blessings come from him. All my springs are in thee, the
psalm says. All right, back to Isaiah 59
now. Now, all this week, people are going to be hearing
silly little sermons about a sweet little baby in a manger named
Jesus, a would-be Savior who tried and
failed, who wanted to save, but men wouldn't let him. And what I want to do this morning
is to tell you about a sovereign Lord and King who came and successfully
saved all his people from their sin. Look at verse one with me. Behold, the Lord's hand is not
shortened that it cannot save, neither his ear heavy that it
cannot hear. But hold your place in the book
of Isaiah, we're going to look at chapter 45 in a moment, and
turn over to the Psalms, to Psalm 135. I do hope you'll follow
along in your Bibles this morning. It's absolutely necessary that
you follow along verse by verse. One of the most popular sayings
in religion today. In order to tell people, preachers,
in order to tell people how much God needs them, they have coined
this popular saying, and you'll hear it everywhere. God has no
hands, but your hands. No feet, but your feet. No mouth, but your mouth. And so on. Look at Psalm 135. verses fifteen and following. The idols of the heathen are
silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths,
but they speak not. Eyes have they, but they see
not. They have ears, but they hear not. Neither is there any
breath in their mouths. They that make them are like
unto them, and so is everyone that trusteth in them. Blind
halt and lame, just like their gods. Their poor little Jesus may not
have any hands, but mine has some. Look at Isaiah 45. Turn over
to Isaiah 45 now. Their poor little pitiful, helpless
Jesus may not have any hands or feet or mouth But mine does. He sure does. Look at Isaiah
45. Look at verse 9 with me, and
read on. "'Woe unto him that striveth
with his Maker! Let the potsherds strive with
the potsherds of the earth! But shall the clay say to him
that fashioned it, What makest thou or thy work? He hath no
hands.' Verse 11, "'Thus saith the Lord, the Holy One of Israel,
and his Maker. Ask me of things to come concerning
my sons, and concerning the work of my hands, command ye me. I made the earth, and created
man upon it. I, even my hands, have stretched
out the heavens, and all their hosts have I commanded." He has
some hands. And Daniel said, "...the God
in whose hands you are and who are all your ways, thou hast
not glorified." You cut his hands off, so to speak. Well, they'll say, well, this
is just a figure of speech. They'll apologize and say, we
don't really mean that. God has no hands but your hands.
It's just a figure of speech to say that God can't save you
unless you let him. a figure of speech to say that
God has done all he can do, and now it's up to you. Turn back
to the text, Isaiah 59. Yeah, it's just a figure of speech
that God has done all he can do, and now it's up to you. He's
limited himself, they say. Let's read it again. Behold,
the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save. Neither
his ear heavy, that it cannot hear. Your iniquities are separated
between you and your God. Your sins have hid his face from
you, that he will not hear. Cannot? No, he will not, the
scripture says. The fact of the matter is this. The men have got this little
saying backwards, haven't they, John? Man has done all he can
do. What can he do? What can man
do? Sin. Man has done all he can do. Now
it's up to God. That's how that statement should
read, right? There is none that doeth good,
the scripture says. None righteous, no, not one.
The Lord looked down from heaven to see if there were any that
did understand this. And seek after God. He said they're
all gone aside, they are all together become filthy. And the
word filthy means stinking. In Psalm 14, so God hid his face. From the stench. Right, and we
can't do anything about it. We can't get to God. We can't
get God to notice us. We can't get him to be pleased
with us. By the works of the flesh, by
the deeds of the flesh, shall no man be justified, be accepted. We cannot please God. So what
are we going to do? Nothing. Nothing. We're going to have to be like
the Israelites of old who were standing before that Red Sea,
and the Egyptians chasing them from behind, we're going to have
to stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. Right? The Lord
describes us all by nature here in this chapter. He describes
us all by nature down through these verses. I hope you'll look
at it with me. Look at verse 3. He says, Your
hands are defiled with blood. Your hands are defiled with blood,
and your fingers with iniquity. Our hands cannot work righteousness. Try as we may, we cannot do good,
truly do good. Clean hands. You can't do that which is opposite
to what you're accustomed to doing, right? Some of you work
jobs, and your hands have literally conformed to what you do. right,
like a carpenter, his hand is naturally conformed to a hammer
and other occupation. Well, our hands are naturally
accustomed to doing evil, and they won't do good. They just
won't do good, our hand. He says our lips have spoken
lies, our tongues have muttered perverseness. Our lips have spoken
lies and our tongues uttered perverseness. The accent of sin
I can't get rid of. Maybe twenty years from now the
Kentucky accent will leave my voice. Maybe. It's doubtful. It's doubtful. But the accent
of sin that is in every one of our mouths is on the language of the human
tongue is impossible to remove. Right? The accent of sin. The scripture says we're brought
forth from the womb speaking lies. And we practice it from
that day forward. Speaking lies until we get quite
good at it. Quite accustomed to it. And the
scripture says our mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.
