Barrett Johnson and remember
them in your prayers and also the Sweeney's family added to
the family of Pam driver and remember Fred he's got right
now he's waiting the 23rd you go for what a PET scan 23rd goes
pretty he's got he got two situations facing him he's going to have
have to have some type of cancer treatment And also, he's going
to have to have an open-heart surgery, which those two things
not necessarily are conducive to working together. So remember
him, especially in your prayers, and Arlene, too, and his family,
and say they minister to him. Happy birthday to Ethel Connolly
today. I wonder how old Ethel is. Okay, all right. Can't think of any other announcements.
Let's begin our worship service with hymn number 39, This is
My Father's World, my dad's favorite song. This is my father's world, and
to my listening ears, All nature sings and round me rings the
music of the spears. This is my father's world. I rest in me the thought of rocks
and trees, of skies and seas, and the wonders wrought. This is my father's world. The birds their carols raise
The morning light, the lily white Declare the Maker's praise This
is my Father's world He shines in all that's fair In rustling
grass I hear him pass. He speaks to me everywhere. This is my father's world. Oh, let me dance. This is my Father's will. The battle is undone. Jesus who died shall be satisfied
and earth and heaven be one. After scripture reading and prayer
while singing Christ at the cross, you have your handouts there.
If you have your Bibles, turn with me to Isaiah, the prophet
Isaiah. Take my text from verse 20 this
morning. I'm gonna read the first 20 verses. Isaiah chapter one. The vision of Isaiah, the son
of Amos, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days
of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, kings of Judah. Hear, O heavens,
and give ear, O earth, for the Lord has spoken. I have nourished
and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.
The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib. But
Israel does not know, my people does not consider. Ah, sinful
nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children
that are corruptors, they have forsaken the Lord. They have
provoked the Holy One of Israel into anger. They've gone away
backwards. Why should you be stricken anymore?
You'll revolt more and more. The whole head is sick and the
whole heart is faint. From the sole of the foot even
to the head, there is no soundness in it but wounds and bruises.
Putrefying sores that have not been closed, neither bound up
nor mollified with ointment. Your country is desolate. Your
cities are burned with fire. Your land, strangers devoured
in your presence. And it is desolate as overthrown
by strangers The daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in
a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city. Except the Lord of hosts that
left us a very small remnant, we should have been at Sodom
and Gomorrah. Hear ye the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom.
Give ear unto the law, our God, you people of Gomorrah. To what
purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the
Lord, I am full of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fed beasts,
and I delight not in the blood of bullets or lambs or of goats.
When you come to appear before me, who hath required this at
your hand to tread my courts? Bring no more vain oblations,
incenses and abomination to me, the new moons and Sabbaths, the
calling of assemblies I cannot away with. It is iniquity, even
the solemn meeting your new moons and your appointed feasts, my
soul hateth. They are a trouble unto me. I
am weary to bear them. And when you spread forth your
hands, I will hide mine eyes from you. Yea, when you make
many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood.
Wash you. Make you clean. Put away the
evil of your doings from before mine eyes. Cease to do evil.
Learn to do well. Seek judgment. Relieve the oppressed.
Judge the fatherless. Plead for the widow. Come now.
