Gospel—D. Hayhoe
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No secrets. I'm going to start by singing hymn #1 #1.
Come to Jesus gently calling ye with care and toil, oppressed with your gills, however appalling pump, and I will give you rest for your sin. He once has suffered on the cross. The work was done, and the Word by God now uttered to each weary soul is come, come. The Father's house stands open with its love and light.
And song, and returning to that father, all to you may now belong. From sins distant land of famine, toiling near the midday sun, To a father's House of plenty and a father's welcome. Come, come, for night is gathering quickly, Or the world's fast fleeting day. If you linger till the darkness, you will surely miss your way. And still waiting, sadly waiting.
Till the day its course has run, With his patience on abating, Jesus lingers for you come.
Come, for Angel hosts are musing, or this sight so strangely sad, God beseeching man, refusing to be made more ever glad from the world and its delusion. Now our voices rise as one while we shout God's invitation. Heaven itself, reactos come.
Before we sing this, there are some boys here that like stories, and probably some girls too and I remember I was here two years ago and we talked about some stories, didn't we? And in.
In the car on the way over here tonight.
I reminded two of those boys that they owed me a story from two years ago. So the deal was that they told me a story and then I would tell them a story and we'd be even and we got even up. But as I read these 4 verses, you know something, a story, a little something came to mind to me about each verse. So I'm going to tell you something about every verse of this hymn before we sing it. And I'll just make it real simple. But some interesting things for the children and the adults can listen to it if they want to. The first verse says what's the first word of the first verse?
Trust pump, it says. Come.
See what I wrote beside that word? Come. What's that say?
Germany, Bob, right do this.
I do that and say, Bob, that's how that's how a Ghanaian says come in the GAL language. Mrs. Reed sitting back there, she probably knows something about that. Maybe not the God language, but some of the African languages and African customs. When an African waves, he doesn't do this. The first time I ever stood up to speak in an African school, there were probably 800 students there. And I stood up and they looked a little frightened of me. And so I waved at him and he looked even more frightened.
And so I did this again and they all stood up and started to come because in Africa, when you, when you call someone, you don't do this. If you do this in Africa, they don't know what that means. You know when your dad catches your eye across the meeting room and he does this, you know what it means. But in Africa, they don't know what that means. This means come. If you want to wave at somebody, you do this.
Say that's how you say hello. This is how you say come. And in the God language that they speak in Ghana, in the little assembly there, they say bop, bop. All right, I don't want to hear any buzz during meeting, but when you get home tonight, when you call your brother or sister, you could say Bob.
Bottom OK that's come look at your hymn book again first word first line number one you see that word come if you were in Ghana tonight in a craw in the little meeting room in chalkboard where the coconut tree fell through the roof a while ago and there's no roof and only one wall left they would be singing this bop bop. Now the second verse I'm going to tell you something about the second verse it says the father's house stands open and yesterday we were talking to some of the.
Married couples in a little school off the road here. And we were talking about principles of the family and we were talking about an African home. And there are three things that you have to have to have a home in Africa. And every African, at least in Nigeria and Ghana would tell you that you must have these three things to have a home. And tonight God is saying I want you in my house. I want you in my home. The father's house stands open.
00:05:17
And he wants us to be part of his family. That's going to be the gospel message tonight. But there are three things that an African must have in his home. He must have, maybe it would be very small, but he must have at least one room.
Where everyone can come together and they can sleep at night. So it's a place of safety, it's a place of rest. Maybe they just all line up side by side on grass mats on the floor, 10 or 12 or 14 of them. But it's a place of safety and rest and sleep. That's the first thing an African home must have.
On the side of the house, there's something out here like a lean to and the walls are open and in that little part of the house, that's where they build little fire in there. I'll put that in there to show you the fire. And that's where they do the cooking. So it's a place for feeding. The children come there and they are fed there. The third thing that the African home must have, and it might be separate, but it will have a roof and poles like this down to the ground, but it's part of the compound.
And it's recognized as being part of the home. This is the palaver house. You know what palaver is in Africa? Palaver is where there's lots of talking and discussion. And in this part of the home, the family comes together to talk and communicate freely without fear, under the leadership of the head of the house.
Now, maybe some of the older ones are thinking about applications to the family. I hope you are, because there are three things that should characterize a family. A place of security where the children can be safe and without fear can rest, where there can be spiritual food for the family provided by the family, and whether it can be a place of communication without fear under the leadership of the head of the home.
Some of you may be thinking about the assembly.
