Shall we stand as we read our scripture for tonight found in Isaiah 10, and we're going to just read 20 to 23. Some of you will say, I thought I remember reading this last week. You did, and we're going to go for it again. And it came to pass in that day that the remnant of Israel and such as have escaped of the house of Jacob will never again depend on him who defeated them. But we'll depend on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. The remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God. For though your people, O Israel, be as the sand of the sea, yet a remnant of them will return. The destruction decreed shall overflow with righteousness, for the Lord God of hosts will make a determined end in the midst of all the land. May the Lord bless the reading of his word, shall we bow our heads in a word of prayer. Our Heavenly Father, we come to you tonight, and we thank you, Father, for your presence here, and we pray that you would anoint your word as it goes forth. I pray that people might sit back and listen and hear and think and reflect upon the things that are said tonight. May it be a time of drawing those who really know you, may it draw us closer. And for those that might be partway, Lord, may they be challenged. And if there's somebody that doesn't know you at all, Father, may they hear even for the first time possibly. Thank you. Lord, for your presence in Jesus' name, amen. Tonight's service, I don't usually do this, but I'd like to start out with a question because this question will be carried on throughout the lesson. If you'll listen carefully, I'll repeat it. once now and then we'll be going through the rest of the service referring to this from time to time. I pray that we'll really be challenged by this. I'm going to use we because this is for myself as well as anybody that's sitting here that might listen over sermon audio. Are we a part-time, half-hearted, self-satisfied, professing Christian? or a blood-bought, spirit-led, fruit-bearing, born-again Christian. Now, I'm going to repeat it once more, but I'll be saying it, we'll be working on it later on. You know, there's parts of that first part, you say, no, I don't want to be that, but, you know, as we examine our lives, there's times where we kind of feel like that's part of us, but At second part, everyone is a critical pillar of salvation. So listen again. Are we a part-time, half-hearted, self-satisfied, professing Christian? Or a blood-bought, spirit-led, fruit-bearing, born-again Christian? We will have scripture to go along with this. We read a portion in Isaiah 10 tonight that talks about a remnant returning. And so I'd like to go back to chapter six, of Isaiah for just a minute or two. We had this last week, but it's such an important part of Scripture, and it's a part of Scripture that has a lot of discussion, controversy, question marks for many times as we read it. It's the kind of Scripture that we want to just put off to the side and forget it's in God's Word. You've read those kind, haven't you? And you just don't like the, is our God this way? Well, let me tell you, Paul talks a lot, especially in Romans 9, 10, and 11, as he gives God's program for the Jews and the Gentiles. 1 through 8 in Romans is from condemnation to justification. to sanctification and glorification, but we get to 9, 10, and 11, and it changes. And especially as we read 9 again, that's one of those chapters we just kind of, oh, I'd rather leave that there. But Paul deals with it. Is God unrighteous? God forbid. There's no unrighteousness with God. And I want us to think as we go along that We need mercy before we can ever have grace. Come boldly before the throne of grace that we might obtain mercy and find grace to help in a time of need. And you'll see over and over about mercy. And God says, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and compassion on whom I will have compassion. Now, some of this is covered last week, but there are those that weren't here last week. And that was given to us in response to Moses' question, show me your glory. God's not ashamed of who he is. God's not ashamed of his program. And so when Moses asked, show me your glory. And in the response, God said, I will have mercy upon whom I will have mercy and compassion on whom I will have compassion. And you might say, why are you preaching on something like this, Dave? Because nobody likes to hear it. As I went over this, I recognize more fully than ever who God is. Paul said, knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. You think he meant that? Thank you, my wife believes me. That's scripture, 2 Corinthians 5. That's scripture. We want to soften it? I say this because we want people to understand what a privilege it is to know God. All through history, God has followed a line of his people, starting with Cain and Abel. He chose Abel, but Abel was killed, and then Seth came along, and we find the godly line came through Seth. And through there, they were to witness to others, and likewise with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And we know Jacob and Esau were born, but Jacob was the one that was chosen. A godly line came through Jacob. Now, let's look at chapter 6. This is somewhat hard, but I'm going to start with, this is when Isaiah was touched by God. You remember, he came and God touched his lips with the coals and he said, who shall I send? Whom shall I send and who will go for me?" And then in the last line of verse 8, then I said, here am I, send me. And God gives Isaiah a message. We don't understand this, but remember the secret things belong to God and the things that are revealed belong to us in our posterity. This is God's word. This is God's word. He said, go and tell this people. Keep on hearing, but do not understand. Keep on seeing, but do not perceive. Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and shut their eyes, lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and return and be healed. Then I said, Lord, how long? And he answered, I'm gonna stop just a minute there. These verses nine and 10, are quoted throughout the New Testament. In John 12, 39, we find that they could not believe because Isaiah said again. It's quoted, they could not believe because Isaiah said. Now we find, we had this morning in Sunday school, I believe, Acts 28, 26. Paul quotes Isaiah. Paul recognized that God had given this verse through Isaiah and in chapter 9 he says, God has a program. How blessed we are with the privilege of knowing God's Word and being able to come to Him. But we are also told that a remnant is going to be all the way through. Paul says, even now there's a remnant. And Jesus tells us, the narrow way, few there be that find it. And as we come towards the last of the days before Christ comes again, we're told that it's going to be as in the days of Noah. Weren't many saved at that time. And so my passion is that people look up recognize who Jesus is and his reality and that he's real and our lives are dependent upon our relationship with him. Now truth can always stand examination and if there are any with questions, some have shared how you've been able to speak to people who have been wanting to find truth and wanting to give out truth and so on and that's exciting. And I praise God for those in the congregation that have come to really know him as their personal savior. So as I preach these things, it's not to discourage, it's to encourage us to draw closer. We serve an awesome God, but He is just. We don't deserve anything, and that's where we make mistakes many times that we think we can float along and be a half-hearted, part-time Christian. There's not much room for those kind of Christians, are there? I won't say somebody can't fall, and there's young Christians, and there's different levels, because, praise God, We've been told to disciple them. But as we talk about these things, my purpose is that we come to the place where we can talk about them and not become afraid. That we can talk about them with confidence. We did that about end times. We can do that about salvation. We can do that about any of the subjects that are in God's word. And so I pray he just speaks to our hearts tonight. There might be somebody who'll go home and say, Lord, this is my prayer. Even as I prayed when he called me into the ministry, take me and do with me what you want. I'm yours. When I prayed, I said, I'm desperate because my dad had had a stroke and I had nobody else. I'm an only child. And I said, I'm desperate. And God took me. And he changed me. 1982, September 15th. That's 35 years ago, this last September. And there was a change. When God takes a person, there's a change in their life. There's a change in their desires. Let's look, our time is going rapidly. Verse 11, and I said, Lord, how long? And he answered. And he gives 11 and 12 telling what's going to take place. Now, Isaiah is prophesying probably a good hundred years or more before being taken to Babylon. So get the time frame right. So when he talks about a return, he's talking about to Babylon. Now, in verse 13, but yet a tenth will be in it, and will return and be for consuming. Now I want to stop there. This tenth refers, it's a separate from end times, and I was not clear, nor was I clear in my own mind. This tenth will return from Babylon. Now Amos in chapter 5 verse 3 gives us confirmation of that. He says, a thousand shall leave the city and a hundred shall come back, and a hundred shall leave and ten will come back. So he gets the ten percent And that is on the return to Babylon, or on the return from Babylon to Jerusalem. Zerubbabel, the first group that was brought back was about 50,000, I think, and then we have some more being brought back, but it was a very small number in comparison to the whole number. But yet a tenth will be in it and will return to be for consuming. In other words, going to go downhill very fast, they'll be consumed. But notice what he says, as a terebinth tree or as an oak whose stump remains when it is cut down, so the holy seed shall be its stump. I believe we have a mention there of the church. The holy seed will be for the stump. We'll see that remnant continue and the stump will begin to take form. The church is brought in, or the Gentiles, frequently in the Old Testament. and it's prophesied ahead that this is going to take place. Now, that's the background. I'd like to read another verse from Genesis so you can see right from the beginning. And then just a brief look around the world today if you can see some of these things happening. Genesis 