All right, Isaiah chapter 10. You know, everybody knows this. You pay attention to the world
that you live in. You're like me. I watch the news
and we get done eating dinner. Janet has some things she'd like
to do. And I frequently say, can I watch the news first? I
just want to watch the news. And you watch that for very many
days in a row. You know this. The world we live
in has just gone absolutely crazy. It's just gone bonkers. And I
think about that in my role as your pastor. And I never have,
and I suppose I never will ever feel impressed or led of the
Lord to preach a message about the issues of the day. I always
insist on preaching Christ. I don't think it's the right
thing to do. Better preachers than me may be able to do it.
I cannot. Decide I want to take a topic
and preach on that topic. I can't do it. Even a topic from
the issues of the day, even a topic from God's Word, I don't feel
like that's what we ought to do. I think we ought to preach
Christ. I just insist on this, that we
preach Christ. That will take care of the topic.
Good example of that, two weeks ago, I preached a message entitled,
Have I Repented? Well, I made it my goal not to
preach a message on repentance, but to preach Christ. And if
God gave us an ear to hear and an eye to see, to see Christ,
we repented. We turned to him, we believed
him, we came to him. And God is our helper. We will
never just have a religious service here for the sake of having religious
service and feeling better about ourselves, you know we have a
religious service. We'll have services where Christ
is exalted, where Christ is preached, where Christ is praised, where
Christ is worshipped. And our text this evening drives
that point home. It gives us an example of the
dangers of preaching without Christ, the dangers of religion
without Christ. I've entitled the message, Futility
Without Christ. Now verse 1 of Isaiah chapter
10, Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that
write grievousness which they have prescribed. Now this applies
to the civil leaders and political leaders of the day that were
making unrighteous laws and these kinds of things. But the picture
here that is important to us is the picture of false preachers.
Now, they're preaching religious topics, but they're not preaching
Christ. They're making religious sounding
decrees, but they're decrees without Christ, so they are unrighteous
decrees. It's a form of gospel, a form
of religion, but they've perverted the gospel, just like unjust
judges. They're willing to corrupt justice
and pervert justice for bribes. These men, for whatever reason,
are perverting the gospel and withholding Christ from the people. Their decrees are unrighteous
decrees, because their message or their decree declares something
other than Christ. Their subject is something other
than Christ, so it's an unrighteous decree. Their messages are messages
of works, of our works. Well, anytime somebody begins
talking about our works, it's automatically an unrighteous
decree, because our works are all unrighteous, filthy rags.
And this can be deceptive. It can be deceptive. They can
say good things. They can speak out against the
social ills of the day and say good things that every person
in this room would agree with. And I don't argue with you. Our
society would be better off if the American home was more valued
and more taken care of without question. Our society would be
better off without divorce and Husbands would be better husbands
and wives would be better wives. Without question, this country
would be better off. Our society would be better off
if parents would stand up and be real parents and actually
teach and raise your children. Without question, our country
would be better off. Our society would be better off
without homosexuality and abortions, without liberal interpretations
of the law and liberal interpretations of the moral code. Without question,
our country would be better off. But do all those things. Accomplish
them all. And none of those things will
improve our standing before God. Not one of those things can contribute
to the salvation of our souls. All of those things I just mentioned,
they fall under the responsibility of somebody. This is the responsibility
of politicians and social reformers But it is not the responsibility
of God's preachers. God's preachers are called on
to do this, to preach Christ, to preach Christ, Christ and
him crucified. I went to a funeral visitation
this morning. There lay a man. What good did
it do him in the end to have done all these things, lived
a good life? was a good father, raised his family, just was a
wonderful citizen. What good did it do him to have
all those things and lay in that casket and never one time heard
Christ crucified preached? What good did it do him? Now,
I can't help that, but I can help if you hear Christ and Him
crucified. I can help that. I can do something
about that. I can preach Christ. You can
outwardly stop doing all those wrong things. And that'd be good. It'd be good for your family.
It'd be good for your neighbors. It'd be good for your friends.
It'd be good if you cleaned up your act and did all those things.
