Put up with me. Miss Betty has
a tough time. First place I need you to turn
this morning is the book of Isaiah. People in England are bad to
say Isaiah. Chapter 45 Isaiah 45. We'll read just a portion of
this chapter. Reading verses 17 through 25,
which is the end of the chapter. starting at verse 17. May we pray? Lord, thank you for the hymns
that clearly teach and preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified,
that honor and exalt and magnify Him Oh, that we were able to give
Him the praise that He deserves and that belongs to Him. Christ
is our all and our everything. And surely in the Scriptures
to which we consider this morning in our message is designed to
teach this very thing. Even in Isaiah's day, such marvels, such wonders, that a man's mind
could actually conceive these thoughts, having been taught
them by the Spirit of God. And this chapter is no exception. Lord, bless Your Word and bless
Your Gospel this day. hearing ears and seeing eyes,
and hearts that understand and believe and love this blessed
Lord Jesus Christ. We ask these things in His dear
and precious name. Amen. Chapter 45 of Isaiah, verse
17. But Israel shall be saved in
the Lord with an everlasting salvation." Now any salvation
that doesn't last forever ain't worth having. Be saved in the Lord with an
everlasting salvation. You shall not be ashamed nor
confounded, world without end. For thus saith the Lord that
created the heavens, God Himself that formed the earth and made
it, He has established it, He created it not in vain, He formed
it to be inhabited. I am the Lord." Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit, I am the Lord, and there is none else. There ain't another God who is
God. This is it, the triune God. There is none else. Verse 19, I have not spoken in
secret, In a dark place of the earth, I said not to the seed
of Jacob, seek you me in vain. I, the Lord, speak righteousness. I declare things that are right." Hallelujah. Things that are right. Assemble yourselves and come.
Draw near together, you that are escaped of the nations. They
have no knowledge that set up the wood of their graven image
or anything else that they can make it out of. In this day and
time, we have a lot of things other than wood. But these gods
are nothing, absolutely nothing. They're damning to the souls
of men. But catch this statement now in verse 20, beginning with,
they have no knowledge. They have no knowledge that set
up the wood of their graven image. And if I could, I would tattoo
these words to your forehead and mine and pray unto a God
that can not save. Now what good is a God who cannot
save? Plenty of people have such a
God. Plenty of Baptists have such a God. You don't believe it. You tell
them who the God of the Bible is and they'll let you know right
quick that ain't theirs. You might even have somebody
with you because that's fighting words. To tell them that their
God does not save. But I'm telling you there ain't
but one saving God. Verse 21, "...tell you, and bring
them near. Yea, let them take counsel together. Who has declared this from ancient
time? Who has told it from that time?
Have not I the Lord?" There's nothing new here in this Bible.
It's all as old as eternity. Have not I the Lord, and there
is no God else beside me? And now listen carefully to these
words. A just God. A righteous God. And a Savior. A Savior. A Savior of sinners. And here's
the repetition. There is none beside me. There's not another. Verse 22,
look unto me and be you saved. All the ends of the earth. Now
that does not mean everybody on this earth. But it does mean
that God has an elect people out of every kindred, tribe,
and whatever else you can name, language on this whole globe. He has shown mercy to some. no
matter where you go in this world. Look unto me and be you saved
all the ends of the earth for I'm God and there is none else. I'd love to have been there when
Isaiah penned these words just to get a look at his face. There's
no God else beside me. Verse 23, I have sworn by myself
the word has gone out of my mouth in righteousness and shall not
return that unto me every knee shall bow and every tongue shall
swear whether you want to or not, whether we like it or not. We'll bow to this God. Verse 24, Surely shall one say,
In the Lord have I righteousness and strength. Even to Him shall
men come, and all that are incensed against Him shall be ashamed.
In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel. Now that ain't that
country over yonder on the other side of the globe, but this is
spiritual Israel. Some of them are members of spiritual
Israel and so are people in this country and everywhere else on
this earth. In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified
and shall glory. Now we go back to the New Testament
and look briefly at a short passage of scripture found in Luke chapter
11. Luke 11, verses 20 through 23. Luke 11, verse 20. But if I with the finger of God,"
these are the words of our Lord Jesus, if I with the finger of
God cast out devils or demons, no doubt the kingdom of God is
come upon you. Now here is a simple statement
that tells me whether or not I'm a believer. Has God kicked all the devils
out of me? Well, there's still me, but there
might be a few more between here and when I leave this world.
