in a nutshell. It's a truth you've
heard before many times, and it's a truth that's worth repeating.
Man is lost. When Adam fell, all men died. They died in sin. Now we're alive
physically, and this deceives people into thinking that we
can do things spiritually. I'm alive physically. I can decide
to walk over here. I could decide to stand over
here and preach to you as long as I can remember what's in my
notes. I can decide to do that if I want to. And then when I
need to, I can decide to walk back over here. You can decide
to sit there for a while if you want. You can decide to get up
and do jumping jacks or something, you know, in the middle of the
message. It'd be disruptive, but you could decide to do that
if your mind chose to do it. Just because we can do those
physical things, does not mean, just because I can decide to
walk over there and walk back, does not mean I can decide to
come to God. I cannot decide to come to God
because I'm spiritually dead and I never will come to God
unless God draws me. Now since man is spiritually
dead, no man can do anything to please God. We can't do anything
to save ourselves because we're spiritually dead. There's no
hope in anything a man can do physically. There's no hope in
anything a man can think or decide to do because man is dead in
sins. When Adam fell, all men died
spiritually. And when Adam fell, all men became
lost. We became so lost, it's impossible
for us to find our way back to God. There's been a gulf fixed
between God and men that we cannot cross. God did in the person
of His Son, but we can't cross it. He's got to come to us. Now
men will go in some direction seeking God. We'll decide to
go through many different religious activities. But man's way will
always take us further away from God, never closer to God. Man's
religion will always take him further away from God rather
than closer to God. So our only hope of salvation
is that God will do a marvelous work of grace for us and in us. And he's promised to do that.
And that's what he's promised to do in his text. And that's
what he's doing right now for his people. He's doing a marvelous
work of grace for his people. And I have three points. First
one is this. Man is lost. And man's religion
makes his situation worse. Man's religion does not make
his situation better. Man's religion adds to his condemnation. Look at verse one in our text.
Woe to Ariel, to Ariel the city where David dwelt. Add ye year
to year, let them kill sacrifices. Now Ariel here is Jerusalem.
That's the city where David dwelt, where David ruled. And at one
time, Jerusalem was the center of the religious world, wasn't
it? God truly dwelt there in Jerusalem. God was truly worshiped
in Jerusalem. Not anymore. By the time Isaiah
wrote, not anymore. God had given Israel true religion. He had given them the way to
truly worship God. But man had taken that and turned
the worship of God into idolatry. Now, all they had was religion
without Christ. Now, I'll tell you why Jerusalem
is called Ariel. Ariel means a lion of God. Now,
there was no worship of God in Jerusalem anymore. But the temple
was still there. The priests were still there.
They still went through all the motions of religion there at
Jerusalem. And what was the biggest motion of religion they did?
Offer those animal sacrifices. But there was no worship of Christ
in them. Their religion was, it was like
a lion. All they were doing was killing
and devouring animals, just like a lion does out there in the
wild, but to no religious profit, none whatsoever. Now I want you
to listen to me. I'm telling you, Janet and I
were channel surfing last night, and I got my shotgun loaded. I've just warned you in advance. After you've been in cabin fever
long enough, you'll do strange things. We were channel surfing
around, and Janet said, stop on that Joel Ostend. I've never
seen him. I'd like to see what he's doing. We stopped on it.
She said, let's just watch as long as we can. Well, that didn't
last too long. But I'm telling you, there were 15, 16,000 people
there, wasn't there? I mean, they had a light show
that eagles would love to have when they're in concert. I mean,
to tell you, my soul. And those people were just all
looking like they were just having some sort of an out-of-body experience. I mean, I don't know what to
call it. And Janet said, look at all those people. Do they
really think they're doing something for God? Now, let me ask you,
is what they're doing making them better? Now, is it? We listened
as long as we could listen to them. Let me tell you what they
talked about. They talked about losing weight. They talked about
being happy. They talked about being a better
husband, a better wife. They talked about, you know,
your children being, you know, off on drugs and getting them
off drugs, getting them back on a straight and narrow path.
I'm for all those things. Suppose somebody there could
manage to do all those things. Did it make them any better?