But if you did, all you did is cleaned up the outside of the
cup and platter. You left the inside filthy, full of dead man's
bones. You can clean up the outside
of the cup and platter, but here's the thing. You still need a Savior. You still need a Savior from
your sin. So we ought to pray that God
in His mercy send us a man who will be bold enough to preach
Christ, to preach Christ and Him crucified. And that's what
these men are not doing. They have a religious decree,
but it's an unrighteous decree. An unrighteous decree is any
message that in any way attempts to make sinners righteous other
than through our Lord Jesus Christ. If you contribute anything to
that justification, It's an unrighteous decree. A righteous decree is
the declaration of how a holy God makes sinners righteous through
his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. No sinner can be made righteous
any way other than by being found in Christ. So any decree other
than Christ must be an unrighteous decree. An unrighteous decree
declares what men must do. That is an unrighteous decree.
The righteous decree declares Christ and what he has already
done for his people. And here's how these unrighteous
decrees get made up. Men know there's a problem. Everybody
knows sin's a problem. That's not in question. Nobody
needs to debate that. Of course we know sin's a problem.
The question is this. How are we going to take care
of that sin problem? How's it going to be put away? And religious
people are kind of like, Us today, it's like Abby talks about, we
go to Dr. Google, you know, we're going to find a home, we're going
to do something rather than go to the doctor's office. And they
come up with a home remedy to try to cure the problem. That's
what he says here at the end of verse one. They write grievousness,
which they have prescribed. It's their own prescription.
They make up a home remedy and it doesn't work. It's grievousness. It just makes the situation worse
because they preach something other than Christ. Now read on,
verse two. And this is what happens, this
is the cause, the result of this. To turn aside the needy from
judgment, and to take away the right from the poor of my people,
that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless. Now again, these are things that
civil authorities were doing at this time in Israel, but the
pictures that we need to see are the pictures of Christ here.
They have a message, Isaiah says, that's without Christ, and it
turns the needy away from judgment. The needy can't get the justice
that they need because they can't pay the bribe to get the judge
to rule in their favor. They just exclude the needy from
justice. And that's what a message without
Christ does. It requires people to bribe God,
who's the judge. You do this, God will do this.
You do more of this, God will do this. You give more, God will
bless you. You do this. It's a bargaining thing. You're
doing what you're doing to bribe God into blessing you. And you
bribe God with some of your good works. You bribe him with your
tithes. You bribe him by sacrificing
some things that we tend to enjoy in this world. But if you're
needy, you don't have anything to use as a bribe because you're
needy. You don't have anything. You
don't have any ability to do any good works. You don't have
anything to give to bribe the false prophet. You can bribe
God. So then you cannot be saved. You've been excluded from justice.
You don't have the ability to come up with a bribe. That's
how people in Mexico cut through red tape and get on tickets and
do all these things. You just give the bribe. It's
just a common figure. Everybody knows that they want
50 pesos, just 50 pesos. That's going to get you, you
know, that's the bribe. It'll get you on a ticket. It'll get you your
driver's license and just, you know, give the bribe. But that's
an unrighteous decree. That's not justice. If sinners
are going to truly be saved, God's justice must be satisfied. Sinners need their sin to be
judged in righteousness so that the sin debt is actually paid. Suppose you give the bribe and
they just shove it, shove it in the desk drawer. The next
guy that comes might open that desk drawer and pull it out.
And now you're back on the hook. Sinners need their sin to be
judged in righteousness so that debt is paid, legally, justly
paid. And when men don't preach Christ,
they turn the needy away from Christ, who is the only one who
can pay their sin debt. Because Christ is the only one
who can be judged for their sins, pay their sin debt and give them
life. If you don't preach Christ to the needy, you turn the needy
away from justice. Next, these false prophets, when
they don't preach Christ, they take away the right from the
poor of my people. They take away the right by taking
away. If you don't preach Christ, you've
taken away the only right a sinner has to come before God. We came
before God in prayer before this service. What was Wayne's right
to lead us into the presence of God in prayer through our
Lord Jesus Christ? That's the only right that you
have to come before the Father. If you don't preach Christ, you've
taken away our right to come before the Father. That's the
only way we can come and be accepted. And this right can also be righteousness.
