Isaiah forty five now. Isaiah chapter forty five. Years ago a faithful old preacher named Rock Barnard. preached a message entitled six
stubborn statements. And. Since then, every man I know,
every preacher I know has preached that very message. Those six
statements, I've done so myself. Those six statements he made
were this. Number one, he said, God is either
sovereign or he's not. It can't be halfway. God is either God, and his very
name means controlling all things. All things, even the souls of
men. God is either sovereign, he's
in control, or he's not. Can't be wishy-washy day. There is no God. If God is not
sovereign, there is no God. And this is what men say today,
that things happen by chance, by luck, by accident and so forth.
Well, then there's no God. If anything is out from under
the divine control of God Almighty, the sovereign control of God,
there is no God. He's not God. God's either sovereign
or He's not. The second thing he said is,
man is either dead or he's not. And he took each one of these
stubborn statements and used Scripture, and from
Scripture showed us how they're true. Man is either dead or he's
not. That is spiritually. Oh, he's
physically alive, but he's dying daily. But man is dead when he's
born, spiritually. That's what the Scripture says,
Ephesians 2.1. You hath thee quickened who were
dead. And man either is helpless spiritually
or he's not. He's dead or he's not. Can't be half dead, Stan, can
you? Nobody's ever been half dead. The next thing he said
was, God elected a people, God chose a people to say, a particular
people, or he didn't. Either he did or he didn't. And
men are so confused today, they say, well, God elected a people,
but you have to elect him. Now, wait a minute. That doesn't even make good sense,
does it? God either elected a people, chose a people, And they will
be saved or they won't. Or he didn't. The fourth thing
he said was Christ's blood either put away the sins of God's people. It actually, effectually put
away all the sins of God's people. The payment was made or it didn't. People went to pay for their
sins in hell. And this is what preachers are saying today, that
Christ paid the penalty for your sins, but you must, you must
this, you must that, you must that, or you'll go to hell. Now,
either Christ's blood paid for them or it didn't. Either Christ's
blood saves or it doesn't. The next thing he said was the
Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit either is sovereign or He's not. The Holy Spirit draws people,
all that God chose, all that Christ died for. He sends the
Holy Spirit and draws every one of them. He said, My sheep will
hear my voice, that God marks them with blood and sends the
Holy Spirit through the preaching of the gospel, and he draws every
one of them or he doesn't, or it's left up to them. It's one
way or the other. It can't be both. And lastly, all that God chose,
all that Christ died for, all that the Holy Spirit comes to
will be saved eternally, or they won't. They'll be saved or they won't.
They'll persevere, or they won't. It can't be both ways. Six stubborn
statements. Well, this morning I have six
sovereign statements. from Isaiah 45. Whether or not
anybody else will preach this, I don't know. But another preacher
I was talking to on the phone gave these to me. And I said,
you know, I said, I've written, this has been there all along.
When he read them to me and he sent them to me, I said, you
know, it's been there all along. Six sovereign statements. Well, here they are. Look down
now, and this is one of my favorite portions of Scripture. One of my favorite portions of
Scripture. Look down at verse 23. God says, God Almighty, and
I'm talking about the God of the Bible, verse 5. Look back
there. He says, and now I'm the Lord. There's none else. There's no God beside me. Satan's
not a little God. Man's not a little God. God's
God. There is no other God. God says this over and over in
the scriptures. There is no God with me. Why
does he say that? Why does God keep saying that?
There's no God beside me. I am the Lord. There's none else.
Why? Because men ignorantly think that somebody else is just as
powerful as God. They think Satan is. They think
man is. And God keeps saying over and
over, I am God. There's none else. And he went on to say it all
through Isaiah 45. He said, I did all these things
for you, though you didn't know me. But you're going to know
me, that I'm God. There's none else. And that's
what Christ said when he came. God, in human flesh, came down
to this earth and he said, this is salvation, that they might
know thee, the only true God. Not an idol. Down in verse 9. Says that they strive with their
maker pot shards with the pot shards of this earth shall the
clay say to him that formed it. He had no hands. Verse 20 says
they have no knowledge. That set up the wood of their
graven image they have statues and this and that and the other
of their gods and pray unto a God that cannot say this. That's
a picture of the 20th century. Men pray to a Jesus who cannot
say. Men pray to a God who is willing but can't do anything
unless man lets him. That means he can't save anybody.
