Isaiah chapter 35. The title
of the message this morning is A Rose in the Desert. A Rose
in the Desert. Is that not what our scripture
says here, the wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad
for them, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as a rose. Is that not a miraculous sight? Is that not something that's
not natural? If you were to think of a desert,
the last thing you would picture in a desert would be a rose. A rose is gentle. A rose is tender. The desert is harsh and it's
dry and it's bitter. You would not expect a rose to
be in the middle of a desert. And yet this, my friends, is
the promise of God in salvation. Salvation is not a common occurrence. Salvation is not something that
is natural. Salvation is something that is
supernatural. Salvation is not common. It is a miracle. It is not something
that man can do. It is something that God must
do. Something that God must do. The
wilderness in a solitary place. Let's look at that first. Now,
in the previous chapter, leading up to this chapter, God tells
the prophet Isaiah of his coming, wrath. The whole chapter in chapter
34 is one of vengeance. It is a very dark chapter. It speaks of God's judgment and
it begins in, he says, come near you nations in verse 1 of 34. Come near you nations and hear
and listen you people. Let the earth hear, and all that
is therein, the world and all things that come forth of it.
For the indignation of the Lord is upon all nations, and His
fury upon all their armies. He hath utterly destroyed them. He hath delivered them. to the slaughter. It doesn't
sound very encouraging, does it? It doesn't sound very pleasant. But this is the truth. God says
to all men, to all nations, no matter who you are, no matter
where you've been, if you're saved or lost, listen to this.
God is coming in judgment. God is coming in judgment. God will unleash his sword of
holy vengeance and his fury will be poured out upon the wicked,
upon all those that have sinned against him. And all the streams,
he mentions these pictures of streams, he says they'll be dried
up. These are the works of men. All
of the work and labor of man that he thought was refreshing,
that he thought would get him glory in heaven, they will be
dried up under the justice of God. The streams of man's works and
will will be what he says as pitch. Pitch is a flammable substance. Do you know what man's works
are under the justice of God? They're flammable. God is as
a consuming fire and your works are as pitch. They're going to
be consumed. Your righteousness will turn
to dust. Your refuge of lies will be collapsed. And you will stand naked, exposed
before God. In verse 12 of chapter 34, he
says, They shall call upon the nobles. Isn't that what the rich
man in hell did? When he looked up, his eyes being
in torment, he looked up and he said, Father Abraham, You
see, that man was trusting all of his life in his nobles. He
was trusting in his relationship to Abraham to get him to glory. And now then in hell he looks
up his eyes and he sees what he trusted in. And what did Abraham
say? I'm not able to help you. I'm
not able to help you. There's a gulf fixed between
us and we cannot come over there and you cannot come over here. These under the condemnation
of God are counted of God as wild beasts and unclean birds. Hear this, all men, God's justice,
His judgment, though you despise to hear it, though men despise
to hear it. Someone told me, he said, was
asking someone to come to worship, and the first thing they asked
was, Was he a hell-firing brimstone preacher? Is he going to preach
about hell? Because if he is, I'm not coming. I don't make
hell stop because you don't want to hear it. Judgment, judgment is coming. It is. And notice what God says. Look at that in the last part.
He says in verse 16 of chapter 34, Seek out the book of the
Lord and read. No one of these shall fail. Not one thing God has ever promised
will fail. And He's promised judgment. He's
promised hell for all who deserve it. He's promised hell. The vengeance of God will not
fail. God says to everyone, read the
book. I've commanded it. I will gather
them and I will punish them according to their works, according to
their just reward. I know this is not acceptable
speech in this religious age. I know that men don't want to
talk about the judgment of God. But that doesn't stop it. God's
judgment's coming. He said, The soul that sinneth,
it shall surely die. People want to hear about God
to be like some old grandfather, don't they? Just trying to save
men and wants to give them a quarter or something. You know, that's
how grandparents are. Here's a quarter. That's how they view
God. Read the book. God said, I will
bathe my sword in their blood. That's God. That's God. God will bathe His sword in their
blood. His justice will be satisfied. Listen, God is not a man that
He should lie. He's not like you. He's not like
me. We lie to deceive people. God is no liar and He has no
reason to lie to you. He gains nothing from lying to
you. God doesn't lie. The soul that
sinneth, it shall surely die. Not one action, not one thought
is withholding from God's eyes, not one motive from the heart
shall escape His judgment. Oh, you sons of men, repent before
it's too late. I heard this message many years
ago and it stuck with me. That rich man, when he's in hell,
you know what? His eyes were in the ground and
already consumed to be dust. But yet he said he had eyes. He could hear. He had all of
his senses. I want you to understand the
importance of this this morning. If you die in your sins, You will hear my words for all
eternity about how I warned you, flee from the wrath to come. Why? Why will you die? The soul that sinneth it shall
surely die. Repent and believe Christ. Flee to Him for refuge. How then shall you escape, you
that have sinned? How shall we escape? Where shall
we hide from God's judgment that will not fail? There is only
one place that God has provided for refuge, and that is Jesus
Christ the Righteous. The Righteous. Kiss the Son,
the Scripture says, lest He be angry with thee, and you perish
in the way. And blessed are they that put
their trust in Him. Behold now, in this chapter,
we have this dark chapter. The promise of God's judgment.