Let us reason together. saith the Lord, though your sins
be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they
be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If you be willing
and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land. But if you
refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured with the sword for the
mouth of the Lord has spoken it. Let's pray. Our Father in
heaven, we are thankful for your word, which is a lamp unto our
feet and a light unto our path. the entrance of which gets understanding
to the simple. We pray that we'd hide your word
in our heart that we might not sin against thee. We are thankful
that you tell us the truth about ourselves and the truth about
yourself. We are thankful that we can know
and understand that because of the work of Jesus Christ our
sins, though they be like scarlet, are as white as snow, though
they be red like crimson, they are as wood. We are thankful,
Father, that you have spoken these things and set them in
order, declared them to be so. And we know that because your
word is infallible and perfect, these things are so. We thank
you for the shed blood of Jesus Christ that wondrous sacrifice
which satisfied your law and justice, which propitiated you
for our sins. And when he made his soul an
offering for sin, we know that he was satisfied as he saw the travail of his
soul. He justified many by his righteous works. Lord, we ask
this morning as we gather here that you might be with those
who are sick, Pray for Brother Fred as he faces these things
with the doctors. Pray for those doctors. Give
them great skill, understanding. Help them. Be with him and Arlene
and the rest of the families that minister to him. Pray for
Brother D. Parks as you continue to minister
to him and his family. Pray for these who have lost
a loved one. I know as to every case for thou art God. There
is none beside thee, there is none like unto thee. You declare
the end from the beginning. Things that are not yet done,
as though they were. You purpose it, and it shall
stand. You speak it, and it shall take place. We know you do all your pleasure
in this world. It is your world. It is your universe. And you
are the ruler. You reign supreme, and we praise
you for that, and we're thankful for that. Left to us, we know
what man has done. He started a downward trend that
continues to plunge deeper and deeper into depravity. Father,
help us to look to Christ and not trust our own understanding.
To lean wholly upon him. Be with us this day. Touch our
hearts and our minds with your word. Pray in Christ's name. Christ of the Cross. He died in my place The purpose
of God to fulfill So I'll cherish the Christ of the cross And before
His throne I'll bow down ♪ To the Christ of the cross ♪
For he is the king I must crown ♪ Oh, the Christ of the cross
♪ So despised by the world ♪ Has a wondrous attraction to me ♪
He the dear lamb of God ♪ Let his glory above ♪ I will bear
all my sin on the tree ♪ So I'll cherish the Christ on the cross
♪ And before his throne I'll bow down ♪ To the Christ of the cross ♪
For he is the king I must crown ♪ In the Christ of the cross
♪ And his blood so divine ♪ A marvelous beauty I see eyes that long had been blind. To behold Him bow on His throne. So I'll cherish the Christ on
the cross. And before His throne I'll bow
down. ♪ To the Christ of the cross ♪
For he is the king I must crown ♪ To the Christ of the cross
♪ I must ever be true ♪ His shame and reproach gladly bear ♪ For
in love he constructs shall be gained His glory forever
I'll share so I'll cherish the Christ of the cross and before
His throne I'll bow down I will cling to the Christ of the When I ask Sam and Stan to receive
the offering this morning, please. Let us pray. Father, again we
approach in the name. the blessed name of Jesus Christ,
that name that you have given us, by which we are to approach
unto you, for you have said whatever we ask in that name you will
give to us. You meet our every need and we
are thankful. We know that what we have this
side of perdition is all of mercy and grace. We have nothing that
we've not received and as to the fact that we've not received
it, let us not boast. Help us, Lord, now to worship
as we render unto thee that which belongs to you, that which you've
given to us. Let us do so with joy. In Christ's name, amen. you you invite your attention back to
Isaiah chapter 1 and verse 20 says this, but if you refuse
to rebel you shall be devoured with the sword for the mouth
of the Lord has spoken it. Taking my text from that last
phrase, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it. The title of my message this
morning is His Word. Many years ago when I was just
a pup, Henry Mahan told me after he had pastored for some 30,
40 years, I guess. I can't remember. He said, you
know, if I had to do over again for the first two years, I wouldn't
preach anything but the infallibility and absolute authority of God's
word. I would try my best to get people
to understand what they hold in their hand. Here's a word
of God from heaven above, not something to be trifled with,
