Okay, thank you. Go back to the text now in Isaiah
57. The book of Isaiah, as with all
of God's word, is full of warnings and promises. The book of Isaiah, from start
to finish, is full of warnings and promises. Warnings, it begins
in chapter one with dire warnings and condemnation of the religious,
if you're familiar with chapter one. He wrote, the whole head
is sick, the heart is faint, from the sole of their feet to
the top of their head. No soundness in them. He writes,
I've brought up children that have rebelled against me. Why
should they be smitten anymore, or stricken anymore? Why should
I judge them? They'll just continue to do these
things. And that's against religious
people. That's against those warnings. condemnations are against religious
Jews, religious, those who name the name of God. And this is all so relevant today.
Isaiah's book is so relevant to our day, to us. Now, this book is also full of
promises, full of promises to the true seeker. I love this
book, Isaiah. It's a gospel. The gospel of
Isaiah is full of promises to those who truly seek the Lord,
those who repent of their sins and seek the Lord, who are looking
for the Christ. He's plainly revealed in the
book of Isaiah. Here in chapter 57, we find both
of these things. We find warnings, condemnations
to the merely religious. And yet we find blessed promises
to seekers, to believers. May the Lord open this up. Verses
3 through 12, as you read that with me, you probably were a
little confused, but verses 3 through 12 is an indictment against religion. It's an indictment against religion.
Verses 1 and 2, we're not going to deal with those. Do you remember
that passage? Do you remember that passage? In a blessed portion. But verses
3 through 12 are an indictment against religion in Isaiah's
day, but a clear indictment against our day. A prophecy, an exposure
of religion in our day, and I don't want to spend too much time doing
this, but yet it's written here. He calls them, and I'll just
summarize everything he said. He calls the religious, the merely
religious, sons of the sorceress, sons of the whore. Throughout the book of Revelation,
that's what God calls the false church and false religion. He
uses a very A very plain term that everyone
in here knows and is ashamed to use, but God says it, a whore. And he uses the analogy that
they made their bed up, and says they enlarged their
bed. And verse 8 talks about they
enlarged their bed. They can't make the bed big enough. They want to get more people
into bed. They can't make it big enough. And I look around
me and religion cannot build their buildings big enough or
fast enough. And he went on to say they use
perfumes and oil to make themselves pleasant and fragrant and appealing
to anybody and everybody so they'll get in bed with them. But what he says in the end,
he says in the last Verse 9, the last part of verse
9, he said, what you have done, rather than make yourself attractive,
you've debased yourself to hell. You're like a sweet-smelling,
painted whore. Are you with me? This is an accurate
description of religion today. who does all manner of things
to get people in the name of God and under
pretense of serving God, yet they have debased themselves
and debased God, the God of the Bible. And God says in verse 12, He
said, I will declare your righteousness and your works. God said, I'm
going to declare it, what you really are. That's what He said.
I'm going to expose your righteousness or what you trust in and your
works, those things you pretend to do for me and in my name,
I'm going to expose them. And they're not going to profit
you, He said. They're not going to give you any help in that
day. And our Lord is the one that
said this. He said, and there will be many in that day, many
that will say unto me, while we preached, prophesied, cast
out devils, and did many wonderful works in the name of Jesus. Many. But it's not going to profit
you. That's a terrible warning, isn't
it? Condemnation against religion. But that's enough of that. All
right? Enough of that. Verse 13, he
said, your company, the companies, that is a great multitude. There's
no safety in numbers. They won't deliver you. The wind
is going to take it all away. But verse 13, the middle part
of verse 13, but he that trusteth, he that put his trust in me,
the one who truly seeks me in my righteousness. The one who
truly worships me in spirit from the heart and in truth according
to my word, my truth. The one who truly seeks his God
with all his heart. The one who truly knows himself
to be what he is and knows his need of Christ, the only Savior
and salvation. That one who puts his trust in
me, not his religion, the one who's not drawing near with his
lips when his heart is far from him, but the one who from the
heart knows the pollution of his heart, like old Brother Huntington,
and comes crying unto me, just puts all his trust in me, he's
going to inherit the land. He's going to possess the land.
They'll inherit my holy mountain. They will. Now, God's going to
describe. Now, here's where we take up. In these last several verses,
we're going to hear, and this is the title of the message,
the true God and the true people of God. He just described those pretenders,
the merely religious. But here he's going to describe
himself, and he has to do that because You know the people of
God by the God of the people. You'll know the true people of
God by the God of the Bible. All right? All right, let's look
at it. Verse 14, here's what they will
say. They will say, cast ye up, cast
ye up. That is, throw that stuff away.