Christ is the righteousness of God's people. Jehovah said, can
you, the Lord, our righteousness. When men don't preach Christ,
they take away the only righteousness a poor sinner can have. The poor
don't have any righteousness. They've got nothing. And if you
take Christ away from them, they'll never have any righteousness.
They're poor. They're spiritually bankrupt.
They don't have any goodness. And the only way they can be
made righteous is if Christ will make them the righteousness of
God in Him. But if we don't preach Christ
to them, you take righteousness away from them. You take away
the only hope of righteousness they ever have. And the reason
these false prophets don't preach Christ is twofold. Number one, they don't know him.
Secondly, they don't know what happened in the garden. Adam
was our first husband. You and I are joined to Adam.
Just like a wife is joined to her husband, they're one flesh.
We were one flesh with Adam. And when Adam died, we died in
him. And when Adam died, Adam left
you to be widows. In this sense, we're still alive
physically or by spirit. breathing and listening and responding. We're alive physically, but we're
spiritually dead. We're like the widows in this
day, in Isaiah's day. We can't provide for ourselves.
We have no means to provide for ourselves and protect ourselves,
put a roof over our head. Adam left us widows. And Adam
was our first father. And when Adam died, we died in
Adam. But when Adam died, he left us
orphans in this sense. Our first father's dead. We don't
have anybody to raise us. We don't have anybody to provide
for us. We don't have anybody to protect us, just like orphans.
They've got no way to raise themselves and provide for themselves. They're
just little children. And any unregenerate person,
they don't know this. They don't know what happened
in the garden, so they don't know they're the widow and they're
the orphan. I mean, much less caring about the other widows
and orphans, they don't know they themselves are Left without
provision, they're widows and orphans. Those widows will never
have a husband to love them, provide for them, to give them
his name if we don't preach Christ to them. Christ is the husband
of his people. He's the husband and we're the
bride and we'll never have that husband if we don't, somebody
doesn't preach Christ to us. Those orphans are never going
to have a father to protect them and raise them and teach them
if Christ is not preached to them. Christ is the father of
all his little children. We talked about Sunday, those
little children. Our Lord said, my little children.
Well, those little children are never going to have a father
unless Christ is preached to them. And this is a matter of
life and death. To know Christ as a matter of
life and death. It's a matter of life and death
for us to preach Christ, and it's a matter of life and death
for us to hear Christ preached. Look at verse 3. And what will
you do in the day of visitation, in the day of desolation, which
shall come from far? To whom will you flee for help,
and where will you leave your glory? That which you've saved
up that is your glory, where are you going to leave it? Where
it will be protected and won't be lost. Now, this day of visitation
is two days. First is the day of trial. When
that day of trial comes, who are you going to look to? When
that day of trial comes, who are you going to cling to? Little
Emma, her mother one day got the news, her child has a large
brain tumor. Buddy, that's a trial. Who's
she got to cling to? Who's she got to run to? If salvation
is based on your works, You've done your bribes that you can
give God when that day of visitation comes, that day of trial comes,
you've got to think this came upon me because I did something
wrong. You have to think that. It wouldn't have come on me if
I'd given enough bribe, if I'd done enough. You have to think
this has come upon me, it's my fault, I haven't done good enough.
