Okay, this evening we're going
to come back and look at Isaiah 65. And basically, we want to
consider verse 5. Some of those in Israel's day
had this idea of being more holier than others, which say, Isaiah
65 verse 5, which say, Stand by thyself, come not near to
me, for I am better than you. I am holier than you. Well, the
Lord says of that attitude, and someone who thinks like that,
the Lord said that's nothing but stink. It smells. It's smoke in my nose. A fire
that burns all the day. Now, sometimes I remember when
I was a kid, before they had regular garbage pickup, we used
to go out back and we had this incinerator. And dad would put
the garbage in the incinerator and burn it. I guess some of
you older ones did that. And I always tried to stay away
from that smoke. upwind from that smoke because
it was such an obnoxious smell. It's not like a campfire. It's
garbage burning. And it's just terrible. That's
what the Lord says of someone who claims to be righteous apart
from Christ. He said that's just smoke. That's smoke. It's just smells.
I'm calling this message the deadly sin of self-righteousness. the deadly sin of self-righteousness. There's nothing more contrary
and opposed to the way of salvation by the grace of God and salvation
accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ than this horrible idea
of self-sufficiency, self-righteousness. And that's trusting yourself
as your own savior, as your own righteousness. Where it declares
that salvation, it declares that salvation is of self and not
of the Lord. The Lord declares it is nothing
but an obnoxious, abhorrent, sinful, and sinful in his sight,
smoke in my nose. Remember what he called, look
right across the page, Isaiah 64 verse 6. But we're all as an unclean thing,
and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags, and we do fade
as a leaf. Our iniquities, like the wind,
have taken us away. There is none that calleth upon
thy name. There's none that stirs up himself
to take hold of thee. For thou hast hid thy face from
us, and hast consumed us because of our iniquities. Our righteousness
is so-called or nothing in God's sight but filthy rags." And then
he says, those who have an attitude of, I'm better than you. You're
a sinner. I'm just a little bit better.
God said, that's smoking my nose. It is in God's presence most
offensive and obnoxious, loathsome of all evils in this world, yet
it is that which is most appealing to our flesh, our sinful flesh,
and that which we are most likely to be deceived by self-righteousness. You remember the wise man Solomon
said, there is a way that seems right unto man, the end of that
way is death. The end of that way of death.
It says there in verse 2, I spread out my hands all day unto rebellious
people which walketh in a way that was not good after their
own thoughts. Our thoughts are always wrong.
We always think too highly of ourselves and too low of our
God. Now remember from my reading
last week in Romans 10 where Paul quotes that verse In Romans
10, 20, Paul says of Isaiah that he was very bold in declaring
that salvation is all of God's grace alone, bold in declaring
that the way of self-righteousness is nothing but filthy rags in
God's sight, bold in declaring that God would pass by the religious
self-righteous nation of the Jews and call out a people from
among the wicked Gentile nation, bold in declaring that God said,
I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I'll harden whom
I will. When the Lord Jesus Christ was
manifest in the flesh, came among his own nation, his own people
after the flesh, hundreds of years after Isaiah spoke these
very true, inspired, bold words, He found those Jews there in
Jerusalem still in the vial clutches and the death grip of self-righteousness. Going about to establish a righteousness
to earn God's favor or, as some say, to remove his wrath, we
see the same thing going on in our day, don't we? Many, many
folks in religious circles make the same fatal mistake as trusting
And here's where people get deceived. They make the same fatal mistake
trusting their righteousness, trusting their morality as righteousness
in the sight of God. Now the best we have at our best
state, the best state, your best day, is vanity in the sight of
God. Man at his best state is all
together, all together, all together, vanity, vanity. Now hold your
place there, bookmark that, and turn to Matthew 15. Our Lord
says of those people, when he came among his own nation and
his own kindred, they rejected the Messiah. And he calls them
here in Matthew 15, verse 7. Turn over there. Matthew 15 verse
7, he says, you hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying,
Isaiah, this is Isaiah, he's quoting Isaiah 29, 13. The Lord
Jesus said, you're hypocrites, as Isaiah said. This people draw
nigh to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but
their heart, that's the issue, their heart's far from me. But
in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrine the commandments
of men rather than the Word of God. You remember what our Lord
said? Turn over here to Luke chapter
16. I quote this verse all the time. Luke 16. I always get it mixed
up. I always want to say Luke 15-16. But it's Luke 16-15. Let's see
if I got it right this time. Luke 16-15. But the Pharisees, also who were
covetous, heard all these things, and they derided him. Look at
verse 15. And he said to them, you are
they which justify yourselves before men, but God knows your
heart. For that which is highly esteemed
among men, ah, is an abomination in the sight of God. that Pharisee trusted in himself. The Lord spoke that parable as
we read a moment ago in Luke 18. He spake this parable unto
certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous and
they despised others. That's what a self-righteous
attitude does. You think yourself just a little
bit above everybody else. We're still plagued with that
same disease among the very religious or even the very irreligious
in our day. Pastor Mahan used to say this.
