Let us turn today in our Bibles
to the book of Isaiah, chapter 57. I want to speak to us today from
Isaiah 57 verses 1 and 2. The righteous perisheth, and
no man layeth 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."
I want us to especially consider the words in verse 1, No man
layeth it to heart. No man lays it to heart. But before we look at the four
lessons that I have for us from those words, I want us to go
through the two verses and get the context of this statement. First, the righteous perisheth. Who are the righteous and how
do they perish? The Apostle Paul in Romans chapter
3 and showing how that the whole world, both Jew and Gentile,
is guilty before God. He declared, there's none righteous,
no, not one. There's no one, no one born of
woman who is righteous by birth. There's no one who comes into
this world who is righteous. You. We did not come into this
world righteous. There is none righteous, no,
not one. And no man makes himself to be
righteous. By the deeds of the law shall
no flesh be justified or declared righteous in his sight. But our text says the righteous
perisheth. And yet the scriptures tell us
that when we come into this world that none of us are righteous. But we know from the Word of
God that there are those who are made, are declared to be
righteous through the imputation of the righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's the only way any person
is made righteous. No person is made righteous by
joining a church, by turning over a new leaf, by being baptized
or any of these things, being sprinkled as a baby, going through
a catechism class and learning all the right answers, being
able to recite the creed or whatever. No one is made righteous in any
other way than by having the righteousness of Christ, that
is His perfect obedience when He was here in the flesh, His
obedience to the law of God perfectly in thought, in word, and in deed,
and then suffering at the hands of God's offended justice, His
righteousness is imputed unto those who believe. That's the
only one anyone is ever made righteous. The Apostle Paul in
2 Corinthians 5 and verse 21, he just summed it all up in this
one verse, didn't he, when he said this, For he, that is God,
he hath made him, that is Christ, for he hath made him to be sin
for us, who Christ knew no sin, there was no sin in him, he did
no sin, made him to be sin for us, that in order that we might
be made the righteousness of God in him. In Romans chapter 5 and verse
19, the apostle said this, For as by one man's disobedience,
and that one man was Adam, for by one man's disobedience many
were made sinners, so by the obedience of one, that one, the
Lord Jesus Christ, shall many be made righteous. Let me read
you one verse of Scripture from Romans chapter 4 and verse 3. The Scripture says, For what
saith the Scripture? The Apostle Paul asks this question. What does the Old Testament say?
He has reference to the Old Testament when he asks the question, For
what saith the Scripture? Because the New Testament had
not been written. when he asked this question.
For what saith the Scripture? What saith the Old Testament?
What saith the New Testament? What saith all the Word of God? There's only one Gospel, there's
only one Savior, and there's only one way that men are made
righteous before God. For what saith the Scripture?
Abraham believed God. Abraham believed God and it was
counted, or imputed, or charged, it was counted unto him for righteousness. So in our text this morning we
see the righteous perisheth who are the righteous. The righteous
are those who know Christ as their Lord and Savior. those
who are complete in Him, accepted in the Beloved. The Lord God
said, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. And
He's well pleased with everyone who is in Him. How then do the
righteous perish? Our text says the righteous perisheth. How then do the righteous perish?
Well, the righteous do not perish eternally because, as I have
just said, they are accepted in the beloved and they are given
eternal life. The Lord Jesus Christ said, whosoever
liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Well then, how did
the righteous perish? The word perish in our text is
speaking of their physical death. Yes, the righteous do perish
in this sense. They die physically. These, as
we read in Hebrews chapter 11 concerning the Old Testament
saints and all saints, these all died in faith. Now notice
the second part of the text. Merciful men are taken away. Well, let's ask the same questions.
Who are the merciful? And how are they taken away? Merciful men. Now listen. Hear
me now. Merciful men are men who obtain
mercy. Merciful men are men and women,
of course, who obtain mercy. Our Lord said this in the Beatitudes. He said, Blessed are the merciful,
for they shall obtain mercy. The merciful are those who obtain
mercy. You see, when you obtain something,
you don't earn it, according to the Scriptures. And you don't
deserve it. You obtain it. The merciful are
those who obtain mercy. God told Moses this, and this
is part of God's glory. This is part of God declaring
who He is. He's not this wannabe God that's
being preached all over our country today. That's not the God of
the Bible. That's not the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ. He's a God who wants to be God,
a God who wants to do things, but man will not allow him. In other words, man has reversed
the order and now man is on the throne and God is in the dust. Man is sovereign and man is dependent. Or God, rather, is dependent
upon man. Nothing could be farther from
the truth. Nothing is so discrediting to God, the God
of the Bible, than to say that He is a God who kind of has His
wringing his hands, you know, wondering what's going to happen.
