Darkness of Depravity and the Light of Election Isaiah 1:2-9

Just want to make a couple of announcements. Remember the conference coming up. I do have, again, the handouts back there on the table. And so if you know anybody that might want to come, I thought about this today, asking people to come, asking people to come and hear the gospel.

I read a article by J.C. Philpott and he had long been timid to try to exalt or try to speak about his ministry. It's very uncomfortable, and it is as a pastor. You want people to come, and yet you don't want to try to promote yourself. And J.C. Philpott got sick for about eight months, and he was not able to preach for that period of time or longer And he was forced to sit and to listen. And the thought had occurred to him that how encouraging that was to him as he was to sit and listen to another man preach the gospel to him in his time of need. And he recognized this, that God has given us this ministry.

This ministry is not about me. It's just not. I don't want men to come hear me. I don't want men to come hear the men we've got coming to preach. My heart's desire is that men come hear the word of God. This is, it's not us. We're nothing. We're vessels. We're, we're nothing but mouthpieces. That's it. And it's not us that we want men to hear. I beg you, please. You're in a sad state if you come to hear me. Would to God that you would hear him. That's the beginning of our text, isn't it? He said, oh heavens and earth, hear the word of the Lord. The Lord has spoken. That's our message. Never come in this pulpit with any desire to give you an opinion.

I have a lot of things that I could read in scripture that I fully can't grasp. I can't grasp it. I can't put my mind around it. I don't understand a lot of things about future things, so I don't spend a lot of time on it. Well, I don't want to give you opinion.

I wanted you to hear. And so when you invite someone to come, you invite them to come so that they hear the word of God and they hear the voice of God speak to their hearts. And that's what we invite men to come and listen and hear. We don't promote any man. We could promote the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. We want men to hear that.

And if God will speak to you. That's all my heart's desire. God speak to you. He does, you'll be comforted. You'll be instructed when he speaks. So if you take those and invite people, remember that's what you're inviting them to do. You want them to hear the gospel. You want them to hear the word of God. And so if the Lord moves that on your heart to give that to someone and they want to come, that'd be great. We'd love to have them hear the gospel.

So remember, that's the twenty four twenty fifth and twenty six. We have rooms if people are coming out of town, we've got rooms at the Candlewood Suite reserved a special rate. So in Clarksville, there's Candlewood Suites there in Clarksville. If anybody's coming, I think I put that on the flyer back there Saturday before.

We're gonna meet together and clean. We'll clean, but I enjoy talking more than I enjoy cleaning. So get the fellowship with each other and spend time and we'll have some pizza back there. So pray about that. I ask for your prayers tonight in this message. I long for it to come across as it is in this text. I want you and I to grasp what God says about us and what God says about his grace. We're gonna be able to contrast something here. We're gonna be able to contrast ourselves and the grace of God. Two totally different things. One is infinitely low and that's us. And the grace of God is infinitely high and glorious.

I pray the Lord will bless it to us tonight. Pray for that. Pray for those that are sick, those who are not with us. Let's go to him in prayer again. Gracious Father, thank you again. Thank you for giving us the health and the mind and desire to be here. the providence that you have moved in order to place us in this place tonight, to hear this message that you have spoken. Dear Father, please send your spirit that I might declare the word in boldness and clarity. Father, I might do this in love, and that the gospel might be preached and Christ might be exalted. I pray for the spirit upon your people that you would instruct them and teach them. Open their understanding.

Manifest the glory of your grace tonight that's found only in Jesus, thy son and his offering. I pray, Father, for those who are struggling, those who are in difficulties and trials, great afflictions, great pains, temptations of the flesh and of the world. We're all so prone to sin, Father, and we just cling to the text that you've given us that says, if we confess our sins, you're faithful and just to forgive us our sins. And we know that's only in Christ. There's no merit here. There's no goodness in ourselves. It's all in him. Father, I pray you'd bless this night to our hearts in Jesus name we pray.

