What a tremendously bold, comprehensive
prayer. The Lord make me Christ-like,
whatever it takes. Whatever it takes. God do that
for me and for you. Open your Bibles with me tonight
to Isaiah chapter 19. The Gospel of Isaiah chapter
19. If the Lord will enable me, I
want to show you a picture of salvation God's way. That's my
subject, salvation God's way. God never does things the way
we would. And God never does things the
way we think he should. Now that's a mouthful itself. If we'd learned that, we'd learn
a lot. God never does things the way we would. And God never
does things the way we think he should. This is what he declares
in Isaiah 55 verse eight. My thoughts are not your thoughts. Neither are your ways my ways,
saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher
than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my
thoughts than your thoughts. Never is that fact more evident
than in the way God saves sinners. Search the pages of history all
that you can. Search the writings of philosophers
and of religious philosophers, and when you've searched all
the countless forms of religion invented by men throughout history,
you will never find any mortal who ever dreamed of such a salvation
as our God performs. Never in all the pages of history
mortal ever dream of a God who saves sinners the way our God
saves sinners? First, the Scriptures make it
abundantly clear that He who is God saves sinners. The only people He saves are
sinners. I know we teach our children erroneously, falsely,
to their detriment, to their harm, perhaps to their damnation.
Good boys go to heaven, bad boys go to hell. Nothing could be
further from the truth. Nothing could be further from
the truth. God only saves sinners. And until you find yourself a
sinner, you will never know God's salvation. Christ Jesus came
not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. God sent
his son into this world to seek and save that which was lost. Christ came here to save sinners. He has mercy on folks who have
needed mercy. Nobody else, nobody else. God not only saves sinners, but
he saves whom he will by his own sovereign choice, taking
salvation altogether out of the hand of man so that man makes
no contribution Man has no choice in the matter. Man makes no decision
to determine who's saved. Wait a minute, preacher. A man
must come to Christ, must believe on Christ. Yes, he must, but
he can't and he won't. And he couldn't come to God of
his own will, even if he wanted to, unless God wills to have
him. God has mercy on whom he will
have mercy. He has compassion on whom he
will have compassion. And whom he will, he hearteneth.
And he doesn't give an answer to any man who asks the reason
of him why. He never gives an answer to any
man. I know preachers do. Preachers
try their best to make God acceptable to men who refuse to bow to Him,
and they offer all kinds of arguments and speculation and theory as
to how this is so. God never wants answers to the
cavils of rebels. He just declares who He is and
demands that we bow. God saves sinners by free, unconditional
grace. without any contribution from
the sinner. Find any religion like that in
the world. Find any like that except the gospel of God's grace.
God saves sinners by free, unconditional grace without the sinner bringing
anything to him. Without the sinner, contributing
anything. Without the sinner, performing
any works. By grace are you saved through faith, and that not of
yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. But that's not all. God saves
sinners by the sacrifice of himself. by the sacrifice of himself. God stepped into humanity. God became a man. God came here as a man to save
men because there's no other way to save men. God came into
the world in the humanity of our flesh. and lived in perfect
obedience to God's holy law as a man for us. What a God! What a Savior! No one ever dreamed
of such a thing except as is revealed in this book. The Lord
Jesus Christ, God, the Son, took on himself our nature, our humanity,
and obeyed the law and the will of God in perfect righteousness
on our behalf to bring in everlasting righteousness for sinners who
had no righteousness. And then he took our sin and
made it his burial. and hanged upon the cursed tree
under the just wrath of God's holy fury, justice and law, and
suffered all the terror of an angry God to the full satisfaction
of justice for sinners. God saves sinners by giving himself,
by sacrificing himself in the place of sinners. By the substitutionary
death of Jesus Christ, God, our Savior, sets himself before us
as no other God men have ever made. No other God men have ever
imagined. No other God the mind of man
has ever conceived. None of the works of men's hands
that are called God are such a God as He is, a just God and
