All right, brethren, it's good
to see everybody this morning. Let's turn to Isaiah 49. I never know why the Lord lays
the messages on my heart that He does, and I usually don't
see it till the end. Once both are prepared, then
I kind of see why the connection, and that's so today. Both our
messages go together really well. We're gonna begin here in Isaiah
49, in verse 24. Our subject is the lawful captive
delivered. The lawful captive delivered.
Verse 24, shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful
captive delivered? But thus saith the Lord, even
the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of
the terrible shall be delivered. For I will contend with him that
contended with thee, and I will save thy children. And I will
feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh, and they shall
be drunken with their own blood as with sweet wine. And all flesh
shall know that I, the Lord, am thy Savior and thy Redeemer,
the Mighty One of Jacob. Now, at the time, the majority
in Israel did not know God. Generation after generation,
they had watered down the gospel. God gave the high priest to picture
Christ to come, and those that were given true faith saw Christ
in that high priest. They worshiped Christ. They believed
on Christ, just like we do. Their form of worship was through
the high priest and through the sacrifices and through the mercy
seat. They saw Christ in those things by faith. But over time,
men taught falsely that sinners could keep the law. They took
the things Moses had read about keeping the commandments and
rather than understanding that as doing so through that blood
of that lamb that was shed in their place, they began to teach
others they could keep the law and contribute by their works.
The same as it is today. It's the same thing happened
then as has happened today. It's happened in every generation.
And so for that reason, God turned Israel over to Babylonian captivity. He turned them over to Babylonian
captivity. God allowed them to be taken
captive, and they were lawful captives. The king of Babylon
is called here the mighty, the terrible. Israel and Judah were
his prey. But the Lord had an elect remnant
amongst them that he would save. He had some elect that were not
even yet born in Israel that he would save. And he had some
that he had sanctified and given faith that were taken captive,
and he would deliver them out as well. That was for their correction
and teaching them, Lord, to trust Christ even in the trials and
afflictions of life. But the Lord did all of that.
Everything he did there was to picture the salvation of his
people and how we were taken captive lawful captives of the
devil, and how the Lord sent his only begotten son to deliver
us and carry us all the way to glory. That's the picture in
all of that. So we're gonna see here, God's
elect, how we became the prey of the mighty, we're gonna see
Christ as our deliverer, and we're gonna see God's purpose,
what he shall bring to pass in the end. First of all, God's
elect became the prey of the mighty. We became the prey. We became the lawful captives.
Verse 24, shall the prey be taken from the mighty or the lawful
captive delivered? That mighty king of Babylon pictured
the devil. He pictured Satan. Scripture
calls the devil the strong man armed. a roaring lion, the great
dragon, Leviathan, the piercing serpent. He's called here the
mighty and the terrible. His prey are all sinners. His
prey that he's taken captive are all sinners. But those that
shall be taken from him are God's elect. They're those that God
chose to save. In the garden, the devil used
Eve. He deceived her and he used her. But Adam transgressed willingly
transgressed the law of God with his eyes wide open. And so thereby,
he and all his children became the lawful captives of the devil. We sinned, we broke the law. And so the devil lawfully took
us captive. He took us prisoner because we
had broken the law. Due to our sin nature, even after
God delivered Israel from Egypt and gave them his law, They couldn't
hear the law declare them guilty. That's so with religion today. Men can't hear what the law says.
They didn't see Christ in the shadows and the types. Men don't
see Christ in the shadows and the types of the scripture. They
don't even see Christ and understand what the scriptures say when
he's so plainly revealed in the New Testament scriptures. And
we look around us right now and we see this world sacrificing,
making their sacrifices and going through a religious form. And
most in religion today are yet in captivity. In Isaiah 42, verse
22, go back there with me. God gives a good description
of us, Isaiah 42, 22. He said, this is a people robbed
and spoiled. They are all of them snared in
holes. They are hid in prison houses. They are for a prey and
none delivereth. They're for spoil and none saith
restore. Who among you will give ear to
this? Who will hearken and hear for the time to come? "'Who gave
Jacob for spoil and Israel to the robbers? "'Did not the Lord? "'He against whom we have sinned? "'For they were not walking his
ways, "'neither were they obedient unto his law. "'Therefore he
had poured upon him the fury of his anger "'and the strength
of battle, "'and had set him on fire round about, "'yet he
knew not it burned him, "'yet he laid it not to heart.'" Now
here's the question God asked. Shall the prey be taken from
the mighty or the lawful captive delivered? That's every man's
state as we come into this world. And God says, shall the prey
be delivered? Shall the lawful captive be taken
away? Well, it's certainly not going
to be by the sinner who is the prey. It's certainly not going
to be by the sinner who is the lawful captive. We can't set
ourselves free. The law of God demands we die.
