All right, let's turn in our
Bibles to the book of Isaiah, chapter 55. Isaiah, chapter 55. And let me once again thank you
all for your hospitality. We're just so glad to be back
with you and plan and Lord willing to be back with you in the near
future, especially when it gets colder up in northeastern Kentucky. So you do have a calling card
down here. called better weather in the
winter. Even though it might be cold to you, you don't know
what cold is. And they say in the Farmer's
Almanac we're supposed to have a real cold one up there. So
I don't know, we might just take a vacation. Especially when it's
about three or four inches of snow up there. But we're glad
to be back and mainly to be with our church family here. It's
good to see some friends, old friends. As you know, Debbie
and I, the Lord willing, we're looking forward to January because
if everything works out the way we hope, we'll be grandparents
then. So some of you all who have already
experienced that joy, we're going to be able to enter into it by
experience. I don't look like your grandpa,
do I, Frank? Frank and I knew each other when
we were young. I'm glad you said that. Make
the trip home easier. But we're thankful. You know Aaron and Alyssa, they're
planning on their child. We don't know whether it's going
to be a boy or girl yet because they don't want to know. But
whatever, we just hope it's healthy. So be in prayer for them and
our church there too. Alright, let's get to the main
issue here now. I've entitled this message, God's
Call to the Needy. And that title is very telling
because, I mean, you just have to be frank and honest in this
matter of preaching the gospel. And basically, it's a message
that tells you that if you don't need what I'm presenting before
you today, then you just really won't be interested in what I
have to say today. But if you find in your heart
and in your soul and in your spirit a need for this message,
this truth, this word of grace, Then you will be interested.
Now, that's the long and the short of it, you know. Now, you
know, maybe somebody might say, well, you're just trying to use
that as a tool to get people to listen to you. Well, yeah.
Yeah, I am. I'll be honest with you, you
know, I mean, you know, this is a, this is a, this is life
and death. You know, the gospel is the savor
of life unto life and death unto death. There's no neutral ground
in the gospel. You cannot walk away without
being affected in some way. Somebody says, well, I don't
really want to be here, and I'm not really interested. Well,
that's death unto death, according to the Scripture. And then those
who say, well, you know, I might need it every now and then. Not
all the time. That's death unto death, too.
But that's what he's talking about. This is the prophet Isaiah.
He speaks of future things. He speaks of present things.
But I want to take a segment out of this passage here and
apply it to today, because it is a universal message that is
given to a universal need, although it is not universally applied.
Because there will be multitudes who will walk away in unbelief. And the scripture calls that
the broad road that leads to destruction. But here, Isaiah
is standing in Jerusalem. That's where he prophesied, in
the southern kingdom of Judah, in the city of Jerusalem. And
he's speaking to a people who are religious. A people who think
that they are in God's favor. A people who believe that they
are saved, but they're not. They have a claim of salvation,
but no real heart faith. They have a name that they're
saved, but no grace. And that's who he's talking to.
He describes them in chapter 1 of Isaiah. We won't go back
there. But he talks about their diligence in religion. These
are people who were diligent in religion. They were serious
and zealous about it. The Lord spoke to his generation
when he walked on this earth in his earthly ministry to the
same kind of people we'll see in just a moment. But here was
the message. He says in verse 1, Ho, everyone
that thirsteth. Now that word ho means listen.
Listen. Listen. Everyone that thirsteth. He says, Come ye to the waters.
And then he says, And he that hath no money, come ye, buy and
eat. How are you going to buy and
eat without money? That doesn't make sense, does
it? Well, hold on. Yea, come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price. Verse two, wherefore do you spend? That means why. That word wherefore
means why. Why do you spend money for that
which is not bread, that which is not filling? You're spending
your money on things that will not fill you. And your labor,
your work for that which satisfied not. Hearken, that's another
way of saying listen. Listen diligently, listen hard. Listen with intent. Listen seriously
unto me, unto God, and eat ye that which is good, and let your
soul, that's your whole person, your mind, your affections, your
will, delight itself in fatness. Now fat, you know, nobody wants
to be fat, right? But this is a good fatness here.
The fatness here means fullness. It means completeness. And he
says in verse 3, incline your ear, that is, give your attention
to, and come unto me, set your mind on coming to God. Herein
your soul shall live, and I will make an everlasting covenant
with you, even the sure mercies of David." What does that mean?