As Barnard would say, he can't save a flea. Well, God says, you're going
to know, some people are going to know that I am the Lord, there's
none else. Verse 5, I dare to thee, though thou hast not known
me, that they might know from the rising of the sun from the
west. And God has chosen a people, the scripture says, from the
north, south, east, and west, from every corner of the earth,
that they might know, verse 6, I am the Lord, there's none else.
Verse 7, I form the light and create darkness. Why is it that some people know
the true and living God and others don't? Because 2 Corinthians 4 said
that God, who caused the light to shine out of darkness, shined
in your heart to give you the light of the knowledge of the
glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus. But he left these in darkness.
See, salvation is God choosing persons and revealing himself
to them and leaving his others alone in darkness. That's what
this book says. I form the light, I make peace,
read on, verse 7, I make peace and create evil, Isaiah 45, 7. I make peace and create evil,
I the Lord do all these things. Men attribute, when he says evil
here, he's not talking about sin or moral evil, he's talking
about that which men, the false men that they think is evil,
like calamities and disasters and troubles and so forth. And men attribute all these things
to unknown causes, that's for sure. Paul went into that big town
of Athens, he said, to God you don't know, I'm going to declare
to you the unknown God. Men attribute hurricanes, earthquakes,
tornadoes, disease, pestilence, famine, floods, and all this
to the devil. Then he's God. If the one that men say is God
is standing idly by while the devil has just turned loose to
do what he wants, then the devil's God, and that God's not God. Right? See, Margaret, they say the devil's
doing exactly what he wants to do. He just does exactly what
he wants to do. God wants to and can't. Then
who's God? But the Lord keeps saying, I'm
the Lord, there's none else. I create evil. Who sent the pestilence
on Egypt? I, the Lord, did then. Who wiped
out the whole world by flood? I, the Lord, He said did then.
Who destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah? I, the Lord, do this. Who's going
to burn this thing all up in the end? I, the Lord, do this. I do all things, he said. He
said in Deuteronomy 32, verse 39, I wound and I heal. In other words, I make sick and
I decide who gets healed. Yeah, he uses means, doctors
and so forth. But he said, I wound and I healed.
Didn't he say that? You see, people, if you get cancer,
you can have a little rest, a little peace. How's that, Preacher? Because
you know who said it. And you can quote Romans 8, 28
with some confidence. All things work together for
good. according to God's purpose. God
sent this on purpose. God sent it, not the devil, not
anything else. God did it. Eli lost both his
sons. What'd he say? It's the Lord.
Job lost his whole family and every possession he had. What'd
he say? The Lord gave. The Lord taketh away. He's the
Lord. He knows a lot more than I know
and better than I know. It's the Lord. I'm God. Blessed are you if you know God,
if you know this God. The world doesn't. But he says
in verse 21, tell them, bring them near. You don't take counsel. They're going to know me. God
brought you here this morning according to his sovereign, eternal
counsel, ordered in all things and sure before the foundations
of the world. That's what this book says. We make our plans,
don't we? Mindy's already planned dinner.
