Go back to Isaiah 57. Isaiah
57. I titled this message, I Have Seen His Ways and Will
Heal Him. That's a good title, isn't it?
But we cannot ignore what goes before that. And I hope I make
it to this part. I've prepared my notes to get
that far, but if I don't, we'll pick it up the next time. Now,
God tells us in verse 1 and 2 that the righteous perish, that is,
God takes them away from this earth, this world, and no man
lays it to heart. And merciful men are taken away,
none considering, that is, none of the unbelievers, men in general,
considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to
come. We see God's mercy to the righteous here. Now, the righteous
are those who are made righteous in the Lord Jesus Christ. They
are the righteous. And He's taken away from the
evil to come. Those who have passed on right
now are with the Lord. Could they be in a better situation?
Could they be in the presence of one better? They're in the
presence of the Lord. And they are not bothered with
the evil one. They are not bothered with evil
at all. And they will not be bothered
with the evil to come. Think where they are. From time
to time, I do this. From time to time, I sit and
I think where they are. They are just as alive as we
are. They're just in His presence. But it's also this taking away
of the righteous is an act of judgment against those who believe
not. When God takes away the righteous
man, He takes away his influence in that community. He takes away
his message. He takes away his kindness. I'm
glad that God has salted the earth with men who have been
born of God, who produce through the power of God's Spirit, the
fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, aren't you glad for that? But when God takes them away,
it's an act of judgment against those who do not believe. God
did not destroy Sodom until he took a lot out of it. And then
he destroyed Sodom. But he says, not so with the
false professors here now in verse 3. He says, but draw near
hither. Draw near to judgment. People
make light of that. Lots of people I'm talking about.
They make light of this matter of judgment and do not really
believe that there is going to be a real judgment. But God says,
you draw near to judgment. You draw near here to the judgment
seat. And in judgment, everything will be revealed just as it is.
The scripture says, as the tree falls, so shall it lie. There'll
be no changes. There'll be no, well let me go
back and redo this. No, not at all. And he gives
a description of false religion. He calls it sorceress, witchcraft. Paul said this to the Galatians,
who hath bewitched you, that you should not obey Christ, before
whose eyes Jesus Christ had been evidently set forth. Who has bewitched you? And then
he calls them a seed of the adulterous and the whore. Remember this. These profess
to know God. He's talking here to Israelites
who profess to know God. But he said you're a seed of
adulterers and of the whore. God reveals who they really are. They are children born of falsehood. He told those Pharisees, you
teach for doctrine to commandments of men. And look what you've
created. You've created a bunch of self-righteous
people that you can't stand to be around. They look down their
nose at everybody. That's what religion without
Christ produces. It produces hard men and hard
women. Down their nose at them. Like
that Pharisee Ida. Thank you, I'm not like that
publican. He believed he was never like that publican. Born of falsehood. There will
always, you mark this down, there will always be goats among the
sheep. There will always be tares among
the wheat. The Lord teaches us this. He
said there will always be. And a false gospel produces a
false believer. It never produces a believer. But after I went back over my
notes this evening, I thought about that again. I thought there
are false professors under the true gospel. And I thought of the parable
of the sower. You go back and look at the parable
of the sower. Some fell among the thorns. Some
fell on the rocks. Some fell on good ground. That
seed was the Word of God. It was the Gospel. But some of
them were not real. Some were not genuine. You know,
when you think of false professors, you think of people that sat
under Jimmy Slaggard. That's what you think of. You
think of people that sat under some of these, was it Benny Hinn? You know, those false professors.
But I tell you, not all of them sit under them. Some of them
sit right under the gospel. That's the truth. Some of them
sit right under the gospel. Demas hath forsaken me, having
loved this present world. Demas hath forsaken the gospel,
having loved this present world. A preacher said to me one time,
when I heard the doctrines of grace, It changed my whole theology. You cannot change your whole
theology and not change God's. You can't do it. And this is
what I would like to ask that person, and one day I'm going
to if it comes up again. I'm going to say, but did your
God change? That's what I want to know. God did not save you
under a false gospel, then you gradually learn the doctrines
of grace. That does not happen. God saved
by one gospel. He's not going to honor a lie.
