Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening and now
for today's program. Welcome to our program today.
I'm glad you could join us. And if you'd like to follow along
in your Bibles, I'm basically going to begin some messages
out of the book of Isaiah, chapter 53. Isaiah 53. And this first message is entitled,
The Arm of the Lord. And it's where in Isaiah 53 in
verse one, the prophet Isaiah asked this question, who hath
believed our report? Now that word report there means
our doctrine, our message, our preaching. Isaiah preached in
a day, this was about 700 years before the coming of Christ into
the world. And Isaiah preached in a day
when there were very few people who would respond positively
to the message of the gospel, of God's free and sovereign grace,
saving sinners by his free and sovereign grace, through the
promised Messiah, who is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ,
who came from our viewpoint today, he came 2,000 years ago, approximately. In Isaiah's day, it was 700 years
in the future that he would come. But it was always said through
the prophets to the nation, Israel, and people of Jerusalem, the
southern kingdom, that the hope of salvation and eternal life
was totally in and by the Messiah to come, the Lord Jesus Christ,
the hope of glory, the hope of Israel. He's called the Holy
One of Israel, and he's the hope of righteousness. The Bible says
that God requires perfect righteousness. We don't have it because we are
sinners. And the Bible says there's none
righteous, no not one. We fell in Adam into sin and
death. We're born spiritually dead in
trespasses and sins. And so we don't have the ability
to work forth by our efforts the righteousness that God requires.
And that's what we must have because God is a just God. And
God has freely and fully provided a righteousness for his people.
But that righteousness can only be found in Christ, the Lord
Jesus Christ. The righteousness of God revealed
in the gospel is the merit, the quality, the value of the obedience
unto death of Christ as the surety, the substitute, and the redeemer
of His people. And so if there's any hope of
salvation at all, it comes through Christ. And that was just as
true in Isaiah's day looking forward to his coming, as I said,
which would be around 700 years later, is just as true in Isaiah's
day as it is in our day looking back at the Christ who has already
come and already finished the work of redemption, who's already
made an end of sin and finished the transgression and brought
in everlasting righteousness as Daniel prophesied later on
after Isaiah. And so when Isaiah says who hath
believed our report, he's saying who has believed this message?
In Isaiah chapter one, he noted that all of us by nature are
sinful people, but he pointed to Israel, specifically Jerusalem
and the southern kingdom that he preached in. He said we're
a people laden with iniquity. sinful and from the top of our
head to the bottom of our feet, nothing but sin, and he made
this statement. He said that if it weren't for
a small remnant, a saved remnant of people, and the idea of the
remnant runs all through the Old Testament and the New Testament
too. But if it weren't for that small
remnant, the whole nation would have perished just like Sodom
and Gomorrah. You see, remember Sodom and Gomorrah,
the Lord brought Lot and his family out and then he laid waste
to the whole city, both cities, Sodom and Gomorrah. Not one person
survived. And that's what Isaiah was saying.
He said if it weren't for God's remnant, a small remnant of people,
who God has brought to salvation by his grace, the whole nation
Israel, even in their religion, they would have perished. And
so he says, who has believed our report, and to whom is the
arm of the Lord revealed? The arm of the Lord. Now God
is spirit. God doesn't have arms and legs
like we have. God is spirit, and he's called
the invisible God. Christ is called the very image
of the invisible God. Christ is God manifest in the
flesh. He's the Son of God, the second
person of the Trinity, co-equal with the Father and the Spirit
in every attribute of deity, and yet he took upon himself
the likeness of sinful human flesh. Now, he was not a sinner.
He was not sin or sinful in any way. He was the perfect, perfect
man, God-man. The Bible says in Matthew 121,
you shall call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people
from their sins. And then in Matthew 123 it says,
His name shall be called Emmanuel, which being interpreted is God
with us. That's who Christ is, He's one
person, but he has two distinct natures. One is deity, one is
humanity, without sin, and these natures are united, yet not mixed. There is no mixture of them.
He's not a mixture of God and humanity, that's impossible.
But he is the union of the two natures. And that's a mind-boggling
truth. And we really cannot explain
it, but it's true. But now God, Isaiah says, to
whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? The arm of the Lord is a metaphor
symbolizing the power of God. And what he's saying here is
when he says, who hath believed our report and to whom is the
arm of the Lord revealed? What he's doing there in those
questions, which are rhetorical, now you know what a rhetorical
question is, it's a question that is asked, not seeking to
find an answer, but to make a point. And that's what Isaiah's doing.
Who's gonna believe our report? When I preach the gospel, I could
ask this question, who's gonna believe this? Well, I know the
answer already. Anyone to whom the arm of the
Lord is revealed is going to believe this. And that's the
power of God. And what Isaiah's doing, he's
acknowledging that believing is by the power of God. It's not by the power of man.
And the arm of the Lord here, here's what I want you to understand.