Amen. All right, if you take your Bibles turn with me to Isaiah chapter one. Isaiah chapter one. Now, as I stated to you before, in this chapter, in this blessed chapter of Isaiah, we may see the whole counsel of God in this chapter. I'm not going to spend, I don't have the time. I wish I did. It was, it's glorious. And I'm going to give you kind of an outline of the chapter. And that way you take it home, you can go through these things and Maybe the Lord would be gracious to let me preach the rest of this.

We're only going to deal with the first nine verses tonight. The first one of five divisions in this chapter. Now the first division is found in verses one through nine and it speaks to the total depravity of man and the sovereign election of God. That's what we're going to be dealing with tonight. The depravity of man and the sovereign election of God. That's the first point. Now in verses 10 through 17 there are two points in this.

The utter uselessness of works religion and the impossibility of self-salvation. The third thing in verses 18 through 20 we see We see the promise of salvation to all who come to Christ. In other words, a general call of the gospel message. But we also see in that section the rejection of the natural man to the general call. But the glorious thing in the fourth thing is verse 25 through 27. We see this. the sovereign act of God in salvation. You see God acting you see God doing it in those verses and the fifth thing in verse 28 through 31 you see the promise destruction of everyone outside of Christ whole council right there. So that's just a don't count that as part of my time. I just, I gave you that as extra, okay? Now we'll start. Now we'll start. Okay, now in this chapter, in verses 1 through, verse 2 through 9, we're going to see two things.

We're going to see the total depravity of man, the absolute depravity of man, and we're going to see the sovereign election of God. Now, this text here, God says this in verse 2, Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord hath spoken. Now that's calling everybody to hear. He's calling everybody in His creation to listen to this, listen to who spoke. The Lord hath spoke. This is a message from God. To who? Everyone. Now, you need to listen to this. God spoke this. Now, the people He's speaking to, He said this, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against Me.

Now, this is being spoken to the nation of Judah. In verse 1, He said, this is Isaiah's vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem. Now this whole text here most surely was spoken to national Israel. But we know this, that national Israel is only a type and a picture of true spiritual Israel. In Romans chapter 9 the apostle makes the distinction. He says not everybody born of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are Israel. He's making a distinction that spiritual Israel are the elect of God. Those who are saved by the grace of God are the true Israel of God.

Now if I took this as a history book and we just looked at it at that, it'd mean nothing to us, would it? It would have no meaning to us. But it's not that. Just like the high priest, just like those offerings of lambs and goats had pictured something. They pictured Christ, didn't they?

The nation of Judah, the nation of Jerusalem, all pictured the elect. And so God here is now speaking through the prophet to his people, the spiritual Israel. So then you who believe, when I preach this to you, you're going to see, you're going to see you. When you speak about Judah and Jerusalem and Israel, you're going to be hearing about yourself. You'll know. You'll say, yeah, that's me. That's me.

And so this tonight is speaking to those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. We who were chosen of God. We who were redeemed by the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ. We who are now called by the Spirit of God to faith in Christ. We are the elect of God. When you were dead in trespasses and sins, God in grace has quickened us together with Christ and has called us by His grace to believe on Him.

If you believe on Him, it is a total act of God's sovereign mercy that you're saved. And you know that. You that believe understand that about yourselves. You are the true Israel of God. Now, with that, now you know who this is speaking to. And all the people are going to hear this are true Israel. Only ones who are really going to understand this are God's people. But this is the Word of the Lord. Now, the first thing I want you to see that God says about His people, which is true, not just of His people, but everyone. is the absolute depravity of man. Notice this, he first says this, I have nourished and brought up children and they have rebelled against me. Here's the evidence of depravity that every man by nature has rebelled. Every one of us.

The Apostle says in Romans chapter 8, he said the carnal mind. Now who doesn't have a carnal mind? Every one of us children of Adam, we have a carnal mind. And this is the carnal mind. The carnal mind is enmity against God. Carnal mind is at warfare with God. The carnal mind hates God. Preacher, I don't hate God.

God says you do. And this is the proof. You want proof? Here it is. Paul said this. He said the carnal mind is enmity against God for, now this is why, it is not subject to the law of God. Are you subject to the law of God? Anybody here? Subject to the law of God? Have you ever been? Can you? No. He said you can't even be subject to the law of God.