He would often make this statement about self-righteousness. those
who justify themselves before God. He would often make this
statement, your sins won't keep you from coming to Christ, but
your self-righteousness will. You see what he's saying? Your
sin won't keep you from Christ, but your self-righteousness will
because you trust yourself. A man who is self-righteous,
he says to himself, well, I don't need a righteousness. I don't
need Christ to be my righteousness. I don't need a Savior because
I'm really not a sinner. Now let me give you several reasons
why this self-righteousness is such a deadly thing and why the
Lord Jesus Christ opposed it so strongly. He had the sharpest
rebukes for those Pharisees, didn't he? The Apostle Paul did,
too. He had the sharpest, most critical
rebukes for those Pharisees, and yet he said to those vile,
wretched sinners, come unto me, and I'll give you rest. He called
them snakes, those Pharisees. He's snakes and vipers. He said,
you're full of dead men's bones. Let me give you several reasons
why self-righteousness is such a deadly thing. Number one is
this, it only regards the cleaning up of the outward man and totally
disregards the real problem. The wicked and deceitful heart
are totally fallen and sinful nature. Now remember what Jeremiah
said about the heart. The heart is deceitful above
all things and desperately wicked. Deceitful above all things. Let's
talk about what we are and what we think naturally. Deceitful
above all things and it's desperately wicked. That's what God says
of us, of our fallen nature. You see, This outward thing,
it only concerns with the outward actions and not with the inward
motive. Just the outward, you clean up
the outside. Now turn to Matthew again, but
this time Matthew 23. Our Lord had the sharpest rebukes
for those, Matthew 23 verse 25, Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites! For you make clean the outside
of the cup and the platter, but within you're full of extortion
and unjust. Matthew 23, 26, thou blind Pharisee,
cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the
outside of them may be clean also. Warrant you, scribes and
Pharisees, you hypocrites, for you're like a whited sepulcher
at the gravestone. or tomb, which indeed appear
beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones and
all uncleanness. Even so outwardly you appear
righteous unto men, but within you're full of hypocrisy and
iniquity. So you can preach reformation
and morality and people can become very religious and clean up all
their bad habits and all their bad words and look so good and
moral and righteous and upright and the Lord said, you're full
of dead men's bones. Someone recently said to me about
a prominent business person that he would make a very good church
member, but he had one problem. He said he had a potty mouth,
or he used dirty language. His problem was not his dirty
language, his problem was his dirty heart. His dirty heart. You see, out of the abundance
of the heart, Don't turn, let me just read this to you. Remember,
our Lord said this in Matthew 15, when the Pharisees, they
complained when the disciples of the Lord were picking corn
and eating corn, and they didn't wash their hands, and they got
all upset. And the Lord said, do you not
understand that whatsoever entereth into the mouth, goes into the
belly, and is cast out into the sewer? But those things which
proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart, and they
defile the man. For out of the heart proceeds
evil, thought, murders, adultery, fornication, thefts. These are
the things which defile the man, but to eat with unwashing hands?
