We'll be beginning today in Isaiah,
the book of Isaiah chapter 6. Isaiah chapter 6. We'll read the first seven verses.
Isaiah chapter 6. In the year that King Uzziah
died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted
up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims,
each one had six wings, with twain he covered his face, with
twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one
cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord
of hosts. The whole earth is full of his
glory. And the post of the door moved
at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with
smoke. Then said I, Woe is me, for I
am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell
in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For mine eyes have seen
the King, the Lord of hosts. Then flew one of the seraphims
unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken
with the tongs from off the altar. And he laid it upon my mouth
and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips, and thine iniquity
is taken away, and thy sin is purged. I've often thought about dying. The older I get,
the more I think about it. And some people have a last will
and testament. Some people, I know Lindsey was
a big letter writer, some people write letters to their loved
ones for them to read after they die. But if I knew And I was
not going to make it out that set of doors today. This is what
I would have to say to you, my friends and family. Christ in
His prayer to the Father before His crucifixion in John 17 said,
Father, the hour has come. Glorify thy son, that thy son
also may glorify thee, as thou hast given him power over all
flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast
given him. And this is life eternal, that
they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom
thou hast sent." Now, out of the thousands of different religions
in the world today, there is only one true religion, And that
is the one that acknowledges Jesus Christ as the only true
Savior, and His Father as the only true God. But some would
say, well, that condemns the majority of the world, and they
would be right. But thank God that it does not
condemn the entire world. For God has chosen a people before
the foundation of this world, and they will be given faith
in Christ, and they will be brought to a saving knowledge of Him.
And we'll look at that in just a bit. I've titled this message,
Five Things You Must Know. The first is this that we just
read about. God Almighty is holy. Unimaginably, infinitely holy. Now, we in our natural state
cannot begin to imagine who the God of this universe truly is.
Everyone has their idea of God. They have their idea of a deity. But most of those gods are some
that they can control, that they can bend to their will. Their idea of God is someone
who thinks that they are trying their best,
and they're not nearly as bad as they could be, And heaven
knows they're not nearly as bad as a lot of other folks. And
some folks picture a God who's much like an aged grandfather,
who might get angry at you for not doing the right thing, might
holler, but really isn't able to do much about your misbehavior.
But as someone once said, your thoughts of God are much too
human. The true and living God demands
perfection. Absolute, never failing perfection
every second of your life in order for you to enter into this
place called Heaven. And of course, you're thinking,
if that's the case, no one is going to enter into Heaven. And
in and of themselves, you'd be correct. But God has provided
a way for those who are constantly overtaken by sin to still be
able to enter into His holy presence. And as I said, we'll look at
that in just a few minutes. The Lord gave this commandment
to the nation of Israel in Leviticus 19.2. He said, You shall be holy,
for I the Lord your God am holy. Now what do we mean when we say
that God is holy? It means that He is just, and
right, and perfect in goodness and righteousness. That everything
He does is just and right. The Scriptures tell us that He
is of purer eyes than to look upon sin. To say that God is
holy means that there is no flaw or shortcoming in anything He
does. That everything He does, no matter
what man may think of it, is just and right, and it is done
in strict accordance with His unbending law and righteousness.
