Isaiah chapter 66. I was reading
a couple weeks ago, this proverb stuck out to me. It's Proverbs
14 12. It says, there is a way which seemeth right to a man,
but the end thereof are the ways of death. Now consider what that
means for a second. That means that the way we are
born in this world, in our natural state, Everything we know, we
think we know, what we believe about who the Lord is, about
who he favors, about what he favors, about how he saves sinners,
and about who we are, it is all naturally wrong. We are born
in this world with wrong thoughts about who the Lord is and who
we are. It's wrong. What's scary about this is, according
to that proverb, If we continue down that path, it leads to a
devastating final end. Death. Not just a physical death. That's an appointment that all
men must keep. It's a spiritual death. A final
separation from the Lord. A separation that is met with
these words, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work
iniquity. Folks, I get scared when I even
say that. When I think about the Lord saying that to me, I
don't want to hear those words. Do you? So if that's the case,
if I'm wrong, if I'm born wrong, and all my thoughts are wrong,
where can I go to find out what, and more importantly, who, to
believe? I want you to look at the first
four words in Isaiah chapter 66, verse 1. Thus saith the Lord. Now that exact phrase
is used over 1,000 times in the scripture, but in all actuality,
every single verse inside this book begins with this phrase,
Thus saith the Lord. This book is God's inspired word. This is where we go to find out
what to believe. And this book, folks, it is a
declaration of who the Lord is, and chiefly, it only tells one
story. Just one story. It just happens
to tell that story over and over and over again. It speaks of
one man, Jesus of Nazareth, the Lord Jesus Christ, and what He
has done, past tense, for His people. That's the story of this
book. And this morning, if you're looking
for a theme for this message, it's simply this. I just want
to tell that story one more time. Does that sound good? Pick up
in your text, let's read verses 1 and 2. Isaiah chapter 66, Thus saith
the Lord, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house that ye build
unto me? And where is the place of my rest? For all those things
hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith
the Lord. but to this man will I look,
even him that is poor, and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth
at my word." The first verse declares the immensity of the
Lord's person. That is what it is declaring,
the immensity of his person. And the scripture gives us a
measuring stick of sorts to measure how large and how overwhelming
and how imposing his person really is. And the measuring stick is
this. He says, the heaven or the universe,
that's just my chair. That's just the place where I
sit down. Now, if you talk to most physicists, and I know this
by reading some articles, I'm not an intellectual, but if you
talk to most physicists, they'll come to the same conclusion.
They will say, man doesn't know how big the universe is. As far
as we can tell, it's infinite. It just goes on and on, it's
ever-expanding in every direction. And that seems to make sense
to me. Because no doubt, it takes a throne of infinite proportions
to support a god who he himself is infinite. and eternal and
everlasting. He never had a beginning and
he will never have an end. He just goes out in every direction
and just keeps on going on and on and on. That is his character.
But if you want to talk about the immensity of the Lord's person,
what we're going to talk about is the immensity of His attributes.
Because that is how the Lord is known. He is known through
His attributes, His qualities, who He is. I want to take just
a few minutes and talk about the immensity of just a few of
His attributes. I'd love to go through all of them, but number
one, I wouldn't do them justice. And number two, we don't have the
time. but just a few. Number one, I want to talk about
this, the immensity of his mercy for his people. Now here's a
familiar passage of scripture, Psalm 23 5, David says this,
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil. My cup runneth over. Now who were David's enemies? Warriors that were trying to
unseat him from the throne of Israel, were those his enemies? The man who slew Goliath? God's
ordained king? No, those aren't David's enemies.
David's enemies are the same enemies you and I have. His sins,
his self-righteousness, his sinful nature, that's David's enemies.
And just like David, folks, constantly we're in the presence of our
enemies, aren't we? They're all lined up. They've got us surrounded,
right? Just legions of them. We see all those enemies and
we get anxious, right? We get nervous. We get scared.