We have rebelled. This text is speaking about us by nature. We have rebelled against God. When man was created, he was created upright and perfect. But the moment our father sinned, when Adam sinned, he said, In the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. And when he did eat, he died. He died. He rebelled and he died. He died spiritually. See, Adam lost all knowledge of God. He lost all understanding of God.

One minute he was communing with God and after he rebelled, the next thing you know the scripture says, and their eyes were open and they knew something. They knew they were naked. See, the carnal mind has no problem with feeling guilt. We have a conscience. Everyone in this room has felt guilt. But what do we do with that guilt? The same thing our father did. He ran into the woods and he grabbed some leaves and he sewed it together, an apron, to try to cover himself. It's exactly what we do by nature when we feel guilty.

By nature, men run to religion. They run to their works. They run to their deeds. And they say, ah, I'm going to cover myself before God. So we have some measure of God's justice, some measure of conscience. We feel our need of covering. But here's the proof of our depravity. To think that we can cover ourselves before God, you can cover yourself before me. You can fool me. You can't fool God. Yet men think they can. Men think they can.

And this is the same nature of sin and spiritual death and blindness that is not just to Adam, it's passed to you and me. Romans 5 and verse 12, Wherefore as by one man sin entered in the world. How'd sin get here? By one man, Adam. And what? Death by sin. What's the conclusion? So, death passed upon all men for all have sinned. When Adam sinned, you sinned. And when Adam died, we died. We all died.

Look what he says. Look at how God describes our intelligence. He says this, An ox knoweth his owner, and an ass his master's crib, but Israel doth not know, My people does not consider. He said, you're dumber than an ox, and you're dumber than an ass. We don't have livestock, but that's how they lived then. An ox, an ox, you call that ox, and that ox knows his master's voice. That ox knows, and that ox, when that master calls the ox to work, the ox goes to work. He said, my people, they don't even hear my voice. God speaks and men don't even consider what God says. God says, Oh heavens and earth, hear my voice. And what do men do?

That's alright. An ass knows where his food is. An ass knows where he shelters at night. But men will not seek a refuge. They seek a refuge of lies. They seek a refuge of works religion. But they will not come to Christ. They will not give up their righteousness. God says you're dumber than an ass. Look at verse 4.

Ah, sinful nation of people laden with iniquity. Laden with iniquity. The seed of evildoers. Children that are corruptors. They have forsaken the Lord. They have provoked the Holy One of Israel to anger. They are gone away. backwards. God said men are laden with iniquity.

You see man by nature seeks seeks to be justified. He feels his guilt he feels the conscience and he seeks to be justified. But how do men seek to be justified by nature. What is the natural course of man to seek to be accepted with God. It's always works always. Now if a man's going to be accepted by works, what's the highest form of works? What's the most perfect set of rules that a man could have? It's the law. So men look to the law of God, they see the law is perfect, and then what do they do?

They say, well, if I'm going to be accepted of God, I need to try to obey that. See the depravity of man is that he thinks he can. You know, in the New Testament, when the early church, there were Jews and Gentiles mingled together, and the Jews still sought to have some kind of preeminence over the Gentiles. And so what they decided is this, yeah, we're all believers, but You have to take the Gentiles, you have to put them back under the law of Moses.

In some measure. They didn't try to put everything on them. They just said one thing. Circumcision. I think it was the easiest thing they could find. Circumcision. Didn't require much. You know, they could easily do it. So they picked circumcision. What they didn't understand is you can't take one part of the law without taking the other part. The law is altogether inclusive.

You know, what if you thought about our governmental laws and our state laws and everything like that, and you said, well, I didn't commit murder. Wait a second, you stole something. Yeah, but I didn't commit murder. Still going to jail? Still going to jail? You can't omit the other parts.

That's why Peter said, why tempt you God? to put the law on them, the yoke on them that we ourselves could not bear. I don't want to speak to anybody who wants to come to God by law. Anybody. You say, well, I believe in Jesus. I believe I'm justified by His blood and righteousness, but I have to try to obey the Ten Commandments. If that's you, I want to speak to you a minute. I want you to understand that.

