Let us turn once more to God's Word, and turning to Isaiah chapter 63, and the chapter that we read, and I want, with the Lord's help, to direct you for a while this morning to the words that we have here at verses 7 through 9. Verses 7, 8 and 9 in Isaiah chapter 63.

The Prophet declares, I will mention the loving-kindnesses of the Lord, the praises of the Lord, according to all that the Lord hath bestowed on us, and the great goodness toward the house of Israel, which hath bestowed on them according to His mercies, and according to the multitude of His loving-kindnesses. For He said, Surely they are My people, children that will not lie, so He was their Saviour. In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the angel of His presence saved them. In His love and in His pity He redeemed them and bared them and carried them all the days of old.

The theme that I want to take up really is quite a simple one. It is that of loving-kindness. And we have mention of it of course there at the beginning of verse 7 and again at the end of the same verse I will mention the loving-kindnesses of the Lord. Then we read according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses.

To take up then this remarkable word that we find many times in the Old Testament Scriptures and it is a great biblical word. It's the rendering of the word Chesed and yet in many ways It's a word that's almost impossible to adequately translate. It's obviously a combination of two words in a sense. We have the love of God, but we also have the kindness of God. And these two things wedded together really speaks of His great goodness.

In Psalm 119, the psalmist says, Thou art good, and thou doest good. And do we not witness that goodness in all the loving-kindnesses of the Lord. The word I suppose is bound up really with the idea of the covenant gods of Israel. We might render this word that I say the Hebrew word really is so pregnant, so full there's no adequate English translation. Loving-kindness is a good rendering of the word but we could easily as well have spoken of God's covenant mercies or God's steadfast love or God's sovereign grace all of these different concepts are there so rich is the word loving kindness and so That's the theme really that I want to try to address as we consider the words, as we have them here in the three verses that I've just read. Verses 7, 8 and 9.

See how the Prophet speaks of God's great goodness. His great goodness towards the house of Israel. and in a way that reminds us of the context. There's a contrast you see in what's being said here in verses 7 through 9 with what has been said in the opening six verses of the chapter. There we read of God's dealings with Ida. The opening words, who is this that cometh from Edom, with thy garments from Bozrah. A contrast is being drawn between Israel and Edom.

Now think of these nations who are the Edomites. Well, they are the descendants of Esau. We read of them back in Genesis 36. Bozrah was the chief city of the Edomites. And so the contrast here is being drawn between Edom and that terrible judgment that God will visit upon them, spoken of in the first six verses. And then we come to our text this morning, verse 7, 8, and 9, which speaks, on the other hand, of God's great goodness toward the house of Israel.

I read the 137th Psalm also because we see there somewhat the reason why God doubts in such terrible judgments with the Edomites. The end of that 137th Psalm where of course the children of Israel are languishing, they're in captivity, they're in Babylon, they're being taunted, They're being ridiculed really by the Babylonians. They want them to sing one of the songs of Zion. But how can they sing the songs of Zion in a strange land?

But then at the end, Remember, O Lord, the children of Eden in the day of Jerusalem, who said, Raise it, raise it even to the foundation thereof. And then, O daughter of Babylon, who are to be destroyed, It's those judgments, you see. God had visited, of course, punishment upon the children of Israel because of their sins. He dealt with them in the way of chastisement. He'd taken them into captivity. There they were in Babylon.

But God knew the thought that he thought towards them, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give them an expected end. He would deliver them from all of those who were oppressing them. They would be restored to the promised land, but they would be so chastised by the Lord that they would now forsake their old idolatrous ways, how they had wanted to be like the nations round about them. And God had to, as it were, deal with them and wean them. bring them away from all their idols. And so the Lord God did that very thing. He dealt with them.

But here we see how God deals in a very different way with the Edomites. Not a way of chastening and correction to restore them, but a work of terrible judgment. Utter destruction would come upon those Edomites. And yes, the amazing thing is, of course, that they're the descendants of brothers. In fact, they're the descendants of twins, Esau and Jacob.

But why was God's dealings with the descendants of these two brothers so very different? Well, as we try to answer that question this morning, I want to deal with just two basic points really. First of all, to say something with regards to the sovereignty of God and God's absolute sovereignty, with regards to His dealings with all His creatures. Who art thou, O man that replies against God, says the Apostle there in Romans 9, and He's dealing, isn't He, with the matter of Jacob and Esau. Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated.

