Do not lay it to heart. So we're
going to be in Isaiah 57 and we're going to look at a few
serious matters that men, unregenerate men and women will not lay to
heart. He lays these things out. There's
about four or five headings. And our Heavenly Father tells
us, through the prophet Isaiah, of some things, and they're very
serious things, that men by nature, you and I by nature, until God
opens our eyes, we just won't lay in the heart. And if you've
got friends and you've got family that you've tried to speak of
the wonder of the grace of God, they just look at you, as we
did, those who shared with us, I've got other important things
to do. I don't I don't really have time to think about this.
Don't don't Don't don't bother me with such trivial things or
Etc. Etc. And that's just what the
prophet is saying here that we're not laying it to heart We're
not serious about it. We don't really consider it and We all
have loved ones. We all have family whom is on
our heart often and You know, when you talk to these people
and they just blow it off, they don't lay it to heart. But that's
what we are by nature. That's what we do by nature.
In verses 1 and 2, one of the areas that the unregenerate,
that people often do not lay to heart, and that is the death
of God's people. The death of the saints of God. Look at verse 1 and 2. The righteous
perishes and no man lays it to heart. and merciful men are taken
away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from
the evil to come. He shall enter into peace, they
shall rest in their beds, each one walking in his uprightness. The unregenerate And most people,
a lot of people don't like to think about death anyway. There's
some people that I know that they won't go to hospitals, they
won't visit, they don't, I mean, they won't, even if there's somebody
sick, they might call, but they don't like to go in. One man
in particular I used to work with, he won't do it. It could
be his mom, his dad, I don't know about his wife, they're
about our age, but he said, I just won't go in them. He just does
not like the, the thought, the end result of what might happen
if that person does not come back home. The people do not
lay to heart the death of God's saints. Whether it's like Enoch,
that they're walking with God and they're no more. Or whether
it's like David, as he laid on his deathbed and reminisced about
the covenant that God had made through his substitute, the Lord
Jesus Christ, and had much peace. or the apostles. Some died of
old age, some of them died pretty rough deaths. But the thing is, is when we
consider, when we lay it to heart, the righteous, as the Lord takes
them to Himself, they are being taken away, says verse 1, from
the evil to come. Now I know it's a sad time, it's
an emotional time, But unregenerate people do not consider that as
God takes his people home, that he is removing them from certain
evil to come. Let me ask you this, and if you're
a believer, you understand exactly what I'm talking about. This
world, this world does not understand us. It doesn't care to understand
us. It gives us a hard way to go. But when we're with him,
they can't touch us anymore. The flesh, The doubts that we
have. The struggles that we have. We
fight with sickness. We fight with fear. We fight
with jobs. We fight with all these things
and all the things that people, they only knew what was going
on in our mind. The struggles. Ron and I were talking before,
about the struggles that they've had. You know, physically, I
guess everybody was fine, but it's just those aggravating mechanical
things. And then because of the mechanical
things that our flesh rears up and, you know, we do things that
dishonor Christ. I do it. That's not going to
be a problem anymore. When he takes us home, when the
righteous are taken home, that's not going to be a problem.
Satan. I'm not going to give Satan near
the credit that all the religious knuckleheads of our day do, but
he is real, and he's a factor, and he's more powerful than you
and I are. But we have an advocate. We go to him, who has Satan on
a leech. He could only do, like he did
with Job, he had to go get permission to do what he did to Job. Satan will not hinder us ever
again. And our own vile sin. Our own vile sin that we struggle
with. Now we've looked at a couple,
we started on Wednesdays night, on Wednesdays we started a study
of Genesis. And everything was fine. If there was a perfect
environment, if there was a perfect setting, it was the Garden of
Eden before they sinned. If you want to talk about man's
free will, that would have been the place where it was, and man
fell. And given a perfect Garden of
Eden, and he still fell. Our sin, because of our representative,
Adam, because he sinned, he plummeted the whole human race in sin.