Why? Because God is holy. When He sees sin, all He does
is punish that one who He sees it on. That's it. That's all.
And that can be very anxiety provoking. But I love to think
about this for the Lord's people. In the midst of all those enemies,
He prepares a table. He said, you, sit down. Sit down. You see all those enemies
out there? All those leadings of enemies?
Those are defeated enemies. They were defeated when I hung
my head on the cross and said, it is finished. Those are defeated
enemies. They can't hurt you. Take your
eyes off them. Look here at my cup. I want you
to watch it as it overflows. And it overflows. And it overflows.
That's a cup of my mercy. Now here's what you're going
to do. You're going to sit here and you're going to drink. And you're going to drink. And you're
going to chug. And you're going to chug. And you're going to
draw off that cup. And here's a promise. That cup's never going
to run dry. The immensity of His mercy for His people. That
cup never runs dry. There's more mercy in the cup
than there are enemies. And all those enemies are defeated
enemies. They're all gone. They can't hurt you. The immensity
of His mercy for His people. I want you to consider the immensity
of His wisdom. One of my favorite chapters in the entire Bible
is Isaiah chapter 40, verse 12. And it says, He meted out heaven
with a span. Now a span, I look this up, is
a unit of measurement. It's about a hand's width, right?
We said before, no man knows how large the universe is, right?
Nobody does. But you know who does? The Lord does. In fact, he's got it measured
out to how many hand widths it actually is. And you want to
know why? Because he purposed it. And he
designed it. And he created it. And being
pleased with his purpose and his design and his creation,
he took it and he hung it Just as simply as a man hangs a shower
curtain in his bathroom. That's just how simple it was
for him. That's what he did. And we marvel at the wisdom it
took to create everything we see, the universe, the stars.
You look at the stars in the sky and you're just awestruck
by it. We don't know anything about what's going on out there.
The Lord created all that. We look at the complexity of
you. We touched on this yesterday. Right now your heart's beating.
You know nothing of it. Right now your lungs are taking
in oxygen. All subconsciously. The complexity, the wisdom it
took to create somebody like you. We marvel at his creation. But folks, we should marvel more
of this wisdom. This is the wisdom we should
marvel at. He knows what it takes to save a sinner. He devised
a way to be just, to honor his perfect justice. He will not
pass by a sinful man and he will not punish a righteous man. He
deals in justice and judgment and he must be just. He found a way to honor his perfect
justice and justify somebody as sinful as me. And knowing
the cost, the very sacrifice of himself, he did not hesitate
to make payment. What wisdom that he could be
just and justify a group of people like us. That's amazing. That's
wisdom. Consider for a second the immensity
of his wrath. I dislike talking about hell.
It terrifies me. I don't really want to, but we
have to right now. There is a place called hell. And in that place,
those people who are there, their suffering will never end. Their suffering is eternal. It's
infinite. It will never end. Why? Why will
the suffering in that place never end? It's simply because of this.
Man can in no way satisfy God. We cannot satisfy His holy law
through our works. We cannot meet His standard of
holiness. No man can satisfy God in any
way, shape, or form. And this is how impotent we are.
This is how weak we are. That even in our suffering, we
cannot suffer appropriately that the justice of God would be honored.
That's the inability of man. We can't even suffer appropriately. That's why hell must last forever,
because we can't even do that right. Isaiah 5311, though, "...he
shall see of the travail of his soul." Speaking between the Father
and the Son, the Father seeing the travail of Christ's soul. "...he shall see the travail
of his soul and shall be satisfied." There is one man who actually
suffered appropriately, the Lord Jesus Christ. And through his
suffering, he actually satisfied God. Full satisfaction was made. What you and I cannot do, we
cannot satisfy God. Impossible. This man, through
his suffering, he satisfied God. And you know what that means?
