I've entitled this morning's
message, Seeing Ourselves by God's Grace. That's the only
way we'll see ourselves, our desperate need, our horrific
condition before God Almighty. And that is if He gives us eyes
to see. Convinces our heart of our sin. and our need of a substitute. Now, if we never see ourselves
to be guilty before a thrice holy God, I'll tell you this
much, you'll never see your need and you'll never desire the only
remedy for your plague of sin. God shows sinners their need
before He gives them the remedy. He's going to make you want Christ.
He's going to make you desire Christ. It's not going to be
something that you just woke up one day and, you know, I think
I'm going to join the church. I think that I'm going to confess
Christ and be baptized. It's time that I straighten up
my right. That's not the way God does things. Everyone that
has been born since the fall of Adam has been plagued by this
dilemma. This dilemma is sin. Sin is easy
to commit and it's hard to confess unless God Himself does a work
of grace in you. Has God shown you that you're
guilty? And even if He has, I can assure
you that none of us None of us are able to see the extent of
our guilt and our sin because we still reside in these bodies
of death. We might see, but I'm telling
you, it's darkly. We see our spiritual blessings,
but we see them darkly. And we do not see our nature
of sin in a clear light either. The Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians
13, 12, For now we see through a glass darkly both the blessings
that we have in Christ and our desperate condition before Him
without Him. But then, face to face, now I
know in part, I do know what I am. to the deepest realization of
it. I do know that one day what I
will be by God's grace, but I don't know it. I just know it in part.
But then I shall know even as I am known. One day when we shall
see Him, the Scripture says, we shall be like Him. Glorified. Possessing a perfect,
sinless body. What a day that'll be. What a
day that'll be. Now one of the first things,
dear friends, that reveals to me that I still see darkly and
only know in part is my own fickle unfaithfulness. If you'll allow
me for a few minutes to pick on myself, you can pick on yourself
with my words if you like, but I'm talking about me. I very seldom, to my own shame,
hold our God, Christ Jesus, in the highest honor of my heart. Sadly, most of the time, I occupy
that spot. Now let's just be honest. It
seems that no matter how hard I try, I endeavor to arrange
God around my life instead of arranging my life around God. If God has shown you your sin
and your guilt, You will make it, I'm convinced. We will make
it. Our determination to hear the
message of how Christ died for the guilty and the ungodly every
time it's humanly possible. But we find the most ridiculous
excuses, don't we? When it comes to not worshiping
our great God. But a true child of God who has
seen their deliverance by the Almighty power of God from the
deserved and just condemnation before God Almighty, they will
endeavor with purpose by God's grace to be where God's message
of mercy and grace is proclaimed every time they possibly can. Now listen, every time God's
message is preached, God bids us to come and eat a great supper
prepared by Him. And He says, come eat, for all
things are now ready. And in Luke 14, you don't have
to turn there, but you read it sometime, we're told, and they
all with one consent begin to make excuse. And friends, I might add that
they were sad excuses. And most of ours are. Sad excuses. One said, well I
bought a piece of ground and I need to go check it out. Ridiculous! Who buys a piece of ground without
looking at it first? Another said, well, I bought
five Yoka boxes and I need to go and try them out to see if
I got my money's worth. Ridiculous. Do you test drive
a car before you buy it? Another one said, I've married
a wife and therefore I cannot come. Ridiculous. Bring her with
you. If you're invited to the supper,
beg to come, I'm sure there'll be room for her. What sad and
pathetic excuses these were. And unfortunately, as I said,
ours are no better. And the truth of the matter is
that those who were bade to come eat just didn't really want to
come. They just didn't want to come.
Does our Lord not deserve better and more from us, considering
all that He's done for us? I say this to my shame, friends.
I'm not picking on anybody. I'm talking to me. Christ, who
is God in the flesh, Scripture says, was always about his father's
business. Even at 12 years old. Couldn't
find him on the way home. Got all weary and upset. Went
back looking for him. Found him in the temple. Teaching
the scholars at 12 years old. And his mother said, don't you
have any idea what you put me and your father through? He said,
did you not know that I must be about my father's business? I can remember times missing
worship because I was too tired. Our Lord preached all day long. He healed the sick, the blind,
the deaf, and the lame. And everywhere He went, He walked.