He's saved by one gospel. And then God says here, against
whom do you sport yourselves? Think about whom you're sporting
yourselves against. When Saul was on the road to
Damascus, the Lord stopped him and he said, Saul, Saul, why
persecute us? What? Thou me. Saul was persecuting the church.
It says he was wasting it. He was hailing men and women
into prison. He was consenting unto their
death. When the Lord stopped him, he said, why are you persecuting
me, my body? You couldn't persecute my arm
without persecuting me. To persecute any of the members
of the body of Christ is to literally persecute Christ. And that's
why he said, who do you sport yourself against? To fight against
his servants is to fight against God. Jerusalem, he said, you
killed the prophets. The prophets that God sent to
you, you killed them. You put them to death. And I want you to notice something
else here. How they worship these false professors. And these are
the false professors in Israel. They worship their idols with
passion. In verse 5, inflaming yourselves. This has the same meaning as
over here in Romans. Look over in Romans chapter 1. In my readings, I found this
out. This has the same meaning as verse 26 and 27 in Romans
chapter 1. Look in verse 25, "...who changed
the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the
creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections. For
even their women did change the natural use into that which is
against nature. And likewise also the men, leaving
the natural use of the woman," and here's what it has the same
meaning as, "...burned in their lusts." It has the same meaning
as that. Burn in their lust one toward
another, men with men, working that which is unseemly. Burn,
it's inflaming. Burn in your lust after your
idols. They were extremely passionate
in their worship of their idols. I have to admit, I felt like
crawling under the table when I read this. How passionate. And we're going
to see here, they even give their children over to death in their
idol worship. I thought they should never outdo
us. That was my thought. That was the first thought I
had when I read that. I thought they should never outdo
us in our passion in worshipping God. Because this is the true
God. This is the Gospel. Have you
ever noticed how that false religion seems to be so zealous Really? Zealous. And I thought it's because
they believe that by their works they shall be saved. And they're
trying to impress their false god, their ideal god, trying
to impress him. The prophets of Baal, you know
what, what did they do when they were there with Elijah? Didn't
they just jump up on that altar and start cutting themselves?
They cut themselves. Passionate. They were so zealous
That they worshipped their idols, listen, everywhere it says, under
every green tree. Everywhere they went, they were
not ashamed to worship their idols right out in public. This
is our God. What's so sad, this is what Israel was doing. This
is a charge against Israel. They worshipped under every green
tree. They worshipped in the valleys,
in the clefts of the rock, but not in the heart. Not in
the heart. Nothing is said about the heart.
When our Lord met that woman at the well, He said, you all
say that down in Jerusalem is a place to worship. Our fathers
worshipped where? In the mountains. God is worshipped in the heart.
She missed it. Of course, the Lord saved her
and then she knew God's worshipped here in the heart. But they worshipped
in all these places. They were so passionate that
they even slew their own children and offered them up in worship
to their idols. We have trouble giving up time. They gave up their children.
They took their children and actually sacrificed, quartered
them, sliced them up, offered them up in sacrifice to their
idols. And if they came across any smooth
stones in the stream, look there in verse 6, among the smooth
stones of the stream is thy portion. And here's what this is saying.
If they were to come across any smooth stones that had been set
up as a memorial, you know what they did? They worshipped it. You can go over, I won't go over
there now, but you can go over in Genesis 28, 22, Jacob set
up a pillar. He set up a pillar as a memorial.
And in Genesis 31, 45, he set up another pillar for a memorial.
Well, here's what God's saying. You came across these and you
worshipped them, not the one they represented, not the one
they were erected through. You worshipped the stones, a
pile of rocks. Aren't you glad God saved you
from that? You might as well worship a pile of rocks if you
don't worship God. It doesn't matter what you worship.
It's just awesome. Like that woman at the well again. I thought of her twice today.
She said, he said he was going to give her this living water.
And she said, you mean you can give me water better than this
water that's in this well that Jacob drank of? Do you know that
Jacob drank of this well? Well, I tell you what, you can
go to hell through that well too. Worshipping. There, that well. That well was so precious to
her. Jacob drank of it. As if Jacob put the water in
it. God put the water in it. That's
God's well. That's God's well. But God says in verse 6, but
I'll not receive worship or pleasure in the works of your hand. He
says, should I receive comfort in these things, in these falsehoods,
in this false religion, in this false pretense? Should I receive
pleasure in these things? Not at all. Only in the Lord
Jesus Christ can God be known and can God be truly worshipped.