For everyone for whom he suffered, God, I wouldn't tell you this
if it wasn't true, is satisfied with you. When He looks at you, He sees
no sin. He sees nothing but the righteousness of the Lord Jesus
Christ in Him alone. That's it. I want you to consider for a
second the immensity of His sovereignty. Now, when you think of the Lord's
sovereignty, Scriptures come to mind, right? We have some
favorites. Here's the one that always comes to mind for me.
It is Daniel 4.35. And all the inhabitants of the
earth are reputed as... what? nothing and he doeth according to his
will in the armies of heaven and amongst the inhabitants of
the earth and none can stay his hand and none can say unto him
what doest thou he has a will what he wants. That's all the
will is. It's what you want. And it's a holy will and he's
omnipotent. He is all-powerful which means
he has the power to make his will come to pass. Therefore
his will, what he wants, always comes to pass. It comes to pass
as soon as he wills it. All things have been because
he's willed all things before the foundation of the world.
We're just playing it out in time right now. He doeth according
to his will and none can stay his hand. Nobody can stop him.
And nobody has the right to look at him and say, what are you
doing? He's the Lord. He's the sovereign. He holds
every man in the palm of his hand to save or to damn according
to his will and his good pleasure. That's who we're talking about
here today. But if you want to talk about the immensity of his
sovereignty, you've got to go all the way back to the beginning.
You've got to go all the way back to election. The fact that
before the foundations of the world were ever built, the Father
loved His Son. He's always loved His Son, and
He always will love His Son. And in loving Christ, He loved
everybody who's eternally united to Christ. And He chose those
people unto salvation. And because He chose them and
He loved them, they are eternally secure. That's the sovereignty
of God and salvation. Now what does man say about that?
What does man say about the sovereignty of God and salvation? I said,
that's not fair. We hate that. That excludes men
who want to be saved. That's their argument, isn't
it? That there's a bunch of men out there who are crying for
mercy and the Lord just says, no, no, I just didn't choose you.
No. I say it excludes men that want to be saved. It does not.
In fact, it includes men who would otherwise be damned. Now
I'm going to tell you a bit of a story, and I'm not a fan of
storytelling and preaching, but it serves a purpose, so I'm going
to tell you this story. I have a friend, and he grew up in what you would
probably call hyper-Calvinistic religion. And so he said growing
up, he couldn't stand election. It terrified him, and he'd cringe
every time he heard it, because the preacher would give this
example. This is the example the preacher would give. Six
lepers come to Christ, and he says, I'll take you and you and
you and not you, and not you, and not you, through some arbitrary
choice. Be gone. Well, I can understand why he
hated it. That's a terrible illustration. That is not the election of grace.
But if you want to use that illustration, here it is. You ready? It's not
that six lepers come to Christ. No lepers come to Christ. And we all stood afar off, saying,
I will not have that man to rule over me. And we turned tail and
we ran, right towards the gates of hell. We didn't care. We just
wanted away from him. That's all we knew. Get away from him.
I want nothing to do with him. That's it. And we were running
away as fast as we possibly could, but because of sovereign love. because of the sovereignty of
God and salvation, because of sovereign grace, for some of
us, for those elect people, that arm of omnipotent sovereignty
reached out and grabbed us by the back of the collar and said,
not you. Not you. All these other ones
are gonna run away, and you know what, I'm gonna let them do what
they wanna do. I'm just not gonna intervene,
but not you. I loved you. Before the foundations
of the world were ever built, I loved you. I sent my son to
die for you, not you. All these other fellows are going
to run away, and I'm going to let them do it, but not you. And he turned to us.
And with a gracious wooing, he led us back to himself. Don't ever think for a second
that the sovereignty of God and salvation holds you off. Folks,
it is the only thing that will bring you in. Look back at verse one of your
text. There's some questions that are asked here. Thus saith the Lord, the heaven
is my throne and the earth is my footstool. Listen to these
questions. Where is the house that you build unto me? And where
is the place of my rest? Let's answer those questions.
