Rolf Barnard used to say we ought
to preach every now and then like everybody we're preaching
to is going to hell before the day is done. And I want to do
just that. I want to preach to you and I
pray God the Holy Spirit will speak by his word to you, this
word of grace that he's given for this hour. Turn to Isaiah
chapter 1. Here are two things that cannot
be overstated, that cannot be exaggerated, that cannot be described
in their fullness by any man, let alone this I cannot exaggerate
our sin, our utter depravity, the corruption
of our hearts and our natures. I cannot state with sufficient
emphasis how vile, how base we are. I cannot state adequately
our lost, ruined, just condition of curse and damnation by nature. You deserve God's wrath in its
utter fullness and extremity, and I do too. If we had our just
portion, We would be in hell this hour not sitting here together
in this comfortable building. And I cannot exaggerate. I cannot possibly overstate. I cannot sufficiently describe
God's free saving grace in Jesus Christ the Lord. I want you and
I want for myself. that we should know our depravity,
our sin. God, show me what I am. Show
me what I am. Make me always aware of what
I am. And God do that for you. And
I want you and I want me to know the greatness, oh, the greatness
of God's free saving grace in Jesus Christ. God chose to save
a people from eternity and chose the people he would save in everlasting
love, in love having predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will,
in infinite wisdom. Wisdom that could not have come
from any creature. An infinite wisdom. God devised
a means by which he could both be a just God and a savior. A means by which he could in
strict justice, in absolute truth, save sinners in utter mercy,
love, and grace. And that method is substitution. He found his son a substitute. He found his son a surety. He found his son a suitable intercessor
and mediator, a representative, one who could satisfy all the
demands of God's law and justice in our room instead and make
us perfectly holy by consuming in himself. all the fullness
of God's wrath and giving to us through his infinite merit
all his perfect righteousness. God in eternal, indescribable,
matchless love gave his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to die
for sinners, the Lamb of God. And he did it before the world
was and never changed his mind. Brother Rex just read the 22nd
Psalm, the sufferings of our Savior as described by His own
words. The Lord God made His Son to
be our substitute, our sacrifice before the world was determined,
determined that He should suffer all that's involved in being
made sin for us. at the appointed time at Calvary,
and he never altered his opinion, his purpose, his determination. God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Ghost from old eternity entered into a covenant
agreement with one another. to accomplish that salvation
that is ours in Christ, the salvation of all his elect by the doing
and dying of the Lord Jesus and all the work of the triune God. God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Ghost agreeing upon everything needful for the
saving of our souls and agreeing for their honor. by their word
binding themselves, the triune God, to our salvation. And in
the fullness of time, God sent forth his son, made of a woman,
made under the law, that he might fulfill all the conditions all
the stipulations, all the requirements of that covenant made by the
triune God and fulfill them by his obedience to God as a man
unto death as our substitute. And today, God sends preachers,
preachers armed with the authority of his throne, the power of his
spirit and the gospel of his grace. to proclaim the good news
of redemption accomplished, righteousness brought in, and salvation finished
by the Lord Jesus Christ. He sends those preachers to urge
lost, ruined, doomed, damned sinners to be reconciled to God
by faith in his Son. He has committed to us the ministry
of reconciliation. the service of reconciliation,
so that he sends his servants into the world with the message
of redemption and grace in Jesus Christ, urging sinners to quit
fighting God. God has sent me to call upon
you who stand as it were with your shotgun in God's face and
call on you to lay down your weapons and bow to him and be
reconciled to God. On this basis, if any man be
in Christ, he's a new creature. Old things are passed away and
all things have become new. Be reconciled to God upon this
basis. God was in Christ, reconciling
his people to himself in the sacrifice and death of his son. And the Lord God made his son. to be sin for sinners, that sinners
like you and me might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
That's what God's done for sinners. Be reconciled to God. Be reconciled
to Him. Now, believe on the Lord Jesus.
All of this, God has done for the most undeserving creatures
in the universe. Fallen, guilty, helpless sinners. Satan himself and the angels
that left their first estate do not compare in evil, wickedness,
rebellion to you and me. No creature under heaven compares
to us as unworthy of God's favor. But the Lord God delights in
mercy and has chosen to save sinners.