And I believe those same three things apply to the assembly. A place of rest and safety, a place of spiritual food, and a place to communicate without fear under the leadership of our Head, Christ.
We've gotten off the topic of the gospel a little bit, but that's the story about verse 2, the Father's house. And when we get home to heaven, will we be at rest in heaven? Yes, we will. There remain up there for a rest of the people of God. It tells us in Hebrews 4, and that's in heaven. And will we be able to to be fed? Will we be happy in our in our Yes, we will, Jeremy, That's right, we will. And will it be a place where we can sit down and relax and talk to each other and talk to the Lord? Yes, it will. That's what the Father's house is all about. And I can hardly wait to get there.
I'm excited about the fact that the Lord Jesus might come tonight and before tomorrow morning I might be there. That's verse 2. Verse three says come for night is gathering quickly. If you linger till the darkness, you will surely miss your way. And I'll tell you a little story about that. There were some people driving to meeting one night in a car and they were telling stories. And the man who was driving the car went right by the meeting room and he went right out of town and he drove right out the other side of town. And pretty soon the little boy in the back seat, and I'm not sure whether it was Ben or Jason said.
Where are you going?
And Mr. Aho, who was driving the car about 20 minutes ago, said, I don't know, because I, I was telling a story and I, I drove right through Pella and I was heading for the school up there where we had some meetings yesterday. I forgot I missed my way. That's the story about verse three. And there are a lot of people in this world who have missed their way because they're sinners. All of us are sinners. The Bible says Romans 323. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
So we have all missed our way and there's not one of us who is going to find our way to heaven unless we listen to that verse. John 14, six and children said that this morning.
You can say it now, John 14, six German.
Thank you John 14 six I am B way. So if you've missed your way, if your life is full of sin and hopelessness and you know that you're not going to get to heaven by your own power and it's true you will not you need to come to Christ tonight.
Verse four says come for Angel hosts are music or their sights. So strangely said God beseeching. And the little thing that came into my mind when I read that was I wonder if the children know what beseeching is.
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None of them know what beseeching is. Isn't that interesting? We sing this him a lot, don't, don't we? And nobody up here in the front known row knows what beseeching is. I'll tell you what it means. It means begging, begging. And in Africa, sometimes I have seen a man directing traffic in the middle of one of the big intersections in Lagos, big city there, it's bigger than Pella, that's about 4 million people in it. And in the middle of that intersection, there's a man directing traffic. But he directs traffic with a snake whip. And I've seen him take a taxi driver out of his car and rip his shirt off and that taxi driver kneels down and he begs.
He knows he's going to get a beating, a flogging right in front of crowds gathered, a cheer to watch as flogging goes on and oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. That's how they beg. Whoa, whoa. It means I beg you, please don't whoa, whoa. And sometimes it's much sadder than that because.
That someone who's dying, who's begging for mercy and begging for help and God is begging you tonight. I think if Jesus was here, I think he might come right down and sit with you. Do you think he would? I think he would. I think he would come right down and he might even squeeze into that chair right there. And he said, let me sit here for a while because I want to talk to you and I want to beg you to accept me. Jesus would say he's begging. Let's sing to him now. Let's stand up now. Let a local brother start it, please.
Number one.
My God, no other.
Graceful and strong.
Where there's one November.
Welcome.
For you.
Come.
00:15:03
Here.
So strangely.
God.
KGJ, Max Radio.
I'd like you to turn with me, please, to the prophet Isaiah and the first chapter.
Isaiah, chapter one.
Just going to concentrate on some of the 1St 18 verses of Isaiah 1. We're not going to read all of that. We'll read perhaps only four or five verses in Isaiah 1 tonight. But I want to speak a little bit about the first part of this chapter. You know, Isaiah means his name means salvation is of the Lord. And that interesting the name of the man who wrote this book is salvation.
Is of the Lord. That's what Isaiah means and a while ago I had been preaching salvation for years. I suppose the first time I preached was a few years ago now and I've been preaching salvation and a couple of years ago I thought I'm going to look that up in Webster dictionary and see what this world.
Salvation is the Webster Dictionary isn't a religious book. It's a book that you have in schools and so on that you probably have in your house. Some of you are a similar dictionary and I looked up in Webster's dictionary thinking I would find something like under salvation to save someone from drowning or to prevent someone from disaster. And here's the definition I found in Webster's dictionary for salvation, the rescue of men from the power and effects.