Our children, when they're born, More times than, I mean, most
of the parents that I know, and when we were bringing care up,
if Mila and I either had some disagreements or whatever, we
always kept it from her. But we didn't teach her to lie. We didn't teach her to do this
or do that. And kids, one of our friends
from years ago, he says, no is the first word they hear and
it's the last one they learn. No, no, no. Why? Sin. It's in nature. But when the Lord takes us home,
that won't be an issue. That won't be an issue. Also,
the wicked, they don't even begin to understand or take to heart
verse 2, He shall enter into peace. Oh my, you think there's
peace here? There's no peace here. Everyone wants to talk about
Iraq. Everyone wants to talk about the economy. Or let's talk
about the gas prices. It's just one confusing time after time after time. But
when he takes his saints, complete peace. And so when I do funerals,
and I've done a few, I'll do some more. Lord, you know, gives
me grace that you're not doing mine. Sad to leave one another? You bet. But you know what? They got what we want. They are in the full possession
of Glorification with the Son. That's what we want. This is
the hope that everything's been leading up to. Peace, eternal
life, absolute righteousness of Christ we now have, which
is called glorification. When God looks at us, we're righteous
as Christ, but when that day finally comes, we'll be glorified,
faith will give way to sight. And what we've been striving
for for so long, those who the Lord takes will possess. Oh happy
day when salvation is fully realized and the saints of God will be
able to worship God unhindered and without weariness. I told
you this before, one of our good preacher friends, Maurice, if
you ever have trouble sleeping, right now I don't, I go out,
I usually sleep pretty good, but he says, yeah, when you start
getting older and you start having trouble to go to sleep, he says,
just pick up the Bible. go to sleep real quick. You know,
now if we did something else, we'd sit there and watch television,
but he says, and that's a sad account of our nature. You know, the most precious thing
in this world that we have, and we can't hardly read a chapter
a day, or we can't read ten verses when we're getting ready to go
to bed, and then we just fall asleep. But one day we'll be
able to worship our Savior unhindered, and we'll never be weary. So,
though the wicked, the unregenerate, do not lay such things to heart,
believer, when the Lord takes you, when the Lord takes somebody
that you love, who understands and believes and trusts Christ
and His gospel, He's removing them from the evil to come. Matter
of fact, if I can use this word envy in the proper context, we
envy them. I remember one of our dear saints
years ago, Lucille. I remember standing up. That
was the first funeral I did. I remember it was hard because
she was so important to us. But I remember thinking and saying,
she finally has what we want. And she was in pain. No more
pain. No more sorrow. But secondly,
verses three through 14, the unregenerate do not lay these
things to heart. That is their own plight. And
they do not understand or lay to heart the outcome, the sure
outcome of their free will works religion people. Incidentally,
Happy Mother's Day, I was going to say that before I got started,
I need to But today, Linda and I did a lot of driving around
yesterday, did some stuff and had a good time. And we saw a
couple of church marquees and mothers this and mothers that. I imagine what the messages are
going to be out there. They're going to be talking about moms
and all these different things. But without a clue as the outcome,
of that kind of religion doing something to please God or doing
something to gain favor with God, they don't lay it to heart
that the outcome is going to be eternal separation from God.
We cannot please God by anything that we do. God has been pleased
and is pleased in Christ. Christ. Look at verses 3, 4,
and 5. The unregenerate do not lay to
heart their own plight and or the outcome, sure outcome, of
their free will works religion, which includes idolatry. Verses
3, 4, and 5. But draw nigh hither, ye sons
of the sorcerers, the seed of the adulterer and the whore,
against whom You do sport yourselves against whom make ye a wide mouth,
and draw out the tongue. Are ye not children of transgression,
a seed of falsehood? In flaming yourselves with idols
under every green tree slaying the children in the valleys under
the cliffs of the rocks Idolatry here's a short definition of
what idolatry is. Well, what is that? That's that,
you know, it's an Old Testament term It's you know, New Testament
term, but it's not used as often in the news. It isn't the old
what is idolatry? Idolatry is anything that a person
relies upon or trusts in to get themselves to heaven other than
the finished work of Christ. What could that be? That could
be a little cross you got hanging around your neck. It could be an idol. Go to St. Francis Hospital and try to take
one of those things off the wall and see what happens to you.
You took down Jesus. No, I don't think so. but they'll
get upset. It could be baptism. I believe
baptism is what I had to have in order to save me. That's what
I know. Baptism is, in the proper context, an outcome of what's
taking place inside me. And that's just the believer
desires to be baptized. As far as I know, there's only
one person who was not baptized in the scriptures, and that was
the thief on the cross. He couldn't. The one thief. There
were two. Only one the Lord took with him. But in all the New
Testament teachings, and even in the Old Testament allusions
and types, it's just a result of obedience to what God has
given to us in our heart. It doesn't say, it doesn't have
any redeeming qualities. But some people use that. They'll
look for their baptismal certificate to prove their salvation. That's
an idol. Prayer. Prayers. Relying on prayers. Confirmations. Decisions for
Jesus. Statues. The people who don't
worship statues in this country, well, go down to Kelso or Rand,
and just stop your vehicle, knock on the door, say, that's a nice
statue, walk over and kick it down to the ground and see what
happens. People are going to get upset.
