chapter 45. Isaiah chapter 45. Our text will
be found in verse 23, or we can go back to 22 through 25. And the title of the message
is, The Threefold Oath of God. The Threefold Oath of God. The Scripture here says, "...look
unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth. For I
am God, and there is none else. I have sworn by myself, the word
has gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return." Here's
the first oath. That unto me every knee shall
bow, and every tongue shall swear. Here's the second oath. Surely
shall one say, In the Lord I have righteousness and strength. Even
to him shall all men come, and all that are incensed against
him shall be ashamed. And here's the third oath. In
the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall
glory. The threefold oath of God. Now in this chapter, our Lord
begins this chapter through the mouth of the prophet Isaiah,
manifesting his deity. Manifesting his deity by the
calling of that man Cyrus, that wicked man, that man that did
not know God. He calls him by name. He said,
Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus. He calls this man 200
years before the event took place. And God decreed that, you remember,
those gates of Babylon should be opened to him. And that night
that Belteshazzar, the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar, was in there
partying in that place, you remember, those leaved gates were left
open. God already determined how Babylon
should fall and that He should receive all the secret treasures
of Babylon. Now, what was the purpose of
this? Why would God do this? Why did God allow this man to
do this conquering and receive this? Was it for His glory? No.
It was not for the glory of Cyrus. It was not for the glory of the
Medes and the Persians. Look at verse 4, "'For Jacob,
My servant,' say, God always does everything for His people. For the salvation of Israel,
that's what He did it for. But now behold, the greater glory
of this text is not the deliverance of national Israel, but rather
the spiritual Israel. This is a picture of Christ,
that God would send Christ. And Christ should come and deliver
His people from their sins. When Christ came into the world
as our Savior, the anointed Savior of God, it was God who held His
right hand. And it was by Jesus Christ that
God would subdue the nations of men. It was by Jesus Christ
that God made the crooked places straight. He opened the leave
gates of His holy justice. And it was by His righteousness
and blood He broke the bars of our sin that enslaved us. See,
all this is a picture of Christ. All of it's a picture of Him. And so then we who have made
partakers of this new birth, we sing, joy floods my soul,
for Jesus has saved me, freed me from sin that long had enslaved
me. How? He gave His blood to ransom
my soul, and now I belong to Him. I belong to Him. Therefore, because of the victory
of Christ, the Holy Spirit has been sent now to call this elect
people, to call Jacob, to call them through the preaching of
this gospel. It is always my desire to preach
this gospel, to call the elect, to call God's people, to call
Jacob to repentance, to believe on Christ. It is to call those who can by
no means save themselves. Isn't that always the means?
Preaching is always to sinners. Always to sinners. It is to sinners
we are sent, not to the righteous, but to the ruined. Not to the
self-sufficient, but to those who cannot save themselves. Jesus
said plainly, they that are whole need not a physician, but they
that are sick. Therefore I come not to call
the righteous but sinners to repentance. And so tonight it
is my intention to call sinners to repentance every single time
through this same message. It is to call you who are sinners
to look away from your works, look away from yourself, and
this is the message of our text, is it not? Verse 22, look unto
me. all the ends of the earth, look
unto Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God."
This One who decreed Cyrus should come, this same One who decreed
Christ should come for the salvation of Israel, and now this same
God, the only God, says this to sinners, look unto Me. and be saved. Who? All the ends of the earth. Whosoever
will come. Come. Look unto Christ. It is Jesus Christ alone that
can save you. It is Jesus alone that can redeem
you. It is Jesus alone that can give
you the righteousness you need to be saved. It is the only way. Such salvation is not earned
by us. It is impossible for us to obey
the law. It's impossible for us to merit
this salvation. You could live millions of years
and never, never earn salvation. Impossible. Salvation then is
only a free gift of God's grace. It is only of the mercies of
God that sinners are saved and come to Him. Now with this in
mind, we should look at this text with this intent. And so then if salvation is a
free grace of God, how can we be sure? Now as salvation, the
Lord says, look unto me and be ye saved. Now how can you be
sure of that? And the Scriptures say, make
your calling and election sure. I need to know if this is sure.