not something to be toyed with. The words of Isaiah, here in verse 20, refers to what
he said in verses 1 through 20. These words are a proclamation
of the origin of the message. Thus saith the Lord. The sermon
Isaiah preached was not his, but the Lord's. The voice that
the people heard was Isaiah's, but the message was from God
himself. It was God who spoke. and the
lips that delivered were born of an earthly vessel, but the
word spoken and the message delivered were what God describes as rain
coming down from heaven in Isaiah 55. The prophet of God spoke
without fear. You think about it, he was a
prophet to this people and the things he said to this people
were not kind. God's preachers in scripture
are called sons of thunder. They speak with authority, not
their own, but the authority of heaven. For the Lord said,
All authority is given unto me in heaven and earth. Therefore,
based upon that authority, go forth and preach the gospel to
every creature. Isaiah spoke confidently, dogmatically,
and with bold authority because he knew that the message he preached
was the Word of God. The people heard from God that
day and the message was plain. They heard that they were totally
depraved in the first eight verses. Totally. You can't find one nice
thing that God says about them or one description that God gives
of them that would be conducive to thinking they were okay. They
were not. They were ruined, rebellious
people. they heard that some of them
were unconditionally elected what a wonder among this vile
and wretched bunch of people described in verses two through
eight verse nine the Lord said except I left a very small remnant
all of you should have been like Sodom and Gomorrah and then he
goes on to address those who were practicing this rebellion
still as Sodom and Gomorrah he called Israel Sodom and Gomorrah
he calls the the synagogue in Revelation, Sodom and Egypt. But he says, except I had left
a very small remnant. He had all been like Sodom and
Gomorrah, and that's what the elect of God are, a very small
remnant according to the election of grace. They also heard that
their religious efforts were utterly useless and vain and
vile and hated by God. They heard that they could not
save themselves in verse 16 and 17. They heard of the free grace
of God toward helpless sinners in Christ's substitution in verses
18 through 20. And they finished that part of
the message with a powerful Amen. So be it. The Amen was this. The mouth of the Lord has spoken
it. The mouth of the Lord has spoken
it. Isaiah had spoken the word of
the Lord. He was free of the blood of those that heard him.
That's what Paul said. I'm not holding anything back
from you in Acts chapter 20. Declaring to you repentance toward
God and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ. He said I'm free
from your blood because I've told you the truth. And when he finished his task,
he declared to the people that they were accountable for what
they heard. The mouth of the Lord has spoken. I know in the
day in which we live, the Word of God is poo-pooed. People don't
want to talk about the Bible. They're quoted here and there,
but mostly wrong. But the Word of God is never
heard with impunity and is not in this world with impunity.
Scripture says, Man does not live by bread alone, but by every
word that proceeds out of the mouth of God, because man is
God's creature, because man is God's property. and when the
Creator condescended to speak to his creatures they are responsible
to hear his voice the Lord said there is one that judge you I
won't judge you but there is one that judges you and will
judge you even the Word of God John 12 48 that'll be your judge
this book gonna be your judge if you know Christ or if you
don't this book is the judgment Five things I want us to consider
this morning. First of all, when Isaiah said,
ìThe mouth of the Lord has spoken it,î that is a declaration of
the INERRANCY and INFALLIBILITY of the Holy Scriptures. All Scripture
is inspired by God, the Holy Spirit. and is therefore the
infallible record, the inerrant revelation of that which has
been spoken by God. Paul said, All Scripture is given
by inspiration of God. God breathed, said that to Timothy.
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for
doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction, that the man
of God might be truly furnished unto good works. Peter said,
We're born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible seed,
even the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. The fact
is, there is no other book like this book, It is possessed of
a unique dignity and value and power that has gone on through
the ages when all others have been set on some shelf. This
book, only this book, is infallibly inspired by God, written by men
who were, as they penned these words, infallibly directed by
the Spirit to record exactly what God had said. What we hold in our hands, what
you rest in your lap right now, God wrote! God wrote! He is the Sovereign
Maker and He is the Author of this book. The substance of this entire
book is TRUTH! This book alone is the means
by which God, the God of all glory, reveals Himself to people.