Why? Because they put some kind of power on that thing. We got
something in the mail, email, the other day. There's a Catholic
church in Santa Fe, New Mexico. I don't know if you've heard
about it. There's stairs, winding stairs that were built in this
chapel by somebody mysterious. The nuns started praying. They
started praying that we need the stairs but we don't have
the money. All of a sudden out of nowhere this carpenter appears. He builds this spiral staircase
and we saw pictures of it. Absolutely gorgeous. The architect,
like up in St. James, inside some of those places
up there, the architecture, It means nothing to me. I mean,
it's absolutely gorgeous. But as far as religious, it's
just a building. These are just stairways. Well,
the legend, they say that because the carpenter came, he built
it, and then mysteriously left, that they thought that that was
Joseph. They actually thought that was
Joseph. Sent by Jesus to build staircases for these nuns. What? People believe this. They believe
this. They actually get excited about
this. And then they've had scientists and engineers look at the staircase
because he didn't use any nails and there was no glue. So they
don't even know how he did it. Do you think the Lord Jesus Christ
is interested in a building and sending... I mean, just you think
about it. And it's foolish, but it's an
idol. And people come from all over
the world to see this thing and give a little money to get in
to see it. The Wailing Wall. When I was going to college over
at SIU, there was a Jewish man that was a student and he wrote
about his experience touching the Wailing Wall. And he was,
he got religion as an idol. It's just, it's concrete, Ron. It's just a piece of concrete.
That brazen serpent that the Lord used, what did the Israelites
do? Years and years later, they found
it, they polished it, they cleaned it up, and this book said they
started worshipping it. And they broke it in pieces.
The man of God broke it in pieces and he called it a piece of brass. Doctrine? Doctrine can be an
idol. Doings are not doings. People
don't lay it to heart. things that you and I, by the
grace of God, again, it's nothing that we do, but He's given us
an understanding, a little bit of an understanding of what His
grace is, and what His gospel is, and who God is, and He's
not interested in idols. But people will get a Frito-Lay
chip that looks like the Virgin Mary, and you know what? You
better not eat it, because You know, and I told you this
story about one of the brethren over in Kentucky that had an
art gallery, and when the Lord saves him, he took all those
pictures of Wild Bill Hickok, which is what I call him, pictures
of Jesus, and he started to burn them. And his sister, she comes
screaming, you can't burn Jesus. We don't need, if we need a thing,
a tangible object to get closer to God by rubbing it, talking
to it, That's idolatry. That's an idol. That's exactly right. You might
as well be a coach somewhere because coaches are real big
about that. Wearing the same color socks because it'll bring them.
We'll get to luck in a little bit here in a minute, but we're
not there yet. Verses 6 and 7. The unregenerate do not lay to
heart that their offerings to God, based on their works, are
false offerings. False offerings. Promises to
do better, vows people make. They make all sorts of pacts
with God. If you do this, I won't do that
anymore. It's called will worship, and it's not God's way. Verses
6 and 7. Among the smooth stones of the
stream of thy portion, they that are thy lot, even to them hast
thou poured a drink offering, And thou hast offered a neat
offering should I receive comfort in these. God, that's good. You
think I'm satisfied with these things? No. Upon a lofty and
high mountain hast thou set thy bed. Even thither winnest thou
up to offer sacrifice. And you say, well, how are people
offering? How is that relevant for today? Oh, there's something
special about up here in front of the church. This is where
stuff happens. That's why you've got to walk
an aisle. No. It's a piece of wood. It's a sinner preaching
to sinners. I've got nothing in my hands.
No special powers. When I finish the service, I
don't sit there and go, OK, Lord, keep you. And if I'm going to
do that, I might as well go out and smack you in the forehead
and see if I can't get some kind of reaction. No. They're offering false offerings,
promises to do better, vows and making pacts and covenants. God's
not going to honor them. Thirdly, verses 8 and 10, the
wicked, the unregenerate, do not lay to heart that they have
other gods, false covenants, high positions, man's way to
God and not God's way to himself. Verses 8 through 10. Behind the
doors also, the post, hast thou set up thy remembrance. For thou
hast discovered thyself to another than me, and art gone up. Thou
hast enlarged thy bed, and made thee a covenant with them. Thou
lovest their bed where thou sawest it, and thou wentest to the king
with ointment, and didst increase thy perfume. and didst send thy
messengers far off, and didst debase thyself even unto hell. Thou art wearied in the greatness
of thy ways, yet sayest thou not, There is no hope. Thou hast
found the life of thine hand, therefore thou wast not grieved."