He often prayed all night long, having no place to rest His head. And He did it all to accomplish
a perfect salvation for worthless sinners like us that God gave
Him before the foundation of the world. He left His throne
on high, became a man who knew no sin, and He made Himself of
no reputation that He might be a servant to His people and accomplish
their redemption. How can a child of God so easily
excuse themselves from missing the meal in which God prepares
for them? The truth of the matter is that
men and women usually do what they want to do. They come to
worship their great God, it is because they want to, and if
they don't, well, But friends, the price that our Lord Jesus
Christ paid and all that He did to ransom chosen sinners that
God gave Him, how can we find it so easy to forsake the assembly
of ourselves together? I said that to say this, this
ought to be our first clue that we're nothing but sinful and
deserve nothing but hell and condemnation outside of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Without Christ as our substitute
outside of Christ, we don't know how to be thankful. We just don't. In our best state, we're altogether
vanity. You know what that means? We
don't really care about nobody but ourselves. And we find our
love and gratitude to be cold, distant, and often far off unless
He intervenes. We may try to hide these things
from ourselves and from others, but God knows the thoughts and
intents of our deceitful and desperately wicked hearts. He
is the discerner, the discerner of the thoughts and intents of
our hearts. We can't fool Him. Job said,
I know that thou can do anything and everything, and that no thought,
no thought can be withholding from me. We ain't fooling God.
Well, brother, I thought you were a sovereign grace preacher.
Sounds like you're boring on works to me. Listen closely then. Only Christ can save sinners. Eternal life is knowing God and
His precious Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation only comes
by believing on His name, knowing who He is, knowing what He's
done, and knowing where He is now. That's what I preach. But I also know that faith without
works is dead being alone. If your faith has no desire to
worship Christ, then your faith is a false one. Faith without
works is dead. And it's alone. It's alone. Oh, that God would continue to
show us who and what we really are. And it always does us good
to have a little clearer sight of ourselves as God sees us.
We're our own worst enemy. I hear preachers blame everything
on Satan. Let me tell you something. He
is a great deceiver, but it is us who, most of the time, that
deceives ourselves. Now, I don't know much, but I
know this. You remember the story that happened
in Luke's Gospel, where the Lord Jesus Christ visited the house
of Simon the Pharisee. And there was a woman who came,
I'm sure she wasn't invited. Especially after hearing in the
story what Simon thought of her. I'm sure she wasn't invited to
this house, but she washed and she kissed Christ's feet with
her tears and dried them with her hair and she anointed them
with expensive ointment and she found severe criticism in the
eyes of the Pharisee Simon. while he said within himself.
I'm convinced he didn't utter a word. I confess he just sat
right there and spoke within himself. That this man is who
he claims to be and who others claim him to be. He would have
known who and what manner of woman this is that touches him. She's a sinner! But she was a
grateful sinner. And the Lord Jesus I'm sure caught
Simon by surprise when he said, I have some what to say unto
thee. I can say nothing. Oh, you thought it. He's the
discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart, dear friends.
He said, Simon, there's something you need to hear. You need to
hear this. And Simon said, Master, say only. And our Lord then tells Simon
a story. He said there was a certain creditor
who had two debtors. He said one owed 500 pence and
the other owed 50. And when they had nothing to
pay, neither one of them, couldn't pay the debt back, it says he
frankly forgave them both. Now let me, without going a step
further, say that's a story of all of us. We owe a debt we cannot
pay. We can't pay it. We don't have
the ability to pay it. But anyways, he told Simon this
story. He said, now I want you to tell
me, Simon, which one of them will love the predator the most? Which one? And Simon said, well,
I suppose the one that owed him the most, the one to whom he
forgave the most. And our Lord said unto him, you're
exactly right. And with those words, Simon condemned
himself. Then Christ, who is God, he turned
to the woman, but he spake to Simon. And Simon knew. But he looked her straight in
the eyes. God did. He looked at this woman
straight in the eyes. His eyes was upon his object
of love. And he said to Simon, while looking
at her, I entered into your house. and you gave me no water for
my feet. But she washed my feet with tears and wiped them with
the hairs of her head. Simon, you didn't give me no
kiss and I remember his eyes are on her. You didn't give me
a kiss, but this woman, since the time I came in, has not ceased
to kiss my feet. You didn't anoint my head with
oil, which was customary in those times, but this woman have anointed
my feet with ointment. So listen to me, I say unto you,
Simon, and still his eyes are upon her, her sins, her sins,
which are many, are forgiven. For she loved much, she loved
much, but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little. Now listen,
we all know that we all come short of the glory of God. We
all have a multitude of sins. But this woman saw hers. She knew hers. And she was overwhelmed
that Christ forgave her. Simon in his own mind, in his
own eyes, didn't have much sin. And therefore he loved little.