Only in Christ. And look what false religion
always leads to. They're in verse 7. It always leads to self-exaltation. Upon a lofty and high mountain
hath thou set thy bed. Look at me. Decked out. Made the bed ready for falsehood. Upon a high and lofty mountain.
No fear of God. No humble spirit. You know, we live in a look-at-me
generation, don't we? Right in your face. On a high,
lofty mountain where everybody can see. But here's even, I think, an
even worse thing that happened. In verse 8, Behind the doors
also in the post hast thou set up thy remembrance. Even in your
homes you've brought this falsehood You've brought this lies, you've
brought this, these idols, you've set these idols, just like the
heathens. You know, you can go to the house of any of those
heathens, especially that day, and in our day, go into the house
of Catholicism. You're going to see a statue
of Mary, you're going to see a picture of the cross, Christ
hanging on the cross, you're going to see pictures of Him Even in your homes, you've brought
this stuff. You say, I'd never do that. I
tell you what, when you start wearing these, people start wearing
these necklaces with crosses, and they have pictures of what's
called Jesus, that's idols. I told a lady one time to burn
it, but she died. She told me, she said, I don't
worship that. Well, burn it. Well, I don't know why I want
to burn it. You can't burn it because you're afraid to. You're
afraid to burn your God. But I want to show you something
over in Deuteronomy 6. I want to show you where this degenerated
into. This falsehood. It usually starts out gradual.
You know it does. With Israel, it started out gradual,
then it got worse and worse. But look in Deuteronomy chapter
6. Let me get the right verses here. Look in verse 4. This is God's
command to his people. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our
God is one Lord. And thou shalt love the Lord
thy God with all thine heart, with all thy soul, and with all
thy might. And these words which I command
thee this day shall be in thine heart. Thou shalt teach them
diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou
sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and
when thou liest down, and when thou risest up, and thou shalt
bind them for a sign upon thine hand. They shall be as frontlets
between thine eyes. Now listen to verse nine. And
thou shalt write them upon the post of thy house and on thy
gates. But now look what you have replaced
his word with, your idols. That's what he's saying. Instead
of teaching them my word, the word of God, they've hung up
their idols. And that's what they, that's
who they worship. That's what they worship. They've replaced
the Word of God with their idols. And you have prostituted your
soul to another. There have been many who have
not prostituted their bodies to anyone else. Faithful wives,
faithful husbands, but they have prostituted their souls to idols. That's so. Your heart has gone
after the world. That's what he's saying. What
is your heart after? That's your God. What's your
heart after? Remember, he's talking to a people
who profess to be His. And he's speaking here of spiritual
adultery. The heart going after these things and not Him. And once a person follows this path,
they take on many lovers. Many things enter the heart.
Many things take over the heart. Son, he said, give me your heart,
for out of it are the issues of life. If God doesn't have
your heart, somebody else does. You sure don't have it. I promise
you. The last thing I have is my heart. If God has it or something
else has it. They end up having more adulterous
affairs than the heathen who know not God. That's what happened. That's what God's charging them
with. And here's what it leads to. Men-pleasers. Look in verse
9. And thou wentest to the king
with ointment, and didst increase thy perfumes. He brought more
of it. He brought some the first time.
He liked it. So you doubled it the second time. And you kept
coming back with more of it. And didst send thy messenger
far off, and didst debase thyself unto hell. You became men-pleasers. brought presence to influential
men. That's what he's saying. The influential people, you courted
their favor. Instead of looking at God, instead
of seeking after God, instead of worshiping God, they went
after men of influence, and men of power, and men of money. He
said that's what you went after. Men of the earth. And once that
starts, You only have to keep increasing
it. I told Jeremy out there in business early on, I said, you're
going to run across men that's going to want money on the table. And if it ever starts, it can
never stop. Because it's like feeding the
bears. Once you quit feeding them, they're going to attack
you. You're going to get eaten up. And then if you start it,
One day it's a dollar and the next day it's two. Just like
here, they had to bring more perfume. More perfume. They had to keep increasing it.
