So, if you would, turn with me
to Romans 11. Romans 11. Romans 11 and verses
33 through 36 to start out with. O the depth of the riches, both
of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His
judgments and His ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind
of the Lord? Or who hath been His counselor?
Or who hath first given to Him, and it shall be recompensed unto
Him again? For of Him, and through Him,
and to Him are all things. to whom be the glory forever
and forever. Amen. What man born of Adam can figure
out God? And we just read right there
in that passage and get but just a glimpse of his majesty. We
are also told there is no way we can know what God knows and
we cannot figure out his ways. Which one of us will say to God,
let me tell you what I think. God needs nothing from us. He
is the self existent one. Everything you can think of around
you, it's all for his honor and glory. He is in absolute total
control of all things. He has the right and the ability
to do as he pleases, so much so that the Apostle Paul tells
us in Romans 9, nay, but old man, who art thou that replies
against God? And say, why hast thou made me
thus? If you question why you are the
way you are, then you are replying against God. He is the potter
and we are the clay. And I want to give you a quote
from J.C. Philpott. Quote, man's religion is to build
up the creature. God's religion is to throw the
creature down in the dust of self-abasement and glorify Christ. End quote. We cannot preach Christ
that is God. Jesus Christ is God. But we cannot
preach Jesus Christ too high. His ways are high above our ways
and his thoughts are high above our thoughts. We see this in
Psalm 139 in verse six and this is pertained to his work and
his purposes. 139, six says, such knowledge
is too wonderful for me. It is high. I cannot attain into
it. He is all wise and his purpose,
which never changes because he does not change. His purpose
has always been. But also we cannot preach man
too low. Just as we do not know the heights
and the depth of God, we do not know how low we are. I pray God
does not let me see how low I am. But think about this verse, and
you don't have to turn, but write it down for later. Galatians
6.3, it says, for if a man think himself to be something, I'm
guilty. I'm guilty of that even now,
even today. For if a man thinks himself to
be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. There have
been times and are still times when I have thought of myself
as something. I deceive myself. If I ever get
to thinking that again, that is, that I am something, or have
actions that manifest for that thought, I am deceiving myself. If you would notice this when
it says here, when he is. For if a man think himself to
be something, when he is. That word can be translated being. If you look at the word, you
can translate it being. Because some may see that and
say, well, there comes a time when I am something. Because
this is only when I am nothing. This flesh will think of anything
to deceive itself. We as believers know this world
thinks like this because we still have this old man with us. But
read it using the actual meaning of the Greek word. These three
words, when he is, as one word in the Greek, and it's translated
being, so we read it here. For if a man think himself to
be something, being nothing, he deceiveth himself. We are
nothing, but we sometimes think we are something. But we know
God tells us we are nothing, and he is everything. If a man
is sent of God, he will preach what God says. We know Paul the
apostle tells us that he determined not to know anything among us
but Jesus Christ and him crucified. And that's a good thing for everyone
who proclaims his word to go by. That's good advice. In preaching
this, we have to tell what man is as well. I know I cannot say
this the best way, so I will let Scripture do it, but if you'll
remember, Joe did a message on this, but turn with me to Isaiah
40, and this has to be said again. I don't mind copying off of somebody
else when it comes to God's Word.
So Isaiah 40, and I'm going to read verses 1 through 9. Isaiah
40. Comfort ye my people, saith your
God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem,
and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity
is pardoned. For she hath received of the
Lord's hand double for all her sins. The voice of him that crieth
in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord. Make straight
in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted. and every mountain and hill shall
be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the
rough places plain, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord hath
spoken it. The voice said, Cry, and he said,
What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the
goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field. The grass
withereth The flower fadeth, because the Spirit of the Lord
bloweth upon it. Surely the people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower
fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand forever. O Zion,
that bringeth good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain.
O Jerusalem, that bringeth good tidings, lift up thy voice with
strength. Lift it up. Be not afraid. Say
unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God. So he is told to cry something.
