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Don Bell

Behold mine elect

Isaiah 42:1-4
Don Bell July, 28 2021 Audio
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Don Bell
Don Bell July, 28 2021

Sermon Transcript

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Well, I'm going to bring a message,
God willing, on continuing on these Old Testament pictures
of Christ. And here's one that's so very
obvious. So all of them are obvious. But here he says, Behold, my
servant, whom I uphold, mine elect, mine elect. My soul delights in him. My soul
delights in him. You know, God calls him his servant
in lots of places. Look right down here in verse
10, I think it's in verse 10 here, I think it is, now it may
not. Isaiah 43, 10, excuse me, look
over in Isaiah 43 and verse 10. Here he calls him his servant.
You are my witness, saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have
chosen. that you may know and believe
me and understand that I am he. Beside me there's no God formed,
neither shall there be any after me. In Isaiah 52 he's called
the Lord's servant who shall deal prudently. In Isaiah 53
he's called Jehovah's righteous servant. My righteous servant
shall justify many. So when he talks about his servant,
his elect, Christ is God's elect, and all everybody else is chosen
in Him. Now we know that the Scriptures
testify of the Lord Jesus Christ. The prophets all give witness
to Him, all of them do. He says, search the Scriptures
for you. Think, you know, that when you
search them for they or they which testify of me. Search them,
look for me. Look for me. To him all the prophets
give witness. And it's one of the offices of
the Holy Ghost is to speak of him. One way you can always tell
if a preacher is using the Bible and talking about Christ and
the Holy Spirit, the scripture says that he shall take the things
of mine and show them unto you. So the Holy Spirit takes the
things of Christ, and if anybody ever deals with anything besides
Christ and say the Holy Spirit's doing it, the Holy Spirit always
honors Christ, pours to Christ, and speaks of Christ, and shows
His glory, His work, and His person. And you can always tell
a real preacher that way. Is he teaching what the same
thing the Holy Spirit would teach? And the Holy Spirit gonna take
the things of Christ. And I mean, he don't witness
of himself. He don't bargain on himself. He don't teach about
himself. He teaches about Christ. You
find these people, you know, that talks about charisma and
charismatic and speaking in tongues and the gifts of the Spirit.
Listen, they're not using, they're not under the same influence,
same spirit that the Bible speaks of. You know, there's a, You
know, some of these preachers, you'd almost think, you know,
listen, here's your schedule of roles and duties to do this
week. But you know, when the scripture
says, they are they which testify me. And thank God we're not left
to our own understanding. We're not left to assume, nor
presume, who He is. It's not left to us. You know
how many people don't know who Jesus Christ is? You know how
many people do not know who He really is? As far as they're
concerned, He was just a infant born and didn't have no room
for Him in the end, and He's the Savior, and He wants to save
you, but He's not able. They don't know that He's God
Himself, too. And they certainly don't know
what he did. What he did, beloved, was come
into this world and says he shall not fail. He shall not be discouraged. He is going to accomplish what
he came to do. That's why God said he's my servant.
That's why God said he's my elect. He come here with a task to do
and he said he shall not fail. He won't even be discouraged.
Huh? Oh my, what he did. He came into
this world to do something. And here's the test, here's the
text, here in this text we have our Lord Jesus set forth clearly,
plainly. And the question is, have you
ever seen Him? Do you know Him? Do you know
what He did? Do you know who He did it for?
