Well, good afternoon, dear friends, ladies and gentlemen of Hemel Hempstead. It is our joy and our privilege and our honour to come every week and to minister the Word of God, to preach the Word of God to the people of Hemel Hempstead. Time is short, eternity is forever, and therefore we ought to take heed and prepare our souls to meet the Lord. I take for my text some words found in the prophecy of Isaiah and Isaiah 45 and the verse 22. It's a tremendous verse, an encouraging verse and I hope that you take time to listen and to hear of the way of salvation. Well, here it is, Isaiah 45 verse 22. God says, look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth. For I am God and there is none else. What a tremendous verse. Well, you may say, what's so tremendous about it? God says here in his word, look unto me and be ye saved. In other words, don't look to yourself, don't look to your good works, don't think that somehow you have salvation in yourself. But salvation is in God. Indeed we're told in Jonah chapter 2 verse 9 that salvation is of the Lord. Now a vast difference between the religions of this world and the true religion of the Bible Salvation which is of God, which is not of man, is precisely this. The legends of this world say, do something. You must do something. You can do something. Salvation is in yourself. Say so many prayers, do this, do that, live a good life. Well, no one can live a good life and all have sinned. And we cannot justify or make ourselves right with God. But it is God, the Bible says, that justifies, that makes sinners right with Him. And this is why the text says, God says, look unto Me. Don't look in your heart. All you'll find there, my friend, is sin. The Bible says, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it. In my heart and your hearts, we have a constant propensity to sin. We are born sinners. The Bible says, shapen in iniquity. How is it then, even if we become a sane person, even if someone becomes a Christian, they still sin? Well, we know this because the Lord Jesus, He teaches His disciples how to pray. And one of the things He says to them, you must pray this, forgive us our debts as we forgive others. Forgive us, in other words, the debt of sin. Even the Christian sadly sins and it grieves his heart. But God says here, look unto Me and be saved. Well, how? Does God save? This is the great question. Well, God the Son came into the world, the Bible says, to save sinners. Well, how does He do that? How can He save sinners? My friends, the Bible says, by coming under God's law. That's what Christ did. He came as a man. Although He was very God, God became man. This is what the Bible simply and clearly and emphatically teaches. The Bible says God was manifest in the flesh. Despite what the Jehovah's Witnesses would like to tell you, they deny the deity of Jesus Christ. But Jesus Christ is very God. The Lord Jesus said, the Father is in me, as I am in the Father, I and the Father are one. If you've seen me, he said to Thomas, you've seen the Father. And furthermore, when Thomas touched him, he said, my Lord and my God. And the Lord Jesus did not reject that. He accepts worship because he is God. Again, we read in Hebrews chapter 1 verse 8, The Father says to the Son, O God, thy throne is in heaven forever. God came and stepped into time, space and history, my dear friends. God the Son came into this world and lived the life that men could never live. And at the end of His life, He said, I lay down my life for my sheep. And He said, my sheep, hear my voice. They come unto Me and I give them eternal life. My dear friends, God the Son came into the world to save sinners. And He speaks here in the Old Testament, hundreds of years, 700 years before He ever came into this world. And He was speaking through the prophet and He says, look unto Me and be saved. You see, don't look to yourself. The Bible says none are righteous. No, not one. Dear friends of Hamel Hempstead, I must humble myself before you. I come as a sinner. I don't claim to be better than any man, woman, boy, girl, any person out here today. But I commend the Lord Jesus and I point you to Him, the Savior of sinners. And He says, look unto Me and be you saved. My friends, salvation is a very simple thing. God doesn't say, do this great act. He doesn't say, try to live a perfect life. No, He simply says, look and live. Look unto Me and be you saved. It's tremendous. There was a man dying on the cross next to the Lord Jesus. And that's exactly what he did. He looked at that man dying next to him, the friend of sinners, and he asked that the Lord might forgive him and remember him. And the Lord Jesus said, today thou shalt be with me in paradise. That man was never baptized, never became a church member. I'm not saying those things aren't important. He never even went to a so-called place called purgatory. The Bible does not know anything of purgatory. He went straight to heaven as a forgiven sinner. And you know the Lord Jesus says, Whoever comes unto Me, I shall in no wise cast out. But it's so important the way that we come to Him. We must come not claiming any good in ourselves. The Bible is so clear. We must confess our sins. And we must look to Him. You see, this religion is not for the so-called morally upright. It's for sinners. And all are sinners. But the problem is this. Man's pride is so great. Man's heart is so proud that he'll say something like this. Well, I'm not as bad as other people. I'm not a sinner. Oh friend, we're all sinners. And as far as God is concerned, one infraction against His law is deserving His wrath. But what mercy God extends! And what mercy He gives to sinners! The Lord says, look unto Me and be saved. Isn't that wonderful? It's so simple. It's not even a step somewhere but it is a simple look, it is a simple trust in the finished work of the Lord Jesus. What are you looking to you? To be saved. Do you think it's your charitable works? Do you think it's if you live a better life than other people or somehow? Maybe you think that your good works will outweigh all the wrongs that you've done. Well, the Bible knows nothing of such a ridiculous teaching, friend. Where our good works do not outweigh our bad works. Sin is sin. And God punished in His Son the sins of all of His people. And they look to Him. They're His sheep, He says in His Word. My sheep hear my voice. I come unto them. They hear me and they come to me. You know, it's the proud man that says, I'm not so bad. It's the proud man that says, well, I'm good enough to go to heaven. Well, what