I need to know if this is something that you can rest your soul on. It's your soul. How can we be sure that He would
save sinners? By what authority, then, do I
preach this Gospel? And so with this in mind, this
question in mind, we should look at the text and see that God
here gives us a three-fold oath. God here makes a promise. God swears. You know, when you As children,
we always swore by something greater than ourselves, didn't
we? We'd say, well, look, if I'm lying, let my mom die. We'd
say, I swear by my mom's life. I swear by my dad's life. We
always had to swear by something of value, something greater than
ourselves. But when God looked around to
make an oath, He could find no one greater than Himself. And therefore God says, I swear
by myself, saying, I alone am God. There is no other God. There's no one else to swear
by. So I swear this is true by myself. And if this is not true,
then God says, I'm not God. If this is not so, this oath
that I make, if these things do not come to pass, then He's
not God. That's what He's saying. He's
swearing upon His own person and deity. He said, I swear by myself, the
word has gone out of my mouth. And listen, it ain't coming back.
It's not going to return. And so then we want to know who
it is that swears the oath. It's the Lord that swears the
oath. Now, an oath truly. Is only as good as the person
that makes it now, right? How many times you heard a person
swear and you just know that ain't going to happen. They can
be as sincere as they want to, you just know the person's character.
They just don't hold water. They've done promise too many
times, and too many times they've lied and failed, and so you don't
put much trust in people like that. So their oath means nothing. But listen, God's oath is just
as good as God is. God's oath. God's oath is as firm as God,
as sure as God, as powerful as God. And so throughout this chapter,
I want you to see this. God makes the case very clearly
that He is the only God. I'll just look quickly through
this, you can see in yourself, verse 5, he says, I am the Lord,
and listen, there is none else. There is no God beside me. The end of verse 6, he says,
I am the Lord, there is none else. Verse 14, at the bottom
it says, "...surely God is in thee, and there is none else."
There is no God. Verse 22, "...I am God, and there
is none else." Verse 18, "...I am the Lord, and there is..."
Got that? He repeats Himself, not to take
up space. He's telling us this because
we are forgetful of who He is. God alone is God, and there is
no other God but Jehovah. There is no other God. He is
the only true God. Now, you know what God says in
this book that separates Him from all other gods? Purpose and power. God always, the God who purposes
something, and is able to fulfill what he purposed, that's God.
False gods, they can't purpose anything. Nor do they have any
power to fulfill what they purpose to do. Isn't that true of us? How many of us purpose to do
stuff? But yet we lack what? Power. That's how you know you're
not God. You're not God because you have
no power. You can purpose all day long. But you have no power
to fulfill it this separates God from all false. God God rules
all things God created all things and by his sovereign rule he
rules over all Things look at chapter 46, you know this very
well and verse 9 He's showing the difference here. He says
remember the form of things of old and new For I am God, and
there is none else. I am God, there is none like
me. What's the difference? Here it is, declaring the end
from the beginning. From ancient times, the things
that were not yet done, saying this, My counsel shall stand,
and I will do all my pleasure. Now that's God. That's God. The Lord willing to show forth
His sovereign rule, You remember back in when Babylon Nebuchadnezzar,
that greatest king that ever lived in human history, other
than Christ, you know, is the greatest, but earthly king. He had the greatest kingdom and
the greatest rule, and you remember God gave him that, and he stepped
out on that porch, and he looked over that kingdom, he put out
his chest, he said, look at my kingdom. Look what I've done. You remember what God did? God
sent him out to the field to live seven years like a beast
and eat grass. For seven years, God sent him
to the field. And you know what he said when
he received his mind again? He said, I bless the Most High.
I praise and honor, praise and honor to him who liveth forever
and ever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion. His kingdom
is from generation to generation, and all the inhabitants of the
earth are reputed as nothing. And he doeth according to his
will in the armies of heaven and the inhabitants of the earth."
And listen to this, none can stay his hand or say unto him,
what are you doing? None. So then when God makes an oath,
who will oppose Him? When God says, I swear this by
myself, on my own name, on my own honor, who then will oppose
Him and His will? None. So whatever God wants to
do, God does. That's God. That's the only God. And so what then is the purpose?