What comes naturally to our tongues and lips? Praise? Thanks? Huh? Worship? cursing, bitterness, evil speaking,
murmuring, complaining. That's what comes naturally out
of these lips, isn't it? Praise and thanksgiving and grace
which must pour from the lips are a foreign language to the
natural tongue, a language that must be learned from God Himself. He must teach us. And now, these verses speaking
of preacher and people alike. I'm preaching to myself here.
I'm preaching to myself here. He's speaking, I think, a great
deal about false preachers whose hands are defiled with blood.
I think he's speaking a great deal about false preachers in
the first eight verses anyway. And then he talks to the people.
But you know, as Jeremiah said, both prophet and people are all
profane, isn't it? They're all profane. They're
all. There's none good. No, not one.
None that calleth for justice, you see. Both prophet and people
are profane. You know, the preacher in the
average pulpit is not preaching righteousness. That word justice
is what's right. He's not preaching what's right,
and the people don't want to hear it. So they heap to themselves
teachers having itching ears. That's why there are more crowds
today out there listening to suffering fools gladly, but very
few come in to hear what does God really say, right? None calleth
for justice. Let's hear about the just God.
Do you hear anybody out in the community saying that? I sure
would like to hear a message on how God can be just and justify
a sinner like me. I sure would like to hear something
like that. Do you know anywhere where I can go and hear that?
No, nobody's calling for justice. Nobody's calling for the gospel,
are they, Henry? Nobody's pleading for truth.
You see that, verse 4? I don't hear anybody pleading
for truth. I don't hear anybody questioning what's being preached
today. They say, I don't know if that's true or not. I want
the truth. You hear anybody asking that?
Just blind following the blind. They trust in vanity, speak lies,
they conceive mischief, bring forth iniquity. Verse 5, they
hatch cockatrice eggs, and those are is what those are. Weave
the spider's web, he that eateth of their eggs dieth, that which
is crushed breaketh out in the viper. In other words, our offspring,
the offspring of our loins are just like us, sinners. Right? By the disobedience of one, many
were made sinners. And you know, we are big snakes.
And what do big snakes have when they have babies? But they're
so cute. They're little and the poison
of asps is in their lips. And they come forth from the
womb hissing and spitting just like their mama and daddy snake
does. The venom is there. Hang around a few days and you'll
get it in your eye. Right? Verse 7. Their feet run to evil. Preacher
and people alike. This is talking to them. Their
feet run to evil. are hard calloused by running
wild, aren't they? Our feet have become calloused
by running wild, running to evil, make haste to shed innocent blood.
Paul quotes this over in Romans 3. Their thoughts are thoughts
of iniquity. What do you think about when
you lie down in your bed at night? What do you think about when
you wake up in the morning? Good, holy thoughts. Their thoughts
are thoughts of iniquity. Wasting and destruction are in
their paths. Our thoughts automatically run
toward evil, don't they? Our feet automatically run toward
evil. They're accustomed to doing so.
Verse 8, the way of peace they know not. Man by nature is ignorant
that even needs peace. Man, woman, this is the reason
there's no interest in the gospel among our young people, among
anybody for that matter. They don't realize that they're
sinners in the hands of an angry God, that God is angry with the
wicked every day, that God hates all workers of iniquity, that
the wrath of God abides upon the ungodly. So nobody's saying,
how can I have peace with this holy and just God? Nobody's saying
that because they don't realize it. They're ignorant that they
need peace, that they're at war against God. And the fact of
the matter is, their hand is too short to hit him, but his
isn't. So nobody's even asking about
peace, either. Oh, everybody's singing about
peace at this time of year, aren't they? Peace on earth. They're
crying, Peace! Peace! When there ain't no peace,
except through the blood of the Lord. Not maybe, but through
a crucified Lord. Now, don't get me wrong, I've
said several times, talked about this baby. Unto us a child is
born, a son is given. Oh, his name shall be called.