I tell you, it did not. It didn't make, it made it worse. It made their situation worse. Religion without Christ is not
better than nothing. It offends God. It makes God
angry. Look what God says about it,
verse two. Yet I will distress Ariel, and there should be heaviness
and sorrow, and it should be unto me as Ariel. And I will
camp against thee round about, and I will lay seas against thee
with the mount, and I will raise forts against thee, and thou
shalt be brought down, and thou shalt speak out of the ground,
and thy speech shall be low out of the dust, and thy voice shall
be as one that hath a familiar spirit out of the ground, and
thy speech shall whisper out of the dust. Moreover, the multitude
of thy strangers shall be like small dust, and the multitude
of the terrible ones shall be as chaff that passeth away. Yea,
it shall be at an instant suddenly. Thou shalt be visited of the
Lord of hosts with thunder, and with earthquake, and great noise,
with storm and tempest, and the flame of a devouring fire. This is God's anger punishing
false religion, punishing men in their false religion. It didn't
make God happy with them. It brought His fire and thunder
and earthquake and destruction upon them. I want you to notice
this. God's punishment is not just
the destruction and punishment of the flesh. A big part of God's
punishment is sending them even more false prophets who will
take people even further and further and further into their
false religion. It'll keep taking them further
and further and further away from God. In verse four when
he says here, by thy speech shall be low out of the dust, and thy
voice shall be as one that hath a familiar spirit out of the
ground, and thy speech shall whisper out of the dust. He's
talking there about false prophets. I'll show you that. Look back
in Isaiah chapter eight. These who peep and mutter, they're
false prophets. Isaiah eight, verse 19. And when they shall say unto
you, seek unto them that have familiar spirits. And unto wizards,
what do they do? That peep and that mutter. Should
not a people seek unto their God for the living to the dead?
No, they should, but they don't. They seek to these men with familiar
spirits. They're wizards. They're false
prophets that peep and mutter. They're sorcerers and witches.
God's punishment. To people who are in false religion
is to give them exactly what they want. All those people,
Jen and I watched on TV last night, unless God's merciful
to them, His punishment to them will be giving them exactly what
they want. Give them false prophets who
will continue to lead them further away from God. I'm telling you,
a form of worship without a hard work of grace is not a good thing. It's damning to the soul. There
is no redeeming quality, none in false religion. It just makes
men worse because it makes the state of their soul worse. And
apart from God's grace, that's where every one of us would be.
Why are you here tonight instead of there? There's only one reason,
God's grace. And it's sad. I watched those
people last night and I'm telling you, it broke my heart. It made
me so sad. And they're serious about what
they're doing now. They're serious about it. But
I'm telling you, it's making the state of their soul worse. Look at verse nine. Stay yourselves
and wonder. Cry ye out and cry. They're drunken,
but not with wine. They stagger, but not with strong
drink. For the Lord hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep
sleep, and hath closed your eyes, and your prophets, and your rulers,
and your seers hath he covered. They're drunk on religion. We
talked about this last time. They're drunk on religion. They're
just intoxicated with all the motions of religion. They're
intoxicated with that feeling of religion. We watched those
people last night and that music was blaring and playing and people
dancing around and waving their arms around in the air and they
were just overcome with the feeling of religion. Well, if that's
not religious, it sure looks it, you know. Oh, I'm just overcome.
It makes me feel so righteous and so good. They're intoxicated
with religion. They're intoxicated with man's
the show of flesh. So when God speaks, they can't
hear. Just like a drunk person can't
hear right because he's drunk. He's inebriated. He's affected
by too much wine. These who are drunk on religion,
they're affected by it. So they can't hear when God speaks. God shows them the truth. He
sets it before them plainly in scripture and they can't see
it. Just like a drunk person can't
see right because he's affected. God puts Christ right in front
of them. There he is in scripture. They
read the scripture. He's right in front of them and
they stumble over him. They stumble over that stumbling
stone. Just like a person who's drunk, he staggers and can't
walk a straight line. They stagger and trip over Christ
the stumbling stone because they're drunk on man's way, on man's
religion. Why did the Pharisees miss Christ? They were drunk on their own
religion. They were looking for somebody
different. They were looking for an earthly ruler. They were
looking for somebody doing what Joel Stein's doing, making things
better in the world. And they missed Christ when he
came to save sinners from their sin. They're drunk on religion. And I know what people think.