That's what it demands. For us to be lawfully delivered,
The law demands we die. We have sinned against God, we
must die. That's what the law demands.
And the law must be fulfilled in perfect justice. That's why
God sent his only son. Our Lord Jesus said, Verily I
say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle
shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled. Now you think about that, brethren.
Men have the audacity to read that. And when they see a word
like we just read in Isaiah 42 where it says they were not obedient
to my law. Men read those and without spiritual
discernment they think we can keep every start in every dash
of the law ourselves. That's an impossibility. We were
taken captive in the garden. We died in the garden. There's
no way we can fulfill the law. The law says we must die. We
must die. The wages of sin is death. God
said, I will by no means clear the guilty. The soul that sinneth,
it shall die. We cannot die and fulfill the
law, and that's the only way the law could be fulfilled, is
for us to die under justice. Now every sinner shall die. Now listen carefully to me. You
young folks listen to this, and you older folks listen too. We're
gonna all die. every sinner shall die under
the justice of God. We're either going to die in
a substitute, we either have died in the substitute or we
will meet God and pay that demands of that justice our own self.
But we're going to all die under God's justice because we've all
sinned. So he said, he said, I delivered them over to be the
prey. And he said, but they wouldn't
hearken, they wouldn't understand, they wouldn't hear me, even after
I delivered them to the prey. Are you a sinner? Are you the
prey of the mighty? Are you the lawful captive? All are in Adam. Every one of
us are in Adam. All are by birth, by our first
birth. And until God intervenes, we
are all the lawful captives of the devil by choice. That's so. For all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. And in just a moment, you and
me are going to stand before a holy God. In a moment, in the
twinkling of an eye, we're going to stand before holy God. Do you want to stand before God
and try to defend yourself and say you've done something worthy
of holy, holy, holy God accepting you? That's a fool. You know the old saying, a man
that is his own lawyer has a fool for a lawyer. Well, that will
certainly be the case if you want to stand there and advocate
for yourself before holy God. Shouldn't that make sinners fall
down at God's feet and beg for mercy? Shouldn't it make you
just want to hear this good news and hear what God says concerning
his son? And yet here's how depraved and
sinful and deceitful our natural heart is. This is how deceitful
it is. Men don't want to be delivered
by God. Sinners do not want God to get
all the glory and do the delivering Himself. That's what happened
in the fall. The devil told them, he said,
you'll be as God's. and men think they are as God.
Men think we should have some glory, and men don't want to
be delivered by God alone. That's how it's depraved, and
the good news is, though, God's chosen some, and Christ came
and redeemed them, and the Spirit of God shall apply the blood
of Christ to the heart, and he shall deliver his people. That's
the good news. That's what we see secondly.
The Son of God, the Lord Jesus, is the deliverer. He's the deliverer
God the Father has provided. Verse 25, Isaiah 49, 25, but
thus saith the Lord, even the captives of the mighty shall
be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered,
for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will
save thy children. The Son of God, came down and
took flesh like unto his brethren to redeem, to set free the captives. That's what he came for. He came
to deliver the prey from the power of the devil. That's what
he came for. The Lord said, even the captives
of the mighty shall be taken away. Even the prey of the terrible
shall be delivered. But it will not be by the work
of the sinner. It'll be by the work of God alone.
He said, I will contend with him that contended with thee.
I will. That's what the Lord thus said
to the Lord. I will contend with him that contended with thee.
This was the promise the Son of God made to the Father in
glory. He said, I will save thy children. I will. You remember whenever
Judah was taking Benjamin down to Egypt and Jacob
didn't want him to go. because he was afraid he was
going to lose his youngest son, Benjamin. And Judah became surety
for him. And Judah said, I will be surety
for him. Of my hand shalt thou require
him. If I bring him not unto thee
and set him before thee, then let me bear the blame forever.