If I was good enough, the trial wouldn't have come. Without Christ,
you have to think that. And when men don't preach Christ,
they take away the only refuge and the only comfort God's people
have in times of trial. Those of you right now who are
in deep waters, the only refuge you have is Christ. The only
comfort you can find is Christ. The only comfort you can find
is His person and His work on your behalf. That's the only
comfort you have. The only refuge you have is this
doesn't happen because he hates you. You have confidence in his
love. You have confidence in his wisdom
that he's doing this for good and for your glory. That's the
only refuge you have. And we take that refuge and that
comfort away when we don't preach Christ. And second, far more
important day is the day of judgment. For we must all appear before
the judgment seat of Christ. Some people have more trials
and some people have fewer trials, but we must all appear before
the judgment seat of Christ. It's appointed unto men once
to die, and after this is the judgment. So this is what every
one of us are going to face. In that day of judgment, will
your works be enough? Will you be judged by Christ
who sees everything, who knows everything, who Scripture says
will judge every man in strict righteousness? Absolute righteousness. Will your words be accepted in
that day? When the only righteousness that will be accepted is a righteousness
without flaw. Without wrinkle. Perfect righteousness. Is it going to be that? Look
over Matthew chapter 19. Brother Eric preached from this
last Wednesday. If you're honest with yourself,
you know. Your righteousness and your works
and your obedience is not good enough. If you're honest with
yourself, you know, if that is what you're going to be judged
upon your own doing, you're going to be found wanting. You're going
to be found guilty. That's what this young man was
really admitting in Matthew 19. Look in verse 16. And behold,
one came and said unto him, good master, what good thing shall
I do that I may have eternal life? And he said unto him, Why
callest thou me good? There is none good but one, and
that is God. But if thou enter into life, keep the commandments.
It is pretty simple. If you want eternal life, keep
the commandments. He saith unto him, Which? There has got to be one more
important than the others. Is there some place I can focus?
Which? And the reason he asked which,
in his heart he knew he couldn't keep them all. So which? Give
me one. Instead of giving all to me,
just give me one. Give me the Cliff Notes version.
And Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt do no murder. Thou shalt
not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt
not bear false witness. Honor thy father and thy mother.
And thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. The young man saith
unto him, All these have I kept from my youth up. Now, if that
was true, if he honestly, truly had kept all these from his youth
up, the sentence would end right there. But he goes on. What lack I yet? He knew he lacked. Outwardly,
he probably did keep all those things from his youth up, but
he knew he lacked. He knew he was not perfectly
righteous. And if we're honest with ourselves,
That's what all of us will say about our own selves. In that
day of judgment, there's one righteousness that God will accept.
It's the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And when a
man does not preach Christ, he takes away the only righteousness
that will be a safe refuge when the overflowing scourge of God's
wrath and judgment comes sweeping through. Then, verse 4 in our
text, Isaiah says this. That's what he's saying. Without
me, they shall bow down under the prisoners, and they shall
fall under the slain. For all this, his anger is not
turned away, but his hand is stretched out still." Without
me, without me, outside of me, outside of Christ, everyone shall
bow down among the prisoners. Outside of Christ, everyone is
a prisoner of the law, and they will be prisoners of eternal
justice. They'll just be constantly bowed down under requirements
that they cannot keep. Without Christ, outside of Christ,
everyone will be killed. And they'll just lay among the
heaps of the dead. And that's where they'll be for
eternity. Because no matter how long they're there, God's anger
will never be turned away. Sin against an eternal God requires
eternal damnation, eternal punishment. The only way God's anger against
sin will be turned away is in Christ, by Christ's suffering
for our sin as our substitute. Christ was made sin for his people
so that we could be made the righteousness of God in him.