a Savior. A just God and a Savior. God saves sinners only on the
ground of perfect righteousness, justice, and truth. He won't
save sinners any other way. God saves sinners. Using the instrumentality of
sinners, like the one talking to you right now, to preach the
gospel of his grace to sinners who need his grace. What a God. He is ordained by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. But pastor, what about
man's faith? God saves sinners. I'm talking
about God now. I'm not talking about the little
peanut man called God. I'm not talking about the God
you whittled out of a tree stump with your pocket knife. I'm talking
about God. God saves sinners by faith. Faith that only God
can give, that only God can create within a man. Faith which God
works in you by his grace. Graciously reconciling sinners
to himself who gladly give themselves over to Jesus Christ the Lord
in free reconciliation because God gives them faith. This is
salvation. worthy of God. This is God's
kind of salvation. This is salvation God's way. God's salvation. Salvation as
it's described in this book. Now, I've got to say something
negative to make emphasis of the positive. You go to any church
around here, Any of them, I don't care which one you go to. Baptist,
Methodist, Catholic, Episcopal, whatever you go to. Go to Pentecostal,
go to any of them around here and listen to what they say about
salvation. The salvation they talk about is not fit for God. For it's salvation that centers
in you. It centers in man. It's determined by man. It honors
man. It magnifies man. It exalts man. It's not worthy of God. But God's
salvation is worthy of God. It is altogether like God. And as we experience it, sinners,
saved by the grace of God, find that God graciously proves Himself
exactly as He declares Himself in Isaiah 55. My thoughts are
not your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways, saith the
Lord. When God saved man, Nothing was
the way I thought it would be. Nothing, since that day, has
been the way I thought it would be. My thoughts are not your
thoughts. Neither are your ways my ways,
saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher
than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my
thoughts than your thoughts. Now this fact, beautifully illustrated
in the 19th chapter of Isaiah's Gospel. Now let me give you a tip about
reading Scripture. When you read the Scriptures,
it must be read literally as it is written, if you're honest.
We don't try to make scripture say what scripture doesn't say,
or go to a passage of scripture and just say, well, this is what
I think it means. That's handling the word of God
deceitfully and irreverently. What God speaks in his word is
literally true. Now, this is not a book about
science or history, but whatever it says about science and history
is exactly according to what's written in this book. It's been
proved over and over and over again. But as you read the Old
Testament scriptures, if you would understand the scriptures,
you must read the scriptures not just with a carnal eye, with
carnal understanding, but with a spiritual eye, with spiritual
understanding, as the scriptures are experienced by God's free
grace. So that everything we read in
the Old Testament Scriptures, all the historic facts of Old
Testament Scriptures, are given by God to be an allegory of that
which is spiritual. If we would understand Isaiah's
message in this chapter, we must understand the spiritual meaning
of what's written here. Egypt and Assyria were Israel's
most ancient and most relentless and most cruel enemies. Throughout
the history of the Old Testament, nobody despised Israel. Nobody more greatly abused Israel. Nobody more thoroughly sought
the destruction of Israel than Egypt and Assyria. As we read
the burden of Egypt given here in Isaiah 19, it's obvious that
God purposed deserved judgment for both Egypt and Assyria. He was determined to bring great
misery upon those nations. But when we get to the end of
this chapter, we see a very strange thing. Egypt Assyria and Israel
are all standing together as one. Egypt and Assyria, one with
Israel, as the Israel of God. Because God has his elect in
all the nations of the world. And Japheth shall possess the
tents of Shem, just as Noah prophesied back in the book of Genesis.
They all stand together, all enjoying the blessings of God's
covenant grace in everlasting salvation. Obviously then, God,
the Holy Ghost, here speaks by his prophecy, or by his prophet,
with prophetic words about this gospel day in which we live. Let me show you four things in
this chapter as we read it together. Number one. We find first here
the Spirit of God reminding us of a fact. Brother Lindsey read
about it back in the office just a little bit ago in Romans 7.