Well, hold on, we'll see. "'Behold, I have given him for
a witness to the people, and a leader and commander to the
people, Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not,
and nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee, because
of the Lord thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel, for he
hath glorified thee." Now we'll stop there. This is God's call
to the needy. One of the things that you need
to understand is that this chapter here, Isaiah 55, and the chapter
before it, Isaiah 54, all speak of the results and the fruit
of a work that has been accomplished. And that work that has been accomplished
is described in the book of Isaiah chapter 53. Now Isaiah chapter
53 is one that's familiar to most, well to any Bible student. If you're familiar with the Bible,
or you consider yourself to be a student of the Bible, You're
familiar with Isaiah 53. That is the great messianic,
that is speaking of the Messiah, chapter that speaks of the suffering
servant. You may recall in the book of
Acts, I believe it's chapter 9, that the Holy Spirit sent
the evangelist Philip out into the desert, and there he met
with an Ethiopian. a treasurer in the court of Queen
Candace, a very high-up official. And this Ethiopian had been to
Jerusalem to worship God after the manner of the Jews, and the
whole context says that he left, in his religious experience and
his religious efforts, unfulfilled, untaught. In other words, he
had gone to Jerusalem all the way from Ethiopia to worship.
and to partake and enter into the ceremonies of the Jewish
rituals. But that didn't meet his need. And there he bought a portion
of the Old Testament. I don't know how much he bought,
but I know he was reading. He'd stopped out in the desert
in his chair, and he was reading Isaiah 53. And here comes Philip
the evangelist, the gospel preacher. And Philip Askin, heard him reading
from Isaiah 53, he was reading this passage here where it talks
about verse 5, he was wounded for our transgressions, he was
bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace, which
means the punishment that it took to bring peace between God
and men was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. He
was reading that portion of Isaiah 53, probably reading the whole
book of Isaiah. Started somewhere and then ended up there. And
Philip asked him, he says, do you understand what you're reading? Remember that in Acts chapter
9? And the Ethiopian said, how can I understand this except
some man show me what it means? He said, is the prophet speaking
of himself when he says he was a man of sorrows, acquainted
with grief? Is Isaiah speaking of himself
or is he speaking of some other man? And it says there in Acts
chapter 9 that Philip began at the very same scripture and preached
unto that Ethiopian, preached unto him Jesus. Jesus. He preached Christ and him crucified
and risen again. Isaiah was speaking of the Lord
Jesus Christ in the future, in Isaiah's time, that he would
come. that he would die for the sins of his people. Do you know
what the name Jesus means, don't you? People hear that name all
the time, don't they? What does it mean? Well, there's
a lot of derivatives of it. In the Old Testament, you could
say Joshua or Yeshua. But basically, here's what Jesus
means. It means God, our Savior. For his name shall be called
Jesus, the angel told Joseph. For he shall save his people
from their sins. Now notice, it didn't say he's
going to try to save his people from their sins. He's not going
to try to save you or try to save me. It doesn't say he might
save his people from their sins. It says he shall save his people
from their sins. He's going to save some people.
Now if it's left up to us, he wouldn't save anybody. That's
what we are by name. But he's going to save some people.
And then we need to know that he's able to do so. So it went
on there in the prophecy, quoting from Isaiah, he said, His name
shall be called Immanuel, which being interpreted, God with us.
He is God in human flesh. He is God-man. He's the word
that was made flesh and dwelt among us. And that's what Philip
preached to that Ethiopian. from Isaiah 53. And Isaiah 53
says that this Messiah is going to come and he's going to do
a specific work. Now what work is he going to
do? Well, he's going to fulfill and meet all of the conditions
and requirements and stipulations of salvation for his people. What's required? Well, where
sin is charged Death is the result. The wages of sin is death. The scripture says all sin deserves
death. Now we look around at people
and we say, well, that one's more sinful. I know I'm not perfect,
but that one over there, he's more sinful than I am. I mean,
you can always find somebody worse than you to compare yourself
with. Can't you? We can always do that. But here's
the point that the gospel of God's grace, the Bible makes.
