Turn to Isaiah chapter 50. Isaiah chapter 50. Let me say this. I would ten thousand times rather
Follow someone who just preached a great message, and someone
who missed it. That was a great message. It
sure makes running that race a lot easier. It's a lot easier
when they pass the baton off smoothly, and you try to pick
it up and straighten it up. That was a great message. I thank
the Lord for that. All Scripture. All Scripture. From Genesis to Revelation is
given by inspiration of God. This is not an ordinary book. You know, I have a lot of books
written by different men on the Scriptures, but they're not the
Scriptures. This is the Word of God. This
is the book we go to. This is the book where the Lord
Jesus Christ, our Redeemer, is revealed in the pages of this
book. Make much of the Word of God.
Make much of it. Our Lord did. Our Lord did. He quoted the Scriptures. When
Satan came to tempt Him into wilderness, what did he do? He
quoted the Word of God. Thus saith the Word of God. He
didn't say, Thus saith John George. It was thus saith the Word of
God. Quote anybody but the Word of God. A man has to be blind, spiritually
blind, deaf, dumb, and dead to read the Word of God and not
seek Christ throughout the whole Word of God. He is the message
of the book. Christ said, take my yoke upon
you and do what? Learn of me. He's the teacher,
and he's the lesson. He's the message of this book.
If we leave him out of it, we do not have a message. There's
no good news. I have no good news apart from
the Lord Jesus Christ. None. None whatsoever. It is
through the Lord Jesus Christ that's revealed in the pages
of this book. that we come to know God, that
we come to know the living God, to know who He is. It is through
Christ that we come to know ourselves. You really never know yourself
until you know Him, not until you find out who He is when you
see yourself. He's the key of knowledge. He
is the key of knowledge. Until we know Him, we really
don't know anything. Not really. Talking about that a little bit
today. We really don't know much. Paul said we know a part, we
preach a part. And we'll do that all the way
to the grave. But he's the key of knowledge. He is the embodiment
of wisdom. The embodiment of it. The embodiment
of wisdom. The embodiment of truth. He didn't
just tell the truth. He's the embodiment of it. He
is the revelation of God the Father. He that has seen me has
seen the Father. Philip, I've been so long in
time with you, and you don't know me yet. Oh, I'm so glad
he's merciful. So glad he's merciful to sinners.
I've been here with you for three years, and you don't know me
yet. Oh, he that has seen me has seen
the Father. If you want to know what the
Father is like, study Jesus Christ. Get in the Gospel. Get in the
whole Word of God and find out who He is. And you'll know who
the Father is. He is the express image of God. That's who He is. That's who this man is. Now, let's look in Isaiah chapter
15. In this chapter, we have the
revelation of sin in verses 1 and 2. In verses 2 and 3, we have
the revelation of God's power. And in verses 4 and 5, we have
the revelation of the Redeemer, who is the power of God to save. Christ is that power of God to
save, as Charlie said. And then verse 6 and 7, we have
the revelation of his sufferings. He told the disciples, I must
go to Jerusalem. I must go there. I must be rejected
by the scribes and the elders. I must suffer. He must suffer. There's no way around it. Father,
if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Did it? No. Not possible. Not possible for
you and I to be saved without Him suffering in the wrath of
God for us. Not possible. And then verse
ten, we have the call to faith, trust in the name of the Lord.
And verse eleven, we have the destruction of those who do not
believe. Now, verse one, God speaks. God speaks, and He reveals sin.
He lays the axe to the root of all problems. And here's what he says. Where
is the bill of your mother's divorcement? Produce the paper that says,
I divorce your mother. He said, produce that paper.
In those days, a man, if he divorced his wife, he would produce a
paper that said he divorced his wife. And he said, produce it. Where is it? Show it to me. You can't. You can't. I'm not the one that left. I'm
not the one that divorced. You'll never meet God in divorce
court. When He makes a commitment, He's committed. You'll never
meet Him in divorce court. Even He said, Moses gave you
that. Divorcement. In the beginning,
what? It wasn't so. God didn't give
it to you. He said Moses gave it to you because of the hardness
of your heart. And he's saying here, you produce the paper.