She's already got everything laid out. She knows what she's
going to cook. She knows who's going to be there,
basically. She makes her plan. We make our plans and can't control
them. What about God? You would think that God makes
no plans, that he's just waiting around to see what happens, and
then has a contingency plan. God's waiting on you. Oh, no. Known unto God, Acts 15, 18 says,
known unto God are all his works from the beginning. He said,
I've spoken it, I'll bring it to pass, before the world began. Fatalism? No, it's the Bible. It's a Bible. And the reason
this is so strange to the ears of some people in our generation
is because preachers ain't preaching it. I've never heard a preacher
ever read Isaiah 45 in my life on the radio or on TV. I've never once heard them read
that. Say, that's the guy with the old Bible. No, he said, I
don't change. Malachi 3, 6, he says, I'm the
Lord, I change not. That's what makes him God too,
Deborah. That's one of the things that makes him God. He doesn't
change. When you change, that means you improve or something
was wrong to begin with. You've got to get better. He
says, I don't change. Same God, yesterday, today, and
forever. Well, look at these six sovereign
statements that God says, and I'll try to make it brief. Look
at verse 23. He says, I've sworn by myself. I've sworn by myself. Men like
to do that. Note, I swear to God. We go in
the court of law, you know, and put our hand on the Bible. This
is also hypocritical, isn't it? put our hand on the Bible, raise
our right hand, and say, I swear to tell the truth, the whole
truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God. You're a liar,
man. You're a liar. David said, I said, in my haste,
all men are liars. How many people tell the truth
in the court of law? Huh? Come on. I swear to tell the truth, the
whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Well, God says, I'm
swearing now. And what I say is true and it'll
come to pass. And he says, I swear by God. By God, he's saying, I'm telling
you something. By God, I'm going to tell you
something. That's what he's saying. I have sworn by myself, read
on, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness. What
if I said this morning, what if I got up here and said, what if I said to you, now this world's going to end,
but what I have said now, what I'm saying will never end. That what I'm saying to you is
absolutely the truth. Nothing else is. What I'm saying
will last forever. My words will stand forever. They'll be written throughout
eternity. What I'm saying, you better listen. What if I said
that? Well, I'm just a man and you'd
call me a fool, wouldn't you? Well, somebody stood on this
earth and said that. We saw it Wednesday night, didn't
we? The Lord said, Christ, this man named, they call Jesus, stood
on this earth and he said, no, heaven and earth will pass away,
but everything I'm telling you now will come to pass. Not one
jot or tittle, not one word that I tell you is going to fail.
What I'm saying is true. Not one word is going to fail. Who was that? The same one said
this. The word has gone out of my mouth
in righteousness. It's right. Everything I say
is right. Now look at the first thing, the first sovereign statement
he said. He said, I've sworn by myself
the word has gone out of my mouth in righteousness. It shall not
return. It's going to be fulfilled. Here's number one. Unto me every
knee shall bow and every tongue shall swear. And to me, every knee shall bow,
and every tongue shall swear." Now, bowing the knee, bowing down, is a show of worship. That's what it is. People bow down, you know, to
kings, to rulers. They bow down even now to a fellow
who calls himself a pope. You know the word bigot? I've
told you this before. But you know where the word bigot
came from? Bigot. It's a Latin. It came from a fellow who refused
to bow down to one of those old wicked pagan popes hundreds and
hundreds of years ago. They came to a fellow and said,
bow down, the pope passes by. He said, begot or by God, I will not. In other words, he said, I bow
to God. I bow to God, no man, not to
a man. Well, we are bigoted people here. By God, we won't bow to a man,
but by God, we will bow to God. We do bow to God. We fear no
man, but the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Salvation. Listen to me. Salvation begins. Salvation begins when a man or
a woman or a young person begins to fear this God. And I was trying
to say earlier. Men have made up a god of their
imagination that nobody's afraid of. Why? Because he can't do
anything. He just loves everybody without
exception. And he's trying and failing. As a matter of fact,
he's more helpless than I am. And so he's not to be feared.
Why would you fear somebody that loves you? Perfect love casts
out fear, Scripture says. Nobody fears a God who loves
them, and just wanting so badly to help them if they just let
Him. No fear in that. But you fear this One who does
all things according to His purpose, and you're in His hands to do
with as He sovereignly pleases. Ask people hundreds and hundreds
of years ago who stood before a sovereign king, a sovereign. People don't know what the word
sovereign means today. That's the reason we talk about
sovereign grace. Grace doesn't need the term sovereign
in front of it. Grace is either grace and it's
sovereign or it's not. Some of you know what I'm talking
about. But the reason we use the term sovereign grace today,
that means discriminating, choosing, electing grace, is because men
don't know what sovereign means today. Years ago they did when
they stood before a sovereign. Teresa, when they stood before
a sovereign, they knew that he had the power to do with them
exactly what he pleased to do. He's king. He is, they called
him, the most dreaded sovereign. You know the Scriptures calls
him our dreaded God? You know the Scriptures calls
him a terrible God? But these are unheard of terms
in our day. Why? Man ain't reading the Scriptures. The fear of the Lord's the beginning
of wisdom. Why? He's sovereign. Scripture says
he's king of kings. The king's heart is in the hands
of the Lord, like the rivers of water, he turneth it whithersoever
he will. The heart? Let me tell you how
powerful this king is. Christ said, oh, don't fear him
who kills the body and after that has no more he can do. Fear
him who kills after he killed the body has the power to both
cast body and soul into hell. Who's that? God. He said, every knee will bow
and every tongue confess. What? That he's the Lord. Oh,
people draw near with their lips now and call him Lord, but they're
far from believing that. Every man and woman will someday
see that he is Lord and will bow the knee. Salvation right
now. Salvation is right now God Almighty
making a person fear this God and bow before him and say, Thou
art God. I'm not God. Satan's not God. Thy will be done. Not my will. Not his will. Thy will will be
done. That's the bow of the knee now.