I bless God that Christ came. I bless God that there was a
baby back years ago. I bless God. I thank God. But he's not a baby anymore. He's not a baby. And it says
they're ignorant of the way of peace they know not. There's
no judgment, verse 8. There's no judgment. They can't
do right. Judgment means right. You have
that in your margin? No judgment in their going. Can't
do right. Don't know what's right. Everything
about them is wrong. Is that you? That's me. Everything about them is wrong.
They do wrong. They think wrong. They've made
crooked paths, whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace."
And as I said, I'm certain this is talking about preachers today,
who are not making the path plain, but putting stumbling blocks
in the way of people. They're not making the high places
low, where that is Mount Sinai, but they're creating stumbling
blocks in the way of the people. They're not making the way plain.
They're not pointing people to Christ and Him alone. Not at
all. Because they don't know the gospel.
They're not preaching the gospel because they don't know the gospel.
Huh? They're not preaching Christ because they don't know Christ.
Huh? They're not preaching His glory. Why? Because they haven't
seen His glory. They're not preaching Christ
is all. Why? Because they don't think He is all. They think there's
more to it than that. Huh? Verse 9. Judgment is far from
us. Judgment and justice. Neither
doth justice overtake us. Judgment and justice are far
from us. Men and women by nature don't
think about the Holy God or the just judge. Read on. We wait for light, but behold
obscurity. For brightness, but we walk in
darkness. Does that sound familiar? Our Lord said men love darkness
rather than light. And if the light comes, it exposes
their sin, so they quickly turn it off, don't they? I want to
hear that. Why? It exposes me. Men love sin rather than holiness. Men are lovers of pleasure rather
than lovers of God, right? Men love the creation more than
the Creator. Brightness. Darkness for brightness. Verse 10. We grope for the wall
like the blind. We grope as if we had no eyes.
Do you remember the story of the Sodomites who were going
after lots, the angels in Sodom? Do you remember that? Do you
remember that? When the Sodomites were trying
to get to the angels to know them in a perverse way, physically
know them, and the Lord smote them with blindness. Do you remember
what it said they did? They groped for the wall, the
door. They kept going after the door.
Even though smitten with blindness, they were still groping for that
which caused them this affliction. And as the men of Sodom, we get
smitten. The Lord says, why will you be
smitten anymore? You'll continue to rebel. We
are smitten because of our evil ways, and we still grope for
more evil, don't we? Huh? Not us? We reap the wages of our sin,
and we reap it and sow it, but we keep right after it. Just
keep right after it. Verse 11, and then we roar like
bears. Oh, I'm in trouble! Right? And we roar mad at God. How can
he do this to me? Just be glad you didn't get what's
coming to you. Get mad at God. How can I get mad at everybody?
Roar! How could this happen to me?
Man, it's a good thing it didn't happen a long time before now,
before you knew the Lord, if you do. Mourn like doves. Look at that. It says, and then
they mourn like doves. Cry big tears, great crocodile
tears, because of our pitiful state. Oh! My Lord ought to say to us, you
better stop your crying or I'm going to give you something to
really cry about. I'm going to give you what you've earned.
I have not dealt with you according to your iniquities. We look for judgment. Look at
that, verse 11. We look for judgment, answers. Why? Why? There is none. If we'd have looked
for them before the trouble happened, we'd know when it comes, right?
