Pastor Allan Kircher
Shell Point Baptist Church
November 25, 2012
“Looking for Life”
"Look unto me, and be saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is no other."—Isaiah 45:22.
This/simply one of/blessed text/Lord gives us for our conversion.
I plan to refine and dissect and take apart this text in an effort for some of us to be able to see it in a way we haven’t previously perceived its preciousness and power.
• The great sin of man, ever since he has fallen
• Has been that of idolatry.
• He is ever seeking to get away from God.
• Whom he cannot see.
So he makes for himself a god, which is an idol, and it pleases him because he can gaze upon it.
• That may be in the form of tv, cars, hobbies, work
• Or other carnal confidences in his life.
• So he looks to that something and expects good from it.
• So the mind of man gets derailed from God and His ways.
For a while, the idolater may delight himself in the idol which he has so delicately carved out for his purposes.
• He clings to it/the most precious commodity to him.
• He cries out in vain to the idol, hobby etc.,
• Then he discovers no answer comes to him.
In his disappointment and vexation of spirit, he is ready to lie down in despair.
• His idol cannot fulfill him.
• It must be so, more or less, with all of us.
• If we trust in anything but God
• we will be disappointed
Yet note the Lord's great patience even with those who are provoking him by the idolatry they create.
______________________________________________
If you had made men, and sustained them, and provided for them, yet they did not worship you, or serve you, or fear you, or trust you; but, instead, transferred their fear, or love, or trust, to mere idols would you not feel righteously angry?
• The Lord our God is a jealous God, and he has been, generation after generation
• Provoked by the idolatries of men.
God/always been provoked by us who profess to be his people.
We have continued to love other things more than we love him.
We all have something in our lives/take away our time/almighty.
_______________________________________________
Some of us have actually trusted ourselves more than we have trusted the lord
• And sometimes, in the hour of trial
• We have fled/friend instead of trusting in the Lord alone.
• Yet how patient has God been with you in all this!
How blessedly does this chapter teach us/loving kindness/Lord!
• Here he admonishes his ancient people with great gentleness
• He also reasons with great force of argument.
• Tenderly he rebukes the wrongdoers
• Then he invites them to a better way of life.
God seems to say to them, “Be done with these idols once/for all.
• Can’t you see/come to trouble by looking at them?
• they can’t save you
• Turn away from them, look to me.
• Come and trust me just this once.
'Look to me, and be saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else. "
__________________________________________
Listen to this divine message
• you who have forgotten your God
• in these gracious terms
• he bids you turn your eyes to him
• to let your expectations be from him.
This text teaches us first, that for salvation out of any trouble, we should look to God alone.
I will carry the principle into deeper spiritual matters by showing you, in the second place, that, for eternal salvation, we must assuredly look to God alone
______________________________________________
First, then, for salvation out of any trouble, we should look to god alone.
• There are troubles in which men do look to God alone.
• I have known the most profane, godless men turn to God.
• Men who have blasphemous language, ridicule religion
• they stagger like drunken men
• been at their wits’ end
• They have cried out to the Lord in their trouble.
Their knees never bent before God bent now in miserable terror
• Their hearts that never felt gracious before God
• Now begin to tremble at the majestic display of His power.
______________________________________________
This kind of experience has also been witnessed in ungodly men at the approach of their death.
• When the sweat drops on their brow
• when they know that life is almost over
• their soul is melting in their distress
• the dark gates of the grave stand wide open before them
• Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble.
Now, if men act this way out of compulsion of great calamity, why don’t they do so cheerfully/willingly/times/every trial/difficulty
• God/not only here/restoration/evil things/our life
• he is here for all things, the praises.
It is the Lord that permits the good/evil which happen to men.
"Shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done it?" Is there a cry or a wail in war that God does not hear?
• So why shouldn’t we go/Him in every time of peril/trouble.
Why do we have/have/severe sickness/order to drive us to God?