Salvation God's way delivers his Israel out of Egypt, but
he leaves Egypt in his Israel. He delivers his Israel out of
Egypt, but he leaves Egypt in Israel. He delivers his elect
out of the world, but he leaves the world in his elect. He leaves his people in this
body of flesh to live in this body of flesh. God speaks here
in verses 1 through 10 of certain judgment, the shaking of his
hands upon Egypt and Assyria, the burden of Egypt. Behold,
the Lord rideth upon a swift cloud and shall come into Egypt
and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at his presence. He's talking now about judgment
coming upon his people as they experience his grace in this
world they first experience his judgment and the heart of Egypt
shall melt in the midst of it and I will set the Egyptians
against the Egyptians and they shall fight everyone against
his brother and everyone against his neighbor city against city
and kingdom against kingdom and the spirit of Egypt shall fail
in the midst thereof. And I will destroy the council
thereof. And they shall seek to their
idols, to the idols and to the charmers and to them that have
familiar spirits. They'll turn this boy and that.
And to the wizards and the Egyptians will I give over to the hand
of a cruel Lord. And a fierce king shall rule
over them, saith the Lord of hosts. The Lord, the Lord of
hosts. And the waters shall fail from
the sea. And the river shall be wasted
and dried up. And they shall turn the rivers
far away. And the brooks of defense shall
be emptied and dried up. The reeds and flags shall wither. The paper reeds by the brooks,
by the mouth of the brooks, and everything sewn by the brooks
shall wither, be driven away, and be no more. The fishers also
shall mourn, and all they that cast angle into the brooks shall
lament, and they that spread nets upon the waters shall languish. Moreover, they that work in fine
flax and they that weave networks shall be confounded, and they
shall be broken in the purposes thereof." Everything they purposed,
everything they planned, every scheme, Everything on which they
lean for help, every prop, every defense, every security, every
rationality, every wise guide, everything that held shall be
broken. All that makes sluices and ponds
for fish, everything destroyed. war, strife, turmoil, bitterness,
famine, thirst, pestilence, waste, failure, everywhere. And when
God comes in mercy to any people, to any man, to any woman, The
first thing God does is strip away every refuge and every confidence
and every security and every hope you have. And that's the
way it is with us still by nature. The burden of Egypt falls upon
our souls whenever the Lord in his wisdom remits the outpouring
of his spirit upon us and leaves us for a little while
to ourselves as he puts it in Isaiah 54 when he in a little
wrath forsakes us for a season when he hides his face from us
when he does we find the rising of sin within the remainings
of indwelling corruption bubbling up in our souls. And there is
darkness, felt darkness, even like the darkness God sent upon
Egypt in judgment. Our spirits fail within us, our
hearts sink. And like Jeremiah, the weeping
prophet, with weeping heart and eyes, we cried, my strength,
and my hope is perished from the Lord. Every saved sinner
knows by bitter experience. He may not put it in words just
as I'm about to. He may not say it just as I say
it. But if you're saved, if you know
God's grace, every saved sinner in the world knows by experience
that saved people people with two natures. God didn't have to do it that
way, Lindsay. He did it that way on purpose.
If we're born of God, we live Adam living in us and Christ
living in us. The old man of flesh, corruption,
and sin, and the new man created in righteousness and true holiness. The old man of darkness and rebellion,
and the new man of light and reconciliation. The old nature,
which is nothing but sin, and the new nature, which cannot
sin. that which is born of God, which
is righteous, and that which is of the devil, which is evil,
sin, and corruption. And God graciously makes us to
know that by day-by-day experience, to make us ever know that salvation's
by grace, not by our works. to make us ever look away from
self to Christ Jesus, the Lord. Well, the Rex read out here in
Colossians one of our being reconciled by God's grace through faith
in Christ Jesus, the Lord. And now we're delivered from
the dominion of sin. I've studied that for years.
