If you'd like to follow along,
please turn to Isaiah chapter 45. Chapter 45. And I want to read
verses 21 and 22. Now we better read verse 20 also
first. Just for a little context. Isaiah
45, beginning in verse 20. Assemble yourselves and come. Draw near together. Ye that are
escaped of the nations, they have no knowledge that set up
the wood of their graven image and pray unto a God that cannot
save. Tell ye and bring them near. Yea, let them take counsel together
who hath declared this from ancient times. who have told it from
that time. Have not I the Lord, and there
is no God else beside me? A just God and a Savior. There is none beside me. Verse
22, look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for
I am God, And there is none else. I gotta read the next verse.
I have sworn by myself, the word has gone out of my mouth in righteousness
and shall not return. That unto me every knee shall
bow, every tongue shall swear. Surely shall one say in the Lord
have I righteousness and strength, even to him shall men come, and
all that are incensed against him shall be ashamed. In the
Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified and shall glory. So do you wonder now from that
passage of scripture where I get this thing about looking unto
Jesus? That's who's saying this stuff, folks. That's who's saying
this stuff. Every knee's gonna bow, and every
tongue's gonna swear that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory
of God the Father. That's New Testament. Guess what? What is it? The Old Testament
is the New Testament concealed, and the New Testament is the
Old Testament revealed. There are not two Bibles. There's
only one. And there's only one message
of that one Bible. Now there is an Old Testament
and there is a New Testament. But guess what, folks? They're
all talking about the same God. They're all talking about the
same Christ, the anointed one. One man said, I don't know who, that we first sinned, the first
sin, started with a look, with a look. Genesis 3 and 6 says
this, and when the woman saw, saw that the tree was good for
food and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be
desired to make one wise, she took the fruit thereof and did
eat, and gave also unto her husband with her and did eat. He did
eat. Adam and Eve both looked at the
fruit and then they ate it. Adam was not deceived. Scripture's
clear on that. Eve was deceived. But the first
sin started with a look. And now we can read in Isaiah
45 that our salvation comes in a look. different look Tell ye and bring them near let
them take counsel together who has declared this from ancient
time Who have told it from that time have not I the Lord You
can look at any other religious book for any other religion that
you want to look at You will not find the prophecies that
are in this book anything even close to Stuff that God prophesied,
his men prophesied. He gave them the message and
told them that Christ is coming. Started in the garden, right
after they ate that fruit. Guess what happened? God himself
preached the first gospel message to them. That the seed of woman
was coming, and he was gonna bruise the serpent's head, and
the serpent would bruise his heel. That's the gospel, folks. Christ is coming. Christ is coming. But here it says, have not I
the Lord and there is no God beside me? A just God and a Savior. Look unto me and be ye saved. All the ends of the earth, for
I am God and there is none else. This is a constant theme of the
Bible. I am the Lord, and there is none else. Thou shalt not
have any strange gods before thee. Thou shalt have no other
god before thee. The Lord our God is one God. And there is, there is no other. Beside, sideways, up, or down,
there is none other. I am a just God and a Savior. What's that mean? It means I
will punish sin. I will punish sin. I will in
no wise acquit the guilty. I will in no wise pass over the
wicked. Because I am angry, God said,
with the wicked every day. It's just not just God says I'm
angry with the wicked. No. I'm angry with the wicked
every day and Here's the thing Much to my shame sometimes I
say things I don't mean God never has God never has when Jesus
Christ said there's none good, but God that's exactly what he
meant and And when God says, I'm angry with the wicked every
day, that means he is angry with the wicked every day. I am a just God. You know what a just judge is,
right? We deal with judges in this area,
hopefully not very often. Walter, I thought about you when
I was listening to those messages from Earl. Because there's one
of them, I don't know if it was on the ones on those, but there's
one of them where he talks about Paul Crouch getting pulled over
by the cops and that's Scott. And Walter just said something
about that at the gathering we had that Saturday. You understand,