We'd have handled it a lot better. There is none. Salvation then. Everybody looks for salvation
when they get in trouble, don't they, Joe? I get on a hospital
bed, get sick, somebody dies, look for salvation. Oh, he made
his peace with God. Says who? See that? It's as clear as if
the Lord wrote it this morning. He did write it this morning. For ever, O Lord, thy word is
settled in heaven. There's none for salvation. It's
far from us. See that? It's far from us. Why? God's not waiting around
to see who he can save. God's not waiting around to see
who he can help, hoping somebody will let him do something. That's
not the God of the Scripture. The Scripture says he hid from
us. He's not waiting around hoping
anything. It says he's far off from us,
verse 12. Because he's holy, in verse 12,
our transgressions are multiplied before him. Multiplied. And our sins testify against
us. Do you see that? We stink too
much for God to be around us. You say, Oh, preacher, what a
crude Sunday morning sermon. I didn't write this. We think too much for God to
be around us. Verse 12, Our transgressions
are multiplied before thee, our sins testified against us. Our
transgressions are with us, our sins ever before us. As for our
iniquities, we know them. We know, don't we? We know. Verse 13, in transgressing and
lying against the Lord. How do you lie against the Lord?
Oh, how I love Jesus. We lie when we sing these songs. Don't we? We lie when we sing these songs. Tell Him how we love Him, how
we want to worship Him. Transgressing and lying against
the Lord, departing away from our God. That's what this is, lying against
the Lord. Hypocrisy. We're full of it. We have a Bible
in one hand, and we're sinning with the other. Huh? Verse 14. And judgment is turned
away backward. Judgment is turned way backward. Truth, judgment, justice. Standeth afar off, the truth
is fallen in the street. Equity cannot enter." Do you
see that? Judgment turned away backward. Judgment. Today, men
say there is none. Men say this. They've got it
all backwards, you know. They say, God is all love now.
And there is no judgment. They've got it backwards, don't
they? You don't preach love first. You preach judgment. And then
love, if they repent from their sins. They've got it all backward,
haven't they? You don't go to folks with the
love of God. You go with the justice of God, the holiness
of God, the judgment against their sin. Then, as I said, if
they repent of it, bring forth fruit. This is what John was
preaching, wasn't it? Bring forth fruit, meat for repentance. Let's see some real repentance,
John said. And then comes the message of
love. Well, I got good news for you.
You a sinner? Oh, am I a sinner. God loves you. And Christ died
for you. He's not mad at you. Are you
a sinner? No, I'm righteous. He's mad at
you. He's angry with you. He's going to spew you out of
his mouth. A sinner is a sacred thing. The Holy Spirit has made
him so. Hard to find them. I was talking
to Brother Stoniker on the phone yesterday, and he was talking
about some problems in the church, about a man this and a woman
did this and this and that and the other problems and so forth.
Not that, you know, it's just typical congregation is all,
not having any more problems than anybody else, any other
congregation, but he was talking about some grievous things. And
I said, you mean you've got sinners down there? I mean, that sounds like a bunch
of sinners in that church. He said, oh, they are. I said,
can I come sit with them? He said, can I just come? What
is it about you, I said, Marvin, what is it about you down there
that makes sinners want to come there? Whatever you're preaching,
that's what I want to hear, I said. Common people heard it gladly,
sinners. But if you say, preacher, you
haven't given us any good news yet. No, you've got to hear the
bad news first. You've got to get real low. You
see, who the Lord abases, He abases you first. He breaks you
first. He abases you before He exalts
you. They've got it backwards, don't they, Joe? There are preachers
trying to exalt people when the Lord's going to abase them someday,
eternally. Preachers today are trying to
lift people up. They're trying to Bind up the hearts of the people,
you know. These broken-hearted people,
they're trying to fix something. Their hearts need to be broken. And if they get so broke that
no man can fix it, then maybe they'll call upon the only one
who can. The only true balm in Gilead. Like I said, I like to preach
us just as low as I can get us. Because that makes Christ just
as high as he can be, doesn't it? That makes the gospel just
as sweet as it can be. If I can preach us just as helpless
as I can, you'll see all your strength and all your help and
all your hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's the way it
ought to be. Why? Because that's the way it is.
Neither is there salvation in any other! None other name under
heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." Not get saved,
be saved. The difference between getting
saved and being saved. Look on, read on. It says, verse
14, "...truth is fallen in the streets." There is no gospel
to be found, is there? No gospel, no true doctrine being
heard. And he says, "...equity cannot
enter." They won't allow it in the churches, will they, John?
They won't allow the gospel in their churches. Churches, excuse
me, Lord, for using that blessed term in reference to these whorehouses. But they won't allow it in there.
Won't allow the gospel in there, equity, truth, righteousness,
justice cannot enter. Verse 15, truth faileth. The
truth faileth. Try to preach the gospel in one
of these congregations today, you'll get thrown out mighty
quickly. Mighty quickly. It fails to reach many. The truth
fails to reach many. Does that mean the truth fails?
