Isaiah chapter 42. This chapter in Isaiah, as so many before and afterward, is a prophecy of the coming Christ. prophecy of the Christ who came.
Isaiah 42 is a declaration of the coming Christ. Salvation
is to know this Christ. Salvation is to know God, is
to know Christ. Salvation is to have Jesus Christ
revealed to you, who he is, what he did, to come to know him. in a relationship. Salvation
is to have Christ revealed in you. That's a relationship. That's
experiencing him. In salvation, Isaiah 45 says, salvation is
in a look. He said, Look unto me and be
ye saved. Salvation is in a look, looking
or beholding Christ. The Lord can use the mere reading
of this portion right here to eternally save a soul. That's how serious what we're
doing is. Look at verse 1 of Isaiah 42.
It says, Behold my servant. Behold my servant. My servant. Chapter 52 calls
him his righteous servant. Verse 3 of chapter 52, verse 13, he says, Behold, my
servant shall deal prudently or prosper. He shall be exalted
and extolled and be very high, my servant. He shall prosper
in what he came to do. He shall be exalted because of
that. He shall be extolled. He shall
be very high, my servant, God said. Chapter 53 says, My servant,
by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many. My righteous servant shall justify
many, for he shall bear their iniquities, God's righteous servant. God says, Behold him, behold
my servant, behold my Christ, my servant, my servant. Men love to boast of their service
to the Lord, don't they? Oh, how men love to talk about
how they serve the Lord, but there's only one who ever really
lived who served the Lord, one who ever lived, one man that
truly served God as man should, served the glory of God in everything
he did, served God's glory, served God's people, served God's glory
and God's people with a pure motive, absolutely pure, no selfish
motive at all, nothing for himself. with a pure motive, a perfect
heart, a heart perfectly geared toward serving God every
day, every hour, every moment in the service of his God. He said, Lo, I come to do thy
will, O God. And I'm going to do it every
day, every hour, every moment. As a twelve-year-old boy, he
said, I must be about my father's business. And God says, Behold my servant. What a servant. What a worthy
servant. What a one who has served me,
and oh, how well. My servant, says God. John says,
Behold the Lamb. Oh, what we could say about that. John says, Behold the Lamb of
God, which taketh away the sin of the world. It's salvation
in beholding this One, this Servant, this Lamb. Even Pilate, one of
his enemies, said, Behold the man. Behold this man, this man. So God says in verse 1 of Isaiah
42, Behold My Servant. Behold Him. Hold him. Hold on to him. Be held by him. Be held by him. That salvation is to be held
by him. It's to behold him and be holden
by him. And you'll be, from that day
forward, beholden to him. Behold my servant. Look upon
him. There's life for a look. Like
Moses, the people looked at that serpent on a pole that Moses
upheld. Christ said, If I be lifted up, men look upon me and
they'll be saved. Behold my servant. And he says,
My servant whom I uphold. As Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be held up. The Scripture says, God whom
God hath set forth. That is, set up. God has set
him up, set him apart, lifted him up above, separate, one of
yet separate from sinners, holy, harmless, undefiled. God hath
exalted him, hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which
is above every name. I read that to you in Isaiah
52. He said, My servant shall be exalted and extolled very
high. Very high, my servant. Philippians 2, 9 says, because
of what he did, God has given him a name which is above every
name, that every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that
he's high. How high? He's Lord over the
universe. Lord. God says, Behold, my servants
who serve me well and serve you also well. and whom I uphold,
whom I exalt, whom I uphold, whom I have set forth." Read
it, verse 1. Mine elect. Not one of mine elect. Mine elect. Mine elect. Psalm 89, verse 19
says, God says, I have exalted one. chosen from among the people. One man God said he approved
of. He said it from heaven. This
is a man I'm well pleased in. Who's your choice, God? This
man. That's my choice. Accepted because
of his works. One man was accepted by God on
the basis of his works. That's why he came. That's why
he came. And everyone else is accepted
in him. Everyone is elect in him. That's what Ephesians 1 verse
4 says. According as he hath chosen us,
where? Where? Somebody listening? In
him, in Christ, before the foundation of the world. He is the elect
of God. The only one worth choosing.