Why is it that only the very peril of life brings us to our knees?
• It shouldn’t be so
• Especially with the Lord's own children.
• Is anything too unimportant for the Lord to notice?
• Is any trial too slight for you to bring in prayer before him?
___________________________________________
If you, fathers, listen to your children's little tales of sorrow
• If you, mother, with your needle
• cleverly take out the tiniest splinter from/child's hand
• how much more will your Father
• who is in heaven
• note all the little trials you have to bear in this life
Church, we need to habitually look to God
• In the morning, we look to Him for the mercies of the day.
• expecting strength for the day’s burden
At night, we look to Him to pardon our day’s offenses.
• laying down the burden at the Master’s feet
• blessing Him for the grace that has sustained us.
___________________________________________
God, who bids you/pray/harvest, would have you sow your seed.
God, who wants you to ask to be guided in your walk, would have you follow actively the track of that journey.
• You are not to make faith in God an excuse for idleness.
• Let this be the rule of your whole life.
• For all things, trust in God; in all matters, submit to God; and, in all ways, serve God.
_______________________________________________
Take this divine command, "Look to me," as the motto which will illuminate your pathway at all times.
You can stand safe/high hills/prosperity as long/you look to him
• Even in the chilly valley of adversity
• Your heart will rejoice while you keep looking to him.
• You may go forth to battle against countless foes
• and conquer them all while you look to him.
• You may lie upon the bed of sickness
• But you will bear your pain/patience while you look to him
When you come/last valley of death and your heart’s blood chills
• When you look to Him
• The promise of this text will be fulfilled in your heart.
_______________________________________________
II. Now this is the principle which should guide all believers
• It is also/right principle/those/beginning to be believers.
• those who are seeking the salvation of their souls.
FOR ETERNAL SALVATION, WE MUST LOOK TO GOD ALONE.
• God says to you in graciousness
• He says in a cheering invitation:
"Come now, and let us reason together, though your sins be as scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they will be as wool;"
• Read this blessed Book
• search out its exceedingly great and precious promises
• study its many invitations
• examine the examples that are given in its records of the multitudes of sinners God has saved by his grace
The great sinners whom, in his abundant mercy, he has accepted, and made to be his children.
O guilty soul, if you would find salvation
• Don’t look to any priest, nor to any book
• nor to any ceremony
• nor to any doings of your own
• But to God as he has revealed himself in his Word
You say, “If I look to Christ, and begin to believe, I might be tempted and will go back to the world.”
• I know you would if the matter rested on your soul.
• But the Lord Jesus Christ begins a work upon you.
• Phil. 1:6..
You see, if it is to occur, He will preserve you with the task.
• He will accomplish the task using you.
• Look to His faithfulness
• It is not up to you any longer!
Listen, you are seeking salvation, the devil will make you dead set against you looking to Jesus.
• I can’t tell you which way he will work on you.
• The devil has many inventions.
• But he will drive at you to, to disrupt you.
• He will try to get you not to look to God
• To look somewhere else….worldly things.
Now, if you are determined to look to yourself,—if you feel that you cannot help doing so
• You will look with mourning.
• Every look will cost you a tear.
Look to yourself with sorrow over your sinful state, but never look with any hope of finding salvation.
• When a man is altogether bankrupt
• Will he not look for help?
• When there is not a morsel/bread in your cupboard
• Will a man not look into empty to crave his hunger?
If the well is dry, what is the good of looking down to the bottom of it?
• So, church, if you don’t understand your ruined condition, look at yourself
• but if you do know that you are lost and undone
• You might as well look to the grave for life.
_____________________________________________ Don’t let the devil persuade you that there is anything good in you by nature, or that there is any hope of salvation for you in yourself.
If he tells you/utterly bad/ruined/lost, believe him, for that is true
if he ever tries to persuade you that there is some good in you, tell him that he lies
• and tell him: if there were any good in you
• there would be no hope for you
• your only hope lies in that utter hopelessness which drives you out of yourself to God.