All sin deserves death. All sin deserves death. And if you're a sinner, what
do you deserve? If all sin deserves death, and
you're a sinner, what do you deserve? Death. You say, but
me? I deserve death? Wait a minute
now. I've been an all-American boy all my life. You know, I
grew up, oh, I know I sold my wild oats, and you know, I've
made some mistakes, and I've said some cuss words, and I've
drunk too much, and I've done all the... But me? You know,
I mean, I was raised in the church. I was on the cradle road. I was
baptized when I was 12. I walked an aisle. All sin deserves death. You say, that's too harsh. No,
it's not. God is holy and he must punish
sin. Now, if I'm a sinner and all
sin deserves death, then what do I need? How do I get out of
this mess? That's the basic answer the gospel gives. How do I do
this? Well, the fact of the matter
is you can't. You can't get yourself out of
this mess. Somebody says, well, I heard a preacher say one time,
all you got to do is believe. Is that it? Believe what? Believe what? I mean, you can
believe, you remember Brother Wayne Hayes, he said, you can
believe Lord's not greasy, but that doesn't make it so. A lot of people believe a lot of
things. Believe them hard, believe them sincerely. Believe what?
Well, let's look at it. Look at Isaiah 55 now. This verse 1 shows us the nature
of God's grace. And here's the nature of it.
It's full and it's free. Now if it's full, what does that
mean? That means you can't add to it. And if it's free, what does that
mean? That means you can't pay for it. It's full and it's free. He says, Ho everyone that thirsteth,
come ye to the waters, he that hath no money. Come ye buy and eat. Yea, come
buy wine and milk without money, without price. Well, who's he
talking to? Those who are in need. What are
they? They're thirsty. You know who's interested in
getting a drink of water? Those who are thirsty. That's the only
ones who are interested in getting a drink of water. If you're not
thirsty, you don't want the water. Well, what is it we need? What
is our need? Now, here's the point. Now, listen
to me very carefully here. Every Every man and woman born
of Adam, that's all of us, is spiritually poor and bankrupt. He says, He that hath no money.
There's a need here. You know what it is to be bankrupt? It means you're in the negative
column. You're not even on the level.
That means you're below surface. You owe money that you cannot
pay. That's what it is to be bankrupt.
If you knew right now that you owed a million dollars to a local
bank because of a debt that you had run up, and that bank came
to you and said, now you've got to start paying this debt off,
and you reached in your coffers and you didn't have one copper
penny to pay towards that debt, that's bankrupt, isn't it? Now
that's what the Bible says that you and I are by nature and by
practice. Right there. We, by nature, because
of our fall in Adam, we sinned in Adam, and because of our own
sins, we ran up a debt that we could not pay. And we don't even
have the first penny to pay it. We can't even contribute to it.
But now here's a call. And it says, Ho, everyone that
thirsteth, spiritually thirsty, come ye to the waters. There's
something to drink here. He says, And he that hath no
money, you who are spiritually bankrupt, come and buy and eat. But I don't have any money. Well,
come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. What
is he saying? It's free. You can't pay for it, but this
is free. Now everybody is spiritually
bankrupt, spiritually poor, but now here's the point. Turn to
Matthew chapter 5 with me. Not everyone is poor in spirit. Now that's the problem. Everybody's
spiritually poor, but not everybody is poor in spirit. What's the
difference? Well, there's a lot of bankrupt
people walking around who don't know they're bankrupt. They think
they're rich. They think they've got a lot to offer. They think
they can do enough to be saved. They think they can offer enough,
try to do enough, by their works. But you see, they don't have
it. By deeds of law, by works, shall no man be justified, declared
not guilty and righteous in God's sight, But yet men and women
in this earth, in religion, and even most who call themselves
Christians, will spend their lives doing their best trying
to work their way into God's favor, or at least through His
rewards. Now, they're spiritually poor,
but they don't know it. But look at what Christ says.
This is the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount. Look at
verse 3 of chapter 5. He says, Blessed are the poor
in spirit. This is a sinner who knows he's
a sinner. This is a sinner, this is a bankrupt
person who knows his spiritual poverty and his bankruptcy. He
knows he's a sinner. He knows that if God gave him
what he deserved at any moment, it would be eternal damnation. He knows that he doesn't have
what it takes. He doesn't have what it requires
to be made righteous before God. He knows that the best that he
has to offer God, even his best efforts, are not good enough
to save himself from any sin. And he says, but this is blessed
are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. This
is the person who possesses the kingdom of heaven. Look down
at verse 10. No, I'm sorry, verse 6. Remember what Isaiah said, Ho,
everyone that thirsteth. He said, Blessed, this is Matthew
5, 6, Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after what? Righteousness. That's what I
need to be saved. I need righteousness. What do
you need to be saved? Now, here's the point. I don't
have any righteousness in myself. I don't deserve righteousness
and I cannot earn it. I don't have it. But he says,
blessed are they, but do you hunger after, do you thirst after?