Of sin. I like that. I like that they haven't gotten to Webster's dictionary yet to take that out. And I hope they don't because that's that's good. That's a solid definition of what salvation is. The rescue, the saving of men from the power and the effects of sin. And hear the very name of the prophet who wrote this book is salvation is of the Lord. We know now what salvation is. Salvation is to save or rescue someone from sin. And now we know the source.
Of that salvation, it's the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
The one about whom it is written by the Apostle Paul and Romans chapter 10 and verse nine, that a Thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead. Thou shalt be saved.
It's important to confess him as Lord.
I was here two years ago this month and two years ago this month, I remember very distinctly saying that I wanted everyone to grow up in the back door and we were not allowed to use that door. And we might do the same thing again tonight. And that was so that I could shake hands with you at the door and give you the opportunity to confess Jesus Christ to me or to someone else. That's very, very important. Salvation is of the Lord. He is the source of salvation.
He is the one who has brought about the means whereby we can have that salvation. You know how long ago this book was written. This book of Isaiah that you have open right in front of you, right there was written 2700 years ago. It was written 700 years before the Lord Jesus Christ was born. Is it still relevant? Is it still applicable today? Does it still have meaning in your life and in mind? Yes, it does. Yes, it does. It's just as relevant. It's just as applicable today as it was 2700 years ago. The message is good.
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It's valid and it's going to speak to our consciences. I believe tonight Isaiah is sometimes called the prophet of redemption.
Tells us in first Peter chapter one that we are not redeemed with corruptible things like silver and gold. We have silver and gold sometimes in our pockets. And I have an African piece of money in here tonight that I promised to one of the boys if he could do a quiz. It's still there, but we're not saved by silver and gold.
But we're saved, but we're not redeemed by those things, but we're redeemed. It tells us in first Peter one verse 18 with the precious blood of Christ. Isaiah is the prophet of redemption and that redemption is based on the blood of Christ. We had some children coming to Sunday school in Cambridge, you know, in Canada where we live, and they came for about a year. And finally the father came around to the Sunday school and said I don't think I can allow my children to come to Sunday school anymore.
You people talk too much about the blood here.
And you know, if you don't understand the importance of it, it might sound rather strange when we talk about the blood because sometimes you hear the gospel preached and it's turn your life over to Jesus and he'll make something beautiful of your life. That's true, He will. 2nd Corinthians 517 says if any man be in Christ, he's a new creation. All things are passed away, all things are become new. That's true, He will do that. But the gospel message goes deeper than that.
Gospel message says the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses you. It cleans you from all sin. That's the gospel. That's the gospel. The cleansing by the power of the blood of Christ comes first and then we have new life in Christ. And we can indeed change some of those habits. We can indeed get rid of some of those sins and iniquities which have dragged us down and kept us *******. But salvation?
Is the cleansing of my sins by the power of the blood of Christ. And that comes that salvation, that redemption comes when we accept Christ as our Savior. We could take this whole book of Isaiah and we could write across the whole book. We could write the word grace. Grace.
We were in the detention center in Toronto a couple of years ago. Now we go there every Lord's Day. But a couple of years ago one of the boys said, Sir, I know what grace is.
And I've never seen the boy before. And I said, yes, could you tell me what grace is? And he said grace means that when I go before the judge tomorrow morning at 311 Jarvis St. Family Court Division, to stand trial for my crimes, he was 14 years old. He said grace means that if the judge says to me.
That's OK. We're going to forgive you those crimes. And not only does he do that, but he says, son, I'm going to take you into my home. I'm going to make you my son and one of my children, one of my family. He said that would be not only mercy, that would be grace. I said, where did you hear that?
He said I heard that at the Pine Grove Sunday School.
Where my wife went to Sunday school and where I've gone to Sunday school many times.
But it's interesting, he was in jail. He, he knew about grace. He knew how God could not only save a soul, but bring that person into his family and bless him with all blessings in Christ Jesus in the heavenlies. That's great. He knew that, but he never accepted Jesus. He'd never taken that step in coming to Christ. And that's why we're having this gospel meeting tonight, not just to explain concepts to you. We've talked about salvation, we've talked about redemption. We've talked about who the Lord is. We've talked about the blood of Christ. We talked about grace.
But knowing those things will never save your soul only.
An absolutely personal acceptance of Christ as Savior will save your soul. Let's look at the first verse of Isaiah, chapter one.
Says the vision of Isaiah the son of Amos, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Isaiah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah.
Kings of Judah.
I'm going to speak a little bit about those 4 kings, and it may seem a little bit unusual to talk about this in a gospel message, but you know what I've been guilty of a lot of times in my life. I open up the Bible to a book like Isaiah chapter one, and I'm so eager to get to verse 18 and so eager even to get into the chapter that I forget to. And I look at the first person I say, well, that's another one of those lists of names. And I know what's coming in verse 18, so I could get to verse 18. And I enjoy it.