And now we've got something special. Something that's different. Whereas
once God is consuming that which was beautiful, He's consuming
it all and is perishing away. Now then He is presenting something
that's miraculous. Something beautiful in the midst
of a desert. arose in the midst of the desert.
This chapter begins in light of God's promise of holy judgment. And this is where all gospel
preaching must begin. It must begin in the wilderness.
If everything's going well with a sinner, there's never going
to be any hope for that person. God always brings a man into
the wilderness. that He might show mercy. That
He might show mercy. The wilderness What is the wilderness
a picture of? This wilderness in a solitary
place. The wilderness is man by nature. This is what we are by nature. We are barren, fruitless of any
righteousness. Anything to pleasing to God. If you go out into the desert
and you just see sand dune after sand dune, there's nothing pleasant
out there. It's barren. It's barren. Even so is man by nature a wilderness. He is barren, empty of any goodness,
empty of any righteousness in himself. This speaks to us of
the total and absolute depravity and ruin of man by nature. Paul says, when you were servants
of sin, you were free. From what? Free from righteousness. You were free from all righteousness.
And this place, a solitary place, this means without water. That's
what it means. A wilderness, you are a wilderness
without water. And what is a wilderness without
water but death? Death. I remember a few years
ago all these nuts, scientists they called
them, were so excited. They had taken samples on Mars
and they thought they found water. They thought they found one drop
of water on this barren planet. And why were they so excited
about one drop? Because where water is, life is. You see that you are made up
of mostly what? Water. Water. Where water is, there's life. And here he says, in the wilderness,
in a waterless place, a barren desert where there is no life. You remember when Ezekiel was
told to preach to those dead bones. He passed over the bones,
and he not only saw bones, He saw that these bones were very
dry. In other words, there was no
hope in these bones. There was no life in them. They
were very dry. All men are born dead in trespasses
and sins and cannot by any means obey the law of God. This is
a certainty. Man by nature is a wilderness,
a barren place where there is no water. Is this your condition? My prayer is that God would show
every one of us the truth of this. That He would open up our hearts
to see that there is nothing in you. That there's no life in your nature. That you're dead. Is this your condition? Are you
dead to the things of God? Are you unable to yield any fruit
of righteousness to God? Are you under the just condemnation
of God? Then I want you to see that there
is a miracle in this. It's not natural for a man to
see such things. Not about himself. It's natural
for us to see this about somebody else, isn't it? A lot of times
when we start thinking about sin, we start thinking, well
man, I wish so and so was here to hear that. You know, he would
really benefit. No. No, when God opens your eyes,
when God opens your eyes to this, this is the beginning of grace. The beginning of grace. Behold,
the precious promise now of God, the miracle of God, He said,
the wilderness, in the wilderness, in the place where there is no
life, no water, they shall be glad. Why? They shall rejoice and blossom
as a rose. I like this, he said, be glad
for them. What is he talking about there?
He's talking about being glad for the justice of God. For them. For those things that were just
spoken of. Those who are found exposed.
Those who are found without hope. They shall be glad for the justice
of God. Why is that? Because God has
promised that they should blossom as a rose. that a miracle will
take place. God has promised a miracle upon
the barren, upon the fruitless, upon sinners who need a Savior,
who need life. How shall those who are by nature
barren be glad at such a thing? How shall they who are under
the sentence of death be glad and rejoice at the justice of
God? Because of the promise of God to them. The promise of a
great miracle. They shall blossom as a rose. How shall they blossom as a rose?