Oh, wondrous grace. Oh, marvelous mercy. Oh, infinite
incomprehensible love. Will you hear me now? God's grace
is great beyond description. But you can never know and you
can never see God's grace except upon the black background of
your depravity and sin. You will never see, you will
never have any appreciation for the grace of God in Christ until
you see your sin. The prophet Isaiah describes
you and me in painfully vivid, accurate words in this first
chapter of his prophecy. What painfully vivid, accurate
words he uses to portray us. We are all by nature, by choice
and by practice, a people laden with iniquity. Like Sodom and
like Gomorrah, like the Sodomites in Sodom and Gomorrah, we are
a seed of evildoers, not only corrupt, but corruptors. Let me speak to you personally,
each of you. Hear me as though we were sitting
back here in the office, chair to chair, just the two of us,
hear the word. Your personal depravity is great
beyond description. How can I describe your sin?
Before God, you're a thoughtless, thankless rebel. Iniquity pervades
your hearts. Sin fills your mind. Transgression is in your path. You've forsaken God from your
earliest choice, your earliest decision, from your youth up,
and you daily provoke Him to anger. Have I come close to describing
you? That's what you are. All your
acts of righteousness, all your religious performances, all of
your morality by which you think you separate yourself from others
are matters of perverse, abominable wickedness before God, filthy
rags. I don't doubt your sincerity,
but you're ignorant of God's character, ignorant of your own
character. Ignorant of God's requirements
in all spiritual matters your judgment by nature is perverted
Until you're born again by God's almighty grace. You can't see
the kingdom of God let alone enter into it and According to
the fifth verse of this chapter you're in immediate danger of
reprobation and eternal damnation how often God has spoken to you
by his word. But you won't hear. Your conscience
is often pricked under the preaching of the gospel, but you pacify
it with something you can dig up in yourself. Though God has
stricken your heart with fear and your mind with terror by
his law, you revolt more and more every day. And the time
may come when God will do what you keep screaming for him to
do. God, leave me alone. Leave me alone. Leave me alone. He that being often reproved
and hardeneth his heart shall be suddenly cut off and that
without remedy. And I've said all that to say
this, if God leaves you alone, If God leaves you alone, if God
leaves you alone, you will be lost forever. Did you hear me? If God leaves you alone, if God
leaves you alone, there's no hope for your soul. God commands
you to be clean, but you can't make yourself clean. God commands
you to put away your sin, but you can't do that. God commands
you to cease from doing evil, but you can't cease from sin.
God commands you to obey His law, but you have no ability
to do so. Your inability is as total as
your depravity. The Ethiopian can't change his
skins, and the leper can't change his spots, and you who are accustomed
to doing evil can't begin to do good. You're totally depraved,
spiritually ignorant. and in immediate danger of hell. And there's nothing you can do
about it. Did you hear me? There is nothing
you can do about it. Unless God intervenes. Unless
God steps in your way. Unless God arrests you by His
grace. Unless God stops you in your
mad rush to hell. You will perish forever under
the wrath of God and die forever in the torments of hell. But
blessed be his name. God does intervene. God does intervene. God steps
in the way and stops sinners from their determined damnation. Where sin abounds, grace much
more abounds. I preach to some of you with
no effect at all, and I have for years. You know the sound
of my voice. You know the expressions of my
face. You know the gestures of my hands. You know my doctrine.
But you hear my voice in my sermons, and you hear my prayers, and
you're utterly unmoved by them. Just suppose. I wonder, I wonder,
would you listen, would you listen if God would personally speak
to you? Would you? Would you listen if
God would personally speak to you? Oh, yes, pastor, I'd hear
God if he spoke. Let's see. Let's see. Before
the hour's done, we'll find out. God's word to you. That's the
title of my message. And you'll find it in Isaiah
1, verses 18, 19, and 20. These are not my words. These
are not even the words of God's prophet Isaiah. He just wrote
them. I'm just reading them. This is
God's word to you. Come now. Let us reason together,
saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson,
they shall be as wool. If ye be willing and obedient,
ye shall eat the good of the land. But if you refuse and rebel,
ye shall be devoured with the sword, for the mouth of the Lord
has spoken. Here, God speaks personally to
you and he commands you to come to him by faith in his darling
son, the Lord Jesus, promising the full forgiveness of sin to
all who obey his command and declaring the certain everlasting
damnation of all who refuse. And let me try to raise and answer
seven questions very pointedly, very plainly with this passage
of scripture. May God, by the finger of his
grace, inscribe the answers upon your souls. Number one, this
is God's command. To whom is the command given? God says, come now, come now. To whom is he speaking? The gospel
is not just a bare invitation. It is not God inviting you to
be saved or God giving you an opportunity to decide to be saved.