So you're going to build a house for God, huh? Where are you going
to build it? Are you going to build it in
the heavens? That's just His chair. Are you
going to build it on the earth? That's just His footstool. That's
where He props up His feet. What are you going to use to build
it? Are you going to use some wood? Some concrete? Some shingles? That's His wood. It's his concrete. It's his shingles. Where are
you going to build a house to house, to encapsulate the omnipotent,
overwhelming, almighty God? The answer is nowhere. What's
the issue here? Man says, I'm going to build
a house for God. What's the issue? The issue first is power and
control. Man wants to build a house for God because he wants to bring
God into his captivity. He wants to get him under his
thumb. And the issue is this, man wanting to do something for
God. want to add to his salvation. Salvation is not what you do
for the Lord, it's what the Lord does for you, all by himself.
Paul deals with this, so turn over to Acts chapter 17. I want
you to look at this. Acts chapter 17, look at verse
24. Paul is preaching to a bunch
of Athenian intellectuals. These people did not know the
Lord. Verse 24. This is what Paul has to say
about the Lord of these people. God that made the world and all
things therein. I love it. Paul just gets right
to the point. He's the Creator. Seeing that He is Lord of heaven
and earth. He is the Sovereign. He is the
King of kings and He is the Lord of lords. He is the Ruler. Keep
on going, Paul. I like it. "...dwelleth not in
temples made with hands, neither is worship with man's hands,
as though he needed anything, seeing he giveth to all life
and breath and all things." He dwelleth not in temples made
with hands. You can't bring the Lord into
your captivity. You can't build a house for the Almighty Living
God. He dwelleth not in temples made
with hands and He has no needs. He doesn't need anything from
you. and he doesn't need your help and salvation. In fact,
he won't have it. It will be all his work or it's all on you. But he has no needs. He is completely
and utterly independent and he saves completely and utterly
independently. Now, why did Paul have to tell
these people this? Look back at verse 16. Now, while Paul waited for them
in Athens, His spirit was stirred in him when he saw the city wholly
given to idolatry." Idolatry. Now what is an idol? What's idolatry? Very base definition is this,
it's any false view of God. It's any false or wrong view
about the Lord, any view, any thought that is not grounded
and settled in this book. That's idolatry. But I'm going
to give you a more concise description, definition, just really boil
it down to what it is. An idol is anywhere a man would
look outside of Christ for hope of salvation. I'll repeat that. An idol is anywhere a man would
look for hope of salvation outside of Christ alone. It's just that
simple. Somebody says, well I thought that idols were little sculptures
and crosses and things like that. Those are symptoms of idolatry.
Symptoms. This is an idol. Anywhere a man
would look for hope of salvation outside of Christ. Let's give
a few examples of that. So, what about this? These are
some things that maybe you haven't considered before. What if a
man says this? He says, well, listen, I attend
a church where the gospel is preached. Right? I must be saved. Now think about that for a second.
If that is a man's hope, if that is a man's profession, If that's
where his trust relies, is in his church. He's not looking
to Christ. He's not looking to his perfect
life, and his suffering death, and his justifying resurrection.
He's not looking to Christ. He's looking to his church. His
church has become his idol. Has become his God. What about
this, my family? Somebody says, well, Uncle Bill's
saved. My wife is saved. My daddy's saved. I mean, my
family's saved. I must be saved, right? If that's
the case, where's that man looking? He is not looking to Christ.