If God swears something, and He will do it, and none can stay
His hand or say unto Him, what then is He willing to do? What
does God swear to do? What is the purpose of His oath?
Listen, it's the salvation of man. That's what God purposed
to do, to save men. Save men. And so for the comfort of His
elect, for the comfort of His people, He verbally gives an
oath. Now, shouldn't it be enough when
God says something, that should be enough for us? And yet God
willing, more abundantly, to show to the heirs of promise
the immutability of His counsel, did what? Confirmed it by an
oath. He did this for you. He did this
for His people so that we who are saved might find rest. Now listen, I need something
to rest on. I need something to rest my soul. And you know what it is? Here
it is. It's God's oath. I rest my soul on what God swears
to do. On what God promises to do. And here it is. He says this,
Therefore the Lord calls all men to repentance. Look unto
Me and be ye saved. all the ends of the earth. Look
unto me means forsake all other gods. Look unto me means forsake
all of your works. Look unto me means to forsake
all your religion, all of your thoughts of God, and turn to
Him. Look to Him for salvation. And so then we see that God has
made an oath and He's purposed to save those that look unto
Him, but what is it to be saved? What are men saved from? That's
important information, isn't it? If you want to be saved,
do you not need to know what you're saved from? How many foolish
people run around and say the Lord saved people from the devil?
That's been a long-standing moronic argument. God saved men. God
doesn't save men from the devil. Listen, you know who God saves
you from? Himself. Himself. You don't need to be saved from
anybody else but God. The justice of God is what you
need to be concerned about. the justice of God. And this
is the first oath. And so if God saves men, He saves
them from His own justice. And so for every man, they must
first of all know their need of salvation. And so God swears
His first oath. Here it is. Look at this. God
swears an oath of justice. Justice of judgment look at this
in verse 23. I have sworn by myself The word
has gone out of my mouth and righteousness. It shall not return
and here's the first oath that unto me Every knee shall bow
and every tongue shall swear or confess that Sinners, we need to look to God
for salvation because God swears by an oath that it will not return
to Him until it's accomplished, and this that He swears is the
judgment of God. His judgment is coming. You pay
attention, every one of you, pay attention. The judgment of
God is coming. How do you know? God says, I
swear it's coming. I swear that everyone is going
to come to Me. It's purposed in righteousness
that every knee shall bow and every tongue shall swear all
men will and must appear before the judgment bar of God Himself. All men must appear. Now, do
you understand your need? Do you understand your need?
The Scripture hath concluded, all men are under sin. That is the result of the fall
of our father Adam, is that all of us died. All of his race was
ruined, cast out to the loathing of our own person. We, by nature,
were absolutely, completely, and utterly depraved and ruined. Ruined. Completely. Incapable. Incapable of making ourselves
acceptable to God. Wherefore, as by one man sin
entered into the world, and death by sin, so death passed upon
all men, for..." Listen, all have sin. Sin. In Isaiah chapter 1 and verse
6, it says, "...from the sole of the foot to the crown of the
head is nothing." There is no soundness, there is no wholeness
in one ounce of our flesh, but from the soul to the crown is
full of wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. And the proof of this ruin is
what? Our disobedience. Is that not proof enough that
you cannot obey the law of God? Is the law not good? Is there
anything in the law that men can find fault with? If everybody
obeyed the law, would this not be a wonderful place to live?
