I certainly feel a burden in. The message that I want to bring
tonight, and I hope that you'll pray for me that the Lord will
enable me to. Preach this message as it ought to be preached. Would
you look in verse 18? For I know their works and their
thoughts It shall come that I will gather all nations in tongues,
and they shall come and see my glory." I've entitled this message, My
Glory. Let's pray together. Our merciful and gracious Heavenly
Father, we come into Your presence in Christ's name, and we ask
that we might see Thy glory. Lord, grant us the spirit of
worship. Grant us the spirit of hearing. Grant us the spirit
of preaching. Meet with us for Christ's sake.
In His name we pray. Amen. of Isaiah 66, we read these solemn,
sobering words. For behold, the Lord will come
with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind to render his
anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire. For by fire
and by his sword Will the Lord plead? And that word plead means
execute justice. It doesn't mean beg like we plead
with somebody to do something. It is a judicial term. It talks
about the execution of justice. The Lord will plead with all
flesh and the slain of the Lord shall be many. Now these are. I think scary verses. When I read verses like this,
I don't want to just think, well, that's Old Testament language.
These are scary verses that speak of the anger and the fury of
God and his carrying out of his sentence against the unbeliever. And you'll notice in verse 16,
it says many will be the slain of the Lord. The slain of the
Lord shall be many. Many people will suffer the wrath
of God. Many people will be in hell is
what that means. Look down in verse 24 of this
passage of scripture. And they should go forth and
look upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against
me. For their worms shall not die. Neither shall their fire
be quenched and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh. Now, you may remember where the
Lord quotes this passage of scripture in Mark chapter 9 to describe
hell. He talks about the fire that
is not quenched and where the worm does not die. Now, I have to admit, I've been
looking at this passage for several weeks and I've not really been
looking forward to preaching on it because these verses are
just difficult to preach on. They're just difficult to talk
about the wrath of God and the anger of God and the fury of
God. When I think of the fires of hell that shall never be quenched,
and when I think of men and women that I know, going to that awful place and
spending eternity there, well, it scares me. I don't know how
else to say it. It scares me. I don't feel comfortable
talking about this. You know, God's fury and God's
anger is not some red faced explosion of temper. like we would have. This is an
attribute of God. His anger and his fury and his
wrath are an attribute of God, just like his holiness or his
love or his mercy or his grace. This is who God is. I want to attempt to talk about
this for a few moments. The reason that men do not believe
that God is a God of wrath, or if they do believe he's a God
of wrath, they think that he's too strict and too mean and too
harsh in being that way is because they have no understanding of
the holiness of God or the evil of sin. That is why men and women
have a hard time with the wrath of God or the fact that God has
made a hell to place people in forever. God is holy. I think the best definition I've
ever heard of that is that means God is other. He's other. He is altogether
unlike you and I. And among other things, that
means that God hates sin. And remember, you can't separate
sin and the sinner. I've heard people say, well,
God loves the sinner, but he hates his sin. You won't find that
in the Bible. You can't separate the sin and the person who committed
the sin. You're not really angry at the
sin itself so much as the person who perpetrated that sin. God
is angry with the wicked every day. And remember, his anger
is not like our anger. It's with regard to what is just
and what is right. You see, sin is against God.
It has as its very essence, as its very nature, sin is hatred
for God. That's why there's no such thing
as a little sin. Let's take the sin of idolatry. Have you ever
thought, well, what's the big deal about making an image? What's
the big deal about making an idol? What's the big deal about
a false or making some kind of image of God? Why is God so against
it? Will you turn with me to Exodus 20 for just a moment?
