Turn with me now, if you would,
to Isaiah 45. Isaiah 45. We have been in this chapter
all day, and I love it when we do this. I love it when the Lord
leads us to be in one place all day on a Sunday, and we really
just enter into a certain portion of scripture. You hear it over
and over again. In the Bible study, we looked
at the danger of false religion. looking to idols, the danger
of looking to idols. In the morning message, we looked
at what it is to look to Christ, the danger of looking away from
Christ, and what it is to look to Christ. And tonight, I want to look a
little bit more deeply at what the result is of looking to Christ. The result of looking to Christ. Let's begin reading in verse
20. Assemble yourselves and come,
draw near together, ye that are escaped of the nations. They
have no knowledge that set up the wood of their graven image,
and pray unto a God that cannot save. Tell ye, and bring them
near, yea, let them take counsel together. Who hath declared this
from ancient time? Who hath told it from that time? Have not I the Lord, and there
is no God else beside me? a just God and a Savior. There is none beside me. 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
is gone out of my mouth in righteousness and shall not return. that unto
me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear. Surely shall
one say, in the Lord have I righteousness and strength. Even to him shall
men come, and all that are incensed against him shall be ashamed.
In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified and shall
glory. Jesus Christ is God. Jesus Christ is God Almighty. When we speak of God and people
talk about God, there's one God and his name is Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ is not God's offspring. He is God manifest in the flesh. God begotten in a body. Beside Him, there is no other
God. And I'm saying that to emphasize
that we don't think of Jesus Christ and reference Jesus Christ
and then look past Him to God. Beside Him, there is none else. There's no other God. Jesus Christ
is the sovereign God. He is the all-powerful God. He is the King of all heaven
and earth. He's the King. He's the King. Every knee is going to bow to
Him. I love the thought of that. I
really do. Those who, who, have been called to Him and caused
to see Him and love Him, they're going to bow to Him. Those who
have not been called to Him and have not seen Him, they're going
to bow to Him. His people are going to bow.
His enemies are going to bow. Every knee is going to bow to
Him. Every tongue is going to confess
He is Lord. He's Lord. In mercy, God's people do that
right now in life on this earth. We're either gonna bow now or
we're gonna bow later. In mercy, God's people do that
right now. They've been caused and allowed
to do that right now. In judgment, God's enemies will
do that the moment they stand before him in the wrath that
is to come. But every soul that in mercy
does bow to him right now, every soul that has been caused to
look to him and to see all salvation being in him, in him alone. To them, this is what can be
said. And this is so amazing. To them, this is what can be
said. As he is, so are they. in this world. As he is, so are
we right now in this world. To every soul that has been saved
in Christ and truly caused to look on him and to believe on
him and to hope in him, to that soul, to the redeemed child of
God, it can be said, now, right now, you are the sons of God. You are the sons and daughters
of God. Verse 24 says, surely shall one
say, surely shall one say, in the Lord, I have righteousness
and strength. In Christ, I have it right now. I have it right now. That's what
the people of God can say. Surely, they can say that. Verse 24, surely shall one say,
in the Lord have I righteousness and strength. Even to him shall
men come, and all that are incensed against him shall be ashamed.
In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified and shall
glory. In the Lord all of God's people
are justified and shall glory in him. The seed of Israel, that's
all of God's elect people. God has an elect people that
he chose for his own. They are represented by the nation
of Israel. Not every soul that was born
an Israelite is one of God's elect people, that nation of
Israel. Not every person born into that nation is one of God's
elect. Just because a person is a child
of Abraham, that does not mean that person is a child of God.