Salvation is for a man or a woman or a young person now, now, right
now, be brought down to see that God can do with them as he pleases,
and they cry out, have mercy on me. That's the first thing
somebody that knows this God says. It's not, oh, I love you,
it's have mercy on me. That's why they need a blood
sacrifice. That's why they know what it
means, blood. That's why they need grace. They know what it
means. A high priest, they know what
it means. And the first thing they call for is mercy. Why? They're guilty. They're guilty. Bowing down a show of worship
and subjection and humility. Who is this Lord? In Philippians
2, he said every knee will bow. At the name of Jesus, every tongue
will confess he's Lord, because God has committed all authority
into his hands and says he has the keys of hell and death. Now,
wait a minute. Men say Jesus just wants you
to go to heaven with him. The Scripture says he has the
keys of hell and death at his side, Revelation 1. In other
words, he decides who goes to hell. That's a whole lot different
Jesus than we're hearing about today, isn't it? And this is the first thing God
said, that, sure, I've sworn by myself unto me every knee
will bow. Someday men are going to stand
before this sovereign Lord and this sovereign King and this
sovereign, all-powerful Jesus and say, Say, we never knew you. You're
not the Jesus we heard about. He's going to say unto them,
I never knew you. And they're going to say, we
never knew you either. You're not the Jesus, the helpless
one our preacher told us about. You're not the ones in our hands,
the one that we could accept or reject, the one we had to
do with as we pleased. You're not the one. Why, you're
the one that did with us as you pleased. Every knee will bow and every
tongue will confess, He is Lord. Oh, not just some religious rhetoric,
but they'll believe from the heart and know of a truth, hey,
He is Lord, that He orders not footsteps. Every knee will bow. Blessed
God, John Cheesley, salvation came to your house when God made
you bow now. Everybody's going to bow then,
sooner or later. Everybody's going to bow and
unwillingly say, He's Lord, but salvation is for you, for Him
to bring you to the point now. You wouldn't do it otherwise,
unless He made you willing to bow, and you bow down now. And you never get up from there. You bow down now. Look at the
next statement. He said, Surely, underneath me every knee shall
bow, and every tongue shall swear that he is Lord. Secondly, Surely
shall one say in the Lord, Have I righteousness and strength? Surely shall one say in the Lord,
Have I righteousness and strength? That's the second sovereign statement. Do you know what the name Jehovah
Sid Kenu means? Jehovah Sid Kenu. I think you
could say that those who call themselves Jehovah's Witnesses
know what that means. Jehovah Sid Kenu. Our salvation depends on it. Romans 10. Turn over there. Romans
chapter 10. Romans chapter 10. Turn over
there. If we don't know what that name means, if we don't
know, we need to know. We must know. We will know. But
salvation is for us to know now. Salvation is for God, Nancy Parks,
to bring you to know what that name means now. Surely one will
say, God says, many are called, but few are chosen to know what
this name means. Surely one, Nancy Parks, is going
to know what this—she's going to say, Jehovah Secure. What's your hope, Nancy? What's
your salvation, Nancy? Jehovah Secure. Well, what's
it mean? It means the Lord, our righteousness. Surely," he says, "'surely shall
one say, In the Lord have I righteousness.'" Look at Romans 10. "'Brethren,
my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they
might be saved.'" Now, Paul is talking about his countrymen,
Israel. He says, "'I bear them record,
they have a zeal of God.'" They're worshiping, they're trying
to worship God, but it's not according to knowledge, he says.