But I'm telling you, when our Lord Jesus Christ saves a soul,
He sends the devil packing. Now that doesn't mean we won't
have any sins. It doesn't mean that we don't
sin. As long as you're breathing, you're going to be a sinner. But if God has not cast the devil
out of you, you're still lost. The preacher,
I don't believe I have any devils. I know you're lost now, and I
am too. I would have took this news when
I first heard it just about like you would. I didn't like what
I was hearing, but I couldn't get away from
it. I couldn't escape it. If I with the finger of God cast
out devils, demons, whatever you want to call them, no doubt
it means that the kingdom of God has come upon you. Now, I know we forget a lot of
things, but that's one thing you ain't going to forget. It's
too radical, it's too big, it's too important to forget. God help us to remember, if we
can, when and where that took place. I can't do that. I wish
I could, but I cannot. Some character from South Carolina
several years ago, he said, if a man can't tell me the day and
time and place that he's converted, he ain't going to preach in my
pulpit. Well, I said, well, I sure can't tell you that. And I was
there to preach in his pulpit, and I did. I mean, hey, man, I'd just soon,
if I knew then what I know now, I wish I'd have turned around
and come back home. This guy was nothing but a charlatan.
Good heavens! When a strong man, armed, this
is verse 21, keeps his palace, his goods are in peace. And now
referring to the Lord Jesus and the devil in verse 22. But when
a stronger than he shall come upon him and overcome him, he
takes from him all his armor, wherein he trusted, and divides
his spoils. Takes everything he has. Conquers
once forever. The devil's been conquered. When
our Lord died on that tree, the work was finished. Those glorious
words that fell from His lips, it is finished, are the most
beautiful words in the English language. Finished. Done. Complete. Forever. Verse 23. He that is not with me is against
me, and he that gathereth not with me scatters." Alright? Let's leave these two background
readings as much in our minds as we can, and I want to talk
to you just a little bit this morning. on how to address ourselves to
these issues that we have just read about in these two short
passages of Scripture. When our Bibles tell us to look
unto God, it is to look unto God in and through and by the
Lord Jesus. For He it is that makes us acceptable
in God's sight. So when our Bibles tell us to
look unto Me, it is indeed speaking of our Lord Jesus Christ. And
here are some things that it means. It means this is owning
the reality of who Christ is and what He's done and what He's
still doing. It means, as well, to acknowledge
that only in Him, by Him and through Him, can there be any
such thing as eternal salvation. If salvation is part me and part
Him, I'm a gone Jesse. I'm going to hell. But if my
salvation is all Christ from start to finish, I'm going to
glory. I know I can't deserve to be
there, but He did. I ain't good enough to go there,
but He is. Thirdly, it means looking unto
Christ is to address myself to Him by calling. Romans 10.13 says, Whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. So there's something to calling
on His name. Begging mercy at His gate. Thanking God for sending Christ
into this world to save poor, helpless, ungodly, sin-loving
people like ourselves. We also mean by this, look unto
me, the same as the publican did
in the temple when the Pharisee was praying such a wonderful
prayer about himself and telling God what wonderful things he'd
done in his name and how much money he's given in all this
tamirat. And this poor, poor publican,
this despised Roman tax collector, would not so much as lift up
his eyes to heaven, but with his head like this, he said,
Lord, have mercy on me. Have mercy on me. My goodness
alive. You've heard of a fellow in our
Bibles, I'm turning to that passage, John chapter 3. I'd like to read
you just a very few verses from it. Well, well, well. This guy's name is Nicodemus.