He loved little. And that's the way it is, friends.
That's the story of every child of God and every unbeliever.
Well, do you love Christ? Do your actions show it? Oh,
I'm ashamed to answer that. Now, your actions won't save
you, but I'm going to tell you something. They will bear witness
to the fact that you're saved. When I think back on all that God forgave
me of, I feel as though I owe more than anyone. No one could
owe more than me. Christ always will deserve better
than I can give. I know that. He's the one that
forgave and made the difference. And just like this loving, dedicated
woman, I beg of Him that I may constantly kiss the feet of my
Lord, knowing what He's done for me. And yet I'm telling you,
if He don't keep me at His feet, kissing Him, I'll get up and
I'll walk away. Prone to wonder, Lord, I feel
it. Prone to leave the God I love. That's us by nature. Well, if
you're back in Isaiah 64 with me, I want to give you just a
few quick things here that I hope will allow you to see yourself
in a better, or maybe I should say a worse life. and see ourselves
in the way that God sees us outside of the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse
6 says, But we are all as an unclean thing. Every soul that
has truly been enlightened by the Spirit of God has a clear
sense of the root of his guiltiness. A believer's been made to know
something about the plague of his own heart. And he cries with
the text, we are all as an unclean thing. Isaiah said in another
place, in the day of King Uzziah, I saw the Lord high and lifted
up. What were the words that came
from this man? Woe is me. Woe is me. I'm a man of unclean lips. Unclean! I'm unclean. You see, we begin
to see that it's not only our outward acts that are unclean,
but that our very hearts are unclean, deceitful above all
things, and desperately wicked, the Scripture says. What's more
deceitful than a man's heart? According to the Word of God,
nothing. Deceitful above all things. And how wicked? Desperately
wicked. In other words, dear friends,
sin is what we are. We're unclean. We sin because
we're sinners. We're unclean. And not only are
our actions unclean, but the whole of us is unclean. Now,
according to the Jewish law, when a person was unclean, he
couldn't go to the house of the Lord. He couldn't offer a sacrifice. God would accept nothing at His
hands. He was an outcast. He was an
alien for as long as He remained unclean. If He sat upon a bed,
the Levitical law said that it must be washed with water. If
He touched a vessel of earth, it had to be broken. It was unclean. If He ate any food, the whole
of that food was considered unclean and no clean person might venture
to eat or even touch it. He who's unclean has touched
the man. And if it was a case of leprosy, oh my. The man became
repulsive and loathsome to all that crossed his path. His only
place to dwell was in solitude or in another, in a camp of lepers,
a colony of lepers. If they came close to another
person, they must cry, unclean, unclean, unclean. And every enlightened
soul knows by the grace of God that by nature we are unclean
lepers with the leprosy of sin. We are all as an unclean thing. We can't worship God acceptably. We can't stand within the veil.
And we have no sacrifice that God can or will accept. The Levitical
law clearly stated that it must be what? Perfect to be accepted. There shall be no blemish therein.