He says, after right, for they shall be filled. That's what
Isaiah is saying in his call. Oh, everyone that thirsteth,
everyone, he that hath no money, come and buy wine and milk without
price. Well, what kind of righteousness
do I need? How righteous do you have to be to be saved? How righteous
do you have to be to get to heaven? Well, look at verse 20 of Matthew
5. He says, For I say unto you that except your righteousness
shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees,
you shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. I need one better than the best
men on earth could ever produce. That's who the scribes and the
Pharisees were to the Jews of that day. These were the most
religious, the most devout. Christ even said outwardly they
appear righteous unto men. But he says they're not righteous.
And you've got to have one that exceeds theirs. Well, how am
I going to get that? Well, turn with me to Romans
chapter 3. Now, are you hungry and thirsty
for righteousness? We could say it this way. Are
you hungry and thirsty for salvation? And you might say, well, preacher,
I'm already saved. I don't have to worry about it. Well, you
better listen anyway. Better listen anyway. You say,
well, I've done enough. No, you haven't. Somebody says,
well, have I believed enough? No. Not to make yourself righteous,
you haven't. You never will. You see, salvation
is not in how much you believe, it's in who you believe. And
what you believe. Look at Romans chapter 3, look
at verse 10. This is the conclusion of God's
law towards all men, Jew and Gentile. Romans 3.10. As it is
written, there is none righteous, no, not one. You say, well, surely
that doesn't include me. Yes, it does. By nature and by
practice. He says in verse 11, there's
none that understands it. There's none that seeketh after
God, the true and living God. Men will seek a God, a God of
their imagination. A God who will accept what they
have to offer, but not the true and living God. Verse 12, they
are all gone out of the way, that is the way of salvation
that God has. They are all together become
unprofitable, there is none that do us good, no not one, in God's
sight. Look down at verse 19. He says,
Now we know that what thing soever the law saith, it saith to them
who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all
the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of
the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight." No
flesh be justified. What is it to be justified? It
is to be declared not guilty. It is to be declared righteous
before a holy God. And it's impossible that any
sinner could be declared righteous by their deeds. For by the law
is the knowledge of sin. We don't have it. But now are
you thirsty for it? Are you hungry for it? Blessed
are those who hunger and thirst after. Where do I find righteousness?
Well, look at verse 21 of Romans 3. Let's read on. He says, But
now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested.
This is the righteousness of God. This is the righteousness
God provides. Without my works, my works are
excluded, because my works can't do it. They fall short. He says, being witnessed by the
law and the prophets. The law, that's the first five
books of the Bible, the books of Moses, the prophets, that's
what we're reading out of Isaiah 55. In other words, this righteousness
of God that's manifested, revealed, and provided by God without our
works, that's what Moses preached. That's what Isaiah preached.
And he says, even, verse 22, the righteousness of God, which
is by faith, whose faith? Look at it. By faith of Jesus
Christ. His faith. This is a righteousness
that God provides by sending His Son to do a work. And His
Son was faithful to do the work. What did He do? He obeyed the
law perfectly. The Bible says, Cursed is everyone
that continues not in all things which are written in the book
of the law to do them. How much of the law does a person have
to keep in thought, word, and deed in order to be declared
righteous? All of it. Well, who did that? Who can do
that? Christ did. I'll never forget one time here.
I was having lunch with a fellow. And he was worried about his
salvation. He said, I just have so much doubt. And his mother-in-law
had passed away. Just two or three days before
that. And he said, I know she was saved. He was talking about
how she never went to church. She didn't believe what we preached.
But she said, I know that she was saved because he said when
she was in the intensive care unit, a preacher went in there
and talked to her. And when the preacher come out,
He said that. He said, I know she saved. And
the man asked him, he said, well, why do you say that? And he said,
because she did what was required. And then I asked him, I said,
well, what is required? And he looked at me and he said,
well, I really don't know. And I said, well, let me tell
you what's required. Perfection. That's what's required. Perfection is required and here's
I've got that big and he said well nobody can do that And I
said now you're getting hold of it. That's right. That's why
salvation is by grace through Christ and not of works That's
why I need grace. That's why I need the water of
life Christ Jesus and his grace and his blood and his righteousness
I cannot be saved by my works, not even by my faith. My faith
cannot save me. Only Christ, in whom I have faith,
can save me. His blood alone can put away
my sins. That's the payment. My friend,
you can't pay for your sins. You're bankrupt. I'm bankrupt. Only Christ has the redemption
price. And what is that price? It's
not your tears. It's not your promises to do
better. It's not your repentance. It's not walking in the aisle.