You ever heard of him? If I can get my pages. There we go. Let me read you this little short
rendering here out of John chapter 3. Beginning at verse 3, Jesus answered
and said to Nicodemus, Verily, verily, or amen, amen, I say
unto you, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom
of God. Without the new birth, we cannot
see the Kingdom of God. We don't have whatever it takes
to see through these eyes. For the most part, we still have
that. Some of us need glasses and others don't. But when it
comes to seeing the glory of this marvelous thing of being
born again, we're completely and totally ignorant unless Christ
opens our eyes to see these things. Except a man be born again, he
cannot even see the Kingdom of God, let alone enter it. Nicodemus
said to the Lord Jesus, how can a man be born? When he's old,
can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be
born? Now here is a man so dumb as
to what Christ is talking about, that he's talking about physically
being born. And our Lord is talking about
spiritually being born again. These are not at all the same
thing. One is physical and the other
is spiritual. Verse 5, Jesus answered, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Except a man be born of water and of
the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which
is born of the flesh is flesh, And that which is born of the
Spirit is spiritual. That is so vital to understand. Nicodemus had no concept of that. He didn't know that this spiritual
realm even existed. Everything he knew was what he
did for God and God blessing him and pouring out riches upon
him and all this kind of stuff. That's what you're looking for.
Help yourself. You ain't going to find it in Christ. What does this mean, look unto
me and be saved, all the ends of the earth? It means to address
Christ by calling on His name. Told you about the publican.
Let me tell you now about another character that ought to be very
interesting to us. It is the dying thief on the
cross. He's leaving this world shortly. And our Lord is between these
two thieves. Now if our Lord ever did not
look like a king with a kingdom. This was it. And one of these thieves, to
whom God showed mercy, he looked at Christ and he said, Lord,
would you remember me when you come into your kingdom? You mean this guy hanging on
a cross, he's a king with a kingdom? This old boy was able to see
it, but the other one wasn't. He was interested only in one
thing, trying to escape from his death on that cross. You remember this other character?
We know him by the name generally of Blind Bartimaeus. He's on
the road He's sitting beside a busy thoroughfare. Our Lord has just previously
come through that city that was pronounced to be under a curse
when Joshua conquered it way back in the book of Joshua and
a good ways back in the Old Testament in our Bibles. But this blind Bartimaeus, hears
the commotion that the Lord Jesus is going to pass this way, and
he starts hollering. And everybody around him says,
why don't you be quiet? Be quiet! And ultimately, the Lord Jesus
heard this man, and he said, Bartimaeus, What is it that you'd
have me to do, Lord, that I might receive my sight?" And it was
there, just that quick. Oh, sorry, good for nothing,
blind man, just the Lord has mercy on him. Wonderful, wonderful,
wonderful. Now the second thing about these
texts that we read, Isaiah 45 and also Luke chapter 11, the
second thing I want us to think about is, for what part of salvation
are we to look to Christ? What part of our salvation are
we to look to Christ for? You've heard this statement and
we may have been guilty of saying it ourselves. God has done everything
he can do, now it's up to you. That's normal stuff for today's
religion, Baptist and otherwise. Honestly, they think, they really
believe. that God can't do anything else
for you now, it's up to you. So what is it then that is up
to us? What is up to us? I told you about Nicodemus and
the new birth. It's called regeneration. 1 John
5 and verse 1 says that, Whosoever believes that Jesus is the Christ
is born of God. That is, faith in Christ is the
result of being born again. Spiritually being born again. Without which we cannot believe. We might even want to and we
can't. We don't have faith. Faith is the gift of God, not
of works, lest any man should boast. Secondly, salvation consists of conviction. Having conviction. Having conviction. I'm going to find this and not
tell you where it is, okay? Alright, here we are. Our Lord is describing the work
of God the Holy Spirit. And in these particular verses
that I'm about to read to you, Nevertheless, I tell you the
truth. It is expedient for you that
I go away. For if I go not away, the Comforter
will not come unto you. But if I depart, I'll send Him
unto you." And when He has come, this Comforter, this Divine Comforter,
when He has come, He'll reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness,
and of judgment. Of sin, on what basis? Because they believe not on Me. Do you believe on the wonderful,
glorious Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, if you don't, If you don't, there's no hope
for you. The Holy Spirit will convict
men of sin on this basis alone, because we believe not on Christ. Then the next statement comes
in this same series of verses. of righteousness, because I go
to my Father and you see me no more." Do you realize that when
Christ was on this earth for some 33 years, that He was the
only holy person ever to walk this earth? And now we can say
that many walk this earth because he has communicated unto them
this wonderful, wonderful righteousness. Most people are proud to have
a righteousness of their own, but anybody with a lick of sense