And this same perfection that He demands from those who would
worship Him. But obviously we cannot produce anything near
that sort of holiness. But how is it then that men and
women can hope to one day see this place called Heaven? And
as I said, we'll look at that in a few minutes. But first,
there's a second thing that you must know. that in and of yourself,
you are not now or ever can be holy. And if you're like me,
you have to admit that's true, that every breath you take, every
thought you think, is only corruption. But in case you won't admit what
you truly are in your innermost being, the Scriptures tell you
what you are at heart. Now, the heart in Scriptures
is referred to as the innermost being of a man or a woman, the
place from which all actions and thoughts originate. And in
Jeremiah, we're warned about the human heart. It says this,
the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Who can know it? Not just wicked,
but desperately wicked. Turn with me please to the book
of Matthew. Matthew 15, this is a text where
our Lord is speaking of this very thing, of the heart of man. Matthew 15. In verse 11, our Lord says, "...not
that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man, but that which
cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man." All the alcohol
you can drink, all the drugs you can take, will not make you
any worse than you are by nature. Your heart is as corrupt as it
can possibly be, and there's nothing you can do to make it
any better." But his disciples didn't understand what our Lord
meant here, so Peter asked, in verse 15, he says, "...declare
unto us this parable, Lord, explain what you mean by this. And our
Lord replied in the next verse and said, Are ye also yet without
understanding? Do ye yet not understand that
whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and
is cast out into the draft? But those things which proceedeth
out of the mouth come forth from the heart, and they defile the
man. For out of the heart proceedeth
evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness,
blasphemies. These are the things which defile
a man, but to eat with unwashed hands defileth not a man. And this is the reason that you
don't have to teach your children to lie, to be sneaky, to be deceitful. So if your heart is polluted
and desperately wicked, you cannot expect anything good to come
out of you. A poisoned well can only produce
poisoned water. But just in case you're still
hoping that your so-called righteousness might have some standing before
a holy God, let me read something to you out of Isaiah. This is
a text that we're familiar with. In Isaiah 64.6 it says, But we
are all as an unclean thing, and all of our righteousnesses,
not our bad stuff that we do, this is our God speaking of the
good stuff that you do, or at least that you think you do.
For all of our righteousnesses are as filthy rags, and we all
do fade as a leaf, and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away.
Now please understand, that these filthy rags, which our God compares
our righteousness to, is not a dirty rag that you would use
to clean the house. It's not the filthy, oily, greasy
rags that you would find in a mechanic shop. No, our God uses the most
vile thing to which to compare our righteousness. He compares
them to a used menstrual cloth that a woman would use during
her time of the month. You do not wash those out. and
remove the filth you dispose of them. Same thing with your
righteousness. In Leviticus 15, verses 19 through
33 deal with this subject of a woman during her time of what
the Scriptures call an issue of blood. And 12 times in those
verses, she is referred to as being unclean. The same word
that the Scriptures use to describe a leper. And this is what our
God wants you to understand, that the very best you can produce,
what you refer to as your righteousness, cannot be cleaned up enough to
make it fit to be acceptable to Him. You are and always will
be unclean until God makes you otherwise. Isaiah 57, 12. Our
Lord tells you this, I will declare thy righteousness and thy works,
for they shall not profit thee. Your righteousness must be disposed
of, and you must rely on the righteousness of another, on
the righteousness of a substitute. The third thing you must know,
you are going to die. Now, when people hear that, they
would say, well, certainly I'm going to die. Everybody is going
to die. Everyone dies. But I want to impress upon you
this fact, that you very well may die today. I once heard Henry
Mahan speaking of this, and he said that you could ask a 90-year-old
man, a 98-year-old man, when he gets up in the morning, you
think you're going to die today? And he'll say, no, I think I
have a few good days left. And Henry was right when he made
that statement. But none of us have a promise
of tomorrow, which is why we read in 2 Corinthians 6, verses
1 and 2, it says, We then, as workers together with him, beseech
ye also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain. For he
saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation
have I succored thee. Behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. And Hebrews 3 tells us this,
Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost saith, today, if ye will hear
His voice, pardon not your hearts, as in the day of provocation,
in the day of temptation in the wilderness, when your fathers
tempted me, fruited me, and saw my works forty years, Wherefore,
I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do always err
in their heart, and they have not known my ways. So I swear in my wrath, they
shall not enter into my rest." These verses are a warning not
to despise the goodness of God. God tells us here in these verses
how He destroyed an entire generation of Israelites because they despised