He is not trusting Him alone. He's looking to his family. His
family has become his idol. What about this? A man says,
I feel really bad about my sin all the time. I just feel crushed
by it all the time. Constantly sorrowful. I must
be saved. Think about that. If that is a man's confession,
where is he looking? He's looking within. He's looking
to his sorrow. He's not looking to Christ. He
is not hanging all his hopes of salvation on Jesus Christ
and Him alone. He's looking inside for some evidence. Sorrow. And
finally this. You guys have heard this one
before. About the will. The man says, well, I'm sure
I'm saved. I mean, I made a choice for Jesus. I allowed Him to be
my King. I accepted his offer of salvation,
I mean, I must be saved, right? Now, I see a lot of smirks because
it is absolutely preposterous, isn't it? Because if a man has
any hope and confidence in his will, he has no knowledge of
who and what he is by nature. Yeah, we have a will, and you
know what our will does? It rejects God. That's our natural
will. If a man is hoping in his will,
his will has become his God. He has become his own God, not
the Lord Jesus Christ. Folks, we can make an idol out
of anything, can't we? But what these people have done is actually the perfect example
of false religion in our day. I want you to think about this
for a second. These people did not like. They hated the true
and living God. So they created their own God
in their imagination. They were idolaters, right? All
over Athens there are these statues and these temples, these idols
all over the place. They hated the true and living
God and so they created their own God in their imagination,
one they were more comfortable with. Now somebody says, hold
on a second. These Athenians, what if they
had never heard of Jesus Christ before? Right? What if they had
never read what was there of the scriptures at this time?
How can you hate somebody you don't know? The light of creation
alone tells men that God is, and that He is eternally powerful,
more powerful than them. The light of creation alone tells
you that. And men hate that. They hate the eternally powerful
God, the God that is more powerful than they are. They hate that
God. So here's what they do. They
create their own God in their imagination. one they're more
comfortable with, an impotent weakling who can't make a move
until the man says, you can do what you want, I'm going to allow
you to. That's what they did, they created
their own God in their imagination and after that they built a temple,
or they built a statue, or they built a shrine, or they built
an altar, said that's where my God lives. I created him in my
own imagination, and he lives here. He's in this statue right
here. He's in that temple right here. They brought their God
into their captivity. And here's what they did next.
They'd make an offering. They'd bring their best. And
now their God owed them. I created him, I brought him
in my captivity, and I offer my best. Now he owes me. He owes
me salvation. Is that not false religion in
our day? hatred of God. So what? We create
this impotent weakling that can't do anything until we allow him
to. And then we build a nice big church with a big old cross
on it that says, this is where he lives. That's his prison.
And then we bring our best, our best intentions, our best motives,
our best works. And we say, now he owes me, now
he owes me salvation. That is man's religion to a T. It's always been this way. The
Athenians were doing it. You go back to Cain and Abel.
Cain was doing it too. But Paul is real clear. He dwelleth
not in temples made with hands. You can't bring the Lord into
your submission. You can't put him under your thumb. You're
under his thumb. Now, if he dwells not in temples
made with hands, where does God dwell? What is the house of God? Turn to Colossians 2 and look
at verse 9. What is the house of God? Where
does God dwell? Colossians 2 and look at verse
9. For in him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily." Where does God dwell? Where does the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit dwell? It dwells in this
man, Jesus Christ. In him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. That's the house of God. But
don't stop there. Look at verse 10. and ye are complete in him."
The house of God, the place where God dwells, is the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's Christ and it's everybody
who's in Him, His church, His people. That's the house of God. And in our text, in verse 2,
it describes both the Lord Jesus Christ and His church. That's where we're going to end
here this morning. I want to look at that description. Go
back to your text. Isaiah 66 and verse 2. For all those things that mine
hand made, and all those things have been, saith the Lord, but
to this man will I look. I want you to key in on that
word look for a second. You know what that means? It
means to look with favor, and to look with care, and it even
means this, look it up if you want, it means to look with respect. Who does the Lord look at when
he sees favor and care and respect? That's how he looks. Read on. To this man will I look, even
to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word. Now, I told you before, this
is a three-fold description. It is first, a description of the
Lord Jesus Christ, and second, a description of everyone who
is in Him. And we'll look at that for a second. First, poor. The Lord Jesus Christ was poor. 2 Corinthians 8-9 says, "...for
ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He
was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor." that ye through
his poverty might be rich." Oh, the poverty of the Lord Jesus
Christ. In what ways? In what respects? He left the
immediate presence of his Father and the constant worship of the
holy angels and he condescended, he stooped to be born of a woman,
to be born under the law, to be made a man, the God-man dwelling
on this earth. What an act of poverty. The God
of glory was born in a barn. Sounds like poverty to me. He
took on a blue collar occupation. He was a carpenter. He lived
a life of relative obscurity until he came of a full age.