You produce the paper that says that I divorced your mother.
You can't. I'm not the one that left. Did Adam leave God or God leave
Adam? Adam left God. He's the one that left. Of which
of my creditors have I sold you? Who am I in so much debt to that
I had to sell the vineyard and the family to satisfy the debt? What questions? God has no debts,
has no creditors. He owes no one. The truth is
this. Here's the truth. You sold yourselves. You sold yourselves. little pleasure
in sin for a season, you sold yourselves. You see, the problem
is not with God, and it's never with God. It's with us. It's
never with Him. It's with us. The problem's always
with us. We walk according to the course
of this world, and we're by nature, the children of wrath, even as
others. The problem's never with God.
It's with us. It's with us. If the gospel leaves a people,
it's not because God left them, it's because they left God. They
left the gospel. In writing to those seven churches,
I believe it was the church of Ephesus, he said, you left your
first love. You left. You left. The problem's with us. Because
he says here in the next verse, wherefore when I came, it's evident
he didn't leave them. When I came, came to my own vineyard,
you wanted nothing to do with me." Isn't that sad? Isn't that sad? When the Redeemer
came into the world as son of God, the One who created it,
you would have thought that everyone would have rejoiced. This is
the Creator. This is the Savior. This is our
God. Instead, He said when He came
unto His own, His own received Him not. And when I called, when I called,
he said, none answered. None answered. He called to the marriage supper,
and they all had excuses. They all had excuses. Everyone had something to do.
He's called by the gospel of peace, but they were not interested. I'm sure glad he did more than
just give a general call, aren't you? I'm sure glad that he made
me willing in the day of his power. That he gave an effectual
call like he did to Lazarus. Lazarus! Come forth. That wasn't a general call. No. That was a powerful call. That
was a cause of life. Lazarus! Come forth, I'm telling
you this, everyone whom He saves, He gives that same call to them. You can talk till you're blue
in the face. You can talk until the cows come home. And men are
not going to have anything to do with God till He calls them
by the power of His grace. He said, when I called, you didn't
want anything to do with me. Is my hand shortened? Is this
the problem? Is this the problem? He reveals
his power here. Is my hand shortened at all? Is my hand withered that it cannot
redeem? Or have I no power to deliver
you? Are you where you are? Because
God has not the power to save you? No! Absolutely not. Did Adam fall
because of God's weakness? Absolutely not. Not. Has time affected the power of
God? Has it affected God? Has time
weakened His power like it does us as we grow older? Absolutely
not. Have we gone beyond His power
to save? No. Scripture says He can save
unto the uttermost. Them that come unto God by Him,
seeing He ever lives to make the end of the world. You're
not a hard nut to crack. Not any of us. There's not one
of us that's hard to crack if God wants to crack us. We're not. No case is too hard for God. Oh, don't want somebody to get
stepped up and buried in a place like that. You know, I remember
this. Back when I was a teenager, 16, 17, my brother, you know,
he got saved. And boy, he was working on me.
Him and another friend, they would corner me, and they would
try to talk me into making a decision. Try to talk me into what they
call, get saved. And I tell you what, after a
while, I felt like I was pretty strong. I was sinner. Honestly,
I felt like I was a standing God. I felt like I didn't know. I'm somebody. He really wants
me. No, you're not going to get me. I tell you what, one day
I heard the gospel. I heard Henry Mayhem preach on
television. I heard that God could save whom He will, pass
by whom He will. And for the first time in my life, I became
afraid of God, that He might pass me by. He might pass you. He may not save you. He may not save you. He may pass
you by. He'll have mercy on you. He'll
have mercy. And whom He will, He'll harden you. He'll harden you. And that scared, that hit
me. That hit me hard when I heard
that. Never heard that in my life. All I heard was Jesus wants
to save you. God wants to save you. Won't you let God save you?