When you take one part of the law, you take the whole thing. You don't get to pick and choose which parts of the law you want to try to obey. And let me just break this to you. You ain't ever obeyed one. You understand that? No one has ever obeyed one law. Not one. You want to know why?

Because when you think about lying, you've already lied. When you think about adultery, you've already committed it. You see, the law is not just outside. You can fool people on the outside. You can't fool God. Look at Galatians. Galatians, anybody who wants to be under the law, you've got to understand the whole book of Galatians is written for you. It's written for you. Galatians chapter 3. Look at what Paul says about these that want to be under one law. That's all they wanted. Circumcision. One law. Modern religion wants to be under ten. Ten laws. They just wanted one. Look what he says in Galatians 3 and verse 10. He says, for many, as many as. I don't care who you are. Well, I'm a Calvinist. I don't care. You claim to be Calvinist, Armenian.

Catholic, whatever you want. If you want to go under the law, this is speaking to you. As many as are under the law. Listen, you're under what? Curse. I don't believe it. Does it really matter what you believe, what you think? Look what God's, it is written. I like that. When it says that, that just settles it. You scream and hold your breath and jump up and down and get all mad and turn blue and bite your tongue, whatever you want to do. It's written.

Cursed is everyone that continueth not in what? All things written in the book of the law to do them. Look at, written in the book of the law, listen, To do them. You don't get to just acknowledge them. Every believer acknowledges that the law is perfect. Who doesn't? The law is perfect. Nothing wrong with it.

The problem is us. You can't obey it. No matter what you do. You sin. Sin covers everything you do. And that's what the, in our text, you remember, that's the second portion of this. God's going to tell them that all their sacrifices are useless. All their works are useless. Why? Because you rebelled. Because you're ignorant of God's righteousness. You go about to establish your own righteousness. See, the law can't save you. It can only make the burden worse. That's all it can do. You see, the law can only show me my sin. It can't help me with it. It can't make me righteous. It can only condemn me.

Thou shalt not lie. You know what that does? That just condemns me. Love the Lord, we are God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your mind. Anybody? All it does is condemn me. It makes the burden of iniquity greater. And because of our depravity, the law only excites people to sin. Isn't that something? The law that condemns us only causes us, because of our nature, to want to sin more.

I think of it like a pressure cooker. You just push that stuff down, and you just keep pushing it down, and pretty soon what? It just blows up. That's man by nature. So the law can't save you. Look what God says about this in verse 5. He said, Why should you be stricken anymore? You will revolt more and more. What does that mean? It means this.

The chastisements that are laid upon us have no purpose. They produce no good effect, are of no avail unprofitable. It only aggravates sin. The law, the law that swears punishment, the justice of God swears that the soul that sinneth it shall surely die. And you know what that does to the natural man? Nothing. Nothing. The conscience of men cry out. The pains of sin warn men that God will come in judgment. God sent His prophets. God sent His Son. He gave us warning after warning after warning. And yet, what do men do by nature? He said this, you will only revolt more and more.

I want you to see, this is astounding. Go to Revelation. Look at Revelation chapter 16. Revelation chapter 16, look at verse 8. Now, give you a little context of this. In this book, the seals that were unloosed are for the elect. They're blessings. They're wonderful things. But these bowls of vials that are poured out are the wrath of God upon the wicked. And you get down to verse 8 and you see the fourth bowl being poured out. And it says this, And the fourth angel poured out the vial upon the sun. And the power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. And men were scorched with great heat.

Does that sound painful? Whatever that is. I don't know literal. Most likely it has some kind of spiritual reference. to how men feel when the gospel is preached. They feel like they're being burned. Men are uncomfortable when the gospel is preached. You ever seen that? A man try to squirm out of it like he's being burned alive. When he gets out of there like he's in a house on fire. Listen what happens to this painful, he said, and blasphemy. the name of God, which hath power over the plagues, and repented not to give him glory." You see that?