Let me show you. And this shows the nature of
sin. Exodus chapter 20. Beginning in verse three. Verse
four. Thou shalt not make unto thee
any graven image, this is part of the Ten Commandments, thou
shalt not make unto thee any graven image or any likeness
of anything that's in heaven above or that's in the earth
beneath or that's in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not
bow down thyself to them or serve them, for I, the Lord thy God,
am a jealous God. visiting the iniquity of the
fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation
of them that hate me." Now, did you catch that? Why is it that
someone makes an idol or a false image of God or even a false
imagination of God? It's because they hate God as
He is and they want to make another God. Sin, in its very essence,
has this behind it. hatred of God as he is. And that's why God is so against
sin. It's an attack against him. When
David talked about his own sin, he said, against thee and thee
only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. Sin is against
God. And that's why there is no such
thing as a little sin. Now, let me remind you of how
evil sin is. When we're talking about the
wrath of God and the fact that there's a hell and that He punishes
men eternally in hell, I've got to admit, when I think about
that, I don't like thinking about it. And sometimes my flesh will
say, well, why couldn't God save everybody? Or why does He have
to be so strict and severe? Why can't He just annihilate
people? And why does hell have to be forever? And my flesh will
have a hard time with that. All I've proved by that, when
I'm thinking that way, is I'm not really understanding how
evil sin really is. Now, you think of how evil sin
is. Let me give you three or four instances of how evil sin really
is. I'm talking about my sin. I'm talking about your sin. It
was sin that caused men to crucify the Son of God. Now, what else
needs to be said? That's how bad sin is. When you
and I and these men who crucified the Lord, we would have done
the same thing apart from God's restraining grace. When men are
left to themselves to do what they want to do, what do they
do? They put to death the holy, harmless, undefiled Son of God. He's altogether glorious. He's
altogether lovely. Yet sin put him to death. How bad is sin? Sin is so evil. that when God found sin on His
only begotten and well-beloved Son, and if there was ever a
time when you would think God could go ahead and turn His head
and let sin go by, it's when He found it on His Son. The sins
of His people were charged to Him, and what did God do? God
turned His back on His only begotten Son. He forsook Him. He wouldn't have anything to
do with Him. He killed Him. Now that's how bad sin is, that
when God sees it even on his son, he puts him to death. Look at the sorrow and the misery
that sin has brought into this world. Every problem you have
right now, every problem anybody has, sin is behind it. Sin is an infinite evil. God is a holy, And his anger
and his wrath. Remember, this is not like our
anger and wrath and we get mad when somebody does this wrong.
It has to do with justice. It has to do with God's justice.
God is just and God must punish sin because he is holy. He's just. And when we're talking
about the justice of God, we're talking about perfect justice.
Listen to this. God never condemns the innocent. He's perfectly just. God never
clears the guilty. He's perfectly just. And God
never punishes too severely. He's perfectly just. The psalmist
said, justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne,
and his wrath is simply his justice in punishing the guilty. God
is just. That's what That's what this
punishment and wrath is all about. You know, when somebody, when
somebody commits a horrible crime against you, you want justice
to be done to that person. I mean, that just comes up naturally.
You want justice to be done. And when we talk about God's
justice, it's not his attempt to reform somebody. It's his
punishment for the guilty. That's what the God's wrath is.
That's what God's anger and fury is all about. It's about absolute,
perfect, pure justice. He's giving people exactly what
they deserve, exactly what they've earned. Now, this awful place
spoken of in verse 24, where the fire is not quenched. And
where the worm dies not, that our Lord quoted in Mark chapter
nine. It's talking about hell is a monument to the justice
of God. So when we think of God being
too strict or too severe or his wrath being too bad. We're having
a very low view of sin at that time, aren't we? Hell is a monument
to the justice of God Almighty. And he speaks of his anger and
his fury. Now, look at verse 17 of our
text. I want us to see who's going to experience his anger
and his fury. I think this is very interesting
that he talks about by fire and the sword will the Lord plead
or execute judgment with all flesh and the slain of the Lord
shall be many. Now, look what he says in verse
17. They that sanctify themselves
and purify themselves in the gardens behind one's tree in
the midst, eating swine's flesh and the abomination and the mouse
or the rat, an unclean animal, shall be consumed together, saith
the Lord. Now, he tells us who his wrath
is going to go against. And I think it's very interesting
how he describes the person that this anger and this fury is going
to come down upon. He speaks of those who sanctify
themselves. That is who is going to suffer
the wrath of God, that person who purifies himself. Now, what is this all about?
Why is this the person that's going to be the object of God's
wrath? What does sanctification mean? To sanctify according to
the scriptures, as a matter of fact, I think sanctification
Let me say this, sanctification is the word from the Bible that
most completely and comprehensively describes God's salvation. This
is such an important word, sanctification. We find it over and over again
in the scriptures, and this describes more completely God's salvation
than any other word. It means to take something common
and ordinary and set it apart for holy purposes. That's what
sanctification means. If God saves me, that means He
takes me who am common and ordinary, and He sets me apart for holy
purposes. Now, this is seen by all three
persons of the Godhead in salvation. In election, when God chose a
people before the foundation of the world, when He chose me,
He took something common, unclean, and ordinary, and He set me apart
for holy purposes. He set me apart before time began
that I would be holy. The work of the Father in sanctification.