Look at this in verse 2. And it shall blossom abundantly,
and rejoice even with joy in singing. The glory of Lebanon
shall be given to it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon. They shall
see the glory of the Lord. This is how the miracle takes
place. They shall see the glory of the Lord. This speaks to us only of one
person. There's only one person who can
perform this miracle of grace. There's only one person who was
promised of God, who is the glory of God. And His name is Jesus
Christ the Lord. Jesus Christ, the Messiah, for
He alone is the glory of God and the excellency of God. We all have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. But Jesus Christ came to fulfill
the glory of God. He came to fulfill the law of
God. This is a purpose why He came
into the world. It was no light thing that the
Son of God should be made flesh. It was no light thing that He
should be made in the likeness of sinful flesh. God came down to obey and honor
a law that we could never obey. He came to do what we could never
do. We all had sinned. We failed
to obey. But Jesus Christ came to fulfill
the law. Those Pharisees, they mocked
Him. They thought that He was trying to destroy the law. No. He came to fulfill the law. To fulfill the law. To honor
it, to magnify it. Behold then the excellency of
Christ, who is God and man, and how He condescended to such men
of low estate. Do you realize this? That there
was never a man lower than the Lord Jesus Christ. You think yourself pretty low?
You've not even come close to how low He became. that he depended
upon God for his daily, I mean daily, bread. He subjected himself under the
law of God and even under the laws of men. He condescended so low to become
man, a very man, and to suffer all the days of His life in humiliation. He who is the Creator and Sustainer
of all things became dependent. And He who is sovereign as the
Father and Spirit said, I came not to do mine own will, but
the will of Him that sent me. For what purpose did the most
excellent Son of God condescend? He came into the world to save
sinners. To save sinners. Behold, the
most excellent work of Jesus Christ was to bring forth righteousness. To bring forth a rose in the
midst of the desert. You're the desert. He's the rose. His righteousness is as a rose
that blossoms in the desert. There you were, a desert, dead. And yet what did He do? He caused
life to come up in you. He caused life, righteousness,
to be imputed to your charge. He caused His righteousness to
be imparted to you. By Adam came sin, even so by
the second Adam came life and righteousness. And so obedient
was the Son of God that He suffered the death of the cross. All of this damnation, all of
this justice that was mentioned in the previous chapter, the
Lord Jesus Christ suffered. God's judgment did not just overlook
your sins. But by God's mercy, He paid for
them. He willingly laid down His life. Not for those who are worthy.
Not for those who are the best. He laid down His life for sinners. They were sinners. So gracious and merciful was
this man that he laid down his life for his people. Jesus upon
the cross was lifted up to bear the sins of His people. The elect deserved what was in
the previous chapter. Behold, Jesus has suffered it
all and bore it in His own body on the tree. His soul was made
an offering for sin, and God was satisfied with His offering. With His offering. So satisfied
was Christ's one offering that God raised Him from the dead,
set Him on the throne of heaven, and now He rules all things after
the counsel of His own will. Therefore he tells sinners, barren
sinners, unrighteous sinners, behold in Jesus Christ the glory
of God. Behold in his person the excellencies
of God. Do you need salvation? If you need salvation, then I
can point you to one who saves. I point you to the Son of God.
Believe on Him. Trust in Him. And friends, you
shall blossom as a rose in the desert. Next, then comes the message
of encouragement. Look at verse 3. Strengthen ye
the weak hands. Confirm the feeble knees. Say
unto them that are fearful of a fearful heart, Be strong and
fear not. I'm going to ask obviously a
rhetorical question. You who have belief, are you
fearful? Do you fear? Are you doubtful as to God's
promise of mercy? Do you find yourself weak in
faith, weak in love, weak in grace? Do you find yourself trained
to have nothing to offer good? That's why God brings all these
troubles to us so that we get to that place. And when we get
there, listen to what He says. You tell those that are fearful,
don't be afraid. You tell those that are weak,
be strong. Be strong. Be strong and fear not. Behold,
your God will come with vengeance. Even God with a recompense Well,
how in the world is that going to help us? He's going to come
in vengeance? How does that alleviate fear? Because your vengeance has already
come. The vengeance that belonged to
you has been imputed to Christ. God didn't just sweep your sins
under the rug, my friend. He paid them in full. Paid. Done. Justice satisfied. He said He will come in vengeance
and He will come and save you. Save you. He came in vengeance
on His Son to save you. He came in vengeance on His Son
to save you. Behold Jesus Christ and believe
on Him alone, you feeble, wicked people. You sinners, cast your
eye upon the Savior Jesus Christ and you will have life. You'll have life. Are your works so full of sin?
Then behold, He has fulfilled all righteousness. What excuse
have you? Come to Christ. I know that as we travel through
this world, we are surrounded by our own wilderness of sin,
aren't we? We're surrounded by sin. Sin
without, sin within. Always tempted and tried. But believer, hear this. Your
sin is too strong for you. Have you not found that out yet?
