I invite you again to turn back
with me to Isaiah chapter 40. Taking the title for the message
this morning from verse 6. The voice said cry. The voice said cry. Now He has good news to Jerusalem. He has good news for the bride
of Christ. He has good news for the children
of God. Their warfare has been accomplished.
We read that in verse 1. He has comforting words for his
elect. Double. They have received at
the Lord's hand double for all their sin. The boy said, cry. Before there can be an enlightening
of the mind and heart, there must be a divine order given
to that end. Now you think about what I just
said. Before there can be an enlightening
of the mind, before these comforting words can be received, before
these comforting words can be cried to the people. There must
be a divine order given to that end. Nowhere that I'm aware of is
the ministry of the gospel an open invitation to any and all
who want to take up the vocation. Can't find it. Ever so often
they have rallies in the Armenian churches that I attended years
ago. Those are the only ones I have any first-hand knowledge
of. I've heard the witness of other
men who've been delivered from such foolishness, and they've
told me it was the same. But they'll have a rally ever
so often and try to rally young people and get an interest in
them. to preaching the gospel and sign them up for some seminary
down the road and start pushing them to that end. But nowhere,
nowhere that I'm aware of is the ministry of the gospel an
open invitation to any and all who want to take up the vocation.
It's a good thing to desire it, Paul said. It's a good thing
to desire it. And I pray that God will lay
that desire on some of our young men in this church. It's a good
thing to desire it, but the desire to do it and the call to do it
are two different things. A man does not simply decide
to preach and then becomes a preacher. The Holy Spirit of God tells
us in plain language, how shall they preach except they be sent. Isn't that what it says over
in Romans 10, 15? The Holy Ghost said, separate
me Paul and Barnabas to the ministry. There was a lot of men there.
A lot of men who desired to preach were there. But He said, separate
me Paul and Barnabas to the ministry. Before there can be any progress
made in the calling out of God's elect, there must be a divine
order given to that end. Now the voice said, whose voice? Whose voice? Now, if I have a right understanding
of our text, I believe this voice to be the Spirit of the Living
God. The old prophets did not simply write of their own convictions
and intellect, but they spake, Peter said, as they were moved
by the Holy Ghost. This voice is a divine voice. It's an effectual voice. It's
a powerful voice. so that we might correctly read
this passage, the Spirit of the Living God said. The Spirit of the Living God
said. The voice said. Whose voice? The voice. The voice. What did He say? Well, He said,
cry. He said, cry. The Spirit of the
Living God said, cry. He didn't say beg. He said cry. He didn't say debate. He said
cry. He didn't say sing. He said cry. Now he's not talking about the
crying of tears here, though sometimes they accompany the
preaching of the gospel. I've been moved in the preaching
of the gospel. moved under tears, and sometimes
I've had people under the sound of my voice moved under tears,
but that's not what this word cry means in this particular
passage. And even his prophet Jeremiah
was called the weeping prophet. But here it means to proclaim,
to utter in a loud voice giving public notice. It means to cry
against something. Jonah was ordered of God to go
down to Nineveh and cry against it. It means to cry out to blame. It means to implore. John Gill
said this voice is the Lord's voice speaking to His prophet
and also to any and every gospel minister giving them an order
to take His message to the people, the voice said, cry, cry. Now this passage is concerning
in particular John the Baptist. John the Baptist. John was prophesied
to come some 760 years before he actually appeared in this
world. And what made him so prominent
figure in the Holy Scriptures is that he was to be the forerunner
of Christ. John would appear first and then
Christ. He would appear first and then
be followed by our Lord Jesus Christ. But how can we be sure
this passage is talking about John the Baptist? We're talking
about a voice and the voice said cry. We're talking about a voice
in the wilderness, a voice in a desert place. How do I know
it's talking about John the Baptist? This is 760 years before John
the Baptist was ever even heard of. I know it because it tells
me over Matthew chapter 3 verse 3, this is he that was spoken
of by the prophet Isaiah saying the voice of one crying in the
wilderness. That's how I know it's John the
Baptist. This chapter is about the preaching
of the gospel and a manifestation of the gospel, which is Christ.