Thy hands. Thy hands. He says there, Thou art wearied, in verse 10,
in the greatness of thy way, thy way, not God's way, thy way. There's no hope. Thou hast, thou was not grieved. Well, people, all sorts of religions
talk about touch not, taste not, and you'll be, you know, if you
refrain from this, No, that's not, you know, again, Christ
is our life. Christ is our reward. Christ
is our hope. Christ is our peace. Fourthly, the things that men
do not lay to heart, verses 11 through 14. Verse 11, there's
no fear of God in their eyes. There's no remorse over sin.
There's no remembrance of God. When anything positive happens,
look at verses 11 and 12. And of whom thou hast been afraid,
or feared, that thou hast lied, and hast not remembered me, nor
laid it to thine heart? Have not I held my peace even
of old, and thou fearest me not? They don't fear God. You believers
say that Christ is coming. You've been saying that for hundreds
of years. So we'll just go on and live like we want to live
because we don't fear Him. Matter of fact, the God that
I hear about He's like me. He changes his mind. When I pray
to him, I change his mind. When bad things happen, it's
not me, or it might be because of this, but not from God. I
will declare thy righteousness, says God in verse 12, and thy
works, for they shall not profit thee. Now that's pretty straightforward.
Verse 12, I will declare thy righteousness and thy works,
for they shall not profit thee. There's no remembrance of God.
What people remember is luck, fate, mother nature, the weather,
my skills or my abilities. And God says plainly, there's
no profit or help in our own works or our own righteousness.
And in verse 13 and 14, People do not lay to heart, they trust
in others, yet they do not trust in Christ, and they still think
they're going to get helped. When thou criest, let thy companies
deliver thee, but the wind shall carry them all away. Vanity shall
take them, but he that put his trust in me shall possess the
land, and shall inherit my holy mountain, and shall say, Cast
ye up, cast ye up, prepare the way, take up the stumbling block
out of the way of my people. They trust in others. I know
people that, they think if they get around certain people who
are successful, they'll be successful. On the radio, you listen to any
of the KZM or whatever, there's all these quick, rich schemes. Do this, do that, I'll give you
this, $100 value, all these different things. And people flock by the
thousands to try to see. And then they take that and then
they put religious connotations on it. Well, that person is successful.
He must be a real strong believer. Thirdly, the unregenerate and
no man lays it to heart, verses 15 through 20, the free grace
of God. Salvations, they say, I've got
to do something to work my way to heaven. I've just got to feel
something. I've just got to do something.
Preacher, give me something to do. So these false preachers,
give them a lot to do. People do not take to heart the
free grace of God. Look at verses 15 through 20.
For thus saith the High and Lofty One that inhabits eternity. And
I say that's sovereign. I say that's sovereignty. He
does as He will, when He wills, as He will, in His time. Thus saith the High and Lofty
One that inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy. I dwell in the
High and Holy places. Stop right there. That's the
God we worship. He's not a pygmy God. He's not
a doormat named Jesus. And on December 20 whatever,
He's still not in the manger needing our help. He is. And when He was in that manger,
He was omnipotent God. But you know what's so amazing?
This God that we worship, look at the next phrase. I told you
to stop. And He dwells in the high and holy places. But look
at the next phrase. With Him also that is of a contrite
and humble spirit. Not only does God dwell in the
high, in the heavens, in the lofty places, but He dwells by
free, sovereign grace, through the Spirit of grace, with sinners. He dwells with sinners. We are often stupefied and view
with amazement and wonder the incarnation of Jehovah God, yet
what a mystery and further wonder of divine grace that God will
dwell with men, with sinners, and He dwells in them as the
Spirit of grace. I will leave my Comforter with
you, and He will show the things that I have spoken and will show
them to you. That's why this Holy Spirit, this Holy Roller
movement, it's got no basis in the Scripture. Because when somebody
starts getting filled with the Spirit, as they say, they got
the mumbling, they get the talking, what they say is tongues, but
the word tongues in the Greek is other languages like Spanish,
French, that's what that is. And we've looked at this before
when we studied Acts. When they all got together in Acts, there
was men from different nationalities and countries. And so how was
the Gospel going to get out? to the Spaniard unless he heard
the gospel in Spanish. How was the gospel going to get
out to the French merchant unless the gospel was preached in French,
or Arabic, or Greek, or Hebrew? That's what tongues was. They
began to speak it because it says every man heard the truth
in their own language. That's what tongues, not just
babbling. So that just proves that right there. But when you
talk to somebody that says they're filled with the Spirit, listen
to what they say. They either talk about themselves, talk about
the devil, and never speak about Christ and His righteousness.