That's what Christ did when he entered covenant with the Father
to save all God's elect from the power of the devil. That's
what he entered into covenant to do. In the garden, God began
declaring this gospel. He declared it to Satan. He told
him plainly in the garden that Christ was coming and that the
devil would bruise his heel, but that Christ Jesus would wound
his head. He had striked a mortal blow
to the devil. Christ came to contend with him
that contended with God's elect. That's why Christ came. He came
to destroy the works of the devil and deliver all God's elect children. In 1 John 3.8, it says, he that
committeth sin is of the devil, for the devil sinneth from the
beginning. For this purpose, the Son of God was manifested
that he might destroy the works of the devil. That's how his
people are delivered. How does Christ accomplish this
deliverance of his people? There's three things involved
in our being delivered from the power of the devil. Three things.
And our triune God works these three things in Christ Jesus.
The first is redemption. The second is regeneration. And
the third is resurrection, which is also called redemption in
scripture. One, Christ delivered all God's
elect by his death on the cross. He took our place. He became
his elect and walked this earth in perfection and then went to
the cross, bore our sin and bore our curse, and he put away the
sin of his people forever. Hebrews 2.14 is one I read to
you often, but this tells us exactly what our text is telling
us. This is how he contended with
him that contended with us. Hebrews 2.14, for as much then
as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself
likewise took part of the same that through death He might destroy
him that had the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver
them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject
to bondage. The Lord Jesus crushed the devil's
head. He took his power away from him
because he put away all the sin of his people. The devil has
nothing to accuse us to God with anymore. Christ accomplished
our redemption. When he was going to the cross
in John 12, 31, The Lord Jesus said, now is the judgment of
this world. Now shall the prince of this
world be cast out. And if I be lifted up from the
earth, will draw all men unto me. Talking about his people.
This he said, signifying what death he should die. You understand,
when Christ went to the cross, the purpose for which he went
to that cross was to spoil principalities and powers. the rulers of the
darkness, the devil, and all the wicked angels that fell that
we can't even see, that we don't even realize had us under their
power. He came to spoil them. You know
when you take the spoils, the victor takes the spoils, he takes
from the one he conquered, he takes the spoils from him. Well,
we were the prey, we were the spoils that Christ took from
the devil when he crushed his head on Calvary's cross. The
devil's power was broken by Christ. That's what it means by his head
being wounded. His power, his dominion was broken. Not that he's not a roaring lion,
but he can only do what Christ permits him to do. But his power
is broken over his people, first of all, by Christ's precious
blood, by him putting away all the sin of his people. Listen
to Revelation 12 now, the great dragon, was cast out, that old
serpent called the devil and Satan, which deceiveth the whole
world. He was cast out into the earth and his angels were cast
out with him. That's telling us that when Christ
died on Calvary's cross, he took the devil's power from him over
his people. You see it at Pentecost, when
the Lord sent the Holy Spirit and began a great display of
his power to save his people from their sin. And the gospel
has spread since then, far and wide, because Christ broke the
devil's power by taking away all the sin of his people and
making us righteous. Jeremiah 31.10, Hear the word
of the Lord, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar
off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep
him as a shepherd doth his flock. For the Lord hath redeemed Jacob,
and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than
he. The devil was stronger than us,
but Christ ransomed us from the hand of he that was stronger
than us. And then secondly, and this is
where we're gonna see our next message is gonna just go right
with this message. The second way that we're delivered
is through regeneration. We had to be redeemed, the law
had to be honored. Christ redeemed his people by
his death on Calvary's cross. But we're dead in sins. We don't
know God, we don't want to know God by nature. We hate God by
nature. We got to be created entirely
anew. There has to be a new spirit
given us. A new man has to be created within
us. A new mind and a new eyes and
new ears and faith to believe has to be given us. This is the
work done by the Spirit of our Lord through regeneration. We
made a new creature in Christ. That's a new creation. Nothing
of us was used. It's all of God. Somebody will
say, well, how could he do that? How could he create something
new out of nothing? Look around you. Everything in
creation, he created out of nothing. He created something that was
not there. That's what He does when He creates a new man. And
He does it through this message that declares Him and His glory
and what He's accomplished for His people and what He is accomplishing
for His people. He does it through the preaching
of the gospel. And the Holy Spirit, Christ comes. Sometimes the Holy
Spirit, He's the third person in the Trinity. He's God the
Holy Spirit. But sometimes He's called the
Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of the Lord. He is the Spirit
of the Lord. He comes in power. And He binds
the strong man, the devil. And He personally takes His child
away from the mighty, from the terrible. He delivers us from
Him. He said in Luke 11, 21, When
a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace.