_________________________________________
you know how the high priest, under the old Jewish law, was commanded to treat the lepers who were brought before him.
When a man came, who said?
"I think that my case is a very hopeful one; I have large spot of perfectly good flesh on my arm, and I have another place on my foot, where my flesh is perfectly good;
When the high priest heard the man say that, he looked at him and saw it was true, and said to him
"You are a hopeless leper, and must be shut outside the camp;" and there he remained till he died.
Then came another leper:
• he was completely covered with leprosy.
• He said to the high priest,
• “My disease has gone to the extreme
• I’m covered from/crown/head/sole of my feet.
• There is not a single spot that is not affected.
"Ah, my brother!" replied the high priest, "I am glad to hear you say that, and to be able to tell you that now you are clean."
• It appears that when/leprosy threw itself out all over/body the man would recover;
• But if it was only in a part of him, it was there forever.
• Just so is it with the sinner
• when he cannot see any good in himself
• he is the man whom God will save
• but, as long as there is a spot of his own supposed goodness as big as a pin's head, or a pin's point
• He is still suffering from the leprosy of sin
• and must be shut away from the people of the Lord.
"That is strange talk," someone says. I hope it will be comforting to some poor brokenhearted sinner
• who has been in despair
• but who will now hope, believe, and live.
_______________________________________________
Do not let Satan take your eyes away from Christ by any other device.
• I’ve known Satan/trouble souls with questions.
• Questions about doctrines
• Or various forms of church government
• Or even disputes that arise between Christian people.
The sinner’s one business is to look to Christ, and be saved;
You see, sometimes we get bothered with this/that/the other.
• Bothered with things we don’t understand
• Things we don’t need to understand.
_______________________________________________Thousands/people have a great knot in their minds.
• A knot they want to untie
• But they cannot untie it.
• And they don’t care if it is ever untied.
• Yet it is what keeps them from looking to God.
• To Jesus in which they would be saved.
You might try to figure it out by exploring church government.
• By debating Calvinism/Arminianism/Catholicism.
• Or get stuck on post/pre-millennial Advent of Christ.
• But those matters don’t concern you now!
When a man is drowning, he does not want to read "The Beaufort Gazette".
He needs someone to help him out of the water before he is quite dead
• and that is what you need, my unsaved friend
• you need salvation
• you can only obtain it by looking unto God in Christ Jesus.
_______________________________________________
I have known Satan also to take away a man's gaze from Christ by saying to him, "You do not know whether you are elect or not."
• Well, it is a very important question whether a man is one of the elect of God
• but I beg you to remember that an unsaved sinner has nothing to do with his election
• It is impossible for him to know of this at any rate.
When he has believed in Jesus Christ, then he will have the evidence that he is one of the Lord's chosen people
• but until he has done so
• He has no reason to think that he is elect.
Divine election is the eternal choice, which God the Father has made, and there is no way of coming to the Path except by Christ his Son.
Redemption is the word with which you are first concerned; then, when you know the power of the precious blood of Jesus, you will have the proof of your election to eternal life
___________________________________________
Sometimes,—and this is a common trick of Satan's,—he tries to make men look at their own faith, instead of looking unto Jesus.
"He says, "you have to believe/Lord Jesus Christ; but you have you the right kind of faith?
• Is yours the faith that saves?"
• Thus, he fixes your eye on your faith instead of on Christ;
• and then he will ask you
• "Is your state of mind what it ought to be?"
So you begin looking into your state of mind, and you enquire,
• "Do I have a sense of my need
• Have I a proper realization of my dire necessities
• and of the hardness of my heart?"
Whatever the question may be, it is out of place.
The only questions that concern you now are such as these,—
• What has God revealed to me in his Word?
• What has God done for me through his Son!
• What does he say to me?
• What does he require of me?
• What does he promise to give me?