He asked, What shall I cry in verse 6? The answer is, All flesh
is grass. Here today, gone tomorrow. That is all flesh. Man is nothing. But that is not all, he cries,
because it also says, O Zion that bringeth good tidings, when
we preach all flesh is grass, that, that is preaching all flesh
is grass, is not good tidings. So what else is he told to cry
in verse nine? Say unto the cities of Judah,
behold your God. Man is nothing, and God is a
glory to behold. So let's look at today just how
low man is, the highness of God, and is there a remedy? So just
how, number one, just how low is man? Ecclesiastes 3.19 we
read, for that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beast. Even one thing befalleth them.
As the one doth, so doth the other. Yea, they have all one
breath, so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast, for
all is vanity. We have no more importance than
a beast as we are born in air. We all die, even beasts, and
just as a beast dies, we die. Man compared to man might look
pretty good depending on who is being compared to one But
sinful fallen man is not where the mark is. It is not what we
must attain. We must be holy for God is holy. The mark is the righteousness
of God. And we miss that mark all the
time. Compared to God, we are nothing. Isaiah 40, 15 reads, behold,
the nations are as a drop of a bucket. and are counted as
the small dust of the balance. Behold, he taketh up the aisles
as a very little thing." Drop of a bucket. One drop in a bucket
isn't worth the effort to pick up the bucket. When you're thirsting,
one drop will not quench your thirst. We are counted as the
small dust of the balance. And what does that mean? We are
good for nothing as we are born in Adam. We don't make a difference. We add nothing to God, and we
take nothing away from God. But it gets worse. Isaiah 40,
17 says, all nations before him are as nothing, and they are
counted to him less than nothing and vanity. We are, in fact,
nothing. In fact, we are counted to him,
and this is what matters, is my count or worthiness to God. But this says we are counted
less than nothing in vanity. This is a hard pronouncement
to take. In fact, none of us would take this pronouncement.
That is, we know we wouldn't be okay with this pronouncement
on us, and we wouldn't bow down to this truth if it were not
for his power and his will. We would actually deny it and
think we are something and deceive ourselves. If we are not, if
it were not for God intervening. There are some who will never
accept this pronouncement about themselves, even though the Creator
tells us this Himself. The Scripture is inspired of
God. Men wrote as the Holy Spirit
directed them. He says we are less than nothing. Some might say, I don't think
anyone here would say this, but some who hear me say this might
say, I'm not less than nothing. I'm something before God. Okay. Let's see what scripture says
we are before him. Here is man being something.
And if you would turn with me to Job 25, Job 25. Job 25 and verses 4 through 6.
From your passages, I've, you know, went to a lot of these
already before in other messages, but Job 25 verse 4. How then
can man be justified with God? Or how can he be clean that is
born of a woman? Behold, even to the moon, and
it shineth not. Yea, the stars are not pure in
his sight. how much less man that is a worm,
and the son of man which is a worm. We do not shine in his sight,
and we are not pure in his sight. Man as he is born in Adam, and
let me be clear, I mean mankind, so this is men and women, but
man is not justified with God, he is certainly not clean. But
this says, we are a worm. And as I've said here before,
the word here for maggot means, worm means maggot in the sense
of breeding. So we are worms and all we do
is breed other worms. And that's, these maggots feed
off of death. That's all they do, feed off
of death. Because of what man is, he will do nothing, nothing
that will gain him any merit before a thrice holy God. But
let me show you a picture of what we do from Scripture. Now,
if you would, you all turn to Jonah 1. I've got it right here
in my notes. So if you want to, Jonah 1 verses
3 through 5, I'm going to read. Hopefully, it won't take as long
this time. Jonah 1. verse 3-5. Ellen had just mentioned
this about Earl Sagan at one time and I just love this. But let's look at it. Let's see
what common theme we can look at this passage here in Jonah. 3-5. Jonah 1, 3-5. But Jonah rose up to flee into
Tarshish from the presence of the Lord and went down to Joppa. And he found a ship going to
Tarshish. So he paid the fare thereof and
went down into it to go with them into Tarshish from the presence
of the Lord. But the Lord sent out a great
wind into the sea and there was a mighty tempest in the sea so
that the ship was like to be broken. Then the mariners were
afraid and cried every man unto his God and cast forth the wares
that were in the ship into the sea. to lighten it of them. But Jonah was gone down into
the sides of the ship, and he lay and was fast asleep." So
what is the common theme here when it comes to man and his
way and his doing? Man goes down, down, down. Man is not seeking God. He is
doing just as Adam did and Jonah did here. Man is always trying
to flee from God, trying to hide himself from God. But God be
thanked, some who flee from God are running smack dab into God.