Did you ever choose upsides when you're playing some sport? When
you were a kid, huh? Who'd you choose? Who was your
first choice? Huh? One of you was captain of
the team. Who'd you choose? Who was your
first choice? You'd choose the best, wouldn't
you? I want the best. I want the bad. God just chose
one. He chose one. He chose Christ
first. He's the firstborn among many
brethren in the Scripture. Mine elect. And everybody else
is chosen in him. Chosen in him because of him.
A man approved of God. Read on. He says, "...in whom
my soul delighteth, mine elect whom I uphold, mine elect in
whom my soul delighteth." Oh, look at verse 21. Look at verse
21. It says, "...the Lord is well
pleased for his righteousness." Say, you parrots, do you love your
children? Oh, the Scripture says, God's
Son is his well-beloved. Do you love your obedient children?
Oh, how you delight in your obedient children. Oh, God says, I'm well
pleased. And as I said, he couldn't even
help himself. God couldn't help himself, had
to say it out loud, from heaven. God, who doesn't speak from heaven
anymore, he spoke again, couldn't help himself. Said it twice,
that's my boy, that's my son. This is my well-beloved son,
my only begotten son, in whom I am well pleased. Oh, I'm so well pleased. Look
at him, would you look at him? You better look at him. We better
look at him. And he says he's well pleased for his righteousness'
sake. The righteous Lord loveth righteousness,"
the Scripture said. Look at this righteous man. Oh,
God loves him. He hates iniquity. The holy God
hates iniquity. Thou hatest all workers of iniquity.
He loveth all workers of holiness. Who's that? Just one. Never has
been but one. God says, I'm well pleased for
his righteousness. Would you look at him? Would
you just look at him? well pleased for his righteousness. And I tell you, I've looked at
him and I can say that I'm well pleased with his righteousness. That's the essence of being a
believer and being well pleased with his righteousness. And everything
else is stinking rag. Well, I'm satisfied with his
righteousness. Satisfied. God says I delight
in him. Look at verse 1 again. It says,
I put my spirit upon him. I have put my spirit upon him
as sanctioning him. As sanctioning him. That's what
Paul said. He was justified in the Spirit.
And the Lord said to John, upon whom you see the Holy Spirit
descending, that's my son. I'm going to sanction him. I'm
going to show you. that this is my son, and the
one on whom you see my Holy Spirit descending, and even the angels
of God ascending and descending, that's my son. And John said,
I beheld the Spirit of God descend upon him in the form of a dove.
So that's him. The Spirit of God. As if God
was anointing his king. That was the anointing of his
king. When he reached thirty years old, God sent that spirit
anointing his king, showing the world, this is the one. This
is the one. Read verse one again. It says,
He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. Everybody in
here is a Gentile. Everybody in here, by nature,
by birth, is a Gentile. This ought to interest us. He
came, this servant of God, his elect, in whom he delights, upon
whom the Holy Spirit is. He comes to do something for
Gentiles. What? Bring forth judgment to
the Gentiles. To judge them? No. He said, I
didn't come to judge. Save. Judge their sins. Justify them from all things
from which they could not be justified by the law of Moses.
You see, the law came through Moses, but grace and truth came
through Jesus Christ. He came to justify. the Gentile
justify center justify many that's what he said in Isaiah fifty
three ten my righteous servant shall justify many not all. But many how many many. More than the fans of the sea
shore more than that more than the stars in the sky he should
justify many and that's how God can be just and justify them
that believe on Christ, by Christ living for them, imputing his
righteousness and shedding his blood to pay for the satisfied
justice against them." Now, here's the phrase, verse 2. Here's the
phrase we dwelled on Wednesday night and will again today and
tonight. Here's the phrase we dealt with,
and this is what I want to draw your attention to the rest of
the time. This servant of God, this Christ of God, Jesus Christ,
it says here in Prophecy, verse 2, "...he shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice
to be heard in the street." In other words, it says he shall
not raise his voice in the street. He shall not raise his voice
in the street. And we said this Wednesday night.
The Lord Jesus Christ never stood on the street corner and preached, per se. And that
great day of the feast, and in the temple and other places,
but he didn't go around beckoning men to hear him. He didn't go
around trying to get people to believe on him. That's what these public heralds
do, you know, the stand on the corner and so forth. beckoning
people to hear. He didn't go around. He tells
the preacher to get up on the housetop. Lift up your voice,
he said, at that time. But Christ didn't do that. He
didn't go around trying to get people to believe on him. No.