And I tell you what, I would love, just absolutely love, to
get in a great, great, big congregation. I remember years ago when Brother
Henry was preaching on the Stardew Television, and oh, the Lord
blessed the work so much, and we was gonna get a whole bunch
of money together, and we was gonna put him on, at that time,
the biggest TV station in America was WTBS, Turner Broadcasting. We was gonna get a whole bunch
of money, and get him on there for about five days. Just get
him to the whole world. Let everybody in America hear
what this man had to say. Well, it did happen. I don't
know what happened, but it didn't happen. Evidently, God wasn't
in it. If it had, it would have happened. But anyway, that's
what we want. We want people to hear. We want
people to hear. And let me show you the chosen
one. Here he says, behold my servant. First of all, he's a
servant. Who does he serve? He serves God. and he serves
us, which we'll see that in a little bit. He's chosen, he says, I
uphold him. He's mine elect, my soul delights
in him. When was Christ, let me tell
you this right off the bat, that Christ was God's first elect
and everybody else was chosen in him. Christ was elected to
offices. Christ was elected and chosen
of God for a work. Christ was elected and chosen
of God to come into this world as God manifest in the flesh
to do a work. First and foremost for God himself. Secondly for us. But the first
thing God's got to do is God do something for himself. And
when was he chosen? Well, look over here in Proverbs
8. We've seen this many times and I never get tired of looking
at it. Proverbs 8, when was he chosen? He was chosen to be the head
of an elect people. Chosen to be head of an elect
people. That's why it says we were chosen in him before the
foundation of the world. You know, you're complete in
Him. Everything we have is in Him. He was the first. He was the first. And everything
was chosen in Him. Now look what it says here, I
think it is in verse 23. The Lord possessed me at the
beginning of His way before His works of old. I was His, I belonged
to Him, He is my God, He is my Father, Him and I are together.
I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or wherever
the earth was, set up to do something. When there were no depths, I
was brought forth. When there were no fountains
abounding with water, before the mountains were settled, before
the hills were brought forth, While as yet he had not made
the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust
of the world, when he prepared the heavens, I was there. When
he set a compass upon the face of the depth, I was there. When he established the clouds
above, when he strengthened the fountains of the deep, when he
gave to the sea his decree that the water should not pass his
commandment, when he appointed the foundations of the earth,
I was right there. I was right there. I was daily
His delight, rejoicing always before Him. Now let me tell you
something. God, as far as God's concerned,
there's only two men in this world that He deals with everybody
in. Two men that He deals with the whole human race in. In Adam
and in Christ. Now every one of us was born
in Adam. Everyone else found in Adam.
That's how we became sinners. That's why we became dead in
trespasses and sin. We have heard our Father's nature.
But yet God also deals with people in Christ. That's why Paul said,
I want to win Christ. I want to be found in Christ.
He's already found in Adam. I want to be found in Christ.
And I tell you what, the whole human race God views them all
in Adam and in Christ. And so those that he viewed in
Christ, they're called his elect, because Christ is the head of
an elect people. All that the Father giveth me.
What did he say? They're gonna come to me. He
said, Father, I've given the word, given them thy word, manifested
your name unto those that you gave me out of the world. Look
over in the keep Isaiah 42, look over here in Hebrews chapter
two. You know, our Lord Jesus, God views everybody in one or
the other. In one or the other. If He leaves
you in Adam, you're gone, Jesse. That's all you can say about
it. If He leaves you in Adam, there's no hope for you. And
I tell you, this is the thing about it. Man's born a sinner,
gonna live a sinner, and gonna die a sinner if God don't intervene.
And there's a multitude in this world that God's never ever gonna
intervene in their life. As people in my family, probably
He'll never intervene in their lives. As people in your family,
He may never intervene in their lives. He may never break in
on them. He may never break in on you.
But I know that if He don't, There's nothing you can do to
make yourself acceptable to God. Nobody can make themselves acceptable. Then you ain't got enough money,
you ain't got enough works, you ain't got enough strength, you
ain't got enough ability, you ain't got enough, you certainly
ain't got any faith. And I'll tell you, that's what
I'm talking about here. Look what he said here in Hebrews
2 in verse 11. Talking about us being one in
Christ, Christ being the chosen. For both he that sanctifies and
they who are sanctified, the one who sanctifies and they who
are sanctified by him are all of one. Now listen to this, for
we're shamed he's not called him brother. Saying, I will declare
thy name unto my brethren. Who's he gonna declare it to?