Oh, no. Oh, no. Not as though the word of God
has taken no effect. Lord knows them that are his.
The truth will reach his people. His sheep will hear his voice.
He says, they'll hear it. The truth hadn't failed, but
men's hearts are going to. The truth faileth, though it
faileth to get a hearing, is what it is. And he that get a
hearing among goats, the sheep hear it. But he, and he that,
look at this, verse 15. Look at it. He that departeth from evil maketh
himself a prey." Do you have a marginal reference there? Besides
maketh himself a prey, does it say, he that departed from evil
is accounted as mad? He that is not conformed to this
world, the world religion that is, but rather transformed, John,
by the renewing of his mind, bringing every thought into captivity
to Christ, saying that Christ is all. He that leaves the camp
of modern day religion to go outside the camp to where Christ
really is, the camp of modern religion, to go worship Christ
and Christ alone, they'll say that man's mad. And you're a prey to everybody
coming and going, aren't you? Huh? Everybody wants to take
a pot shot at you. Why? Because you worship Christ? They count it as mad, as crazy.
They'll call you a cult. If that's a cult, worshiping
Christ alone, this is a cult. Right? Terry Kensington? If it's
a cult to worship Christ and Christ alone, and to say that
God is not worshiped with men's hands, to worship God in spirit,
rejoicing Christ and His person and His work alone, and put no
confidence in anything we do, if that's a cult, this is a cult.
If that's brainwashing, you'd better get your brain washed. You'd better get your soul washed
in the blood of the Lamb. Truth is—the fact of the matter
is truth, it says, verse 15, yea, truth failing. The fact
of the matter is truth is so foreign in our day, is so foreign,
that if you dare to stand up and just read the Word of God,
men will say, what's that strange doctrine I'm hearing? Huh? Won't
they? Read it. I say, Romans, Ephesians,
just read it, and they'll say, What is this strange doctrine
we're hearing? Well, that's the doctrines of
devils. No, it's not. It's Romans 9. It's the doctrine
of Christ. It's the doctrine of grace. You're
hollering, preacher. I'm hoping somebody out there
will hear me. He said, Lift up your voice. What'll I say, Isaiah
said? What'll I say? Cry unto the people,
Behold your God! All flesh is grass. Boy, if we
can get down in the grass, then there's only one place to look,
isn't there? It says the Lord saw it, all
this. Verse 15, the Lord saw it and
it displeased him. There's no judgment. You know,
I ask that question of myself all the time. Deborah, I ask, I say, Lord,
why don't you do something about these false prophets? All the
time. The newspapers, the radios, the
TV, everything is full. The whole world is full of this
perversion. And I ask, Lord, why don't you
do, why don't you shut that man's mouth? Why do you allow this
to go on? He sees it. Huh? He's madder
than I am. You can count on it. Huh? You
can count on it. He's angrier than I am. He's
just patient. I'm not. He's long-suffering,
and you better account that the long-suffering of the Lord is
your salvation. He's waiting to be gracious to
whom he will, to be merciful to whom he will. He's waiting
for a sheep. You better hope it's your child. You better hope it's
your husband. You better hope it's your wife. You better hope
it's your parent. You better hope it's one of these that you
hope it is. And he's waiting to be posted
to whom he will. He's going to call in all his sheep. Then when
it's all over, then he says, I'll set it in order before their
eyes. Then I'll show them what I really think about them. God doesn't pay all of his accounts
in 1993, but he pays every one of them. He says, vengeance is
mine. Go ahead and get mad. That's
fine. I'm mad too. Just don't take vengeance. It's
mine. He says it's in my hand, and
I'm going to exact it. You say the Lord is going to
take pleasure in the death of the wicked? No, not pleasure
in that sense. But when it comes to his glory
and his namesake and his Son whom they despise, don't you
think for a minute if somebody killed my child and never regretted
it, never repented over it, that I wouldn't take pleasure? from
wiping them off the planets, huh? So we're supposed to forgive
and forget. We'll see about that. God does
forgive. You say we're supposed to love
our enemies. He does, but not all of them. Right? Thank God, bless God, the high
heaven, that He does love some of His enemies, that He does
forgive some of His enemies, but not all of them. And this
is the way justice has gone way backward today. They say God
loves everybody. It ain't so. And He's going to
set it in order before everybody's out. They're going to see. And I'm going to be around to
see it, too. Hopefully by His mercy, by His grace. And I'm
going to say amen to it. It says the Lord saw it. I need
to get to this. It displeased him. There was
no judgment. And he saw, verse 16, that there
was no man, no real men. You know there are no real men?