The absolute sovereignty of God then is the first thing I want to deal with and then secondly to say something with regards to that Savior whom God has provided for his spiritual Israel. First of all, the difference between these two nations, the Edomites, and the house of Israel and we have to trace it back to God and the fact that God is so absolute in his sovereignty I remember years ago reading that book by Zanchius, one of the lesser known reformers and he bore the title Absolute Predestination and that's the truth, isn't it? God's sovereignty is absolute.

And how do we see it? Well, we see it first of all, of course, in His eternal choice, eternal election, the sovereign choice of God. And so we have mention of that which He hath bestowed upon the house of Israel, the great goodness toward the house of Israel which he hath bestowed on them according to his mercies and according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses." Not according to their merits, nothing to do with them really and what they've done, what they are, nothing about them and their merits, but it's all, we're told, according to his mercies. What does he say in verse 8? Surely they are my people. Surely they are my people. And the word surely here has the force of only. Only they are my people. And we know that that's the truth that stands out so clearly throughout the Old Testament Scriptures. Amos chapter 3 and verse 2, you only have I known of all the families of the earth says the Lord God to Israel. He never dealt so with any other nation.

Again the language that we find in the in the book of Psalms, the end of Psalm 147 he shows his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel. He hath not dealt so with any nation. As for His judgments, they have not known them. It was to them that pertained the giving of the Law and the Covenants and the Promises. They were very much His people.

And why was it that the Lord made choice of them? As I say, it's nothing of them, nothing of their merits. The language that we have there in the seventh chapter of Deuteronomy Deuteronomy 7 verse 7 The Lord did not set His love upon you nor choose you because you were more in number than any people for you were the fewest of all people but because the Lord loved you and because He would keep the oath which He had sworn unto your fathers that the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.

Know therefore that the Lord thy God, He is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love Him and keep His commandments to a thousand generations. Oh, He is the faithful God, He is true to Himself, He is faithful then to his word in the covenant.

Again, I've already made reference to what the Apostle is saying there in that great ninth chapter in his epistle to the church at Rome. The language of Paul in Romans 9 and verse 10 when Rebekah also had conceived by one, even by her father Isaac, for the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God, according to election, might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth. It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.

It's God's absolute sovereignty, and it's repeating, isn't it, the language that we have in the opening verses of the prophecy of Malachi. So that truth is declared twice in Scripture, as it is written, Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated, and I say this is what we see here In this portion, the opening part of the 63rd chapter, those opening verses are speaking of God's terrible judgment that was to be visited upon the Edomites, Esau's descendants, the Njets, or the loving-kindnesses.

The loving-kindnesses, the sovereign grace, the covenant mercies that God showed towards the children of Israel. We think then of God's absolute sovereignty, we see it in the choice. The choice is made before ever the world was created. Election is God's eternal choice, before ever he had made man. It was decreed in the eternal covenant.

And so, thinking of God's absolute sovereignty, we must also then remember His covenant. He is the God of the covenant. And as I said, the word that we have here, loving-kindness, is really a covenant word. Again, the language that the prophet employs previously the familiar words of chapter 55 and verse 3 and cry on your ear come on to me here and your soul shall live and I will make an everlasting covenant with you even the sure mercies of David or the everlasting covenant the sure mercies the multitude of loving-kindnesses all in the covenants and remember how this was ever David's delight wasn't it when he comes to the end of his days the last words of David the sweet psalmist of Israel king in Jerusalem what is his comfort there as he comes to the end of his life what a life David had lived the man after God's own heart and he sees the situation even among his own children the sad scene and all to be traced back of course to his own sin how that man had sinned in the matter of Bathsheba he was a murderer, he was an adulterer and God forgave him his sin but the sword was not to depart from his house

it was chastening although my house be not so with God Yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things. And sure, this is all my salvation, all my desire, though he make it not to grow."