Get it out of my sight. This is what the true seeker
is going to say. Get all of this out of my way. Take up the stumbling block.
Take that out of the way of my people. Those who are truly seeking
the Lord. And I run into so many people
who claim to be what most say is we're looking for a church.
And one woman called me. and said, I visited twenty-some
churches everywhere. She came here one day. Did she
make a comment on the message? No. But she'll find a church. If that's what you're looking
for, you'll find one. And all her questions to me were different ministries, the children,
and what age group is your people, and all this sort of thing. That's what she'll find what
she's looking for. But those who are looking for the truth,
they'll find it. And what they'll say, what they'll
do is they'll go looking for the truth, all this other stuff,
get that, they'll run into this stuff. And they'll say, I don't
need that. Until they go where the truth,
that's all that's done. And they'll hear it. And they'll
see the people just seeking the Lord from the Word of God, worship
Him. Now, this is what I'm looking for. That's what they'll say.
And all the rest of that stuff is stumbling block. Get it out
of the way. Get that out of the way. All right? Now, here's God
speaking, verse 15. Thus saith the High and Lofty
One, that Inhabitant of Eternity, whose name is Holy. God describes Himself. God describes
Himself. The people of God are known by
people with a true God. Their God is truly God. He says, Thus saith the high
and lofty one. God describes Himself three ways
here. I'm high and lofty. I love this. I'm getting on my
favorite subject. Brother Stephen, your favorite
subject. You can't preach God too high
for God's people. Too lofty. A high and lofty one. High and lofty. Infinitely above
man. Modern man wants a God they can
understand. They want a God like themselves.
I don't. I don't. That's what Charles
Spurgeon said one time, didn't he? He said, I don't want a God
that I can understand. That means he'd be no different
than me. I need a God infinitely higher
than I am, whose ways are higher above me than the heavens or
the earth, whose thoughts, whose purpose, whose will, whose wisdom,
whose greatness, whose power, whose glory is infinitely above
man. Man's a wiggling worm. Man's
an ignorant creature in the darkness. I need a God who's high above
all of this. A God who speaks and it's done.
A God who wills and it comes to pass. A God who purposes and
it stands. Don't you? I need a God who's
worked, who's purposed all things concerning me. Who's made an
infinite, eternal covenant concerning me. And it's ordered in all things
and sure. A God who's high and lifted up.
Don't you? I need a God whose hands my breath
is in all my way. Don't you? Well, that's our God. That's the God of the Bible.
That's the only God there is. Any other God who's less than
high and lifted up is not God at all. Look at Psalm 115 with me, all
right? Psalm 115. Let's look at the
contrast between their God and our God. Psalm 115. Psalm 115.
Look at it. What a picture of today to see. Our God. Now here's our God.
They said to David, where's your God? Here's our God. David said, our God is in the
heavens. And he hath done whatsoever he
hath pleased. That's our God. Is that your
God? That's our God. Brother John,
that's our God. That's our God that we worship.
He's altogether different than the one they're talking about
today. That small G God. Ours is high and lifted up. What does he do? Whatever he
pleases. Where is he? Sitting on the circle
of the earth. Well, look at their God. Tell
me which one you want. Their God is an idol, verse 4,
of silver and gold, the work of men's hands. In other words,
he's the way they're made him. They have mouths, their God,
but they can't speak. Eyes have they, they see not.
Ears, but they hear not. Noses have they, but they smell
not. They have hands, but they handle not. Feet have they, but
they walk not. Neither speak they through their
throat. And those that make them are just like them. Ears, but they can't hear. Eyes,
but can't see. Noses, can't smell themselves.
And on and on. Just like dead, dead. Oh, he's real. He says, he goes
on to say, verse 11, you that fear the Lord, trust in the Lord. Trust in the Lord. He's their
help. And she, oh, verse 15, you're
blessed of the Lord. You know that if you do, if you
know the Lord God, the true God who's in the heavens, if you
do, if you know Him and trust Him and believe the true and
the living and true God, you're blessed in the Lord if you fear
Him. Oh, verse 16, He's the one, the God who made heavens and
earth, the earth, the Lord made the heavens, the earth that be
given to the children of men. Back to Isaiah 57, so this is
the God of His people, high and lofty, infinitely above man in
character and power and wisdom and ways and will and purpose
and power, high and lifted up. And I've got to go on. He goes
on to say, let's say that the high and lofty One, that inhabitant
of eternity, where is your God, David? Well, He's in the heavens. Where's that? Well, the heavens
can't contain him. Well, you don't see him. No,
you don't. Well, here's our God, David.