People think the Lord's like them. They think, well, the Lord
thinks I know they're not doing everything just right, but they're
doing the best that they can do, so I'll count it in their
favor. Is that so? Now, I know that's
man's way of thinking, but is that so? No, it's not. God says he's gonna pour out
the spirit of deep sleep on them. He's gonna close their eyes,
their prophets and their rulers and their seers. He's covered
their eyes. Look over Romans chapter 11. Here's the New Testament commentary
on this very verse. Now, all of us are born blind.
were all born spiritually blind, we can't see, and after spending
so much time in false religion, after insisting on man's way,
God makes it so their eyes can never see Christ. Romans 11,
verse 7. Now what then? Israel not obtained that which
he seeketh for, but the election hath obtained it, and the rest
were what? Blinded. Who blinded them? God did. According as it is written,
God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should
not see and ears that they should not hear unto this day. And David
saith, let their table, he's talking about their religious
table, let their religion be made a snare and a trap and a
stumbling block and a recompense unto them. Let their eyes be
darkened that they may not see and bow down their back always.
That's because of man's religion, infuriates God. He makes it so
they cannot see and so they cannot hear. Man's religion doesn't
make him better, it makes him worse. Number two, by nature
all men are lost. And I don't care who you are,
when you're lost, when you're in the flesh, by nature this
book is a closed book to you unless God's going to give you
eyes to see. Look at verse 11, Isaiah 29. And the vision of all is become
unto you as the words of a book that's sealed, which men deliver
to one that's learned, saying, read this, I pray thee. And he
saith, I cannot, for it's sealed. And the book is delivered to
him that's not learned, saying, read this, I pray thee. And he
saith, I'm not learned. Now man is dead. So no matter
how much education we get, we'll never understand the message
of God's word. We can learn to read the word,
will never understand the message of God's word unless God reveals
Christ to our hearts because Christ is the message of the
word. And that's why an educated person,
typically, when you find an educated person, they think the Bible
is a book of history and a book of poetry and nothing more than
that. An educated person gets too educated. They think, well, now there's
contradictions and there's holes and there's things that are false,
you know, in God's word. Too educated for their own good.
And it's a book that's sealed to them. They cannot understand
it. They can't open it. Christ has
not been revealed to their heart. So the book's sealed. Salvation
is not education. Salvation comes by revelation.
And man is dead. And the educated is no better
off than the uneducated, spiritually. Neither one of them can understand
God's Word. Because it's the Word of God. It's the Word of
God. If you don't know God, you can't
understand His Word, can you? I mean, is that too simple? If
you don't know God, you cannot understand His Word. And typically,
the uneducated, you know, boy, we see this a lot in Appalachia,
you know, the Bible is just, it's a good book, to learn to
read from. It's a book that, it's a good
book. It gives us rules to live by.
They can't read it. They can't read the message of
God's word. The Bible points us to Christ,
who's the savior of sinners. If you're reading the Bible to
find anything but Christ, you're wasting your time. It'll be a
closed book too. And God's not pleased with their
outward religion because God's not looking at their outward
actions. He's looking on the heart, verse 13. 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 far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the
precept of men." They're teaching the precept, the ideas, the doctrine
of men, not the teaching of this book. Why aren't they teaching
the book? Because it's closed to them.
It's sealed to them. They can't read it. is lost. And I'll tell you the ones who
are the most lost, the ones who are, I mean, deepest in the woods,
are religious people. The ones furthest away from God
are the religious people who've perverted this book. They make
an outward show of religion. They make an outward show of
outward morality and outward righteousness, but that's all
it is. Now it's just an outward show. Their religion is just
lip service. I understand why it is. Man's
religion is that it's as far as it can go as the lip. Because
it can't reach the heart. It's as far as it can go as the
outside, the flesh. And the proof that their heart's
far from God. You know, when I say they, now
you understand, I mean all of us. Here, tonight, by nature,
this is our nature. Our heart by nature is far from
God. We don't love God. We don't reverence
God. And the proof of it is they teach
their own doctrine rather than teaching the plainly stated word
of God. Look at Matthew chapter 15. Here
is the main New Testament reference to this passage of scripture.