wants to have Christ's righteousness imputed to him. Of righteousness, because I go
to my Father and you see me no more. One more. Here's what this
accomplishes. Of judgment, because the prince
of this world, that's our friend Satan himself. The prince of this world. Man, he thought he was something. But he was no match for the Son
of God. Of judgment, because the prince
of this world, the devil, is judged. It's already over. We're not waiting to find out
what's going to happen. All we're waiting for is for us to die
and the earth to come to an end someday. I don't know when it
is. But I know what it will take for it to arrive. All of God's
sheep that were given to Christ in old eternity, in the covenant
of grace, every last single one of them, every solitary single
one, has to be brought to faith in Christ before this world comes
to an end. That might be today, next year,
a thousand years from now or ten thousand. What does it matter? We're here for a limited time
and we need to know some things about God and about ourselves. Convict us of judgment because
the prince of this world is judged. Those words came from John 16
verses 7 through 11. Here's another statement to be
factored in to what we're discussing here this morning about the precious
blood and righteousness of our Savior and salvation through
Him and by Him. This comes out of the book of
Acts. Speaking of Christ, and a Savior, for to give repentance to Israel,
and that's not that little country over yonder, it's spiritual Israel,
to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins. These things cannot be earned.
This statement, this is Acts 5.31 by the way, this statement
tells us that these things are given freely. They're already paid for. Our
Lord paid for them on the tree. And He doesn't give them to everybody,
but He gives them to everybody that He saves. What good is salvation if we
have no concept of what it takes to believe and trust Christ?
And all the other necessary things that are addressed in our Bibles
concerning these things. There's not only regeneration
and conviction, But there's also repentance. Next, we come to
the subject of faith. Of faith. I'll try to read you a statement
now out of Romans. You can't find it because I ain't
going to tell you where it is. For the gifts, the gifts, And
the calling of God are without repentance. Now here's what that means. Take
faith for example. If God doesn't give us faith,
we can't find it, we can't buy it, we can't earn it. Nobody
else can give it to us. It's His to give. And He does. And it is indeed wonderful. The gifts and calling of God
are without repentance. He never gives it to a person
and takes it back because they don't use it. This is a unique
gift in that if you have it, you have to use it. You cannot not use it. It's yours. It's got your name
on it, and it's yours forever. It has but one object. Saving
faith has but one object. And that's the Lord Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. Next, we come to perseverance. That means the ability to continue
without turning around and going back. Perseverance. Peter said in one
of his letters, who are kept by the power of
God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last
time. And it ain't the last time yet.
It might be in 5 minutes or 5,000 years or 5 million years. I don't
know. And I don't care how many people
say they know, they're lying. They don't know. Perseverance. is a work of grace. Let me read you this statement. Who are kept by the power of
God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last
time. As far as I know, we've been
in the last time for a long time already, but I don't know how
to define that term and I don't think I should even try. Then our Bible speaks of certain
things as being the fruits of God's grace. And here in Galatians,
I'll read you this statement, but the fruit of the Spirit is
love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law."
That, my friend, these things are the fruits of grace. Now, let me change subjects partly. The part that we're considering,
we're still speaking about our Lord Jesus and His wonderful,
wonderful redemption of His people. On what authority are we to look
to Christ? What gives us the right to think
that Christ has done anything for us? I know that it's tough to remember,
but y'all are young, most of you, some of you. There's still
a few old ones in here, but you might can remember this. When we read from Isaiah 45 verse
22, it said, look unto me and be you saved, all the ends of
the earth For I am God, and there is none else, none else. Therefore, on this testimony of those who have looked to Christ
in the Holy Scriptures, Here's one that perhaps might
interest you and help us to see this a bit more clearly. On the very testimony of those
who have indeed, according to this book, looked. We don't have
to guess. We're not just estimating. It
really does say that this man was following Christ. And that
man was the Ethiopian eunuch. And he's been to Jerusalem, he's
come all the way from Africa with a chariot of some sorts,
I don't know what it was, probably Ford I imagine, it was so comfortable
you know. He's come thousands of miles. And it is shortly after Christ
was crucified in Jerusalem that he came. But the Jewish religion
is back in business again. And he's a Jewish convert. And
now he's on his way back. And he ain't no different than
he was when he went. Nothing has changed. He's still a eunuch under Candace,
Queen of the Ethiopians. But he's empty. Now he's riding
in this chariot and God directs Philip to go to this man. This man is already reading Isaiah
chapter 53. Now I'm telling you, if you ain't
ever read Isaiah 53, you ain't read nothing in this Bible yet.