You see, it's not the germs from unwashing hands going into your
mouth, it's what comes out of the heart. Remember, I've often
used that statement, what's in the well of the heart? comes
out through the bucket of the mouth. And that's just the way
it is. Salvation, then, is not cleaning
up the outside. It's not reformation. You can
teach men to be moral, to follow religious rules, church creeds,
but salvation, as it's revealed in God's word, is an issue of
the heart. God looks on the heart. We look
on the outward countenance. God looks on the heart. God looks
on the heart. Turn one page. Isaiah 66, look
at verse 2. We're going to look at this next
week, Lord willing. Isaiah 66, verse 2. For all those
things have my hand made, and all those things have been, saith
the Lord. But to this man will I look,
even to him that is of poor, a poor and a contrite spirit
that trembleth at my word. God denied them of a broken heart. He saved us such as be of a contrite
spirit. God must do something not only
for us, but in us. He must convict us of our sin
and show us that we're guilty. Salvation, as we've often said,
is a heart work, a heart work. It's God giving us a new heart,
making us new creatures, doing a work in us inwardly. Christ
in you is a hope of glory. making us think right thoughts
in our mind. He changes our will, our motives,
our affection, our desires. Amen, be in Christ, he's a new
creature. Old things are passed away, behold,
all things have become new. You remember the psalmist cried
in Psalm 51, create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit
within me. So it's just not salvation, it's
just not cleaning up the outside. And you can put a man in a nice
suit and a tie and fix him up and perfuming up and do all those
things, but the problem is God looks on the heart. He sees this
is a God with whom we have to do. Everything is naked and open
for the eyes of him with whom we have to do. Self-righteousness
is a deadly thing. Here's a second thing. Self-righteousness
is such a deadly and damning sin because it comes into our
heart and grows like wildfire when the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ is rejected. Faith and self-righteousness
are opposed to each other. Those who reject the gospel of
righteousness in Christ, provided in Christ, are always going about
to establish a righteousness of their own. Remember what Paul
said of those Jews in Romans 10. Oh, I bear them record. They have a zeal, but not according
to right knowledge. They have a zeal, but they're
ignorant of the righteousness of God. And because they're ignorant
of the true holy and righteous character of God, they're going
about to establish the righteousness of their own. and have not submitted
themselves unto the righteousness which is of God." What is that
righteousness which is of God? The Lord Jesus Christ. He is
the Lord, our righteousness before God. That's why Paul said, I
count everything else dung and ruined that I may win Christ
and be found in Him. Remember there, Saul of Tarsus,
that self-righteous Pharisee, who later became the converted,
man that we know by the Apostle Paul. When you read Philippians
chapter 3, in the first part of that, he talks about everything
he was in religion. A Hebrew of Hebrews, a Pharisee. He was a top-notch Pharisee. He said concerning the law, he
said, I was blameless. But when he was taught the gospel,
he said he counted all that religious baggage as garbage, rubbish,
that I may win Christ and be found in him, not having my own
righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through
the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ. The faith of God's
elect, the faith of God's elect find great comfort receiving
Christ alone, resting in him for all things in salvation.
Those saved by grace find no room for glory in the flesh,
knowing all flesh is What? Grass. Knowing all flesh is sinful. They find, believers find, saved
by the grace of God, they find great reason to glory, not in
the flesh, but only in Christ. You remember Galatians 6, 14?