And Christ says, when I leave the comforter, He's going to
show the things of God to you. They never glorify God. It's
always, I did this or that or something happened or something
emotional. He says that He will dwell with him that is of a contrite
and humble spirit, may so by the grace of God. And He carries
us all the way in His bosom to glory. He says, and to revive
the heart of the contract was looking for 16 for I will not
contend forever. Neither will I always be wrong
for the spirit should fail before me and the souls which I have
made for the iniquity of his covetous was I wroth, says God,
and smote him. I hid me and was wroth and he
went on forwardly in the way of his heart. That's what we
do by nature often. But look at what he says in verse
18. I have seen his ways. God knows us. He knows we're
sinners. This is the beauty of the gospel. This is the beauty
of grace. I have seen his ways and will heal him. I will lead
him also and restore comforts unto him and to his mourners. You know that we do not deserve
any of the least of God's mercies. We deserve damnation and separation
because of our sin, because of what we do, because of our way,
our ignorance, our iniquity, but for some reason, found only
in himself, I can't coerce God, I can't convince God, for some
reason, found only in himself, the high and lofty one, he heals. Now that's grace, and that's
free. He once contended with us, he
had ought against us, but now he only has thoughts and acts
of good and grace and peace towards us. All things work together
for good. Verses 17 and 18, he tells us
that the hand that corrects also heals and helps. We are ever
being made like our kinsmen redeemer. And the end result of that is
restoration and comfort. I tell you, as one of the older
writers told me as I was reading and studying for this, he said,
Believer, read and reread these five verses over and over and
over again. 15 through 20 15 through 19 I
create look at this verse 19 will love You talk about peace
in the midst of trouble Peace in the midst of heartache and
you want to talk about total grace look at verse 19 God says
I create the fruit of the lips I He says I created Not us He
does all by himself the fruit of the lips and then he says
peace peace to him that is far off you and I were far off of
what the scriptures say we're made nigh by the blood of Christ
peace I can't speak peace to you I can preach I can do as
Isaiah said earlier on comfort ye comfort my people but I truly
can't don't know your heart but I know that Christ can give you
and keep you in peace, that perfect peace. He says, peace, peace
to him that is afar off and to him that is near, sayeth the
Lord, I will heal him. Just in case we miss it, miss
it further on, later, earlier on these verses, He says He'll
heal us. He'll heal us. And I don't know about you, but
I know the religion that I was in, and have been in, it leaves
scars. It's hard to put that stuff and
leave it in the closet. My son and I were driving around somewhere
the other day, and we saw something, and our mind both went to a situation
years ago, and we started bringing up all that stuff again. Their
scars are there. How people treated us, how people,
you know, the false gospel, the bondage, all those different
things, those are scars are there. He says time and time again,
I'll heal. And there's nothing... I remember
talking to Melinda years ago before we dated and she was working
where I was working and I was talking with her and sharing
with her whatever. I remember when God started showing her
the gospel. The liberty and freedom. It's just like somebody just... If you ever get a hold of Pilgrim's
Progress by Bunyan, It's a good reading for kids too. He's got
this huge burden on his back. It's his sin. He goes to Moses to try to get
relief. That's the law. Dos and don'ts. And he said that weight just
got heavier and heavier. That's what religion will do.
Now if you do this, A, B, C, you can feel better. But then
you do those things and you're like, but preacher, I still feel
pretty bad about myself. And old Pilgrim went to the wrong
place. He went to Moses, and Moses and
the law said, don't you understand what the law says? You've got
to do everyone perfect, and you can't. He said that burden just
got bigger. He said, then he found a man, preacher, evangelist. He said, go through that wicked
gate, and up beyond it there's a hill, and on that hill is a
cross, and on that cross, the Savior. That's the only place
you can relieve that burden. And when Christian was walking
up that hill, and he walked up and he said he looked up at that
cross, he looked up at that redeemer, and he said that burden just
fell off his back. And he rolled down the hill, never to be seen
again. That's what the gospel does.
Now religion, but that's what the gospel does. It sets you
free. Lastly, on a very serious note,
the last two verses, what men do not lay to heart in our day,
back in Isaiah's day, is no different. The unregenerate do not lay to
heart what their final end will be if God does not have mercy. Verse 20, But the wicked are
like the troubled sea when it cannot rest, whose waters cast
up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith my God
to the wicked." No rest and no peace. So I close with this question
to you and to me. Do you, do I, really take the
things of God and His grace in the work and worth of Jesus Christ
to heart. Do we take it to heart? If so,
grace will be given and he shall set you free and you'll be free
indeed. May he do so this day. Let's
close in prayer. Father, we bless you for