Would this not be a beautiful earth if men were capable of
obeying that law? Every part of that law is perfectly
good. Why do men hate such a good thing? Because it's their nature to
despise God and hate His law. The ultimate proof is that when
I present Christ to men, they will not come. That's the ultimate
proof of man's depravity. I present to you salvation free. And you'll say, no, I'll have
my work in it. That's a proof of man's utter
depravity, that he will not bow the knee to Christ now. Therefore,
see, the oath of God is to come in judgment to punish sinners. The soul that sinneth... God,
here's another oath. "...it shall surely die." That's
God swearing. The soul that sinneth, it shall
surely die. The day of judgment is approaching
quickly, and Christ shall descend from heaven with a shout, The
dead in Christ shall rise first, and we which are alive and remain
shall be caught up together with Him. So shall we be ever with
the Lord. But there's also the resurrection
of the damned, the resurrection of the lost. But listen, every
one of us will stand before this bar. Every one of us. No exceptions. No exceptions. No exceptions. Why? God says, I swear, every
knee is going to bow to Me. Every knee is going to bow, and
not only bow, your tongue is going to confess, what? That
God is righteous. That God is righteous in His
judgment. So all will stand before this
throne, this judgment bar, and He will judge men according to
His holy standard. What is God's standard? What is the bare minimum? That's
what people want to know usually. What's a bare minimum that a
man needs to have to get into heaven? He needs to be as righteous
as God is. That's a bare minimum. It's the maximum and the minimum.
It's both. A man has to be as holy as God. And anything less than that will
be cast out into utter hell forever. This is coming, friends. This
is going to happen. It's going to take place. Men
fight against it. They kick against it. They mock
at it. But God says, I swear it. I swear it. I'm coming. I swear. Scripture says that
He once shook the earth at Mount Sinai, but there's a time coming
when He'll shake not only the earth, but heaven itself! And
all this world will be burned up in God's justice. We see this in Revelation, very
clearly, Revelation chapter 21. In verse, I'm sorry, chapter
20 and verse 11, it says, "...I saw a great white throne, and
him that sat on the throne, from whose face the earth and the
heavens fled away. And there were found no place
for them. And I saw the dead, small and
great, stand before God." This is the fulfillment of His oath.
And the books were opened. Another book was opened, which
is the book of life. And the dead were judged out of those
things written in the books according to their works. And the sea gave
up their dead which were in it. And death and hell delivered
up the dead which were in them. And they were judged every man
according to his works. And death and hell were cast
into the lake of fire. This is the second death. Oh,
friends, but here's hope. and whosoever was not found in
the book of life was cast into the lake of fire, but praise
God, there are some names written in that book. Some won't be cast
into that lake of fire. Some won't be cast out. Seeing then that God will judge
us all in righteousness without exception, seeing we all have
sinned and rebelled against God, Saying there is none righteous.
No, not one. And none shall escape justice.
None will be accepted, except they be righteous. None will
enter into heaven who are guilty before God's judgment bar. And so then how, then, will some
escape? Well, that's what it says in
that verse. He says, everyone not written
in that book were cast into the lake of fire. But those written
in that book weren't. There were some who won't taste
of death. There are some who will escape
the fires of judgment. Now all who are guilty will surely
die forever, never to escape. That rich man in hell the Lord
told about, that man is still there. That man has been there
for over 2,000 years and he's still there suffering. He'll
never escape, ever. But I tell you this, just as
sure as God is coming in judgment and will cast many into hell,
yet here is hope that not all will be cast out. Not all. They that are written in the
Lamb's book of life, these are the elect. They shall never perish,
for their names are written in the book. They will be free from
judgment, free from condemnation. Why? Because they are righteous. They're righteous. They are without
sin. They are innocent before God,
justified and without... How? How is this possible? How can they be righteous? These
who are written in the Book of Life were not righteous by nature. They were not righteous in their
own flesh. In fact, they were no different
than any of the others by nature. These were born dead in sins.