It's not being baptized. Ardell's going to be baptized
today. She's not being baptized to pay for her sins. She's being
baptized to confess that Christ has already paid for her sins
by His blood. That's the payment. Oh, don't
deny it. Don't corrupt it. That's the
payment price. That's what we need. And he was
faithful to obey the law and go to the cross to pay for the
sins of his people. He said, I lay down my life for
the sheep. We need righteousness and we don't have it. Where are
we going to find it? Well, look at verse 22. Even the righteousness
of God, which is by the faith of Jesus Christ unto all that
is preached unto all, and upon all them that believe. A sinner
who believes the gospel reveals that Christ's righteousness has
been imputed to him. Being charged to him, credited
to him. But there's no difference. What does that mean? Well, you
remember I said, now let's say you owe a million dollars to
a bank here in town. And you don't have the first
penny to pay it. And you go down there to the bank, and you're
going to throw yourself at the bank's mercy, and if you know
anything about banks, there's not too much mercy running around
in there. But you're going to throw yourself
at their mercy. And you're going to say, what can I do? And you
go down there and you meet with the lending officer or whoever. And you say, I've run up this
million dollar debt. I don't have a penny to pay it.
I'm flat broke. What can I do? And he said, well,
what's your name? And you give him your name. He looks up in
the book and he said, wait a minute now. He says, hey, you don't owe a
dime. You say, well, what happened?
Well, somebody else came in here and paid that debt for you. But
he said, I see something else here. Not only do you not owe
a dime, you're a million dollars to the good. You've got a million
dollars richer here. Somebody came in and gave you
a million bucks. Put it to your account. You say, well, who did that?
Who did that? Well, whatever name that banker
rings out, I guarantee you're going to find that fella and
thank him. Aren't you? You're going to want to follow
him. You're going to give your life to Him. Well, my friend,
that's what Jesus Christ did for His sheep. He did that for His sheep. He
did that for God's elect. And that's the thirst. Somebody
said, well, I'm not thirsty. Well, you don't need it. What
does He do? He sends His Spirit to make the
sinner thirsty for righteousness. And He fills him with Christ.
He sends the Holy Spirit to strip us naked of our so-called best
garments to show us that the only garment that we need is
the righteousness of Christ, charged and credited to us. That's
what he does. Where am I going to find this
righteousness? Well, he says in verse 23 of Romans 3, For
all sin that comes short of the glory of God, we've all missed
the mark. But he says in verse 24, "...being justified freely,
unconditionally, ho everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the
waters, without money, without price, being justified freely
by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." Christ
paid the price. Now go back to Isaiah 55. You
see, it's full and free. Everything that God requires
of me for salvation, I find freely and fully in Christ and Him crucified. Not one thing's missing. And
then he says in verse 2, here's the nature of fallen man. Now,
why do you spend money for that which is not bread? Now, that's
what we do by nature. We'll put our efforts into religion,
trying to work our way into God's favor, either trying to save
ourselves or at least keep ourselves safe, trying to earn our rewards
in heaven. And I'm going to tell you something,
it's futility, it's vanity, it will not satisfy. Not the ones
who are in need now, not the ones who are poor in spirit.
It may satisfy a little while those who are self-righteous,
those who are righteous in their own eyes, but it will not satisfy
a real convicted sinner. I need Christ and Him alone. I need His blood alone. I need
His righteousness alone. Nothing else will satisfy. And
therefore, he says in verse 2, hearken diligently unto me. You
better listen to God here on this matter. Don't listen to
anybody else but to God. Listen to his word. And eat that
which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Micah,
the Bible says in him, in Christ dwelleth all the fullness of
the Godhead bodily, and ye are complete in him. You see, man's
religion thrives on incompleteness. You're not what you should be,
therefore let's get busy trying to get you to be what you should
be. Now that's true of me and myself. But as far as my salvation
goes, I stand before God complete in Christ. Fully forgiven, fully
righteous, wholly in the sight of God in Christ. Now I am myself,
I'm very incomplete. I'm a sinner saved by grace.
I've got a warfare to fight, the warfare of the flesh and
the spirit. But as far as to salvation, as far as to my preservation
and final glory, I am complete in Him. Look at verse 3. Here's the nature of salvation.
