Sermon
# 221 Series: Isaiah
Title: Clearing The Road
Text: Isaiah
62:10
Subject: Clearing Away Obstacles to
Faith
Date:
Sunday Evening – September 17, 1995
Introduction:
The
title of my message tonight is Clearing The Road. The reason for that title will become obvious to you
as soon as you read my text – Isaiah 62:10. It is my duty, and my delight, as a gospel preacher
to make the way of salvation and life in Christ so plain and clear that
“wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein” (Isa. 35:8). In order to do that, it is necessary both to
show sinners the way and to clear out the stones, debris, and stumbling blocks that would hinder
sinners in the way. This is what is
required in our text. Read it with me –
Isaiah 62:10.
Illus: Road Crews for the Cities of Refuge
Tonight,
I shall do no more than go about the business of Clearing The
Road to
Christ. May God the Holy Spirit be my
Guide, as I go about this great work.
Proposition: Whatever it is that keeps you from Christ is a
stumbling block cast in your way by satan.
My
object in bringing this message is threefold:
Divisions:
My
message tonight will have three parts:
I. I want you to see that – The Lord Jesus Christ Has Cleared the Way for Guilty
Sinners to Come to God.
The Son of God is himself The Way, The Truth, and The Life, by whom we must be saved and come to God. He is the Door by whom we must enter in, if we would have eternal life. Christ alone is able “to save them to the uttermost that come to God by him” – (Heb. 7:25).
A. The Lord Jesus Christ has done everything
necessary to make it possible for guilty sinners to come to God and be accepted
of him.
The things I am about to tell you are things that no man would ever have imagined. No religion in the world deals with these things, except that which is revealed in Holy Scripture. Yet, if you will listen to what I am saying, your very conscience will bear me witness that there is no other way for a sinner to be saved but by these five mighty acts performed for sinners by the Son of God.
1. The Son of God became the Son of Man! (II Tim. 3:15).
We could never have come to God had God not first come to us. God became a man, so that he might save sinful men! The fact of the incarnation is an announcement of hope – (Psalm 89:19).
a. The God-man is both able and willing to save.
b. Our Lord’s supernatural miracles of love and mercy show us that he is both tender-hearted and omnipotent – He who raised the dead can save me!
2. As Our Savior, Christ learned obedience by
the things he suffered and thus was made perfect as the Captain of our
Salvation.
· Hebrews 5:8, 9; 2:10
Our Savior’s life in this world as a man was as necessary for the salvation of his people as his death. It was by his life of obedience to God that he brought in and established perfect righteousness for us.
a. He became the
Lord our Righteousness by his obedience (Jer.
23:6).
b. His obedience is imputed to us for
righteousness in justification (Jer. 33:16).
3. In order to save guilty
sinners, it was necessary that Christ die to satisfy the justice of God.
The law and justice of God could never relinquish its claims upon you and me until we died in the Person of the God-man our Substitute.
4. Again, the crucified Son of
God must rise from the dead for the justification of his people.
A
dead Christ on the cross or in the tomb would be a useless Christ. He could save no one. As long as his body laid in the cold, dark
tomb, it lay as a hostage in prison for my sins. But the risen Christ declares that my sins are gone. All the sins imputed to him are forever
gone.
5. Once more, in order to save
sinners, this great God-man must ascend to heaven and be exalted as Prince and
Savior. His Work Is Finished! Psalm 24:7-10
B. This Great Savior, The Lord
Jesus Christ Is As Willing To Save As He Is Able To Save.
He is as full of compassion as he is of power. He is as full of grace as he is of greatness.
“Father,
forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
II. Secondly, I want you to understand that The Lord God Against Whom You Have Sinned, Whose Wrath You
Deserve, Not Only Invites You To Trust His Sin, But Commands You To Do So.
Faith in Christ is not a recommendation. It is a command. It is not an option, but a duty. – I John 3:23
A. If God commands you to
believe, you are responsible to do so.
If you refuse to do so, yours will be the greater condemnation.
B. If God commands you to trust
Christ, to come to Christ, to believe on Christ, you may do so.
You
need no other warrant for your faith than God’s command. When you read in God’s word that “This is
his commandment, that we believe on his Son,” you do not need
to step and ask, “Am I qualified to trust Christ.”
God’s command is your qualification!
Illus: Happy Jack – “I am a poor sinner
And Nothing at all; But Jesus
Christ is my all in all!”
NOTE: If you obey the gospel, it is because God gives you
faith.
III. Thirdly, I want by the
grace and power of God the Holy Spirit, to clear away the rubbish and stumbling
blocks, to gather out the stones which satan casts in the way to keep you from
coming to Christ.
It is
amazing to me how adept sinners are to finding reasons why they cannot be
saved. They invert problems where there
are none, and find difficulties where difficulties do not exists. The devil never gives up a
soul without a fight. And when “he knoweth that he
hath but a short time,” he is amazed.
He throws everything in the way to cast down to poor soul he knows he is
about to lose. And the sinner will
himself ransack heaven, earth, and hell to find discouragements to faith in
Christ.
Illus: Luke 9:38-42
Let
me try to remove some stumbling blocks from the way. I hope that before I am done I shall have lifted out that very
thing that has been standing in your way keeping you from coming to Christ.
A. Satan often throws the doctrine of election in the face of chosen sinners to
keep them from the Savior – “Perhaps I am not one of the elect!”
“I can but perish if I go, I
am resolved to try,
For if I stay away I know I
must forever die.
“But if I die with mercy
sought,
When I the King have tried.
This were to die (Delightful
thought!)
As sinner never died.”
This I promise you, upon authority of God’s own Word – If you now come to Christ, if right now you trust the Son of God.
B. Some fear that they cannot come to Christ
because they are too sinful to come.
· Some Glaring Act of Evil.
If all the sins that men have
done
In will, in word, in thought,
in deed,
Since worlds were made, or
time begun
Were laid on one poor sinner’s
head;
The stream of Christ’s
effectual blood
Applied by grace removes the
load!
C. There are a good many who fear they have sinned away their day of grace, committed the
unpardonable sin.
D. Others fear that they cannot be saved
because they do not feel things as they think they should.
E. Perhaps you do not close with Christ because
you fear that you simply cannot believe.
I
fully grant, you cannot unless God gives you faith. Yet, I must hasten to add, if you will you can believe on the Son of
God. If you want him you can have him. If you need him, Christ is as near as the touch
of faith.
F. In my own case, the great hindrance satan
threw before me was the fear that if I did trust Christ my faith would not last – That’s been 29 years ago!
G. But I fear, when all is said
and done, the single biggest thing that keeps sinners from Christ is that they
are secure and comfortable without him in a refuge of lies – (Isa. 28:14-20).
Application:
1. Salvation’s door stands open before you. Why will you die, while there is a door open in heaven?
2. My brother and sister, whatever it is that
your soul needs, come to Christ now. Do
not let satan keep you from your Savior any longer – (Heb. 4:16).
#242 Jesus, I Come