His Word and held it in contempt. They hardened their hearts against
all that was right and good, and God left them to perish in
the wilderness. Do not fool yourself into thinking
that you can come to God when you feel like the time is right
and you need to get things straightened out. I plead with you to not trifle
with the God of this universe. You do so at the peril of your
own soul. You will not play God for a fool,
and when it comes time to die, think you're going to get right
with God. Galatians 6-7 gives us a warning. It says, Be not
deceived. God is not mocked. For whatsoever
a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to the
flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption, but he that soweth
to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting." Now when
these verses tell us that a man shall reap corruption, it means
that your eternal end will be a fate of dying, but never being
dead, of eternally cursing, the God that you now despise in this
life. There's an old saying that actions
have consequences. The older you get, the more you
realize that's true. Your actions, your doings, your
so-called righteousness will end in a misery beyond anything
the human mind can comprehend. But the actions of Christ on
behalf of lost men and women also had consequences. He said
this, Whosoever believeth on me shall never die, and he that
believeth on me hath everlasting life. We read in 2 Chronicles
verse 36 of how God sent His messengers to the people of Israel
And the people despised the message that was sent. Starting in verse
15 of 2 Chronicles 36, we read this, And the Lord God of their
fathers sent to them messengers, as He does today, arising up
at times and sending, because He had compassion on His people
and on His dwelling place. But they mocked the messengers
of God and despised His words, misused his prophets until the
wrath of the Lord arose against his people, and there was no
remedy. And so it will be with everyone
that hears the truth of Christ crucified and despises the message
of God's grace toward sinners. There may come a time in your
life when salvation is passed. The God who was once willing
to save is no longer willing. Let me
read something in Proverbs chapter 1. Turn there with me. Speaking
of this very thing, those that despised the goodness of God
and His messengers, this is what God will do to those men
and women. Don't be fooled into thinking
God loves everyone and wants everyone to come to the knowledge
of His Son. Proverbs 1, starting in verse
26. I'm sorry, starting in verse
23. Turn you at my reproof. This
is our Lord speaking. Behold, I will pour out My Spirit
unto you. I will make known My words unto
you, because I have called and ye refused. I have stretched
out my hand, and no man regarded. But ye have said it not, all
my counsel, and would none of my reproof. This is God speaking. I also will laugh at your calamity. I will mock when your fear cometh. When your fear cometh of desolation,
and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind, When distress and
anguish come upon you, then shall they call upon Me, but I will
not answer. They shall seek Me early, but
they shall not find Me, for that they hated knowledge and did
not choose the fear of the Lord." Today God sends His messengers
to men and women and proclaims there is salvation to be found,
but it's to be found not in your righteousness, but in a substitute. This substitute called in the
Scriptures, Jesus Christ the righteous. Paul wrote of this
to the Corinthians. He said, now then, we are ambassadors
for Christ. As though God did beseech you
by us, we pray you, in Christ's stead, be you reconciled to God. Now when I say you're going to
die, you need to understand that not only will this body die and
go into the ground, but you have an eternal soul that will never
die. God warns men and women throughout
His Word that there is a life after this, that there's no such
thing as reincarnation, where you get to come back and try
things a second time and maybe do it a little better. And we've
learned through scientific research that every man and woman has
a unique fingerprint. They have unique DNA. They have
a unique iris. Even what we call identical twins
share none of these traits, so is it so hard to believe that
you also have a unique soul? A soul that will never die. The fourth thing that you need
to know is this. Your soul, your undying eternal
soul, will spend eternity in one of two places. Now the concept of eternity is
impossible for human beings to really comprehend. There never
was a beginning, there never will be an end. Everything and
everyone we've ever known has had a beginning and either has
had or will have an end. But one of the things that's
most terrifying about this place we call hell is that there will
be no end to the suffering whose fate it is for folks that end
up there. All the horrors of all the torture
chambers throughout history combined cannot begin to be compared with this place we
call hell. I'm convinced that if we were
to see into the pit of the damned at this time, even for a few
seconds, the human mind would never recover, that madness would
be your lot for the rest of your life. Our Lord talked of a fire that
is not quenched, never ending. I think sometimes of those folks
in the Twin Towers on 9-11, those that were burning to death, and
chose to jump, some of them 80, 90 stories to their death onto
a concrete sidewalk. So how bad is the suffering of
fire that if the better choice is to jump to your death? But
the sad thing is, more than likely, most of those folks jumped out
of the fire in those towers straight into the fires of hell. You and
I have both heard men and women joke about partying with their
friends in hell, but that makes about as much sense as saying
that those folks in the towers were partying with their friends.