His father. In the midst of the church will
I sing praise unto thee. And again, I will put my trust
in him. And again, behold, I am the children
God hath given me. Now our Lord Jesus Christ was
chosen, elect to an office. He was chosen to be our surety,
to stand good for our debts, to stand good for our obligations,
to stand good for all of our sins, and all of our failures,
and all of our faults, and everything that's wrong with us, he stood
good for it. Now, when you stand good for
somebody's debt, if you was to go and stand good for somebody's
debt, if they didn't pay that debt, they'd come to you. Well,
we were in debt. I mean, we had a debt. Oh, what a debt it was. We couldn't
pay. We couldn't even begin to pay.
And the Lord Jesus Christ stood up and said, I'll pay it. I'll
pay their debt. How much do they owe? More than
we'll ever know. Whatever it is, I'll pay it.
And that's what he was, is our surety. He took all of our debts,
of all his elect, from Abel to the last one on this earth. He
took all of them and he paid every single debt to the uttermost
Father, to the justice of God, to the law of God, and to the
holiness of God. And I tell you what, we do not
owe nothing. Ain't nobody gonna have to stand
good for me at the bank, and I'll tell you why. Cause I ain't
gonna ask you to. But that's what it is with Christ.
Listen, I didn't ask him to stand good for my debt. I didn't even
know I had a debt. Until the gospel come along and
told me I had a debt. And then it come along and told
me who paid my debt. He paid a debt he did not owe.
And I owed a debt I could not pay. No, he was chosen. He was God's servant, the elect.
Then he was chosen to be a sin offering. God said it made his
soul an offering for sin. And then he was chosen to be
our substitute. And that substitute, he took
our place. I just said it a minute ago.
He took our place. That's why it's called the Lamb.
That's why it was called the Lamb of God. That's why he was
made to be a lamb. And a lamb, when they had it
in the Passover, and any time that they had a lamb that'd be
sacrificed, they had to put it up and observe it, make sure
no spots in it, make no blemish in it, nothing wrong with it. Well, our Lord Jesus Christ came
into this world as God's Lamb. When Abraham went up on the mountain,
he said, where's the lamb? Isaac asked. He said, my son,
God will provide himself. What does that mean? That he'll
provide himself as the lamb. And when they got up there, sure
enough, there's somebody putting his stand. And I tell you what,
And I tell you, here's the next thing, see, not only did he bear
our sins in his own body, he was the just for the unjust,
but he rendered satisfaction. That, to me, to me, the most
glorious thing about the death of Christ and the resurrection
of Christ is the satisfaction he rendered to God Almighty.
To me, that's the greatest thing about the gospel. To my mind,
satisfaction, the satisfaction that Christ rendered to God Almighty. To his justice, that demanded
the soul, the sinners die. To his holiness, because he upheld
it. I mean, God was holy, and God
required death, and the penalty of death, and a curse, Christ
bear it. Christ's wrath, God's wrath demanded
that he so be punished, Christ took the wrath of God. And God
smelled him and said, I saw the travail of his soul and I'm satisfied. and bless his holy name, I can
go home tonight, and I can lay down my head, and I can put satisfaction
on my pillow, and I can go down there and say, that's where I'm
going to face God, because Christ satisfied God. I don't have to. I never, ever worry about satisfying
God. And there's people worrying their
self to death, how am I going to satisfy God? I've got somebody
that's already done it. How do we know? God exalted him
and set him down at his own right hand. Huh? Oh my, bless his holy name. And not only was he substitution
assured, he sent off in satisfaction our substitute, and to whom come
he. But he was obedient, that's what
he said, behold my servant. Isaiah 53. 312 calls him the
righteous servant, Jehoshua's righteous servant. Oh, he was
righteous. Our Lord Jesus Christ was righteous
when he was born, righteous while he lived, righteous when he was
on the cross, righteous when he went to the tomb, righteous
when he rose, and righteous when he sat down at the right hand
of God. He was righteous when he lived, Righteous in everything
that he did while he was on this world. Look over here in Psalm
40 with me. Psalm 40. You know, the gospel just really, really just,
it stirs me up like nothing else in this world does. It really
does. Look what it said here in verse
seven. Talking about Christ, Jehovah's righteous servant.