As a matter of fact, in Matthew 12, and you don't have to turn,
but there is an incident in Matthew 12 where he healed several people,
and after he healed them, he said, now don't make me numb. Don't tell anybody. He did that
another place. I think it was a blind man. He
said, don't, you just go off for the sacrifice of Moses. Don't
tell anybody that I'm the Christ. Don't do it. You remember that? Don't do it. Our Lord never tried
to get people to believe on him. No. The great shepherd, you see,
came. He came into this world looking
for his sheep. The good shepherd, the Lord,
the shepherd of sheep, came into this world looking for his sheep. And he knew them all. It's not
like he was looking around, didn't know who they were or where they
were. Are there any sheep out there?" No. He said, I know them,
and I call them, and they'll follow me. It's proof of who
I am. It's proof of my power. It's
proof they're my sheep. He came. He knew where they were. He knew them by name. He knew
where they were, and he went to where they were. They didn't
even come to him. He went to where they were. That's
the shepherd. And he calmly, sometimes quietly,
very deliberately, called them off. And they followed him. They followed him. Matthew. And Matthew got up and followed
him. Peter, Andrew, come on, get out of the boat. And they
left their whole livelihood, they left their job, home, and
family at a word of a man. Follow me. That's power in them. That's a shepherd. Right there's
two sheep. James, John, come on. You're
them too. You're sheep. Zacchaeus, get
down from the tree. Come on. Mary, Martha, and so
on and so forth. sinner calmly, deliberately called
them by name. He didn't raise his voice. But there were a few times. There were a few times, a few
rare times, when our Lord did raise his voice. Seven times
are recorded in the Scripture. We've already looked at three
of those. And this one here tonight, look
over at John 12, or this morning I mean, but tonight we'll look
at another one. But in John chapter 12, this
is in this order, the fourth time, the fourth time that our Lord
raised his voice. Seven times are recorded. This
is the fourth time recorded that it says our Lord raised his voice,
and we want to deal with this one time. this morning. And I thought about this. Whenever the voice of the Son
of God is heard, whenever the voice of the Son
of God was heard, heaven and earth should have
stopped and listened, shouldn't they? Whenever the Son of God
opened his mouth and his voice was heard, heaven and earth should
have stopped and listened, shouldn't Heaven did. Heaven did. God talks. That's what's so wrong with all
this talking going on today and all this share session. What
do we need to have share, anybody share anything with us for? We
need to hear from one person. And we can't because too many
people are talking. Right? When the voice of the Son of
God is is heard, heaven and earth should stop. Heaven did. Earth
should have. But what about this? If he raises his voice. In other
words, if the Son of God says in a quiet, deliberate voice,
and he did. He sat on this earth, and he
sat and he opened his voice and said, blessed. He didn't holler,
didn't scream. He said, They said a sower went forth
to sow. And on and on he spoke. Earth ought to stop. It ought
to stop spinning. And listen. Be still. And listen
to God speak. Right? If he raises his voice. If he raises his voice. My dad had a very manly voice,
and when my dad spoke, you know, I should have listened. I'll tell you a time when I did
listen, and when he raised that voice, especially when he called
both my names, Paul, Edward. Oh, buddy, I stopped what I was
doing. Stopped my talking. And I listened
to what he had to say. Well, the Son of God raised his
voice. It holds a lot more weight than
anybody else does. The Lord of glory raised his
voice. And I believe this scripture
applies today if you will hear his voice. They say I have a small voice. People have complained they can't
hear me very well. I mean, it's not fine. I endeavor to use all kinds of
things to try to, so you can hear me. Well, today, if you will hear
his voice, the Scripture says, harden not
your heart. His voice. There's one voice you need to
hear, and you may hear it through a still, small voice. All right,
let's read it. John 12, look at verse John 12,
verse 37 and 38. Though he had done so many miracles
before them, yet they believed not on him. How many miracles
has the Lord God done for us? What's that sitting beside you,
Deborah? That's a miracle. Huh? Fine. So many of those like
such miracles. It's a miracle. Still a miracle,
isn't it? A miracle. What about the good job you have? We're living in tough times,
Steve. Isn't it? Lean times, hard times. Unemployment's
high. People looking for jobs. You
got a good job, don't you, buddy? Where'd that miracle come from?