11-6, the setting is, and you don't have to turn to all of these, when we do have a section we're going to stick on then I'll say, you know, if you're following with, go ahead and turn. This is when a tower was being built and they were going to build a tower and worship in it and they were all one and the Lord said, indeed, the people are one. That's a key statement. The people are one and all have one language. And this is what they begin to do. Now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. I see the hint in the word withheld that there is one in control. And I love that. We see it in words like, it was granted them, or there's one in control, and that's the one we worship. But the idea was they were one. God scattered them. But I want to ask you to look today, what is the battle of Satan? Now, we talked about this last week, the battle for control. But what is Satan? I'll say, Satan, trying to do today, there is a hatred against nationalism. Would you agree? There is a drive for world domination, for world control, the new world order, the one world religion, the one economy. Now, you see it working in small parts around. Right now, we have a space where we have I believe, my opinion, that we've been given a reprieve. Do not take that lightly. When God gave reprieves in his word, it was a time for people to get right with him, to understand that they had a relationship that was real, to know that we serve a living God who is in control and he sets up governments and he takes down. And he has decreed a time, he knows when it is, when these things will come to a final end. Now, because the time continues to go, we're going to skip some of what I had planned, but let's go to Luke 21, a very important portion of scripture. Now, we were here last week, and then we're going to jump from this and expound and expand on it a little bit more. To give you the setting, you'd have to look at verse 25 through 27. And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, in the stars, and on the earth distress of nations with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring, men's hearts failing them from fear, and expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of heaven will be shaken. Now, most of our congregation should recognize right off the bat the cosmic disturbance comes right before. the day of Christ when Jesus comes back, and the day of the Lord, same day, I believe, when God sends His wrath upon the earth. And His wrath is a wonderful part of God's character, just like His love. You'll find that as part of God's character. They will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great And if we were in Matthew 24, he sends out his angels from one end of heaven to the other, or Mark 13, from the uttermost part of heaven to the uttermost part of the earth. In other words, all the saints. Okay, let's go on. Verses 34 through 36 are the ones we want to focus on for the next couple of minutes. And it says, but take heed to yourself. I'd like to say, read it carefully. Think about this. All of you that have red letter edition, see that it's in red. This is Jesus speaking. Now all scripture is given by inspiration of God, but when Jesus speaks, you know he means what he says. They all do. Take heed to yourself, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing drunkenness and cares of this life, and that the day and that day come on you unexpectedly. Now, for unbelievers, this day will come as a thief in the night. But for believers, it says, you brethren, 1 Thessalonians 5, 4, you brethren are not in darkness that that day shouldn't overtake you as a thief. You are children of day, children of light. We can be aware of what's happening. Jesus told the Pharisees, I believe it was, you can discern the signs of the weather and so on, but you can't discern the signs of the times. He says, take heed, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life. Last week we shared just a little bit on control. We know that Ephesians 5,18 says, Be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit. Both of them having to do with our control. That's the big thing in the world today, is control. I feel it in the politically correct situation. How many times do you go to say something and you look around to see who's there? Raise your hand. Anybody been there? And you wonder if you're going to say something and offend somebody. Well, Satan's battling for control. He's in his last days. He knows that. I don't know what else he knows. He's not omnipotent or omnipresent or anything like that. He works with his demons. But I do know in the last days there's going to be a lot of demonic activity. We start to see that happen many times. Now, drunkenness and cares of this life and that day come on you unexpectedly, for it will come as a snare on all those who are earth dwellers. Whenever you get in Revelation or these where they talk about earth dwellers, it's the unbelievers. It's the unbelievers. It will come upon them as a thief in the night. It'll be a snare. Here's our instruction. Watch and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape or another translation that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will come to pass and to stand before the Son of Man. Now, that's an interesting