He's standing outside our door in the rain. We're going to let
him in when we feel like it. Here's our God. We've got him
around our neck. Here's our God. We've got him on our mantle.
And he comes calling when we, he comes when we call him. Where's
your God, David? He's in the heavens. He doesn't
dwell. He inhabits with eternity. Here's
our God. We're going to go see Him in
Jerusalem. We're going to go over there and make our pilgrimage. Make our pilgrimage over to the
Holy Land and maybe God. Our God doesn't dwell in buildings
made with hands. Our God doesn't dwell in a shrine
or a temple nor a throne in Jerusalem. It says he sits on the circle
of the earth. It says in whose hands our breath is. In whom we live and move and
have our being. Infinite. Inhabiteth eternity. Read on. Whose name is holy.
A description of our God, high
and lofty, inhabiting eternity. Whose name is holy. This characterizes our God, and
He said that to His people. He said, you that know the Lord,
make mention that His name is exalted. God's people are very
jealous for God's name, because God is. Very jealous for His
name. He said He's declared His name
unto them that fear Him. God's name is too holy. God's
name is too holy, too high and lofty to be used flippantly,
carelessly, fearlessly, familiarly by worms in the tongues of worms. Those that know the God of the
Bible don't use that name carelessly. They fear to use that name. This
is what distinguishes God's people from pretenders. This is a certain sign, people. This is an absolute certain sign
of those who know the God of the Bible, as opposed to those
who just say the good. God's name is holy. I can't make
too much of this. God says, My name is holy. The third commandment. Do you know what the third commandment
God gave is? The first one is, I am the Lord
thy God. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. The second is,
thou shalt have no graven images before me. The third is, thou
shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. And the promise is, he will not
hold them guiltless who takes his name in vain, because it's
holy. Would you have your wife or your
husband's name desecrated in every place? Would you have it
on the lips and the tongues of everyone to use in any way, shape,
form or fashion they please so? Would you have your daughter,
your son's name, those whom you love, would you have their names
splattered everywhere and by every old fool to be using it
in any way they see fit? How much more? God Almighty. My name is holy, he said. I can't
say too much about this. The Lord God of heaven will soon
destroy a planet full of people that has his name on their lips,
on their t-shirts, on their bumper stickers. Brother Kelly and I
were riding down the road the other day, and I hesitate to
repeat these things. They're such a bond to my nations. They make me nauseous, literally
nauseous when I say them. We were riding down the road
and there was a big bulletin board, a big black sign. You've
seen this program that they have, that
they're making up things that God says. We're traveling down
Interstate 85, a busy road, a huge black sign with white letters
that said, You keep taking my name in vain and I'll make rush
hour a little longer. Now they think that's clever. They think they're doing what
they're doing in the name of God when they just took his name
in vain. God didn't say that. It's not
written anywhere in God's Word. They just lied on God Almighty
and they used his name, God. How would you like it if people
were putting billboards everywhere of something you said you didn't
say? Something that was absolutely
a mockery of you. Humiliating to you. That's humiliating
to God. Rush hour? That's all there God
can do, Henry. He said, My name is Holy. People
don't ever utter the name of the Lord by God. Children, young people, Don't
get used to hearing your friends say, Oh God, don't get used to
it. God is not going to hold anybody
guiltless who takes his name in vain. I wish the world could
hear this. His name is holy. This is the difference between
the God of the Bible and this imposter that's being talked
about today. Is this not an indictment against
our day, the whore? Cheapen God with perfume and
oil, trying to entice worms to do
something for Him. That's not the God of the Bible. This is the God of the Bible.
My name is Holy. We're out to dwell the rest of
the evening on this subject. It will be time well spent. The
fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. You that fear the
Lord, make mention that His name is exalted. Don't get used to
this world using that name. Don't get used to it. So this is the God of the Bible.
This is the living and the true God. High and lifted up. High and lofty. Who inhabited
the eternity. He ain't standing outside anybody's
door. He's sitting on the right hand
of the majesty on high. Man's so ignorant of the God
of the Bible, he's sitting in God's big hand and he says he
has none. He says God has no hands when
he's sitting in his hand. How dumb can you get? The creature
saying that the creator, he can't do what he wants to do. How dumb
can you get? My dog knows more than that.