a just judge will not pardon the guilty. If you're guilty,
you're guilty, or in some way, Now, maybe he's being lenient,
maybe he's taking into, you know, mitigating circumstances, is
what they call it nowadays. Maybe he's taking those into
account. But in a very real way, if you don't punish the guilty,
you're unjust. And our God is a just God. And he's just as perfectly just
as he is perfectly holy. He can't be anything else. But then he says this, and a
Savior. A Savior. What is a Savior? OK, I'm going to give you the
deep spiritual answer of a Savior. A Savior is one who saves. A Savior is one who saves. A just God is one who punishes,
and a Savior is one who saves. Sin will be punished, and I will
save. Ooh, you think that's a dichotomy? You think that's a paradox? No, it's not. It's not. It's God. It's God. What did Rolf Barnard used to
say? It ain't a paradox, it's not a dichotomy, it's just so. I'm a just God and I save. A savior. And here's the thing. Sin, the sin of God's people
and the sins of God's people. His chosen people, I'm not talking
about Israel in the nation. I'm talking about those he chose
in his son before the foundation of the world. Those sins and
that sin were laid on his son. He willingly bore them in his
body on the tree. He was made sin for us, the one
who knew no sin. Those sins and that sin were
totally and completely punished by God. We owed a debt. We earned the wages of our sin,
death. Death is the wages of sin. We
earned that death. Christ paid it. Became our surety
he came as our surety he came as our substitute he came as
our Lord and our Savior Sin was punished perfectly and completely
Redemption and salvation were perfectly purchased in Jesus
Christ, and that's how God is a just God and a Savior What's he say? I am the Lord. Well, I might add something on
there. I am the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the one to whom believers
are to look. Look. And you understand, he says that
after he says I'm a just God and a savior. What did Paul tell
us? I've determined to know nothing
among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. What? A just God and a savior. A just God and a savior. The
one and only one who took in his body our sins on the tree. The one who died for our sins
justly died. Because the Lord is a just God.
The one who saved his people from their sins because he is
the savior. He came to do the will of his
father. That's what he said. I'm here
to do the will of my father. So what's the father's will?
Guess what? Jesus Christ told us. John 639,
you don't have to turn there. And this is the Father's will,
which has sent me, that of all which he hath given me, I should
lose nothing, absolutely nothing, but should raise it up again
at the last day. Not only is he not gonna lose
it, he's gonna bring it with him. You understand, this earth
is not all we get, believers get, who know Christ. He's gonna
raise us up at the last day. You know why? That's the Father's
will. And he is a just God. He's promised
it. He will bring it to pass. He's purposed it, Mason. He's
gonna do it. He's gonna do it. A just God
and a savior. He lost nothing and he lost absolutely
no one. He lost no one whom the Father
gave to him. And he will raise him up again
at the last day. So what does Jesus Christ say
here? In Isaiah 45 and verse 22. Look unto me, look unto me and
be ye saved. Look unto me, look unto the Lord. I am the Lord. I'm the one that
prophesied. I'm the one that came. I'm the
one that is a just God and a savior. Look unto the Lord and be ye
saved. It doesn't say look unto the
Lord and get saved. There's lots of people running
around wanting you to get saved. We were at a place the other
day, Debbie and I, and this woman was telling us a story and illustrating
it by tearing up a piece of paper. And she's a very nice woman.
And I knew something religious was coming. I just knew it. You
get these feelings, okay? Well, somehow it kind of leaked
out on me and Deb that we're a little religious at times,
or at least that's what the world thinks. So she's talking and
tearing up this little piece of paper, and it ends up, the
little pieces of paper, you can unfold them, and it spells out
the word hell, and then you unfold the piece of paper that's left,
and it comes up a piece of paper cross. And she's saying, she
kept asking somebody, would you give your life to the Lord? Would
you give your life to the Lord? And I took everything I had,
and I said, I don't think he wants it. What in the world is he going
to do with your life? He doesn't need your life. You
need his. But that's the religion of this
world. Give something to God. He owns it all. The cattle on
1,000 hills, they all belong to him. It doesn't matter whose
brand on it in Texas. They're God's cows. It don't
matter whether they're longhorns or them ugly looking heifer things.
