Isaiah chapter 30. For those that are watching or listening,
we just concluded singing of hymn and the Gatsby hymn book,
hymn number 71. In that hymn, there is a line
that, two lines, I guess, and I won't read them again. It says,
Father, I thank thy wondrous love that has revealed thy Son
to men unlearned and to babes has made the Gospel known. The
mysteries of redeeming grace are hidden from the wise while
pride and carnal reasonings join to swell and blind their eyes. Thus does the Lord of heaven
and earth his great decrees fulfill and order all his works of grace
by his own sovereign will. And I just mentioned to the brethren
here that you don't probably hear very many songs like that
in modern churches for many reasons. Number one, it's usually not
It's found in the modern gospel or the modern preaching of today
that there is even a notion that God blinds eyes. In modern preaching
today, you don't hear the truth of Scripture. And we
can go to that. We probably are not going to
go to it this morning. But the truth of Scripture that the gospel
is hidden. and is a mystery, as we just
read. It's something that isn't able
to be understood by the natural mind. It's not something that
is perceived by the natural man. And whenever I say the natural
man, I mean who we are. Every one of us, whenever we're
born, we're born with the nature of our father, Adam, the first
man who was ever made. And in that nature, we are all
born into. And so we have this nature of
Adam But this nature of Adam, this flesh, this bone, this blood,
flesh and blood, this flesh and bone, this body that we've been
given, this nature that we have in Adam, has added to it a new
creation. If you are a child of grace,
has a new creation that is added to it. That while we are still
in the nature of Adam, We have the nature of Christ that is
inside of us, that is the seed of Christ, the life of Christ,
the spirit of Christ is in us. And so that now becomes the strong
man of the house. He's able to bind. He's able
to hold. and we are no longer deceived
by our nature that is in Adam. What do I mean by that? We're
no longer deceived because the Spirit of God now illuminates,
enlightens, reveals the truth of God's Word. So we learn in
God's Word that we are sinners. We learn that we cannot do anything,
that all of our righteousnesses are as filthy rags, that we have
no merit before God, that God doesn't accept us upon the good
deeds that we do or the religious things that we are involved in
or what we're like or who we are, whether we're male, female,
black, white, yellow, green, whatever we are. God doesn't
accept us on any of that. The only way that God accepts
us is through Christ Jesus. He accepts us in the Beloved,
being Jesus. He accepts us on who we are in
Christ. And that is something that was
determined before the foundation of the world. I know a lot of
people don't believe that. They think it's something that
happens in time. But I just want to reiterate
to you and turn with me. Hold your place there in Isaiah
chapter 30. But turn with me over to Ephesians chapter 1,
because I want you to see that this isn't just some weird preacher
in his house that is just coming up with some new doctrine. This actually, as I was saying
a while ago, that you don't hear those things in too many modern
churches, you did hear those things in churches in history. The old churches, all the way
back to Christ, that was common knowledge. There was no arguing
over that. There was no discussion about
those things. There was no denial of those
things. It was plain reading of Scripture. But in Ephesians chapter 1, look if you would, starting in
verse 3, again, very familiar verses, and I know we read these
verses all the time, but brethren, I'm telling you, What's contained
in this first chapter and second chapter of Ephesians is the very
heart of the Gospel. You can't really know and understand
the Gospel Well, you can't know and understand the Gospel unless
God's revealed it to you. But as far as the Word of God
is concerned, if you don't see and understand these things,
if this isn't part of your Gospel, then the Gospel that you're preaching
is based upon something that man has done. And we see here
that the Gospel or the saving or the redemption of man began
before the world began. The redemption of God's elect
people began before anything was ever made. Before God ever
said, let there be light, before there was ever anything made
that was made, before there was ever an animal that was created,
before Adam was ever formed of the dust, before Adam ever sinned,
and before Adam ever brought forth Eve from his side. All
this stuff hadn't even happened yet. And before the foundation
of the world, God had already determined a people to love,
of people to keep and to cherish and to give to His Son, and that
Son would come in time and redeem them from their sin, would come
and would show forth the glory and the nature of His salvation,
would come forth and show all of his attributes as far as it
pertains to compassion and love and salvation and his characteristics
of loving us and caring for us and
forgiving us and all these things that are what people would probably
put on the positive characteristics of God. But also in Christ coming
and dying for our sin, dying for us who have actually sinned,
even though He didn't sin. And Him coming and doing that
also displayed the glory of God in His wrath, in His judgment,
in His holiness, in His righteousness. God is holy and just and righteous
and He is full of wrath. As much as He is full of love,
He is full of wrath. He is a wrathful God towards
sin and evil. And He will not acquit sin. He
will not let go of the wicked. No one is going to escape. No
one is going to get into heaven without there being a payment
for sin. Nobody is going to get into hell without there being
a just reason for their going there. God is a just God. And so God being a just God displayed
all of His fullness in Christ Jesus. Not only in His life,
but also in His death and in His resurrection. He is displaying
His fullness as Jesus is the King on the throne who is ruling
over His kingdom. God is displaying His fullness
in the face of Jesus Christ. All that we know about who God
is and what God is like is found in the man, Jesus Christ. And
He has sent Christ as the Redeemer, as the substitute, as the surety
for His people. And now He is ruling and reigning
over those people. And He has given those people
all the things that God has promised. And we see in Ephesians, that
was all before the world began. All this was put in motion, was
decreed, was set forth before the world began. Look with me
if you would in Ephesians. It says, Blessed be God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings. Now look at the word us there.
Who has blessed us? Who's he talking to? Who's Paul
writing to? Well, we know this is the book
of Ephesians, so we know that he's writing to the people in
Ephesus, right? But is it just to everybody in
Ephesus? Is he writing this to the whole
entire world? See, that's the misnomer that
a lot of people think is the Bible is for everybody. Because
we hand out Bibles to everybody on the street corners, we have
the Gideons who go into the schools and hand out Bibles, and we have,
you know, Bible societies that are sending Bibles all over the
world and everything. We have people that are translating
the Bible into all the languages of the world and everything. So what comes to our modern thinking
minds is that the Bible is for everybody. Now I'm not against
people giving away Bibles and giving out Bibles. I do that.