The Pharisees did exactly this. And you know why they teach the
precepts of men? because they don't understand
God's Word. They don't understand the book. So they teach the precepts,
the ideas of men. Matthew 15, verse 1. Then came to Jesus scribes and
Pharisees which were of Jerusalem, saying, Why do thy disciples
transgress, and look what they say, not the law, the tradition
of the elders? For they wash not their hands
when they eat bread. But he answered and said unto
them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your
tradition, by your precepts? For God commanded, saying, Honour
thy father and thy mother, and he that curseth father and mother,
let him die the death. But you say, Whosoever shall
say to his father or his mother, It is a gift, by whatsoever thou
mightest be profited by me, and honour not his father and mother,
he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment
of God of none effect by your tradition. Now what he's saying
there is, you know, as our parents age, we're not just to obey our
parents, you know, when we're little guys, we're to honor our
parents always. As our parents age and they need
help, they need things, we're to do it, we're to help them,
we're to give to them as the Lord enables us to. What he's
saying here is someone's parents are in need. You've got the resources. They need money for groceries
and prescriptions. You've got plenty of money to
buy all those groceries and all those prescriptions that they
need. But you say, boy, this money, I'm holding it back. It's
a gift to the Lord. I'm going to give it to the Lord
someday. And you don't give it to your parents and they go hungry.
They go without their prescriptions. The tradition of men says that's
all right. God says, You've made the law
of God of none effect by your tradition. Your tradition has
violated the word of God, the plainly taught word of God. So
he goes on in verse seven, he says, you hypocrites, well did
Isaiah prophesy of you, saying, this people draw nigh to me with
their mouth, and honoreth me with their lips, but their heart
is far from me. But in vain they do worship me,
teaching for doctrine the commandments of men. See, that's what I'm
saying here. They teach their own ideas, their
own traditions, and they completely violate the word of God. You
know why that is? Because we read God's law and
we say, well, I can't keep it. I can't do that. So we change
it a little bit by our traditions. We make it less stringent, you
know, and then we make up some new things that are easier for
us to keep. But there's no religious significance to it. The Pharisees
did in our Lord's day and men do this same thing today. It's
our own traditions. I'll give you a tradition. An
altar call. I had somebody call me out one
time. Oh, that pastor never gives an altar call. You know, like
I'm the most horrible thing in the world. You're right. I never
give an altar call. How am I going to be standing
down here begging dead sinners to do something they can't do
to make a decision for Jesus? You know why? That's a tradition
of men. Never one time has that taught
God's Word. Never. It's a tradition of men. Walking
an aisle, shaking a preacher's hand. How can you be saved and
not do that? Easy. That's a tradition of men
that never one time taught God's Word. I'll give you one for our
day. Women preachers. Now you talk
against women preachers, you have a fight on your hands. You're
a bigot if you talk about women preachers. Women preachers are
a tradition of men. Not only is that not taught in
God's Word, it's expressly forbidden by God's Word. But in man's tradition,
we say, we've risen above that. We've risen above the teaching
of God's Word. Verse 15. Woe unto them that
seek deep to hide their counsel from the Lord, and their works
are in the dark. They say, who seeth us and who
knoweth us? Now this is how dead man is. Man's so dead, he's so
ignorant, he thinks he can hide his sin from God. You know, we
get behind closed doors. Nobody else can see what we're
doing back here, so we think God doesn't see us. We know men
don't see the true motive of our hearts, so we think God can't
either. Now the only reason you think that is you're dead. The only reason you think that
is this book is a sealed book to you. You don't understand
what it's saying. And look at 1 John 1. I show you how dead
and stinking this thinking is that we can want to hide our
sin from God rather than openly confess it. If we would confess our sin,
instead of trying, I mean confessing before God, not among one another,
but confess our sin before God, rather than trying to cover them
with the fig leaves of our own works, you know what? God would
forgive them. That's what God says He would
do. 1 John 1, verse 9. If we confess our sins, He is
both faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. Now, if God is faithful and just,
to forgive all my sin that I confess, you tell me why on earth would
I hide any of them? If he's going to cleanse them,
why would I hide any of them? At best I know how. I confess
to the Lord who and what I am. And the only reason that we hide
our sin is we're dead. We're lost and we don't know
God. We don't understand the message
of this book. Look back at verse 16 in our
text. How lost is man? He's so lost he's got everything
upside down and backwards. Verse 16. Surely your turning
of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter's clay.
For shall the work say of him that made it, he made me not?
I made my own self. For shall the thing framed say
of him that framed it, he had no understanding? We've got everything
upside down. We call evil good and good evil. We call sin righteousness, and
we say sin is not really sin. I'll give you a perfect example.