And all we are is one big blemish. Only Christ can be that for us. Did you hear me? That's your
hope. Only one can stand in your place
and make you acceptable unto God. We are all as an unclean
thing. The whole man is vowed desperately
evil. There's not one sound spot left
within and without. Notice the second thing it says
here in verse 6. And all our righteousnesses are
as filthy rags. Now, that text doesn't say that
all our unrighteousness is filthy, right? It's all our righteousness
that's filthy. So what must our unrighteousness
be? All our prayers, all our tears,
all our good deeds, all the things in which we once gloried in,
when we're really taught of God, we see that they're nothing but
filthy. This is the Lord who causes us
to see ourselves. And the expression, filthy rags,
in the Hebrew is one too explicit, friends, which would not allow
us to properly explain in this present assembly. That's how
horrific it is. But it would just have to suffice
for us to say that it's something to do with rags which have been
bound up with a foul, putrid, running soul. Just have to leave
it at that. It's much worse than that. And
when describing the fall of man, we can't exaggerate. Now listen,
we cannot exaggerate the extent of the filth that we become. Well, I'm not all that bad. And
you've got to see and hear from God. Well, there's sin in our
very best prayers. I've heard men pray. I'd give
anything to pray like them. And I'm telling you, their very
best prayer is full of filth. sin. There's filth in the very
tears that we shed even in repentance. There's sin in our very best
works. There's unbelief in our faith. And there's hatred in
our very love. Had God shown you that? I'm going
to tell you what, friends. He's going to shut you up to
Christ. He's going to bound you up to
where you can say, there's nothing in me. There's no good thing
that dwelleth in me. I must have Christ. If he has rejoiced. Didn't have
to. Could have left you to yourself.
Friends, I'm sure when our souls are convinced of sin, we're going
to look upon our so-called self-righteousness as the most detestable lie that
was ever told by hell and Satan, who's the father of all lies.
Don't you believe that you have any self-righteousness. There's
no righteousness at all in self. Filthy rags. Unclean, filthy
rags. Any self-confidence? Oh, I know
people, oh, self-confident. It's an understatement. It's
a delusion and the worst deception in which our souls can fall.
Trust in our doings? We have no doings to trust in. If our best works are bad, and
so bad that they're as filthy rags, what must our bad works
be? The best that we have are nothing
but filthy rags. Third thing, in salvation, our
enlightened hearts see the futility, the absolute futility of all
our resolutions. I get so tickled every year,
the first of the year, men and women make New Year resolutions.
I did for years, man, I finally quit. I said, ain't no need to
make a resolution. I know I ain't going to do it.
Well, you don't have much confidence in yourself, do you? I don't
have any. None. That's our problem. We've got
confidence that we can do something in our own doing. We can't. Get it out of your
mind. We do fade as a leaf. There's something about your
doing, your resolution. We fight as a league. How many
times I promised God I'd try to do better. You better just
keep my mouth shut. Well, shouldn't you try to do
better? Absolutely. But I can't without Him. I promised
God again and again and again that I wouldn't do this and that
I would do that, only to fail every time. And if I'm honest
with God and with myself, I've improved very little, if at all. And even me saying I've improved
a little is nothing probably but pride. I guess it's best
said like this. One man said it. I'm not what I used to be, but
I'm sure not what I ought to be. Well, I think it's even worse
than that. How many times have I stood and
bowed to God? This time, I'm not going to fall.
This time, I'm not going to fail. I've often thought that there's
something in me which can improve. There's got to be. There's got
to be something in me that can resist and do better. Now, I've
made up my mind. I'm resolved I'm going to do
better. Have you ever done that? Well, let me ask you, what became
of it? Were you like me? Did you, like
a dog, return to your vomit? Did you like that old sow, that
old pig just waller in the mire? I did. How many slips, how many
falls will men make before they learn to trust themselves in
God's arms to be carried by Him? That's the only way you'll ever
achieve it. Trust yourself to God. Fall into His everlasting
arm. Trust Him. to make you what He
requires of you in Christ. That's the only way. That's the
only way. When it comes to me and my doing,
I'm telling you, I'm nothing but a fading leaf. That's what
I am, a fading leaf. By grace, I hear the words of
my Lord saying, Without me, you can do nothing. He didn't say
some things. He didn't say a few things. He
didn't say a couple things. He said nothing. You can't do
nothing. Oh, our pride, oh, it buckles
up, doesn't it? Well, what do you mean I can't
do nothing? Just what he said. You can't
do nothing. Nothing. Fourth thing, the awakened
soul is not able to stand against the temptations we face. Now,
you're going to be tried as a child of God. You're going to be tempted. Trials are going to come. And
you know what the Scripture says here concerning us and that? All our iniquities like the wind
have taken us away. You want to know the truth about
yourself? About you standing against the temptations that
come your way? Your iniquities like the wind
have taken you away. Now listen, a thief never lets
you know when he's going to break into your house. If you knew
when the thief was going to break in, you'd be sitting there waiting
in a chair for him with a gun. You'd have watched and you wouldn't
have allowed your house to be robbed. Like a howling north
wind, dear friends, our temptations come in an unexpected moment. Usually when we think we're doing
pretty good. We're doing pretty good. Boom,
here it comes like the wind. Unexpected. And again, we're
unable to resist and we're carried away by the very thing which
we thought we'd renounced. The very thing that we said,
we're not doing that anymore. Here it is again. Brother, you're preaching a message
of no hope. Am I? I'm telling you that your
hope needs to be in Christ, not in yourself. I'm preaching the
only hope that you have. I'm telling you there's no hope
within and of yourself. There's none. Absolutely none. Our iniquities like the wind
have taken us away. Every child of God knows this.