If I send you an invitation to something, you may choose to
accept the invitation or refuse to accept the invitation with
impunity. But if the courts of the land
issues a summons and demands that you appear, you will not
refuse without impunity. The gospel of God is not a bare
invitation. It is God's commandment. God commands you to believe on
his son. God commands me to trust his
son. You can't disobey God's command
without reaping the consequences. If you refuse to come to Christ,
God will judge you as a disobedient rebel. Referring to this very
passage of scripture, the Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 10 and
verse 21, the Lord God says, all the day long have I stretched
out my hands to a disobedient and gainsaying people. This command
is a gracious command. Oh, how gracious. The Lord God
gives this commandment that you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. He says, come, come. The commandment
is addressed to you. It's addressed to me. It's addressed
to sinners everywhere without qualification, without distinction. If you hear the command, God
gave it to you. If you read the command, God
gave it to you. I know many who think themselves
theologians, and they will cry, well, that's not consistent with
good Calvinism. Brother Fortner's theology needs
to be more precise, and I'll let them go ahead and rant all
they want to. I care for nothing for it. I want everybody who
hears my voice to know this. God commands you to come to Christ. Now, why are you stressing this,
Dodd? Because multitudes place qualifications in front of the
word sinner, implying that before you can come to Christ by faith,
you must meet certain conditions. You must meet certain things
that qualify you to come. They try to sneak works into
the scheme of grace by making you sound like humility. They
talk like this, God commands sensible sinners to come. I didn't
know sinners had any sense. God commands sinners who are
seeking sinners to come to Him. The Lord said, you won't seek
me. You don't seek me. God commands thirsty sinners
to come, hungry sinners, weary sinners, lost sinners. That's
got to be real popular. God commands lost sinners to
come. Brother Ranieri was involved with folks who made their whole
ministry. You got to be lost. You got to
know you're lost. Now, I recognize you're not going
to come drink unless you're thirsty. You're not going to come eat
unless you're hungry. But that's not a qualification for coming.
You're not going to be found unless you're lost. But that's
not a qualification for coming to Christ. Several years ago,
I was preaching up in northern Michigan, first time I was there.
And, uh, the pastor was a father, these folks who's everybody had
been saved two or three times, you know, they were lost and
didn't know it. And then they got saved. And now everybody's
got to go through what they went through. And, uh, this fella
had been teaching Sunday school for 20 years, for 20 years. And we were chatting at lunch
and he said, uh, he said, I know I'm a lost sinner. I said, what?
He said, I know I'm a lost sinner. I said, how long have you known
that? He said, oh, it's been 20 years. I said, that just ain't
so. That just ain't so. If you've
been seeking the Lord for 20 years, you're defamned by now.
That just ain't so. That's not a qualification. That's
not a condition you must meet. Oh, you gotta be a convicted
sinner. You gotta be a penitent sinner. You gotta be a broken
sinner. This is what God says to sinners without qualification. Do you see it right in front
of you? He says, come. In fact, in the context, those
to whom God is speaking were sensible of nothing. They didn't
feel the need of a savior. They had no sorrow, no remorse,
no repentance. They were not broken at all.
A more graphic description of utter ungodliness and depravity
could not be found. Spiritual death is nowhere portrayed
more clearly than here. Here is thick darkness and not
a ray of light. And yet to these hard-hearted,
spiritually dead sinners, God says, come. Look back at the
text. Look at verse 2. They were senseless
and would not hear. They were ungrateful and they
didn't care. Verse 3, there were beasts there,
folks who wouldn't think. Verses four, five, and six, they
were utterly depraved sinners without one commendable trait.