I've done that. I'm not against that at all.
But may we not be So naive and illiterate of the scripture to
think that the Bible is given or written for everybody. The
Bible is written for the people of God and the people of God
alone. What is written in here is for them. And the reason I
say that is because it goes back to what we were saying in that
hymn. It's because spiritual things are hidden from the wise
and the prudent. They're hidden from those who
are outside of Christ. The spiritual things of God are
hidden to the natural man. And it's only to the spiritual
man that these things are revealed and can be revealed. We see that
also in Corinthians that we'll probably go through here in just
a few minutes. But we see that these things are spiritually
discerned, spiritually understood, Therefore, only the spiritual
people can receive these things. Therefore, when God is writing
these things to people, He is writing them to His people that
He has intended and decreed and declared and by providence are
bringing into the understanding of these things. And in specifics
here, in Ephesians, it says, Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ
by the will of God to the saints which are at Ephesus. See, he
was right to the saints that are in Ephesus, not everybody.
But he also says, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus. Now
that there includes everybody else. He's not only, he's talking
to the saints in Ephesus specifically, But more broadly and more generally,
he is writing this to all the saints of God because it is only
the saints of God who are faithful in Christ Jesus. Now let me just
explain that real quick because I know some people may even misunderstand
what I mean by that. I'm not talking about people
who are always obedient to the commands of God. That's not what
the faithful in Christ Jesus are. The faithful in Christ Jesus
is every saint of God. That's everyone. And who are
the saints of God? The ones that the Catholics deem
to be? Is the saints of God only the
ones who do the super-duper religious things? No. Who are the saints
of God? Every child of grace. Everyone
born of God is a saint of God. Why? Because every one of us
is actually born of God. We are saints because we are
His family. We are His children. That's what
makes us saints. You being obedient to God isn't
what makes you a saint. You being some super religious
person or being some religious leader doesn't make you a saint.
The Catholics have all that wrong. They say people are saints because
they've done so great, wondrous, good works and thus are deemed
saints by some Pope somewhere who is really nobody. much less
the vicar of Christ, much less God on earth. He is not that. No, the saints are any child
of grace. And the faithful in Christ Jesus
are not faithful because they continue to walk in obedience
to Christ. They're faithful because Christ
was faithful. And that faithfulness was laid
to their account. God has imputed that faithful
righteousness of Jesus Christ to their account. And so they
are faithful. So this is written to all the
saints of God in any time frame. Old Testament, New Testament,
in the future, whenever. This is written to all of us.
To let us know something about us. He says, blessed be the God
and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us, blessed
you if you are a child of grace. Who has blessed you with all
spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. See, you weren't blessed in your
own stead. You weren't blessed in your works
or your faith. You weren't blessed in your decision
or your choice. You weren't blessed in consequence
of your coming to Jesus. You were blessed with all spiritual
blessings and it was in heavenly places. It wasn't here. Flesh
and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. The things of
the flesh cannot please God. Nothing that we do in our flesh
can please God. Therefore, if there is any blessing
to be given out, it is given out on the merit of someone else
because our merit never will be enough to warrant any kind
of blessing. It was given to us. We were blessed
because of Christ and because we were in Christ. We were in
Christ Jesus from the foundation of the world, just as every one
of us that are here today was in Adam. Whenever he was created,
every one of us was in Adam. I've mentioned this to you before.
In the year 2000, my first daughter Kalen was born. Before she was
born, Me and my wife had been married for eight years, and
we'd been trying to have kids for eight years. Couldn't have
kids. Trying to figure out what was
all going on. Went to doctors, went to specialists, trying to
figure out, nothing's wrong, nothing's wrong. All of a sudden,
eight years later, here comes Kaylin. Now listen, Kaylin was
just as much in me at the beginning of our marriage as she was the
day that she was conceived. The life of Kalen was in me before
she ever became manifest. The life of Kalen and the rest
of my kids were all in me before anything ever came, before they
were ever conceived, before they were ever born. They were already
in me. The life of my children were
in me in seed form. And that's in the natural. In
the spiritual world, the same way, we're the children of Christ
Jesus. That spiritual life has always been in Christ Jesus before
the foundation of the world. And we were in Him before the
foundation of the world. So therefore, we were His children
before we were ever born or made manifest. Before we ever come
to know it. I know a lot of people like to
say that we become the children of God when we have faith in
Him. or whenever we make a choice or a decision, or come down the
aisle and shake the preacher's hand, or write our names down
on some card, or say some sinner's prayer, or go through some baptistry
waters. They think that that's whenever
we become the children of God. No. The Bible says, because ye
are sons, God has sent His Spirit into you, whereby we cry out
to the Father. The only reason that we call out to God for mercy
and for salvation and for grace and for love and for acceptance
and for anything. The whole reason we do that is
because we are already made children. We were already children. But
it wasn't until that spiritual child was born that he began
to make himself known to this world. It wasn't until my children
came forth from the womb and was born that that life became
manifest and showed itself. But the life was there before.
The life had already been there. And it went clear on back to
Adam, that natural life. Well, brethren, this is what
we're talking about whenever we say that we've been blessed with
all spiritual blessings and heavenly places in Christ. Because Christ
is our spiritual Father. We are His spiritual children.
And the blessings was placed upon Christ God had blessed Christ
with all spiritual blessings, and because we were in Christ
Jesus, His seed, His children, all the blessings of the Father
flowed down upon the children. And so before we ever was created
or anything was created, God blessed Christ, blessed us in
Him, Therefore, it is guaranteed because God cannot lie. He can't go back on His Word.
