Yeah, I'll be going home in a
little bit. We say in Cherokee, I'm going home to Cherokee. Isaiah
chapter 64. Thank you again for the invite
up here. It's always a pleasure to come over here to Missouri
and preach folks I've known for a long, long time. And they still
like me of all things. This is Isaiah the prophet, a man used tremendously of the
Lord, whose prophecy is often called the Gospel according
to Isaiah. It is in this book that we see
the glory of Christ's sacrifice, the viciousness of it, the victory
of it. It is in this book that we see what we are, Right at
the beginning of this book in chapter one, we see Isaiah the
prophet, strong, hard, tough, giving it to the people with
both fists in the first five chapters of this book. And then
in chapter six, he sees the Lord, the King of glory and everything
changes. And we read here a man who's
not doing introspection. He's not watching his navel and
trying to figure out what he is. He's a man who's proclaiming
two things. I'm a sinner. And God is the Savior. That's
what he's proclaiming in this passage. Now in this day, according
by the message employed by religion to get men to make decisions,
salvation has become a generic thing experienced the same way
to every man. They made it that way. This has
removed the fact that God deals with individuals on a personal
basis or even at all. God deals with
different people in different ways. We see that throughout
Scripture. Everyone who is saved is saved
by the same sovereign grace. There is no doubt about that,
but all men do not experience grace in the same way. It can
be categorized or homogenized into a heretical thing called
a simple plan, or a sinner's prayer, or a trick drowned some
isle to a man-made altar. God deals with His elect personally
and individually. He crosses their path of the
elect where they are, generally at the point of their rebellion.
Lydia did not have the same experience of grace as the Philippian jailer.
Peter did not come to know Christ the same way Paul did. And none
of us have had exactly the same experience of grace. Now some
have been snatched as brands from the fire. Others have heard a still small
voice through the preaching of the gospel. For some, experience
of grace is powerfully overwhelming and radical. I know people have
talked about it to me, what God did for them. On the night the
Lord revealed Himself to me, W.R. Cruz was preaching at a
little church outside of what's in Salem called Faith Chapel.
Fred Wood was the pastor and me and Moose Parks were both
there that night. We heard the same gospel, the
same message, The gospel shut me down, shut my mouth, stuck
me back in my chair, and I couldn't move. Just overwhelmed by the
truth. With moose, it tore him up. He was all over the place with
emotions. Same gospel. We still preach
the same gospel, but we experience the grace of God differently.
Differently. Some, for some, it's a gradual,
less emotional thing, less earth-shaking. Sometimes God's saints look at
their experience of grace in comparison to others, and that's
not a good idea. Because they've not felt the
same things that others have, they doubt that they know God
sometimes. Perhaps they're not conflicted
or afflicted in the same manner as someone else is. Maybe they
do not feel identical pains of conviction, the emotions and
feelings they say that they've undergone. It's sad to say many
preachers make grace conditioned upon experience. It's not. I remember one man who was down
in Louisiana used to preach. He was against assurance altogether. He believed that assurance was
presumption that you was always seeking and hoping to find Christ.
And one of his disciples told Todd Knipe at one time that he
had been seeking the Lord 40 years and hadn't found Him. Todd
asked me, he said, what would you tell a fellow like that?
I'd tell him to stop seeking because he ain't going to find
Him if he ain't found Him yet. Such require men and women to
suffer long and grieve for years before they can believe and be
sure that they are indeed children of God. I have known folks who
spent years in terror of soul because some preacher held out
certain experiences as preparatory works of salvation, never preaching
to comfort believers' souls, which is what the job of the
pastor is. The Lord said to this prophet,
Comfort ye. Comfort ye, my people. Tell them
the war is over. And I've given them double for
their sins. God commands men to believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's a commandment from God. But nowhere in this
book, nowhere does it tell anyone to wait for specific feelings
or for an experience to trust Christ. It's just not there.
If God is speaking to you and only you know if He is, I don't
know that. I know some people think, well,
you know, Somebody has a sad look on their face in the congregation,
they say God's working on them. They may have ate a bad batch
of tacos for all you know. You don't know what God's doing.
