Isaiah chapter 62. Oh wait brother JD. That's OK. I want you to I want you to feed
with us. I want you to eat. All right, Isaiah chapter 62
and verse 1. The title of the message this
morning is, The Zeal of Christ for Zion. The zeal of Christ
for Zion. The Scripture says, For Zion's
sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will
not rest until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness,
and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth." Now surely
by this text we can see, we can see the zeal of the prophet Isaiah
for the salvation of God's elect. We can see his great love, his
great compassion. He said, I will not hold my peace. I will not rest. Until Zion is
righteous, until salvation is come to Zion, I won't stop. I won't stop preaching. Isaiah, though beloved to us,
we read Isaiah, and we suppose that everyone that heard Isaiah
in his day were just as infatuated, just as much in love with Isaiah
as we are. That's not so. Isaiah was a very
hated man, a very hated man in his day. Isaiah, though beloved prophets
whose words were inspired by the Holy Spirit, was not loved
in his day. This man of God, though thought
by many, to be the one that the apostle references in Hebrews
11 and verse 37. He said that the prophets, those
prophets were persecuted and one, he said, was sawn asunder,
cut in half. That's how much they hated this
man Isaiah. He is believed to be the one
that the people of Israel literally sawed him in half. They hated
him so much. And surely, listen, this was
the lot not just of one, but most all of God's servants have
been hated. Hated. Persecuted. Faithful prophets of Israel were
persecuted. You remember Jesus' cry. He said
to those in Jerusalem, Thou that killest the prophets, That's
what he called them. That was their name. You that
kill the prophets. In Acts chapter 7, you remember
Stephen, when he was preaching to them, he said, You stiff-necked
and uncircumcised, you do always resist the Holy Ghost, as your
fathers did. Which of the prophets have not
your fathers persecuted? And they have slain them which
showed before the coming of the just one, whom you are betrayers
and murderers. Yet like all of God's men, though
despised and hated by the world, Isaiah surely loved Israel. He loved them. He loved them
and he had such great zeal for his people so that he would not
rest. No matter how much they persecuted
him, no matter how much they hated him, he would not rest. He would not cease from preaching
the gospel. Remember what Jeremiah said when
he said he quit. I don't know, every pastor now,
I'm telling you, we all quit. Every week, I'm sure, every pastor
quits. But I know this, we like Jeremiah
cannot forbear. His bones, he said, burned within
him to preach the gospel. And was this not the part of
the Apostle Paul Toward those who put him in prison those very
ones who hated him so much and put him to prison that Ultimately
led to his death. He said my heart's desire and
prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved He says in
the previous chapter Romans 9 and verses 2 and 3. He said I got
a great heaviness I swear to God. That's what he said. He
said God is my witness you listen. I have a heaviness I have a heaviness
and continual sorrow in my heart. Listen, for I could wish that
I myself were a curse from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen in
the flesh. Now I'm not gonna dare to tackle
those words. I fully can't grasp that. But
what I would do is I would have us I would have each believer
in Christ put our zeal next to his. Put your zeal and love for the
gospel and the salvation of God's elect, you put it next to the
apostles, you put it next to Isaiah, and you know what you'll
find? Coldness. Coldness. I find lack of zeal. That's what
I find. I find a lack of zeal in our
own hearts. Believers in Christ, may God
the Holy Spirit even now descend upon us in great influence to
give us this heart, to give us this desire, that our prayer
to God for Israel is that they might be saved, that we should
have a heart and a love and a zeal for the people of God that they
should come and believe. We should all have this heart.