God alone had power to deliver them, and what did they do? They didn't sue for mercy. They blasphemed. See, this is the nature of man. The nature of man is to blaspheme God. And it doesn't matter how painful the afflictions, it doesn't matter how painful the difficulties or the warnings that God gives. God said this, Why in the world am I doing this? You'll only revolt more and more. Look at this, another one's poured out in verse 10. He said the angel poured out a vial upon the seed of the beast.

In other words, this is the Antichrist. In other words, the kingdom of the Antichrist is suffering. That's what happens when the gospel goes out. When the gospel is poured into the lap of the Antichrist, they get mad. They get agitated and notice what happens. He said, and his kingdom was full of darkness and they gnawed their tongues for pain. Man by nature hates the gospel so much he'd chew off his own tongue.

You ever put, I mean, I've seen it. I've watched men, I try to be as, I want to be loving when I preach to God. I don't wanna be, I'm not trying to scare men, that doesn't do anything. I'm just telling you what God said. It may be fearful, but I'm just gonna tell you what God said.

And when I tell men what God said, sometimes they get so angry, they just wanna bite off their own tongue. And look what he said. and blasphemed the God of heaven. What does this pain do to the natural man? Can pain or difficulty or trials or afflictions, can that cause repentance? God said no. Look again to your text. Look at this, what he says. He said, why should you be stricken anymore?

I've already stricken you. I took everything away from you. And you know what? All you did was revolt more and more. You see the depravity of man? He doesn't want mercy. He will never sue God for mercy. You will revolt more and more. Now He tells you why.

Look at this. The whole head is sick. The whole heart is faint. from the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores that have not been closed neither bound up nor mollified with ointment. Here's the reason why men will revolt and not repent because the whole head is sick. Their mind is sick with sin.

They can never understand the gospel ever. Do you understand that? If a man lived a million years and God left him to his self, he would never understand the gospel. He would never believe. Ever. The whole head is sick. The mind cannot grasp these things or understand them or believe them. Why? The whole heart is faint.

See, salvation is not academic. You get it just by acknowledging the doctrines of grace. How many times, you know, when did you come to the doctrines of grace? What does that have to do with anything? I don't come to the doctrines of grace. I came to Christ and He revealed the doctrines of grace to me.

There's no doubt about it. I didn't come to a system, did I? I came to a person. What a glorious person He is. But I couldn't come to him because my whole mind was sick. My whole heart was faint. People say, well, if you just, if you're just sincere enough. No, the whole heart is faint.

Listen to what he said, from the sole of the foot to the head. And he uses, look at this, this is a vivid picture here. A leprous man, a man who has a flesh eating disorder. He says, there's not one part of your flesh that is not corrupted. And listen, it's not even been bound up. It's just Huss, oozing all over your body. That's what it's like.

And everything you touch is contaminated. The law of the leper. The law of the leper was if he touched anything, it was contaminated. You see why you can't be saved by the law? Because everything we touch is contaminated. Everything you do is unrighteous.

That's when he says in verse 16 and 17, look at that in verse 16 and 17, I'm not going to spend time on it, but look, he said, wash you, make you clean. Wait, how can you do that? Put away evil doings from before mine eyes and cease to do evil. All right. Who's done that? You see what the law requires, something impossible for you to do. Why? You're contaminated from the sole of your foot to the head. It's contaminated with sin. You see, you can't fix up the old man.

That's what religion does, isn't it? Religion tries to fix you up. Tries to make you better. I remember talking to a fellow one time, he said, I like going to this church, makes me want to be a better man. How's that working out for you? It ain't. It ain't. You can't fix up the old man.

You know, Jesus made it very plain in Matthew chapter 12. This is what he said. He said, make the tree good and the fruits good. I tell you what, I'm astounded at the clarity within just a few words how God in flesh could just say just a small thing and it just open up.

Well to have good fruits you got to have a good tree. Isn't that right? The problem with man is the tree is evil. The root is evil. Listen to what he said. He said, Or else make the tree corrupt and the fruits corrupt. For the tree is known by its fruit. Isn't that just true? What's your fruit? God just told you what your fruit is. It's sin. So what does that mean? The tree is corrupt. What do you need? I don't need to fix up the tree. I need a brand new tree. I need God to plant a new tree, a new nature that can only produce good fruit. Otherwise, there's no hope for me. He said, how can you being evil speak good things? Is that possible? It's not. He said, for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. You know what God says about the condition of all man?

