same brothers that
had sold them into bondage years before. And they come, and they
get corn from Joseph. And Joseph tells them, he goes,
you go back. He goes, but if you want corn again, if you come
unto me again, you're going to have to bring your youngest brother,
Benjamin, with you. And so his brothers go back,
go back to their father Jacob. And so they eat the corn and
sometime later the corn runs out and Jacob says, well, go
back, go back to Egypt. And his sons say, well, the man
who gave us the corn, he said, he's not going to give us any
more corn unless we bring Benjamin with us, our youngest brother.
And Jacob, he was reluctant. He's worried something's going
to happen to Benjamin. He'd already lost Joseph as far
as he knew. And so he was reluctant to send him. Now listen to how
Jacob's son Judah, the appeal he makes unto him. Listen to
this, Genesis 43, look at verse eight. And Judah said unto Israel
his father, send the lad with me and we will rise and go that
we may live and not die, both we and thou and also our little
ones. I will be surety for him. Of my hand shalt thou require
of him. If I bring him not unto thee,
and set him before thee, then let me bear the blame forever. By offering himself as a surety,
Judah bore the full responsibility of returning Benjamin unto his
father, safe and sound, with no harm having befallen him. And the Lord Jesus Christ, for
every believer, he's assumed this role of surety. He's accepted
this responsibility. But, for the Lord to deliver
me back to the Father, safe and sound, with no harm having befallen
me, he first had to satisfy the Father's demands against me.
So the logical question is, what does he demand? First, a perfect
justice. God is just, and he will not
let sin go unpunished. But where does that leave me?
I'm the sinner. What had to happen? As my surety,
the Lord Jesus Christ came to this earth, and the scripture
says, he bore my sins in his body on that tree. I'm not even going to try to
describe what that is, because I don't understand it. That's
mysterious, but I know that my sins, everything that they were,
the grief, the shame, everything except the commission, he bore
that in his body, and not just mine, but times 10,000s and 10,000s
and 1,000s and 1,000s, all in that body on that cross. And
the punishment that he got, it was the punishment that was reserved
for me. It was Bob's punishment, it was Luke's punishment, it
was my punishment, times 10,000s and 1,000s and 1,000s, all right
there on that cross. And this time, the sacrifice
consumed the fire. He put those sins away. And this
is our hope. God is just. And if the Lord
Jesus Christ has been punished for my sins on the tree, I cannot
be punished for them. God is just. He demands a perfect
justice. He demands a perfect righteousness.
Perfect law keeping. Now, I've never kept the law.
Neither of you, none of us have. Not one time, not in our hearts,
and you know that. And so what had to happen? Lord Jesus Christ
came to this earth and he lived a perfect life. We've read in
Psalm 23 the paths of righteousness. He walked all those paths of
righteousness. Every jot and every tittle of
the law he fulfilled. And he fulfilled it on our behalf.
We are in him and we were in him. And that righteousness he
worked out. It is our righteousness. So much
so that when God the Father looks at every individual believer
He sees the very righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ himself
and not later on, right now. We know by faith, not by sight,
but every believer right now in Christ absolutely and utterly
righteous with his righteousness. Demands a perfect justice, a
perfect righteousness, demands a perfect holiness. I said this
before, I've preached this message before, I'll prelimit, I don't
know anything partly about holiness. It's just, it's a foreign concept
to me. I think there was another preacher who said the best definition
of holiness is other. I don't understand it. I know
something about it, it has something to do with being perfect and
inability to be anything but perfect. But I know God demands
it. But I know the Lord Jesus Christ
right now, he is holy. absolutely and utterly holy,
and through our union with Him, right now, you and me, every
believer, we are absolutely and utterly holy in the Lord Jesus
Christ, in the eyes of God the Father, He who sees things as
they really are. We've looked at who you and I
are by nature. We've talked about how you and
I, how we can be right with God. It's through the surety ship
of the Lord Jesus Christ and Him alone. Notice I didn't talk
about us at all. It's everything He did. Now let's ask this question. In light of knowing all this,
what am I to do? What am I to do? Turn back to
Isaiah 40. Let's pick up in verse 9. Verse 9 says, O Zion, this is
addressed to the church. This is the responsibility of
the church and every individual believer, not just to believe
this, but to preach it. O Zion, that bring us good tidings, get
thee up into the high mountain. O Jerusalem, that bring us good
tidings, lift up thy voice with strength. Lift it up. Be not
afraid. Say unto who? The cities of Judah. These people who are of no power,
who are dismayed, and who are confounded, you say unto them,
behold, your God. That word behold is just another
word for look to. This is our message. This is
the message of the gospel. It's the message of the church.
Behold one hanging on a tree, suffering for the sins of a chosen
people, dying, accomplishing salvation, and being risen again. Look to him alone. That is our call. Now, I know
I've kept you a while. Let me give you one more example
to kind of sum up what I'm saying here. And we'll go. Turn to Numbers
21. In this story, the children of
Israel have just been led out of Egypt by Moses. And so now
they're wandering through the wilderness, and the children
of Israel began to murmur. Numbers 21, look in verse 5,
it says, and the people spake against God and against Moses. Wherefore have you brought us
up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no bread,
neither is there any water, and our soul loatheth this like bread. Notice who they blame for their
circumstances. We see it in children of Israel,
we see it in Adam, before we're too hard. Look inside, we'll
see it right here. Look at verse six, and the Lord
sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people.
And much people of Israel died. Notice the serpents bit the people.
It bit all the people. No one escaped the bite. No man
escapes the ravages of sin. We are born in this world dead
in trespasses and sins. Verse seven, therefore the people
came to Moses and said, we have sinned. For we have spoken against
the Lord, and against the prey unto the Lord, that he take away
the serpents from us. And Moses prayed to the people."
Now notice what the serpent's bite caused them to do. It caused
them to come to Moses, the great picture of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And what was their cry? Make intercession for us. Plead
with the Lord on our behalf that he would take this away, that
he would deliver us. Look at verse eight. And the
Lord said unto Moses, make thee a fiery serpent and set it upon
a pole. Now this serpent upon the pole,
this is obviously a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. The serpent
is made of brass, a mixture of copper and tin. It speaks of
the Lord's complete deity and his complete humanity. The serpent
on the pole, the picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now it says,
and it shall come to pass that everyone that is bitten, The
first prerequisite for salvation is to be a sinner, is to be in
need to have been bitten. Everyone that was bitten, when
he looketh upon it, when he beheld it, he lived. Not maybe he lived,
he lived. And Moses made a serpent of brass
and put it upon a pole when it came to pass that if a certain
serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass,
he lived. Now we'll close this with this.
Has anyone here been bitten? You've been bitten with the venom
of sin and it was brought on by your own disobedience. If you have, you have this precious
promise, you look to that one hanging on a pole. You look to
his work in redemption, his work in righteousness, his work in
holiness. Everything that the Father demands, you look to him
for, and him alone. Not at yourself, not at your
works, not at your walk, not at your plague. You look to him. And you have this precious promise,
you shall live. And I'll tell you what, if you're
doing it right now, you are alive and crushed. I'm gonna stop there.