We should pray for it. May our hearts then burn within
us for the salvation of God's people. Yet even if we were the most
zealous and faithful people, even if we were the most sincere
people, if we sacrificed even our lives, this zeal will give us no lasting
comfort. Now, if you're trusting in your
zeal, you're in trouble. You're in trouble. May God give
it to you. I pray that he does. I pray he
gives us all a zeal for the lost, a heart of compassion, a heart
of mercy, a desire For those that even hate us, that God would
reach down His hand and save them. But even in that zeal,
don't trust it. Don't lean on it. Don't trust
it. It won't give you any happiness
or comfort or assurance. Therefore we should take this
text and look at these words as they are meant by the Holy
Spirit surely Isaiah said I will not rest and he didn't did he
he was zealous for the gospel up until his very death he believed
and trusted and But these words let us look at him as I believe
the Spirit has has mentioned here of Jesus Christ you should
see these words as the words of Christ and Now Zion, he says, for Zion's
sake. Now who is Zion? Zion is a picture
not of the whole world, not of all the lost, but only of the
elect church of God. Zion and Jerusalem are here spoken
of as the natural descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
These, Paul tells us, were recipients of many graces. The nation of
Israel was a blessed people above all other people. They had the
adoption. They had the law. They had the
ceremony. They had the prophets. They were blessed. But they are not all saved. We
know that. That's simple. You can't help
but read the history of Israel and find that many who were descendants
of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were men who despised and hated
God. And they died in their sins. Not all of them were saved. Not
all of the nation of Israel was redeemed. Why? Because they were
not all the elect. Go over to Romans chapter 9. Romans chapter 9. And I think
this is very important for you to watch, to be on guard for. I am hearing much about that
physical land of Israel. You hear a lot about that, and
they're trying to bribe people and make people feel guilty about
giving money to causes over there. If you want to give money to
the poor, that's all right. It's understandable. But don't
do it thinking that that's God's people just because they're descendants
of Abraham. The Scriptures are clear they're
not. Go to Romans 9 and look at verse 6. He says, not as though the word
of God had taken none effect. Four, they are not all Israel,
which are of Israel. Neither because are they the
seed of Abraham are they all children. But in Isaac shall
thy seed be called. That is, they which are the children
of the flesh, these are not the children of God. But the children
of the promise are counted for the seed. Paul goes on in this chapter
to show that Israel is the chosen vessels of mercy. They are the
elect of the Father. It was the sovereign, free, unconditional
love of God the Father that chose Zion that chose Israel his spiritual
seed it was the eternal Immutable will of the father that these
chosen people should be holy and without blame before him
Ephesians 1 we know this well That the father had chosen us
before the foundation of the world what that we should be
holy and That we should be without blame
before Him, in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of what?
Children. You see, the children were chosen
children. They were adopted children before
the world began. And they were to be saved only
by one means, even by Jesus Christ. This was the Father's will. And this, my friends, was surely
no small task. This was no small task of God
that He required, but it was infinitely more than any one
of us could accomplish. What God chose to do for Zion
was something Zion could never do for herself. Therefore, the Father gave. Father
gave Zion. He gave His elect to His Son. He presented them to His Son
in a covenant relationship. And the Son of God swore. When He could swear by none higher,
He swore by Himself. What did He swear? He said, Father,
I'll be responsible for them. I'll be responsible for them.
I'll do what you have purposed to do. I'll accomplish it. He became responsible for all
of our salvation. Over in Hebrews 6 and verse 16
it says this, For man verily swear by the greater, and an
oath of confirmation is to them an end of strife." Now isn't
that, supposedly, that's the way it's supposed to work. You
make a covenant with a man, you say, I swear, and that should
be the end of it. You both should fulfill your
bargain, whatever it is. That should be an end of all
strife. Wherein God willing more abundantly
to show to the heirs of promise, that's Zion, The immutability,
the unchangeableness of his counsel confirmed it with an oath that
by two immutable things, which is impossible for God to lie,
we might have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay
hold upon the hope set before us. Which hope we have as an
anchor for our soul, both sure and steadfast, which entereth
in within the veil, whether the forerunner has entered even Jesus,
made an high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek." You see, herein then rests all
the hope of any salvation of Adam's race. In that covenant that God made
with the Son, therein rests any hope. If there's any hope for
Adam's sinful race, if there's any hope for you or I to be saved,
it is in that covenant. It's in that covenant. If there's
any hope for us, the desolate and forsaken race of Adam, who
is only worthy of holy hatred and vengeance, It must be in
the person of Jesus Christ. There's all the hope. If there's
any hope for Zion, and I tell you there is, it's in Christ. In Christ alone. Now consider this. Consider the
billions of Adam's race that exist, that's ever existed. Do
you know how many good men there were None. None of Adam's race. Of the billions
of men, there were none righteous. All of Adam's race was born dead
in sins, and every heart was set at enmity against God. We were set against God from
birth. We were haters of God from birth. Sinners, we were from birth with
no hope of obedience to the law of God. And you know what? We
were not subject to the law of God, neither indeed could we
be subject. Therefore, if God had not made
choice among us, if God had not chosen a remnant of Adam's race,
we would, as Isaiah said, we would be as all like Sodom and
Gomorrah. But friends, this is a gospel.