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But a few weeks ago I sat down and I started to look at verse one and I looked at it and I looked at it and I thought, I'm going to go back and I'm going to go back to Second Chronicles and I'm going to trace through the history of those kings and see why Isaiah was prophesying during that particular time span that covered those 4 kings. Are there lessons for us? Is there something about the history of those 4 kings that is connected to salvation and redemption and grace?
What do you think I found, I found, of course there was, there always is in the word of God. The problem is with we just don't look, we say it's a bunch of names, but we we say, well, who's Isaiah and Jotham? And he has and Hezekiah going to talk about them for just a few minutes and then we'll go further down in the chapter and I'm going to draw a little graph here.
Suspect some of you that are a bit older will do graphs in school in math or physics or some of those other subjects. Yeah, some of you will do that, I'm sure.
Do some grass and stool and I'm going to put this on here just for maybe some of the teenagers and you'll remember that one of these is ordinance and one is the obsessive. You remember your, your calculus. We're going to graph, let's call this part spirituality. Spirituality.
Going up that way.
And across this way, we're going to put time that means that as we look at these 4 kings and as time goes on, what happens to spirituality, What happens to their spiritual life? Don't forget that as we look at these kings, it's God's chosen people we're looking at. It's the children of Israel. It's it's God's people on earth. And what we will find is something that looks like this going to go down. Then there'll be a little up here for Hezekiah, and then it will go down again.
The pattern, the pattern is very definitely downward. I'm going to ask a question. Do you think that's what's happening in the world today? I do.
I do. The children are all agreeing with me out here and they haven't seen 10% of what you've seen. The older ones have Fewer, more uninhibited like the children would be also not in your heads because I know you agree that things in this world are going down whether you're a Christian or not a Christian. One of the interesting things in the last year is that there have been many open doors to talk to people about Christ because I can always find the common ground of discussion. And that common ground of discussion is things are getting worse.
And when someone agrees, we talk about the economy and we can talk about the Gulf War a year ago, we can talk about race relations and, and, and all of those things. And it's all getting worse. And then we can talk about the solution to the problem. So whether you're a Christian or not, I think we're going to agree that this pattern that we're going to look at back in Second Chronicles is true of United States and Canada today. Things are getting worse. Drugs, immorality, violence, murder.
All of those things, even in Toronto, and I live very close to Toronto with my wife and family. It's gotten much worse in the last year. The murder rate in Toronto is higher than it's ever been before.
Related to drugs and all kinds of other terrible problems, Things are getting worse. We're going to spend not too long on that, and then we're going to find out God's solution not just to the problems of this world, but to the whole problem of sin, because the real reason that things are getting worse is because of sin. Let's go back then to Second Chronicles chapter 26, and we'll just look a little bit at those 4 kings.
Isaiah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. Second Chronicles 26.
We'll see. It started off very well. It started off at a high level of spiritual growth and all the people of Judah in verse one took Isaiah, who was 16 years old, and made him king in the room of his father Amaziah.
He built Eli and so on, verse 316 years old, when it was Isaiah, when he began to reign and he reigned 52 years in Jerusalem, verse four, he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord.
Now are the children of young people listening?
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He was 16 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned for 52 years. How old was he when he stopped reading?
Started when he was 16 and he reigned for 52 years. How old was he when he stopped?
Now he raided for 52 years. He started when he was 16.
Not quite. Let's have one of the older young people here help us out with that.
What's 16 + 5268? Thank you. One of the older young people told us it was 68.
Now, what I would like to say is that during this man's race, his wife, then as we look at his life, it's going to take us from the teenage years to the senior citizens. I would like everyone here who is either a teenager or a senior citizen or in between to put up your hand.
Look at that OK put your hands down this message, this part of the message then is for you because Aziah began as a teenager and he finished up as a senior citizen 68 as a senior citizen in Canada anyway starts at 65 I think officially and now this message is for you. Let's see what happened then in Asias life from teenager to senior citizen He began will he did that which was.
Right in the sight of the Lord, we won't take time to turn to it. But if we went back to 2nd king, the chapter 15 verse four, we find there that Isaiah made one mistake at the beginning of his life. It says the people still sacrificed in the high places. In other words, in his heart he may have been serving God, but he allowed the people to continue serving those sacrifices to idols.
First five says.