He made a promise that those promises would be given, would
be fulfilled, that everything that was given to Christ and
was promised to Christ would be fulfilled. And they are being
fulfilled. They have been fulfilled. They
are being fulfilled. They will be fulfilled. It is
being brought out. It is being made manifest here
in time, those things that were promised. But they were blessed
before the foundation of the world. So that tells me, brethren,
that salvation doesn't have anything to do with what you do or what
I do. And blessings doesn't come because
of something that you do or I do. It's because of what Christ Jesus
is, our spiritual Father, and what He has done. We are blessed
in Him because He came and lived obediently to the Father, securing
a righteousness for us. He lived the righteousness for
us because He is righteous. He lived the righteousness for
us. The righteousness that we cannot do because we're flesh
and blood. The righteousness that we cannot do because we're
of Adam. The righteousness that we cannot do because we are sinful
people. Christ lived that sinless life
in our place. And so God counted Christ's sinless
life to our account. That's called imputation of righteousness. That's called justification.
We've been justified by the righteousness of Jesus Christ. I wasn't justified
by what I did. I was justified by what Christ
did. That's why the Reformed people,
we believe the doctrines of grace, but we believe it different than
the Reformed people. The Reformed people are what
they would call Calvinist people. They believe that we are justified
when we ourselves have faith in Christ Jesus. When we place
our faith in Christ, when we accept Him or receive Him as
our Savior. But that's not how we're justified.
We are justified by His act of obedience, by His faithfulness. That's what justified us before
God because God took what Jesus did in His personal life of righteousness
and applied that to our account. That's why we have been blessed.
Because God has justified us before Himself through Christ
Jesus. Therefore, every blessing that
God gives to His elect children, who by nature are sinners, who
by nature have been wrathful against Him, who by nature are
enemies against God, and don't deserve God's love and favor,
however, God has considered us as faithful as Jesus Christ. And he says that He has blessed
us with all spiritual blessings, according as He has chosen us
in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before Him in love. Of course, you can
go on and read there and see that we've been predestinated
to the adoption by the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of
His glory and His grace. He has made us accepted in the
Beloved. So brethren, whenever we're reading
these things, We see that these things are for the people of
God, and that all of salvation, before anything had ever happened,
was already determined by God. And God, in His sovereign will,
through His sovereign providence, or His sovereign working, is
bringing these things about. Now, we mention here again, going
back to where we started, that includes Some who will see and
some who will not see. It includes acceptance of some
and rejection of others. And if you remember, now I've
made this statement a couple of times in these last few weeks,
but prophecy that we see in the Old Testament, all prophecy is,
is a foretelling of what is going to happen in the future, but
it's not based upon looking down the corridor of time and seeing
what's going to transpire and God saying, oh, okay, I see what's
going to happen, this is what's going to happen. But all prophecy
is is a declaration of what God has already decreed, has already
determined in His purpose to do and by His will accomplish
and through His own power bring about. That's what prophecy is. Prophecy is just telling what
God is going to do, what God is already determined to do.
Now, keep that in mind as we begin reading in Isaiah chapter
30. I'm going to start at verse 13 and I want to read down to
verse 24. Because what God is doing here
is He's given Isaiah a prophecy or a foretelling of what God
is going to do in the future. Now, remember the mentality of
the Jews. The mentality of the Jews is
it's just us. We're the only nation that God
loves and we're the only people that God is going to give salvation
to. And it is because of our heritage and because of our law
keeping that God is going to favor us. That's the mentality
of the Jews. Now that's not what was being
taught in the Old Testament, by the way. If you look through
the Old Testament, it was taught in many, many, many places that
while God, yes, in that time, had chosen for himself a group
of people called the Jews, or was to be called the Jews, called
out a people called Israel for himself, but he did so not because
he found anything good in them, not because there was anything
inherently special about them, but he chose a people who he
formed out of nothing. Israel did not exist. Israel
came from Abraham, and Abraham was an idolater who lived in
the Ur of the Chaldeans. So Abraham wasn't even an Israelite
whenever God called him. There was no such thing. God
created a people for Himself. And so out of nothing, God created
this people and the Israelites began to come forth as this people,
as a picture, as a symbol, as a shadow, a type, of the spiritual
people of God. See, there's nothing uniquely
important about the people of Israel as a group themselves.
God has not shown favor to them except for the fact that he chose
them at that time to hold forth the oracles and the type and
foreshadow of that greater Israel that is out there, which is the
children of God in spirit. And so God has done that. Now
has He saved people out of Israel? Absolutely He has, just like
He has out of every tribe, nation, language and tongue. The Africans are no more important. The Germans, the French, the
Russians, the Chinese, the Americans, the Latinos, Every tribe, every
language, every tongue that has ever existed, there is no importance
placed on any one of those groups, including Israel, because God
has, before the foundation of the world, chosen a people singular
in Christ Jesus. A seed singular in Christ Jesus.
That's why the New Testament preaches to us and tells us that
in Christ Jesus there is no Jew or Greek. There is no Israel. There is no Gentile. that we're
all one in Christ Jesus and there is no distinctions in the spiritual
kingdom. In the spiritual kingdom of God,
there is only one, and that's the Israel of God, who is Christ
and His children. It's Christ and His seed. And
His seed is scattered to the four corners of the earth and
has been planted in all the four corners of the earth. And whenever
the end of time has come, He will gather His elect out of
all the four corners of the earth and gather them up and together
as one people, no matter what tribe, language, nation, or tongue
they are. He gathers them together as one people because the middle
wall of separation has been torn down. And there is no Jew and
Greek. There is no Jew or Gentile. There
is no male or female. There is no black or white or
there is no whatever. It is one people in Christ Jesus.