You can't know what God's doing at any time in this world. We
have the privilege of knowing this book and being able to see
the providence of God having been displayed. But what's going
on right now, you ain't got no idea. No one does. But if God is speaking to you,
you know it. You know it. No one but you is
privy to it if He is. And if you hear this command
from God Himself through the preaching of the Word of God,
then go ahead and believe. You have God's permission to
do so. You need not concern yourself
with anyone else's experience. This is the teaching of the Holy
Scripture. He that believeth on the Son hath life, and he
that believeth not hath not life. That's pretty clear. That's a
really simple equation. Salvation may come as lightning
to your soul. It may happen that way. But if
you wait for that, you'll not have a spark. You'll not have
a spark. One man said, if you feel that
all is wrong with you, you're on good ground. All is wrong
with you. If you feel that you are desperately
evil, remember that in God's sight you are in your nature
worse than you could ever imagine. If you feel that your sins are
more than you can bear, they are. Christ must bear them for
you. If you feel like they will drag
you down to hell, they will if Christ don't save your soul.
If you feel that you are lost, you are. But remember that Christ
came to seek and save that which was lost. If you feel you're
unworthy of God's grace, you are. If you feel that you ought
to be damned and separated from God forever, you should be. You
should be. To such the command comes. Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and you
shall never perish. That's the command of God. That
being the case, I want to call your attention to Isaiah chapter
64. Here's a saint, a man who knows God. A man who knows God,
whom God has spoken to through His Word. And these four verses
are just read to you in verses 6 through 8. These are the words,
for we are as an unclean thing. Our righteousnesses are as filthy
rags. We do all fade as a leaf, and
our iniquities like the wind have taken us away. There is
none that calleth upon thy name, and stirreth up himself to take
hold of thee, for thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed
us because of our iniquities. But now, I always like it when
the word but is in Scripture. I read a story once where there
was an interpreter at the UN, and one of the foreign governors
was talking to the interpreter. He says, don't tell me what this
guy says. I said, listen to him. He says,
when you hear the word but, tell me what he said right before
that and right after that, because I know those things are opposite.
I know those things are opposite. We do all faith as a leaf. Our
righteousness is a filthy rag. We're all as an unclean thing.
But now, O Lord, Thou art our Father, we are the clay, and
we are the work of Thy hands. Thou art the potter, we are the
clay. And there's several things here for us in this passage.
Isaiah, a prophet of God, a saved sinner. Saved by God's grace
has been taught by the Spirit of God that His salvation has
nothing to do with Him. That's what He's saying. Nothing
to do with His merit. Every regenerate soul, every
person born of God, every sinner who knows to look to Christ alone
for salvation and grace knows and confesses in some manner
at some time the same maladies that the prophet confesses here
about himself. Though He speaks from His heart
and His sins are His own, God records His words for us, all
believers, to read. And if in your heart, in your
innermost being, you can own this confession, then it's yours. It is because God the Holy Spirit
has begun His work in you. And trust this, if He has, He
will finish it till the day of Jesus Christ. Every sinner saved
by grace in his soul confesses and acknowledges his utter depravity,
his dark and black heart. He says we are all as an unclean
thing. As an unclean thing. There is
nothing on this earth that is more against human nature and
more impossible for a person to do than acknowledge and confess
his sin. It is impossible apart from the
work of God. We simply will not and cannot
do it apart from the miracle of the grace of God that we will
actually confess our sin. Oh, I know we'll say, you know,
I'm not perfect. That's not confessing your sin.
Confessing your sin is saying, I'm against God. I was born hating
God. If I could, I'd jerk God off
the throne and put myself in his place. I'm an enemy of God. I'm at enmity with God. This
is what it is to confess your sin until God moves in on us
and interferes with us and interrupts our career. By grace, we will
do nothing to keep, well actually we'll do everything to keep from
admitting and acknowledge what we are. We deny our sin. We excuse our evil thoughts and
deeds. We justify ourselves. We cover our sin and cloak our
self-righteousness and religion. We will not acknowledge or confess
our sins. What we are. Salvation works
this acknowledgement in a sinner. Works this confession in a believer's
heart. No man will ever seek the Lord
who does not know his guilt. Never will. The poet wrote, What
comfort can a Savior bring to those who never felt their woe?