Who's going to let Jesus come into his heart? Who's going to
accept Christ? How is this all going to? No,
no, no, no. God told Moses when he asked
to see his glory, he said this, I will have mercy upon whom I
will have mercy. If He passed every one of us
here in this room today by, I mean He just left us in our sins,
we would receive exactly what we deserve. I will have mercy upon whom I
will have mercy. Now that's what God said. He
said, I don't like that. Well, don't get mad at me. I'm
just the messenger. He's the one who spoke the words.
I will have mercy upon whom I will have mercy. I want you to turn
with me in the New Testament. Keep your places here. But to
1st Timothy chapter 1. 1st Timothy chapter 1. Reading verses 12 through 14.
the Apostle Paul, and I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath
enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into
the ministry. God puts men into the ministry.
Preachers do not put men into the ministry, and schools, seminaries,
do not put men into the ministry. God puts men into the ministry.
And everyone he puts into the ministry, we thank God. What
a privilege it is to preach the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ,
our Lord. And he makes us faithful, and
it says he counted me faithful. It is required of a steward,
the apostle Paul said, that he be faithful. And God makes us
faithful. I thank God. I thank Christ Jesus
our Lord who hath enabled me and any gift we have to preach
the gospel he gives it to us. Any power, any ability. For that he counted me faithful
putting me into the ministry. Now notice who was before a blasphemer
and a persecutor and injurious or insolent but I obtained mercy. I didn't deserve it. I didn't
earn it. I obtained mercy because I did
it ignorantly and unbelieved. Now, when you read that, don't
read into that Paul's making an excuse for himself because
he's not by any means. In fact, if you notice in verse
15, he goes on to confess that he was the chief of sinners.
This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am
chief. When Paul says here, because
I did it ignorantly in unbelief, he is showing that he was an
object of mercy. He names these things about himself. He was a blasphemer. He blasphemed
the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, and did all he could to
cause others to blaspheme that holy name. He was a persecutor. He did what he could to do harm,
and when Stephen was martyred, he held the coats of those who
threw the stones. I was a blasphemer, I was a persecutor,
I was injurious, did everything I could to injure the cause of
Christ. I was ignorant. I was ignorant. You remember
later he writes concerning his countrymen that he had such a
burden for his kinsmen according to the flesh. He said, My heart's
desire and prayer for Israel is that they might be saved,
for they, being ignorant of God's righteousness, go about to establish
their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto
the righteousness of God. Do you see anything in the Apostle
Paul that would merit mercy? You see what he's saying here,
my friends? I was a blasphemer, I was a persecutor,
I was insolent or injurious to the cause of Christ, I was ignorant
of the way of God, and I was full of unbelief. I didn't believe
God. I obtained mercy. And notice verse 14. when God
is merciful to a sinner. And remember, God's mercy is
God not giving us what we deserve, hell, and God's grace is God
giving us what we don't deserve, Christ. And the grace of our
Lord was exceeding abundant, now notice, with faith and love
which is in Christ Jesus. When a person obtains mercy and
grace, these two twins, when a person obtains mercy and grace,
then surely he or she will have faith in Jesus Christ. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. And just
as well as faith, love. We love. We love God. We love Christ. We love God's
people. We love God's word. That's one
of the first marks, isn't it? of a person who is born of the
Spirit of God. We love God's Word. As a pastor said the other day,
this is God speaking to us. When we read this, this is God
speaking to us. We love His Word. Merciful men are taken away. Okay, the merciful are the righteous,
those who obtain mercy. But the scripture says, merciful
men are taken away. How then are merciful men taken
away? Well, let me show you that I have a
strong concordance. I looked up this word that is
translated taken away. It's a Hebrew word. It comes
from a Hebrew root word which means together, together. And I love that word gather when
it speaks of the death of a child of God. When it came time for Aaron,
the first high priest to die, listen to these words that God
told Moses. He told them to go up on that
mountain, and he said, Moses, strip Aaron of his garments. He had on those beautiful priestly
robes, gold plate, beautiful stones, precious stones. Moses,
take that off of him and put it on his son, Eliezer. He became
the high priest. And Aaron shall be gathered to
his people. And then sometime later it came
time for Moses to die. And God told Moses the same thing. He let him go up on that mountain
and the scripture said, When thou hast seen it, up on that
mountain, when you look over and see all the land of Canaan,
the land flowing with milk and honey, the land of promise, when
thou hast seen it, thou shalt be gathered unto thy people,
as Aaron thy brother. Merciful men are taken away,
that is, merciful men are gathered to their people. I like to be
with my people, don't you? And this is my people right here.