statement. I don't even remember who told me. When you see the only place in the Bible that there's a great number of saints, it's in the rapture in chapter 7 when they get to heaven and you'll find they're all standing before the throne. And they say salvation or they cry out loud, salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. Standing is a very important word. In Ephesians 6, 13, wherefore take on the whole armor of God that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand. Now, there's been many times through the history of the world that we could call the evil day, but if there's ever one that's more evil than any of the rest of them, it'll be during the period of Satan's wrath. And I know some of you have said to me, and I agree, I'm there with, and I use we, pray that God will give us a strength at that time to stand when it becomes so difficult. This is what we're told, and this is what we want to, I believe the best way to prepare for the end times is to know our Savior more closely and make sure of our relationship with Him. All His promises are true. Every promise, as the song goes, in the book is mine. Every chapter, every verse, every line, all the blessings of His love divine, every promise in the book is mine. The promises are true. The Christian walks and lives by faith. For as Paul says, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him. We ready to go on? I know there's a lot to absorb in these things. Now, in the, I gotta repeat that, watch therefore and pray always. I cannot think of anything more important. The watching, I believe, is not watching alone for Christ to come, it's watching as all these things make sure that none of them overtake us and we become consumed by them. What's preeminent in our life? Let me ask a better question. What's preeminent, what was preeminent in Paul's life? He said that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering being made conformable unto his death. He had one aim and they said there's persecution awaiting and he says none of these things move me, neither can I my life dear unto myself that I might finish my course and my ministry of preaching Jesus Christ. These things have been on my heart because I hear of church after church who's compromised in some doctrine and that's the first step to apostasy. We see people going downhill because the pressure is getting great. Well, we can compromise here and we can still all we can still make it go. I had a young man that I was talking to and he says, well, I may just take the mark and pretend to go along to, in other words, to save my hide. And I said, God doesn't work that way. There's no pretending. There's no pretending. Now quickly, if you'll turn to Luke 8, and we'll wind up with this, and then I want to go back to that question that I asked in the beginning. Some of you will recognize this immediately. You'll find the same one in Matthew 13. Yeah, you got it. Oh, I love a congregation that knows the Word of God. And I'm going to begin Jesus has, this is Jesus talking again and he's just told the parables of the four soil. There's so much, so much you can find in this, in these parables that Jesus tells. And he tells, there's one message when you go through the whole eight of them in Matthew 13. There's one message, but let's look from verse 9. He's already told about the sower that went to sow a seed from 5 on. In 9, his disciples asked him, saying, What does this parable mean? Listen to what he says. To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest it is given in parables Oh my goodness, that seeing they may not see and hearing they may not understand. He quotes Isaiah again. He quotes Isaiah in, I think it's, oh, I didn't write it down here, but in John 12, I know he quotes it and it says, they could not understand because Isaiah said this. Now, let's look at his explanation. The parable is this, a seed is a word of God. When we sow the word of God, it's living and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing. We cannot have anything more wonderful than God's word as it penetrates our heart. Those by the wayside are the ones who hear, then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. Satan is very well aware when the Lord is working. Verse 13, the ones on a rock are those when they hear receive the word with joy and these have no root who believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away. I have seen that and it hurts. We see somebody flourishing and they accept the Lord and they're excited and then you see them a year later and I have seen where the interest has been lost. and it just hurts. Sometimes it's when we don't really follow up with discipleship, because they truly need that. They truly need that. Fourteen is the one I'm most concerned about because that fits our lesson. And the ones that fell among thorns are those when they have heard, go out and are choked with the cares and the riches and the pleasures of life. Doesn't that sound like what we were just at in Luke 21? See the world, the flesh and the devil versus being filled with the Spirit. But then it adds one thing more. They don't bring any fruit to perfection. They're choked. That may take a whole lifetime. And they may be professing Christians, but have never come all