Because we are all His seed. And therefore, all the blessings
that have been put upon Christ are all upon those people. The
promise of all the blessings was to the people of Israel,
His children. Christ's children. Not the children
of the flesh that are the children of the promise. but the children
of the Spirit, the children of Isaac, the children of Jacob.
And when I mean that, I'm talking about spiritual Isaac, spiritual
Jacob. We're talking about the people
of God in Spirit, not in flesh. That's the ones who the promises
have come to. And so whenever we come here to Isaiah chapter
30, God is beginning to foretell what is going to happen to the
natural people of Israel in distinction to the spiritual people. of Israel. The elect among Israel versus
the reprobate among Israel. Because not all that are of Israel
are Israel. Meaning not all of national or
natural Israel are of spiritual Israel. And I would just say
just the opposite. Not all that are of spiritual
Israel come from natural Israel. It's just the same on both directions.
But read with me to where it started, verse 13, Isaiah 30.
Wherefore the Lord said, forasmuch as this people draw near me with
their mouth, and with their lips do honor me, but have removed
their heart from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the
precept of man. That's kind of familiar New Testament
language too, right? Remember Jesus in Mark chapter
7, He said the exact same things to the Pharisees and the scribes
that came from Jerusalem. Whenever they came, remember,
they were eaten. And the scribes and the Pharisees
came and said, wait a minute, what are y'all doing? Y'all are
eaten without washing your hands. How come y'all are eaten without
washing your hands? And Jesus, why aren't you telling your disciples
to wash their hands? It was a tradition that they
had. It wasn't a law of God, but they
had made it a law of God by their traditions. They had made it
something, and that's exactly what religious zealousness does. It creates legalism out of the
things of God. It puts forth a self-righteousness
that because we do this, we get favor. Because we do this, we
are looked upon as righteous. That's what self-righteousness
is. Self-righteousness is, I think because of something that I'm
doing, there is favor with God. And these Jews were doing this
to Christ. They were saying, listen, you're
coming and you're defiling yourself, you're defiling your disciples
because you're eating with unwashed hands. And what does Jesus say
to him? to them whenever they come to
him with that. He says, we'll have Isaiah, and that means Isaiah,
prophesied of you hypocrites. So who is Isaiah talking to back
here in Isaiah 30, whenever we go back to read it some more?
He's talking to these people. And I don't think he's just talking
to those people however many hundreds of years later it was
going to be. We at least know it was 400 years later, probably
700 years later, something like that, I don't know. He's not
just talking to them, though. When Isaiah is speaking these
things, he's speaking to those hypocrites of every generation. Those kind of hypocrites of every
generation. Because in every generation,
starting with Adam, there has been the self-righteous. There
has been the religious. The zealous. Those who are given
to think that there is a righteousness in and of themselves, that God
is going to say, thank you, I love that, I appreciate that, good
job, well done. But there's not. See, that's
what is learned in the hidden mystery of the Gospel, is there
is none righteous, no not one. But yet the religious zealot
thinks there is a righteousness that can be done by taking this
book and applying it to their life and living it out. And they
think that they're obeying God and God is being pleased with
their efforts of being obedient to them. And God is saying, no,
sir, that's not what I accept as righteousness. There's only
one person that I've accepted as righteousness. And unless
you are in him, you have no righteousness of your own. And Jesus here says,
well hath Isaiah prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written,
this people honoreth me with their lips, but their hearts
is far from me. Their heart is far from me. How
be it in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the
commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment
of God, ye hold the tradition of men as the washing of pots
and cups, and many other such things. They do the things you
do. And He said unto them, Full well
ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own
tradition. Now let's think about this. Now
this is Jesus talking very plainly that the tradition of God and
the tradition of man are two different things. The commandment
of God and the commandment of men are two different things.
And Jesus here is saying that the commandment of God is being
rejected by you for the commandment and the traditions of men. You
think that by your following the commands and the traditions
of men that you are putting forth a righteousness. And you're completely neglecting
the command of God. Now, we soon find out in the
New Testament that the New Covenant command is to believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ. The New Covenant command that
we are given as the children of God in the spiritual kingdom
of God is to give honor to Christ alone. He is the author and the
finisher of faith. He is the one who has secured
salvation for us all. It is Christ alone that has saved
us. Nothing that we have done saves
us. And so the Bible tells us to
love God and to love the brethren. On those two things are all the
commandments of God. So in the New Covenant, it is
to looking unto Jesus, trusting Jesus, Looking at Jesus and saying,
I have no salvation apart from you. Looking to Jesus and saying,
I can do no righteousness, but my hope is that your righteousness
is my righteousness. looking to Jesus and saying,
that I cannot do it, I cannot keep the law of God, I cannot
keep the commands of God, I am unworthy, I am unrighteous, as
Paul said, that all my righteousness are as filthy rags, and again,
Paul says, that, O wretched man that I am, that in me dwells
no good thing, is to look at Christ and say, in me dwells
no good thing, but yet I trust that you have given grace to
me. See, the commandment of God is
to walk in faith that Christ is our only hope. That Christ
is our salvation. That what He did secured our
salvation, not what I have to do. These men were thinking that
it is something that they do on the outside that makes them
acceptable before God and makes them undefiled. But Jesus is
about to school them here. Watch. Verse 10. For Moses said,
Honor thy father and thy mother, and whoso curseth thy father
and mother, let him die to death. But ye say, If a man shall say
to his father or mother, It is Corbin, that is to say, a gift
by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me, he shall be free,
and ye shall suffer him no more to do aught for his father or
his mother, making the word of God not effect through your tradition,
which ye have delivered, and many such like things. And when
he had called all the people unto him, he said unto them,
Hearken unto me, every one of you, and understand, There is
nothing from without a man, or outside of the man, that entering
into him can defile him. But the things which come out
of him, those are they that defile the man. If a man has ears to
hear, let him hear." So what Jesus is saying, no, what's defiled
is not what is done outwardly. What's defiled is that which
is inwardly. And what he was basically telling,
telling these Pharisees, these religious leaders who thought
that they were above everybody else. And listen, guys, we're
not just talking about men of high esteem. We're talking
about the everyday person, you and me. Whenever Jesus is talking
to the Pharisee, he's talking to the self-righteous. When he's
talking to the scribes and the keepers of the law, he's talking
to every one of us in our Adamic man. That's the Pharisee. The Pharisee isn't just some
group of elite people that separated themselves from everybody else.