They had to keep increasing it. And they stooped, he said, to
the lowest axe to gain their favor. Listen, what makes us
popular with men leads to the lowest hell. It will lead to
the lowest hell. And he said here, and they aren't
weary. God said, I know you're tired. You wore out. Courtney
people, religion without Christ is wearisome. If religion is built around falsehood,
it's wearisome. There's no peace. There's no
rest. The only rest we can have is
in Christ and no place else. No place else. He said you're
wearied. And yet, in all of this, now
listen, He says in verse 10, and all of this they never considered.
And all of their falsehood and all their courting of these influential
men and kings of the earth, they never considered. There's no
hope. What you're doing is absolutely
fruitless, useless, vanity, nothing. It leads to hell. That's where
it leads to. It leads to hell. He said you
never considered that there's no hope in what you're doing.
There's no hope in the worship you give and the one you've given
it to. There's no hope. No hope. All was lost. Isn't this what Paul said to
Philippians? I count all things as loss? But before he said that,
he named off all those things at one time. He counted as gain.
And then when God saved him, he looked at his whole life and
he said it's an absolute loss. No hope in it. No hope. None
lost. But instead, they thought, he
said here, they thought they had found life. You read that
there in verse 10. They thought they had God's favor
because they were wealthy. Well, who does that sound like? The church of Laodicea. You have
become rich and increased with goods and in need of nothing.
He said you're neither cold nor hot and I'm ready to spew you
out of my mouth. and remove the candlestick. Can
a church become like that? Well, that's what he says over
in Revelation. What did he accuse Ephesus of? The church at Ephesus? That letter. Boy, the letter
to the Ephesians. What a letter! I love that letter. I love to preach from that. It
speaks of God's election, Christ's redemption, the work of the Holy
Spirit. And he said, you left your first love. That's what happens with many
marriages. Somebody leaves, somebody leaves
the first love. Somebody leaves it. That's what
happens. And God said to the church of
Ephesus, He said, I'm going to remove the candlestick. You left
your first love. You got interested and tangled
up with all these other things. You let them creep in. And it
took your affections away from me. It took your heart away from
me. Your affections. They thought they'd found their
life because they had wealth and acceptance by influential
people. The Lord said, if the world hated
me, it'll hate you. If the world loves you, you're
in trouble. They're in trouble. And listen, and they believed
that they had nothing to repent of. That's why he says, thou
wast not grieved. You weren't grieved because you
didn't look. We're so blessed. We're so rich
and increased with goods. Everything's going so well. He
said, you had nothing to grieve about. You didn't grieve over
your sins. You didn't grieve over your falsehood.
You had nothing to grieve about. Isn't that awful? Oh, he says, there's no hope.
Thou hast found the life of thine hand. Therefore, thou wast not
grieved. If we ever find the life of God,
we'll grieve over sin. There'll be something to grieve
about, our sinfulness. God said, I'll declare thy righteousness. and thy works. I'll reveal your
true works, which you call your righteousness. I'll reveal what
they really are. Filthy rags is what they really are. And
you will be the loser in the end when it's over. You'll be
the loser. Then God points out the insufficiency
of their idols. And when you need help, there
in verse 13, when you cry for help, Let your companies deliver
you. Let your idols deliver you. Let
your influential friends come and deliver you. In the hour
of death, when you are facing death, let the influential people
deliver you. See if they can come up with
the money to buy your way out of that one. When you need help, call on your
own gods. Call on your false gods and see if they can deliver
you from your trouble. They can't. They can't. In one
place it says in the Psalms, they have eyes, but they see
not. Ears, but they hear not. They can't hear you cry. They
can't see you in trouble. Mouth, but they can't speak.
They can't speak words of comfort. They can't do it. And he said,
the wind of my wrath is going to carry them away. And then
mercy shows up. I was hoping I could get to this.