Sanctification means to take something common and ordinary
and declare it to be holy. That's what Christ did with me
on the cross. When Christ died on the cross,
the scripture says, by one offering he hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified. Turn to Hebrews 10 for just a
moment. This is a great scripture. They're all great, but I love
this passage of scripture. Hebrews chapter 10. Look in verse
10. By the witch will, by God's will,
we are sanctified. Every believer, Hebrews chapter
10 verse 10, by the witch will, we are sanctified through the
offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. When Christ
Jesus died, God declared concerning every believer, they're holy.
That's God's declaration. Now this is a wonderful thing
to think about. I am declared by God Himself to be holy because
of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm sanctified in Christ
Jesus. I was sanctified by God the Father
in eternal election. I was sanctified by the Son in
redemption when He died for me. I was sanctified. I was declared
to be holy. I was made to be holy by God
the Holy Spirit in regeneration when He gave me a holy nature. He made me holy. It's the set
of every believer. So sanctification is the word
that most clearly describes salvation, describes the work of the Father,
the Son and God, the Holy Spirit and salvation. I love this word
sanctification. Now, one thing you can't do is
sanctify yourself. Don't you know that's true? Can
you make yourself holy in any way, to any degree? If you're
a believer, you know you can't. We are saints, sanctified ones. Sanctification is God's work
and it's God's work alone. I cannot sanctify myself. Now, what were these people guilty
of doing who God says my wrath is going to come upon them, my
anger and fury, and they're going to be consumed? It says in verse
17 that they sanctify themselves and purify themselves. Now these people that suffer
the wrath of God are people who believe in salvation by works. That's what it says, isn't it? They sanctify themselves. They
think that there's something that they can do that sets them
apart, that makes them holy. Or they think even if I haven't
done it, if I would do it, that's what would make me holy. That's
what would set me apart. My works. These are the people
who are going to suffer the wrath of God, those people who believe
in salvation by works. In some way, they sanctify themselves. And God said, this is the person
that my wrath is going to come upon. That person who sanctifies
himself. Now, if I seek to sanctify myself,
I give the ultimate insult to God. Turn with me to Galatians
2 for just a moment. Galatians 2. Verse 21. Paul says, I do not frustrate.
I do not render meaningless, I do not make void the grace
of God, for if righteousness. Came by the law. Then Christ
is dead in vain. If I believe in any way to any
degree that my righteousness before God has anything to do
with my personal obedience to the law, some law I've kept,
some work I've done, then I'm saying to God, what your son
did was useless. It was vain, at least in my case.
I don't need it. This is giving God the ultimate
insult to think I can be sanctified by my works. Now, I want you
to think about this. We've been talking about the
wrath of God and the anger of God and the fear of God. Who
does it come to? That person who seeks to sanctify
himself. Does that scare you? I mean,
I'm looking at people and everybody just, you know, I just wonder
how many of us really believe that. Do you really hear what's being
said? If I seek to sanctify myself, God's wrath is going to come
on me. And that's what this passage of scripture says. That's scary. Now, notice these people. Let's
go on reading verse 17. They sanctify themselves and
purify themselves in the gardens behind one tree in the midst,
eating swine's flesh and the abomination and the mouse or
the rat shall be consumed together, sayeth the Lord. These people
eat that which is unclean. They seek to be nourished by
that which is unclean rather than by faith in Christ. The
Lord says in verse 18, for I know their works and their thoughts.
I know what they're about. But then he says it shall come.
that I will gather all nations in tongues, and they shall come
and see my glory. Now, we're going to leave these
people right now who are going to experience this wrath, and
then he talks about these people who are going to see my glory. Now, what is this all about?
God says these people will see my glory. What is it they see? Religious people always use this
phrase, the glory of God, but it's infinitely more than a religious
cliche. What does it mean? You know,
it's something that could be defined from the scripture. Now,
he speaks about somebody who's going to see his glory. Now,
that's the person I want to be. I want to be this person who
sees his glory. What is the glory of God? Well, turn to Exodus
33, because we're told. I love this scripture, Exodus
33. And Moses is praying at this
time. And let me let me remind you
of the setting of this passage of Scripture. God has delivered
the children of Israel from bondage, and Moses has gone up to Mount
Sinai to receive the law from God. And while he's gone, what
did the children of Israel do? You remember? They made a golden
calf and began to worship it. Now, if there was ever an instance
of wickedness beyond any way of describing it would be right
here. After all they'd seen, after all that the Lord had done
for them, they made a golden calf. Now Moses has gone to pray
for these people. And in the midst of his prayer,
he says in verse 18, and he said, I beseech thee, he says this
to God as he's praying for these people, I beseech thee, show
me thy glory. Show me what it is about yourself
that you consider your glory. Now, if you think of all the
things Moses had seen, he'd seen some very impressive things.