That old dumb ass knows more than that. That's what God said
in Isaiah 1. The ass knows his owner. Which
one's the dumb ass? The donkey or man? But the people of God now. Here
they are. Verse 15. This high and lofty
God. whose name is holy, he said,
I dwell in the high and the holy places. And here's who I dwell
with. Here's a description of God's
people. That's a description of God. Here's a description
of his people. I dwell, these are the people of mine, the people
I dwell with, with him that is of a contrite and humble spirit,
to revive the spirit of the humble, to revive the heart of the contrite
one. Isn't pride the thing that pretty
much characterizes religion today? You meet them all the time. You
see them all the time. And folks, and I want to get
off of this, but just so that you'll be aware of it, all of
these t-shirts and bumper stickers and signs and all that, people
claiming what they're doing in the name of Jesus, it's not for
His glory. It's for their own glory, people.
It's for their own glory. They're doing that for their
own glory. They're not bragging on the Lord. They're bragging
on their religion. I'm telling you the truth. I'm telling you
the truth. It's pride. It's pride. And if
you confront them, they're so proud. They're so arrogant. They'll
just mow you down with their religion. Proud. Pride is what characterizes religion
today. What is it that characterizes
God's true people? Humility. Humility. They don't run around spousing
their religion. They're ashamed of themselves. They don't run around telling
people how much they love the Lord. But if asked, they'll tell
them how thankful they are that the Lord loves them. Humility, more than anything
else. And this is the thing that God...
Go to Isaiah 6 with me. Isaiah chapter 6. This is the
first thing that God Almighty does to a proud worm. The first
thing God Almighty does when he saves a proud son of Adam,
religious or irreligious, is reveals himself. How? How does
he reveal himself? Well, not this pitiful, poor,
sentimental, loving Oh, that won't make men bow. That kind
of God won't make people bow, won't make people tremble, won't
convict them of a sin, Wesley. The love of God doesn't convict
people of their sin. Look at this. Isaiah 6. Isaiah,
you remember, in the first five chapters was saying, woe is you,
woe is you, woe is you. And it's true. Everything he
said was true. But it said here in verse One,
Isaiah, when I saw the Lord. Verse 1, are you reading it?
When I saw the Lord. How did you see Him, Isaiah?
Sitting. Not pacing, not walking. Sitting. Where, Isaiah? On the throne. You mean reigning in the room?
Yes. Not wringing His hand, not hoping, not wishing, not wanting.
Reigning. What's he like, Isaiah? His train, that is, his glory
filled the temple. Verse 3, the angels, what are
they saying? Holy, holy, holy. Verse 4, the post of the door
moved. The house filled with smoke.
Then said I, verse 5, this is what Person will say when they
see the Lord, woe is me. I'm undone. I'm no good. You see Lord holy,
you'll see yourself as wretched. You see the Lord high and lifted
up, you'll see yourself as low. You see the Lord as sovereign,
you'll see yourself as dependent. Woe is me, I'm a man of unclean
lips. When you see the holiness of
God's word, you'll see yourself as a man of unclean lips. Why? Verse 5, because mine eyes
have seen the King. I've seen the King. The Lord
of hosts is his name. Go back to the text. Conviction
of sin. It never ends, this conviction
of sin. It's not a one-time thing. Oh
yeah, yeah, the Lord convicted me of my sins years ago, and
I made a profit. Oh no, no, no. This is, it says,
I dwell, in our text, he says, I dwell with him that is of a
contrite and humble spirit, present to him. God's people remain sinners
till the day they die. God keeps convicting them of
their sin. What is it that convicts them?
Look at Isaiah 66. What is it that convicts them?
What is it that convicts God's people? What is
it He uses? Look at verse 2. All these things
hath my hand made, all those things that have been said to
the Lord, but to this man will I look. even him that is poor
and of a contrite spirit, and tremble at my word." Tremble
at my word. This is the thing that God uses,
his word, to convict his people of their sin. And only sinners
need a sovereign Savior. Only the guilty need mercy. Right? Only sinners are humble before
God. Only sinners. spirit of the humble. Those who
know themselves to be nothing, I'll show them Christ who's all.
Those who know themselves to be weak, I'll show them Christ
who is their strength. Those who know themselves to
be full of sin, I'll show them Christ the sin substitute, their
righteousness. Those who know themselves to
be ignorant, I'll make Christ their wisdom. I'll revive. This is revival. I'll revive
the heart of the contrite ones." What is contrite? Much is said
about being contrite in the Word. Kneeling there in deep contrition,
we sang. Do you know what that means?
Contrite. Contrite heart. That means a
heart that's absolutely broken. Has your heart ever been broken
over anything? Sure it has. There have been things happen
to you and things, whatever, and your heart literally broke.
We couldn't find any solace. You couldn't find any comfort.
As David said, I cried until I couldn't cry anymore. The heart
is literally broken. There's a hole in it. It can't
be filled. He said, I'm going to fill it.