A sinner is a sacred thing. The Holy Ghost has made him so. This is the primary knowledge
that comes with salvation. Every graced soul, every sinner
awakened and enlightened by God, his spirit joins Isaiah in this
confession. We are all as an unclean thing.
This metaphor is taken from the Levitical law. A person who is
unclean could not go into the house of God. He was unfit for
worship. If he touched anything, it became
unclean. This is our condition by nature
and all who are taught of God confess it to be so. We are as
an unclean thing. We have no right and warrant
to be here in ourselves to hear the Word of God. We're an unclean
thing. We can't worship God. This is
what He's saying here. Believers know that their hearts
are evil and they confess it. They confess it. Those who talk
about goodness and nobility and the dignity of fallen men simply
do not know themselves nor do they know God. They reside in
spiritual darkness. The sinner saved by grace says
we are all as an unclean thing. Every sinner saved by grace also
acknowledges that even his best, his righteousness is evil and
cursed. All our righteousnesses are filthy
rags. We repent of our sins and our
righteousness, we repent of more. Many years ago, a friend of mine
was preaching and he said this, he says, listen to a preacher
when he preaches. If he preaches on one thing a
whole lot, he's got a problem with it. I preach on self-righteousness
a lot because I've got a problem with it. I struggle with it all
the time. Our prayers need to be prayed
over. Our tears need to be wept over. Our repentance needs to
be repented of. Our love needs to be forgiven.
I thought of Walter Groover telling a story of a young man who stood
up to pray at one of the meetings down there in the Yucatan. The
fellow stood up to pray and said, Lord, forgive me for what I'm
about to say. forgive me for what I'm about to say. Our very
best thoughts, our very best thoughts are in and of themselves,
on their own merit, nothing but filthy rags. Rotting, horribly,
smelly, corrupt, discarded, and the word here is minstreless
rags. Minstreless rags. Now there's
a purpose in that because it addresses a woman when she's
having her menses. My mama used to call it the curse.
That's what she called it. The curse. The woman was deemed
unclean. She was removed from the camp
and was not allowed to return until an atonement was made for
her. She was cursed. Why? Because
the fact that she had her menses meant that an ovum had not attached
to the inner wall of her uterus and there was no life in her.
And the blood that was shed said, no life. No life. No life. This is the very best that we
can offer God. No life. No life. Filthy, cursed rags. Proving that there is no life
from us and no life in us. Would you offer such for acceptance? We do until God does something
for us. Every saved sinner knows and
confesses that his best, his very best, is worthy of eternal
damnation and death. The very best we can do. Every
safe center in His soul acknowledges utter helplessness and spiritual
impotency before God. He said we all do fade as a leaf. We fade as a leaf. As a fading
leaf, our time will soon end. We are headed for the dirt from
which we came. Many years ago when I first started
coming up here, all the people that I've known all these years
rich dark hair. Now they either got it dyed or
it's just gone plum white like mine. I used to be red-headed.
Had a big red beard and red hair once upon a time. Y'all remember.
Turned white. Why? I'm fading. You're fading. We do all fade
as a leaf. Like a dead leaf hanging on a
tree in the wintertime, we're utterly paralytic. to make any
change in ourselves. Our efforts toward moral reformation
are but putting a prom dress on a maggot. We cannot change
our hearts. They are desperately wicked.
Can the Ethiopian change the color of his sin? Can the leopard
change his spots? Neither can ye who are accustomed
to do evil do good. It's impossible. Vileness. Our endeavors to control our
passions are useless. They're useless because we do
not even know what in our hearts or the depths of our own depravity.