No, that was a picture of every one of us as Adam. Every one
of us in our natural state are Pharisees who think we are keeping
the law or keeping God because of what we have done. So He's
talking to us in the natural. And He's telling us, listen,
at the heart of your very core, you are evil. You are defiled. Everything about
you is evil. You think, well, surely God doesn't
think that I'm evil. I don't do bad things. I don't
murder people. Look at verse 18. And He said
unto them, Are ye so without understanding also? Do ye not
perceive that whatsoever thing from without entereth into the
man that cannot defile him? Because it entereth not into
his heart, but into the belly, and goeth out into the draught,
purging all means. And He said, That which cometh
out of the man, that defileth the man. For from within, out
of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, So
you may not have murdered anybody, but have you ever had an evil
thought? I think all of us have. Adulteries? Fornications? Well, a lot of us may say, well,
I've never cheated on my husband. I've never had sex outside of
wedlock. No, but Jesus said if you've
ever looked on a person to lust, you have. Fornications? Murderers? Jesus
said if you hate a man in your heart, you've murdered him. You
may have not have shot him or stabbed him, strangled him, even
though he may have wanted to do that. And I think every one
of us at some point or another has wanted to do that, you know,
to somebody. Well, there you go. Out of the
heart precedes murder. Thefts. I'm sure everyone in
this place has taken something that didn't belong to them at
some point in time, no matter how big or small it was. Covetousness. Wanting something that you don't
have. Now, how many of us have done that? Well, that's something
on a daily, that's something on a daily, me and my son, Zach,
went over to Asbury yesterday and watched some drag races yesterday
afternoon. And as soon as we got out of
the truck, I had made 10 steps. I said, boy, I sure would like
that. I sure would like that. Looking at them hot rods, guess
what? Out of the heart comes the violence
of coasts. That's what God's given me. Wickedness,
deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride. How many
of us have that? Surely not. I know you guys.
You guys don't have pride, do you? Foolishness. I know all my kids have that. Well, all of us have that. All
these evil things come from within and defile the man. See, Jesus
is making known to these men that what defiles the man is
who you are, not what you do. You can't help but be defiled
because you come from a natural nature that is defiled. The natural
nature is a defiled nature. It is a nature that is incapable
of obedience to God, it's a nature that is incapable of righteousness. It's a nature that is incapable
of love for God and love for His people. So that nature that
you have from birth is defiled. Therefore, everything you do
has been defiled. So back in Isaiah, God says this,
Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among
this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder." Now, just
because he's using the word marvelous and wonder here doesn't mean
it's talking about something that is pleasant and good. It's
something that's going to be devastating to these people.
It's marvelous in the fact that it's a work of God. It's a wonder
because God is doing this and people can't do anything about
it because God is sovereign. For the wisdom of their wise
men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be
hid. Woe unto them that seek deep
to hide their counsel from the Lord, and their works are in
the dark, and they say, Who seeth us, and who knoweth us? I think
back to whenever the religious leaders were consorting against
each other to kill Jesus. And in their little secret sessions,
they were planning and plotting to kill Jesus. And all the while,
Jesus knew their hearts. Jesus knew exactly what was going
to happen. Do you know why Jesus knew that they were going to
consort to kill him? Do you know how Jesus knew that
Judas left? Do you remember? Jesus told Judas. He said, one of you is going
to betray me. The one who puts his hand in
the sock with me. Who was that? That was Judas.
How did Jesus know that? Was it because he looked down
the corridor at the time and saw it? No. How did Jesus know that Judas
was going to betray Him? How did He know whenever He said
that I'm going to go to Jerusalem, and when I get to Jerusalem,
I'm going to be given up to the religious leaders, and the religious
leaders are going to take me and they're going to kill me?
I mean, He said that specifically to them. How did Jesus know that? How did Jesus know that He was
going to be delivered and He was going to be hung on a cross?
and he was going to die, and in three days, rise from the
grave. How did he know that? Well, some
would say, because he's God. Well, yeah, that's the overarching
thing. Yes, because he's God. But the reason Jesus knew Judas
would betray him, the reason that he knew that Peter was going
to deny him three times, the reason that he knew that all
of his sheep was going to be scattered, The reason that he
knew that he was going to be delivered up to the chief priest
and be killed and then three days be dead and then rise again
on the third day, the reason he knew that is because God had
declared it before the foundation of the world. God had declared
every one of those events before the foundation of the world.
Even the rising up from Israel out of Abraham to the very point
in which Christ came and destroyed Jerusalem in AD 70, that group
of people was raised up to bring forth the Messiah and to fill
up the iniquity that God had sealed up in a bag, the iniquity
that God had given to them to do, and they had filled up. the iniquity of their fathers.