He sought God, the end of the verse says, as long as he sought the Lord, God made him to prosper for sex. He went forth in war against the Philistines and break down the wall of GAT. He took a strong stand against the enemy.
Verse 9.
Isaiah built towers in Jerusalem. Jerusalem was God centered. Isaiah, at the beginning of his life recognized God's center on earth, and he fortified it, and he stood for that truth.
Verse 10 he built towers in the desert and digged many wells. He was concerned with the refreshment of God's people. The end of verse 10 He had husbandmen in the mountains in Carmel, which means fruitfulness. Let's summarize again the beginning of Isaiah's life. He pleased God. He took a public stand against the enemy of God's people. He recognized God's earthly center and defended it. He.
Was.
Refreshment of God's people and he was fruitful. Does that sound like a good start to you? That sounds like a good start to me.
Now let's look down to verse 16, when he was strong.
His heart was lifted up to his destruction. You know what happened to Isaiah.
Something happened to Isaiah called.
He got thinking about himself. What's that center letter in crime? What's the middle letter of pride?
Middle letter Parents.
OK, Becky, before you can. Becky. I'm sorry, Becky. I'm sorry. Becky. You're right. It's I try. I is the middle letter he got. He got a whole thinking about himself. And you know what happened when he got thinking about himself, He let his mind.
Start to say to him, well, I know that. I know a way of worshipping God that's better than the way God told us. I'm going to take this incense myself and I'm going to go in and worship God myself. And God had told them, don't do that, don't do that. That is for the priest alone. And you know what happened? Look at verse 19. The leprosy even rose up in his forehead. Verse 20, they thrust him out from fence.
Ye himself haste, and also to go out, because the Lord.
Had smitten him. Verse 21 Says Isaiah the king was a leopard unto the day of his death and dwelt in a separate house being a loafer for he was cut off from the House of the Lord isn't that terrible. Think of that teenagers to senior citizens. He started so well. He did love the Lord. He didn't want to serve the Lord and he recognized God's center and maybe some of the older ones can make your own applications as we go through here. We'll try and keep it simple to the for the young people.
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I want you to think with me as we go along. He took a stand against the enemy. He refreshed thoughts, people, and then he started to go down and go lie because of pride and because he said my mind can figure out how to worship God. My mind can can instruct me on how to come into God's presence and what's right and proper for God. And the leprosy came up in his forehead. Don't take time to turn to it. But in Leviticus chapter 13, you will read there about leprosy and it's a picture of sin.
Always sin in the Bible and in Leviticus chapter 13, it talks about the man who was bald and it talks about the man who was forehead bald. You want forehead bald is that's what I am. That's forehead bald. Someone who is bald is someone who doesn't have any hair on the top of their head.
Like Kojak, no hair at all on top and someone whose forehead bald. He's like me. He's he's bold here. My kids call them bumps because they go like this. And when I get my haircut, they say, and I need one. I know. But when I get my haircut, the kids say don't let them take the hair off your off your bumps. They want they want this covered. But that's forehead ball. That's what it means to be forehead bald and in the Bible to be forehead bowls. That that wasn't leprosy in itself.
But it was a place where leprosy might come up.
And so it had to be watched very carefully. And you know, my mind is in behind here. My brain is in behind my forehead. And what that means to those of us who are a little bit older is that those of us who love the Lord and those of us who want to please him, and those of us who want to be gathered to His name and recognize where He is in the midst, we need to watch our minds because it may happen like Isaiah, whose mind led him to go into God's presence, but in a way which was not according to God's plan.
And that was sin, because leprosy came up in his forehead and he ended his life down here because of sin, which was the result of pride. Let's go on now to the second one, Jotham, in chapter 27. Jotham was 25 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned 16 years in Jerusalem. How old was he when he stopped raining? 25 + 16.
41.
Started when he was 25 and he finished when sorry, when he was 16 and finished when he was 41. This is, it's narrowing down now, isn't it? Getting a little more personal? It's getting a little closer. It's it's getting narrower. And I'm not going to keep narrowing it down by age, but I think if you went through and trace these, you'd find it would pretty well cover everybody in this room.
Now it's getting a little closer to home. What are we going to find out about Jotham now?
It says in the end of verse 2 The people did yet correctly. You see what's happening and it says to me now it's getting lower and lower. The sin is increasing and that's always what will happen. What our minds become involved and we act in a way that's not for God's glory. It doesn't just include the leaders, but it spreads to the people and pretty soon the people do corruptly. Now a has in chapter 28 was 20 years old when he began to reign and he reigned 16 years so he would finish when he was 36.