When he looks at the scene, his only comfort is God, really. It's said that he rests in the God of the covenant, the faithful God of Israel, that God who When he gave that promise to Abraham in the covenant, because he could swear by no greater, he swore by himself. He swore by himself. All his very being, you see, as God's, is at stake, we might say. He has magnified his word above all his name in the language of the Psalmists.

the word of God, this is where David finds his comfort then, in the promises the covenant, order in all things and sure we referred just now to those words in Deuteronomy 7 where we're reminded why it was that God had chosen Israel above all other nations, it was only because of himself nothing to do with them the Lord did not set his love upon you nor choose you because you were more in number than any people no but because the Lord loved you know therefore know therefore that the Lord thy God he is God the faithful God which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandment to all generations

he is true he is faithful He is faithful to his word. He had given the promise initially to Abraham but also to Isaac and to Jacob and remember the covenant with Jacob that we read of at Bethel where in a sense Jacob is fleeing for his very life. He had stolen the birthright from his brother Esau And his mother sends him away. She's afraid that Esau will yet have his revenge upon his cheating brother, the supplanter. That's what his name meant, Jacob, the supplanter. He supplanted Esau. He had the birthright. He was the firstborn twin. And so we see him there in Genesis 28, and he flees.

But now the Lord God meets with him at Bethel, the house of God, the gate of heaven. What does the Lord do there? What promises the Lord gives to his servant Jacob? In that 28th chapter, where he sees the vision, a ladder set up on the earth, the top of it reaching heaven, the angels of God ascending and descending on it. Verse 13, And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac, the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it unto thy seed, and thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth. And thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south, and in thee, and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

This is the covenant, isn't it? And it's not just ethnic Israel. It reaches to all the families of the earth. And God says, Behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land. And I will not leave thee until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of. These are the lovingkindnesses of the Lord. It's God's covenant faithfulness. and do too to Jacob and to his seed, and do with Jacob's seed. It's a spiritual people. It's not ethnic Israel. It's the spiritual Israel. It's the true Israel. It's those who are trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ. All the covenant there is the source of it, of all the blessings that God could ever bestow. Bestowed upon Abraham, bestowed upon Jacob, bestowed upon David, the secret of the Lord, all which with them that fear him he will show them his covenant.

Oh, do we delight then in these lovingkindnesses, I will mention the lovingkindnesses of the Lord and the praises of the Lord according to all that the Lord has bestowed on us. and the great goodness toward the house of Israel which hath bestowed on them according to His mercies and according to the multitude of His loving-kindnesses. How He deals so graciously.

What do we read in verse 9? In His love and in His pity, He redeemed them. He redeemed them. and He bared them and carried them all the days of their life. We're going to sing that lovely hymn number 9. I'm loving kindness, aren't we, at the end of the service to Lord willing. He saw me ruined in the fall, yet loved me not, withstanding God, He saved me from my lost estate. He is loving kindness. He redeems his people, you see. He redeems them.

Oh, time and again we see the Psalmist rejoicing in these blessed truths, God's loving kindnesses. Think of those wonderful words at the beginning of Psalm 103. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases, who redeemeth thy life from destruction, who crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies. There we have it again. He crowns his people with loving kindness and tender mercies.

Well, how does he do this? We're not only to think in terms of God and who He is, that one who is an absolute sovereign, that God who is good, that God who has made an eternal choice of His people, that God who has committed Himself to His people by covenant. But all really, ultimately, surely centers in this. It centers in Him who is the Savior.

we have the loving kindness is there at the beginning and end of verse 7 but then look at verses 8 and 9 for he said surely they are my people children that will not lie so he was their savior in all their affliction he was afflicted and the angel of his presence saved them in his love and in his pity he redeemed them and he bared them and carried them all the days of old and then of course he goes on in verse 10 following we read the chapter to speak of Moses and the works of Moses and the great deliverance and the way in which God made a path through the Red Sea and the way in which the Lord led them through the wilderness for 40 years but all these things are written for our learning aren't they? that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.