There is no desire to party when you're suffering excruciating
pain. Now the fifth and last thing
you must know is this, and I want to spend a little bit more time
here than I did on the first four subjects. There is only
one way to be saved from eternal ruin. Christ said this, I am
the way, the truth, and the life. Salvation is not a thing. Salvation is a person. Now so
far, much of what I've said has been concerning God's judgment
and the punishment of men and women who rebel against Him.
But I want more than anything to make sure that you know this
God, who will by no means clear the guilty, has made a way for
you to escape eternal ruin and spend eternity in His blessed
presence. And this way can be summed up
in one word, substitution. The God that we worship is not
only called a God of love, in 1 John 4, verse 8 it tells us
that God is love. Now most anyone who spends a
little bit of time in church is very familiar with the verse
John 3.16, For God so loved the world, that He gave His only
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish,
but have everlasting life. And religious folks like to quote
that as proof that God loves everybody, the whole world. But if that were the case, one
of two things is true. Either everyone in the entire
world is going to heaven, which we know is not going to happen,
or number two, God is a complete failure, and the death of Christ
was totally without any merit whatsoever to save anyone. Now,
you need to understand that when the word world is used in the
Scriptures, it's used in many different ways. One example I
want to give you is found in Luke 2.1. And it says, it came
to pass in those days that there went out a decree from Caesar
Augustus that the whole world should be taxed. Now obviously,
this did not mean every nation, every man and woman on the face
of the earth. The Persian Empire, the Chinese Empire, for instance,
were not taxed because they were not under Roman dominion, Roman
rule. When it says world there, it
meant the Roman world. In the same way, John 3.16 does
not mean that God loved the entire world, but the world of His chosen
elect people. Isaiah 53 says, for the transgression
of my people was He stricken, speaking of Christ. Not for the
transgression of all people. If God loved the whole world,
it would save for the transgression of all people. But it does not. It says, for the transgression
of my people was He stricken. Those people whom God the Father
chose, before the foundation of the world, and gave to His
Son to redeem. Now, if God loved the entire
world, we would not find the Lord Jesus Christ saying what
He did in John 17 in His prayer to the Father before He was taken
to be crucified. Starting in verse 6, we read
this. This is our Lord speaking. I have manifested Thy name unto
the men which Thou gavest Me out of the world. Thine they
were, and thou gavest them me, and they have kept thy word. I pray for them, he said, I pray
not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me, for
they are thine. Now if Christ loved the entire world, every
man and woman in it, he would not have said these words, I
pray not for the world. He talks about the man which
the Father gave Him. The Scriptures clearly teach
that before this world was ever formed, God the Father chose
a people who would be His, who would be born over the ages of
time, who would one day be given the gift of faith in Christ. Next in this verse, Christ says
to the Father, Thine they were. any of us were ever born. Thine
they were. Not thine they are, now that
they made the decision to get saved, but thine they were, chosen
to be vessels of God's mercy before the world was ever formed. Then he says, and now gave us
them me. Those chosen by God the Father
in eternity past are now given to Christ. He is responsible
for their salvation and well-being. Further, there is hope for the
lost sinner because we find written in God's Word that He delights
to show mercy to undeserving lost men and women. The words
mercy and merciful are found 297 times in the King James Bible. The word wrath is found 194 times. Proof that God speaks more of
His mercy than He does of His wrath. The Psalms are full of
references to God's mercy. Let me read just a few verses.
Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my
life. That's, of course, from the 23rd Psalm. By mercy, O Lord,
is in the heavens and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds. For
thy mercy is great unto the heavens, and thy truth unto the clouds. And one of my favorites, for
thy Lord God art good, ready to forgive, and plenteous in
mercy unto them that call upon thee. The Lord is merciful and
gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy." Every verse
in Psalm 136 concludes with these words, for His mercy endureth
forever. And lastly, that blessed verse
in Micah 7.18, He retaineth not His anger forever. Why? Because He delighteth in mercy. The Scriptures talk
of three things in which our God delights. The first, of course,
is His blessed Son. The second is His people. And
the third He delights in is showing mercy. If I can put that into human
terms, these things put a smile on God's face. They make Him
happy. And the God that we worship is
not some monster who rubs his hands together in delight as
He cast men and women into hell, but He cannot violate His nature. He cannot violate His own law.
He must punish sin. He tells us, I have no pleasure
in the death of the wicked. Our God gets no satisfaction
whatsoever out of casting men and women into hell, but He must
punish sin. But there is a reason to rejoice
in the midst of fear. And we're told in God's Word
that there is a judgment that took place before the foundation
of the world. Christ is called the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. In the mind and purpose of God,
the judgment for His people's sin has already taken place,
but there is an event in time whereby the actual judgment and
punishment for the sins of God's people took place. It happened
when Christ hung on a Roman cross and suffered the wrath that was
due the sins of His chosen people. Isaiah 53 tells us that the Lord,
God the Father, hath laid on Him, God the Son, the iniquity
of us all, all whom the Father chose before the foundation of
the world. And when those iniquities were found on Christ, when our
sins were found on Him, He suffered the full, undiluted wrath of
an angry God. This is pictured in the account
of the scapegoat in Leviticus. Turn there with me. Leviticus
16. Let's read this. Leviticus 16. We're talking of
our sins becoming Christ's sins. Leviticus 16. Start reading in verse 7. And
he shall take the two goats, this is the priest, and present
them before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. And Aaron shall cast lots upon
the two goats, one lot for the Lord and the other lot for the
scapegoat. And Aaron shall bring the goat
upon which the Lord's lot fell, and offer him for a sin offering.
But the goat on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat shall
be presented live before the Lord, to make an atonement with
Him, and to let Him go for a scapegoat into the wilderness. Now dropping
down to verse 20. And when He hath made an end
to reconciling the holy place, and the tabernacle of the congregation,
and the altar, He shall bring the live goat. And Aaron shall
lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess
over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all
their transgressions, and all their sins, putting them upon
the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of
a fit man into the wilderness. And the goat shall bear upon
him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited, and he
shall let go of the goat into the wilderness." This is a picture
of substitution. A picture of our sins laid on
Christ who bore them away into the wilderness of God's forgetfulness. We're told in Hebrews 8.12, For
I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and iniquities
will I remember no more. The blood of Christ is so effectual
in wiping out the sins of God's elect that God the Father cannot
even remember them anymore. They have been completely annihilated,
destroyed so completely that they will never be found again.
And there's something else that took place in this great act
of substitution. Not only was our sins laid on
Christ, but in the same way that He took our sins, so now His
righteousness becomes our righteousness. So that when God's law looks
upon the people whom Christ died for, those chosen before the
foundation of the world, it sees only perfect obedience and holiness. This is the reason that we cling
so tenaciously to Christ. A lot of people think, and rightfully so, that religious
folks are hypocrites. And I can understand why they
think that. Because they say one thing and do another. and
yet still count on their righteousness to bring them to God. Those that believe in grace,
those that believe in substitution, know that is not so. We cling
to Christ and His righteousness because He is our only hope.