Now let's read what happens now, and those of you who want to just relax for a moment at this graph, we're going to get very, very low here and it's not going to be very nice to hear what I'm going to say next. Because this is what happens when we start to leave God's plan, when we start to get away from the Word of God and introduce our thinking into the way we should approach God, this is what will happen.
Verse two. He walked in the ways of the kings of Israel and made also molten images for Balaam. Moreover, he burnt incense in the valley of the son of Hinnom and burnt his children.
In the fire.
Balan is the plural of bail. Bala wasn't the name of the God. Bale is singular bail in his Pearl, like cherub and cherubim.
Cherubim means two or more cherubim and balaam just means more than one Bale. And there were many different bail gods and those different bail gods were were were God were images to the gods, the song God. And that reminds us of Romans chapter one, verse 25, where it says they worshipped the creature more than the creator.
And so men are taken to worshipping the sun and the moon and the stars and the earth. The woman who lives next door to us at home worships the earth. She worships the earth. She worships the ground. She's been at the gospel meeting. And the last time she was at gospel meeting, she shook my hand at the door and she said, Dad, I just want to tell you that I accept the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior. But you know something that's terribly sad about that. She said those words. She said those words. But I know that if you spoke to her today, she would say, I'm a Pagan.
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And I'm proud of it today. There are people who can actually say those words. But in her heart, she worships Buddha. She's a Muslim, she's everything. She's completely new age in her thinking. She's still agent to the earth. When there was an eclipse of the moon, they were out there with long roads, forming a circle on the ground and dancing around worshipping the moon. And yet she said she accepts Christ as her savior. You can't fool God. You might fool me at the door tonight, but you say that to me tonight.
I will pray that it's real in your soul. But the Bible says by their fruits he shall know them. And you can't grow and worship the sun and the moon, and you can't go home and worship yourself.
You've accepted Christ as your Savior because he wants you to worship him, worship him. So he made sacrifices, molten images for bailing the bail gods. He burnt incense in the valley of the summer Hindemith. You know what that is? You know what the valley of Hinnom is? It's on the South side of Jerusalem. If you went even today to the and looked over the wall of Jerusalem, down to a steep, steep valley and down in that valley, there was always burning rubbish burning because it was dumped over the walls.
Burning, burning, burning all the time. And that's where the word Gehenna comes from, a place of eternal burning, a place of eternal torment for the lost soul. The lake of fire. Get in. It is a word which is comes from the valley of Hinnom. I want you to turn over with me, please, to the 30th chapter of Isaiah.
And verse.
14 The sinners in Zion are afraid. Fearfulness have surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devour devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting Bernie? I challenge you tonight with this question. As we think of that Bernie, as we think of that continual fire that will never be put out, that flame that will never be quenched.
I challenge you tonight with this person, Isaiah chapter 30, verse 14. Who among us who in this room from the back row all the way around right up to these children on the front row, Listen to me. Who in this room is going to dwell in the devouring fire? Is it going to be you? Is it going to be you who goes to the lake of fire for all eternity? There was a man who went to the lake of fire 2000 years ago and 2000 years ago he begged and he said, oh, just give me a drop of water, one drop.
One drop. Look, one drop.
All you want one drop. He's been crying and screaming for that drop of water for 2000 years and he doesn't have it yet. And you know when he'll get next.
Never, never. Who among us will dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us will dwell in everlasting burnings up the tongue? Tonight someone in this room who does not accept Christ will be there.
You will be there if you refuse to accept Christ tonight. Let's come back to Second Chronicles 28.
In the middle of verse three it says he burnt his children in the fire after the abominations of the heathen.
There was a God in those days called the God Moloch Moloch and the the image, the altar to Moloch was a a brass statue of a man standing with his armies out in front of him like this. And he was hollow inside. And they would build a fire underneath inside in the hollow park. And that big brass statue standing with his arms out hollow could get hotter and hotter and hotter and hotter. So finally that brass was just.
White hot, almost ready to melt.
And then they would take their little children and they would place them into the God freezing arms of that grass mold, and the children will be burned alive as they have been laid in and the arms of that gun.
These are God's kids.
Isaiah Joseph A has not We're down here. These are these are God's people doing these things. Where are we today in the United States and Canada? We're down here. We're down here and we're going to come very soon to the solution to that that problem. Let's just comment on Hezekiah without reading about it. He was a good kid. He pleased the Lord. But then at the end of his life, he got upset with God. He turned over on his bed and he turned his face to the wall and he pouted and God said, OK.