And on and on the list goes, right? Miracles. Miracles. That woman sitting beside you,
Stan, how in the world, why in the world did she marry you?
That's a miracle. Isn't it? You really believe
that, don't you? I do. I mean, about mine. And yours. Yeah, it's a miracle. It's a miracle. A woman will
stay with us. A man will stay with us. It's a miracle. And
on and on the list of miracles go, doesn't it? Health. Charles Ross, seventy-some
years old. You've never really been that
sick, have you? You're in good health. It's a
miracle. These people have been sick their
lives. Though he had done so many miracles
before them, yet they believed not on him. That water falling
from the sky we've been talking about this morning, that's a
miracle. Isn't it a miracle? Everything
is sustained by just water falling from the sky. This planet lives
because water falls from the sky. And we can't do anything
to make it fall from the sky, right? that everything depends upon
water falling from the sky. And mercifully and graciously,
it just comes. That's a miracle, isn't it? And though he had done so many
miracles before then, yet they believed not on him. Everybody
in here ought to be a believer. Every person in here ought to
be a believer. Why are we here this morning?
He said this so many times. One reason, basically, to worship
our God, to thank our God. What have you got to be thankful
for? Anything? You ask a believer, he'll say
everything. You got a day or two, I'll tell
you everything I've got to be. And that won't even cover it.
So many miracles, yet some believe not. Verse 38 says, and he said this
would happen, that the saying of Isaiah the prophet might be
fulfilled, which he spake, Lord, who hath believed our report? To whom hath the arm of the Lord
been revealed? The arm there means the power.
Who hath believed our report? To whom hath the arm of the Lord
been revealed, the power of God? Who hath believed? Who does believe?
Who believes in here? Who believes and why? Why do
you believe? Because the arm of the Lord has been revealed
to you. You did nothing to decide to
believe one day, did you? Uh-uh. But God chose you to believe,
hath chosen you to believe all that the prophets have said,
all the fathers, all the apostles, what our Lord himself said. Christ
said, all thy children All God's people shall be taught, and great
shall be the peace of thy children. He said, All the Father giveth
me, they'll come to me. They'll believe in me. Look back at Isaiah 43 very quickly. Isaiah 43. Look at verse 10. We talk about election quite
a bit here, don't we? I mention election quite a bit.
I hope what I say, I hope the way I deal with this is not just
talking about election, but talking about the God who elects. I hope
he is the one we're extolling, not a doctrine. I hope it's he
that we're worshiping, not a doctrine. Election is a person choosing
persons. Isaiah 43, 10, he says to all
believers, You are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant,
whom I have chosen." Here's what he's chosen us to see and be,
that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Do you believe that Jesus is
the Christ? Henry, do you believe that man that walked years ago
is the Son of God? God? Do you believe he's God?
He said, You're my chosen, whom I have chosen to know and believe
and understand that I am he. God's elect. God's chosen children. God's sheep. They will hear.
He said, You're my sheep. I've chosen you. I've come for
you. I've come calling you. You're going to hear me. And
you'll believe. And you come to Christ. Those
who do not hear, believe, come. They're not sheep. They're not sheep. And they would
not believe. They would not believe and could
not believe. Christ said that in John 6, verse
44. No man can come unto me, except
the Father which hath sent me draw him. He said the same thing
in verse 65. The Father must draw us. Look
back at the text in John 12. Look back there. So he said in
quoting Isaiah, who hath believed our report? To whom hath the
arm of the Lord been revealed? God's elect, that's it. Verse 39 says, Therefore could
they not believe? Read it. Because Isaiah said,
and he's quoting Isaiah 6, God hath blinded their eyes, and
hardened their heart, that they should not see with their eyes,
nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should
heal them. They're blind already. By nature they're hard-hearted
already, by nature and by choice. And the way that God blinds their
eyes and hardens their heart—listen to me now, listen to me now.
Watch it now. The way God blinds hearts and
blinds eyes and hardens heart, the way He does it, you see,
they're blind already by nature. They're hard already, right?