do you think heaven's standards are like? They are perfect. And only the Lord Jesus, my friends, has met that standard. Twice in the New Testament we hear a voice coming down from heaven. It's the voice of the Father in the days of the flesh of our Lord Jesus. And He said these precise words, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye Him. Our friends, you must hear Him. The Lord Jesus speaks in His Word and He says, I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save. There's only one person that speaks with a perfect righteousness and it's not me, it's not you, but it's the Lord Jesus. You know the Bible says He was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners. Never a lie came from His lips. Never a wrong thought, never a wrong action. He could say, I always do those things that please my Father. Well, how wonderful that is. I could never say that of myself to my parents or to God. I've never loved God with all my heart, my soul, my mind and my strength and my neighbor as myself. No. The religious Pharisees of our Lord Jesus Christ, in His day, thought like that. But you know how the Lord Jesus Christ described them? He said, there is whited sepulchres, whited tombs. On the outside they look clean, but on the inside, there were great sinners like you and I. Well friends, let me say, don't be put off by the so-called high church. We see it today. There's a rank hypocrisy. You know, I must say it, because it needs to be called out. In so many a place today people don fine priestly robes and apparel, but these men, they are sinners like the rest. No cleric, no priest, No man can save himself, but it is the Lord. There is one mediator, the Bible says, between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. And I would urge you, give your soul no rest today, friend, to seek Him. I see a number of people listening. We'd love for you to take a tract. Time is very precious, you know. You don't know whether you're going to be here for another day, month, or year. Have you read the Bible? You know, there was once a time in my life when I was a great critic of the Bible. Well, I knew nothing of it. And it was all by what maybe somebody else had said. I never stopped to listen and to read myself. The Lord Jesus, He is all over the Bible from cover to cover. Even, He is spoken of there in Genesis 3, as soon as our first parents, Adam and Eve, sinned, God promised that He would send His Son, Jesus Christ, into the world. And the Bible says, in the fullness of time, my friends, when the fullness of time was come, Galatians 4 verse 4, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them under the law. Isn't that wonderful? He came under the very law of the Father, lived a perfect life. We could say He lived a substitutionary life. He lived the life that I should have lived. And He died the death that I deserve. Here it is love, says the Apostle. Not that we love God, but that He loved us and gave His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Do you know anything of this Lord Jesus? Or perhaps you've only taken His name as a swear word upon your lips. How terrible! You wouldn't want somebody saying something bad about you, but here is God. God the Son. Even people today have no qualm, no conscience about saying OMG. You know what I'm saying? They use God's Word as an invective. But God says He will not be mocked. One day every Whitney will bow and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. We mark this year 2025, my friends, by His coming into the world. What do you think 2025 marks? A.D. Anno Domini, which means the year of our Lord. We mark history by Him. We mark time We mark this world and this world, He says, will come to an end. He's coming again, the Bible says, to judge the living and the dead and all who look unto Him for salvation He will not cast out. When the believer dies, the moment he dies his spirit goes to be with the Lord. And then at Christ's coming we're told that very body of the man, though it may have become dust and ashes, it shall rise at Christ's coming. He said, marvel not, all that are in the graves shall come forth, some to the resurrection of life, some to the resurrection of damnation. It'll be a solemn day, a very solemn day, friends. We're told when the books will be opened up, and every man shall be judged according to his works. But the man who looks to Christ, the man who looks to God for mercy and pardon, he says, look unto me and be saved all the ends of the earth. No matter what your skin color, no matter whether you're male or female, the Lord says, look unto me all the ends of the earth. You know the Lord has people that are His throughout the ends of this earth. John says He looked up to heaven and saw a number which no man could number from every kindred, tribe, tongue and nation. And you know the gospel has gone forth into the world and many, many have been saved. One of the greatest shocks this world will receive one day when they see Christ's kingdom. and all his ransomed people with him in glory. And they shall have perfected bodies, glorified for the lost, the damned. Oh, my friend, it'll be an awful day. You look to yourself, you thought you could stand before an infinitely holy God on that day. But it'll be the worst day, but it will not just be a day, friends, it'll be an all eternity, separated from the Lord. And therefore I urge you, with all my heart, seek Him today. The Lord says, seek ye the Lord while He may be found. Turn to Him while He is near. God will have mercy and pardon, for He is a pardoning God. But that pardon is only in this life, friends. And it is to those who look to Him. And you look with a look of thanks and humility, confessing your sins and trusting in Jesus Christ. Let me just say, the apostles said, God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of the Lord Jesus. In the Old Testament, Moses had to take a serpent and put it on a pole because men were bitten. And whoever looked to that serpent on the pole were healed. But the Bible says, when the Son of Man shall be lifted up, All shall come to Him, that is all His people. He was lifted up on a cross to die, to suffer. And just as the Lord Jesus said, just as Moses lifted up that serpent on a pole, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. And all who look to Him shall be saved. You see, salvation is in God. What He has done for Paul wretched sinners. And I would urge you to seek Him today. He's a gracious, kind, loving God, ready to pardon through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.