Our attempts to resist evil are wasted efforts because our hearts
are desperately sick. Every sinner saved by grace in
his soul acknowledges that he's utterly alienated from God. Our
iniquities like the wind had taken us away. Our iniquities. Our crookedness. That's what
iniquity is. It's inequity. Unrighteous iniquity. This is a confession that we
have no power over our sin. We don't. We don't. We have two
sovereigns when we enter this world in our sinful nature. Sin
and death both reign over us. They are our sovereigns and we
can't do anything about it. We can't stop what we are. We
can't not be what we are. This is the confession. Our sins
kidnap us. They take us away. Our only hope
is Christ. Every sinner saved by grace in
his soul acknowledges that he has no power in himself to resist
temptation. Read Romans 7. This is Paul the
Apostle. This is the one who met Christ
on the road to Damascus. This is the one who is brilliant,
studied at the feet of Gamaliel. The one who understands the law
and is able to teach people about law and grace. This is Paul the
Apostle. This is the one who was probably
stoned to death at Lystra and went to the third heaven and
saw things that could not be. This is Paul the Apostle. How
are you doing, Paul? He said, well, what I want to
do, I can't do. And what I don't want to do, that's what I end
up doing. And when I do good, there's evil present with me,
a law in me, a principle in my bones that when I would do good,
Evil is present with me. I want to do what's right. I
do. But I don't do what's right. And so he gives his resume. Which is the resume of every
child of God. This is your resume and mine
this morning. With my mind. I serve the law of God. I want
to do what's right. I do. In my heart, I want to
do what's right. But with my flesh, I serve the
law of sin and death. So what can I say? Oh, wretched
man that I am. Who shall deliver me from this
body of death? Who shall deliver me? Our sins,
our iniquities carried us away. The believer has been the enemy
of himself and continues to be so. Spurgeon wrote, The well-instructed
believer is very much afraid of himself. Very much. If you
have not learned to be afraid of yourself, you are still in
trouble. If you are a believer, you will soon learn to be afraid
of yourself. There is no doubt that God's
grace is stronger than temptation and is sufficient to keep me
at all times. But this I also know, apart from
God's grace, my own evil will overcome me. It will. I can no more withstand sin than
a speck of dust can withstand a tornado. Every sinner saved
by grace in his soul is aware of and acknowledged that utter
and total inability with regard to all things spiritual. We cannot
even bring ourselves to pray. We cannot. He says, there is
none that calleth on me. Nobody stirs himself up to take
hold of thee. Men speak of prayer in a manner
that baffles me. I can only conclude that either
they know nothing of prayer or I know nothing of prayer. One
of us is wrong. Prayer is more than asking God for something.
Prayer is worship. Prayer is worship. Calling upon
God like Jonah did from the whale's belly. Prayer is stirring up
your soul to take hold of God like Jacob did when the Lord
wrestled with him. I am sure of a couple of things.
No man by nature can or will call upon the name of the Lord.
That is true in Scripture. There is none that seeketh after
Thee. That is what the psalmist said in Psalm 14. And Paul repeated
in Romans chapter 3 verses 9 and 10. Secondly, not even true believers
can by their own strength or inclination stir themselves up
to take hold of God. David said, when you put it in
my heart to pray. That's when I prayed. When you
told me that I was going to build Solomon's Temple, you put it
in my heart to pray. So I prayed, Lord, let me build
Solomon's Temple. Every sinner saved by grace in
his soul confesses and acknowledges the justice of God and the judgment
of his sin. Every sinner saved by grace takes
sides with God against himself. Thou hast hid Thy face from us.
and has consumed us because of our iniquities. It's our fault.
Not your fault, God. It's my fault. Now what David
said, against Thee, against Thee only have I sinned and done this
iniquity in Thy sight, that You might be just when You judge. It's against You. What did he
do? Well, he did a lot. saw a pretty
woman taking a bath on the rooftop. Oh, she's fine. Now he's the
king. He can have any woman he wants
in that man, but he wants her. Well, she's married to a fellow
named Uriah. What can I do about this situation?
I'm going to have her. What can I do about this husband
thing? Well, he's at war right now,
so it's no big deal. Then she gets pregnant. David? He said, I'm really in trouble
now. He said, I know what, I'll convince Uriah that it's his
kid. So I invited him back to the battlefield and let him go
home and spend the night with his wife and he'll think it's his
baby. But Uriah was an honorable man. He slept on the porch, wouldn't
go in. David said, I'm in trouble. What
am I going to do? I know what I'll do. I'll send him out to
the front of the battle where he'll be killed. Committed murder. Committed murder. And when he
got news of it, he says, well, you know, war's tough. People
die in war. And he said, I've only sinned
against God. All sin is against God. Thou has hid Thy face from us,
and rightfully so, has consumed us because of our iniquities.