John the Baptist, contrary to popular opinion, was not sent
into this world to cause a great moral reformation. to make men
and women more acceptable to God. That's what religion says
about John the Baptist. He was sent here as a separationist,
and he preached strict morality, and he preached strict this and
strict that, and he was turning the people, getting rid of all
their wickedness and everything to make a straight path for the
Lord, to make it easy for the Lord to come. That's not what
John the Baptist did. That wasn't his ministry at all. He wasn't sent into this world
to cause some great moral reformation. John was sent to make the way
of the Lord clear. Clear of all obstruction. Of all obstruction. To straighten
the crooked paths that had been laid down. Straighten them up. Straighten them up. Straighten up his crooked paths
laid down by the false teachers and deceived people. His ministry
was to tear down the high places. Men have made mountains out of
false religious doctrine. They've made mountains. John
the Baptist tore them down. That's why he was sent. Tear
down the high places. Fill in the low places. He was not sent into a place
that was fair and green and lush with promise of life. He was
a voice of one crying in the wilderness. In the wilderness. The voice of him that cries in
the wilderness makes straight in the desert. You know what
that says? Makes straight in the desert
a highway for our God. A road, a path, a highway to
God. Now, my friend, there is but
one way to God. Are you with me so far? There's
just one way to God. Christ is the way. Philip was confused. I get confused. I was raised in Armenian religion,
false religion, and the things that I thought I knew back then
confuse me even now, don't they, you? I get confused. And oh, was it Thomas? I guess
it was Thomas. But anyway, the Lord was speaking
to him, and he said, now wait a minute, wait a minute. We don't
know where you're going. How are we going to know the
way? Listen to what our Lord said.
I am the way. Huh? I am the truth. I am the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by Me." They're just one way to God. Christ is the way. Just one way to sonship, one
way of being heirs of God, one way of righteousness and redemption,
and Christ is the way. He's the way. Neither, Peter
said, neither. Once he got a clear understanding
of this and the Holy Spirit took up His abode in his heart, nobody
could preach like Peter. He stood up on that day at Pentecost,
and He preached to those people. He said, neither is there salvation
in any other. For there is none other name
unto heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved, other
than the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the way. So what
am I getting from all this? Before the Christ of God would
appear in this world to men, God will have His way made clear. Isn't that right? Every God-called
preacher is, in a sense, a forerunner of Christ. He's exactly like
John the Baptist. Before the Holy Spirit will reveal
Him in His glory, His ways shall be made straight. Now listen
to me a minute. God sends His messengers into
a wilderness. That's where we're at. We're
in a wilderness. They don't know anything about
God. There's no promise of life here. There's no lost pastures
here. We're in a wilderness. We're
in a desert. The Spirit of God said, cry.
And the messenger said, well, what shall I cry? What can a
man say to a world of lost men and women? How am I going to
reach them? How are you going to reach those
grandchildren? How are you going to reach these
neighbor children? How am I going to reach these children back
here? What am I going to say to them? Should I just start out talking
about their potential? some goodness in you and a few
hot coals and if we blow on it we can get a fire started. What can I say to these people? What can I say? Where do I begin?
Here it is. It's the same in every
age, same in every dispensation. There's a two-fold message of
evangelism, and the first message is this. All flesh is grass. That's where we have to start.
I know sometimes I look at the young folks in here, and they
think, oh, here we go again. We're going to talk about sin
again. I'll tell you, you'll be thankful for it one day if
the Lord reveals it to you. This is where that work of God
begins in the hearts of men. It's a revelation of who we are.
All flesh is grass. No man can make straight the
way of the Lord until he plainly declares the condition of men.
If you're not talking to a lost sinner, a helpless, hopeless
sinner, you've got no good news for him. He's already got potential.
He's already got righteousness. He's already got all these things. My friend, I'm going to tell
you something this morning, and I pray that God the Holy Spirit
will enable you to understand it and receive it. If God, He's already said here,
the voice said, cry. And that voice is from God. This
is God's way to minister to you, it's through a man. And when
that man comes, He's going to hit you with something that's
going to turn you upside down. He's going to tell you what you
are by nature. All flesh is grass. You won't find that in the Arminian
church. They don't preach that way at
all. People think today I listen to
them and watch them and they give testimonies like, well,
I was just sitting around in the room one day and all of a
sudden I just got flooded with this big feeling of guilt You
didn't do any such thing. That's nonsense. John was sent
into a wilderness, a place void of all understanding, a place
void of goodness and godliness, a place that had no promise of
life. And his message to them was the
same as my message to you today. All flesh is grass. Now I'll tell you something.