Your sin is too strong for you. But His grace is stronger than
our sin. His grace is stronger than our
sin. If God has purpose to save you,
will He not then save you? Then in verse 5 comes the work
of the Holy Spirit. Then the eyes of the blind shall
be opened, the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped, the lame
shall leap as the deer, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing.
For in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the
desert, and the parched ground shall become as a pool, and the
thirsty land springs of water in the habitation of dragons. That word dragons are jackals. where each lay shall be grass
with reeds and rushes." What is he saying? He's saying where
there was death, there'll be life. There'll be life. One thing about grace that I
think is wonderful is that it's always surprising. Grace never happens to some...
is given to somebody who's expecting it. It's always the person who's
not expecting it. You know, Zacchaeus, a curious little man,
wicked little man, evil man, he climbed up in the tree expecting
just to see the Lord pass by. He never once thought that he
would come down saved. He didn't go to be saved. He
just went out of curiosity. But that was the Lord's appointed
time to meet him. And then he opened his eyes and
he saw. I'm sure that Lazarus, when he
took his last breath, never expected to be raised from the dead. Paul, on his horse, going to
kill Christians, never expected to be saved. But grace comes like water on
the desert. Life comes when God gives it. And when God gives it, there's
life. There's no question. There's
life. And where there's life, there's faith. Faith in Christ. He said to that woman, He said that the Spirit of God, He said,
this will be a spring of life that flows out of the believer.
He's speaking of the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit comes, He
gives life and life produces all of the graces that we didn't
have before. Yes, believer, we dwell among
jackals, but even among them we shall feed and drink the water
of life. For God is purposed only to do
us good in this life. You realize that? If you've been
saved by grace that all things are for your good. All things. God says, I have purpose to do
them good and not evil. So whatever it is God brings
us through is not evil. It's good. It's good. Is this
not your experience, believer in Christ? Were we not dry as
the wilderness, but now we leap as the deer? We were blind, but
now we see that Christ is all. We were deaf, and our ears were
stopped to the gospel, but now they're open, waiting to hear
the voice of who? The voice of our Savior. He said,
My sheep shall hear My voice, and they shall follow Me. For
I give unto them eternal life, and no man is able to pluck them
out of My hand. The blind receive sight, the
deaf hear. And we follow Him. We follow
Him where? In verse 8 He said, A highway
shall be there and a way, and it shall be called the way of
holiness. Some translate that the way of
the Holy One. Did not Jesus Christ say, I am
the way, the truth, and the life? No man comes to the Father but
by me. Isn't that how we're going to
God? You who have the rose that blossoms in the desert, life
that springs out of death, is it not that we follow Him, that
we follow Him by faith, that we live by faith in Him? Yes. And I like this. Listen. The
wayfaring man, though fools, they shall not err. They're not going to get lost.
This highway is so wonderfully laid out that they'll never be
lost. Even the fools won't miss it.
Praise God for that. See, this matter of salvation
is not for me. as much as it is for the glory
of God. God said, you've been rebellious,
but I wrought it for my own namesake. I'll save you because of myself. Now, not even a fool can mess
that up. Isn't that great? You can't mess
this up. You can't stop it. There's nothing you can do to cast yourself out of His hands. Is that not a firm foundation
to walk on? And no lion shall be there. What
is he talking about? No more justice. Justice is taken
out of the way. There's no lion in this way.
Isn't that what we always expect around the next corner? Surely
it's all going to fall apart. Surely it's all going to come
to nothing. Surely something's going to happen.
The shoe's going to drop and everything's going to fall out
from the bottom of this. No. No surprises here. God says, I will and you shall.
I will be your God. You shall be my people. I will
save you and you shall be saved. Not even a fool could miss this. Not even me. And he says this, the ransomed
of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with songs of everlasting
joy and they shall obtain joy and gladness and sorrow and sighing
shall flee away. As long as we continue in this
travel, We are going to sorrow and sigh. If you're expecting to not sorrow
and not sigh, you'll be disappointed. In this world you shall have
tribulation. Are you expecting everything
to go well? Well, there's your problem. There's your problem. You expect everything to go well
when God promised it wouldn't go well. It's going to go bad
for you here. Your friends are going to hate
you. They're going to hate this gospel. They're going to hate
Christ. Your children are going to hate you. Your parents are
going to hate you. This is a promise! Not even a fool can miss this. But one day, all of that sighing
and sorrow will go away. There will be no more death,
no more dying, no more sickness, and listen to me, no more sin. Is that not ring? Is that not
a sweet sound to your ears? No more sin! No more curse! No more tears. Is that not a rose in the desert? It is to me. Christ is the rose
of Sharon. He is my love. He is my Savior. He is my all. May God bless you. Let's stand.
We'll be dismissed.