That generation that crucified Christ was the generation from
generation to generation of generations that killed the prophets, that
hated the Word of God, that hated the Gospel of Jesus the Messiah
that was to come. Why? Because all of them were
the Pharisees who thought that they had a righteousness of their
own. So whether it was back in the Old Testament or whether
it was in the New Testament, the religious Pharisee is the
one and the same person. It is the natural man of God
who despises the preaching of the cross that Jesus alone is
what saves. They think salvation has to be
part of them and what they do. And God is saying, look, did
you not even see, have you not even realized, whenever He's
talking to Pharisees, was it not told back in Isaiah that
you people were going to do all these things, and that you were
going to do this to me, and that at the end of all of this, you're
not going to succeed, you're going to be destroyed. Read on. He says, I'm going to do a marvelous
work and a wonder for the wisdom of their wives, and the men shall
perish, and their understanding and prudence, and the men shall
be hid. Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from
the Lord, and their works in the dark, and they shall say,
Who seeth us, and who knoweth us? Surely your turning of things
upside down shall be esteemed as the potter's clay." See, they're
turning things upside down. All along, from the beginning,
it was always to be the Messiah is going to be the Savior. The
Messiah is going to save His people. From the very beginning,
God was going to redeem a people from every tribe, language, nation,
and tongue for Himself And yet they've turned it upside
down. They've made it all about, it's just going to be me. And
it's going to be because and based upon what I do. My self-righteousness
is going to be the fuel that keeps me going, keeps me in good
favors with God. And ultimately, I want to be
ushered into His presence, and He's going to say, well done,
my good and faithful. Well, why would He say, well done, good
and faithful servant, if it wasn't for the fact that I had done
well, good, being good and faithful? And if I'm not good and faithful,
I'm not going to get that right. Well, let me just break something
to you, and I hope that you aren't just totally undone at the sound
of this. There's none of you here, including
myself, that is faithful. And there is none of you here
that is worthy to receive the salvation of Jehovah. Not one
of us. For all have sinned and fall
short of the glory of God. And the wages of sin is death. The payment that you get for
the sin that you are is death. That's what we all deserve. Not
well done, good and faithful servant. You don't deserve to
hear that because you're not a good and faithful servant.
Nobody is. The good and faithful servant
is Jesus Christ. And because of Him, we are told,
well done, good and faithful servant. Why? Because Jesus' righteousness
is put upon me. When I walk through the gate
and come before God, I don't come in all of what Mike has
done. I come in all God sees is the
activity and righteousness of what Jesus has done. Mike's sin
was paid for because Jesus died for them. Therefore, the wages
of sin was debt. Jesus died for those sins. Therefore, my sins were paid
for. God's not unjust to forgive me
and to justify me because my sin was paid for. I didn't actually
pay for them. Jesus paid for them for me. But
God determined in His righteousness and justice that Christ would
be a perfect surety for me. And since God is righteous and
is just and can find no fault in Himself, and deems that that
is worthy, then God is fine with Christ dying in my place. So
Christ died in my place, my sins are forgiven. Why? Because Jesus
paid all the wages that was due for those sins. But what about
my righteousness, my obedience to God? What about that? I can't
come to God and say that I paid for my wages because I can't
even die enough to pay for those wages. Christ had to do it for
me. But I can't come before God and
claim any obedience and righteousness before Him because God cannot
accept anybody and justify anybody that's not righteous, not guilty. So Christ has to stand for me
there. But what do the religious leaders
do? They turn it upside down. You know, I actually think as
I'm reading this this morning, I actually think that was what
was in their mind, this verse, but yet they were turning it
upside down again. They're the ones who have turned
the gospel of Messiah upside down by their religious activity,
by their pharisaical work of thinking that they have a righteousness
before God. But yet remember whenever the
disciples went all out and they were telling people about Christ
and they were turning them to the gospel, and away from Judaism? And what do the religious say?
Here are the people that are turning the world upside down.
They're turning it upside down. Why? Because their idea was,
wait a minute, it's us, the Jews, that are God's people. And they're
taking it out there and saying it's the Gentiles, that's God's
people. And wait a minute, it's us that
are keeping the commandments, and they're going out there and
telling people that they can't keep the commandments. And that they
should just trust this Jesus person, is the only way that
they can be saved. So see, they were turning it
upside down, but yet the very people that was doing it right
side up, they thought was turning it upside down. He says, surely
your turning of things upside down shall be as steeped as the
potter's clay. And what does he mean by that?
The fact that you're doing it wrong, you're turning the whole
scheme of salvation upside down, is nothing more than clay in
the potter's hands. You're doing exactly what you
were made to do. You're doing exactly what God
had purposed from the very time He called Abraham out of the
Ur of the Chaldees. You are doing and fulfilling
the purpose that God made you as the nation of Israel. Your
purpose was to bring forth the Messiah. Your purpose was to
keep the oracles and the commands of God and the sacrifices of
God, all the types and the foreshadows, all the mystery of the Gospel
until Messiah comes. Until it's all fulfilled. Until
it's all made manifest. The blessings were there, but
the manifestation of it hadn't made it yet. The blessings were
all there, but here these people, they were created, they were
brought forth and chosen, and they were governed all through
that time period to be exactly what God had intended them to
be. They were clay in the potter's hands. He said, for shall the
work say of him that made it, he made me not? Or shall the
thing framed say of him that framed it, he had no understanding? Is it not yet a very little while,
and here it is, Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field,
and the fruitful field shall be esteemed as a forest. Whenever
it talks about Lebanon, it's always talking about the forest
of Lebanon. It was full of the cedars of
Lebanon. We talked about that in that hymn this morning. The
cedars of Lebanon, an undeveloped forest. And that's how the Jews
looked upon the Gentiles, is this uncultivated group of people.
That's all they were. And so what he's saying here
is this. In a little while, that uncultivated
group of people out there, the forest of Lebanon, is going to
be turned into a fruitful field. And right here, where the fruitfulness
has been, is going to turn into an uncultivated. So you see the
change here where Christ comes and He rejects Israel and He
goes to the Gentiles, and now Israel is rejected. Now they're
the uncultivated field. And now the Gentiles are the
fruitful field. He says, And in that day shall
the deaf hear the words of the book, the eyes of the blind shall
see out of obscurity and out of darkness, If you remember,
the Gentiles was never given the commands of God, was never
given the law, they was never given the mystery of the gospel
and the sacrifices. They were never given those things.