Grass is a beautiful thing in its season. It is. Man, those spring rains come.
If you've ever driven much, I have to drive occasionally, go here,
go there to preach. And you're driving in the springtime
and there's nothing prettier. You look out there at a big old
green field and it's full of goldenrod and mustard seed and
all that. Don't look good when one or two
comes up in your garden, but when you look out there at the
mass of it, it's a beautiful thing. It's a beautiful thing
and it's seasoned. In the time of spring and that,
it just The flower of the grass blooms and masses in the field.
And we look at man in his prime, and he looks well enough. He's
young. He's healthy. He seems to have all the potential
in the world. But then the rains quit. I had
the prettiest... Y'all gonna think it's stupid.
I had the prettiest crop in my backyard of clover this year
because of all the rain. My dogs couldn't hardly walk
in the backyard for the honeybees and the clover stinging them.
That clover was lush and beautiful and it flowered. It was just,
I hated to mow it. It was so pretty out under those
trees. But I tell you, when the rains
quit, and that 100 degree sun come out, that clover just went
whoosh. And there wasn't nothing out
there but dirt. Nothing out there but dirt. John began to preach to the people.
The Spirit of the Lord began to blow on their flowery flesh,
and it withered up and died. All their hopes withered up and
died. Conviction of sin is the first work of the Spirit of God,
and it comes in conjunction with the cry of God's messenger. John
cried to the Pharisees, but his voice was not accompanied with
that withering work of the Holy Ghost. But it was to some, and all upon
whom this work was performed, discovered that all their potential
was gone." The Scripture says this. These are all descriptions
of how God saves sinners, and I want you to at least know them
in your mind. It says, the Lord killeth, and
the Lord maketh alive. He's not talking about two different
works here. He's talking about one work. He killeth, and then
He maketh alive. He bringeth down. and then he
lifteth up. That's what I'm talking to you
about this morning. And I believe, if I'm not mistaken,
that one of the greatest ills in today's preaching is laboring
to make Christ precious to a generation that thinks they're already rich
and increased with goods and have need of nothing. And we're
laboring to try to make Him precious. I'll tell you who He's precious
to, sinners. You won't have to make Him precious.
All you have to do is show Him what He is. If the Lord opens
your heart and mind to see what you are by the testimony of God,
I'm not talking about a feeling that you get or anything else.
I'm talking about receiving the Word of God, His testimony concerning
what you are. Christ would be precious. He
would be precious. You have to acquit Him, Paul
said, who were what? Dead. Dead. Oh, the exceeding sinfulness
of sin. How can a depraved sinner know
when God the Holy Ghost is performing this withering work upon his
heart? That man will act. He will act. Are you listening to me? He will
act upon the testimony sent to him by God's messengers as if
he could see the balls and pus with his own eyes. He'll discover his disease just
as surely as you discover those that you get in this life when
you look in the mirror and you cover it. I remember I had measles
years ago. Man, I woke up one morning and
looked in the mirror and I was covered with red dots. Wasn't
a doubt in my mind what I had. I had measles. when a man receives a testimony
of God. How do I know that God's doing
that withering work on your heart? You receive His testimony just
like you could see the red dots. You're assured that this is what
you are from the Word of God. You're not going to find that
information from your relatives, your mom, your dad, your teachers,
college professors, or anybody else. This comes from God. God
the Holy Spirit. Empower that word until you believe
what's being told to you. When God convicts men of sin,
they're convinced of their depravity, convinced of their inability,
convinced that they've been swallowed up by living death like a leprosy
of the soul. And it's our calling to preach
the gospel to even self-righteous sinners. But it is also a fact
that none will ever embrace it or rejoice in it. Salvation is
for sinners. Wherever there is a real work
of grace in the soul, it begins with a tearing down. The Spirit
of God will not build on that old foundation. He is going to
tear it up. See fallen man in the garden
shivering before God in his guilt, exhausted of all his excuses. When he came to the end of himself,
God gave him the promise of the coming Redeemer. How many times
have I quoted to you from Romans 3, 10-18? None righteous. You mean I don't have any righteousness
before God? That's what I'm telling you. Yeah, but I had a friend that got sick, and
I prayed for him. I went to the hospital and visited.