Read on, "...they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and are going about to establish
their own righteousness." Stay with me now. This is life or death, more than
a doctor. He says they're ignorant of God's
righteousness. Jehovah said, and going about
to establish their own righteousness, which is what? Self-righteousness. What are you talking about? What's
Paul talking about here? Read on down. He says they're
going to establish their own righteousness and have not submitted
themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ, Christ is
the end of the law for righteousness. Let me leave that. Christ is
Jehovah Sikhinim. Jesus Christ is Jehovah Sikhinim. One's going to say, one, God's
going to reveal to one or two or three here and there, a few,
a few are chosen to know that Jesus Christ is their righteousness. While other people go about to
establish their own. You understand? What he's saying
here? In other words, there's a whole
world of people. Most people are going about to try to do
something that God will approve of. Whether it be going to church
or living a good life or being baptized, all these things are
works of self-righteousness. Establishing a righteousness.
Doing things that, well, surely God will not take note of that.
Well, I don't smoke, I don't drink, I don't cuss, I don't
chew, I go to church, I pay my tithes. Like that man that's
going to put the roof on the church. He said, my business
is good because I give my tithes. That's self-righteousness. That's a man going about to establish
his own righteousness. He's saying, what I'm doing is
pleasing God, and I'm going to go to heaven because of that.
God said in Isaiah 64, "...getting the credit for them."
A man's getting the glory for them. That Rupert's going to
say before God Almighty someday, unless God reveals Jehovah Sid
Kennedy to him, he's going to say before God Almighty, well,
at the time, I did this, I did that, and that's what Christ
said in Matthew 24. Many were saying to me, well, we did this,
we did that, we preached, we prophesied, we did many wonderful
work, we went to church all our lives, why is it baptized? I
won souls to Jesus, and he's going to say, I never knew you.
The part for me, worker of iniquity. What? Worker of iniquity? Yeah,
you're doing that to your own glory, so you can get the credit
for it. He said, I won't share my glory
with another. Working out of righteousness.
And I've always liked in that righteousness that man works
out that he, this life that he lives, you know, to one of those
hospital gowns. I know you've heard it before,
but it's the best illustration I know. For man's little covering,
you know, this thing that will cover all his sins is going to
make up for all his faults and his sins, and that God's just
going to forget all his evil life and all that by him doing
these little two-bit things. It's like one of those hospital
gowns, you know, he covers himself in and says, I look good, don't
I? Don't I look good? And people are, yeah, you look
good. You just revealed yourself, what you are. A wild ass's coat, if you will. For your own glory. Don't I look
good? Look what I've done for Jesus. Look what I've done for
Jesus. They call and say, give Jesus a big hand. Who are they
giving a hand to? They're giving a hand to the
preacher. and the person that came up and did whatever he or
she did. What is the righteousness of
God? It's Jesus Christ coming down here as a man, because the
Scripture says all have sinned and come short of the glory of
God. And God is angry with the wicked. God is angry with the
world, Scripture says. He hateth all workers of iniquity,
Psalm 5.5. It's Jesus Christ coming down
here to earth and God Almighty saying that there's one man,
one man, who lived from a child to the glory of God. One man
who really glorified God, who didn't do what he did for himself,
who glorified God, who lived life as a man, as a man ought
to live life. One man, one man approved of
God. This is what Peter preached at
Pentecost. He said there's a man approved of God. Amen. One man. One man, God Almighty said it
from heaven, this is my son in whom I'm well pleased. Everybody
better hear him. Sinners better hear him. Better
drop that robe like Bartimaeus, like blind Bartimaeus. Better
throw that old righteous robe away. This fellow's got a covering. This man's got a righteousness.
This man's lived the life that God will accept. This man will
get to heaven by virtue of his own works. And you know what
Christ did with that righteous life that he lived? It's perfect. It's without sin. It covers completely. Without sin, this righteous life. It says that he took this robe
and imputed it. That means charged it to. Or
it's called a covering. This life, this perfect life
he lived, he took an old sinner like William Hodges there, who's
just an old sinner. He's trying to live with, but
he's a sinner. God can't have anything to do
with sin. God's holy. How are you going to get into
God's presence, William? Christ took that robe of righteousness
and covered him. When God sees you, he said, there's
a righteous man. And everybody he gave that righteousness
to, imputed that righteousness to, is a righteous man to woman.