Not that salvation is an offer of God. But salvation is a decree
of God. This is all my hope, is that
God decreed I should be saved. And Christ accomplished every
bit of it. That's my hope. That's all my hope. And if you
have any hope, it's in that. There's no other hope. Salvation
is not an offer, it's a decree. Salvation is not by any work
or merit, but it is solely by the work of Jesus Christ, the
representative man. You see, even before there was
sin, I had a representative. Before Adam ever represented
me, Christ represented me. He is my representative man,
and therefore He is my surety. He is my guarantee of glory,
Christ. The Son of God said in His covenant
with the Father, He said, I swear to bring every one of your elect
to you. You remember the first time the
word surety is used, it's over in Genesis where Judah told his
father he had to go back and get his son Benjamin and bring
him to meet Joseph that he didn't know was Joseph and he said I
need to bring Benjamin and he said you're not bringing my my
only son I have left you're not bringing him and Judah made an
oath he said I swear if I don't bring him back to you Let me
forever bear the blame. And that's exactly what Jesus
Christ said. If I don't save all those that
you gave me, I will bear the blame forever. You don't see
how then the elect and the glory of God are intertwined? They're
intertwined. They're inseparable. Our salvation and the glory of
God are so in union together that if one of His elect, if
one is lost, the glory of God is sunk forever. And we know
that's not going to happen. It's impossible. Therefore, from
the beginning, the Lord Jesus has not held His peace. Isn't that so? This covenant
was made before the Scripture ever came into existence. But
ever since the beginning, God has been declaring this same
message over and over and over again. And even today, this message
is still the same. It's always been the same from
the beginning. In the beginning God created
the heavens and the earth, and the earth was without form and
void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. What is that
a picture of? You, me, sin. Our nature, darkness, was upon
the face of the deep. What was the remedy? And God
said, Let there be light. And the Spirit of God moved upon
the face of the water. That's how we were saved. The
Spirit of God moved on us. And God said, The Word of God
comes to us, which is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And what?
There's light. There's righteousness. There's
salvation. And I tell you, Christ has not
ceased in His work. to bring his people to himself. He has not rested from the beginning,
has not held his peace, nor did he rest until the work that he
has performed was accomplished. What was his work? Go back to
your text. He says, I will not hold my peace,
and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest until the righteousness
thereof go forth as brightness. So what's his first work? His
first work was that of righteousness. Here's the simple of it. You
had none. He obtained it all. You had no
righteousness, He obtained it for you. In your place, He did
this. In your stead, He obtained righteousness. Not just any righteousness, because
there's not any, there is no subpar righteousness, you get
that? There's no kinda righteous, there's no sorta righteous, there's
righteous and there's not. This is an all or nothing principle.
It's just the same as holiness. You're either holy or you're
not. There's no middle ground here. And the work that Jesus did,
and He said, I will not rest. I will not rest until the work
of righteousness is complete. As Adam was our representative
man, and we were in him, we were made unrighteous. Why are my
children born unrighteous? Because they are the seed of
Adam. They inherited the same thing
that I inherited, the same thing that you inherited, which is
the sin nature. We became sinners by the disobedience
of one, he says in Romans 3. How then shall the elect be made
righteous? Even by the obedience of one,
Jesus Christ. Therefore, all the promises of
God, all the word of God, all the events of time from the beginning
have been moving toward that purpose. I love Ezekiel's prophecy
of the wheels within the wheel and how they move straight forward
and they don't turn to the right and they don't turn to the left.
They go straight forward. The providence of God is moving
forward. And nothing can stop it or deter
it. Nothing. It's been this way from the beginning,
and listen, it's that way right now. It's that way right now. God has moved all things to point
to this one person, this one man, for this one purpose, to
provide righteousness for Zion. Consider the divine providence
of God that neither veers to the right or to the left, but
how God did not rest until His Son had accomplished righteousness. Go over to Daniel. Look at God's determination. Look at the zeal and the exactness
of this salvation. In Daniel chapter 9 and verse
24, 70 weeks are what? Determined. I like that. That's amazing. The exact day is determined. The exact time is determined. Upon thy people, Zion, and upon thy holy city, To do
what? To finish the transgression. To make an end of sins and to
make reconciliation for iniquity. And to bring in everlasting righteousness. To seal up the vision in prophecy
and to anoint the most holy. Behold that Jesus is the Savior
that has come at the exact appointed time to finish the transgression. In other words, this means to
measure in full. He was going to measure in full
all of the transgressions of His people. And God was to impute
them to His Son's charge. and then to exact vengeance for
them on his son. To make an end of sin, to bring
in, to make reconciliation, to bring in everlasting righteousness. Believer, see now thy representative. Listen, he did not hold his peace. And he did not rest until he
accomplished your salvation. One of my favorite scriptures
is he set his face like a flint. That word is steel. He set his
face toward Jerusalem. and he would not be deterred
from his objective. You know what the Pharisees said
about his death? On the day that Jesus told his
disciples, he said, two days and I go to be crucified. You
know what the Pharisees said? Now we can't kill him on the
Passover. We can't do it! The people will
be in uproar. There's no way we can do this.