Jonah thought he was running from God. Had he succeeded, things
would have been different. But God be thanked, God's will
and purpose will stand. because his ways are high above
our ways and his thoughts are high above our thoughts. Had
he not exercised his sovereign control on me, I would still
be running from God. Shaking my fist at him saying,
I will not have this man reign over me. But our God is sovereign,
but let's look at some of his glory in scripture. Can we see
the highness of God? Number two, the highness of God.
Back in Isaiah 40, when we are told that we are less than nothing,
what does it say in the next verse, Isaiah 40, 18? To whom
then will ye liken God? Or what likeness will ye compare
unto him? There is no one to compare to
God. We are, that is mankind born
from Adam, we are less than nothing and worms. How high is God? He is much higher than we can
even imagine. In fact, we can't really know
the heights of his thoughts and his ways. Our text in Romans
tells us he is unsearchable and his ways past finding out. There
is no one to counsel him. None can stand before him. What
did Isaiah find out in Isaiah 6? So turn back with me to Isaiah
6, if you would. And in a lot of my messages,
I'm just repeating things that people have told me. Joe, we
were talking out on the porch one day, and Joe pointed this
out to me, and I just, it was good. So, Isaiah 6, 1 through
5. In the year that King Uzziah
died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted
up, and His train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims. Each one had six wings. With
twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet,
and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another and
said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth
is full of his glory. And the post of the door moved
at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with
smoke. Then said I, Woe is me, for I
am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell
in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For mine eyes have seen
the King, the Lord of hosts. In Isaiah 5, we read Isaiah pronouncing
woes on them. And back in the previous chapter,
he's pronouncing woes on them. And this is what Joe pointed
out to me. Woe to them, he says. But then we get here in Isaiah
6 and he sees who God is and what is his pronouncement now.
Woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell amongst
a people of unclean lips. What does he mean? I'm bad and
they are bad. Put us all together and there
is no good that will come from it. God is holy. There is no one like unto him.
He is totally separate from anything we can think of. God says to
Job, he says, where were you when I laid the foundations of
the world? Mankind did not exist. Who made
it all work together as it does? Not man. We were not even there. What holds it all together? Not
man. and man does not know how it
is done. What does Nebuchadnezzar say?
When my understanding returned unto me, what did he see? Him
that liveth forever, he doeth according to his will, and none
can stay his hand or say unto him, what doest thou? What does
this tell us? If you have understanding, what
will you confess? He, that is God, doeth according
to his will. And none can stay his hand or
even say unto him, what doest thou? But man will do nothing
to get back to where he was with God before the fall. He has no
strength of his own. He doesn't know where the garden
of Eden is to get back to the tree of life. Right, Joe? This is where the but God comes
in. What is the remedy? So number
three, what is the remedy? In short, the answer is the glory
of God is the remedy. He is an infinite, holy, just
God. We are the earth earthy, nothing
finite. But not only that, we have trespassed. We have trespassed this holy,
just God who will not at all acquit the guilty. Scripture
says we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God. He
is not making his pronouncement on our guilt or innocence now.
That great judge has made his decision, and from that judgment
is certain. The sentencing will be carried
out to its fullest extent one day, although it has already
been decreed death. He told Adam, in the day that
you eat thereof, you shall surely die. And he did. We know he did
not die physically, although his body did begin to die, but
he died spiritually so that there was no more communion with God.
In his flesh, that is, in Adam's flesh, this flesh is what we
have. Light has no communion with darkness. The two cannot exist together. Being in death, we offend the
holy God of heaven. And not only will we not do those
things that please him, we cannot do those things that please him.
Romans 3.10 says, as it is written, there is none righteous, no,
not one. And verses 11, 12 says, there
is none that understand us. There is none that seeketh after
God. They are all gone out of the
way. They are together become unprofitable. There is none that
doeth good, no, not one. The problem is we are below,
he is above. There is a great gulf between
us. We cannot go to him for scripture tells us no man will look up
on him and leave. He cannot come to us for he is
spirit and we are flesh. He is life, we are death. We
have trespassed and sin will not just be swept under the rug.