They're totally, absolutely depraved, rebels, ignorant of God's righteousness, will not come to Jesus Christ for mercy. No amount of suffering will turn them. They only revolt more and more because the whole head is sick, the whole heart is faint. They are from the top to the bottom full of sin.

Look at verse 7. Your country is desolate. Now listen. A lot of people will do this. They say, oh yeah, I know, he's talking about so and so. Oh yeah, that guy's really bad. Listen to what God said. He said, no, the whole country. Everyone. This depravity has touched every son of Adam. Your whole country is desolate. Your cities are burned. Your land, strangers devour it in your presence and is desolate and overthrown as strangers.

The daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard. As a lodge in the garden of cucumbers as a besieged city. Now to look at that one. Cottage in the vineyard. What is that? They used to put a cottage in the middle of the vineyard so a guy would watch it. So the bird, keep the birds away and keep thieves from coming in. To what? To guard the fruit. But after the harvest, what good is a cottage? When there's no fruit. The field is now barren. And he said, you're like the guy out there guarding a barren wilderness. Useless. That's the darkness of depravity, friends. We are, by nature, totally depraved.

Now then, look at this in verse 9. Here is the light of hope. Here's the light of hope. Look at this. Accept. Now. Accept this. There's no hope for anybody. Except the Lord of Hosts hath left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been like unto Sodom, and should have been like unto Gomorrah. After God shows the darkness, He's now going to show the light. Now this scripture is speaking of the election of God's grace. Now how do we know that? Because this scripture is, go to Romans chapter 9. Look at Romans chapter 9. The whole chapter of Romans chapter 9 is speaking about the election of grace. Remember I told you Israel is spiritual?

And then he uses the two sons, Jacob and Esau, to picture this. Two sons in the same womb with the same mother. And he said, the children not yet being born, neither having done good or evil. Verse 11. That the purpose of God, according to election, might stand not of works, but of him that calleth. He said to her, the elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. He's telling you this. God chose Jacob and hated Esau. When? before they were born.

The whole chapter is speaking about the election of grace. And look, he uses this in verse 29. Look at that. Our text is found in verse 29. He said, and as Isaiah said before, except the Lord of Sabbath had left us a seed, we had all been a solemn and been like unto Gomorrah.

What God is saying here, if Except the Lord had chosen a people to save, none of us would be saved. Men hate election. If you hate election, then you hate the root of salvation. Election is the root cause of everyone who is saved. Except, listen, without this exception, no one is saved. We are absolutely depraved, totally covered with sin, cannot save ourselves, and God said this, except the Lord of hosts had left a what? Remnant. Do you know what a remnant is? It's a small group of people. A specific number of people. Remnant.

God had not done this, we'd all been like Sodom and Gomorrah. You remember what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah? That wicked, vile city. How wicked was that city? That was a... I tell you what, it's beginning to look a lot like that here. It just is. Men so consumed with their lust that they... Remember those angels blind, they wanted to wraith angels. Can you get that? and the angels blinded them and they didn't go home. They groped for the door.

Now, God says that's that's you and me. Now, listen to that. This is this is how God describes us. Now, this is how God described Israel. It's how God describes us. See, man by nature. is full of iniquity. And if God had not chosen a people, surely we would have all perished. We are all worthy of God's justice and judgment.

So by this, we clearly see that this remnant is according to the election of grace. Now I want you to understand this. A remnant doesn't mean everybody, does it? It means a remnant, a small group. God never purposed to save everyone. Now I want you to understand that. God never purposed to save everyone. Only a remnant. Only a remnant. But praise God He has chosen to save a remnant. Praise God there is an election of grace. And this remnant, this remnant, I want you to see this. Go to Ephesians 1.

Darkness of Depravity and the Light of Election Isaiah 1:2-9

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Darkness of Depravity and the Light of Election Isaiah 1:2-9

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