Homosexuality. Men say it's not sin. They say
it's just a lifestyle choice. They can't help it, that's the
way God made them. So it's okay. I want to tell
you what, that's not the way God made you, that's the way
you are fallen in Adam. Just like every other sin, every
other sin, that's the way you are fallen in Adam. It's not
a lifestyle choice, it's sin. And anything different is contrary
to God's word. But we call, men call, righteousness
evil. They call the preaching of the
truth evil. They say it's evil to call men
helpless sinners. Why? You're hurting their self-esteem. You'll never get them to come
to Christ if you tell them that they can't. Men's got everything
upside down. So upside down. They call God's
most gracious act sin. They call God's election sin
and evil. They call anyone who believes
in God's electing love an unloving person. When in fact, God's election
of sinners only happened because God is love. This is a great
act of God's love. There's no reason for God to
love anybody. There's no reason for God to
choose anyone. All have sinned to come short
of the glory of God. By nature, all men are unlovable,
but God is love. So God chose to save some sinners
anyway. Now, the only way you call that
evil is you've got everything upside down. That is the most
loving act that I've ever heard of. God would choose sinners,
put them in His Son, and send His Son to suffer and die for
them. What love? But fallen man calls that evil
because it got everything upside down. They say God doesn't have
a right to choose some people and pass others by. Really? You know the only reason you'd
say that? The only reason you'd say God
does not have the right to choose some and pass others by is you've
forgotten who God is. God's God. God's the potter,
we're the clay. You never did hear the clay tell
the potter, you can't make me into that. It doesn't work, the
relationship doesn't work that way. The potter's the one who
chooses. The potter's the one with his
skill makes that clay what he chooses to make it. And the only
reason we'd say God can't do that to me is we've forgotten.
God's God. He's the potter and I'm the clay.
God's God and I'm the sinner. Man's got everything upside down. We think everybody ought to have
a chance to be saved. You know why we think that? Because
we don't understand who we are. We're sinners who deserve God's
wrath. Thank God he doesn't give us
a chance to be saved. Thank God he saves his people
against their will with their full consent. Thank God salvation
is by grace and by mercy, not by chance and not by words. So
God gives things to men for our good. God gave us the law to
show us our inability and to point us to Christ, to show us
Christ who did keep the law for God's people. What do men do
with the law? We take the law and we think
this is a way to earn righteousness by our own obedience. And we
can't keep the law, so we change it and make amendments to it.
We think we've got the right. change God's law because this
book is a sealed book. We don't know who God is. God
gave us his word to reveal Christ. What do we do with it? We change
it. You find these different translations.
They just flat change it so that it fits their way of doctrine
that men have made up. God gave us preaching. Because
it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. And what do men do with it? They do away with it. They
do away with it for more singing and more miracle working and
self-help things. And I reckon if that's all I
had to preach to me, I'd do away with preaching too. But what
they do call preaching, it's motivational speaking. And they
keep that short because you don't have time for too much anything
that looks like preaching. Men today have done away with
preaching, just like they've done away with the law, because
they don't know God. Now that's the horrible, awful
condition of man. So here's my third point. If
sinners are going to be saved, it's going to take a miracle,
isn't it? It's going to take an absolute miracle. And that's
what God said He's going to do for His elect. Verse 14. Therefore,
given the fact that men are lost, their religion doesn't bring
them closer to God, it brings them further away from God. Therefore,
behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people,
even a marvelous work and a wonder. For the wisdom of their wise
men shall perish and the understanding of their prudent men shall be
hid." God says, I'm going to do a marvelous work, a marvelous
work of grace, a pure, undeserved, sovereign, saving grace. It's a marvelous work. That word
marvelous means an extraordinary thing. It means a hard thing. It means something that no one
else could do. It's something no man can understand. The wise men, they can't understand
this. Their wisdom has turned to foolishness.
They can't understand this work of God's marvelous grace. The
first time this word marvelous is the Hebrew word, it's used
in scripture, is when God was talking to Abraham, Genesis 18.
Remember, he told Abraham, Sarah's gonna have a son. Sarah was back
in the tent, she was listening, you know, behind the flap, and
she laughed when she heard God say she's gonna have a son. And
God said, why'd you laugh? Is anything too hard for the
Lord? and literally translated, he
said, is anything so marvelous that the Lord can't do it? This
is a marvelous work. This seems to men to be too hard.
Here's a marvelous thing. God fulfilled his promise to
Abraham. God didn't just send him Isaac.