I love to be with my people. And all of our people who are
already in heaven, when a believer dies, we are gathered to our
people. To our Lord, yes, but also we're
gathered to the general assembly and church of the firstborn. Now notice the third thing in
the text. We are told that they enter into peace, they shall
rest in their beds, each one walking in his uprightness. They shall enter into peace. Christ made peace for them, for
you, for me. We were enmity with God. But Christ made peace for us,
the scripture says, by the blood of His cross, by His death. And believers, the merciful,
the righteous, they enter into peace, into an eternal state
of peace. Let me read you what one old
writer said. There, that is where they go,
there is the God of peace. There is Christ, the Prince of
Peace. There is the Spirit whose fruit
is peace. And there are the angels of peace. And there, there is nothing to
disturb their peace. They enter into peace. No sin within. They've left this
body of flesh, that old man, that old nature, and they've
entered into peace. They'll never be troubled. Are
you ever troubled by sin? I am all the time. They'll never
be troubled by Satan's darts, his fiery darts, his temptations
ever again. They enter into peace. Peace. Peace. And number two, it says they
shall rest in their beds. Now this, of course, is speaking
of their bodies. Their bodies rest in their graves,
waiting for that shout, for that trump of God, when Christ shall
descend and the dead in Christ shall be raised incorruptible. They rest in their graves. And third, The Scripture here
says they're walking in His uprightness. Their souls are not sleeping,
but they are dressed in their shining robes of immortality,
walking or serving. They're not just idle in heaven,
my friends. They are walking, serving, worshiping,
praising God Almighty. They're all singing the same
hymn. Worthy is the Lamb. Now, here are four truths that
we should lay to heart. It's clear to me when I read
this scripture, the righteous perisheth and no man layeth it
to heart. That God mentions this as a fault,
as a fault. A righteous man perishes and
we do not lay it to heart. We see in verse 1 what especially
we are to lay to heart. The scripture says, He is taken
away from the evil to come. And yes, my friends, we sorrow. And our hearts are filled with
sadness when one of our loved ones is taken from us. But my friends, if they are believers,
if they're children of God, they are taken away from the evil
to come. And evil is continually coming. As long as we are in this world,
evil comes. Evil comes. Evil comes. It's
just like the waves down at the ocean. They just keep coming.
Keep coming. And as long as we are in this
world, which is cursed because of sin, evil will come. I'm not talking about moral evil.
That comes too. But I'm talking about calamities,
infirmities, all of these things that disturb us. He's taken away
from the evil to come. Now I say this, God charges this
as a fault. No man layeth it to heart. We are to lay this to heart. We're to lay to heart that they
are taken away from the evil to come and we are to comfort
ourselves with these words. Let me give you four other things
and I'll be brief. Number one, now listen to me
every person here, give me your attention please. We should lay
to heart that we too have an appointment with death. Now we should lay that to heart.
We too, everyone in this room, we have an appointment with death. The scripture says it is appointed
unto man wants to die. And that's one appointment you're
going to keep. That's one appointment I'm going
to keep. Now we should lay that to heart.
Death came into God's world by sin. And we all died spiritually
in Adam, and we will all die physically. We should lay to
heart that death comes, and it comes to many unexpectedly. Did you hear what I said? Lay
this to heart. Death is coming. And number two,
death comes unexpectedly to many people. Scripture said, boast
not thyself of tomorrow, for thou knowest not what a day may
bring forth. Brother Ralph Barnard, I can
remember him talking along this line and saying, before you have
time to pack a toothbrush, death comes. Death comes. It comes unexpectedly to many. Not everyone, but to many. Are you prepared to die? Are
you? You're going to. You've got an
appointment. Are you prepared to die? When is a person prepared to
die? I like to use that example of that older gentleman in Jerusalem
by the name of Simeon, when the Lord Jesus Christ was just a
baby, six weeks old. And God had told him that before
he died, he would see the Lord's Christ. And when Mary and Joseph
came to the temple that day, he picked him up in his arms. And where did he say, now let
us thou thy servant depart, for I have seen thy salvation. Where did he see God's salvation?