That's what I heard. And then one day I heard, no,
He may not save you. No, He may not. He may leave
you alone. He may let you meet Him in judgment.
And He'll be a just God if He does so. He'll be just if He
saves you and He'll be just if He damages you. That's an awesome thing
to realize. No case is too hard for God.
He says, listen, at my rebuke, at my word, I dried up the sea. We built dams to try to hold
back some water at His word. That sea dried up. It hardened. The laws of nature, what we call,
were suspended. It's like when he stopped the
sun in the sky. Was it for Joshua? He suspended
the laws of nature that he had set in order. At my rebuke, I'd ride up to
see. Now who am I? If he rebukes me,
what's he going to do? How am I going to get... How
dried up do you think I'm going to be if he rebukes me? At my
rebuke, I dried up the sea. He spoke, and the sea parted,
and Israel, his people, went over on dry ground. They didn't
have to wait six months for it to dry up. He parted the sea,
the ground was dry, and they went over just like on a paved
road. It's amazing how God describes Himself so much differently than
men do. He said, You thought I was altogether like yourselves.
I don't want a God like myself. Up and down. Feel good one day,
bad the next. Happy one day, mad at somebody
the next. Oh, I don't want a God like that. I want a God that's
infinitely above me. Infinitely. God is able to redeem
and to save whomsoever He will. He's able to do it. He's able
to do it. Our thoughts of God are just
way too little. Way too little. He is omnipotent. He is power. He doesn't just have power, he
is power. The Lord said to those demons, come out! Did you ever see one not come
out? In the scriptures, did you ever
read where one did not come out? Did you ever read where one of
them said, no, I'm staying here. They came out without a word. Some of them, one of them was
a legion, you know. It was in that man, they said,
a legion. They said, let us go over those pigs. They begged him, they begged
him to, at least let him go over. They didn't fight him. They didn't
fight him. They came out. When he said come
out, they came out. That's power. You know, power,
here's power. When you speak, it happens. That's
power. That's power. A believer—I want
you to get this—a believer's present distress is not a reflection
on the power of God, but on the will of God. It's God's will. If I'm going
through some distress, If I'm going through some great trial,
that's not a reflection of God's power, His inability to save
me from it. It's a reflection of His will. It's His will, or it wouldn't
be happening. It wouldn't happen if it was
not His will. I closed the heavens. We can close the body. We can
close our kids. And that's about all we can close.
I couldn't close this group. I don't have that kind of finances or
resources or power. I can't do that. He said, I close
the heavens. Look at the stars. Go out and
count the stars. You can't. You can't. I close the heavens. And he says
here, I close the heavens with blackness. It's about to turn
night. He's about to close it. Here's
a little pie with darkness. And I make sackcloth their covering.
He can bring a storm cloud over and just turn the lights out.
Just like when our Lord died on the cross, when Todd was preaching
here last night. It was the darkness covered the
land. Thick darkness covered the land for three hours. Who
did that? God did that. God did that. You and I can turn the lights
out in this house. We can flip the switch. He can turn them
out in heaven. Think of that. In heaven, he
can turn the lights out. Over in Revelation chapter 6,
you'll read where he can turn it out. And one day, we'll turn
it out. I can cover a candle, but God
can cover the sun. He said, I can cover it with
blackness. He said over in Isaiah 45, it
said, I form the light, and I create darkness. That's His power. Here's just a glimpse. This is a glimpse of God's power. But the power of God to save
is in these next few verses. And it concerns the Redeemer.