God sent his own son into this world to redeem a people no man
can number. He has redeemed a people, the
children of Abraham, the children who have the same faith as Abraham,
who are greater in number than the stars of the heaven, saved
by grace through the Messiah that came through Isaac. A marvelous
work. You see, God will always keep
his promise. God's always gonna do what he
says he's gonna do. Even if it's so marvelous, we
don't think it can be done. God's gonna do it. Verse 18,
and in that day, shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and
the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness.
The meek also shall increase their joy in the Lord, and the
poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel." Now
when did God, I told you God always keeps His promise. When
did He keep His promise and fulfill that? Look at Matthew chapter
11. He fulfilled it when John the
Baptist was living. This is what He told John the
Baptist as proof He's the Messiah. Matthew 11, verse 2. Now when John had heard in prison
the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples and said
unto them, and said unto him, Art thou he that should come,
or do we look for another? Jesus answered and said unto
them, Go and show John again those things which ye do hear
and see. The blind received their sight. The lame walked. the lepers
are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor
have the gospel preached to them, and blessed is he whosoever shall
not be offended in me." Here Christ came, the dead received
their sight, the deaf heard, the dead were raised, the lame
walked, fulfilled his prophecy in Isaiah. Look over in John
chapter 9, I'll show you another time he fulfilled this. And in
every instance, when the dead were raised, the blind saw, the
deaf heard, the lame walked. Every time, it was a marvelous
work. Now you know this story here,
we won't read all of it, in John chapter nine, about the man who
was born blind and the Lord healed him, gave him sight. In verse
30, the Pharisees are grilling him about this, him being healed.
In verse 30, the man answered and said unto them, while herein
is a marvelous thing, that you know not from whence he is, and
yet he hath opened my eyes." That's a marvelous thing. And
the Lord Jesus Christ is still doing this marvelous work, not
physically, but spiritually, giving the blind sight to see
the Lord Jesus Christ. These objects of God's mercy,
they're born blind. Blind. And now they see. You who believe, you see. Do you know how marvelous that
is? What a marvelous work of grace
your blind eyes, your blind heart sees. Sees the Lord Jesus Christ. God gave you a heart of faith
that loves the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you know how marvelous that
is? Earlier, I don't even know what
to say about this. I certainly I'm not diminishing
a work of the Lord now. But I can. I think I could see
how the Lord takes somebody's eyes are already blind and make
it so they can never see. That doesn't seem too far fetched
to me. But you talk about making my blind eyes, my blind heart. See Christ. That's a marvelous
work of grace. That's a work, it's a hard thing. Hard to understand how God could
do that. Only God could do it. The objects
of God's mercy, they're meek, they're lowly, they're afflicted.
They have absolutely, in their flesh, no reason for joy. They're sinners, condemned. Yet
Christ took their place. He took their place and gave
them His joy. They have joy in Christ. Now that doesn't mean you're
never going to have times of sorrow and difficulty and sadness
on this earth. I'm not saying that at all. That's
contrary to the book. But even so, If you see the Lord
Jesus Christ, Christ, the Prince of Glory has taken up residence
in your heart. My brother, my sister, you have
reason for joy, filled with joy. The objects of God's mercy were
poor, spiritually bankrupt, had absolutely nothing. Yet now they
enjoy the riches of Christ, the riches of His mercy. What a wonderful
work of grace. and get ahold of your hat, it
gets even better. God has done a marvelous thing
for His people. He took their sin away and made
it so the sinner, born a sinner, sinner by birth, sinner by choice,
sinner by practice, is not guilty, has no sin. Verse 22. 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. He'll never be ashamed. He'll
never be found guilty if Christ died for him. If Christ died
for you, you've got nothing to be ashamed of because he took
your sin away. Now that's a wonder. That's a
marvel and a wonder. Can I understand it? Absolutely
not. That's a hard thing. Who can
understand that? But it's a marvelous work of
God's grace that we believe by faith. And I, you know, you tell
people, Christ took my sin away. I don't have any sin. There is
no sin on me. They look at you, say, I can
look and find it. Look at verse 20. What's going to happen to
them? People are going to look for the sin of God's elect, but
they won't find it. For the terrible one is brought
to naught, and the scorner is consumed, and all that watch
for iniquity are cut off." This scornful man, it's not just the
scornful man of the world looking for sin in us. There's a more
important one than that. It's the scornful man of the
world who's born in us. That man of the flesh that's
in our heart who's still looking for sin in us. Who's still saying,
oh, should have done that. You better do something to make
up for it. You better clean up your act
before you go to service. Constantly trying to bring us
back into captivity to the law. One day, that scornful man is
going to be put in the grave. And you won't deal with him anymore. That one who's constantly accusing
us, constantly trying to bring us back to the captivity to the
law will be no more. That scornful man will be gone.