Mercy shows up. I hate to hurry through this,
but mercy shows up. There's a remnant among this
group of people that God is speaking of here, Israel. And this is
the reason why they're going into captivity, into bondage,
because of all this falsehood. But there's a remnant that belongs
to God, and he's going to save them. He is going to save them. And
there is a sufficiency in him to deliver when they call. He
that puts his trust in me, in verse 13, shall inherit my holy
mountain. He shall be brought into my church,
into the body of Christ. And he'll be saved from all these
things. He shall have fellowship with
me. And he says, I'll send my messenger. I'll send messengers,
preachers, pastors. And they'll make plain the way. And they'll say, cast ye up,
cast ye up. Take up the stumbling block out
of the way of my people. This is the duty of every gospel
preacher to remove stumbling blocks. Not to be one. It's so
easy to be one. It's easy to be a stumbling block.
But he said, take it out of the way. God said, I'm going to give
you pastors that's going to feed you with knowledge. I'm going
to tell you who I am. They will preach who Jesus Christ
is, what He did, who He did it for, and where He is now. They
will remove the stumbling blocks. And I tell you, there's a whole
list where you go through a stumbling block. Self-righteousness. I
mean, we can just keep on going. But He says He's going to send
His messenger to His people, and they're going to declare
the way. They're going to cast out. They're going to clear the
way. And the only way to remove the
stumbling blocks, you know how? By preaching the Word of God.
That's the only way. The Word of God. And this commission
doesn't come from an idol. Listen, this commission comes
from the High and Lofty One that inhabits eternity. Can we even
begin to comprehend who our God is? Can we even begin to get
a glimmer of the High and Lofty One who has sent preachers to
us to tell us the gospel and show us the way? This command comes from the Eternal
One who dwells in the Holy of Holies. And notice the character
of those that He dwells with, those whom He's going to save,
those whom He's going to bring out, those of a contrite and
humble spirit. That is a description of God's
people. after He saves them. They're
not that way before. This is after a work of grace.
Contract. Those whose hearts have been
broken over sin. Do you really know what that
is? I sat back today. Really? Do I really know what
that is? To be broken over sin? We hear the word sin so much
we get almost hardened to it. but to be broken over. I have
a contrite heart. Here's what he says he's going
to do. He said, I'm going to revive the spirit of the humble. I'm going to lift them up. I'm
going to lift them up out of the dust. I'm going to set them
among princes. I'm going to revive the spirit
of the humble and revive the heart of the contrite one. God
brings his sons and daughters into soul trouble. He saves you,
you will. You'll have soul trouble. And
He does that before He brings the comfort of the Gospel. Before
He revives, refreshes the spirit. He's ever merciful. Look in verse
16. I will not contend forever. He will contend for a while.
I'll tell you this, if God is pleased to save me, If He's pleased
to save you, I promise you, He's going to contend with you for
a while. He's going to mess up your day. He's going to mess
it up. Your heart's going to be broken.
You're going to be troubled. He's going to contend with you
over your rebellion. He's going to contend with you
for a while. For a while. I will not contend forever, it'll
be for a while, until He brings you to the place where you need
Christ. When Christ is all in all, He
strips you of every hope you have. The radio message this
week is Christ Our Hope. I hope I make that plain on the
radio this week. The only hope we have is Jesus
Christ Himself. He's the only hope we have. There is a bringing down before
a bringing up. Now, I'm telling you, this happens.
There is a bringing down before there is a bringing up. There
is a wounding before a healing. There is a killing before giving
it life. But I will not contend forever,
he says, for the spirit should fail before me and the soul which
I've made. He remembers our friends in this
dust. He knows who he's dealing with. Creatures. Clay pots. That's who God's dealing with. I'm just a clay pot in his hand. I'm a crack one, too. It'd be
easy to break. Clay pots. He remembers our friends. He created our souls. He'll not
destroy the work of His hand, but He will contend with it for
a while in order to bring us to Christ. Here's the reason
for the contending. For the inequity of His covetousness
was I angry. This is why God contends with
every one of His children at one time or another. This is
why. He's going to deal with our sins. We're not without sin.