That's why he told his mother, you know, his mother went out
a day's journey, come back looking for him, said, son, what have
you worried us so much for? He said, wish you not that I
be about my father's business. Don't you know I've got to be
about my father's business? Then said I, lo, I come, in the
volume of the book it is written of me. I delight to do thy will,
my God. Yea, thy law is within my heart. Listen to this, I preach righteousness
in the great congregation. What he said is I preach righteousness
to all mine elect. And I have not refrained my lips,
oh God you know. I have not hid thy righteousness
within my heart. I told it out, I declared your
faithfulness, I declared your salvation. I have not concealed
thy loving kindness and thy truth from the great congregation. In other words, the only way
we'll ever know God is in Christ. That's what he's telling us there.
And you know, there are two kinds of sins. If I ever told you that
there's two kinds of sins, Kind of throws you for a loop,
don't it? Two kinds of sins. Well, there's the sin of omission.
That means the things we should have done and could have done,
we didn't. If a man knows to do good and
doeth it not, you know what it says? It's sin. If you know to
do good and you don't do it, Know to do good to somebody,
know to help somebody, know to be good to somebody. If you know
to do good and you don't do it, he said, it's sin. That's the
sin of omission. Wonder how many times we broke
that one. How many times have we known
to do good and we didn't do it? You say, oh, man, that kind of,
doesn't sound so good, does it? Then that's the sin of commission.
What's that? That's doing sin. That's committing sin. So going
and coming, we're sinners. We're not doing what we should,
and then we are doing what we shouldn't do. So we got it going
and we got it coming. Ain't that right? And that's
why we need God's chosen. That's why we need a righteous
servant. That's why God has to have a righteous servant, someone
who is righteous. And our Lord Jesus was the obedient
servant. Behold, my servant. He was obedient
as our representative. God, like I said, He only views
the human race through two people. Would Adam represent the whole
human race? And Christ come to represent
His race, His chosen people. He represented us. He was obedient
unto death, even the death of the cross. Our Lord Jesus said,
Father, I finish the work that you sent me to do. I thank the
last message I preached here. Before I left, was it, what is
it, it is finished or I thirst? I don't remember which one it
was, but I know that it's finished. I know that he said, I finished
the work. He loved his father's will and
he loved his people unto death for them. You've heard that saying,
I loved them to death. Well, he loved us to death. We
say till death do us part. Well, We would have been parted
from God until Christ loved us to his death. Ain't that, that's
love, ain't it? Loved his to his death. And then
beloved, he's called the beloved one. Oh my. And whom, what did he say right
there? And whom my soul delighteth. There in verse one, whom my soul
delighteth. My soul is well pleased. Oh my. He pleased God, he honored God,
he satisfied God, he satisfied Jehovah. And oh my, he said, which of you convinces
me of Satan? And what assurance, what a strong,
strong consolation for us who believe him and trust him with
our soul. Now you think about that, trusting
your soul with somebody. I've said this, I don't know
how many times, if I had 10,000 souls, I could trust Christ with
every single one of them. Trust Him with all of them. You know, I remember years ago,
we was going to do something financial here at the church,
I don't remember exactly what it was, Some folks kind of got
upset, got bothered, you know, about the money and started making,
everybody had an opinion, you know, about what to do about
it and everything like that. And finally one fellow said, now
wait a minute. Wait a minute. We trust him with our souls every
time we come in here and he preaches to us. That he's gonna tell us
the truth about our souls. He's gonna tell us the truth
about our relationship with God. And yet we won't trust him? to
make decisions about other things. He said, when we come into a
service, we say, we trust him with our souls. He's preaching
to us the truth of God. He said, why can't we trust him
with other things? And they all scratched their heads and said,
well, I reckon that's right. That's a long time ago. That
just come into my brain. I don't know why. Things is fine
right there I reckon. But all we accepted in the beloved.