God dwelt among men and men couldn't see it. But you know what? That
does not begin to describe his true poverty. If you want to
see his true poverty, you go to the cross. On the cross he
was stripped. He was stripped of his righteousness.
He was stripped of all communication and favor with his father. And
all he was left with was the sins of his people, his father's
awful frown, and the wrath that was reserved for every member
of the elect pouring down upon him. He was absolutely stripped,
made poor. But because he was made poor,
we've been made rich. because of his suffering death.
We're rich. We're rich, number one, in justification.
Right now, every member of the elect, everyone who's looking
to Christ alone, you have no sin. Now, I know that's not your experience.
I recognize that. Your experience is nothing but
sin. I recognize that. But in Christ, you have no sin. You are rich in justification.
When God looks at you, He sees somebody who has never done anything
wrong and has always done that, which is right. You're rich in
righteousness. You have the very righteousness
of Jesus Christ. How real is that? When He walked
the paths of righteousness in this world, we were in Him, in
an eternal union with Him. We were there. That really is
our righteousness. We're rich in access. Access
to the Father. We can approach boldly to the
throne of grace. You want to know why? Because
the reason for separation has been removed. In Christ we can
come into the presence of the Father and we find nothing but
love and adoration because when He sees us all He sees is His
Son. Oh that He was made poor that we were made so rich. It says he was contrite of spirit.
That word contrite is interesting. That is not the root word that
is normally translated contrite. That root word is normally translated
lame or unable. Now somebody says, you are talking
about the Lord Jesus Christ. Be very careful with your words.
Are you saying that there was something that the God of glory
was unable to do? Yes. Yes, I am. The chief priests
and the scribes from the cross, when they mocked him, what did
they say? He saved others, himself he could
not save. Now they meant that as a mock,
but true words were never spoken. He saved others, but himself
he could not save. Folks, this is how bad sin is.
This is how holy God is. Sin demands death. The wages
of sin is death. Somebody has to die. It was either
going to be us, or it was going to be Christ. But somebody had
to die, and He willingly and voluntarily took our place. He saved others. He saved a multitude
of others. He saved all His people, but
He could not spare Himself. He had to honor His holy character
and satisfy the justice of God, and you know what? He did it.
He did it. He says he trembled at my word.
Turn to Hebrews 5, I want you to see this. Hebrews 5 and look at verse 7.
It speaks of Christ, who in the days of His flesh, when He had
offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears
unto Him that was able to save Him from death, and was heard
in that He, what's that word? Feared. Though he were a son,
yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered." Lord
Jesus Christ is the only man to ever live who actually feared
God perfectly. His fear led to his obedience.
His obedience led to the cross. And from the cross he made this
statement, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. See folks,
there's a direct link between fear and trust. Somebody had
to believe God. Somebody had to trust God completely. Somebody had to have perfect
faith. And this man, the Lord Jesus
Christ, did. He feared God perfectly. He feared
Him all the way to the grave. And he never stopped trusting
Him. Trusting that he would do what?
That he would honor the covenant of grace. You go and you live
for them, you die for them, and I will be satisfied and I will
raise you up. And in raising you up, I'll raise
up every member of the elect with you. That he would keep
his word and he would be satisfied and he would raise him from the
dead. Somebody had to believe God perfectly and completely
and this man did. Now like I said, This threefold
description is not just the Lord Jesus Christ. This is every believer.
This is everyone in Him. And the first word we come to
is poor. What does it mean to be poor?