It's everlasting and sure. He says, Incline your ear, come
unto me, herein your soul shall live. We're born spiritually
dead. We need spiritual life. And that
comes from Christ. He said, I will make an everlasting
covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. Look back over
at 2 Samuel 23. The sure mercies of David. What is that? That's the promise
of God to send Christ to fulfill all righteousness on my behalf.
To satisfy his law and justice. To put away my sins. That's the
sure mercies of David. That's what David looked to.
David, the king. His hope was not in himself. It was not in Israel. It was
not in his earthly throne. It was not in Solomon, his son.
It was in one who was to come, the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at
verse 5 of 2 Samuel 23. David says, Although my house
be not so with God. David's house was in shambles.
A lot of that David brought on himself because of his great
sin with Bathsheba and all the consequences of that. But he
says, look at it, he says, Yet he, that is God, hath made an
everlasting covenant with me, ordered in all things, and sure. Now, if it were conditioned on
David, it couldn't be ordered in all things and sure. If it
was conditioned on David, it's not anything but sure. It's a
mess. So how can it be ordered in all things? And sure, it's
not conditioned on David. It's conditioned on David's son,
the Son of God, the Son of David, the Messiah. Not Solomon, but
Christ, who's called the Son of David. And he says, for this
is all my salvation and all my desire, although he make it not
to grow. That is through his household
and his family. David's children were against
him. His wives were against him. God didn't make it to grow. But
David was sure and certain for salvation because Christ was
going to come and fulfill all righteousness. That's the sure
mercies of David. And then look at verse 4 of Isaiah
55. Here's the nature of Christ,
upon whom salvation rests. He says, Behold, I've given him
for a witness to the people, a leader and a commander to the
people. That's speaking of Christ. Not just David. It has an application
to David. But it's speaking of David's
substitute, Christ, who is our leader, our commander, our witness,
our prophet, our priest, our king, our surety. He's the Lord,
our righteousness. He's our sin-bearer. He's our
savior. He's our redeemer. He's our kinsman-redeemer. And you can go on and on and
on. He's our rock. He's our ark. He's our altar. He's our great high priest. He's
our substitute, our sacrifice, the Lamb of God. He's our victor. He's our shepherd. He's our commander. All those things, all of it's
in Him. And then verse 5, here's the
nature of the kingdom. Behold, thou shalt call a nation
that thou knowest not, and nations that knew not thee shall run
unto thee. He's not saying that God has a people that He doesn't
know. He's speaking in comparison with the old covenant. Here's
Israel. God had entered into a covenant with Israel through
Moses. But they were a rebellious people.
God never made a covenant with any of the Gentiles at that time.
But in this covenant that's ratified by the blood of Christ and established
and fulfilled upon his obedience unto death to establish righteousness,
God has a people out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation.
And you know what? God chose them. Christ redeemed
them. He's going to send His Spirit
to call them, and they're going to come unto Him. He said, All
that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh
to me I will in no wise cast out. He went on to say, This
is the will of him that sent me, that of all which he hath
given me I should lose what? Nothing, but raise it up again
at the last day. Let me tell you something, my
friend. There's not going to be one sinner in hell for whom
Christ died. If there is, you've got the wrong
Savior. If your Savior, if He put away
the sins of people who go to hell, then He didn't really put
away their sins, because the only reason they go to hell is
because of their sins. That's God's justice. If your
Savior didn't really save His people from their sin, He's no
Savior at all. You're trusting in a counterfeit.
You're satisfied with something that will not fill you. It may
be all right for a while, but let me tell you something, in
the day of judgment, it will not, it will not float. It will not do it. But you see,
he says, this is because of the Lord thy God, and for the Holy
One of Israel, he hath glorified thee. You know what's involved
here? It's the glory of God. Now, you see, salvation is not
just God meeting a need that you have. Now, listen to what
I'm saying. In salvation, God meets the needs
of his people, but it's not just a matter of God meeting our need,
our felt need, as you know, psychologists say. The need doesn't come from
our felt need, because we don't feel like we need that much other
than the things of this world. But, and man's religion, but
that need is conviction of the spirit. But salvation is more
than God just meeting our need. Salvation is God glorifying himself
in the meeting of that need. He must be just when he justifies. He must be just when he saves
a sinner like me. And the only way he can do that
is by the shed blood and imputed righteousness of Christ. That's
the only way he can be both a just God and a Savior. That's the
only way he can be both a righteous judge as well as a loving, merciful
Father. And that's exactly what we need.
So you come to Christ for salvation and rest in Him for all.