What a strong glorious consolation. That the father said this is
my son in whom I'm well pleased. What assurance, what a strong
consolation for us who believe him. If God said I'm well pleased
with him. Oh my, to trust the one that
God said he's my servant, I'm well pleased, he's my elect,
he's my chosen, he's my obedient one, he is the one in whom I'm
well pleased. If God's pleased with him, you
can trust your soul with him. And then look what it says about
him here, I've got to hurry. He's the anointed one. It said,
I've put my spirit, there in verse one, I've put my spirit
upon him. Oh, God said, he gave him the Holy Spirit without measure. When he was being baptized, the
Spirit descended upon him as a dove upon him. And God the
Father sealed him there to his work. I mean, identify, approved
and honored him, honored him. And then he's the one who absolutely makes all the
decisions. Look what it says there. He shall
bring judgment to the Gentiles. He shall show judgment. That's
what he means. And what that means is this.
Our Lord Jesus Christ is the one who makes the judgment. The
Father has committed everything into his hands. The Lord Jesus
Christ is the one who makes the judgment, who will hear and who
won't. He said, Father has hid these
things from the wise and proved it, because it seemed good to
you. He said, if a man says, I see, he said he'll stay blind. Man says, I'm blind, then he'll
be able to see. Christ is the one makes the judgment.
He makes the judgment as who's going to hear and who ain't going
to hear. He makes the judgment who's going to be a believer
and who ain't. Everything is in His hands, and I'm thankful
that that's where it's at, because I'll tell you what He'll do.
He will exactly do what's right to everybody on this earth when
it comes time to deal with them. You can bet on that. And I tell
you what, He's the one that He shall bring forth judgment, show
judgment. And if you want to know truth,
it's only made known through Him. He is the truth. He judges what men see, what
men hear, what men learn, and all of it's committed to Him.
And that's why, that's why they said we'll not have this man
reign over us. I don't want him making my decisions
for me. Well, I want him to make mine.
I want him to be the judge. You know, they say we shall all
stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Can you think of a
better place to stand than at the judgment seat of Christ,
the one that's already done it all for you? We're gonna stand before the
judgment seat of the one that's already done everything. You
think he's gonna look at you and say, well, you really messed
up and I'm gonna try to compensate for you. I'll get you through
some way or another. No, no, we'll stand before him
at his judgment seat. His judgment seat. The one who
has already bore judgment for us. And then look at the lowly
one. Look what it says here about
him in verse two. He shall not cry, nor lift up his voice. Now
that's different than people in the world. And in churches,
everybody's crying out about, we've got this program for you.
We've got the program for the old. We've got the program for
the young. We've got programs for the divorced. We've got programs
for the singles. We've got programs for the kids.
Everybody's crying, lifting up what we got. But he didn't do that. He didn't
do that. No, no. He didn't do that. He
didn't run around hollering and screaming and crying about his
program. He just plainly told people who
he was. And I tell you, beloved, he committed
himself unto him that was able to keep him so he wouldn't strive
nor cry. And he never, ever, ever courted
the favor of men. Never did. Look what it says
down here in verse 19 of Isaiah 42. Listen, look at this what
it says. Now what do you reckon our Lord Jesus Christ talking
about here? What God's talking about? Who is blind but my servant? Or deaf as my messenger that
I sent? Who is blind as he that is perfect,
and blind as the Lord's servant? Seeing many things, but thou
observest not. Opening the ears, but he heareth
not. Now here's what he's saying is, that my son came into this
world blind to everything but my will and my glory and my work. Oh my. He said, I don't need,
you know what he told one time, he told him over on John 8, he
said, I don't need nobody to testify on me. I don't need anybody
to testify on me and tell me who I am and what I'm doing.
The works do it. John the Baptist, I don't mean
him, what he was saying was, and everybody's running around
saying things about him, he said, I don't have to have your approval
and your praise. That's what he's talking about.