These were corrupt in their works and their deeds were evil, as
all other men. So how, then, can God justify
the guilty and still be just? Now, if God's coming, that's
a very important question. It's a vital question. If God's
going to judge and He says, I swear I will, I swear it, then how then shall the guilty
be set free? And who here is not guilty? We're
guilty. How can the guilty be set free
and God still be just? Well, the answer is in the second
oath. Look at this second oath. He says this, "...surely," I
swear, "...surely shall one say in the Lord, Have I righteousness
and strength? Even to him shall men come." Just as surely as God's coming
in justice, God also swore that one should come and say, I have
righteousness and strength. The Lord swears, whose will cannot
be opposed or fail, that surely one should come, one who is a
Savior, one who is righteous, should come. And I've just told
you that's not us. That's none of us. We were born
of Adam's fallen race. We were without righteousness
and without strength. Listen to what he says in Lamentations
1 and verse 6. It says, For the daughter of
Zion, all her beauty is departed. What is that? All your righteousness
is gone. That's us. Her princes, the best
of us, are become like deer without a pasture. Look at a deer out
there in a concrete jungle. What is he going to do? He's
going to starve. He's prey. He's dead. And they are gone without strength. What are we lacking? Righteousness
and strength. Righteousness and strength. And so God here swears to send
one that is not the seed of Adam, but rather the seed of the woman,
which is Jesus Christ, the only sinless man. The only sinless man. Jesus Christ is the only man
who can confess, have righteousness." I have righteousness
and strength. He, being the Son of God, was
always without sin. He was one with the Father, one
with the Spirit, full of glory and grace. But God the Father,
in sovereign love, having chosen people, He chose the sons of
Adam's race, that they should be holy. He wrote their names
in that Lamb's Book of Life. Yet they could not be righteous
in themselves. They could never merit that righteousness. And so in wisdom, God sent His
Son to be their representative, to be the representative of these
elect people. He sent His Son to be the high
priest and the mediator to do what? To merit righteousness. provide strength What we could
not provide God says I swear this one will provide it this
one Jesus Christ you remember Ephesians 1 it says according
as he had chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the
world For what purpose that we should be? Now what's a requirement
of judgment holy and without blame and before Him. When He
comes before Him, these will be without sin, without blame. How? By Jesus Christ. By Jesus Christ. That's how. Look now and see the virgin-born
Son of God, the spotless, the holy, harmless High Priest of
the Son of God. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. He walked among men as a man
and was subject to the law of God in every way, and in every
way He obeyed the law of God to holy perfection." Why? It was His nature. He did it out of nature. What we could not do by nature.
He did. And so, the scripture says over
in Isaiah 42, he prophesies of this. In verse 21 he says, "...the
Lord is well pleased for His righteousness sake." He will
magnify the law and make it honorable. And so, how shall the guilty
then obtain perfect righteousness? Only by the righteousness of
a mediator, by a righteousness of a surety, substitute. Now what it says in Romans 3?
It says that the righteousness of God without the law is manifest,
being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness
of God, which is what? How? By the faith of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ obtained righteousness. How do I know that? God swore
He would do it. And when He came, He did it just
like God swore He would. And so then the Lord says, listen
to the words of Christ, I have righteousness. I merited it all by myself. I did it. I did it. Just like
God swore, I would do it. But not only did He merit righteousness,
that would have done us no good. If Christ were to merit righteousness
and then just go back to heaven, what good would that do us? If
we were robed in His righteousness and our sins had not been paid
for, justice still demands payment. Since when does obedience ever
pay for sin? Never. Never. You steal something. And you
say, I swear I'll never do it again. And let's just suppose
you never do it again. Now, does that pay for the sin
that you've committed? No. What needs? What do you need? You need blood. Justice demands
life. It demands the death of the sinner. It demands your life. Obedience
of the law merits acceptance of God, but it cannot pardon
sin. It cannot pay for sin. So, too, with the sins of the
elect, we truly are guilty. It's not pretend, is it? This
is not make-believe. No, it's not pretending you weren't
guilty. That's what the world thinks
about God. He just sweeps things under the rug, or that He's just
as unjust as they are, and He can kind of just put it off.