Where are the real men today? Huh? There are no real men today. You can't
tell the men from the women today. Huh? No, you can't. Can't tell the men from the women.
But in the purest sense of the word, there's no real men and
no Christ-like men. Scripture says the righteous
perish from the earth, and the people don't take it, don't consider
it. Where are the real preachers?
There aren't many, are there? Huh? Real people of God today. Huh? The Lazaruses, the Marthas,
the Marys, well, they're around, just not as many. And there's
no man. The Lord said He saw that there
was no man, no real men or women who live for God's glory. They
come far short of the glory that God created man for, that is,
to give God glory, to live for His glory. You know, God created
man in His image. God created man in His image.
You're hard-pressed to find a man with that in his eyes, with that
in his countenance. Men and women are looking more
like animals, aren't they? Evolution is reverse. We started
out on two, we've gone back to all fours. That's the way it
is. That's the truth of reverse evolution. Verse 16, he said there was no
man. He wondered that there was no
intercessor. No intercessor. You remember me quoting from
Psalm 14, which says, None calleth on God. You hear anybody calling
on God today? Huh? I hear preachers calling
on the people to do things. I hear the people calling on
the preacher to do something. I don't hear anybody calling
on God. God be merciful to me the same. Do you? You see anybody
in these revivals running down the front, weeping their eyes
out? God be merciful to me. Men and brethren, what must we
do? Like they did at Pentecost, in
these Pentecostal churches. Let's hear, see if anybody's
calling on God for that. Huh? What can we do? We've killed
the Lord of glory. God is angry with us. What are
we going to do about our sins? You ever hear anybody say that?
There ain't nobody. Where is the intercessor? Where
is the preacher crying on behalf of the people? like Moses, to
God stay His hand for His wrath and His judgment against the
people, which is imminent! Huh? Where is the preacher like
that? No interest at all. From the beginning, God has seen
it all. His eyes behold His eyelids try
the children of men. He saw it all. And you know,
as I said a while ago, I'm not preaching at you, I'm preaching
to us. The Word of God is preaching
here. And all of this is me, my nature. When God saw all this, when God
looked down upon the children of men to see if there were any
that did understand that any that call on God, Ed Berry, I
was right in the middle of them. He saw me right smack in the
middle of them. And now it gets good. But he looked on me like he looked
on that child in Ezekiel's field. Loathing of my When the Lord
passed by me, he saw me, polluted in my sin, just like everybody
else. But he pitied me. His eye looked
on me with pity. He looked on me with eyes of
love and mercy, though I was a bad apple like all the rest.
When he looked down in that barrel, that cesspool of iniquity called
planet Earth, to see if there were any Good, righteous, called
on God. He said, none, and I was the
none. I was in, I was the bad apple like all the rest of the
bunch, stinking. But the Scripture says, he has
reserved you as the apple of his eye. Did you know there's
a Scripture that says that? Huh? I was a bad apple like the
rest of them. But he said, I'm going to have
that bad apple. Not every cook can make a good pie out of a
bad apple, is there? Huh? And only God can bring salvation
out of such a mess as I was. Huh? God says, I'll have that
one. The angel said, That one? That
one. Well, it'll cost you. I'll pay
it, whatever it costs. I'll buy that one. I'll save
that one. Verse 16. He said, And his arm
brought salvation unto him. His arm. God determined to save
me. I'm just going to talk about
myself. I don't know about you. All right? I hope the Lord can
apply this to you personally. God determined to save a people.
I bless God, I believe I'm among that people. He determined to
save a people who was going to take a mighty work, a glorious
work. With man it would be impossible.