He does not reveal Himself in any other way. It is through
this book, not in a cloud Not in some writing on a wall. That
happened a long time ago. Not in some dream you have. Not
in some strange feeling you might have. You want to know what God
has for you and for every other person in this world. This is
the book. This is His Word. And this magnificent
tome, uttered by the voice of the Almighty, contains nothing
but absolutes and certainties. Absolutes and certainties. I
love absolutes and certainties. I told you this before when a
friend of mine who's now gone on to be with the Lord, old Dusty
Rhodes, he was an evangelist back in the 70s, 60s, and 70s,
giving a radio interview. And the radio announcer said,
I don't believe in absolutes. And Dusty says, are you sure?
He said, absolutely. Absolutely. The Word of God will
stand forever. That's what it says in Isaiah
40. You tell the flesh. They're just grass. I mowed the
grass here. They finally got to mow it after
it dried up a little bit. Just knocked it down with a mower.
Now it's brown laying out there in the yard. You want to know
what you are when you leave church? Go between the house and the
church and look out there. There's brown clops. That's you. All flesh
is grass, and as the flower of the field, it fadeth. When the
Spirit of God bloweth upon it, it goes away. That's what we
are. But the Word of God shall stand
forever. The opinions of men are manifold.
They pass off the scene and enter into dust when the men do. Science,
so-called, varies with every new discovery. It's wholly based
upon the money that pays for the discovery. If you don't understand
that, you don't understand what science is today. You do not
understand it. Whoever pays for the discovery
gets the discovery. And they get the discovery they
want. Pure science is gone. Where people actually test something,
form a hypothesis and a theory, and then test it. And if it's
proved, it must be retested. with all the same elements involved,
for it to be called true science. Science today is a guy sitting
on a computer saying, well, this might happen. If this happens,
and I insert this, and this might happen, and all of a sudden,
we have climate change. I saw an interesting thing on
Facebook the other day, and a person, a scientist actually said, global
warming will return this summer. That's called seasons, for heaven's
sake. What lasts? The Word of God. God has spoken. Philosophies
dance on the winds of changing opinions inside societal impulses,
but God has spoken and His Word is immutable, unalterable, and
fixed forever. The plague of humanity is to
ever find some new thing to entice them. Religion thrives on new
ways while discounting old things. Every preacher of the gospel
has been told that what he preaches is outdated and not relevant
for the modern day. The impudent count God's word
as impertinent. The believer loves things that
are old, as old as God himself. Seek ye the old paths, Jeremiah
said. the old past. A friend of mine
has gone on to be with the Lord of Kirtishwale one time. A fella
said to him, you believe that old predestination stuff, don't
you? He says, yeah, it is old. It's mighty old. It's as old
as God. The Word of God is power. That's
how it's described in Scripture. Dunamis. We get our word dynamiter,
dynamic from it. It's unstoppable in its course
to fulfillment. It always does what it's supposed
to do. It's sharper than a two-edged sword, dividing the joints from
the marrow, discerning the thoughts and intents of the heart. The
Word of God does that. Now, I can't see what you're
thinking, but this does. The minute you hear it, your
thoughts and intents are discerned. This is the Word of God. It reads your mail. It KNOWS what you think! It is
POWER! It is POWER! Paul said, I preach the gospel,
I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the POWER of God
unto salvation to everyone that believes, to the Jew first and
also to the Greek, for therein, in that gospel, is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith. The Word of God is POWER,
unstoppable! This book has been the conversion
of paupers and princes. It has moved the hearts of kings
and slaves to bow before their Maker. Though we are unable to
explain it, this Word is the means and instrument of life." The instrument of life. This
Word does that. This is what God uses to make
people alive from the dead. James said, "...of his own will."