So when a man preaches a message without Christ, he takes away
the only hope of eternal life a sinner has. Now, if I accomplish
this mission, I want you to see the futility of a message without
Christ, the futility of a so-called faith and life without Christ. It's futile, isn't it? It's no
wonder our Lord said, without me, you can do nothing. Without me, you can do nothing
for this reason, because Christ is divine and we're the branches. The branches don't have any life
in themselves. They draw their life from the
vine. So the branches die. the moment they're cut off from
the vine. Without me, you can do nothing. So we see how important it is
to preach Christ. We see that by what's taken away
from us if Christ is not preached to us. But now I want us to look
at this. What a believer does have in
Christ. I want you to go home with this
on your heart. What a believer has. In Christ,
when Christ is preached to us, the first one is this. In Christ,
we have a message of righteousness because in Christ, we have a
righteous decree. Now, righteous decree declares
truth about man and truth about God. The truth about man is this. Man is totally depraved. Man has a complete lack of any
righteousness whatsoever. And God demands perfect righteousness. And man cannot produce that righteousness. So God did. In the person of
His Son, God became a man and He produced the righteousness
that He demands. The man Christ Jesus established
righteousness that He imputes to His people. And then that
man, Christ Jesus, He took the sin of His elect into His own
body on the tree. He was made to be sin for His
people. And He suffered, and He bled,
and He died to put that sin away. He was made to be sin for us
who knew no sin, so that we be made the righteousness of God
in Him. Now, brethren, that's a righteous decree. That's how
salvation is established in righteousness. It's a salvation that can never
be lost because you're made perfectly righteous in the end. Second,
in Christ, we have the prescription for sin. You know, men by nature
try to come up with their own remedy, but Christ is the prescription
for everything you need. All of y'all come from different
walks of life, different places, different needs, different things
going on in your life today, I promise you this. Without knowing
all the details, I can tell you this. Wherever it is you come
from today, Christ is the prescription. I guarantee it. Christ is the
prescription for our sin. We're defiled by sin. I mean,
it's all the way through. It's not just a rash on the outside.
It's all the way through. Christ is the prescription. His
blood cleanses us from all sin. From original sin in Adam, from
sin of our commission, from sin of thought, from sin we don't
even know we committed. His blood cleanses us from all
sin. Christ is the prescription. We're
sin sick from head to toe. We are sin sick and Christ is
the prescription. By his stripes we're healed. Christ took the sin sickness
of his people and gave us his health. Look in Luke chapter
10. Christ took our sickness and
gave us his health. He made us whole. He healed us. Only Christ is able to do that. But you know what else? Only
Christ is willing to do that. Only Christ. He's the prescription.
Look in Luke 10 verse 30. In Jesus' answer, he said, a
certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. and fell among thieves,
which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed,
leaving him half dead. And by chance there came down
a certain priest that way. And when that priest saw him,
he crossed the road. He passed by on the other side."
Now, that priest represents all the ceremonies of religion. Not
only was he unable to help that man, he was unwilling. He crossed the street, passed
by. And likewise, the Levite, when
he was at the place, came and he looked on him, but he passed
by on the other side. That Levite is all of the law.
The law, it'll look on you, but it's unable and unwilling to
make you whole. Unwilling to even touch you,
look, but he's not going to touch you. He's unwilling to make you
whole. But, verse 33, a certain Samaritan,
as he journeyed he came where he was. And when he saw him,
he had compassion on him. And he went to him, and bound
up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his
own beast, and brought him to an end, and took care of him.
And on the morrow, when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave
them to the host, and said unto him, Now you take care of him.
And whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will
repay thee." Now that Samaritan is our Lord Jesus Christ. He's
the man that the Pharisees insulted and called him a Samaritan. He's
a man that the Pharisees thought was a sinner. But that man, Christ
Jesus, he's the only one who's able and he was the only one
willing to get down there in the ditch with that wounded,
half-dead man and heal him. Bind up his wounds, put him on
his beast, provide everything he needed and make him whole. Christ is the only one willing
and the only one able. He is the great physician who
writes the prescription and Christ is the prescription. Christ is
that balm of Gilead and he's the physician that pours it on
and makes his people whole. Look in Galatians chapter 3,
I'll tell you another need we have. We need to be justified. Not made just like we didn't
have any sin, We need to be made without sin. Now, how's that
going to happen? There's one prescription. The
Lord Jesus Christ. The law can't do it, but Christ
can, and He does. Look at Galatians 3, verse 10.
For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse.
For it's written, Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things
which are written in the book of the law to do them. That's
why that rich young ruler was upset. And it's hard, he knew
he didn't keep them all. And he's under the curse. And
here's why he is. Verse 11, But that no man is
justified by the law of the sight of God, it's evident. For the
just shall live by faith, not by their obedience to the law,
but by faith in Christ. And the law is not of faith,
but the man that doeth them shall live in them. Christ hath redeemed
us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. For
it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. Christ
took our curse and made his people without sin. Justified in him. He's the prescription. Every
believer is a sheep. A sheep needs a shepherd. Sheep
need somebody to lead them, to lead them into green pastures,
to protect them from the predators. Christ is the prescription. Christ
is the good shepherd. John chapter 10 says that the
Good Shepherd puts forth His sheep and He goes before them. He leads them. He doesn't go
behind them. He leads them. Leading the sheep
in paths of righteousness for His namesake. Now Christ is the
prescription. You look to Him. You follow Him. You follow His words. You follow
His example. And you will never go wrong.