And God said, yes, you will. You'll do it exactly when I tell
you to. And you know what they did? They did it exactly at the
time he told them to. They crucified the Lord of Glory
because it was appointed. Over in Acts, we learn that this
is the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God that He
was crucified. It was by the determinate counsel
and foreknowledge of God He was lifted up. And Christ would not
rest until you were completely saved. Completely saved. Jesus tells us plainly what he
came to do. He said in John 6, this is the
will of him who sent me. That of all he hath given me,
I shall lose nothing. I won't lose one of them. But
I will raise them up again at the last day. I will. Look how
zealous Christ was as our representative. See how He was not moved from
His work. See how none could convince Him
or tempt Him to sin against God so that He should bring in everlasting
righteousness for you. You who are His. This was His
zeal for you. This was His zeal. This righteousness
He earned, not for Himself, but for you. And because his people
were sinners by birth and willful rebels against God, therefore,
to bring us to God, he must finish the transgression by his own
blood. Listen, do you suppose Christ
was hanging there unwilling? How many times are you told by
the Lord to do something and yet we are so unwilling? We grit our teeth, All right,
if that's what you want. Oh, he was nothing like that.
He willingly gave his life, willingly laid down his life. He was willingly
made a curse for us and suffered the full measure of God's justice.
Behold how he did not rest until he had completely reconciled
us to God. Friends the Savior in his work
did not rest until he had said it is finished Then what he rested
He rested he rested God raised him from the dead
and now he is what seated What is that if I go and sit down?
I? Well, that feels good. What am
I doing? I'm resting. It's restful to
sit. He did what no other man could
do. He sat down. When his work was done, he sat
down. Those priests of the law never
sat down because they were never finished. And listen, that's
why works religion never sits down. They're never finished. They're never finished. They've
always got something else to do. Not us. Our salvation is absolutely finished. It was finished not by your zeal. It was finished by the zeal of
the Son of God. He, for your sake, did not rest
until he had finished the work. And lastly, let us see that Jesus
will not hold his peace or rest in the work of divine providence
until all of Zion are completely saved. This is why he has sent
his Holy Spirit. He himself has rested from the
work of salvation. He accomplished it. He obtained
it. And now he sits in power over
all the universe. To do what? to save Zion. Go over to John 17, verse 2. As thou hast given him power
over all flesh, that's great because the Son of God is not
waiting to be king. He is king. He has power. as thou hast given him power
over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to who? As many as the Father given him
as many as thou has given me that's who I'm gonna give eternal
life to and I'll tell you this word continually goes out from
God's men can Constantly let the world hate it. Let them despise
it. Let them try to kill God's men
It will not extinguish this word because he will not rest until
he has all of us together Until he gets all of his people And
this is how he does it through the preaching of the gospel.
Should this not move us then to be zealous for the cause of
Christ? Because he was zealous for our
salvation. The zeal of thy house hath eaten
me up. He won't rest. He won't rest. Christ says of His elect, His
church, you... Go back to your text. I want
you to see what He says about you. He says, And the Gentiles
shall see thy righteousness, and all the kings thy glory.
And thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the
Lord God shall name. Thou shalt also be a crown of
glory in the hand of the Lord. and a royal diadem in the hand
of thy God. Thou shalt be a crown and a scepter
to thy God. Do you not see that this is the
church? You who are believers, you are
the church of God. Listen, you are the glory of
God. He has given you His glory. Well, that's saying a lot. You
bet it is. Does not the Spirit of God dwell
in you? Are you not made holy in your
new nature? And yet he has given to us his
church to be his crown and his scepter. I'm reminded about Esther. You remember when she came before
the king without permission? She didn't have a ticket, so
to speak. She came in, and the law was
if the king did not yield his scepter to her, she was to be
killed. You see, what Christ is doing
is we are the scepter, and what is that? The gospel is preached
to sinners? Come. Come. Come and welcome
and you will not die. Come to Christ. We are. We are the pillar and ground
of the truth. This gospel is given to earthen
in earthen vessels. And thou shalt be no more termed
forsaken, neither shall thy land be any more termed desolate,
but thou shalt be called Hephzibah, and the land Beulah. For the
Lord delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married. In
other words, your name is no longer forsaken and desolate.
You know what your name is? Your name is Delight. God delights
in you. And you're no longer desolate,
but married. Married to the Son of God. You are His bride, and He is
your husband. He is your head, and you are
his body. Should we not then be zealous
for the declaration of the gospel of Jesus Christ? What's your
motivation to be zealous? His zealousness for you. Behold what great things God has done for us. May God bless this to your hearts.