They were people laden with iniquity, sinners who promoted sin in others.
They were hardened sinners. And they were the very worst,
for they were self-righteous sinners whom the Lord compares
to Sodom and Gomorrah. The gospel. The gospel is addressed
to sinners as sinners. The gospel is a net cast into
the sea of fallen humanity to catch all kinds of sinners. None are exempt from the command,
none excluded, not even you who shake in your boots with fear
and trembling before God. Not even you who think, oh, I've
committed the unpardonable sin. God commands you. Come, come, come. Peter said,
repent and be baptized. In Acts chapter two, he said,
repent and be baptized. Every one of you. Every one of
you. Repent and be baptized. Every
one of you. Imagine the multitude that was
there. Men and women whose hands were
yet dripping with the blood of the Son of God. Men and women who, as they watched
the Savior die, laughed and sang and taunted and jeered and mocked
Him. Men who decided that He was a
man worthy of death and persuaded the Romans to put Him to death.
men who wanted to see him die and were tickled to death when
it happened. Peter says, God commands every one of you to
repent and be baptized and you'll receive the remission of sins.
What a word. This is the point. If God commands
me to come to him, then I may come to him. I don't know whether I come or
not, preacher. God commands you to come. Do you see it? God commands
you to come. If God commands you to come,
you may come. And if I come to Him in obedience
to His command, God declares that I will not be turned away. Our Savior says, Him that cometh
to me, Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. I have often been asked over
the years, how can I come to Christ? How can I? Any way you
can get to him will be all right. Any way you can get to him will
be all right. Him that cometh to me, I will know why he's cast
out. Now, this is my second question.
How can sinners on earth come to God in heaven? God is infinite
spirit. We are finite flesh. God is holy,
we are sin. God is in heaven, we're on earth. We can never come to God but
by a mediator. One who is both God and man. One of us and one with God. And that mediator is Jesus Christ,
God's son. He says, I am the way. I am the way. There's one mediator. between God and man, the man
Christ Jesus. Just what? The only way to God
is Jesus Christ, the Lord. Years ago, I watched a video. And just in case I misheard the
video, I read the transcript when that fellow had the smiling
bob shooter out in California. That fellow looked like he was
chewing on briars all the time. He had an interview with Billy
Graham. These two great, great, masterful preachers. And he said
to Mr. Graham, He said, I believe there
is a wideness in the love of God. Such a wideness that any man
anywhere may or is saved by God as long as he wants to be. Mr. Graham said, that's right. That's
right. He said, Shulam said to him,
said, there are many ways to God, wouldn't you agree? He said,
yes, I would agree. So that even the pagan in the
jungles of Africa seeking God in their darkness of religion,
they'll find Him. Would you agree? Yes, I would
agree. Oh, no, there's just one way
to God. And that way is Christ. That
way is the mediator God ordained and God gave. If you would come
to God, you must bring the two things with you. You can't come
to God except you bring him perfect righteousness and blood to satisfy
for sin. You got to have perfect righteousness
and complete satisfaction. That's Christ the Lord, the Lord,
our righteousness, the Lord, our satisfaction, our propitiation. You can't come to God any other
way. If you would come to God, you
got to have a spotless lamb. You got to have blood atonement.
You got to have an altar of God's making. You got to have a priest
of God's appointing. And that's Christ the Lord. This
coming to God by Christ, is not a physical thing. We don't
give altar calls because we don't have altars in Baptist churches.
Churches that have altars are papist churches, even if they
have the name Baptist on the front. We don't have altars in
Baptist churches. We don't come to God by moving
from the back pew up to the front. You don't come to God by reciting
a prayer somebody tells you to pray. You don't come to God by
reading a prayer someone has written out. You don't come to
God by signing a decision card. You say, well, I did it. Nobody
ever came to God in such a way. You can just as easily come to
God going to a confessional booth in a Roman Catholic church. Nobody
ever came to God in a physical way. Not you, not me, not your
mama, not your daddy. Nobody, nobody will preach you.