This is the most complete description of the saving death of our Lord
Jesus Christ to be found anywhere in Scripture. And this man is
reading this, but he can't comprehend what it means. And Philip runs
beside that chariot, and he asked that man, do you understand what
you're reading? He said, how can I except some
man teach me? He invited Philip into that chariot,
and Philip preached to Him Christ and Him crucified from that very
passage of Scripture. There's not a better, more complete
picture of the crucifixion of Christ, even in the New Testament,
than that one in Isaiah 53. And this man came to faith in
Christ, out in the backside of nowhere. And I'm presuming they
must have talked of other aspects of the Christian faith, because
a little bit later down the road, this is in a desert now, they
come to a pool of water. And he said to Philip, what hinders
me from being baptized? And Philip said, nothing if you
believe. If you're truly born again, if God has done something
for your soul, Back years, some years ago now,
many years ago now, we had a little problem here at the church that
couldn't be reconciled. And one group hated me and the
other one, I don't know if they loved me
or not. I think they did. But they might deny it. And they couldn't find us having
a business meeting. We had thrown those things out
the window. You don't need them. What you want to vote on? What
color to paint the walls? That's not New Testament Christianity. But They figured, well, we got
to get some people on that church roll. So they sent a man that
was about 25-30 years old, about 6 feet tall. He came down here
and kneeled down and was crying and praying and all this stuff.
So I walked out there and I said, can I help you? He said, I want
to join the church. I said, why do you want to join
it? He said, because I love Jesus. I said, how long you been loving
Jesus? He said, forever, all my years. I said, that's too
long. I invited him to go back and
sit on a pew and come every Sunday and hear what's being preached.
But no, he's put up by the gang that still wants to take this
church over. And I thought they would. I had so much faith that
when the final vote came, I'd already collected enough boxes
to move our junk with. And I didn't have to move. Gosh,
I couldn't get used to that. Oh, y'all got me sidetracked
now. Let's see, where was I? On what authority? On what authority
are we to look to Christ? First of all, the authority of
His Word. Second, the authority of His
promises. He said in Matthew 11, 28, Come
unto Me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and 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 to your souls. Now that's a promise. Man, that's
a promise. Not only that, but on the authority
of Christ's purpose and mission in coming to this world. We can
take three scriptures, if I don't forget them before I go ahead
and say it. One at his birth, prior to his
birth, in fact, the angel was talking to Joseph, who was contemplating
how he could get out of this, they're not even married yet,
how to get out of this proposed marriage, you know, without embarrassing
Mary and making a public display of all this stuff. The angel said to Joseph, you shall call his name Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins. He didn't die to save everybody,
but he died to save everybody that God gave him in that beautiful
covenant of grace. So Joseph, could not fathom. You know, everybody's
got family names and his uncle was named Joe and you've got
to name him, you know, and all this stuff. And that angel says,
you shall call His name Jesus, because it means that this man
is for the salvation of his people. Call His name Jesus, for He shall
save His people from their sins. Then we come to another one yet. Luke 19. Verse 10, the Lord said,
I'm come to seek and to save, who? That which was lost. He didn't come to save those
that found Him. He came to save those that He
Himself came to save. To seek and to save. Now, oh my goodness. If the Lord Jesus came to seek
me, then I'm not going to find him until he does seek me. Another reason having to do with
this authority of His character is that we read in Isaiah 45
a just God and a Savior. That's Christ. He's a just God,
a righteous God, a holy God, and a Savior of sinners. Well, I think that's enough. I only got five or six more pages. No, just one more. That'll be
enough.