You get the picture. A strong man, he's got lots of
weapons and he keeps his palace and has it guarded and everything
that's in his palace is kept safe and nobody can come in and
take it. Our Lord said, but when a stronger than he shall come,
upon him and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armor
wherein he trusted and divideth his spoils. You let somebody
stronger come along and he conquers that strong man and then he goes
in and he takes all his riches from him, everything that was
his prey and that was his, that he had lawfully taken captive,
the stronger man comes and takes that all to himself. That's what
Christ does in regeneration. He comes and He binds the devil.
He comes and He takes all His power and His ability from Him
by creating a new man in you and giving you faith to look
to Christ and trust Christ to do the saving. And you are the
spoil that Christ takes from the devil. He takes you from
the devil. He said, if I be lifted up, I
will draw all men unto Me. He's not talking about all men
without exception. He's talking about all for whom He laid down
His life. I will draw them all to me. And
in regeneration, that's what the Spirit is doing. He's drawing
all his people to Christ, out from the dominion of the devil,
out from the power of Satan, under the dominion and power
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Colossians 1.13, we saw last
week. that He has delivered us from
the power of darkness and has translated us into the kingdom
of His dear Son. That's what our Father did by
sending His Son and the Holy Spirit. And then there's a third
thing that's going to have to take place. And this is when
this deliverance will be completely accomplished. The redemption
of his elect is accomplished. Christ did it at Calvary. He
is accomplishing the regeneration of each of his redeemed now through
this gospel. And when the last elect child
is redeemed, is called out, then we're going to be resurrected.
We're going to be redeemed out of this earth into the glory
of God. Go with me to 1 Corinthians 15. And you know, I don't think it's
too difficult to convince men that only the Lord could work
this work right here of delivering us and resurrecting us. But Brethren,
just as much of a miracle of grace as resurrection is, so
is the new birth and so is the redemption at Calvary's cross.
It is all the miracle of God's grace. He said, I will contend
with him that contendeth with thee. But here's what's going to happen.
We were resurrected in Christ when He arose to the right hand
of the Father. The new birth is a kind of a
resurrection. It's called in Scripture the
first resurrection. But then there's coming this
final resurrection. And here's what Paul said, 1
Corinthians 15, 52. In a moment, in the twinkling
of an eye, at the last trump, for the trumpet shall sound and
the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For
this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal
must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall
have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on
immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written,
death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting?
O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and
the strength of sin is the law, but thanks be to God which giveth
thus the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ Jesus
fulfilled the law, He put away all the sin of His people, and
in doing so, He destroyed death for His people and gave us the
victory. Now that's how the Lord contended
with the devil. The devil took us lawful captives
in the garden. but Christ came and delivered
us from the power of the mighty. Now, lastly, back in our text,
God declares his purpose. God declares what the end shall
be. This is why God purposed for
all of this to take place. before he created this world.
This is why he permitted the devil to fall. This is why he
permitted the devil to enter the garden and for Adam to fall
and for all mankind to fall. It was to send his son to do
this work for this purpose. And here's what the Lord's gonna
do. This is what he is doing now and this is what he shall
do. First of all, Concerning our enemies, Isaiah 49, 26, he
said, I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh, and
they shall be drunken with their own blood as with sweet wine. Let me see if I can explain this
to you as simply as I know how to put it. People that reject the gospel
and reject you and me who trust Christ, they oppress you. They
oppress you with the law, they oppress you with their works,
they oppress you with their good deeds, they oppress you by saying
you must do this, and they oppress you by making you think you don't
believe Christ and you've never been saved by Christ, and they
oppress you by exalting themselves over you. And every bit of that
is the Lord feeding them with their own flesh. That's what
they're feeding on, their deeds, their flesh, their works, their
goodness, their merit. And then the rest of the world
that's irreligious, what are they feeding on? Their flesh.
That's what men and women get up in the morning and within
five minutes are on the phone looking at whatever the latest
posting is and just feeding the flesh. Go out in the world, try
to make money, feed the flesh. Go buy stuff, feed the flesh.