They were outside. They were strangers. They were
those who were blind to the things of God, the glory of God. The
glory of God was in the tabernacle with His people. They didn't
have the glory of God, the teachings of God. They didn't have any
of these. So, in essence, they were blind, they were obscured,
and they were in darkness. And he says, the meek also shall
increase their joy in the Lord, and the poor among men shall
rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. You see it in little excerpts
all throughout the Old Testament and in the Gospels. But you see
these Gentiles, who among all these Pharisees who were puffed
up and proud and thought by their righteousness they were getting
into heaven, or because of their genealogy they were getting into
heaven. And here were these Gentiles who had been blind and been in
darkness and had been all these, who the Lord was beginning to
open up their eyes. And you see, remember the centurion
that came? And what was he? He was humble
before Christ. And he came and he bowed and he said, hey, my
kid, I need you to do something for my kid. And Jesus said, He
said, I'll come. And then he said, no, if you'll
just say the word, I know that he'll be made well. They came in meekness and humility.
The woman that came and said, yes, I know that I'm not from
Israel, but even the dogs like to take some of the little portions
that fall from the master's table. See the meekness in that? They
understood. We know we're not worthy. We
know we don't have anything. But if you have compassion on
us, then we will be shown compassion. If you have mercy to give, we
know that we can receive mercy because you are merciful. See,
they were coming meek as the ones in Israel were coming, proud
and boastful in their righteousness and in their genealogy. And it
says here, For the terrible one is brought to naught, and the
scorner is consumed, and all that watch for iniquity are cut
off." How many times throughout the Gospels was the religious
leaders looking for Jesus to do something, to mess up? They
were just waiting for Him to do something, mess up. He says
that, "...make a man an offender for a word, and lay a snare for
him that reproveth in the gate, and turn aside the just for a
thing of naught." That's exactly what was happening in the passage
in Mark. These men, for just a word or just for a slight thing,
they were making these men offenders by things that weren't even offensive. It may have been uncouth, so
to speak, to eat without washing your hands. Sometimes we eat around here
and I don't wash my hands. My wife is good about washing her hands. Can't
promise you about me. But Jesus here is saying that
these men, because of their thinking that there is an outward show
of religion, has wounded the little child of grace. Because it's right here, it's
saying, that make a man an offender for a word, and lay a snare for
him that reproveth in the gate, and turn aside the just for a
thing of naught. They may be just. They may be
a child of grace. But because of your legalism,
because of your Judaic outlook on things, because of your self-righteousness,
you injure that little child of grace because all you do is
give them the law. You give them the law. You give
them the law. And all the law is going to do, including yourself,
is going to make you guilty before God. He says, therefore, thus
saith the Lord who redeemed Abraham concerning the house of Jacob,
Jacob shall not now be ashamed, neither shall his face now wax
pale. So he's saying here, that just
because there's going to be this destruction, there's going to
be this judgment, there's going to be this rejection of Israel,
that doesn't mean that Jacob is going to die off or that Abraham
is not going to be redeemed. It says here, what does it use? It says his face will not wax
pale. He's not going to die. Israel's
not going to die off That's why Paul said, has God put off those
that are His? No, I'm a child, I'm an Israelite. All these disciples are Israelites.
All of these men, these are all Israelites. No, God hasn't cast
off His people that He foreknew. The elect have obtained it, the
rest were hardened. That's what he's talking here.
That's the prophecy. That's what's the fourth telling.
That's the declaration. Why? Because before the foundation
of the world, God wrote names down in the book, and he wrote
names not in the book. Or he did write names in the
book, I should say. That's because God, before the foundation of
the world, determined the eternal destinies of every man, woman,
and child, and they're either his or they're not his. He has
the sovereign right to do that. He is the potter, we are His
clay. And out of that clay, He has
said, He has made some for honor, and He has made some for dishonor. Therefore, He has made some to
be dishonorable people for dishonorable use. And they're using that, and that's
why He said here, you're turning the world upside down, is esteemed
as the potter's clay. You're doing exactly what you
were intended to do. Those Jews were doing exactly
what God had intended for them to do. And if you don't believe
me, you can look in Acts, where it says, by the determinate counsel
of God, you, by your wicked hands, have crucified God's Son. God had determined that those
Jews, those Gentile Roman leaders and all the people involved in
that, that they would bring Jesus up, crucify Him, and He would
die at their hands. Before the foundation of the
world. God had determined that. Because it said in the determinant
counsel of God. When did God determine all things?
Before the foundation of the world. The very fact that the
foundation of the world came into existence is the outcome
of the declaration of God. So it goes on here to say, But when
he seeth his children, the work of my hands in the midst of him,
they shall sanctify by name and sanctify the Holy One of Jacob,
and shall fear the God of Israel. But when he seeth his children,
makes me think of Isaiah 53, where it says, he shall see the
travail of his soul and be satisfied. Whenever he shall see his seed, whenever he shall see his children,
See, whenever he looked upon Israel, Israel as a nation was
a whore, and it went away from him, and it dishonored him, and
it had become idolatrous, and had rejected God. Therefore,
God was about to reject them as a nation. But yet, in the
midst of those people, he had a people. And he called those
people out. Just as like in every nation,
he has a people, the rest of the people are idolaters who
reject God, But in those people, He has a remnant of people that
He has elected to save out of that people. And they all make
up one people that is neither Jew nor Gentile. Because they
are spiritual people. They are not flesh and blood. He says, They shall sanctify
My name and sanctify the Holy One of Jacob. That's exactly
what we see in Jesus' day. Those men We're rejecting Christ. We're looking to their own words
for salvation. And we're glorifying in Moses
and the Law and their genealogy. But yet Christ is saying there
will be a people who will look to Me and they will sanctify
My name. They will sanctify who I am,
the Holy One. That's the Anointed One of God.