Those who have a contract heart before me, an empty heart. The Lord must empty before he
fills. That's who God dwells with, those who come empty. In
my hands, no price I bring. In my heart, no goodness I find.
In my head, no wisdom I find. In my life, no goodness, no morality
I find. In myself, nothing I find to
commend me. God says, good, now I'm going
to fill you. Now I'm going to fill you. You see, look at verse, read
on, I will not contend forever. This is what God does to us.
He contends with it. Neither will I be wroth. Through
the word of God, he contends with it. If I can remain angry,
the spirit should fail before me, the souls that I've made.
They couldn't make it if I continued to convict them. Verse 17. Here's
something we need to be daily convicted of. The iniquity of
his covetousness was our wroth. Covetousness is idolatry. Have
we got rid of that? This is the most dangerous thing
we face today. This is the thing that's going
to drive more people away. Listen to me. We're going to
miss God, not because of our sin, but because we've got so
much. And the church in Laodicea, he
said, because you're rich and increased with goods and have
need of nothing. And you don't know your poor, wretched, miserable,
naked life. There was a young man, listen
to me, listen. There was a young man who sat
right back there. He came here for years. He sat
and listened to this gospel. He claimed to believe it. I think
he made a profession of that. Within the space of one month
or two months, this young man got a new job, a better job,
more money, bought a new car, bought a new house, and I've
never seen him since. He still claims to believe it. Covetous. Oh yeah, when we get sick and
things get bad, we'll call on God. This is still us. This is talking
to us, people. He said, all the iniquity of
their covetousness was our wrath. That's our problem. We've got
too much. Why isn't the gospel sweet? We're too busy. We're too busy. Our Lord said, He that forsaketh
not all he hath, mother, father, son, daughter, can be my disciple. Too busy. And God says, some day, well,
I'm too busy for you. Give me the first fruits, he
said. Give me your heart. Come here, dear. Thou shalt worship
the Lord thy God with all thy heart, mind, soul, and strength,
with all thy substance. Thou shalt have no other God
before me, family, job, friends, career. Don't do it. If that's
what you're after, that's what I'll give you. and he'll slowly
fade away. It won't be, it's never, it's
never immediate with a reprimand, never. It's always subtle, it's
always gradual. The same face that way. May the Lord bring us shame-facedness. Well, he says, I revive those. Those that are convicted of that.
Our revival. I bring back the prodigal. I
bring back the runaway slave. I'll bring a Joseph of Arimathea
to the cross, begging for the body of Christ. A rich man. Not many rich. It doesn't say
not any. Thank God. Our revival. He says, I've seen his ways,
verse 18, I'll heal him, I'll lead him I'll lead him back.
I'll restore comforts unto him, to his mourners. And I create
the fruit of the lips, he said, verse 19, in closing. I create
the fruit of the lips. What is the fruit of the lips?
That's thankfulness, thankful lips. Every now and then I'm able to
sing one of these songs and really mean it. really sing it. The rest of the time, it's awful.
It's awful. I draw near with my lips. But
every now and then, God gives me just a little bit to feel
truly thankful, to really rejoice in the gospel. And I'm able to
sing from the heart, not just the mouth. Through the lips,
see, out of the heart, the mouth speaketh. Through the lips is
thankfulness. This distinguishes God's people.
They are thankful people. They are humble people. They
are broken people, contrite people. They are convicted people. They
are a thankful people. They are rebellious people. But
God brings them back. He says, I'll give him peace
again. Peace. There's not going to be any peace
for a while. I hid myself, he said. But I'll
lead him back and restore comforts unto him this morning. I'll make
him mourn over here running away from me, all the way like sheep
gone astray. And I'll give peace to him that's far off and him
that's near. Both of them will get the same
peace through the gospel. I'll heal him. I'll heal him.
We need thorough, we need complete healing, don't we? purge man
throughly. But the wicked, eerily religious,
forget it. In another place, he said, if
you come bringing blood, you might as well cut a dog's head
off. The word of God speaks so plainly.
It calls religious people, religious organization a whore, a house
of prostitution. And their works are abomination
to him, it says, like you might as well cut a dog's head off
just to bring lamb's blood. But now, to the broken and the
contrite, continually poor before the Lord, mourning, blessed are
the poor, blessed are they that mourn, blessed are the meek,
blessed are they that hunger, continual hunger and thirst. peace. Those that are persecuted,
I'll give them peace. I'll give them peace. Ha! Right
here. It's only black. Only black. Right here. All right,
let's say, in closing, let's say number two-thirty-five. Two hundred thirty-five. did him the same. 235, let's
stand. 235, okay.