He hath begotten us with the Word of Life. Birthed us with
the Word of Life. It's the source of all faith
and the basis of all faith. faith rests in what God has said
because we can't see anything. Faith is the one thing that can't
be duplicated. Everything else that so-called
Christianity involves or that people say this is Christianity
can be duplicated by anybody. You say, well, prayer. I was
driving up SoCo many years ago and about five o'clock in the
afternoon this Muslim got out of his car and parked alongside
the road and put his prayer cloth down and started doing his prayers
right there. His alibi is right there on the
side of the road. He was praying. Prayer can be duplicated. You
get enough of a fix and a bad enough fix, I'll guarantee you'll
pray. The old saying says there ain't no atheists in foxholes
and that's true. Every one of us boys when we
got into the service and went overseas, we had that little old Gideon
Bible stuck in our pocket, I guarantee you that. We turned over to Psalm,
Psalm 129, I think it was it talked about The Lord is my salvation, whom
shall I fear? Desires for spiritual direction.
Read Psalm 119 over and over again. Find the Word of God. David talks about the Word of
God, the Word of God. It's a lamp unto our feet and a light unto
our path. This blessed word convicts and convinces and destroys and
gives hope and slays and comforts all at the same time. It's the
only thing that does that. We do not apply to our opinion
or poll the masses we believe because the mouth of the Lord
has spoken it. And God has given you faith to
rest in that fact. Secondly, the mouth of the Lord
has spoken is the authority that backs up the gospel we preach.
I'm nobody and I am nothing. The word of Isaiah is nothing.
The word of Paul the Apostle, he said, I'm nothing. He said,
I'm nothing. Less than the least of saints.
He said, I'm just somebody with plants. I don't speak it and
somebody else speaks it. God's the one that gives the
increase. We can't do anything about it. We speak the gospel and the
gospel is substantial something. We bring good tidings of good
things, scripture says, our message. is thus saith the Lord. Because
it is the Lord's word, we as Paul come with fear and trembling
to preach to you careful of what God has said. We seek to be plain
because we want every result to be attributed to God alone,
not my flesh, not my ability. God's word. We repeat the same
message over and over again because God does not change. There was
a little blurb on Facebook the other day It says, tell me what
you do but don't tell me your profession. And I wrote, I say
the same thing over and over and over again. And one old preacher
friend of mine picked up on it and said, Amy, that's what I
do. You know that's true. I've been
with you almost 45 years. I'm still preaching the same
thing and I'll say it next Wednesday night and next Sunday I'll be
saying it again. We repeat the same message over and again because
God doesn't change. His Word doesn't change. It's
the same. Because we preach God's Word to you, we do so with boldness
and confidence, knowing that the Word of God always works.
And I tell you what I think. I preface it with a disclaimer
and do so apologetically because my human notion, even if correct,
carries no gravity at all. But when we declare God's Word,
we bow to no authority but the authority of God's throne. The
mouth of the Lord is spoken in. It means that dogmatism is the
order of the day. And men's opinions are lighter
than vanity. Dogmatism, being dogmatic is
what a preacher does. That's what he does. He can't
do anything else because he's got nowhere else to go. The believer declares the gospel.
Paul said, Woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel. Necessity
is laid upon me. Woe is me if I preach not the
gospel. The gospel ruined by the fall,
redemption by the blood, regeneration by the Holy Ghost. God will honor
His Word. He said, My Word shall not return
to be void. It's going out. It's coming down
like the rain from heaven, like the rain feeds the flower and
causes it to seed and bring forth the bud. He said, That's My Word.
When it goes forth, it will not return to be void. It'll accomplish
the thing I send it to. in the building of God's Kingdom,
nothing is of value but the preaching of the Gospel. That is how God's
Kingdom is built. He is built upon His Word. Those who hear
are responsible to receive the Word as the Word of God. That
is what the Thessalonians said in 1 Thessalonians chapter 2
and verse 13. He said, Well, when Paul preached the Gospel,
we heard it. It was like we heard the Word of God Himself, like
God said it. That is because He did. I'd say to anyone, if
you want to mess around with religion, go ahead. If you want
your religion to play pretty, have a ball. But do not tinker,
tamper, or trifle with this Word. Don't do it. God will not deal
lightly with those who trifle with His Word. You and I are
accountable for what we hear and have an opportunity to hear.