For the iniquity of His covetousness. Covetousness seems to cover all
sins. And I thought about that today. And here's the reason why I think
covetousness can cover pretty much all sins. Covetousness is
wanting more than God. Israel, I called you, I made
you a nation, I've given you my word and all these things,
I've blessed you, and you wanted more than me. He said, I contended
with you because of your covetousness. I chastened you. I put you in
bondage. But it didn't change you, did
it? Those things don't change us. My dad whipped me when I
was a kid. I'm still just as rotten as ever
after those whippings. I'm telling you. Because my dad
couldn't give me another nature. My dad just whipped himself and
he's whipping me. Really. He's whipping what he gave me. So God says in verse 18, I have
seen His ways. And here's what I'm going to
do. I'm going to destroy him. I'm fed up with him. I've had
all I can take of this guy. Where sin abounded, grace did
much more abound. He could say this, I have seen
Mike's ways. I have seen Earline's ways. Or Sue's or Rebecca's or Dan's. Just put your name there. I have
seen, when did he see that? When I did it? I saw their ways before I ever
created them, before the world was. I have seen his ways and
I'll heal him. And this just struck me today
as I was going back over this. Does he not see everyone's ways?
He does. But He doesn't heal everyone. This ought to make us crawl in
here and crawl out of here. I have seen His way, speaking
here of Judah. I've seen His covetousness. I've
whipped Him. I've brought bondage on Him.
And I didn't do a thing for Him. So here's what I'm going to do.
I'm going to heal Him. I'm going to make Him new. Give
Him a new heart. A new nature. I'm going to do
something for him. He saw our ways before the foundation
of the world. And our ways were wicked. God
looked down from heaven. And you know what he saw? That
the wickedness of man was greater than the earth. And in every
imagination of his heart was evil. And that continued. There
was no break. There didn't even have a break.
I mean, we take ten minute breaks at work. There is not a break
in our imagination of evil by nature. There's not really. It's
not that we're good and every now and then we do something
wrong. That's not it. That is not it. We are wicked
to the core. Absolutely wicked to the core.
There's nothing that he does not know about me. Therefore, If we are to be saved,
if I'm to be saved, if you're to be saved, He'll have to do
it. He will have to heal me spiritually. And the only remedy is His grace. He says, I will heal him. I'll heal him. And restore comforts
unto him. Listen, I like this. And to his
mourners. He will not only comfort the
mourner, but those who mourn for Him. Have you not mourned
a loved one and God has saved him? Well, He not only comforted
that one He saved, He comforted those who were mourning for Him
and praying. You pray God save your children
and He does so? He comforted this mourner as
well as that mourner. And when we quit mourning as
a church for sinners to be saved, shut the doors. Just shut the
doors and quit. He says here in verse 19, I'm
going to quit. I create the fruit of the lips,
the fruit of praise and thanksgiving that comes from the heart. God
said, I created that. That comes from me. If it wasn't
for me, you'd still be praising an idol somewhere, a false god,
a false Jesus, another Jesus. But it wouldn't be me. I create
the fruit of the lips, and peace, peace to him that's afar off,
to the Jew and the Gentile." To him that's far off and to
him that's near, saith the Lord. And He says it again, I will
heal him. I will heal him. But not so with the wicked. The Lord says in verse 20 and
21, but the wicked I like the troubled sea, and that will never
change. It will always be this way. When it cannot rest. You ever been around one? Well,
I used myself when I was a teenager. Restless as to be. Bored. How many times have I heard that?
I'm bored today. How many times did I say that
when I was a teenager? I'm bored today. I've got to
get into something. I need to get into something.
Release this wretchedness. I need to get after something
or get into something or do something here. Restless, like the sea. Foolishness, bound up where?
In the heart of a child. And it grows up with him too.
It grows up with him. Not so with the wicked. He's
like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast
up mire and dirt. They don't cast up anything clean. If it's clean,
it's of God. The only thing men can cast up
is dirt. There is no peace. There is no
lasting, eternal peace with God to the wicked. But I want to go back to the
other part. I want to be found in the other
part where He says, I have seen His ways. and we'll heal him. I tell you what, if you've been
saved by the grace of God, you believe God saved you in Christ,
you know He did it all. He pulled you out of that falsehood.
I remember going to other places, and they used this Bible right
here. And they used the name Jesus right out of this Bible. But they was as false as false
could be. And God reached in and said, I've seen his ways
and I'm going to heal him. I'm going to bring him out of
that. Okay, Mike.