It means to be destitute. To have nothing. No righteousness. No merit. No good works. No reason in and of yourself
that the Lord will look to you with favor and care and respect. That's what it means to be poor.
Now I'm going to tell you another story. And it is for a purpose. So hear me out on this. This
happened recently. I was at a gas pump and I was
filling up my cruiser at work. This homeless guy walks up to
me. I never met this guy before, but he says, hey, one of your
officers did something nice for me the other day. I don't know
his name. I want to figure out who he is so I can drop off a
thank you card. And we couldn't figure out who
it was, but he told me the story. He said, OK. He goes, I'm new to
being homeless. And this was somewhere around Christmas time.
He said, Christmas Day came and my eviction was up on my house.
He had been given one of those 14-day eviction notices. And
so the landlord comes and he boots me out. Christmas Day,
right? It's snowing in Lexington. And
he says, I got nothing. He's got no money in his pocket.
He's got the clothes on his back. He doesn't have a phone. He doesn't
have any friends he can turn to. And now he's out on the streets
and he's just kind of wandering the streets, wondering what to
do with himself next, right? He says, I got nobody to turn
to. So I see a police cruiser parked up on the corner there.
He says, so I'll walk up, I'll knock on the window, cop rolls
down the door. And he said, man, listen, he goes, I hate to ask
this. He said, I'm a little down on my luck. I need a little help. Could you spare me just $2? I'd
get a cup of coffee, something to warm me up." And so the cop
said, yeah. He goes, need a little help?
A little down on your luck? He goes, I got $2 for a man who's
down on his luck, for sure. He takes out the money, $2, and
he hands it to him. And the guy said, he goes, when he handed
me the money, he goes, I was just really kind of overcome
with gratitude. He's like, you know, I don't
have anybody to turn to. I'm all alone here. This perfect stranger just
gives me a couple bucks. So he told the cop everything he had
been through, that he didn't have any money, that he was just,
he was completely poor. And so he turns to walk away
after telling the cop the story. And he said the cop yells out
the window, he says, hey, come here. This guy turns around, he comes back,
and the cop says, give me back my money. The homeless guy said,
he goes, I thought I had offended him. He's like, so I handed him
back the money. He said, listen, if I offended you, I apologize.
He's like, I didn't know. And so he turned and walked away.
And so the cop hollers at him again. He says, hey, come here.
Back over here. So he walks back up to the window
and the cop says, listen, man, he goes, when you first came
up to me, what you said was you just needed a little help. He's,
you were just a little down on your luck. And he's like, for
a man who's just needs a little help. And he's a little down
on his luck. I've got about $2. But buddy, that ain't you. You're poor. You don't have anything. You've got no place to go. You've
got nobody to turn to. You've got absolutely nothing. You're
poor, and if I've got about $2 for a man who's a little down
on his luck and just needs a little help, well, a guy who's poor,
he gets everything I got to give. So the cop took all the money
out of his wallet and handed it to him. He said, man, you eat on that
for as long as you can. I told you that story for this purpose.
The blessings, and the mercies and the grace that you receive
from the Lord will be meted out to you in the container you bring."
Now, if you come saying, listen, I don't know about this mercy
thing. I mean, I've made some mistakes, and I guess I need
a little mercy, but I mean, a full-blown sinner, nothing but sin, I don't
know if that's me. I've made a few mistakes. I just
need a little help. I need a little help. We'll down them a lot.
Grace. Well, I mean, I've done my best.