We're accountable for that. Thirdly, the mouth of the Lord
is spoken. It is the foundation upon which we declare to sinners
the necessity of faith and repentance. Paul said, I have declared to
you all the counsel of God. And what he had declared to them,
according to the previous verses, was repentance toward God and
faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ. The gospel preacher does not
appeal to men upon the basis of human reason, human experience,
or human learning. He comes from Holy Scripture.
In the name of God, for the sake of your immortal soul and for
the glory of Christ, he demands in God's name that you bow to
the Word of God. He demands it. The Gospel is not a request.
It is not an offer. It is not a proffer. It is not
an invitation. The King does not invite. He issues a summons. The gospel
is not Ripley's believe it or not. It's Jehovah's believe it
or perish. It is the word of the Lord. The
word of the Lord. Fortunately, the mouth of the
Lord has spoken. It assures us that when the gospel
is preached, it's a matter of supreme urgency. For our Lord
said, if you refuse and rebel, He shall be devoured, that's
what it says in this same verse. Be not deceived, he said, and
the reason if you refuse and rebel, you'll perish, is because
the mouth of the Lord is spoken. See, that's the key. Be not deceived,
we all stand or fall by this word. God, the God who holds
your breath, your destiny in the palm of his hand, has spoken.
Any response other than bowing is heretical, it's a heresy.
The collective composition of all human wisdom gathered since
the beginning of time is of no value and is utterly impotent
in the salvation of your souls, and that's according to God's
plan. It says over in 1 Corinthians
chapter 1 and verse 21, an astounding passage of scripture, He says, for after that in the
wisdom of God, this is according to the wisdom of God, this is
what took place. But after in the wisdom of God,
the world by wisdom knew not God. Part of God's wise design
was that the world by its own wisdom could never know Him.
That's quite a design, isn't it? No matter how smart you get,
how much you study, No matter how diligent you are in your
studies, by your wisdom you cannot know God. You can only know God
if Christ is made to be your wisdom. For after then in wisdom
the world, by wisdom need not God, it pleased God through the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. What a wonder!
What a wonder! It's an amazing and a wondrous
thing. Know of a surety God is not too good to punish sin. No oversurety of religion cannot
save you from the sword of justice. God does not make idle threats.
What he has spoken shall come to pass. Why? Because the mouth of the Lord
has spoken it. Finally, the mouth of the Lord has spoken it as
the basis and foundation of our faith. That thing that cannot be duplicated
is faith because it can't be seen to start with. Nobody can
see it. You can say I believe and I might
believe you, but that don't mean you actually believe. My belief
that you believe don't mean anything. You know if you trust Christ.
And only you know. Your wife don't know. Your children
don't know. The world don't know. You know,
and what is the basis of your faith? If it's true God-given
faith, it's this word. It's this word. How do I know
I'm forgiven? The mouth of the Lord has spoken
it. That's the only way I know. How can we be sure that Christ
will never leave us nor forsake us? The mouth of the Lord has
spoken it. How do we know that we will persevere?
The mouth of the Lord has spoken it. That is how we know. Goodness
and mercy shall follow us all the days of our lives because
the mouth of the Lord has spoken it. Those who believe Christ
have eternal life. Why? Because the mouth of the
Lord has spoken it. No other reason. You cannot FEEL
it. You cannot REVEAL it. You cannot
SHOW it. You cannot DEMONSTRATE it. But
you can KNOW it. Only this way. The mouth of the
Lord has spoken it. Rejoice in what you have in your
hands. This will be here when you are
gone. This will be here when you go out to meet God. The mouth
of the Lord has spoken it. Father, bless us to understand
and pray in Christ's name. Oh, yeah.