What on earth is that talking about? deliver from the dominion
of sin. Most people have the idea. That
means that if you're saved, you don't have the same problem with
sin you used to have. I ask any of you here who can
honestly say that's the case to stand up and tell me right
now. That's just not the case. That's
just not the case. Well, I don't get drunk like
I used to. I know alcoholics who've never
known God who don't get drunk like they used to. Well, I don't
smoke dope anymore. I've known folks who were dope
heads who got off dope because they realized it cost them too
much, and they quit smoking dope. They don't know God from Billy
Goat. That doesn't mean anything. Well, I don't go to the bars
and hang out at honky tonks like I used to. Well, sometimes you
gotta grow up. Some folks don't, but sometimes
you gotta grow up. And folks just quit acting like they did
when they were teenagers. It's not talking about no longer having
sin trouble. The fact is, the Mark Medley
sin rages in you today like it never has before. We hide it,
we don't act it out, but it's there. That ugly, hideous, vile,
evil, monster sin is what you are by nature. You and you and
the one you're looking at right now. That's what we are. What's that mean? Sin shall not
have dominion over you. I no longer dread the judgment
and wrath of God because of sin. The shaking of his head in judgment
no longer terrifies me. I've been delivered from the
dominion of sin, the fear of death by faith in Jesus Christ
the Lord. And I cry with the apostle, oh,
wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this
death? And when I do, I cry with confident,
joyful faith, I thank God through Jesus Christ my Lord, deliverance
is sure. Now look at verses 11 through
17 and learn this. When God comes to save, the first
thing he does is create terror in the soul. Surely the princes
of Zoan are fools. Zoan was a small little town
in Egypt. The counsel of the wise counselors
of Pharaoh has become brutish. The wise men, the wise things
of the world have become brutish like wild beasts. How say ye
unto Pharaoh, I'm the son of the wise, the son of ancient
kings. Where are they? Where are thy
wise men? Let them tell thee now and let
them know what the Lord of hosts hath purposed upon Egypt. The
princes of Zoan are become fools. The wisdom of this world suddenly becomes foolishness. The princes of Noth, the word
actually is Memphis, city of idolatry, are deceived. They have also seduced Egypt.
Even they that are the stay of the tribes thereof. These are
the backbone and strength. They seduced Egypt. The Lord
did this. The Lord hath mingled a perverse
spirit in the midst thereof. And they have caused Egypt to
err in every work thereof. As a drunken man staggereth in
his vomit. That's a pretty good description
of what my life was outside Christ. That's a pretty good description
of where you were when God found you. Like a drunk man staggering
in his vomit. Neither shall there be any work
for Egypt which the head or tail, branch or rush may do. What are
you going to do for God? Suddenly you're made to see you
can't do anything for God. In that day shall Egypt be likened
to women, and it shall be afraid and fear, because of the shaking
of the hand of the Lord of hosts, which shaketh over it. And the
land of Judah shall be a terror unto Egypt. Everyone that maketh
mention thereof shall be afraid in himself, because of the counsel
of the Lord of hosts, which he hath determined against him. As I read those words, it is
as though I'm reading exactly what happened in my world when
first God awakened me to a sense of my sin and the dread of divine
wrath terrified my guilty conscience. The terror of guilt suddenly
realized. I had known all my life that
I was a sinful man in the sense that everybody knows they're
sinful. I'd done things wrong and liked it. I'd known all my life
things I did in my rebellion were evil and wrong and I would
suffer the consequences. I was aware of that. And then
one day, God's commandment came. and I had a horrid sense of guilt. Not before mom and dad, not before
the law, not before school teachers and principals and authorities,
but a terrible sense of guilt before God. A terrible sense of guilt before
God. such a horrid sense of guilt
before God, I thought it would drive me absolutely insane. And with that came a terror of
a sense of righteousness required by God. I didn't know the scripture
then, but our Lord said, except your righteousness shall exceed
the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. You shall in no
case enter into the kingdom of heaven. What can I do to make
up to God? And I tried, and I tried, and
I tried, and I tried. I tried correcting this part
of life and that. I tried going to church. I tried
being religious. I tried reading my Bible. I tried
praying. I tried being a better young
man. And nothing could I do that would ease my guilty conscience. There was no work I could perform
that would satisfy my conscience, let alone God. I could not do
good. I could not do righteousness. And I had a horrid terror of
judgment at hand. The wrath of God abides upon
the unbeliever. He doesn't know it. He's unaware
of it. Oh, if you knew it, you couldn't
live with it. But when God comes and awakens
in you a sense of sin and guilt, I won't pretend to explain it
theologically or know how it transpires and how it fits in
theological systems. I'm just telling you what I know.