And I got up. Mom and Dad didn't have to drag
me out here. I got up and got myself dressed and come to church
on my own. Let me tell you what Isaiah says
about that kind of stuff. All our righteousnesses are as
filthy rags. They're unrighteous. Non-righteous. You don't have a right. You're
going to stand before God in judgment without a righteousness,
because there's just one righteousness, and that's in Christ. Do you
follow what I'm saying? Non-righteous. None that understandeth. None that seeketh after God.
None good. All gone out of the way. Hearts
like an open grave. Natures like serpents. No fear
of God before their eyes. Has this truth ever been applied
to your heart? Do you understand this is God's
testimony concerning you? I tell you, if you did, you'd
be on your face before God crying out, crying out for mercy. If
you did, you'd be terrorized in your soul. You couldn't sleep
at night. You'd become desperate sinners,
guilty sinners, helpless, hopeless sinners. You lose all hope in
yourself. You cling to any word of hope
other than yourself. You ever considered that there's
a perfectly holy and just God who will call you before His
holy bar and judge you according to all that you are and all that
you've done and all that you could have done but didn't? Well, let me tell you something.
Time's not a help to you. Time's not a help to you. I'm
so tired of hearing people talk about someday. Someday. Someday I'm going to join the
church. Someday I'm going to do this. Someday I'm going to
do that. Oh, the Holy Ghost. said this,
this is exactly how this is written over in Hebrews chapter 3. The
Holy Ghost saith, today if you'll hear His voice, today, look it
up, it's capitalized two or three times in this chapter. Today,
if you'll hear His voice, harden not your hearts like Israel did
when they provoked the Lord in the wilderness. Don't harden
your hearts. Don't harden your hearts. You
better hear what God has to say. All flesh is grass. That's His
first message to every man on this earth. All flesh is grass. Well, preacher, how do you know
this passage in particular? concerns every preacher and every
hearer of the Gospel. How do you know that this work
is the work involved in regeneration and conversion? You're taking
something written about John the Baptist, 760 years before
he came, and you're trying to make an application in 2015 to
me. How do I know that is? Well,
1 Peter 1, verse 23. Here's how I know. Being born again, not of corruptible
seed, but incorruptible by the Word of God, which liveth and
abideth forever. Four, are you listening? All
flesh is grass. All flesh is grass, and all the
glory of man is the flower of the grass. The grass withers,
and the flower thereof falleth away, but the word of the Lord
endureth forever. And this is the word which by
the gospel is preached unto you." The very same application that
the Holy Ghost gives to John the Baptist crying in the wilderness
is given to every God-called minister, and it's involved in
your conversion and your regeneration. John warned those in his days
of partaking in the sacred ordinances without fruits of repentance. With the conviction of sin comes
repentance. What are the fruits of repentance? Well, you can't make that apply
to holy living. There's no way in the world you
can make that apply to holy living. Because those Pharisees were
clean as iron, too. And He told them to go back and
bring fruits unto repentance. Let me give you a few of them. Conviction of the fact of our
sin. That's a fruit of repentance.
That means we get it. We understand it. We believe
it. Conviction of the fact of our sin. That man stood up there
way in the back, bowed his head, wouldn't so much as even look
up. And he said, Lord, have mercy on me, the sinner. The sinner. Alright, here's the second fruit.
Conviction of the awfulness of sin. Have I ever told you that
story of that boy working with me? I was getting my boss had
a big old mansion of a thing, and then he had what's called
up there a carriage house for visitors and so on to come. And
we were getting all the sewer system and everything all hooked
up, and we used that carriage house as a place to stage the
building of the main house. Anyway, something happened to
the safety tank, and it was stopped up. Something happened to it.
We had to fix it. So I had the process of elimination
go down different things, and I had this boy to help me get
that big concrete lid off that septic tank. And he did, we got
it off. And before I could say anything
to him, he said, what's down in there? And he jumped down
on his knees and stuck his head down that hole in that septic
tank. And he just about, he looked like somebody got sprayed in
the eyes with acid. He went rolling backwards, got
sick in his stomach. And he said, oh, he said, I wasn't
expecting to see that. Why didn't you tell me what was
down in there? It's what happens when God convicts
a man of sin. He sees what this sin is. It's so repulsive to him. He
don't desire to sin. He don't want to sin. He understands
what this sin is. David said, I hate myself. Paul,
after preaching for years, said, oh, wretched man that I am. When
it come time for him to die, and he was given his testimony,
he said, Oh, that I might win Christ and be found in Him, not
having my own righteousness. It's conviction of the awfulness
of sin. It's like a leprosy of the soul.