The Lord Jesus Christ. Apart from Him, nobody will be
saved. And He says here in verse 4, we have the Redeemer described
here. The Lord God hath given me the
tongue of the learned. Christ is that prophet that Moses
said would come. This is that prophet, the Lord
Jesus Christ. And I'm telling you this, when
he spoke, when he spoke, it meant something. There was never, I believe that
there was never idle chit-chat with him. Every word that came
out of his mouth was wisdom. spoken in wisdom,
spoken in truth. He's that prophet Moses said
would come. In Christ all the fullness of
the wisdom of God dwells. And if we learn anything of who
God is, it will be through Christ the prophet. He's the one who
reveals the Father. No man knows the Son but the
Father, and He to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him. If we
have any hope, if we have any comfort, From our sins, it will
be through Christ speaking to us the gospel of peace. Speaking
that word in season. That word in season spoken is
the gospel. It's the gospel. Listen to this.
Son, thy sins be forgiven. Boy, that piece, wouldn't you
know. Oh Lord, speak that to my heart. Son, thy sins be forgiven. Does any man condemn thee? That
woman, that doltrous woman, they brought her, they was ready to
stone her, and they was going to try to trip him up at the
same time. Religion, there's nothing meaner than religion
without Christ. Nothing. And he says to her,
he says, does any man condemn thee? She said, no. He said,
well, neither do I. Neither do I. Go in peace. Go in peace. Oh, every one of
you who believe the gospel tonight, go home in peace. Thy sins are
forgiven. Go home in peace. Thy sins are
forgiven. And he says here, he wakeneth
morning by morning. In other words, God wakens him. He's saying, the Father wakens
me every morning. He said, as I hear, I see. He
wasn't making this stuff up. As I hear him speak, he had the
Spirit without measure. And every waking minute, he was
instructed by the Spirit of God concerning the will of his Father. As God, he knew all things. As
a man, he learned all things. Whew! Can you grasp that? No. That's deep. I'm in over my head every time
I step in the pulpit. Can't do it. Oh, he knew it all
and then learned it all. So that's something. The Lord
God, he said, had opened. He has digged my ear. And listen, I was not rebellious. He's the only son that wasn't.
He's the only son that wasn't. I was not rebellious, neither
turned away back from what was revealed to him, what was retort
to him, as him being the Messiah and the suffering that he was
going to go through. He said, I didn't turn my back on him.
I didn't say no. Because he's willing. He's a willing Savior. We can't
even comprehend how willing he was to go to the cross, be made
sin and die, that you and I might be with him and behold his glory.
He said, Father, I will. He's the only one who can say
that. He's the only one who can say,
Father, I will. That they be with me where I
am, not where I'm going. Where I am. That they may what? Behold my glory. The glory I
had with you before the world was. Have you ever? seen anything,
experienced anything that was so glorious, that was so breathtaking,
that you just had to have somebody else see it. And he said, Father,
I want them to be there and see this glory. What we're in for. I will, that
they be with me, that they may behold my glory. He said, I want
them to see it. I want them to see it. He was willing to do the Father's
will and redeem his elect. He loved the Father, and he delighted. He said, My meat, my meat is
not T-bone. It's not beans and potatoes. My meat is to do the will of
Him that sent me. That's my meat. That's what drives
me. That's what gives me the energy
to go and what motivates me is my Father's will. If we could
just catch a good measure of that Spirit. He did not rebel at the shame
and the suffering that His will called for. And here's the evidence of His
willingness. He didn't just say, He didn't just say it. He did
it. He proved it. I gave. They didn't take. I gave my back to the smithers.
They didn't take it. He had to help them up off the
ground so they could go to Jerusalem and finish the work. He had to help. He had to enable
those men to get up and take him and finish him. Finish the
job here, men. Get up. I gave my back to the smiters
and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair. When it came time
to suffer, he did not draw back, he did not flinch, he said, I
gave my back. I gave my back. Here it is, smited,
that's what this back was made for. A body has now prepared
me. This back was made for you to
smite. By his stripes we are healed. Have at it. That's what he's
saying. I gave my back. Have at it. That's
what it's for. That's what it's for. I grew
this beard so that you could pluck it out and fulfill my Father's
purpose and will. Just a plucking of that beard
fulfilled the purpose and will of God in this time of His sufferings.