I just need Christ to do the rest. You see, I mean, I can
contribute to this thing. I'm not impotent. I mean, I've
got some ability here. You know, I'm not that bad. Righteousness. I've sewn a decent garment. You
know, it's just got a few holes in it. I just need to be patched
up with the righteousness of Christ, you know? Well, if you
come that way, just need it a little, you'll get nothing. This is an
all or nothing proposition. If you come just needing a little
help, you'll get none. If you seek to be justified by
the law, then you are a debtor to do the whole law. Grace does
not apply to you. You must keep it inwardly and
outwardly your entire life, in your heart, in every aspect of
your life. But if you come just as you are,
just a big, bone-dry, five-gallon barrel of nothing, He will pour
everything He has into you. And everything He has is just
everything you need. And I'll drop more. But only
if you come with nothing. Yeah? Contrite of spirit. I told you
before that's lame. Lame. Do you know who my favorite
Old Testament character is? Mephibosheth. That's right. Got
it, Andre. Mephibosheth. Could have said
David. Could have said a whole bunch of people, right? Love
them. They're great. I have a hard time relating to them most of
the time. You know who I can relate with? Mephibosheth. David from his throne of uncontested
power said this, Is there yet any that is left of the house
of Saul that I may show him kindness for Jonathan's sake? And one
of his servants piped up and he said this, Yeah, King, there's
one. His name's Mephibosheth. You
know what that means? It means a shameful thing. Some things you need to know
about him, King. He's lame through a fall. He's five years old. His nurse dropped him. He's never
been right since. He's lame on both feet. A couple
more things you need to know about him, King. Those things
he needs to live, he can't provide for himself. He can't raise a
garden. He can't hunt. He can't chop
wood. He can't build a house. Nothing. Nothing. Everything
he needs to live has to be provided for him. King, I don't know why
you're interested in him. He can't do anything for you.
He can't fight a battle for you. He can't send a message for you.
He can't do anything for you. You sure you want this guy? King,
here's how bad he is. He can't even come to you. A
simple invitation won't work with him. You actually have to
go where he's at. and go get him and bring him
to yourself. You want that guy? David said,
go fetch him. That's every believer. A shameful
thing. Lame through a fall. Adam fell. He ate the fruit. He disobeyed
God. And he fell. And folks, we fell too because
that's what we did. Adam was a federal head. He was
our first father. But folks, that was my hand that grasped
that fruit. It was this mouth that bit it. It's the same nature. It was us. Lame through a fall.
Can't provide what we need to live. Can't satisfy God. Incapable. Can't do anything
for the Lord. Nothing I can do for Him. He's
got to do everything for me. And can't even come to Him. Not
in and of myself. He has to meet me where I'm at,
in all my sin, in all my depravity, in all my unbelief, and throw
me over his shoulder and bring me back to himself. That's the
elect. And that's our testimony concerning
ourselves. A sinner saved by grace. He came to me. Not when I had done better, not
when I promised to turn my life around. Just as bad as I was,
he came to me. Finally, the elect tremble at
His Word. Now, for many years, I had a hard time understanding
the fear of God. I read every scripture that I could get my
hand around on it, and I had such a hard time pinpointing
what it was. And finally, one day my pastor
got up there and he said this, he goes, you want to know what
the fear of God is? Because it's very simple. It's this. The fear
of God is this. It's afraid to look anywhere
but Christ alone. That's the fear of God. Afraid
to look anywhere but Christ alone. I can't look to the past. Past
experiences, past emotions, I don't even know if they're real. There's
nothing in the past that I can hang my hat on. I can't look
down. I can't look at my walk. I can't look at my works. It's
all just been sin. Sinful footprints all the way.
I can't look to the future, what I intend to do. I can't look
within. I can't find any hope inside
there. No, it's all just sin. There
is one place I can look and I am not afraid. And that is to Christ. In looking to Him and trusting
that the Father looks to Him for everything He requires of
me. And all those requirements were met when He said, it is
finished. That's where I can look and the
fear is gone. And that's the fear of God. Who does the Lord look to with
favor and care and respect? He looks to Christ. That's who
He looks to. He says, I favor Him. I care
for Him. I respect Him. That's who He
looks to. Who's in Christ? The poor, the
lame, and those that fear God. And if that is you, when He's
looking at His Son, He's looking at you. Because you're in eternal
union with His Son, that means He looks at you with favor and
with care and with respect. Because when He's looking at
you, all He sees is Christ.