They've experienced it. We know by the grace of God that
we're never fit to be clothed until we see ourselves naked. Have you seen yourself as empty
and naked? It's only by God's mercy and grace that we're not
completely taken away forever. to hell by every wind of doctrine
that so easily besets us. Fifth and last thing, the safe
center knows their natural weakness and their unfaithfulness in prayer.
You know that about yourself if you're a child of God. You're
not proud of it. Matter of fact, you're ashamed
of it. But what does verse 7 say? And there is none that calleth
upon thy name. Now, I grew up hearing a preacher
who told me, you do this, and you do that, and you do the other,
and you'll be saved. According to his theory, to pray
was a very easy thing. Right now, right here where we
sit, you just say, God, forgive me for all that I've done, and
I ask you to come into my heart, and it's a done deal. That's what he told me. And you
know what happened? I did that, and I believed him,
and it wasn't before long that I was trusting in that. I was
saying, oh man, I tell you, I gave my heart to Jesus. You can give
him nothing. He took out your stony heart
of flesh and he put in one that beat and panned after him. It
was a heart transplant. He didn't want that rotten thing
that I had. To make yourself a new heart
was a thing that was easy and could be done at almost any time.
I'll tell you something and I'll leave you with this. When the
Lord God gave my soul it's first shakings and conviction. When
a preacher stood and told me who and what I was and where
I was going, I soon knew better than I think the way I used to.
I went to pray. And when words came out, they
just seemed empty and insincere. I remember the first time I prayed
in utter desperation and fear. I'm talking about a reverential
fear of God, because I knew that I deserved what I was about to
get. I'm telling you, only a tear
and a groan and a ooh and a ahh came out. It was a prayer, but
it didn't seem like much of one. Oh, how hard true prayer is for
a wretched, hell-deserving sinner. It seemed, as it says here in
verse 7, that God had hid His face from me. That He was about
to consume me because of my iniquities. That's what verse 7 says. For
thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us because
of our iniquities. And just when I thought that
there was no hope, God showed me mercy. And He revealed His
Son to me. Look at it with me and rejoice,
dear friends. Verse 8. But now, but now, O
Lord, Thou art my Father. We are the clay. Thou art the
powder. And we all are the work of Thy
hand. In closing, turn with me to Romans
chapter 8. Romans chapter 8, unfinished. Yeah, Romans 8.1. You know this
passage well. There is therefore now. What does it say in Isaiah 64?
But now, God is our Father. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit. Now God is my Father. I am the
clay in the potter's hands. Look at chapter 9, verse 20.
Chapter 9, verse 20. Nay, but, O man, who art thou
that replyest against God? Shall the thing formed say to
him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? In Isaiah
64, when it says that he fashioned one way and another way. That's
what Paul is saying here. Has the potter power over the
clay of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor and another
unto dishonor? What if God, willing to show
His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering
the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction? That's talking about
me. That right there is talking about
me. Man, I was fitted for destruction. And God in long-suffering, in
grace and mercy, had compassion upon me. I used to curse His
face, deny that He even existed, and He was long-suffering. I
was fitted to destruction that in verse 23 that he might make
known what the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy
which he had aforeprepared unto God, unto glory. Friends, this
is our only hope. Christ. Christ.