I hid not my face from shame and spitting. When they pluck that beard out,
that's what it's for. Pull it out. When they spit on
his face, that's what this face is for, to spit on it. That's what this body's for,
to sacrifice. Heaven, when a person is ashamed,
They had their faith, but our Lord was not ashamed, because
He knew the Lord God, He said, would help me. I know He'll help
me. For the Lord God, He said, will
help me. I'm not in this alone. I'm not in this alone. Salvation
is the work of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It's
the work of the triune God. I'm not in this alone. Here is
the God-man speaking with great confidence that God, the Creator
of heaven and earth, would be with him in this whole thing.
Until that time when he said, My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? Why hast thou forsaken me? If only we could catch a good
measure of this same confidence. God will help us. Isn't that
right, Earl? Why can't we not remember that? Why can't we remember that? Christ
knew that he would not be ashamed. Now, if one person perishes for
whom he died, he'll be ashamed. He has something to be ashamed
of. But no, that's not going to happen. That is not going
to happen. He knew he would not be ashamed.
His work and his suffering would not be in vain. He knew that. If anyone perishes, it's in vain. If I gave my son, and I'm just
talking about on a human level, if I gave my son to die for somebody
and they perished, well, my son died in vain. It was in vain. What was I thinking? And if anybody perishes for whom
the Son of God died for, it's in vain. What was God thinking? But that's not going to happen. He knew he would not fail. Oh, what confidence it gives
you if you knew you would not fail. You know, I have a business,
I've sold it. Boy, it would have been nice at the beginning of
that thing if I knew I wouldn't fail. If I knew I was going to be successful,
And no matter what I went through, had to go through, it wouldn't
matter. I mean, I can handle it. Because I know the end result
is I'm successful. Christ is, He's wildly successful. He's not barely, He's wildly
successful. Wait till you see His glory. Just wait. Everyone for whom He was doing
this for is going to be saved and they're going to be whole
His glory that He had with the Father before the world was.
And they are going to be partakers of that glory. That's amazing. That's deep. That's deep. And listen, brethren, we won't
be ashamed either. Let people mock us. Let them
think we're nuts and whatever. We'll not be ashamed. And with such confidence, With
such confidence, he set his face like a flint. Absolutely determined to get
the job done. Satan, for 40 days, 40 nights, driving. Well, he was there 40
days and 40 nights, and at the end of it, he was hungry, and
then Satan came and tried him. Couldn't turn him. The first
Adam, I tell you what, when you go
back and read Genesis, you don't see a struggle. You don't even
see a struggle with the first Adam over following him. Not
even a hint of a struggle. The second Adam quotes the Word
of God and sends him on his way. He said his face like a friend.
And I've learned this in 53 years. A man or a woman, will never
accomplish anything until you're absolutely determined to do it.
Until you're determined to do it, you'll never accomplish anything.
He said he's faced like a flint, absolutely determined he's going
to go to that cross. Pilate tried to say that. He tried to say,
behold the man, trying to get him to release him. Here's Moravius.
Well, they tried every way in the world. He had to help every
one of them along to get the job done, finish this thing. He says, I know I'll not be ashamed. And we can say the same thing.