But he said, I've not seen your glory yet. Show me what you consider
to be your glory. And the Lord answers Moses's
prayer. He says in verse 19, and he said,
I'll make all my goodness pass before thee. And I will proclaim
the name of the Lord before thee. and will be gracious to whom
I will be gracious, and will show mercy unto whom I will show
mercy. And God says that is my glory. The glory of God is His goodness. Now, this just God that I've
talked about, this God who is holy, this God who will not let
any sin go unpunished. He's bound and determined to
punish all sin. This God who is utterly just.
Justice and judgment are the habitation of Thy throne. This
same God is merciful to sinners through His goodness. And God
says, that's My glory. that this God who is so holy
and so just, yet can look in favor of people like me and you.
God says, that's my glory. That's my glory. His goodness
is His capacity to save people like me and people like you.
God says, that's my glory. Look what He says next. He said,
I'll make my goodness pass before you, in verse 19. He says, I'll
proclaim the name of the Lord before thee. Now, what's He talking
about when He talks about proclaiming the name of the Lord? Well, we
don't have to guess, because chapter 34 explains it. Look
in verse 5. And the Lord descended in the
cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the
Lord. And the Lord passed by before
him and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious,
long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy
for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin that
will by no means clear the guilty. Visiting the iniquity of the
fathers upon the children and upon the children's children
and to the third and the fourth generation. Now, when God proclaims
his name, he proclaims his attributes and in proclaiming his attributes,
there's two things that come out real clearly in this passage
of scripture. First, he points out he he's merciful and gracious,
long suffering. and abundant in goodness and
truth. He delights in showing mercy,
and yet in this same passage of Scripture, he says, I will
by no means, under no circumstances whatsoever, will I clear the
guilty. Now, there's God's name. He's merciful, and yet He won't
clear guilty sinners. Now, how can both of those be
true? How can He be merciful and still by no means clear the
guilty? How can that possibly be true?
The only way that can be understood is the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Here is God's glory. He has found a way to be just,
absolutely just, let no sin go unpunished. He's just. And yet He's found a way to justify
people like me and you who are unjust. That's the very glory
of God. that he's found a way to be just
and yet justify the ungodly. Do you see that as glorious? All together. I tell you who
sees this as glorious. Somebody who sees they cannot
sanctify themselves. They see that they cannot make
themselves holy no matter what they do, they're sinful, they
can't do anything about that. This person sees this message
of how God can be just and justify the ungodly as altogether glorious. They behold His glory. Look what it says next in our
text in verse 19. He says, I will be gracious to
whom I will be gracious. And I will show mercy to whom
I will show mercy. His mercy is sovereign. He freely
saves who he's pleased to save. And he passes by who he's pleased
to pass by. We're talking about sovereign
grace. That's the only kind of grace there is, is sovereign
grace. Somebody says, well, they believe the sovereign grace of
that church. If it ain't sovereign, it ain't grace. I can assure
you that. It's sovereign grace. And God says, this is my glory. This is when Moses said, show
me your glory. Here's how he answers. Now, back
to Isaiah 66. This is what these people see.
They see his glory. Verse 18, for I know their works
and their thoughts. It shall come that I will gather
all nations and all tongues, and they shall come and see my
glory. You know the Lord's going to have a people out of every
kindred, tribe, and tongue, and nation who are going to see his
glory. And they're going to rejoice
in his glory. Now verse 19, he says, And I
will set a sign among them, and I will send those that escape
of them unto the nations. to Tarshish, Pool, and Lud, that
draw the bow to Tubal and Javan, to the Isles afar off, that have
not heard my fame, neither have seen my glory. And they shall
declare my glory among the Gentiles." Now this is the message that's
to be preached to the nations. His glory, that's what we declare.
They're going to declare my glory among the Gentiles, verse 20.