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Hezekiah, I'm going to give you a few extra years in your life, but during that time spent, a very wicked king was born. And so down goes the grass again. Down, down, down. Let's go back to Isaiah chapter one.
Verse 4.
All sinful nation. Sinful nation.
A people laden or burdened down with iniquity. Here's two things. And and Lyle Lubacek this morning in the Sunday school asked you what iniquity was and what sin was. This verse uses the word sinful, or full of sin and laid and loaded down with iniquity. That word sinful comes from a Hebrew word, a root Hebrew word that's translated sinful. And you know what it means. It means to miss the mark.
To miss the mark.
We have four boys at home. We have a girl and four boys and the three middle boys are 11/9 and seven. We decided we'd put a dart board up on the wall of their bedroom, flash dart board and around and behind that dark board we got those pieces of cork. You peel the back off like this and stick them in the room and you get those in the States here. And we made a nice state where my wife did about this big all the way around that Dark World. And I learned the next day.
And there were holes at the way and there were holes there and there were holes there.
They missed the mark. We gave them about a six foot square with a dart board in the middle and those darts went off. They missed the month. That's what sin is. Sin is when we missed the mark. And what's the mark? The mark is God's holy standard. The mark is that God says I am of two pure eyes to behold sin. I cannot look on sin. I cannot look on iniquity. And when we miss that mark, we have sinned.
We have sinned and the Bible tells us in Romans 3 chapter verse 22 all have sinned. There is no difference. All have sinned and come short. We have missed the mark of God's glory. We have been way wide of the mark. We cannot hit the mark.
Apart from the power of Christ, that's sin. If you thought that sin was only.
Drugs and only murdered and only getting kicked out of school. Then you're wrong. Those things are sin, but sin is when we miss God's standard of holiness and perfection. And everyone in this room has said everyone without exception. What is iniquity? What is iniquity? Lyle, lubricate this morning iniquity. I'm going to demonstrate what inequity was this morning. I looked across here after meeting and I was thinking about what we're going to talk about tonight and I noticed you had a lot of nice new plastic hangers, but in the back you've got some metal hangers. I would like someone to go and get me a metal hanger, please.
Troy, could you go get me one, just a metal coat hanger and bring it in here and I will show you what iniquity is. And I don't think you're going to forget what iniquity is after I'm finishing you.
Because iniquity comes from.
A thank you iniquity comes from a Hebrew word.
And I'll tell you in a minute what that Hebrew word is.
This coat hanger is a very useful thing. I could probably hang my coat on that.
Useful thing. Created for a purpose. Created for a reason. Created to be useful. Created to be functional, Created to be whole.
Is to be used by the one who created it.
But iniquity comes from a Hebrew word which means to bend OR to twist.
And what inequity is, is when we take what God has given us, our body, our soul, our mind, our intelligence, our will, and we bend it and we question. We take what God has created to be used for his glory and in his service and to be conformed to the image of his Son. And we bend it and we twist it to the point where.
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You really can't do anything with it. If I'm not careful, I'll tear a hole in my coat with this.
That is iniquity. Iniquity literally comes from a word that means to bend OR twist.
Is this useful?
No, not anymore. That's what iniquity is. It's to take your body and your mom and your will and allow them to be twisted and bent.
By things which you allow in your life that are not according to the Word of God and not according to God's will and mind for you.
He told everything that's iniquity, and we're all guilty of that. We all have done that. Every man and woman that's ever walked the face of this earth has been guilty of sin, missing the mark and iniquity, allowing ourselves to become bent and twisted from gods.
Purpose. Let's go down to.
Verse five and six. Why should you be stricken anymore? You will revolt more and more of the whole head is sick, the whole heart faint from the soul of foot. Even under the head. There is no soundness in it but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. They have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.
This takes us right through the whole being, the head, the place of intelligence, the place of leadership. Then it says the whole heart. That's the that's the center of my affections, the center of my love. And then it talks about the soul of the foot. That's my walk. That's the way I go through this life. That's the things that I do. So my mind, my affections, and my actions are all totally corrupted by sin and by iniquity. This is strong language.
And I'm speaking to people who perhaps say he forgets where he is. He's been preaching in prisons too long. He's been talking to people behind bars too long. He forgets these Impella in Iowa where we're free, not free. We're not free. You're in ******* to Satan and sin if you haven't accepted Christ. It's all this in Proverbs. I believe it's chapter 22, verse six that you are holding. You're bound with the cords of your sins.