Do it over and over every day. Just feeding the flesh, feeding
the flesh, feeding the flesh. Drop with their own blood as
with sweet wine. Go to Revelation 12, 15. I want
you to see this. You know, the devil is called
the dragon and he knew when Christ came that he was going to wound
his head. And so he tried to destroy the
church, he tried to destroy Christ, and he's tried to destroy the
church throughout the ages. But I want you to read this scripture
and listen to what the Lord does. Our text says, I will feed them
that oppress thee with their own flesh, and they shall be
drunken with their own blood as with sweet wine. In other
words, they're just going to be intoxicated with themselves.
in everything they're doing in their lives. Watch this, Revelation
12, 15. The serpent cast out of his mouth
water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be
carried away of the flood. The woman is the church God has
let Christ redeem. The devil cast out a flood Every
so often you see this flood come, some new technology and some
new industry, and you just see this, what men call progress,
and the world just changes all of a sudden. It's the devil casting
out a flood, trying to destroy the church. Watch. And the earth
helped the woman. These are the people who don't
know God. The earth helped the woman. and
the earth opened her mouth and swallowed up the flood which
the dragon cast out of his mouth." You see that? God said, I'm going
to feed them that oppressed you with their own flesh. They're
going to open their mouth and they're going to swallow up the
flood that the devil casts out, and love it, and live on it,
and feast on it, and be drunk with their own blood. That's only the non-elect, that's
only the reprobate, that's only those who refuse to trust Christ. Nothing will ever separate God's
elect, those Christ's redeemed, those the Spirit has regenerated.
Nothing shall separate us from the love of God in Christ. Isaiah
54, 17, he says, no weapon that's formed against thee shall prosper,
and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou
shalt condemn. This is the heritage or the inheritance
of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of
me, saith the Lord. I will contend with him that
contendeth with thee, the Lord said. And here's what the end's
gonna be for you. And this is gonna be the end,
what this whole world is gonna witness in that great day of
judgment. The whole world's gonna know
this right here. This is what he said in our text, Isaiah 49,
26. He says at the end, and all flesh shall know, that means
everybody's gonna know this. You and me are gonna know it
in the full glory like we've never known it before, but even
those that refuse to trust Christ, they're gonna know this too.
All flesh shall know that I, the Lord, am thy savior and thy
redeemer. the mighty one of Jacob, they're
gonna know I saved you, I redeemed you, I'm the mighty one who did
it all. That's what this whole world's
gonna know. You know what I pray? I pray today be the day that
God makes you hear this gospel for the first time and that you
might know right now by his grace, that you might know this now
by his grace. He's gonna make His people know
it in grace, in mercy, in love, in this life. I pray that'll
happen for somebody today that doesn't know Him. And for you
that do know Him, He's created you anew, and He's made you to
know this, and He's gonna keep you knowing this. I, the Lord,
am thy Savior. I'm thy Redeemer. I'm your mighty
one. You're Jacob and I'm the mighty
one of Jacob. That means there's nobody that
can contend with you. Is there anybody stronger than
him? Nobody. Nobody. That's why he said no
weapon formed against you is going to hurt you. Not a one.
We're sitting here just a small little group of folks in the
midst of a big old wild world just swallowing up the flood.
You know what Christ said? He said, blessed are your eyes
for they see. Blessed are your ears because
they hear. I'm thy savior. I'm thy redeemer. I'm your mighty
one, God said. What a blessing to know. What
a blessing to know. Let's go to him. Our great God
and our savior. Oh, how we thank you, Lord, that
you didn't leave us in the hand of the mighty one, that you sent
one stronger than him. Christ, our mighty conqueror,
our great mighty one, came and delivered us, redeemed us, saved
us, and keeps saving us and keeps saving us. Lord, don't let us
ever look anywhere but to Christ. Keep us looking on him. Keep
us feasting upon this table you've prepared for us right here in
the midst of our enemies. Lord, keep us surrounded on all sides, protected
above and underneath. Lord, we can't contend. We need You to contend with Him
that contends with us. Keep us, make us resist temptation,
make us to look to You and trust You and make the devil flee.
Lord, keep us by Your grace, we pray. We trust this promise
You've given us in the Scripture, that all flesh shall see and
know that You are our Savior, our Redeemer, and our Mighty
One. Lord, keep us knowing it now. We thank you for your mercy. Thank you for your grace. In
Christ's name, amen.