God is holy and just. And here is where the good news
comes in. A kinsman redeemer. We have a
kinsman redeemer. We have one that is likened to
us. The scripture puts it this way, Romans 8.3, for what the
law could not do, in that it was weeped through the flesh.
God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and
for sin, condemned sin in the flesh. We have a man. This man is flesh and blood.
He sweats like I do. He grieves like I do. He feels
pain like I do, yet without sin. This is how high God is. what
He would do magnifies His name even further. So how high is
God? How high is that One who has
created everything? That One where it is said in
Genesis 1, in the beginning God created, and it goes down the
list. We are told in Colossians that
He created all things. So how high is God? Here it is. Here's how high God is. He was
made a little lower than the angels. His thoughts are high
above our thoughts, and His ways are past finding out. Jesus Christ
came down, He took on our flesh, He walked on this earth, and
He perfectly obeyed the holy law. He did not struggle to do
this. He did this because it was in
His nature, because Jesus Christ is God. He said, I and my father
are one. He had to do something, something
that you and I could not do. The scripture says, the soul
that sinneth it shall die. This death we are talking about
is a death suffered under the judgment and wrath of God. And
we need mercy. But the only way to do that is
for someone to pay the price so that we might go free. And
we are told in Habakkuk 3, back at 3-2, O Lord, I have heard
thy speech and was afraid. O Lord, revive thy work in the
midst of the years, in the midst of the years. Make known in wrath,
remember mercy. Our Lord, the Son of God, God
Almighty manifest in the flesh, suffered the wrath of God in
our stead. That which was meant for us,
he took our place. Awake, O sword, against my shepherd,
against the one that is my fellow. The sword has failed. Wrath has
been poured out on him, this being done for those chosen from
before the foundation of the world in him. So much so that
he cried out, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? This
he did in my place. I will never be forsaken of God,
because he cried, it is finished. What he did was for certain and
sure and it accomplished what he came to do. What he did was
take my sin. This he done in his own body
on that tree. He carried them far away so that
God no longer sees our sins or our sin. Salvation is done because
of all of this, we read in Colossians 1, Colossians 1 verses 17 and
18, and he is before all things, this is Christ, and by him all
things consist. And he is the head of the body,
the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead,
that in all things he might have the preeminence. So let's look at what we've went
through and I want to show you one more thing after that. Man,
our preeminence is like a beast. Man is low. We proclaim to those
who know God that man is grass. Here today, gone tomorrow. But, you know, let's make this
real. You know, this is, I just want
to give this example, and all of you know of this. All of us
have had this same similar type of experience and stuff as well.
Back on July 4, 2020, Paula and I were sitting at home in our
living room, and all the neighborhood was setting off fireworks and
stuff. Of course, Clyde was there, afraid of the fireworks, so he's
jumping up in the chair with us, and I got a call from Pam,
from my sister. And she called and said, Paula,
Daddy's gone. So Paula and I arrived down there,
and I seen Daddy sitting there in his recliner, and he looked
like he was asleep. You know, of course, I'm checking
to make sure. You know, Daddy, Daddy, wake
up. But nothing. He was gone. Now,
we do have a good hope, and there's a lot of us have a good hope
for some of our loved ones. But we are grass. We are all
grass. Here today, gone tomorrow. What do we read in James 4.14?
It says this, whereas you know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is
even a vapor that appear for a little time and then vanish,
vanish away. Our God is supreme. He is excellent
and full of glory. He is higher than we can even
imagine. He created all things. There
is not anything that was created that was not created by Him. All things were created for Him. I cannot attain unto this wisdom
and knowledge. It's too wonderful for me. Man
being so low and God being so high, there is that great gulf
between us because we have offended. We have trespassed against this
excellent and full of glory God. The soul that sinneth, and we
have certainly sinned against God, but the soul that sinneth,
it shall die. But then God himself filled the
gap. It was the only way, and he was
the only one who could do it. The only one who could touch
man and not be defiled, and touch God and not be consumed. Bring
them together in himself. The God-man. Jesus Christ is
God, Jesus Christ is man. We being dead in trespasses and
in sin cannot get to God on our own. But he, doing what we could
not do, did for those whom he loved with an everlasting love. He did what was needed to take
our place. He is our substitute, our kinsman
redeemer. He became a man. You put all
of our righteousnesses together and they are filthy rags in God's
sight. We are in fact a stench in God's
nostrils as we're born in Adam. What are we told in Isaiah 6,
and you don't have to turn to this, but Isaiah 6, from the
sole of the foot even unto the head, there is no soundness in
it. But wounds and bruises and putrefying sores, they have not
been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with wine.