It's vile, putrid disease that leads a man to rot in this world. He rots within in this world.
What else is the fruit of repentance? The fruit of repentance is hatred
for sin. Hatred for sin. Our Lord said,
no man can serve two masters. He'll either hate the one and
love the other, or he'll serve the one and despise the other. And then the fruit of repentance
is conviction of the effects of our sin. Guilty before God. How do I know when this withering
work of the Spirit is being done in a man's heart? How do I know
that? He won't have no hope. Preacher, I ain't got no hope.
Don't talk to me about sin. I know what I am. I'm going to
say, I don't have any hope. I can't do this. I can't do that.
It's conviction of the results the results of our sin. The effects of it. Guilty before
God without hope. Helpless to do anything for ourselves. And then it's conviction that
God is just in His testimony of man and clear of all fault
in His judgment of man. And I'm going to tell you something.
There's no good news to self-righteous men and women who are trusting
in the flesh. Christ said, think not that I
am come to call the righteous. Don't even get that in your head.
I'm come to call sinners to repentance. Alright, that's enough about
that. Now look back at our text in Isaiah 40. The second message,
just skip down a few verses from up there where we were. The second
message from God to those dwelling in the wilderness, once this
conviction of sin has been established, Behold, you're God. When you get to that place where
you have no hope, no hope, no vine left to cling to, no ashes
left to blow on, no hope, no hope. Mom can't help me. Dad can't
help me. Preacher can't help me. Nobody can help me. I'm helpless,
hopeless before God. If you ever get to that place,
that's when God will reveal to you His glory in Christ. I'm trying to tell you the truth. There's no good news to self-righteous
men and women trusting in the flesh. Now this, behold your
God, this is not a call to behold God in the abstract. Rather,
It's to behold your God. Your God. And I know that there's
a sense in which God is the God of all men, but this is not talking
about the God as He is the God of all men. He's saying, behold
your God. Who's He talking to? He's talking
to those who have heard the Word of Truth and are under the conviction
of sin and who are mourning under the bondage and oppression of
their sin. Behold your God, that is, God
your Savior. Because nobody else can do you
any good. Only God can save sinners. I
don't know how else to say that. Only God can save sinners. And
the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. Who is this? This is
the God-man. This is God in Christ. He's God
our Savior. If He ain't God our Savior, He's
no Savior at all. Behold your God, God your Savior. Behold the glory of His grace. Now it's time. Now it's time. I'm laboring under the conviction
of sin. I'm lost. I'm helpless. I'm hopeless
before God. Now I'm going to show you something.
I'm going to show you my glory. I'm going to show you my glory.
I loved you and sent my Son to die for you. Long before you
was ever born. Long before you was ever born.
I made provision for you, the sinner. I sent My Son and He accomplished
a perfect righteousness for you. And bore your sins in His own
body on the tree. Behold your God. Behold the glory
of His mercy and grace. See your God fulfilling for you
all that He demands. See your God becoming one with
the sinner and doing for Him what He could never do for Himself.
See Him in holy obedience, accomplishing the redemption of your soul.
See Him as He provides for you an eternal, perfect, unchangeable
righteousness. See Him rising from the judgmental
death of creation to everlasting life and bliss with the Father. See Him seated at the right hand
of God, ruling and reigning to ensure His people of their full
inheritance. Isn't that what it says there
in Isaiah? His arms shall go before Him and rule for Him. See Him giving the eternal blessing
and unchangeable gift of our Heavenly Father to His children.
Behold your God in saving glory. Saving glory in the person of
His Son. Now my friend Jesus Christ is
not some weak, frustrated, defeated reformer. He goes on to tell
us here, and I read it to you a few moments ago, this is He
who measured the waters. What waters? All waters. In the
hollow of His hand. The oceans. In the hollow of
His hand. meted out heaven with the span,
comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure. This is He
who is before all things, and before whom all the nations are
as a drop in the bucket. All nations before Him are as
nothing, and counted to Him less than nothing. This One who hath
done these things shall feed His flock like a shepherd." Oh,
you can't even comprehend what I'm telling you this morning. He'll feed His flock like a shepherd.
He'll take His little lambs, lay them up in His bosom, and
carry them back to the fold. Behold your God, O my soul. May God in mercy allow
you to do that this morning.