God forbid, I should glory save, save in the cross of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's made on us wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. The faith of God's elect come
to Christ as a sinner and looking to the Lord Jesus Christ to provide
all things for us. You remember that scripture when
Paul writes in Philippians 4, he said, my God shall supply
all your need according to his riches in glory through the Lord
Jesus Christ. The faith of God's elect finds
no comfort in our obedience, but rather in the obedience and
faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ. We find no comfort in
our obedience. Our obedience is not our righteousness. We find our comfort in the faithfulness
of our surety, our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He honored
the law of God for us. We know by the deeds of the law
shall no flesh be justified, right? We are justified through
the blood being shed by the Lord Jesus Christ. He put away our
sin. And then He gives us what? God
made Him to be sin for us, shedding His blood to put away our sin,
that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. By one man's obedience
shall many be made righteous. Christ is our righteousness. So, believers are no longer going
about to perform righteousness. We're resting in the Lord Jesus
Christ, who is the Lord our righteousness. Here's the third thing. Self-righteousness,
this holier-than-thou attitude and conduct is the greatest sin
of all because it produces so many other evils. Look at verse
3, Isaiah 65 verse 3. A people that provoke me to anger
continually to my face. Now Israel had, they had the
law of God, they had the word of God, they had the priesthood,
they had the day of atonement, they had the Passover, they had
all those things. And yet they continually provoked
God that sacrificed in gardens, he's talking about Baal worship,
that burned incense upon altars of bricks instead of upon the
brazen altar which remain among the graves and the lodge, and
lodge in the mountains, which eat swine's flesh, and the pieces
of abominable, abominable things. Blasphemy and idolatry that provoke
God to anger, he said, these things are smoking my nose. Smoking
my nose. God is holy, and the self-righteous
say, well, I'm holy too. Any thinking person that knows
anything about the Word of God knows that God is holy, and we're
just the opposite. We are sinful. And we cannot
produce any holiness in the energy of the flesh. All we can do is
sin. Think sin and do sin. And we
can't stop. We cannot, as my preacher friend
Todd Nyberg always said, you cannot not sin. Just stop. Just stop those thoughts that
fly through your mind. You cannot not sin. We are sin. There's none good, none righteous,
but God. The self-righteous, they say,
well, I'm good too. I'm righteous too. I'm not as
bad as others. And the Apostle Paul in Romans
3 clearly said there's none righteous, no, not one. There's none that understand
it. There's none that seek it after God. They've all gone out
of the way. And there is none that understand,
none that are righteous. No, not you, not me, not any
man in and of himself. There was only one righteous
man, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man. The God,
man, the Lord, Jesus Christ. You remember those in Matthew
7 who bragged on themselves? Lord, we've done many wonderful
works in your name. We've cast out devils. We've
done all these powerful works, and we did it. We've done these
things in your name. And the Lord comes back and says,
depart from me. You're nothing but workers of
iniquity. This weed of self-righteousness
grows vigorously on the dunghill of human pride and self-ego.
It worships only at the altar of self-esteem and self-worth
and is nothing more than base, gross, idolatry in the worst
form because it worships self. Here's the fourth thing. Why
self-righteousness is so deadly and damning to our soul? Because
it's contrary to the Word of God and the Gospel of Christ.
It is born of our own wicked thoughts. Verse 2 says in our
text, which walk in a way that's not good after their own thoughts. Now remember, turn back a few
pages, Isaiah 55. Remember what the Lord says about
our thoughts? Isaiah 55 verse 7. Let the wicked forsake
his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return
to the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God
for he will abundantly pardon for my thoughts are not your
thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For
the heavens are higher than the earth, or my ways higher than
your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. We think too highly
of ourselves, and we think too low of God. Remember, the psalmist
writes, and the Lord says this to the psalmist, thou thoughtest
I was altogether such a one as thyself. Thank God He's not like
us. Thank God God is God. Beside
Him there is no other. How many times in the book of
Isaiah do we read that? The Lord said, I am God. Beside
Me there is no other. I'm the only just God and Savior. If someone thinks himself to
be righteous, he never got that idea from the law of God. If
he thinks he's righteous in himself, he never got that idea from the
law of God. For what does the law of God
say? The law of God says, guilty. Stop your mouth. Romans 3.19. The law says to everyone under
the law, guilty, guilty, guilty before God. The law not only
says guilty, the law says cursed is everyone that continues not
at all things which are written in the book of the law to do
them. So if someone thinks himself to be righteous in himself, he
never got that idea from the law of God, did he? Not at all. If someone thinks himself to
be righteous by his deeds, he never got that idea from the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. The gospel is for sinners. The
Lord Jesus Christ came to save sinners. He came to seek and
to save the lost. You see, the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ is not for good folks. Not for righteous folks. Good folks and righteous folks
don't need a Savior. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation. The Lord Jesus Christ came to
save sinners, sinners, sinners. The good news of the gospel is,
the good news, there's grace for the guilty, there's mercy
for the miserable. Those who are not guilty don't
need a Redeemer. Do they? Those who are not guilty
don't need a Savior to deliver them from the curse of the law.