How do you come to God? By faith. By faith. It's a heart work. It's a heart
work. You come to God without moving
a muscle. You come to God by faith with the heart. Man believeth unto righteousness. That doesn't mean if you believe,
then you somehow or another perform righteous and make yourself righteous.
No, no, no, no. With the heart, man believeth
with reference to righteousness. With the heart, man believes
on the Lord Jesus, the Lord our righteousness. With the heart,
man believes on the Lord Jesus, our propitiation. With the heart,
man believes on the Son of God and believing salvation is ours. This coming to Christ is altogether
spiritual, a heart work. This is God's word to you. Will
you now come to God by faith in Christ? God commands you to
come, but that's not all. That's not all. Read the text
on. God reasons with you. Imagine that. Imagine that. God. God. stoops, as it were, over the
banisters of heaven down to lowly sinners on the earth. And God
reasons with rebels to come to Him. God reasons. Well, how does
God reason with men? That's my third question. God
is willing, delighted, and anxious to be gracious to sinners. So
much so that He reasons with us, with men and women who deserve
His wrath. He reasons with you. He reasons
with me from his everlasting covenant, his promise of forgiveness
and the gospel of his grace in Christ. Uh, by many things, the
Lord God reasons with poor sinners. You can never atone for your
sin. Therefore, hell's eternal. You can never obey God's law.
Therefore, salvation by works is a proud delusion. You can
never change your heart. Therefore, salvation by an act
of your will is absurd. But there is a remnant God has
chosen to save in his everlasting covenant of mercy, love, and
grace. God will gather that remnant
and they shall come to him. All who come to him shall be
saved. fully forgiven of all sin, purged
of all guilt, purified from all filth by the precious blood of
Christ. Look at our text. Though your
sins be as scarlet. Someone said that's double-dyed.
Though your double-dyed scarlet sins, they shall be as white
as snow, completely purged away. Though they be red like crimson,
blood red with the guilt of Christ's precious blood, they shall be
as wool, as pure, white, and clean before God, as white as
the wool of the perfect, spotless Lamb of God. On the Day of Atonement,
he told Aaron, you bring a lamb of the sheep or of the goats.
But it must be a lamb shut up for 14 days. Make sure it has
no spot in it. No spot in it. The Lord God says,
you come now, you come now, and this is my reasoning with you.
You come to me and though your sins be read with the blood of
my own darling son, they shall be as white, as white as the
wool of that spotless one who is the lamb of God. As pure as
he is pure, as clean as he is clean, as holy as he is holy. That's God's promise. Now, if
you come to God by faith in Christ, you're one of that elect remnant.
He said in verse 9, He's going to save. You've been called by
His grace. You've been redeemed by the blood
of His Son. You're forgiven of all your sin. Well, preacher,
how can you know that? Because your coming is proof
of it. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence
of things not seen. I don't know whose names are
written in the book of life. I've never read the book. I don't
see my name written there. I don't know who was predestinated
to be saved. I've never read God's book of
decrees. I don't know who Christ died
for at Calvary. I'm not told. I don't see anybody's
name with these eyes that I can identify. I don't know who is
called by the Spirit of God. I can't see that. I know I am! I believe on the Son of God. That means Lindsay, God loved
me, chose me, predestinated me, redeemed me, called me and keeps
me by his grace. The proof is in the pudding.
Come and life eternal is yours. All right. God not only commands
you to come and gives you reasons to come. He tells you to reason with Him.
Look at this. He says, let us reason together. What? Reason with God? How can I reason with God? How can you reason with God?
Reason with God as if by your reasoning, Josh, to persuade
God to accept you. Now, how are you going to do
that? How can a sinner reason with God? Turn to Isaiah chapter
43. I'll show you. Isaiah 43. What can I possibly say to give
God a reason to save me, forgive me, and accept me? I'm guilty. I'm sin. I'm nothing but sin. Utterly without merit. Utterly
incapable of doing good. Why would God have mercy on me?
Well, this is how I reason with him. I will put him in remembrance
and plead with him on the basis of what he has said he has done. Look at chapter 43 verse 24.