When God comes and awakens in you a sense of guilt, a sense
of judgment, you find the sword of God's justice swinging over
your head and hell is at the next breath and you're terrified
to meet God. And then in verses 18 through
22, the sweetest thing in all the world described the sweetest
thing in all the world to a poor helpless guilty sinner is the
revelation of our great Savior the Lord Jesus Christ in that
day in that day when all hope is gone in that day when you're guilty
and justice is grabbing for you hell is gaping open for you in
that day shall five cities in the land of Egypt speak the language
of Canaan and swear to the Lord of hosts one shall be called
the city of destruction This place where destruction has been,
this place marked for destruction suddenly speaks the language
of Canaan. In that day shall there be an altar to the Lord
in the midst of the land of Egypt and a pillar at the border thereof
to the Lord and it shall be for a sign and for a witness unto
the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt. An altar, a pillar,
a sign, a witness to God in the land of Egypt, in this dark,
dark world. For they shall cry unto the Lord
because of the oppressors. And as soon as they cry, he shall
send them a savior and a great one, and he shall deliver them. Mark every word of these verses,
how sweet the promises contained in them. In that day, this gospel
day in which we live, this day of Christ, which Abraham saw
afar off in which he rejoiced. Egypt had been miserably spoken
of before, but now everything is mercy. So it is in all the
transitions from nature to grace. The language of Canaan is the
language of the gospel. Egypt here partakes with Israel
in the mercies of redemption and speaks the same language
as the children of promise. God's altar, Christ Jesus, our
altar, is set up in the world, in this dark, dark world. Here
is Christ, our altar, and God's people standing as a pillar,
a witness to God in this dark world, worshiping Christ, our
altar, and the Egyptians. You and I, converted out of the
darkness of heathen idolatry, throw down their idols and bow
to the Lord of hosts. And as we do, poor, needy sinners,
under the conviction of sin, of righteousness and judgment,
pray. And as soon as the needy soul
bows in prayer, God sends a Savior. A great one. Brother Larry Chris
preached to us on those words of the angel concerning our savior,
he shall be great. Oh, a great one he is. The great
God, our savior, who with great redemption, obtained redemption
of our souls and eternal salvation for us, who gives great sinners
great hope by his great grace. a savior, a great one, and he
shall deliver them. Let me give you another passage
along the same line. Turn over to Zechariah chapter
12. All of this comes to pass in
the gospel day of grace because our king, the Lord Jesus, exactly
as Joab said he would, pours out the Holy Ghost upon all flesh. Look here in Zechariah 12 verse
10. I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants
of Jerusalem. Yes, even those gathered out
of Egypt and Assyria. I'll pour upon them the spirit
of grace and of supplications. And this is what happens when
God pours out His Spirit upon needy souls. They shall look
upon me whom they have pierced. And they shall mourn for him
as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness
for him as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. As you know,
we don't practice the evangelistic trickery and deceit of our day. I would never tell you how to
pray or what to pray. I never tell you say this and
say that to God, but if ever God pours out His Spirit on you,
you won't need me to tell you what to say. If ever God pours
out the Spirit of grace and supplication on you, you won't need somebody
to tell you how to pray. He will call you to look on Him
whom you pierce. Look at chapter 13 of Zechariah,
verse one. In that day, when God pours out
His Spirit, upon you. There shall be a fountain opened
to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
Christ the fountain, the Savior, the Great One opened to all God's
elect in the house of David, the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
Syrian and Egyptian for sin and for uncleanness. Back here in
Isaiah 19. This is God's method of grace. This is salvation God's way. He smites that he may heal. Look at verse 21. The Lord shall
be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians shall know the Lord in that day.