But his whole purpose was to glorify his father, no matter
the way he was treated, and all his calls to lift up his voice
or to strive. And then look how sympathetic
he is. Look down there. Verse 3, oh
my, a bruised wreath shall he not break, smoking flax shall
he not quench. Now what this is telling us about
is sometimes we will feel so weak, so weak and frail and our
Lord Jesus Christ when it feels like the fire's going out, feels
like we're so cold that we can't even feel the presence of the
Lord. He'll blow on it. Flame will come back up. It's
kind of like Bunyan's Pilgrim Progress. When they went to the
interpreter's house, he took Bunyan, Christian, behind there,
and you know, see, they seen this. There was a man standing
there. Satan was standing there throwing
buckets of water on a fire. He said, now come around here
and look on the other side. While Satan was pouring water
on the fire, the Lord Jesus Christ was back there throwing oil on
it. Satan's trying to put it out. Christ is pouring oil on
it. Huh? So that's what it was. That's what he's talking about
here, you know. Oh, he sees it. Oh, and the bruise, so bruised
and broken. Oh, my. It's just hurting all
over, you know. You just feel like, how in the
world can I go on? Oh, my. And then he's the shepherd
of the sheep. He carries the lambs. He'll care
for the weakest. He'll care for the frailest.
Those who think I have no light, so frail I break. No, he is faithful. He is gentle. Now a lot of you
folks has raised some kids. When one of them is really, really
sick, that's the one you pay the most attention to. And when
we're really, really sick, that's the one who Christ is gonna take
care of. Ain't you thankful of that? Oh
boy, we come in here so sick sometimes, so sin sick, so sick,
depressed, darkness all around us, confused, hurting in our
hearts. And you know what he does? sick, I need to take care of
him. I'm going to take care of them. I'm going to see if they
get what they need before they leave here. I'm going to see
that they're made well. Oh my. And then look what it
says here in verse four. I've got to quit. Oh my. And he shall not fail,
look in verse four. I could go on with some other
things. He'll bring judgment unto truth. In other words, he's
gonna speak the truth, and reveal the truth, and manifest the truth.
And he shall not fail, nor be discouraged. Oh my. He ain't gonna fail. He ain't gonna be discouraged.
Until he set judgment in the earth. Until this thing is wound
up, our Lord's gonna do what He's gonna do. Gonna carry this
thing out. Gonna carry it out. He's warned
to be trusted. He's gonna bring forth judgment
unto the Gentiles. That's why Paul said, I know
whom I have believed. I know whom I have believed.
And this says, He shall not fail. He shall not fail. Or to be discouraged. as a nail in a sure place. It bears up all that hang on
it. Hang all your life on it. Your
past, your present, and your future. And you can trust Him
with every minute of every day, every second of every hour. You
can trust Him. Every day of every month. Every month of every year, every
year until he calls you home. You can trust him. You can trust
him. Our Father in the blessed name,
precious name of the Lord Jesus, thank you for meeting with us
tonight. Thank you for allowing me to speak your name, talk about
you again for a little while. I know it's, this flesh won't let me describe
you the way you are, won't let me worship you the way you're
worthy, but Lord I want to worship and I know everybody here does
too. They want to know you, they want to love you, they look to
you and trust you, put their souls in your hands, the safest
place they can be in this whole universe is in your hands, Your
blood has made their souls clean. Your righteousness has made them
acceptable in the sight of God. So Lord, we thank you and bless
you. Save your people in this place
for Christ's sake. Amen, amen. 356, Houston, only trust Him. Ain't that what it is? Only trust
Him. I think that's what it is. 356. Only trust him. Let's stand
together. I'm pretty sure that's what it
is. Nope. Well, well. How much? 352? 252. Boy, I tell
you what, I think I know something. All right, let's stand together
and sing this. Every soul by sinner puts their
mercy with the Lord. will surely give you rest by
trusting in his word. Only trust him, only trust him,
only trust him not. save you, he will save you now. For Jesus shed his precious blood,
rich Pray to flood that washes white
as snow. Only trust Him, only trust Him,
only trust Him now. He will save you, He will save
you, He will save you now. Yes, Jesus is the truth, the
way that leads you into rest. Believe in Him without delay,
and you are fully blessed. Only trust Him, only trust Him,
only trust Him now. He will save you, He will save
you, He will save you now.
Don Bell
About Don Bell
Don Bell is the current pastor of Lantana Grace Church in Crossville, TN.
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