Thou has brought me no sweet cane with money. Neither has
thou filled me with the fat of thy sacrifices. But thou hast
made me to serve with thy sins. Thou hast wearied me with thine
iniquities. What? Back in the first chapter,
he's telling us all the sacrifices and services and new moons and
holy days. And he said, you didn't bring
me this week came with money. You haven't filled me with the fat
of your sacrifices. That is to say, you've not done anything
to satisfy me. I'm wearied with your iniquities,
with all your religion and all your ungodliness. And then he
speaks again, verse 25. I, even I am he that blotteth
out thy transgressions for mine own sake and will not remember
thy sins. Put me in remembrance. Let us
plead together, declare thou that thou mayest be justified.
How can I reason with God? I will put him in remembrance
of his covenant remnant. I will put him in remembrance
of his son's obedience. I'll put him in remembrance of
his promises. And on the basis of these things,
I plead with God for mercy. I'll seek mercy from God on the
basis of the very thing he speaks. He said, he said, no, you put
me in remembrance. You've wearied me with your iniquities.
Lord, I'll put you in remembrance of my sin so that you may never
remember them against me again forever. If we confess our sin,
he is faithful and just to forgive us our sin. and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. You remember in Psalm 25 how
David pleads with God? He says, pardon my iniquity,
O Lord. Pardon my iniquity, O Lord. You know how bad I was raised.
You know all the circumstances in my life. You know I tried
to do the best I could. I messed things up. I made my
mistakes just like everybody else. Oh no! You'll never find
mercy like that. Pardon my iniquity, oh Lord. For it's great. It's great. Like that publican. I will beat
upon my breast the seed of my sin, and I will cry, God, be
merciful to me. There'd never been a sinner topside
of God's earth like me. Pardon my iniquity. I'll seek
God's mercy for his namesake. I'll own Christ as my only hope
and I'll cast up his own praises to him, his reputation as God
who delights in mercy. Oh, Lord. Oh, Lord. If it is
your glory to save sinners, if it is the glory of God to save
sinners, if it is God's glory to save sinners, you cannot be
so glorified as by saving the sinner. for I bow before you
and confess my sin." Well, when can I come to God? He says, come
now, come now, come now. Don't wait till I get done preaching,
come now. And don't wait till we start seeing Him, come now.
Don't wait till tonight, come now, come now. Today, if you
will hear His voice, harden not your hearts. Today is the time
of need. Today is the opportunity of grace. And today for those who come
to Him is forever because we just keep coming. You see, coming
to Christ is not something I did this morning
or something I did yesterday or something I did 49 years ago. Coming to Christ is something
God had been sweetly forcing me to do day by day and hour
by hour for 49 years. To whom coming? To whom coming? We continually come to Him. Here's
the sixth question. What's promised to those who
come to God by faith in Christ? Turn over to Revelation chapter
seven, I'll show you. If you be willing and obedient, you
shall eat the good of the land. We read in verse 19. The good
of the land is all the riches of the heavenly Canaan, the land
of our promised inheritance. Look at Revelation 7, verse 16. They that hunger or they shall
hunger no more, neither thirst anymore, neither shall the sunlight
on them nor any heat. For the lamb which is in the
midst of the throne shall feed them and lead them under living
fountains of waters and God shall wipe away all tears from their
eyes. Back to our text, Isaiah chapter
one. One final question. What is promised
to those who refuse to come? God's certain, justly deserved
wrath. But if you refuse and rebel,
you shall be devoured with the sword, for the mouth of the Lord
has spoken it. If you refuse to trust Christ,
you shall eat the fruit of your own ways. Eternal destruction will be your
everlasting portion. And for eternity. For eternity. No, I shall pity you at all. But everybody will say, amen. That's just right. That's just
right. He heard! She heard! God said, come! And they said,
I will not come. You will eat the fruit of your
own way. And you yourself, to your everlasting
torment, will say, amen. This is right. This is right. This is right. The wages of sin
is death. It's the justly earned merit
of sin. And God always pays his debts. But the gift of God is eternal
life through Jesus Christ our Lord. A gift God promises to
every sinner who comes to Him by faith in Christ. Oh, God help
you now to come. Amen.