In Christ. Salvation's not in a plan, it's
not in a form, it's not in a creed. Salvation is in the person of
Jesus Christ. When is a person ready to die?
When he sees God's salvation in Jesus Christ and leans all
the weight of his soul's salvation upon Christ. As John Bunyan once
said, upon another's life I did not live and upon another's death
I did not die. I stake my whole eternity. So that's the first lesson. We
should lay to heart that we all have an appointment with death.
Are you ready? You say, well, I'm just a very
young person. Well, trust me. You go out to the cemetery and
you'll see grave markers, my friends, for children, for older
people, middle-aged people, young adults. People die of all ages. You say, well, you're trying
to scare us. It wouldn't do a bit of good. It would not do a bit of good.
I've seen people get scared before when someone close to them died
and it lasts about two or three weeks. No, what I'm praying for
is that God the Holy Spirit will stab your heart with the truth
if you are here today without Christ. That's my prayer. I'm not trying to scare anyone.
But I tell you this, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands
of a living God. The second lesson, we should
lay to heart that there are temporary and there are eternal things. Paul said, while we look not
at the things which are sane, but at the things which are not
sane. For the things which are sane
are temporal. But the things which are not
seen are eternal." We should lay that to heart. There are
things which are seen and they are temporal. And there are things
which are not seen and they are eternal. And I thought about
the man in one of our Lord's parables who the Lord had blessed
him so much he had a bumper crop and he said, I'll tear down my
barns and build bigger. And then he said, this is what
I'm going to say to my soul. Thou hast much goods laid up
for many years. And the Lord Jesus Christ said
this about that man. Thou fool, this night thy soul
shall be required of thee. And who shall these things be?
These things are temporal that we see. We should lay that to
heart. and lay up treasures in heaven,
as our Lord said, where the moth and the thieves do not break
through and steal. Number three, we should lay to
heart that we should quickly resolve all disagreements. Now,
what do you mean, preacher? Well, sad to say, but it's true. Sometimes disagreements are between
brothers. They do happen. And they will,
as long as we are in this world. We're not going to see everything
the same. We're not going to agree on every
point. Peter asked the Lord one day,
he said, Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and
I forgive him? Seven times? And Peter thought, he thought if he forgave a brother
seven times, he was really doing something. And the Lord said,
Peter, What about 70 times? In other words, an indefinite
number of times. As oft as a brother sins against
you and asks for forgiveness, forgive him. Forgive him. We
should lay to heart that we should quickly resolve all disagreements. It's a sad thing when we have
a disagreement with someone and we mean to make it right, we
mean to to say what we need to say or do what we need to say,
but we put it off, we procrastinate, and then that person is taken
away. And then our conscience bothers
us, as it should. There's forgiveness, that's for
sure. But again, I say we should lay
it to heart. any little disagreement that
we might have, we should quickly resolve that. We should be slow to take offense
and quick, fast to forgive. And the last thing, we should
lay to heart the value of a good name, a good name. And I especially speak to everyone
here, but young people, listen to me. Children, teenagers, listen
to me. Lay to heart the value of having
a good name. Proverbs 22, 1 says, A good name
is rather to be chosen than great riches. A good name, that's better
than a great amount of money. Ecclesiastes 7 says a good name
is better than precious ointment. It's precious ointment that gives
off such a beautiful aroma. Now I know both of these verses
are speaking especially of Christ. He's the one who has the good
name. He is Jehovah Jireh, the Lord
will provide. Jehovah Shalom, the Lord is our
peace. Jehovah Tiskanu, the Lord our
righteousness. I realize that, but even so,
even so, we should endeavor to have a good name. Tell the truth. Keep your word. Be thankful. Be thankful. Be honest. Be kind. Be tenderhearted. and show your love to others. I pray that the Lord would bless
these words to all of us here today. We're going to sing a
hymn and then we'll be dismissed in prayer. Hymn number 293.