And just because a person is not a child of Abraham, that
doesn't mean that person is not a child of God. Turn over to Romans 2 with me. Romans 2 verse 28 it says, For he is not a Jew, which is
one outwardly. Neither is that circumcision,
which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew, which is one
inwardly. And circumcision is that of the
heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter, whose praise is
not of men, but of God. God made a promise to Abraham.
that he would make a covenant concerning a particular people
and that people would be his seed, Abraham's seed. He made a promise to Abraham
to his seed. Turn with me over to Galatians
3. Galatians 3 verse 16, it says,
Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not
unto seeds as of many, but as of one, and to thy seed, which
is Christ. The covenant that God made, it
was made with Christ. God made a covenant with Christ
concerning every soul in Christ. And verse 26 right here says,
you are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. Let me just tell you that if
you believe on Christ and not the law, and not religion, and
not your good deeds, and not all of these things that the
flesh wants to believe in, if you believe on Christ, That's
an amazing work by God. You know that people cannot accidentally
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. It sounds so simple, doesn't
it? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
With man, that's impossible. The flesh cannot naturally believe
on Jesus Christ. That has to be given by God. That has to be wrought by God.
That's an amazing work of God. But verse 26 says, if God has
given you that ability, if he's given you faith, true faith that
looks to Christ, verse 26, you are all the children of God by
faith in Christ Jesus. That's the evidence that you
belong to him. For as many of you as have been baptized into
Christ, that does not say baptized into water, by the Holy Spirit immersed into
Jesus Christ. If God has laid hold of you and
put you in Christ, as many of you as have been baptized into
Christ have put on Christ. There's neither Jew nor Greek.
There's neither bond nor free. There's neither male nor female.
For you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you be Christ's,
then are you Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. If you're in Christ, if you've
been given faith in Christ and calls to look to Christ, you
are spiritual Israel. An heir according to God's promise,
you are. Now go back to Isaiah 45. Verse 24 says, surely shall one
say, in the Lord have I righteousness and strength. Even to him shall
men come and all that are incensed against him shall be ashamed.
In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified. In the Lord. shall all the seed
of Israel be justified and shall glory. We just read for a scripture
reading a minute ago, 1 Corinthians 1.30, and it says, in Christ
we have. Surely shall one say, I have
it, I have it. In Christ we have wisdom, we
have righteousness, We have sanctification, we have redemption. In Christ,
we have those things because Christ is made to be all of those
things for us. In Christ, we have righteousness.
In Christ, we are justified. David said in Psalm 23, in Christ,
everywhere he leads us is a path of righteousness. All of his paths are paths of
righteousness. He is righteousness. And every
path he takes is righteousness. And if he is leading us with
him, every path we take with him is righteousness. And justification, it's all justified. And I never fully understood
what that meant. until I attended the funeral
of a dear brother. And I don't know, I don't think
I can retell it like I did the first time. But this still amazes
me just as much as it did the first time I told this, the first
time I got a hold of this. A few years ago, Karen's father, a dear brother,
Bill Grisham. Those of you who knew him on
this earth loved him. And those of you who didn't know
him on this earth are going to very soon in glory. But the Lord called him home
and To him, it was today. He went
today. He got there today. To us, it
was a few years ago. To him, it was today. And his funeral was in Crossville,
where he attended. And after the funeral service,
there was a long procession to the gravesite. I was just reminded
of this with your mother. This was so,
so wonderful, so special to see. But we had a long procession
to the gravesite. Quite a few people came. And
we were in the back, one of the last cars lined up. And it was time to leave the
funeral home, and so we headed out, and these things just stood
out to me. I just, you know, they just, I have recollection
of them. They just really hit me in the
moment. We came out of that funeral home, and the first thing we
came to was a four-way stop. And none of the cars in the procession
stopped. All right, let me repeat that.
The first thing we came to was a four-way stop. Those of you
who drive know what a four-way stop is. None of the cars in
the procession stopped. All the other cars did. But we didn't. There was a sign
posted. And we didn't. And I remember
when we went through it, It felt strange. It's just not something
I normally do on purpose. And I remember thinking, you're
not supposed to do this. We're doing it. But we continued on, and it was
a good distance to the gravesite. And we came up on a traffic light. When we came up on it, it was
green. But again, it was a long procession. And I was in the
back. And I watched it turn yellow.
And when it turned yellow, I thought, we're going to get separated.