And they will say, When you ask them, how are you
going to get to heaven, they're going to say, Jehovah's secure. The Lord, my righteousness, how
did you get to heaven? Your baptism fully on that, that's
done. That won't cover me. Jesus, thy blood and righteousness,
my beauty are my glorious dress. Jehovah's secure now. That's
what Christ did. And no amount of repentance or
tears or church going or giving up your drinking or this and
that and the other is going to suffice with God. Nothing but
blood. He said, without the shedding
of blood, there's no remission of sins. None. So Christ came
down here and He said, I'm going to pay the price. Blood. And He poured out His soul unto
death. His blood. And God sees the blood. He passes over. Surely shall one say. Anybody
in here saying that? In the Lord have I righteousness
and strength. How are you going to get to heaven? Well, I'm going to keep on keeping
on. I'm going to pray through. No. In the Lord have I strength. How am I going to get to heaven?
If Jesus Christ gets me there. That's how. One will say it.
Here's one that's saying it. You're going to get there because
you're a preacher, aren't you? Matter of fact, there's going to be
more pictures in hell than there are in heaven. I'm going to get there because
the Lord Jesus Christ is my strength. That's what it means to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what it means. Look at
the next thing. I might not finish. I might have
to go through Wednesday. Here's the third thing he says
he said this sovereignly says surely sure one say in the Lord
have our righteousness and strength to him shall men come to him shall man come to him
to him. Oh my some of you smiled you know
what that means. Hebrews 11, 6 says, He that cometh
to God must believe that he is. Now who is it? That Jesus Christ is God. That Jesus Christ is the only
way, the truth, and the life. That no man cometh unto God but
by him. You know, our Lord said this,
He said, everyone that hath heard and learned of the Father." Everyone who hath heard and learned
of the Father. Everyone God teaches. God has
children. Everybody's not God's children. Romans 9 clearly says that. But
every one of God's children are taught of God. They're taught
the same things by God, not to the same degree of understanding,
but they basically know the same thing. They know God's God. They
know man's helpless. They know Christ is their salvation.
And this is, he said, all the thought, all were taught of God. Every man has heard and learned
of the Father. Christ said, cometh to me. They come to me, Christ said.
That means they know they're not going to get to heaven but
by him. They come to him. Help me. Help me. I told you about that preacher,
about that fella who prayed that prayer, you know, at the horse
show. Did more praying for horses than
anything. But he prayed that prayer and he never mentioned
Jesus Christ's name. And God never heard that prayer
either. You don't come to God but except
through a mediator. And it's not Mary and it's not
St. Christopher, it's not St. Jude. The scripture says there's
one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. It
says, none other name given among men under heaven whereby we must
be saved is the name of Jesus every knee shall bow and every
tongue confess he's Lord. One mediator, we come in the
name of Christ. We come to Him to get us to God. Fourthly, let me hurry, verse
24. Surely to Him men shall come,
to Him. All that God teaches, they come
to Christ by faith. And all, verse 24, that are incensed
against Him shall be ashamed. All that are incensed against
Him shall be ashamed. There's nobody incensed against
this Jesus today, is there? I see it on bumper stickers and
church bulletin boards. I see it all the time. Jesus
loves you. Jesus that. Jesus this. Jesus
is your friend. Nobody's incensed against that
Jesus, are they? It was the same way when Jesus,
the man, walked this planet. They said to him, we're not stoning
you for a good work. Oh, you're a good man. Said you're a good man. You do
good works. We're not stoning you for that.
We're stoning you because you're a man. You say you're God. And people are in saying it not
in sense to get this Jesus to the man called Jesus that they
claim love and wants to and cancer. But they're incensed against
this sovereign God. Who is Jesus? They become incensed
when you talk about this sovereign reigning, ruling, wounding, killing,
controlling, electing sovereign law. They become incensed. Too
bad. For their sake. But here's what
it says here. He said the word's not going
to return. He said, everybody incensed against me. I'm going
to be ashamed. And he told young Timothy, he
said, now don't you be ashamed of the gospel. Don't you be ashamed
of this, what you believe. Don't be ashamed of it. Because everybody's in a sense
against this sovereign Lord is going to be ashamed. You know,
we're ashamed. I'm ashamed of myself, my sin,
my ignorance, myself. I'm ashamed of my rebellion against
the truth. Some of you, at one point in
your life, rebelled against this message right here. You didn't
like it. You rebelled against it. You said, that's just not
so. You're ashamed of that now, aren't you? Ashamed of your past
religion. You say, how could I have been
so ignorant? How could I have been so deceived? Well, he says, though, that one
shall say, I and the Lord have our righteousness, and they'll
come to him, and they'll not be ashamed any more from there
on out. Everyone that anybody believes
will not be put to shame, but everyone that doesn't will be
put to open shame. You see, this is more than a
matter of doctrine here. This is confessing the true and
living God. It's confessing this Christ of
Scripture. The difference between the true Christ and anti-Christ.