We're dependent upon His righteousness to present us faultless before
the throne of God. This is spoken of in Jude. It says, Now unto him that is
able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless
before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, till the
only wise God and Savior be glory and majesty, dominion and power,
both now and forever. The only righteousness we claim
is an imputed righteousness, the righteousness of somebody
else, the righteousness of Christ Himself. Before God saves a man
or a woman, He teaches them that in and of themselves there is
no hope. They have absolutely nothing
meritorious to present to God. I spoke of this a few minutes
ago about how all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. So I hope
that you are now asking the question, how then can this imputed righteousness
be mine? How can I stand before the judgment
throne of God and be seen as holy as Christ Himself? Only
one way. You need to understand that God
Almighty owes you nothing but wrath. The choice of believing
on Christ is not your choice. Now those of you that have been
in church a long time will find that an astounding statement.
But the Scriptures clearly declare that without faith it is impossible. Not extremely difficult, but
it is impossible to please God. And we're told that that faith
is a gift of God. Not something you muster. It
is a gift. A gift is something that you
do not earn. It is something that is given
to you. We're getting ready to celebrate Christmas. And hopefully
you'll be opening a few gifts. And we all know those gifts were
purchased by someone else and given to us. So it is with salvation. So it is with faith. It was purchased
by another, and it is a gift given to us. Now our Lord told
Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and whom I
will, I harden. God does harden the hearts of
men and women. to the point sometimes where
it is impossible for them to believe. Pharaoh was a perfect
example of that. And please understand this, that
God will be just and right if He condemned the entire human
race. But some would protest that such
a God is a monster. If that's the case, you'd better
be prepared to worship a monster. But our God is no monster. He
could have just as easily left this entire race to perish, but
instead chose a people before the foundation of the world that
we are told in the Scriptures are so numerous that they cannot
be counted. So the question is, do you feel
the need for mercy or are you confident that you're okay on
your own? Let me use an illustration to
make this point. Now some prisons in the United
States still have a death row, not many, but some. And in one
particular prison there's, let's say, 50 inmates sitting on death
row. All their appeals are already
done. They're simply waiting for the
day of their execution. But one day word comes down that
the governor has issued five pardons. Do you suppose that
any of those inmates would say, that is not fair, how dare he
thinks he can pardon just five of us? No, you can be sure that
every one of those inmates is going to be thinking, is it me?
Could it possibly be me? Maybe I won't be executed after
all. Maybe there's a chance that I
might go free. And they think this because it
is their only hope to escape death. How about you? Do you feel yourself guilty before
God's law, deserving of eternal punishment? If you do, there
is hope that you may yet know the mercy of a sovereign God.
The question is not, as modern day religion says, what will
you do with Jesus? The question is, what will He
do with you? There's one word in the English
language which we read that catches God's ear like no other. When
Christ was pushing through the mob, I think on His way to Jericho,
it said the mob thronged Him. It was so packed that He could
barely make His way through. But He was pushing His way through
that mob until He heard a word. He heard Bartimaeus crying, now
son of David, have mercy upon me. And what did the Scripture
say? Jesus stood still. Now if you from your heart are
able this day to petition God for mercy, if you see yourself
condemned, before a holy God, and you're able to ask Him for
mercy, you can be sure that He has begun a good work in you.
So to review, there's just five
things you need to know. God is holy. You in and of yourself
are not, and never can be. Number three, you're going to
die. Maybe today. Number four, your soul will spend
eternity in one of two places. And number five, God is full
of mercy and will save a people that He has chosen in eternity
past. The question is this, will you
be among those chosen ones? I recall a conversation I once
had with a lost man about the things of eternity and judgment.
He said to me, I try not to think about it. But trying not to think about
it is not the answer. If you were diagnosed with cancer,
you certainly wouldn't say, I try not to think about it. If you
do, that cancer will eventually claim your life. No, you seek
a remedy to that cancer. And if God has awakened your
heart today to see yourself just condemned before His holy law,
I want you to know one more time to tell you that there is a remedy,
and that remedy is found in the finished work and the blood of
Christ. May the God of all mercy awaken
your heart today and give you life in Christ. Bill, come lead
us in a song.