I'm telling you, God's work for His people is a marvelous work. He gives His people a heart of
worship, a heart that worships Him in spirit and in truth. And
not just on Sundays and Wednesdays. I mean, worships Him in submission,
bowing to Him, worships Him. Verse 23, But when he seeth his
children, the work of my hands in the midst of him, They shall
sanctify my name. They shall sanctify the Holy
One of Jacob and shall fear the God of Israel. Now we've already
seen this by nature. Men aren't gonna worship God.
They're gonna do anything but worship the true living God.
They'll worship anything but God. But by God's marvelous grace,
this work of wonder, God's given them a new heart. A heart that
fears God. A heart that reverences God.
that sanctifies the name of God and worships Him aright. God's people are a wonder. They're
a wonder because God said my work for my people is a wonder.
It's something that's hard to understand. Something that's
so hard to understand it cannot be understood with the natural
mind. Look back in Isaiah chapter 9. We could talk way into tomorrow
about all the great wonders that God's done. But let me give you
one. Let me give you the greatest
wonder God has ever done, the Lord Jesus Christ. Here's the
first time this word wonder is used, Isaiah 9, verse 6. For unto us a child is born.
Unto us a son is given. The government shall be upon
his shoulder, and his name should be called wonderful. Here's the
wonderful work of God's grace. He's the counselor, the mighty
God, the everlasting father, the prince of peace. Of the increase
of his government and peace, there should be no end. Upon
the throne of David and upon his kingdom to order it and to
establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth,
even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts
will perform this. God has accomplished all of His
marvelous works of grace in His greatest wonder, the Lord Jesus
Christ. He came in His zeal for God,
in the zeal for His Father, in the zeal of the love for His
people and accomplished the eternal salvation of His people. What
a wonder. It's a wonder that because of
Christ, because of His sacrifice, a believer has no sin. I'll be honest with you. When
I look at myself, that's all I see is sin. I don't see anything
righteous or good about me. But God says, this is a wonder. You don't have any sin if Christ
died for you. Now that's a wonder. And I don't have to understand
that to believe it. It's a wonder. A marvelous work of God's grace. And that's the joy that's in
the heart of every believer. I don't care what's going on
in the flesh. That's a joy to know our sin has been put away.
And when God does this marvelous work of grace in us, we're going
to see how ignorant we are by nature. The only man who can
see how ignorant we are by nature is the new man. It's good if
all you can see about yourself is sin, because the only man
who can see your sin is your new man. That's the only one,
he's the only one who's got eyes to see. We don't have any understanding
of Christ, who is the wisdom of God, until God reveals Christ
to us. We don't have any understanding
of anything until Christ is revealed to us. Verse 24 in our text. They also that erred in spirit,
they shall come to understanding, and they that murmured shall
learn doctrine. After Christ is revealed to our hearts, we've
got understanding. Now we're not going to understand
everything there is to know. But we're going to understand this.
We're going to understand how God saves sinners. And we're
going to understand that's a wonder. And here's the greatest wonder
that I know. I understand this. And the only
way I can understand, the only way I can possibly understand
this is God gave me an understanding. I understand how God can save
a sinner like me and still be God. I don't understand why,
but I understand how God can save a sinner like me and still
be just. It's through the sacrifice of
the Lord Jesus Christ, who died as my substitute, bearing my
sin, and put it away. Through the sacrifice of Himself.
And I'll tell you one more thing, a marvelous wonder, who God did
this work for. We read, he said, I'm going to
do this work in the midst of this people he just described.
They're dead. They're lost. They're in religion
that's going further and further away from God, a religion that's
contrary to God. God says for these sinners, for
sinners, I'm going to do a marvelous work of grace, a work that is
a wonder to behold. Are you a sinner? Are you a sinner? I want you
to answer that question in your heart. Are you a sinner? If you
can honestly and truly answer yes to that question, drive down
this road tonight full of joy. God's done a marvelous work of
grace for you. Let's bow and pray.