He's going to take God to do it Himself. Man couldn't say,
man's dead. He can't do anything. So what'd
God do? It says His arm brought, He rolled
up His sleeves. spit on his hands and went to work. His arm brought
salvation. What's that? That's Christ, isn't
it? The son of his right hand? His
right-hand man? His right arm, his strength,
God? Christ came down, and it says
his righteousness. His righteousness is sustained. What is the righteousness? Who
is the righteousness of God? Christ says God declared His
righteousness. To declare, I say, at this time,
God's righteousness. Who's that? What's that? Well,
if we do. No, it ain't we, nothing. It's
Christ. That's the righteousness of God.
Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believes. The righteousness of God came down. The righteousness
that God demands of me came down. Why? To sustain him, it said.
His righteousness, did you notice that, Rick? Did you notice that?
His righteousness sustained him. God's righteousness sustained
him. What does that mean? Jesus Christ declared God. Jesus Christ glorified God, sustained
His glory, which had been tarnished in the hands of men for so many
years. Sustained His honor. Sustained His law. Glorified
God as a man. Man says, I object. God says,
I've sustained. I've been sustained. I've been
glorified. I've been honored. Don't you
say nothing about it. Who art thou to reply against God, O man? God saw no man, but one. He says He saw no man, but one. And to this day, He sees no man,
but one. Huh? And if you're in Him, really,
God sees two men. He sees Adam and Christ. First, Adam is of the earth,
earthy, and they that are of the earth are like Him. They
are of the world. are under that condemnation. The second Adam
is the Lord from glory, and they that are found in this one will
die like he did. They that are found in this one
will live like he does. God saw no man but one, Christ,
one for the job. God saw no man but one, one way,
one truth, one life, one righteous man, one who could ascend the
holy hill of the Lord, one redeemer, one sovereign It says, God brought
forth his righteousness. God brought him forth. Did you
notice that in verse 16? It says, God brought salvation. It doesn't say he offered it, does it? John, those angels
didn't say, call his name Jesus because he'll try to save his
people. Huh? It says he'll save them. That's
what his name means, Savior. If God didn't offer salvation,
he brought it. Huh? You better believe that's
all your salvation. God brought forth his Son in
the fullness of time, made of a woman, made under the law to
redeem them that were under the curse of the law. Verse 17, it
gets better, and it says, He put on righteousness as a breastplate
and the helmet of salvation on his head. Are you looking at this picture
of our Lord? Do you need a captain? Let's look at this picture again.
He's called Captain, my Captain, the Captain of our salvation.
Now, John, I'm down in a pit. The forces of evil are against
me. It looks hopeless. My Captain rolled up his sleeves
and said he put on a breastplate of righteousness and a helmet
of salvation on his head. He's coming for me. Christ has
holiness in his heart and salvation on his mind. Purity of heart and a people
on his mind. Righteousness as a breastplate,
a helmet of salvation. And he put on the garment of
vengeance for clothing. He was made strong in his Lordship
and the power of his might. John, he put on the whole armor
of God for me. Have you ever thought about Ephesians
6 in reference to Christ? I hadn't until now. He put on
the whole armor of God for me, everything necessary to protect
me, to save me. That holy heart, those clean
hands, that pure mind, helmet of salvation, girt with truth,
sword in his hand. And he came down to get me. I'm
his senior fellow, and he's my handsome prince. The prince,
he came down with that sword and cut the head off of that
giant, that dragon. This ain't no fairy tale. He says he came down, verse 18,
according to their deeds, according he will repay. What's that? He
was made sin for us who know sin. Huh? The wages of sin is death. Who
gets it? My captain got it. He was wounded. for our transgression. God repaid
Christ for what he owed me. Fury to his adversary. I was
the enemy of God. Christ made peace by the blood
of his cross. How's that? By bearing the wrath of God,
the enmity of God. Recompense to his enemy. To the
Highlands he will repay recompense. Oh, I wish I could preach Christ. I wish I could preach this. You
know, I sit here and I read it, and it just won't come out. This
is one of the most glorious pictures in all the Bible, of our great
captain. He came down here. You saw what
shape we were in, huh? By nature. And him coming down
here, spitting on his hand, rolling up his sleeve, hiding his glory,
putting on the robe of flesh, sinful flesh. All that armor
in his hands and on him to save his ugly bride. I tell you what, someday I will
be able to. Verse 19. And I do now. I fear the name of the Lord.