Because no matter what situation you find yourself in Christ is
the prescription. So we preach Christ. Third, in
Christ we have a just salvation. The needy don't have any reason
to fear. They don't have anything to give.
They don't have any bribe. They don't have anything to give.
But they have no reason to fear. If your sin has already been
judged in Christ, because God's just, God will never punish the
same sin twice, ever, because that would be unjust. And if
Christ has been judged for your sin, God will never punish you
for your sin, because God's just. That's why I say I need my sin
to be judged righteously, justly, in complete justice. If my sin
had been punished in my substitute in complete justice, then I've
got nothing to fear. Because in Christ, I have a just
salvation that the just God will never take away. And that brings
me to my fourth point. In Christ, we have no reason
to fear that day of visitation. That day of visitation, the day
of judgment. I don't fear it at all. Not if
Christ has already been judged for my sin as my substitute.
I don't. I just don't worry about this day of judgment. I really
don't. And not because I'm presumptuous,
but because of what God's Word says. What does the book say?
There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.
None. Back when I worked at the warehouse,
I would go to court more frequently as I wished I would to file suit
against somebody that wouldn't pay us. I walk in there. I talk to the deputies. I just,
you know, talk to them. Never any fear to walk in that
building. Never. They call me up before
the judge. I don't have any fear at all. Because I wasn't the one that
did something wrong. I will stand before the judgment
seat of Christ one day without fear. Because there's no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus. He paid the debt in full. When my name is called in judgment,
my advocate is going to stand and say, I'm here. Here's the
bill. Sealed with my own blood. Paid in full. The only thing
the Father can say is, enter into rest. Enter into eternal
rest. The debt's paid. No fear. If you would have no fear in
judgment, Would you like that? I mean, is that of interest to
anybody? Have no fear. If you'd have no fear, go to
the cross. You go to Christ crucified. The
Lord told that rich young ruler, all right, you want something
to do? Sell all that you have and take up the cross. He didn't
tell him, take up your cross, take up the cross. You follow
Christ. If you would have no fear and
judgment, You get rid of all your works. Get rid of all your
doings. Get rid of everything that you
trust in about yourself. And you go to the cross. You
look to Christ. You believe on Him. You trust
Him. And your sin will be gone. And
you know what will immediately follow that? Your fear will be
gone too. If sin's gone, there's no reason
to fear. The only reason we fear is sin. If sin's gone, there's
no need to fear. There's no need to fear that
day of judgment. And secondly, a believer It doesn't
fear the day of visitation, the day of trial. Look back in our
text in Isaiah 10. You don't have to fear men. They're
just tools in the hand of God that God's using to accomplish
his purpose. You know, if there were certain
people, if I was with them and they had a big axe in their hand,
I'd have reason to fear. Isaac knew if your daddy had
an axe in his hand, you'd never fear it, would you? Ever. You've
got no reason to fear men. All they are is the axe in the
hand of your father. You have no reason to fear whatsoever. Look at verse 5. That's what
happened here in Israel. O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger
and the staff in their hand is what? Mine indignation. That Assyrian army is sweeping
through, destroying Israel completely. They were only a tool in God's
hand that God was using to get the job done for the time, and
then he's going to put them away. And you cannot know that without
Christ. You can't. The Assyrians didn't
even know it. Look at verse 7. Howbeit he needeth
not so, neither does his heart think so. It's in his heart to
destroy and cut off nations, not a few. That's what's in his
heart to do, but what the Assyrian didn't know is all they were
doing, all this they thought they were conquering and plundering
by their own might for their own gain and for their own glory.