the way. Verse five, but the ones that fell on the good ground are those who have heard the word and with a noble and good heart keep it and bear fruit. with patience or endurance. Tonight's message gives a new perspective on salvation, does it not? God is real. I don't believe there's a lot of room for part-time, half-hearted, self-satisfied side professing Christians. But I'd like to look just a minute or two at what we should be. Blood bought. Paul says, don't you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who was given you by God? You are not your own. You've been bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God with your body and your soul, which are God's. Notice God is the one that has to do the work. We cannot do it on our own. Yet, God wants us to be responsible, to be obedient. He works through His Word. His Word and His Holy Spirit, not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to His mercy. Oh, I like that. According to His mercy, He saved us by the washing of regeneration. and the renewing of the Holy Spirit by our Lord and Savior. It's God's work. We are saved, and I believe. Well, let's go on. We'll get there. We're blood-bought. We're a dwelling place for the Holy Spirit. And we've accepted the gift when Jesus died and shed his blood and have let him impute and asked him to impute his righteousness to us and take away our sin with the idea that we're ready to follow him. And I like to add that in there. No, we aren't saved by works, but we are told to work out our salvation with fear and trembling, for it's God who worketh in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure. To will, even to give us the will to do it, because how many times do I sit and know what I should do and don't have the will to do it. We left about three weeks ago with the idea to go through a week and see how many times you're faced with that situation. I know I should do this, but I really want to do this. I haven't asked how far you got. I know I believe over the last weeks I've been getting better. How's that? But isn't that being led by the Spirit? The Spirit speaks to us, are we always ready to follow just in this life of the things that will trip us up and snare us? Jesus said, watch and pray always that you be counted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass and to stand before the Son of Man all the way to the end, all the way to the end. Let's take the next one. Spirit-led, Romans 8, 14. As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. And I think before that it says, if you have not the Spirit of God, you're none of His. You can sit and listen to messages, but you have no part in it. No interest, no understanding, because you've got your own agenda that you want to go out after and follow. But as a Christian, we've been raised from the power of darkness into the kingdom of His beloved Son. Colossians, I believe, 113. We don't own our life anymore. If we're truly His, we've been bought. We have been bought. Let's go on. Fruit-bearing, Matthew 7. He goes to tell about the broadway, the wideway, and so on, and then he said, I think it was in verse 20, they're known by their fruit. We know in Luke 8 that we just read, the last soil bore fruit with patience, with endurance. Revelation 7, 2 and 3, seven times it talks about overcoming. In chapter 21, they that overcome shall inherit these things and I will be their God and they shall be my son and then born again, then born again. I believe it's John 3, 3 that Jesus said. Unless a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. And in verse five, he says, unless a man is born of water and of spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. And I believe that's the word and the spirit. Warren Wiersbe used to say, we have two heavenly parents, the word and the spirit, because the spirit impresses the word upon our hearts. He's the one that teaches us. And then he goes on to say, marvel not, I say unto you, The wind blows where it wishes. We don't know where it goes to or where it comes in. So is everyone who is born by the Spirit. There's things we don't understand. Most people I ask when they accept the Lord. Some can tell it at definite times. Some say, you've heard them, haven't you? God began to work with me. But there comes a time when there's a change. There comes a time when we're ready to surrender fully to God. There comes a time when He becomes real and we're willing to forsake our fleshly desires and begin to follow God. It's a battle. There's young Christians, there's older ones. I pray tonight, as we close, that you'll think about these words. In a few minutes, we're going to partake of the Lord's Supper, and we're going to have silence. We'll close with a word of prayer first. Our Heavenly Father, how I praise and thank you for your word. How I thank you, Lord, that you care about your own. How I thank you, Father, that your promises are yea and amen in Christ Jesus. And how I pray that hearts would be open tonight. Lord, I pray that there might be fruit-bearing Christians. I pray that there might be spirit-led Christians. Father, I pray there might be born-again Christians. And of course, there'll be blood-bought. Lord, speak to our hearts. We give you all the praise and the thanks in Jesus' name. Amen.