Finally, every sinner saved by grace in his soul acknowledges
this, that because of what I am, salvation must be by the grace
of God. God must save me. I can't do
anything about my situation. But now, O Lord, Thou art our
Father. What a thing. Why would He even
call us a son? Our righteousness is as filthy
as rags. We do fade as a leaf. We're just all an unclean thing.
We're not called on God. Why would He even call us a son?
But now, O Father, we're just clay. We can't do anything. We can't
do anything. The clay has no say. Has no say. I've used clay in the past. I
had art class in school and they said we was going to make things
out of clay and I made an ashtray like everybody else did and it
was ugly and my mom displayed it anyway. But I never heard that clay say,
wait a minute, I want to be a vase. The clay has no say. Father thou
art the potter. Whatever you make me, it's what
I'm supposed to be. Wherever you put me, it's where
I'm supposed to be. Thou art the potter, we are the
clay. We are the work of your hand,
your hand. We are vessels of mercy because
you have made us vessels of mercy out of that lump of adamic clay. We are believers. We are new
creatures in Christ by God's divine operation of His sovereign creative grace
by divine unchangeable power and will. How does a person become
a child of God? God makes him one. God makes
him one. There were those who mocked Christ
and mocked John the Baptist. In Matthew chapter 25, John the
Baptist was a tough preacher. He'd come into town, shook everything
up, told everybody how wrong they was, how sinful he was and
sure for hell, turned around and went back out in the desert.
Didn't go to nobody's house, didn't fellowship. He just was tough. But the people
in the streets said, well, it don't matter how much he tells
us to mourn, we ain't going to mourn. No matter what he does, we're
not going to mourn. And then the Lord Jesus Christ came along
and he fellowshiped with sinners. Ate with them, went to their
house, had a glass of wine, a little meat, talked. They said, well,
ain't he sweet? They said. He's kind of like
piping in the streets, but you know what? He can pipe all he
wants to, we ain't gonna dance. Now the Lord looked at him and
then lifted his eyes to heaven and said, Oh Lord, Father of
lights, Lord of heaven and earth, I thank you that you hid these
things from the wise and the prudent. and revealed them unto
babes. You've hidden these things. You
see it's the glory of the Lord to conceal a thing according
to Proverbs. You've hidden these things. You mean they can't be
saved? That's right, God's hidden the gospel from them. They can't
be saved. But you revealed it to babes.
What does that mean? Just poor old dependent things
that can't do anything for themselves. No man knoweth the Father but
the Son, and no man knoweth the Son but the Father, and he to
whomsoever the Son will reveal Him." Then what's his next word? Are you labored and heavy laden? Come to Me. I'll give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn
of Me. You shall find rest unto your soul. To those who didn't
believe in John chapter 6, And he said, I know you don't believe
on me. But all the Father giveth me shall come to me. And him
that cometh to me, I will know why he is cast out. For I came
down from him not to do mine own will, but the will of him
that sent me. And this is his will, which he has sent me, that
all he has given me I should lose nothing, but raise it up
again the last day. And another place where they
didn't believe. They said, How long are you going to keep us
wondering? If you'd be the Christ, tell us who you are. He said,
I've already told you who I was, but you don't believe because
you're not my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and they
follow me, and I give to them eternal life, and no man is able
to pluck them out of my hand. You're a child of God. The psalmist said that it's He
that has made us, not we ourselves. It is He. Sinners saved by grace
are the only creatures who truly know something about themselves,
and they own what they are before God, as just as Isaiah did here. Our righteousness is filthy rags. We all fade as it leaves. We
are all as an unclean thing, and none of us call on God. Oh,
but He is our Father. and were clay in His hands, the
work of His hands. Over in Isaiah, prophets cried
often, the Lord has done it. Let us rejoice, the Lord has
done it. God bless you. Thanks for having
me.