They had absolutely no clue. All they were was a tool in the
hand of God that he was using to accomplish his purpose for
the time. And when that purpose was done, God was going to correct
and to try his people. When that purpose is done, then
God's done with them too. And he's going to put them away.
Pilate is another perfect example. He thought he had all this power
and authority to do whatever he wanted. And all Pilate was
was an instrument in the hand of God to accomplish his eternal
purpose, that his son would be crucified, that he would be crucified,
hanging on a tree, made a curse for his people. And when God
was done with Pilate, he put him away and never had anything
else to do with him. But not you, not his people. God blessed his people. forever,
and he never will throw them away. And that brings me to my
last point. In Christ, we have a gospel that
saves, a successful gospel. Now, there is no success in this
unrighteous decree, because that unrighteous decree depends on
man. And anything that you make dependent
on men will fail every time. I mean, almost every big disaster
you ever see, I can tell you what the outcome of the investigation
is before they ever get started. It's human error. It's what it
is every time. We fail every time. Now, that
false prophet thinks he's building something, and he is. But he's
building wood, hay, and stubble, and it won't last. God's going
to destroy it. But we preach Christ by God's
grace. We preach Christ. And that message,
the message of Christ, will be successful every time. God's
Word will never return unto him void. His people will not be
lost and will never be cast out. Look at verse 20 in our text
by Isaiah 10. And it shall come to pass in
that day, that day God's folded up that Assyrian army. There's
a tool that he's done using. He put them away. It shall come
to pass in that day, that the remnant of Israel, and such are
escaped of the house of Jacob, shall no more again stay upon
him that smote him. But they'll stay upon the Lord,
the Holy One of Israel, in truth. The remnant shall return, even
the remnant of Jacob under the mighty God, they shall return. For though thy people Israel
be as the sand of the sea, yet a remnant of them shall return. shall overflow with righteousness."
The righteousness is going to be upon them. Now look over in
Romans chapter 9, we'll close. The gospel of Christ, the message
of Christ is a successful message, a gospel that saves. God will
never cast away his people. Romans 9 verse 27, Isaiah also
cried concerning Israel. Though the number of the children
of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant, God's remnant,
His people shall be saved. For He will finish the work,
and He'll cut it short in righteousness, because a short work will the
Lord make upon the earth. And as Isaiah said before, except
the Lord of Sabaoth, the Lord of hosts, had left us a seed,
we'd have been just like Sodom and been made like unto Gomorrah.
None of us would have been saved. Now what shall we say then? that
the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, they
didn't follow after the law of righteousness. They didn't have
the law and the prophets and the ceremonies. They didn't follow
after righteousness. They have attained to righteousness,
even the righteousness which is of faith. But Israel, which
followed after the law of righteousness, have not attained to the law
of righteousness. They've not been made righteous. Wherefore?
Why? Because they sought it not by
faith. They sought it by an unrighteous
decree. as it were by the works of the
law, an unrighteous decree, for they stumbled at that stumbling
stone. Now they stumbled, as it is written, Behold, I lay
in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock of offense. Some are going
to stumble, but whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed."
They'll never be found guilty, ever, because God's made them
not guilty, made them righteous in Christ. That's what we have.
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's bow in prayer. Our Heavenly Father, Lord, we're humbled by Your grace
to Your people. Why such grace to sinful, wretched
rebels such as we are? We're humbled by Your grace. awestruck at the vision of our
Lord Jesus Christ. So thankful for the righteous
decree that declares to thy people what we have in our Lord Jesus
Christ. We have all things in Him. He is everything to our hearts. And we're so thankful that you've
given us another opportunity to hear Him preached, to hear
Christ preached. Not doctrines and thoughts of
men, but to hear Christ preached. And Father, we pray that you'd
bless your Word. Bless your Word as it's gone forth. You said
your Word would not return unto you void, but it would accomplish
your purpose. And we pray for your purpose
of mercy and grace and comfort and edification for your people.
It's in that name which is above every name. In the matchless
name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we pray and give thanks.