The way he does it is to leave them alone, and they get more blind. They get more hard. They get
more hard. You see, the Word of God—if the
Word of God is not a savor of life to some, If the Word of
God to you right now is not precious to you, if the Word of God doesn't
mean anything to you right now, it means nothing to you. It means
nothing to you. And what will it do? The more
you hear, the more it will add to your condemnation, our condemnation. If the Word of God is not a saver
of life to you, that means it's a saver of death. If you don't
like hearing it, what is the opposite of that? If you don't
love hearing it, what is the opposite of that? You don't want
to hear it. And the more I keep saying, the
less you want to hear of it. And it hardens hearts. I'm looking
at the face of somebody right now who is written all over their
face. They're saying, I'll be glad
when this is over. Rain, when it falls, doesn't
soften it. It makes it worse. Is that right? Some of you have some un-plowed
ground? I have lots of it, called a hard pan. Does rain help it? Does rain help in a soft and
hard pan? It makes it worse. It just runs
off. It takes off whatever good soil
is there to begin with, until you've got nothing but rock.
And nothing is going to penetrate it. This is what I'm doing right
now, reading the words of the Son of God. It's so important. Today, if you will hear his voice,
harden not your heart. Know how you harden your heart?
Turn it off. I've had all that I can handle.
And I fear for those who hear it
time and time and time again. I fear for them. Those that hear it time and time
and time and time again and never commit, it never makes an effect
on them. As a matter of fact, it does
the opposite effect. It seems to be doing the opposite effect.
They become hardened, gospel hardened. I see it often. I'm seeing it
now. It says God left them alone. God blinded their eyes, hardened their heart. Verse 42, now look, look down
here. But it says, Nevertheless, among
the chief rulers also many believed on him. Many believed on him. Believed on him. Oh, my. Did they now? Did they trust
in Christ? They become followers of Christ,
disciples of Christ. That's a believer. Were they
regenerated? Huh? No. Uh-uh. Well, the Niagara Priest had
a message one time on—you all that went to Cherokee heard it—on
some that believe but are not saved. Faith that doesn't save. Believe him. There were some
who believed—these were some of those who believed in the
signs and the wonders and the miracles and so forth. But there
in this good man as today. But they didn't confess look
at it says they did not confess him verse forty two less they
should be put out of the synagogue. They didn't come out for Christ.
Against the world they didn't denounce everything else in favor
of Christ. They didn't renounce their former
you know when God reveals the gospel to you you renounce everything. When God reveals Christ to you,
you renounce everything else, everything and everyone else.
You renounce your former religion, people that are so dead set on
saying that they were saved before they heard the gospel. I have my doubts. You renounce it all. You confess
Him. If you know, if you weren't confessed,
if you didn't know the true God and the true Christ, you're not
saved, right? And when you come to know the true God and the
true Christ, you confess Him. And what you do with that is
you confess that everything else—I was an idol worshiper at one
time. That other God and that other Christ were false. This
is the Christ. And they're baptized. They renounce
their former religion, their profession, their righteousness,
their learning. Everything about them, they renounce
it as dung, as loss, a lie, and they come out, and this is what
a believer does. He comes out and confesses Jesus
Christ as all in all. Christ is all their salvation.
Christ is all their wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemption. Christ
is all their religion. Christ is all their hope of acceptance.
Christ is all their need. Christ is all. And nothing, everything
else is nothing at all. That's what it is to confess
crime, and these didn't. It says, verse 42 and 43, it
says, because they will be put out of the synagogue, they loved
the praise of men more than the praise of God. Our Lord just said that back
in verse 25. Look at it. Look back there.
Verse 25. Won't be much longer. Please
listen and look. Our Lord just said, this is,
I'm just, God help me, just telling you what the Son of God is saying
here. May God give somebody ears to
hear. The Lord said in verse 25, he
that loveth his life's going to lose it. These men loved their present
life. They loved their name. They loved their reputation.
They loved their, whatever, their civic standing. They loved their
church standing, if you will. They loved their social advantages.
They loved their friends and neighbor. That's fine. And not
more than Christ, it's not. They were not willing to lose
their lives. They were not willing to be called
fools for Christ's sake. They loved their present life,
and they saw no need of Christ and his gospel. They loved the
praise of men more than the praise of God, more than acceptance
with God, more than God's Son. I feel like their son in here
this very morning, just like that. You know. There have been some
people leave here in the past one lady in particular I remember.