You can find the answer to all those questions in our text, "Look unto me, and be saved, all the ends of the earth."
The devil tells you that you have not got the right kind of eyes
• or that you have a squint,
• or that you have a cataract over one of your eyes;
• He will say anything to keep you from looking to God in Christ.
• Yet that is where you are to look;
• it is on him alone that you are to rely;
• you are not to rely upon your reliance, nor on your faith, nor on your looking;
But you are to place your complete dependence upon Jesus Christ and him crucified.
I pray you to let this simple yet important truths sink into your mind and heart.
Endeavor every day to know more of Jesus; and, search the Scriptures/learn more/more of God in Christ as he is revealed.
• Do try to think more about him
• You who are seeking the salvation of your souls.
• Get as much time as you can alone
• that you may think of Jesus on the cross
• and of all that God reveals to you in his dear bleeding wounds
• for, the more you know of him,
• the more you think of him
• The more you will be able to rely upon him.
______________________________________________Our confidence usually increases in proportion to our knowledge,
• It is emphatically so with Christ.
• The more we know him
• the more we shall trust and love him,
Do not let any doubt ever cross your mind.
Our text says, "Look unto me, and be saved, all the ends of the earth;"
• Don’t let your own feelings throw you off from looking to Christ.
• When you look to God, and your sins seem to rise
• You say, Who am I that I should trust in God?
Keep looking to God, even if He appears to look at you angrily.
• Run into His arms, that is your shelter.
• If He takes the rod to chastise you
• Continue to run into his arms.
• Lay hold on God's strength.
• Tell him that you will trust in him.
• Even if he still seems to threaten you, tell him that you know that he delights in mercy,
Will he reject you if you come to him? That is impossible.
Never did he shake off a soul that has clung to his arm
God never drove from/door/his mercy one who resolved to die upon the threshold of His house.
So let nothing turn you from looking to Jesus.
• Even if you walk w/o a ray of light.
• Even if you are constantly in the mist of troubles.
• Remember the Lord has said:
"Look unto me, and be saved."
Do you hang upon that blessed word?
And this also, "He that believes and is baptized will be saved."
• Carry out both parts of that text
• and when you have done so
• claim the fulfillment of the promise
May God the Holy Spirit enable you to look to Christ
• For when you look to Him
• As surely as He lives, you too will live.
• as surely as God is true, you will be saved
For you are saved the moment you believe in God through Christ Jesus his Son.
I have not attempted to set these great truths before you in fine language, for I want them to come home to the heart of everyone here present who is not yet saved.
O poor soul, convinced of sin, I assure you that, if you believe in Christ Jesus, you will be saved!
• Understand clearly the salvation is that he will give you.
• It is not salvation from the consequences of your sin while you continue to indulge in it.
• He will save you from being the sinner that you are now.
The ancient covenant promise says this Ezek. 36:25-29
I can see some people sitting before me now.
• If you told them/few yrs. Ago. They would be saved.
• They would have laughed you away
• They would have said,
• “It is not likely.”
• “I know how to look after myself”
• “I don’t need the grace of God to which you think so much of”
There are people here/this moment that are rejoicing in the very thing they once despised.
• Their lives now altered/no two persons could be more different.
• Yes, their present and their old self.
• I’m afraid/old self still visits occasionally
• I’m also sure they never show the old to the new soul.
• They push the old away/getting rid as soon as possible.
The new now says:
• I never want to see him again."
• The change is marvelous between what he was/what he is;
Our Lord Jesus said to Nicodemus, "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
• Read/3rd/chapter/john’s gospel through
• before you get to the end of it
• In the very same chapter.
• in which the new birth is insisted upon by our Lord
• also has these verses in it, 14-15
"Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life.
Both doctrines are true, and perfectly consistent with each other
• the free grace of God
• And the necessity of a change of heart and life.
May you prove them consistent in your own experience
and then we will glorify God together forever and ever.
Amen and Amen.