And so I want in the second place to say something with regards to what we're told concerning the Saviour whom God provides, the one who is the mediator of the covenant. The Lord Jesus Christ himself spoken of here surely in verses 8 and 9. And observe what we're told concerning him. He is the angel of the covenant, the mediator of the covenant. But how is he described here? The angel of his presence saved them, it says. The angel of his presence saved them. As I said, he goes on to speak of Israel and their deliverance from Egypt and their coming through the Red Sea and through the wilderness and so forth and remember the promise that they have back there in the days of Moses those words that we find for example in Exodus 23 concerning the angel who is to go before the children of Israel in Exodus 23 Verse 20, Behold, says the Lord, Behold, I send an angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. Beware of him, and obey his voice. Provoke him not, for he will not pardon your transgressions, for my name is in him.

Who is this angel? This is God Himself. This is the Eternal Son of the Eternal Father. Beware of him, obey his voice, provoke him not, for he will not pardon your transgressions. He can pardon transgressions.

Oh, they challenge the Lord Jesus Christ during the course of his own ministry when he says to that man who was lame, paralyzed, when his friends bring him on a bed and they present him to the Lord and the Lord says, Son, thy sins are forgiven thee. Who can forgive sins? the God only. That was the murmuring of the scribes and the pharisees. Who can forgive sins? Well, this angel can. This angel can. It's Christ who is the angel of the Lord, isn't he? There in the Old Testament. Beware of him. Don't provoke him.

My name is in him. well that's the one who is also spoken of here by Isaiah the prophet that's the one whom we see of course going before the children of Israel in the fiery cloudy pillar just as the Lord God had said he went before them it says he went before them the Lord himself went before them how did he go before them? in a pillar of fire by night and in the cloudy pillar during the day we're told at the end of Exodus 13. Who is this one? It's interesting how his presence is constant with them. There in the end of Exodus 13 God makes that so abundantly clear. He took not away, it says, the cloudy pillar by day and the fiery pillar by night. He never took it away. That was the promise. And here we have it, you see. It's the angel of His presence. His presence is permanent. He's always with them. And His presence is to be discerned in the Lord Jesus Christ.

all that cloudy fiery pillar when we read of Christ there in that amazing opening chapter of the epistle to the Hebrews now there Paul speaks of the brightness of his glory that's what Christ is the brightness of God's glory the express image of his person is the image of the invisible God And the God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts, says Paul, to give the light of the knowledge of His glory in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

But what a name, what a name is this that we have here in the ninth verse? The angel of His presence. It's that presence of the Lord that's the security of his people. We see it in the language of the Psalmist in Psalm 46. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in the day of trouble. He's not just a help, is he? He's not just a present help. He's a very present help in the day of trouble. He's the angel of God's presence. He's always with his people, again in that same 46th Psalm. At verse 5, God shall help her, it says, and that right early. Right early. Oh, God will be there immediately. His presence. Oh, there is such a wondrous union really between the Lord Jesus Christ and his people. They're so bound up together. They're one, aren't they? You ever think of that blessed truth of union? Christ the head, the church's body. I was reminded recently that probably the first lesson that Paul learned even as the Lord saved him, was the truth of union. Remember what the Lord says to him there when he's gone to Damascus in order to lay wicked hands upon those who were the followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. What does the Lord say to him? Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?

why persecute assembly? he was persecuting christians but christ and the christian they are one that's the wonder of the union that's the wonder of it really the lord is with his people wherever they are, whatever their circumstances and so we are reminded of that is a present hell a very present help in every time of trouble. That's the God of the Covenant. He's true, He's faithful to all His words. The angel of His presence saves them, it says.

But then also what do we read concerning this Saviour? Well there, previously in verse 9, in all their affliction, He was afflicted. In all their affliction, He was afflicted. Now, here surely we see two particulars with regards to the salvation that He has provided for His people. One of the truths that we see in the language of the prophets well we see substitution but we also see sympathy in all their affliction he was afflicted they are those who deserve the affliction they are the sinners they are the transgressors but the Lord Jesus Christ is the one who is afflicted in their place, in their state

and do we not see it in the language, the familiar words of chapter 53 the Lord's suffering servant and remember the language of the Ethiopian eunuch who spake the prophet of this of himself or of some other person and from that scripture Philip preaches to him Jesus It's the Lord, isn't it? Verse 6 here in Isaiah 53, All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and he was afflicted. All their deserts as sinners, all the suffering that they should have visited upon them, is visited upon him. He was oppressed, he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter of the sheep before Hashirah, so he opened not his mouth. He was the innocent one. But he never pleads his innocence at all. He willingly endures all those dreadful afflictions