I don't know, it doesn't matter. Everything on this planet belongs
to God. And he doesn't need your life,
he doesn't need your heart. You need his life and you need
a new heart. And if he gives them to you,
guess what? You're gonna look unto him. You're
gonna look unto him. The Lord does the saving because
he's the Savior. That's what I mean. The Savior
is one who saves. This is not difficult. This is
not deep, and it is profound, but it's not mysterious. No. He says, look unto me. I'm a
just God and a Savior. Look unto me. Now in the word
Hebrew, in the Hebrew, look, I like this, it means to turn. It means to turn and face someone.
That's what it means. Guess what that means? The natural
man is not looking at God. He's not looking unto the Lord.
He's not looking unto Jesus. He's looking anywhere else except
to him. So turn and face him. Look unto
me. Look unto me. Now, and I want
to be mean here. I know that's what it might be
construed as. But I want to tell you the truth.
I don't want to lie. Because I don't know who's going
to see this on the internet, or who's seeing this thing streaming.
I figure not many people are seeing it streaming, because
just about everybody's here. This gets recorded, and it'll end
up on the television in a year or so, whatever. It'll end up
on the internet, on YouTube. Okay? When I tell you to look
unto Jesus, don't look at a picture on your wall. Okay? That ain't gonna help you. That's not what the Lord is saying
here. He's not saying look at a picture on the wall of some
long-haired guy. And I always thought that was
strange anyway, because there's one people that didn't like long-haired
people. It was church people in the 60s.
And yet they have pictures of Jesus on the wall looking like
a hippie. Or what was it he said? Wild Bill Hickok or somebody? Or that little picture with his
sacred heart of Jesus. He's got his heart there. No,
don't look at that. Don't go out and buy a lawn statue. They've got them out there now.
Jesus is standing out there like this. Now, you folks know me. You know how my mind works to
a certain extent. And if I see a statue of Jesus
like this, I want to turn the thing and face it up against
the wall. I want to put him down on the ground and make him do
push-ups, because that's not Jesus Christ. That statue is
not an accurate representation of the Lord. You're not supposed
to make an accurate representation of the Lord if you could and
you can't. All that is is a product of some
man's imagination. And please, please, please, I'm
gonna get even meaner here, don't go into some church somewhere
and kiss the feet of a statue of Jesus either. That's not what
we're talking about, look unto Jesus. He's not in your church
made out of plaster or stone or brass or anything else. He's
not on a cross around your neck. He is seated at the right hand
of the majesty on high. Look unto him. Don't look where
you think he is because chances are you're looking in the wrong
place. Matter of fact, don't look unto
a church at all. Look unto him. Don't look under a denomination.
Look under him. Don't look under a doctrine,
whether it's the right doctrine or not. Look under him. Look under him. Oh, my. There's some going to do it.
In Zechariah 12 and in John 19, verse 37, it says this. And again,
another scripture saith, They shall look on him whom they have
pierced. Now you see what I'm saying?