And they shall bring All your brethren for an offering unto
the Lord out of all nations, upon horses, and in chariots,
and litters, and upon mules, and upon swift beasts, to my
holy mountains, Jerusalem, saith the Lord, as the children of
Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel unto the house of the
Lord. There's going to be some people who actually believe this
message. Verse 21, And I will also take of them for priests
and for Levites, saith the Lord. I'm going to take these people
who see my glory, and they're going to be priests to me. They're
going to be Levites to me. In other words, they're going
to be people who can come into God and have the ear of God. Doesn't the scripture
say he's made us into our God, kings and priests? That's what
the Lord does. Verse 22. For as the new heavens and the
new earth which I will make shall remain before me, saith the Lord,
so shall your seed and your name remain. Now, he's telling these
people everything that you see is going to be burned. And I'm
going to make a new heaven. And I'm going to make a new earth
and it's going to be populated. It's going to be populated by
people who have seen my glory. Now, here's my question that
I'm asking myself and I'm asking you right now. Have I seen His glory? Have I really seen His glory? I never will forget one time
when I was in college. It's been a long time ago. I
remember reading this passage of scripture where Moses said,
Show me your glory. And I can remember praying, Oh,
Lord, show me your glory. And I was waiting for something
to happen. I was waiting for the room to light up. I was waiting
for me to have all this all of a sudden this kind of power and
new walking ability to walk in a different way. And I was waiting
for it. And I missed the passage of scripture altogether. Show
me your glory. Now, how can I know if I have
seen His glory? Now, I can answer that question
for you. Everybody who cannot sanctify
themselves and they cannot make themselves
holy These people actually trust the
Lord Jesus Christ as their salvation before God. Now, if I if I am
actually relying right now while I'm talking to you, while you're
listening to me, if I really believe that Jesus Christ is
my everything in salvation. I'm really relying on him only,
and I'm not looking to myself to sanctify myself. I'm looking
to him as my sanctification. I'm looking to Him as my holiness
before God. I'm actually trusting Him as
my righteousness before God. Everybody who trusts the Lord
Jesus Christ, they've seen God's glory. And if you're somebody
that can be described as somebody who actually looks to Christ,
you don't have anywhere else to look. You look only to Him. You're someone who has seen the
glory of God. Verse 23, and it shall come to
pass that from one new moon to another and from one Sabbath
to another shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the
Lord. This is going to be a continual
worship service. I wonder, I'm asking myself this
question while I'm while I'm reading this passage of Scripture.
Would worshiping the Lord Jesus Christ continually, would that
be heaven to me? Would it be heaven? It would,
wouldn't it? That would be heaven to me. When
by His grace I shall look on His face, that will be glory. Be glory for me. There's going
to be a continual worship service, worshiping the Lord Jesus Christ.
All flesh shall come to worship before me, saith the Lord. Verse
24, And they shall go forth. This is an unusual way to end
this book. And they shall go forth and look
upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against
me. They don't believe the gospel. And he says, for their worm shall
not die. Neither shall their fire be quenched
and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh. Now, here we
end up with this statement regarding hell. Hell. A fire that is never quenched,
where the worm is not going to die. Now, what a way to end this
book. Why does he end this book this way? Not the way I would have ended
it. I'd rather end it on a, quote, positive note, you know, the
way I think. Why does he end it like this? Well, what I want
you to remember about these people that are described. These are people who saw no glory. in the glory of the Lord Jesus
Christ. They saw no glory in this. It wasn't something that
rung their bell. It was dull and uninteresting. Why even make a point of it?
What's the big deal about it? They saw no glory in this. They saw no glory in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And I think of the words of Paul in 1 Corinthians
chapter 16, I think it's verse 22. when he said, If any man
love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema, maranatha. Let him be damned upon the return
of the Lord. If someone sees no glory in how
God can be just and justify the ungodly, if they see no glory
in that, they ought to be in hell. Amen? That's the truth. That's the
way he ends this. Do I see glory in His glory? Well, I tell you what, I can
say from the depths of my heart, this is the most glorious thing
to me there is. That God can take somebody like
me as an act of His grace, as an act of His mercy, as an act
of His justice, that He can take somebody like me sinful, ungodly,
helpless, I can't make any contribution to salvation at all. I really
believe that. That's me. That's my description. God can
take somebody like me and justify me. I want you to think of that. Justified. This is more than
forgiveness. You know, I don't really get
any comfort just from forgiveness. Well, God forgives sins. Most
people believe that, but I don't. Yeah, but why does He forgive? It's based on His justice. He
justifies me. Christ Jesus is my justification
before God. I see glory in that. I have such confidence knowing
that the Lord Jesus Christ is all I need. My faith has found
a resting place, not in device nor creed. I trust. ever-living One, His wounds for
me shall plead. I need no other argument. I need
no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died,
and that He died for me." Let's pray together. Lord, we thank You.