I don't want to get separated. And it turned red. And some of
the cars in front of me went on. So I very cautiously looked
around and checked to see. And there were other cars. there,
but they let us go. So we went on, and I was kind
of, thank you, kind of thing. And again, I remember thinking,
I'm going under this red light. We're not supposed to do this. And I feel like I went under
10 red lights from one place to the next. And with each one
there were bystanders, there were cars watching us do this. Everybody was just watching us
do this. And got to the gravesite and
then Brother Donnie read Psalm 23. at the gravesite. And verse 3
of that psalm says, He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. How often do you see that in
the scripture, for his name's sake? He leadeth me in the paths of
righteousness for his name's sake. As soon as Brother Donnie
read that, I understood that verse of scripture for the first
time. I really saw and understood what
that was saying for the first time. Because of everything that
had just happened, I really understood what Christ has done for us. In that procession, and this
is what just hit me, I was standing there and I was just thinking
about all this, and this whole illustration came to my mind.
In that procession, the first car, and this is how it was with
your mother, the first car was a police officer, and that's
the law, the law in front, the law. Right behind the officer was
the beloved. The one we were there with. The
one we were there for. The one we were honoring. The
one thing that the whole thing was about. The one the whole
thing was in honor of. One name. One name. Everybody's there for one person. And in this case, because of
him, all because of him, for his name's sake, this was for
his name's sake, everything that happened in the
path of that processional was justified. Everything that happened, every
stop sign we went through, Every red light we went through, it
was said immediately, no sin. Not a one of us stopped at that
four-way stop. No sin, no sin, no sin. Justified, righteous, free to go. So much so, it was that case,
so much so, the law led the way. Does that strike you like it
strikes me? The law led the way. The law was looking. The law
saw. That police officer saw what
I did. Everyone who had green lights
as we were going through, and it was just so honoring and respectful,
but they had green lights. We had a red light. Everyone
of them was saying, no, no, after you. No, I insist, after you. You go. You're justified and
righteous. Not unto us, not unto us. You're justified and righteous
in what you're doing. Why was that said? The beloved's
sake. That's the reason why. The beloved's
sake. How can that be? How can everything
and everyone agree? Everybody, no condemnation, go. Justified. Go, no condemnation. How? The beloved. In the beloved, only, only with
the beloved. Only because of the beloved,
only. It hit me after the funeral was
over, had I gone back to the funeral home, and started the same path again.
Had I gone back to the church building is where we started,
I think. No, it was a funeral home. Had I gone back and run that
same route, okay, had I run the same route without the processional,
without the beloved, Had I run the same route without the Beloved,
had I run that same four-way stop, had I run those same red lights,
that same law, and this is the thing, this is the kicker, the
same law, the very same, I mean the same car, That very law that with the beloved
said justified and righteous, without the beloved, that law
would have said sin. Unrighteous, unjustified. And that same law would have
condemned me and punished me and put me away. Same law. Verse 21, verse 24 right here
says, surely shall one say, in the Lord, I have righteousness. Do we see what that means? Do
we see what that's saying? In the Lord, only in the Lord. You talking about me by myself? No. You talking about me without
Christ? No. Me in my own way? No. But in
the Lord, I have righteousness. Outside of
him, I'm nothing but sin. I'm nothing but weakness and
sin. But by his death, through his
redemption, In the Lord have I righteousness and strength. Verse 24 goes on to say, even
to him shall men come. Men and women will come to him
when they're drawn by the father to him. No man or woman can come
to Christ except the Father which sent Christ to draw that sinner
to Christ. But when a sinner is drawn to
Christ and comes to Christ, that sinner will be received by Christ. He or she will in no wise be
cast out. All that are left alone, left
in their sin, verse 24 says, all that are incensed against
him shall be ashamed. But verse 25 says, in the Lord,
in the Lord. We see the importance of having
Christ, being with Christ, being in Christ. In the Lord shall
all the seed of Israel be justified and shall glory. And that's why
he said in verse 22, look unto me. You look unto me. and be ye saved. You look to
the beloved, look and live. Look and live. Look unto me and
be ye saved. All the ends of the earth. For
I am God, there's none else. Amen. It says in verse 25, the
Lord in the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified in
glory. And we do, don't we? We do. In Him we glory. He is our glory. Amen.