This is Jesus Christ. Look unto him. Look unto him. He is the Lord. Look unto the
one who was pierced. Look unto the one who shed his
blood for the remission of sins. Look to the one who hath died
for us, carried, borne our sins. Look unto him, and be ye saved,
all the ends of the earth. Jew or Gentile. You understand,
this is Isaiah's day this was written. These are the words
of the Lord. All the ends of the earth. There's
no salvation outside without our Lord Jesus Christ. Absolutely There is none else
God took care of that part too. There is none else Why do we say there's only one
gospel There is none else There is none else the scripture tells
us. There's only one gospel There's
only one message Paul said, if any man come and preach any other
gospel unto you, then that which I preached unto you, let him
be accursed. Why? Because there is none else. Look unto him. There is none
else. There is none else. Everything else is a lie. It doesn't matter how close it
comes. If it's right nearby the gospel,
it's a lie. Because I'm gonna tell you something,
that's the way it usually starts. It starts with something small,
and then it kind of grows a little bit, a little leaven, leaven's
a whole lump, I told you last week. You understand? And all of a sudden, you end
up with some guy saying really stupid things, like Adam in the
garden, was God manifest in the flesh. Repeating, your theology has
led you around to come forth and repeat the lie of the serpent
in the garden. That's a lot of leaven. There is none else than Jesus
Christ the righteous. There is no other, just God and
a savior. Everything else is a lie. Everything
else is a trick. It's a deception. It's a mockery
or it's just pure heathenism Now This looking Look unto me is
more than just looking it's more than just seeing Because how
Do you look upon? an unseen God. No man has seen
God at any time. The only begotten of the Father
has revealed Him, but no man has seen God at any time. John 3, John chapter 3 and verse
14. And as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal
life. Now, as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, that's the example of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Okay? So, Walter, I'm gonna get ahead
of you just a little bit. Number's 21. I'm not gonna say
much about it, because I'm gonna let you get there. Numbers 21, beginning in verse
five, and the people spake against God and against Moses. In that order. Wherefore have
you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For
there is no bread, neither is there any water, and our soul
loatheth this light bread. Oh, that's something. There's
something there. Especially when Jesus Christ
says, I'm the bread that came down from heaven. Their soul
loatheth this light bread. Guess what God did? And the Lord
sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people. And much people of Israel died. Therefore the people came to
Moses and said, we have sinned for we've spoken against the
Lord and against thee. Pray unto the Lord that he take
away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people.
And Lord said unto Moses, make thee a fiery serpent and set
it upon a pole. And it shall come to pass that
everyone that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live
Look and live look and live and Moses made a serpent of brass
and put it on a pole and it came to pass That if the serpent had
bitten any man when he beheld the serpent of brass he lived
Notice very carefully that God did not get rid of the fiery
serpents But he sent him a brass serpent But here's the thing. What Moses told him to do was
to look and to live. And that's the exact illustration
our Lord Jesus Christ uses in John chapter 3. As Moses lifted
up the serpent in the wilderness, even so the Son of Man must be
lifted up. Look and live. Look unto me. What did he say? That whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. This
looking I'm talking about, this look unto me, is to have faith,
believe Christ. Jesus Christ equates believing
with looking in this illustration that he used for his own thing.
You were poisoned and you were dying, look unto that serpent
and you'd live. The Son of Man's gonna be lifted
up. Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Look unto Him and be ye saved,
all the ends of the earth. How's that look? That's a look
believing Jesus Christ. Christ says, believe me. Look
in faith to Jesus Christ. And here's the thing, I can tell
you this. If you believe, if he has given
you faith, and you believe him, you'll look. You'll look. Now, there's degrees. You may not look real often,
you may not look real well. We see as through a glass darkly
at best. But we're looking. But we look,
we look. If you're looking unto Him, if
you are truly looking unto the Lord Jesus Christ, that's faith. That's faith, the faith of God's
elect. And they'll never perish. They
have everlasting life, eternal life. Without the life given by the
Holy Spirit, you won't look, because you won't believe. But here's a beautiful thing. Because what did Christ tell
Thomas after the resurrection? You know, sometimes you might
feel bad about Thomas. You understand, he's like Rahab
the harlot. Well, he is doubting Thomas. That's what people call.
That's an expression. Now, don't be a doubting Thomas. But our Lord came and spoke to
him after he resurrected, along with others. But he came and
he spoke to him. Because it said Thomas was one
of the 12 called Didymus. He was not with him the first
time Jesus came. And the other disciples told
him. And he said, I'm not going to believe until I can put what? see in his hands a print of the
nails, and put my finger in the print of the nails, and thrust
my hand into his side, I will not believe. That's what Thomas
said. And after eight days, the disciples
were within, and Thomas was with them. Then came Jesus. Then came Jesus. The doors being shut and stood
in the midst and said, peace be unto you. Then saith he to
Thomas, I heard you. Reach hither thy finger and behold
my hands. Reach hither thy hand and thrust
it into my side. Be not faithless, but believing.