And. You know people I really believe
that some people who. They're not really say and. Yet they profess to be and it
would prove to be a great embarrassment someday if they were if somebody
thought they weren't. So the way they get out of it
by saving face is to disprove or disbelieve the preacher
or some of the people of the church or whatever. I really
believe some people who leave are relieved, are relieved when
they go. believing certain things, rumors
or whatever, grasping, looking for something to give them a
way out. I really believe that people
like that, because they never really enjoyed this thing to
begin with. That's just one reason, I believe.
Never really loved the gospel and loved Christ to begin with.
So whatever comes up, persecution, this is what our Lord said in
the parable. of the story said some fell on stony ground the
sprung up for a little bit look pretty good but when the bowels
of the air came it snatched it away you know. Or when the trials
came when the sun came out it scorched it it withered. Persecution
come. Rumors abound. Trouble starts. Things start trials come. They
live. They live. Christ never was anything to
them. Never was. couldn't be. When our Lord preached
on and on and said some hard things, it said many walked no
more with him from that day forward. And he turned to the disciples,
and he said, Will you also go away? And they said, Lord, where are
we going to go? We can't. Your everything does. See, Christ is either all or
he's nothing at all. Nothing at all. And I pray that it is not thus
with thee. That it is not so with you. That you're looking for a reason
to quit. I hope not. I hope not. In that case, you'll believe
everything that comes and goes. You'll believe it all. You'll
grasp him. That's a word in season to someone here. Verse 44, they
loved the praise of men more than the praise of God. And this
is when the Son of God hollered. This is when he hollered. How
do I know they're not saved? Because he raised his voice. That's when he raised his voice.
When he shouted, and I'll not do it, I can't mimic the Lord. No man spake
like this man. And he says, You believe me?
Look at it. Verse 44, He that believeth on
me believeth not on me, but on him that sent me. You believe
God? Oh, how men and women boast of their belief in God, all their
talk of God. No man or woman believes and
knows God apart from Jesus Christ. None. I talked to a lady several
years ago when I first made her acquaintance. And as they always
do before a preacher, they like to let you know just how religious
they are. And I hadn't spoken to her more
than five minutes until she said, Oh, I believe God. Oh, do you
now? I believe in God. That's what
she said. I believe in God. Well, Jane said the devils do
that. And they tremble. They fear God. I believe in God. Do you reckon
that woman ever comes to hear the gospel which is proof of
loving, knowing, believing in this God? No. No, she believes
in God. But no man has seen God, you
see, at any time Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son, he hath
declared him. No man believes in God who doesn't
love Jesus Christ. Nobody knows God who doesn't
know Jesus Christ. Salvation is to know God. This
is eternal life that they might know of thee, the only true God.
Nobody does apart from Jesus Christ. Nobody does who doesn't
know the gospel. Nobody does who doesn't believe
the gospel. Nobody does who doesn't confess Christ. Nobody does. Disciples of Christ, lovers of
Christ, followers of Christ, and renouncers of everything
else. This is the line drawn in the same. This is the line
drawn in the same. Joshua, who is on the Lord's
side? Nobody I've ever known is on
one side and both sides at the same time. That's what our Lord
said, didn't He? You can't serve God and man. You can't do it. You can't love and run with the
world and love and run with Christ. You can't do it. And the fact
of the matter is, You either run in here or run in there.
You either believe Christ or you don't believe Christ. Either
I believe Christ or I don't. And Christ said, you believe
God? Oh yeah, I believe God. You believe me? And what'd he
say? You can't serve God, man. He
that loveth his life's gonna lose it. You know, our Lord said
as many hard things as he said comforting things? Does she? If any man read on in verse 46,
verse 45, "...he that seeth me seeth God." All these people
that refuse to believe Christ is God, they don't know Him.
Christ said, I'm God. Where'd He say it? He said it
right there, didn't He? "...he that seeth me seeth God."
Verse 46, "...I am come, a light into the world." a light into
the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness."
The darkness of sin, abide in it. Whosoever believes Christ,
whosoever is born of God, doth not sin, abideth not in sin,
doth not live in that life any more. Don't do it. Don't do it.
Cannot do it. Can't do it. They don't stay
in ignorance. God's people don't stay ignorant.