Right? It'd be a shame. It'd be a shame. Look at the next thing. He said,
In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified. Wish
I had time, but I don't. But over in Romans 9, he says,
whom he did predestinate, he called. Whom he called, he did
justify. Who justified? Who is he that
condemned? It's Christ that died. Who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? God did justify. God justified it. God declares
who's holy and who's righteous. I've given you the illustration
before of two men coming into the synagogue to worship. One was an out-and-out no-good
Center bum public and the other one was a good moral upstanding
religious fellow with church all his life Pharisee. And the
Pharisee say well I haven't done this I haven't done that I've
lived a good life and so and so. And this fellow said God
be merciful to me I'm just an old sinner. And you know who
Christ justified? You know who Christ said was
freed from all guilt and shame, and forever going to be with
God all my life. Saved? You know who he's going
to save? The good fella? No, the bad fella. He said, this
fella's condemned, this fella's justified. Just as if I'd... You want to know what justified
means? Just as if I had never sinned. You mean wipe it out? Wipe it
out. How? By praying and repentance
and working? No. Wipes it out. The blood of Jesus
Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all our sin. Not by works
of righteousness, which we have done, but according to thy mercy
thou hast saved us. Not by works of the law, which
no man will be justified, but by the faith of Christ Jesus. Very simple. And lastly, he says,
And I wish I had time, people, to show you what the seed of
Israel means, but I don't have time. Look it up. Read it for yourself in Romans
9. Go home and read Romans 9. It'll tell you who the seed of
Israel is. Or Romans 4. It'll tell you who
the seed of Israel is. But he says, All God's true people who are
the true people of God. It's the ones bragging on God. It's the ones that say like in
1 Corinthians 30 and 31. Let's say he is made unto me
wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemption. And according as
is written, let he that glory glory in the Lord. It is he or
she that one person shall say, I'm nothing, I'm no one, I know
nothing, I can do nothing, I am nothing, nor have I gotten but
what I received. Grace hath bestowed it, even
my belief. Boasting excluded, pride I abase,
I'm just an old sinner, saved by grace, sovereign grace. And they glory in the Lord. They
glory in the Lord. There was a fellow that went to glory, and Scripture says when we get
there, we'll be chained into the likeness of Christ. No more
sin, no more infirmities, no more afflictions. This fellow said he was beautiful
when he went to glory. And somebody met him there and
said, Who are you? He said, You must be Moses. Oh,
he said, No, no, no. No, no, I'm not Moses, not at
all. He said, Well, look how glorious you are. You must be,
you must be Abraham. No, no, no, no, I'm not Abraham,
he said. He said, well, who are you so
glorious, so beautiful? You look like Christ. You must
be some famous person. Who are you? Are you Elijah?
No, no. Are you Elisha? No. Are you Paul?
Are you Peter? No, no. Well, who are you then? And he began singing that song. The dying thief rejoiced to see
that fountain in his day. And there may I, though vile
as he, wash all my sins away. Who are you as an old thief and
a murderer, a nobody, a nothing, a no good, a no one from nowhere,
a sinner? Well, look at you now. I know.
Why is this? Because of Him. He gets all the glory. There's
one fellow that said it, didn't he? What is that? Him. I just
quoted it. I don't even know his name. There
is a fountain. Is that it? All right, let's
sing that. Joe, come up as we sing that. There is a fountain. Number 222. Number 222, let's sing the first
two verses, all right? There is a fountain filled with
blood, drawn from Emmanuel's veins. And sinners on three knees
have fled, whose honor here remains. of the. Wash all the sins away. Wash
all the sins away. Wash all the sins away. And every
idol I see, wash all the sins away. Thank you and your distance.