It's interesting how the imagery that we have here in the former part of the chapter the judgment that is to be visited upon the Edomites look at the language there at verses 3 and 4 I have trodden the winepress alone and of the people there was none with me for I will tread them in mine anger and trample them in my fury and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments and I will stain all my garment for the day of vengeance is in mine heart and the year of my redeemed is come. How the Lord, you see, will judge the enemies of his people. Now, the language that we have there is very much taken up by John in the book of the Revelation. There in Revelation 14 and verses 19 and 20. It's often the case, isn't it, that the language that we find in Revelation takes us back to the Old Testament and it's judgment that's being spoken of. In this 14th chapter of Revelation, verse 14, I looked and behold a white cloud and upon the cloud One sat like unto the Son of Man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle. But those verses 19 and 20 surely take us back to Isaiah 63, the angel thrust in his sickle. into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horses' bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs."

All that we have, you see, the imagery, so similar to the language that is being spoken of in the former part of this 63rd chapter God's judgments upon the wicked the day of judgment and wrath and that's what Christ himself was born as the substitute of his people that judgment is not going to be visited upon God's spiritual Israel because Christ himself has suffered in the very place of his people

He says at verse 5, I looked and there was none to help and I wondered that there was none to uphold therefore my own arm brought salvation unto me and my fury it upheld me. Now the Lord has so willingly endured all that contradiction of the sinner against himself.

Isn't substitution really in many ways the very heart of the gospel? it's Christ in the sinner's place He has made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him there in 2nd Corinthians 5.21 what a statement is that by the Apostle He is made sin and His people are declared righteous He's not only borne the punishment of their sins and died as their substitute, but he's also lived as their substitute. As their surety, he has stood in their law place and answered the law of God and fulfilled all righteousness. He's honoured, he's magnified the law by his obedience. And that's the blessed exchange, isn't it? all the sins of his people he takes them and in exchange he gives them all that glorious robe of righteousness

substitution but also surely in this expression in all their affliction he was afflicted and the angel of his presence saved him in his love and in his pity he redeemed them and he bared them and carried them all the days of old do we not also see something of his great sympathy? oh we see it surely we see it here and we see it as I've already said in what the Lord says to the arch-persecutor, Saul of Tarsus, here in Acts 9, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?

Oh, the Lord, you see, He feels, and He feels for His people. That was a great lesson that Paul had to learn, that Christ is one with His people. We have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin. Oh, he's touched. He's touched with the feeling of all our infirmities. What a comfort that is. Whatever troubles, trials, difficulties, pains, anguishes, the Lord feels for his people.

The reality of his human nature, it's a blessed truth, isn't it? Let us not lose sight of that. The reality of that man, the man Christ Jesus. He's never anything less than God. He could never cease to be God. And yet, in the fullness of the time, God sends forth his son. And he's made of a woman. and he's made under the law. He has a human nature which he has derived from his virgin mother. A real man.

Touch how he becomes us. How he suits us. In that sense surely what are our afflictions? Are they real afflictions? Now don't we, in afflictions, come to learn more and more of the Lord Jesus Christ and His loving-kindnesses? All His loving-kindnesses. I will mention the loving-kindnesses of the Lord. It's all according to the multitude of His loving-kindnesses. The more we know of Him, the better we are for the knowledge.

the angel of his presence saves us he's that one who is a very present help in every time of trouble whatever our troubles might be or that we might be those then who will find some consolation in this wonderful old testament word loving kindness so pregnant in its meaning. It directs us to God, it directs us to the sovereignty of God, His absolute sovereignty, the God of the Covenant, the God who is faithful to all His words,

but that God who ultimately has revealed Himself to us in the person of His only begotten Son, who has come the angel of His presence, who has come and stood in that place of his people as their substitute he has made the great sin atoning sacrifice but now risen and ascended he's entered heaven itself but he's a man even there in heaven he's that man who feels for us in the midst of all our many trials and troubles

well God grant us grace that we might ever make mention of the loving kindnesses of the Lord and the praises of the Lord according to all that the Lord hath bestowed on us. And the Lord bless his word to us. Amen.