That's talking about the Messiah, Jesus. and they shall fear the
God of Israel." They shall have reverence to the God of Israel
because of the Holy One. See, these men didn't have a
fear of God through Jesus. As a matter of fact, they didn't
even have a fear of God because they thought they were keeping
the Law. They didn't even realize they weren't keeping the Law. And in verse 24, they also that
erred in spirit shall come understanding and they that murmured shall
learn doctrine." He's saying, see these people? Out of this
people is going to come a group of people who, while even though
they deserved everything that the rest of these people deserved,
they erred in spirit. Just as every one of us has erred
in spirit. And we deserve everything that
should come to us as far as God's wrath. But it says, "...they
shall come to understanding, and they that murmured shall
learn doctrine." Who does the Lord give understanding to? The saints of God. Remember last
week we talked about it? To you it has been given to know
these things. To them, God has hidden these
things from the wise and the prudent. And they revealed them
unto babes. Who is it that shall learn doctrine?
Well, it's the child of grace. The one who is taught of God.
So, brethren, we see here through this passage in Isaiah, not just
a natural history lesson, but brethren, we see the eternal
work of God in His redemption of His people, specifically out
of the Jews, but also the inclusion of all of His people from all.
walks of life, whether they be rich, whether they be poor, whether
they be smart, whether they be dumb, whether they be Gentiles
or whether they be Israelites, God has a people in each one
of those groups. But not everybody of those groups
are His people. And He has declared that all
that is outside of Christ, all that is outside the spiritual
kingdom, All that is outside of Israel, spiritually speaking,
Jacob, spiritually speaking, all that is outside of Jerusalem,
spiritually speaking, is going to be destroyed. It's going to
be brought to naught. There is a day appointed whenever
you will fill up, they will fill up the measure of their iniquity and God will bring judgment. But to those who are in Christ
Jesus, their judgment has already been rendered. The wages for
their sin has been paid. They will be separated from all
those who have rejected God, who have been evil in heart,
defiled in spirit, all those who have been outside They shall be judged for those
things, and all of us will be ushered in to the presence of
God, and we will be with Him forever. Now, just in closing,
I would like to say that this right here, to the child of grace,
brings a humbleness to our heart, and should not bring a boasting
to our heart. Jesus said, those who have been
grafted in, you shouldn't boast that there were ones who were
broken off, because they were broken off that you might be
grafted in. There are those who are rejected and you have been
accepted. And you shouldn't boast as if
you are something, because you are no different than them. There's
no difference between the reprobate and the child of grace except
for grace. We are all of one lump in Adam,
sinners. And we don't deserve anything.
But only because of grace has God separated us from them. And that doesn't make us any
better than them now. I'm no better than the reprobate
now if I'm His. I'm no better than the reprobate.
Still, I'm still a sinner who cannot keep from sinning. And
all that's within my heart is defining everything that I do.
And it's only because of the grace of God that that will not
be counted against me. And it's only because of the
grace of God that I will not receive my just deserts for my
sin. So I have no room to boast or
brag. That doesn't mean that we don't
rejoice, brethren. That doesn't mean that, just
like it says right here, these people who have been given knowledge
and understanding, they've been given knowledge and understanding
to know that they didn't deserve it, but God's freely given it
to them. Therefore, that's why they sanctify
His holy name. That's why we praise God. We
don't come here to praise God so that God will look down and
say, hey, that's good and be pleased with us because we've
done that. No, we come and praise God because out of the abundance
of the heart, the mouth speaks. The heart has been given to know
our sinfulness and wickedness and need for wrath, but God in
grace has given us mercy and forgiveness and life eternal. Therefore, we exalt Him, extol
Him, and we give praise and honor to Him, we sanctify His holy
name. We set it apart as something
that we see and recognize as the very reason that we are who
we are. Paul said, who makes me differ?
Who makes me to differ? It is only by the grace of God
that I am that I am. So we should always give our
praise and our glory to Him, and that's exactly what Paul
wrote in Ephesians, he said that it might be the praise to the
glory of His grace, right? Let me not misquote that. Get back over there. I'll read
this and we'll be done. according as He hath chosen us
in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of the children by Jesus Christ Himself, according
to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of
His grace, wherein His grace He hath made us accepted in the
beloved." So, brethren, our praise and honor goes to Him. Anybody
have any things you'd like to add to this? Any questions or
comments? Correction? Disagree? Anybody want to arm wrestle? Alright. I really
am serious about the questions and the comments and the corrections. That was Isaiah 29. Isaiah 29? Yeah, did I say something else? Oh, I'm sorry. Isaiah 29. Yes,
that was Isaiah 29. I'm looking at the big number
30 right here. It's on the page where I was
reading. I must have gotten sidetracked that way. Sorry about that. All
right, let's go to the Lord. Heavenly Father, we thank you
for the day. We thank you for the grace that you've given us
in Christ. We thank you for all that you are. We thank You for
the mercy that's found in the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, we
truly know that we are undeserving of everything that we get from
You. We are undeserving of Your love
and Your salvation for eternal life. But Father, we're grateful
that through Christ Jesus, we've been made accepted. And Lord,
we are thankful for the Word of God that is here to reveal
and to declare this wonderful grace and gospel Thank you for
all those that are here today and we just pray, Lord, that
you might minister to their hearts. We pray, Lord, that you might
give them understanding of these things. And Lord, we just pray
that for anybody that comes and is here, Lord, we trust you as
Lord and Savior. Lord, we pray that they might
be given faith and that they might continue each day to give
us the grace to look to you for all that they are and all that
they can do in Christ Jesus. And Father, we again are so appreciative
of the way that you have condescended to us to give us this gospel,
to give us this grace, and it's freely that you have given it
and we take it, Lord, and we say thank you for it. And Lord,
I pray that you'll be with these brethren as they leave, that
you might minister to them this week, that you might keep them
in the faith, that you might encourage them, keep them safe
until we meet again. Lord, it's all in your son's
precious name that we pray. Amen.