In Christ, I'll not be ashamed. He is near. He is near that justifies
me. He's near. He's not far off watching
this go on. He's near. He's with me. Who shall contend with me? Who
can argue the claims of Christ when the Father said He's approval
on Him? When He said, This is My beloved Son in whom I'm well
pleased. Who can contend with Him when
the Father of heaven and earth says, This is My beloved Son. This is the one I'm well pleased
with. He didn't say that about any other person. This one. This
one. Who can contend with Me if God
justifies Me? Who can discredit my ministry,
my life, my work, when God Almighty Himself approved it? Oh, man. And He did when He raised
him from the dead. Behold, he says, the Lord God
will help me. Boy, you notice how he keeps drawing his confidence
here from God's help and God's nearness. He didn't draw help from his own
strength. He said, no, it's my God. It
was with me. He's with me. Who can condemn
me? That's what he's saying. Sounds
like Romans chapter 8, doesn't it? All his enemies are going to
grow old and die, but Christ is the same yesterday, today,
and forever, and his years shall not fail. Is my hand shortened
that it cannot save? No. No. His enemies thought they
outlasted him when they crucified him on the cross, but, boy, did
they have a rude awakening. when they died, and to see Him standing
there as the judge of the quick and the dead. I thought we got
rid of you. Let me close here in verse 10. Here's a call to faith. Who is
among you that feareth the Lord? My soul, is there any here that
fears God? Stand in awe and respect and reverence of God? that obeys
the voice of His servant, His preachers, and they stand and
preach the gospel, that walks in darkness and has no light?
Is there anyone here like that? Let him trust. You know what
trust is? It's just nothing more than confidence,
absolute confidence that God will do just as He said He would. It is full confidence that God
is who He says He is and will do as He said He would. Let him trust. When you can't
see anything and you can't understand, you say, I don't understand what's
going on. I had a young man say this to
me not long ago. And I said, well, just trust.
Just trust in the name of the Lord. Just trust. He can do no
wrong. Understand? We can't understand.
If he told me, I probably still wouldn't understand. So just
trust. Trust. Just have confidence. I don't have to understand the
ways of God. I understand this. I understand
that He is wisdom. I understand the Lord is good.
He can do no wrong. I understand that. I understand that. Let not the
rich man glory in his riches, or the mighty man glory in his
strength, but let him glory in this, that he understandeth and
knoweth me." He understands how God saves sinners. I understand
that. I understand that through the Lord Jesus Christ, His person,
His work, everything about Him, God saves sinners. He's a just
God and a Savior in that man. and through that man, the Lord
Jesus Christ. I understand, I understand how God saves sinners. I understand
how God can justify me. But now all the workings of providence
and all that's going on in Sheol, I don't understand all that stuff.
And I don't need to. I don't need to understand. I
just need to trust. Just trust Him. Trust Him, it'll
be all right, I guarantee you. It'll be all right. Stay upon His God. Oh my. Trust in the name of the
Lord and stay upon God. Lean upon His Word. That's why
I said make much of the Book. Make much of the Word of God.
Stay upon His Word that He sends by His servants. The message
we've heard, all the messages we've heard. My soul, take them
home with you. Be like that old cow that chews
the cows, just let it come back up and chew. That may be kind
of gross to some people, but I grew up on a farm. I'd watch
them cows that would lay there and then they'd come back up
and they'd chew a while and go back down. Come back up. Boy,
if we could learn to do that in the gospel. Trust Him. Trust His promises.
Trust His promises. He's good for it. He's good for
it. But especially, trust His Son,
Jesus Christ. Trust Him. Trust Him. In times
of darkness, in times of doubt, trust Him. Look over here in
Psalm 56. This is a favorite. They're all favorites. I'll tell you what, they all
become favorites when you need them. You can read promises sometimes,
and it really doesn't... I don't want to sound bad here,
but they don't speak to you as much. But boy, one day something
happens, and then it's there. It's there. Psalm 56, verse 3. But time, I am afraid, I will
trust in thee. Even when I'm afraid of thee,
I'll trust in thee. Even when I'm afraid of God.
Joe said that, didn't he? Joe said, when I consider God,
I'm afraid. But then he said, though he slayed
me, I'll trust in him. What a paradox of a believer. But those who go after their
own way and their own righteousness, You leave this service, you go
after your own way, your own righteous after hearing all these
messages? God said, I'll destroy you. I'll destroy you. All right.