And Thomas answered and said unto him, what did he say? My
Lord and my God. Oh my, that's believing. Understand
it's not. Oh great buddy. Jesus. No my
lord and my God Look unto me saith the Lord ah Jesus saith
unto him Thomas Because thou hast seen me thou hast believed
Blessed blessed happy blessed of God are they that have not
seen and yet believe. Look unto Him. I remember when Earl preached
a bit on this years ago. You understand? Scripture doesn't say, see me. It says, look. Look. Blessed are those who have
not seen. and believed. This is a work of faith, to look
unto Him, to look unto Jesus. It's a work of faith. People say, I don't see it, or
I don't see Him. I understand. Here's what you
do. Look. Look. People say, I don't get it. God
says, look. God says, look. We don't see
him, not like the apostles did. So we look. But here's the thing. By his grace, through his work,
we look in faith, believing him, believing my Lord and my God,
believing him. my Lord and my God in faith,
in faith. We look, believing in Him, believing
Him, who's a just God and a Savior. Blessed are they that have not
seen, yet have believed. What's that mean? Blessed are
they that have not seen, but they look. They look unto Him. They look unto Jesus Christ, I'll give you a couple more quick
things. Not only did our salvation start
with a look, this way, we're kept by a look. Wherefore, seeing
we are all so compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses,
let us lay aside every weight in the sin which doth so easily
beset us. Let us run with patience the
race that is set before us. Looking unto Jesus. Who's he? The author and the
finisher of faith. How you gonna look to him? In
faith, believing. How you gonna do that? He's the
author and the finisher of it. who for the joy that was set
before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set
down at the right hand of the throne of God. Look to him, look
to him. We are kept by the power of God. How? Through faith, through faith. looking unto Jesus, look unto
Jesus. And one day, we're gonna have
a look at the consummation, the completion of our salvation.
Titus two and verse 13 puts it this way, looking for that blessed
hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior,
Jesus Christ. that what who gave himself for
us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify purify
unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works guess what
good work we're zealous about one of them look under him look
under him looking for that blessed hope the glorious appearing of
our just God and Savior. Oh, I like that. What'd he say? I'll raise them up again at the
last day. Everyone that the Father has given to me, they're coming
to me and I'm gonna raise them up at the last day. I'm never
gonna leave them, I'm never gonna forsake them. Oh. What's the conclusion? Look unto Jesus. Look unto Jesus. Keep looking unto Jesus. For
how long? Oh, forever. Forever. You think you're ever gonna stop
looking for Jesus, looking unto Jesus? He's gonna be the light. When we get a new heaven and
a new earth, He's gonna be the light. We're gonna be looking
unto Jesus for eternity. Ah. Because here's the thing,
true Christianity, true faithfulness never outgrows looking unto Jesus. We can't. We are so faulty. We are so frail. We are so full
of sin as it is right now. Look unto Jesus. Look unto Jesus. Never stop. I know. Some have doubts and fears about
their salvation. I can tell you this, never ever
have any doubts about his salvation. And here's the question, do I
want to look to anyone else? I'm not saying you won't. But
do you want, do you really want to, down deep inside, I want
to look unto Christ. I don't always do it. I want
to look unto Jesus. Sometimes I can't do it. But
I want to. That's a good sign. That's a
good sign. Don't doubt His salvation. Look unto Him. and be ye saved
by the Savior, all the ends of the earth. That's the gospel. Look unto
Him. Look unto Him. Our Heavenly Father,
God help us to keep our mind and heart and eyes and ears toward
you, toward your son, our Lord Jesus
Christ. He hath done all things well. You are a just God and a savior. Thank you, Lord, for showing
your son to us, for giving him for our sins and our transgressions
and our iniquities and our whole beings, and enabling us in a
small way, small way, to look unto Jesus, the author and finisher
of faith. Be with Paul and Walter as they
come to preach. Bless everyone here. And bless
those who couldn't be here. Take care of the needs you know
we have, as you always will. In Christ's name we pray, amen.