I reverence. That's the reason I say holy
and reverent is his name. That's the reason I say that
nobody is worthy titles and honor and recognition compared to this
Lord. Nobody saved me. Ain't nobody
done anything for me. Really, when it comes down to
it, only Christ. Only Christ. And I fear His name. And I'm
zealous for His honor, His glory. So shall they fear the name of
the Lord from the West and His glory from the rising of the
sun. Look at this. This is great. When the enemies
shall come in like a flood. And they do, don't they? My sins are ever before me. Satan
sifts me like wheat. Johnny sifts me all the time.
You know what it means to sift something? You're sifting sand.
It's you're looking closely for something. Something to find
something. And Satan's sifting people like
wheat. Sit down, there's something I
can get you with. Sit, there's something else.
He sifts, and there's a lot to find, Nancy. There's a lot to
find. He sifts me like we, he's like
a roaring lion, and I hear him roaring at me all the time. You
ain't no Christian. And it says when, when the enemy
comes in like a, like a flood, it says the Spirit of the Lord
shall lift up a standard. What's the standard? cross of my Lord Jesus Christ.
Who would approve that condemnation? Who would delay anything to the
charge of God's elect? The Holy Spirit stands before
me and bears witness with my spirit that I am Christ. It doesn't
hold up a literal cross like a vampire, you know. All you
have to do is say to the devil, to resist him, is say, And he runs like a puppy dog.
Huh? That's the only way you can resist
it. The only way. A standard. Huh? Against it. Well, verse 20, and I'll quit. It says, The Redeemer shall come
to Zion. unto them that turn from transgression
in Jacob, saith the Lord." This Christ came, and he did all these
things. It may have sounded like a fairy
tale to you. You may not even be interested in it, somebody
in here. I don't know. Thank God I'm interested. If
you're not interested, I'm interested. I'm going to be eternally interested,
by the grace of God. But he came, he really came. This sovereign Savior actually
came and did all this for his people in a spiritual way. And
he's coming again. And it says that in the scriptures
that he's going to gather all of his elect. He said, Come,
you blessed of the Lord, into the salvation, the place prepared
for you before the foundation of the world. Come, my little
one. He's going to bring all his children
to the Father, present them, so they're all here. But it also
says he's going to make all of his enemies his footstool. His footstool. The Redeemer shall
come to Zion. Zion is the church. And to them
that turn from transgression in Jacob. You say, I still feel
like a sinner, preacher. All these things you were describing
to me, I still feel that way. Have you repented of it? Have
you turned to Christ? Do you look to Christ? To turn
from your sin, you have to look to Christ, don't you? Are our
ways opposite of God's ways? Well, how are you going to turn?
You look to Christ. That's what it means to turn.
Turn from? Everyone that turned from transgression
to the Lord said, As for me, verse 21, here's what God says
about concerning concerning all those that do, all those that
look to Christ, turn to him. As for me, this is my covenant
with them, saith the Lord." And he can't lie, and he's not an
Indian giver. He never takes it back. He said,
this is what I want, this is my covenant. My spirit that is
upon Christ and my words which I have put in his mouth shall
not depart out of his mouth. When Christ said, I give unto
them eternal life, they'll never perish. As we saw last Sunday morning
when Christ said, I will do for them all that's necessary. Amen. Nor out of the mouth of thy seed
the word of God written on the heart of his people. God, here's
your salvation, Teresa. Here's all your salvation. God
won't let you leave, no matter how badly at times you seem to
want to. Huh? Sherry, that's all your
salvation, no matter how much How all we, like sheep, have
turned our own way? Here's your salvation. God says,
I won't let her leave me. But, Lord, look, she's running
the other way. Watch me. Watch me. I know what it looks
like, but watch this. He keeps getting glory by bringing
those wayward sheep back. They keep coming, a tail between
their legs, broken all over again. That just makes Christ one step
higher, doesn't it, Joe? It just makes that gospel one
bit sweeter. And he says, "...and their seeds
seed, saith the Lord from henceforth and for evermore." The name of
God's people are written on Christ's hands and in his heart. The gospel
is in their mouth and always will be in their mouth forevermore.
They'll be singing the songs of the sovereign Savior from
this day forward. They'll be singing hymns of Him
who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own precious
blood, our sovereign Savior. Okay. Let's sing a hymn in closing.