He is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, but
He came down in time to do that which was agreed upon by the
three in one. He came down and performed that
great transaction, that which would make me clean before Him,
the transaction being done which caused Him to be forsaken of
God, God forsaking God. Is there anyone that can understand
that? God dying, but yet He ever liveth. Can we understand that? His ways
are truly high above our ways and his thoughts high above ours.
But we are not just left to ourselves to wonder who he is in light
of what we are. He will let us know that we are
saved. We are not just left to see ourselves
in the dust and how high he is. We are brought into himself where
we become one with him. And what am I trying to say here?
Jesus Christ has satisfied the Father. He has satisfied that
which would condemn my soul. Those who are His, not all of
them know this yet. He will in time come to them,
and He must come to them in time to let them know this. I think
of it kind of like this, but someone's passed out in a fire.
They're passed out, and as far as they're concerned, their last
thought was, I'm dead. I'm gone. But someone comes and
rescues them and gets them out of the burning building. They
have received the needed medical attention and are in the hospital. They're going to be fine. They
just don't know it yet. They finally wake up and realize
they have been saved. We are dead, D-E-A-D dead, spiritually. Jesus Christ has already pulled
us from the fire. He just has to wake us up, so
to speak, and let us know we're saved. He has promised to send
His Spirit, and that Spirit giving His chosen people life. He sends
someone with this gospel, one sinner to another sinner, telling
what He has done. Telling what He has done for
those whom He chose from the foundation of the world But there
is that time of love where he will come to an individual and
woo them into himself through this gospel. That gospel breaking
down those walls of rebellion built up by this dead flesh.
Through his spirit and by his gospel, we see what we are. We
see who he is and we see what he has done. We are then forced to Him and
He takes those who are like this, those who are unclean by nature,
those who hate Him by nature, He forces them to Himself by
showing them that there is nowhere else to go. And I want to show
you this from Scripture, so if you would turn with me, I will
end with this, but turn with me to Mark 1, Mark 1. Mark 1 verses 40 through 41. Mark 1 verse 40. And there came
a leper to him. And remember this leper, he is
supposed to say unclean, unclean, unclean. But he did not. He broke the law to come to Christ. And just think about that. And
there came a leper to him, beseeching him and kneeling down to him
and saying unto him, if thou wilt. He did not say, I think
I want to accept you in my heart as my personal Savior. Did he? No, he said, if thou wilt. It
is totally up to you. I deserve for you to walk on
by and leave me forever. And then he says, thou canst
make me clean. And Jesus moved with compassion
and Christ always will for those whom he loves. But he moved with
compassion and put forth his hand and touched him and said
unto him, I will be thou clean. There is nothing else to be done.
Lay down your arms against God. Do you want to do, do, do? The
work is done, done, done. Can you bow down to him? If he
wills, he can make you clean. Beg for mercy. He saveth such
that be of a broken heart, a broken and contrite spirit are the kind
of people he saves. Those who know they are nothing
and that Christ has the preeminence because of who He is and what
He has done, come to Him. It just might be that He wills
to make you clean. Amen. Dear old God, thank you for allowing
us to gather here today, dear Lord, to hear words of your Son.
Dear Lord, we are nothing. even more than we can imagine
dear lord and we know that all things come from you it all comes
from your hand by your grace dear lord and we we must be given
all these things from you dear lord may it be you uh allow us to know uh your presence
dear lord because as joe said earlier dear lord you're we're
two or three are gathering in your name you're there in the
midst of us be with walter and and Penny
and whoever else might be with them as they travel, dear Lord,
that they may get back home safely and so that we might see them
again if it be your will, dear Lord. It's all up to you and
your will, dear Lord. But you know what is right and
what to do right. Be with those who are not here
for other reasons, dear Lord. Comfort them. Make them well
if that be your pleasure, dear Lord. And I just want to say
about D, dear Lord, please look down on him if you're pleased
to at least give him comfort and where he doesn't have any
pain in these last days as we see them, dear Lord. All these
things we ask in Christ's name, amen.