Nope. He can't do that. God will never show mercy at
the expense of His justice. Ever. Never. So then, justice
must be satisfied first. Therefore this one who had righteousness,
listen, he also had strength. What does that mean? Strength. When God took the sins of his
people and imputed them to his Son, when God made him to be sin for
us who knew no sin, that we should be made the righteousness of
God in Him. You want to see strength? There
it is. At the cross where He bore our
sins in His own body and the full measure of God's justice
fell on Him. And in His strength, He endured. What strength did the Son of
God have? to bear the weight, not just
of your hail, but of all the hail of all his people. Wake, O sword, and smite the
shepherd, the man that is my fellow. The sheep shall be scattered,
and I will take in my arms the little ones. You see how God
can take you? You see this? Because of the
oath of God, because in one there is righteousness, in one there
is strength, and in one there is salvation, in Christ alone. I can stand on that. I can find rest in that. Because
He, by His own self, bear our sins and bear the justice of
God in our stead. By this one, both righteousness
and strength, God is God is sworn to give, and what
did he say when he finished? When justice could dash no more,
what did he say? What did he tell you? What is
his word? His word is, it is finished. What was finished? All God swore
to do by that man, he finished. Everything. Salvation is done. Done. How do I know? God swore. God swore it. And God raised him from the dead
and sat him on the throne of heaven? And God also swears this. Men shall come to him. Isn't
that what it says? It says in verse 24, "...even
to him shall men come." This is the third oath. The oath
of the effectual salvation of Israel. It doesn't say men might
come. I hope men will come. It says
this, men shall come. God swears it. God swears it. Behold, the coming and dying
of Jesus Christ is not some vain gesture of God. He was not given
for an empty wish and hope that men would come to Him. As false
religion boasts, God, Christ died for all men, and He's just
waiting, hoping, begging, pleading, maybe somebody will come. No. God says, I swear this, they
shall come. They shall come. Thy people shall
be willing in the day of thy power. See, God's oath, God's decree
Just as surely as God swears He's coming in justice, just
as surely as Christ came and provided righteousness and strength
for His people, even so God swears that men shall come to Him and
find salvation. And Jesus tells us plainly the
results of that, that all that the Father had given Him shall
come to Him. and everyone that comes to him
he will in no wise cast out. That's an oath. That's the oath
of God. Sinner, I am this night an ambassador
of God. I beseech every one of you to
be reconciled to God. through that man, the one man
who had righteousness and strength. You need Him. Look to Him and
be saved. I tell you this. I tell this
to everyone. Why? I have no clue who the elect
of God are. I don't have any clue. So we
say to all the ends of the earth, come, come, look unto Him and
be saved. I don't know who God has chosen,
Except I know this, He will call them all to life and faith. They
will all believe, every one of them. And all that God chose and the
Son redeemed, the Holy Spirit shall be called and quickened
to life. He will call them to see their sin, to see their need
of His justice. He will give them a new heart. And they shall flee to Christ
for refuge. They shall come to Christ. Have you come to Christ? Have you fled to Him and laid hold on Him? It's a refuge from the coming
justice of God. Now, why'd you do that? God swore that you would. I swear they shall come to Him. And look what He says of this.
He says, not only us, but all. Look in verse 25. In the Lord,
this is an oath. In the Lord shall all the seed
of Israel be what? Justified. Innocent. Without sin. Without sin. God swears it with an oath. They shall all come to Christ.
They shall all be justified. And so when that judgment comes, we who are in Christ, We've already done what God swears
we'll do. We bow the knee and confess Jesus
Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. So what will
it be in that day? Will there be anything new? Nope.
We do now what we'll do then. And you know what God says to
you? Justify. Justify. Justify. Justify. Come, inherit the kingdom prepared
for you from before the foundation of the world. Why? You're justified. You're righteous. How? Through one who has righteousness
and strength. Who shall come? All Israel."
But notice this, in verse 24, He swears this as well, "...and
all that are incensed against Him will be ashamed." All who
will not bow to Christ now, in that day you will bow and confess. There will be no more blaming.
No more shifting of blame. No more excuses. At that time,
there will be no... I've heard so many fools tell
me, when I get there, I'll tell God, You won't say anything. Except, He's right. I want you to know this. If you
go to hell, it's your fault. I told you what God swore to
do. Is there anyone that did not understand my speech? I told you that in one there
is righteousness. I told you to look to Him. And if you do not look to Him,
I want you to understand why. You hate Him. And it will be your own fault,
and you will be ashamed. But then it'll be too late. Too
late. No hope. But for us, us who believe, standing on the promises of Christ
my King, through eternal patience, let his praises ring. Glory in the highest, I will
shout and sing where standing on the promises of God, the oath
of God. That's something to rest on.
That's something to lay down your soul and rest. How do you know God
swears you will? That's good enough for me. And God bless you. Now stand
and be dismissed in prayer.