and shall do sacrifice and oblation. Yea, they shall vow a vow unto
the Lord and perform it. I will perform my vow, the psalmist
said, I'll take the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord.
And the Lord shall smite Egypt and he shall smite and heal it. And they shall return even to
the Lord and he shall be entreated of them and shall heal them. And I keep saying this, hoping
you'll hear me. You will never know the love
of God in Christ until you're made to know the wrath of God
without Christ. You'll never be saved until you're
lost. God will not robe you with the
righteousness of Christ until he strips you of your own righteousness.
He will not heal you until he has wounded you and you have
need of healing. He will never lift up until he
cast down. He will not make you alive until
he slays you. Again, referring to what Brother
Rex read to us in Colossians 1 about reconciliation. There's only one way to reconcile
an enemy. Now you can bribe him off for
a while. You can hire him as a friend for a while. You can
hold him in such bondage that he's not in any danger for a
while. But there's only one way to reconcile an enemy. You have
to absolutely destroy him. You've got to absolutely destroy
him. And then having destroyed him,
Be so gracious to him, so kind to him, so beneficial to him,
so merciful to him that he can't resist your grace and he turns
to you in gratitude. That's how God reconciles his
people to himself. He wounds that he may heal. He strips that He may clothe. He abases that He may lift you
up. He lays you low that He might
take you up in the arms of mercy. He slays that He may make alive. He destroys you. Every hope,
every ounce of strength, every refuge, every confidence, Everything
on which you rely, by which you hide from Him, He destroys you,
that He may be gracious to you. Oh God, do that for sinners. Do that for sinners, as only
you can. Now, in verses 23, 24, and 25,
here is a highway home for poor sinners. In that day, shall there
be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria. And the Assyrians shall
come into Egypt, and the Egyptians into Assyria, and the Egyptians
shall serve with the Assyrians in that day. Now listen, in that
day, Israel shall be the third with Egypt and with Assyria.
What? Oh yeah, when God saves sinners,
reconciles sinners to Christ, he reconciles them to one another
and they walk as one, one in Christ Jesus. Israel shall be third with Egypt
and with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land. Oh,
wondrous, wondrous grace. God takes such things as we are and makes them a blessing in
the land where He's put them. Until God saved me, I injured everything I touched. I had no relationship, I didn't
harm. I brought evil to everybody I
influenced. Everybody. Everybody. And then God took this Egyptian,
this Assyrian, implanted him in Israel, and wonder of wonders,
makes this man a blessing to others. That's what he does with
every sinner saved by his grace, and he puts them on a highway. These whom the Lord of hosts
shall bless, saying, blessed be Egypt, my people, and Assyria,
the work of my hands, and Israel, my inheritance. Now you know
who the highway is. That's the Lord Jesus Christ
himself. And the Lord God declares that walking in this highway,
Egypt, Assyria, and Israel walk together. They are God's blessed
people. They are the work of his hands.
They are God's chosen inheritance. And they, being saved by God's
free grace, blessed of God with all covenant blessings in Christ
Jesus, are made of God to be a blessing. I am more and more overwhelmed
every day with that promise, that covenant promise of God
made to Abraham. He said, I'll bless you. and
I will make you a blessing. What grace, what grace. This
is salvation God's way. This is salvation worthy of Him
who is God. God make it yours for Christ's
sake, amen.