Remember we said in Galatians 3, Christ has redeemed us from
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us? The whole gospel
system is needless if we can be justified by ourselves. If
we can declare ourselves righteous by our deeds, our morality, it
makes the death of Christ a needless thing, doesn't it? Remember Galatians
2.21, if righteousness comes by the law, Christ is dead in
vain. No need for Him to come, no need
for Him to die. If I can be moral enough and
clean myself up enough to present myself before God, acceptable
in my deeds, I don't need the Lord Jesus Christ to die for
my sins. But we know we can't justify
ourselves before God. He says, you're guilty, you're
guilty. You see, it makes the work of the Holy Spirit unnecessary
if we can make ourselves new creatures. by our outward doing. You can wash your hands and wash
your shirt and put on clean clothes and wash your hair and take a
bath every night and take a shower in the morning and shower at
night. Your heart is unclean before God. That's the problem. God must give us a new heart.
God must make us new creatures in Christ Jesus. Now here's the
last thing. Self-righteous is a deadly thing. Self-righteousness
is a deadly thing. It will block any real hope of
salvation. If you trust in yourself, you
can't trust the Lord Jesus Christ. It'll keep you from true repentance.
How can you repent if you're not a sinner? It'll keep you
from true faith. How can you trust Christ when
you're busy trusting yourself? Paul in Philippians 3 said, we
are the true Israel which worship God in the spirit, that rejoice
in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. It'll
keep you from true righteousness in Christ, because you'll be
busy going about to establish the righteousness of your own.
As long as you depend upon yourself, you shall never be dependent
upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Will you? Christ alone, grace
alone, faith alone, the blood alone, Christ alone, faith alone. In closing, what is the remedy?
Well, you know what the remedy is. For all of our sin, including
self-righteousness, the only remedy is the Lord Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. Thank God He died. Thank God
He puts away all our sin. even those sins of self-righteousness. What is the remedy? The Lord
Jesus Christ and His amazing, amazing grace. We believe through
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved. Remember from
our study of the book of Acts, in Acts chapter 15, When Paul
went among the Gentiles and started preaching the gospel and God
started calling out his elect and saving them by his grace,
those old Jews got mad. You remember? And they said to
Peter and James there in Jerusalem, those Gentiles, except they be
circumcised and keep the law of Moses, they really can't be
saved. Well, what's this thing about
salvation by the grace of God? They need to keep the law and
they need to be circumcised. Well, you remember they had a
big discussion about that. We read all about it in Acts
chapter 15. There was much contention and
much debate. And Peter stood up and cleared
the air and he said this, Through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ
that we shall be saved, a Jew, just like God saved the Gentile.
How's that? By grace alone, grace alone. The Lord Jesus Christ says He's
the only just God and Savior. You remember? Turn back to Isaiah
45, I'll let you go. Isaiah 45. Go to verse 20, Isaiah 45, 20. Assemble yourselves, and come
drawn in together, ye that are escaped of the nation. They have
no knowledge, yet set up wood of their graven image, and pray
unto a God that cannot save. Isaiah 45, 21, Tell ye, bring
them near, yea, let them take counsel together, who hath declared
it from ancient time, who hath not told it from that time? Have
not I the Lord? There is no God else beside me,
a just God and Savior, there is none beside me. Now look unto
me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth. For I am God,
and there is none else. I have sworn by myself the word
gone out of my mouth, then righteousness shall not return to me void.
Then unto me every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess.
Surely shall one say in the Lord," now watch it, verse 24, surely
shall one say in the Lord, in the Lord I have righteousness. and strength. Even to Him shall
men come in all their incense. Him shall be ashamed. In the
Lord shall all the seed of Israel, the elect of God, be justified,
and they shall glory only in the Lord." Now how deadly is
this thing of self-glory and self-righteousness? It's a deadly
thing.