God's people don't live in fear. Perfect love casts it out. Superstition. They don't believe everything
comes down the pike. They've been taught of God. They don't
stay in tradition. They come out from among them
or separate from the way of the world. Religion. They don't stay
in religion. They come to Christ. Read on. He said, If any man hear my words
and believe not, I judge him not, I came not to judge the
world, but to save the world." He's talking about right then
and there when he's standing on the earth. There's a time
in which he is going to judge. Verse 48, "...he that rejecteth
me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him." The
word that I spoke of. The same shall judge him in the
last day. I wish I fully understood this
and believed this, but the very words that we're reading right
now, the very words that we're either
believing or not believing, the very words that some of you are
loving and others are hating are going to rise up in the judgment
against us. The very fact that someone's
sitting here right now and could care less about this is going
to rise up someday and say, That makes it serious to understand. That's the reason he says, today,
if you will hear his voice, harden not your heart. That's what makes what I'm doing
right now the most serious thing on earth. People scoff and laugh
at preachers, don't they? It's equally true today that
God sends preachers. He said this to his apostles.
He said, He that heareth you, heareth me. Didn't he? He that
rejecteth you, rejecteth me. Now, that's only true of the
man who preaches according to his Word. And Paul said in 1 Thessalonians,
he said, he said, I thank God that some of you, and oh how
I thank God that, this is a miracle, that some of you would sit and
listen day in and day out to this lame babbler with a Kentucky
accent. It's a miracle. It's a miracle
to me that I'm standing here, let alone that there's a crowd
of people coming to hear me pray. It's a miracle. But Paul said in 1 Thessalonians
2 verse 13, and I say the same thing, I thank God that you receive
the word, not as the words of a man, but as it is in truth,
the word of God, which effectually worketh also
in you the belief. Some of you have actually been
blessed by some preaching that goes on here, not just me, but
others. Isn't that a miracle? It's a
miracle. This is the power of the Word
of God. This is really enough. A true preacher dare not do anything
else but preach this Word. That's all I've done this morning.
That's all I've done. Let's go down through what Isaiah
said, what our Lord said. That's all I've done. I don't
want to do anything else. And he that receiveth it and
believeth it hath eternal life. and rejoices in it, but he that
rejects it." Another old sermon. Well, well, well. Just another sermon. Our Lord
said, This is going to rise up in a judgment. This is going
to rise up in a judgment. Young and old. How many times? How many times will we hear it?
How many times? Will we hear it? Young people,
how many times? How many times? How many times? All right, Brother
Joe, if you got a message, or a song and message picked up.
Two thirty-three. Two hundred thirty-three. And the thing is, I give you
good counsel and good advice. All those who waver, all those
who are unsure, cry out. The Lord cried aloud,
and he said, I'll tell you. But if we'd hear that voice,
we'd be, listen. He said, I'm telling you. You
don't hear me. God won't hear you. The day you
call. And that's what Proverbs 1 says.
It says it's coming a day when people are going to call out,
cry out. And God says, I will not hear
them. Know what it says, Sherry? It
says, I will not hear them. And the thing for us to do now,
my, my, we're just the least bit in doubt is to cry out unto
him. Depth of mercy. Cry for mercy. That's a good choice, Joe. That's
the thing with crying. Lord, have mercy. That's the
thing we need more than anything. Lord, have mercy on me, the sinner.
Depth of mercy. Can there be mercy still reserved
for me? Can my God, his wrath forbear
me, the chief of sinners, spare? Look at verse 2. It's a good
verse. I have long withstood his grace,
long provoked him to his faith. How's that? By listening time
and time again and hardening our heart. Would not hearken
to his call. I'm not sure I agree with grieving
him five thousandfold, but nevertheless, it angers God. Does it anger
you when people won't listen to you? Before long, he said, all right,
that's it. No more. No more. This is serious. This is serious. This was a tough
message to bring. Our Lord got tough there. He
got tough. He got loud. And I'll cry out with this song. to sing the first and third stanzas. If not mercy can there be, Mercy
still reserved for me, Then the God in wrathful bear, Me the
thief, the sinner's bear. Now it's time for me to repent,
bring me down my sins again. Now my heart is open, Lord, we
believe in sin no more. Yes, we do.