You can't get free. It's almost in Timothy. When Paul wrote to Timothy, he said you have to be careful. You have to be aware that there are people who are led captive by Satan at his will. And so Satan and sin have us captive, have have us in *******. You may live in a free country. You may be free to vote. You may be free to walk over here and drive home in total freedom.
For your sins, the mind, the heart, and the actions are all carried away by Satan.
It had not been mollified with ointment. I believe that ointment is a picture of the Holy Spirit of God. What happens when you accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior? It tells us in Ephesians chapter one verse 13 that what we believe we are sealed with the Holy Spirit of God.
Told the same thing in Ephesians chapter 4 verse 30 that we are sealed up to the day of redemption if we accept Christ as our Savior. There is no letting go. There's no question of the Holy Spirit in dwelling and then leaving again. We are sealed by that spirit up to the time when we're called home to be with Christ to prove.
In Ephesians one and again in Ephesians four of the eternal security of the believers. You can have that security in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit spoken of by this pointer here. Let's come down to verse.
13 and 14 and 15 bring no more vain oblations, incenses, an abomination unto me. The new moons and Sabbath, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with or I cannot bear. It is iniquity. Even the solemn meeting. I'll let that speak to our consciences. It is iniquity. What did we say? Iniquity, world. Here's the religious observances. Let's listen well to this. The religious observances given by God.
According to the parable, God himself have been twisted till God has to say they're being It's an abomination, I can't bear it. He says all of those things in the same verse. It's vain, useless abomination and God can't bear it. That means that you can attend church 6 * a week for the next 40 years and if you don't accept Christ, it's of no God to your soul's eternal salvation.
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Those empty religious observances, no matter how scriptural they may be in their original intent or of no use to the salvation of your soul, if you don't accept Christ as your Savior, He's the answer, He's the key. He's the only one that can give new life. Let's look at verse 16.
Wash you, make you clean, Put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes. Cease to do evil, learn to do well. This is repentance now. This is repentance. If our friends from France were here tonight, they will tell you that Jose is the French verb to think and in Spanish, which you may have studied in school expenses.
To think and to repent means to rethink. Literally means to rethink. And what is it that we have to rethink?
We have to rethink our thoughts about ourselves because those thoughts are usually wrong. And we have to think or rethink our thoughts about God because those thoughts are usually wrong. Many people think that they are very good and they can get to heaven, and that's wrong. And many people think that God is very bad because he sends people to hell and that's all. So we have to repent. We have to rethink those thoughts and realize that God is a God of love and mercy and grace, but he is also a God of justice, and he must punish sin.
Tells us in Hebrew that every sin, every transgression must receive a just do recompensing work. God will punish sin, He must. But he's also a God of love, and he's given his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who bore our sins in his own body on the tree. Repentance. That means turning my thoughts away from myself, turning my thoughts to God, recognizing that what he has done through Christ, his Son is sufficient for my salvation.
Look at verse 18. Now come now and let us reason together. Set the Lord. Though your sins be a scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like Crimson, they shall be as wool. What was the African word for Come again?
Bob, God says to you tonight, come, let's think about this together, Let's talk about it, Let's let's leave this thing over. Even though your sins are black and they're completely polluting your heart and polluting your mind and destroying your life and taking you to hell, I can deal with those sins. I have the solution. It says going back to verse 16 again, wash you, make you clean. We sing a little song with our hubby class that goes like this. What can wash away my sins?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus. And that's what can wash you tonight. It's not by application to yourself of some new religious principle. It's the application by God himself of Christ blood to you and what he's saying. Does that sound too simple to believe? Does that sound almost impossible and simplicity? That's the gospel message that all you have to do to repent and be saved is to say in your heart.
Yes, Lord Jesus, I believe I'm on this downward slide. Yes, I believe my life is characterized by sin and by iniquity. Yes, I believe I'm one of those in Romans 323 when it says all have sinned, I know that I believe it. But I also believe that God, you are a God of love. You gave your Son Jesus to die for me, and I know his precious blood can wash my sins even. That's a lot to remember. Let me make it really simple. What you need to say in your heart is, Lord, I'm a Sinner.
Gave me by the power of your blood. And if you mean it, he will do it. We're going to pray now. And while I'm praying, I'm going to give a little pause in the middle of the prayer. And during that pause, that's your chance to accept press.
That's that will be your chance. That will be your time.
Because I won't be talking, I'm going to stop talking even to God for a minute and I'm going to give you a chance to talk to God in your heart and to accept Christ as your Savior. And all the Christians in this room will be praying for you during that cause that you will come to Christ.