The arm of the Lord is actually a person. and that person is
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now we can look over in the book
of First Corinthians, chapter one. And let me show you this,
where the apostle Paul, in verse 17, this is First Corinthians,
chapter one. Paul wrote, for Christ sent me
not to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of
words, lest the cross of Christ should be made none effect, And
he says this in verse 18, for the preaching of the cross, now
that's the preaching of the person of Christ, God manifest in the
flesh, and the preaching of the finished work of Christ. The
cross of Christ is not just the fact that he died, was buried,
and arose again. Those are certainly facts, biblical
facts, historical facts. that are part and parcel of the
gospel message. But it's more than just the historical
fact. I had a woman tell me one time,
she says, all you have to believe to believe the gospel is that
Christ died, was buried, and arose again. I said, no, there's
more than that. Why did he die? Why was he buried? Why was he risen from the dead? What did he accomplish in those
acts? And that's the preaching of the
cross. It's the preaching of the gospel, which is the revelation
of the righteousness of God. And what it tells us is that
Christ, in His death on the cross, as the surety, the substitute
and the redeemer of His people, He put away their sins. Their
sins had been imputed, charged, accounted to Him, and He purged
them away. He paid for them. The full penalty
of God's justice, God's wrath poured down upon Him, and He
drank damnation dry. He didn't make us forgivable,
or savable, or redeemable. He brought in forgiveness, redemption,
He brought in salvation. And in dying on that cross and
putting away the sins of His people which had been imputed,
charged, accounted to Him, that's what assurity is, He brought
forth an everlasting righteousness whereby God is just to justify
sinners like us. And that righteousness is that
which God has imputed to His people, so that we stand before
God, washed in the blood of Christ, clothed in His righteousness,
as it were, and all for whom Christ died shall believe the
report. They shall be saved, the scripture
says. He ensures their salvation, and
that's what the preaching of the cross. Well, go back to verse
18 of 1 Corinthians 1. For the preaching of the cross
is to them that perish That's foolishness. That message of
the gospel, wherein the righteousness of God is revealed, which is
the merits of Christ, obedience unto death, as our surety, substitute,
and redeemer, that's foolishness to those who are perishing. They're
in a state of perishing. But verse 18 says, but unto us
which are saved, or who are being saved, it is the power of God. Now, to whom is the arm of the
Lord revealed? That's his power. And the preaching
of Christ crucified and risen from the dead is the power of
God to those who are being saved, those who believe. And look down
at verse 21 of 1 Corinthians 1. It says, for after that in
the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, that
is by worldly wisdom and worldly pursuits, It pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Bringing people
into the kingdom of God by the power of God through the preaching
of weak, sinful men like me and like others who preach the gospel
may seem foolish to the world. But he says here, God was pleased. to by the foolishness of preaching. And notice it didn't say the
preaching of foolishness. That's what most people are involved
in today. But by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. Verse 22, he says the Jews require a sign, the Greeks
or the Gentiles seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified
under the Jews a stumbling block and under the Greeks foolishness.
And verse 24, but unto them which are called Now that's the invincible,
irresistible calling of the Holy Spirit that by which God in power
brings sinners to faith in Christ and repentance of dead works.
And that's through the new birth. By nature we're spiritually dead. We must be born again. How does
the new birth come about? While all for whom Christ died,
He sends the Spirit to give them life. And He gives them a spiritual
life. He raises them from the dead
spiritually. He gives them spiritual eyes
to see, spiritual ears to hear. Remember Christ said, if you
must be born again or you cannot see the kingdom of heaven, the
kingdom of God, you don't have spiritual eyes. We gotta see
the glory of God revealed in the face of Jesus Christ. He
gives us a new heart, a new mind. He gives us the gift of faith.
Faith is the gift of God. It's not natural to man. And
so he says, but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks,
Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. So go back
over to Isaiah 53. To whom is the arm of the Lord
revealed? To whom is Christ revealed? The power of God, the wisdom
of God, God's salvation, how he saves by grace. Well, it's
revealed to all of God's elect. All whom God chose before the
foundation of the world and gave to Christ. Put their whole salvation
on his shoulders. All salvation, all of their salvation
conditioned on Christ, who came in time, In Isaiah's day, it
was 700 years later, just about, and Christ came in time, and
by his obedience unto death, he established the only ground
upon which God saves and justifies sinners and gives them life from
the dead. But now he begins to describe,
back here in Isaiah 53 in prophecy, he begins to describe one who
is actually what we call the suffering servant. The suffering
servant of God. Who is this suffering servant
of God? Well, it's Christ. Now many of the Jewish rabbis
would have you believe that this is talking about Israel, the
nation. But it is not. It's talking about
the one upon whom salvation depends. And salvation does not depend
upon the nation Israel. Salvation depends upon the Lord
Jesus Christ. And so he says in verse two,
this is Isaiah 53 too, it says, he shall grow up before him as
a tender plant and as a root out of a dry ground. Now this
is speaking of his humanity. The human nature of Christ was
created for him by the immaculate conception, the Holy Spirit planting
the seed in the womb of the Virgin Mary and Christ sprang out of
the earth. That's what one passage says. And that's speaking of his humanity. Back over in the book of Isaiah
chapter nine, there's a very interesting prophecy of Christ
which describes his person and his work. In Isaiah nine and
verse six, this is a prophecy of the birth of Christ He says,
for unto us a child is born. Now that's referring to the perfect,
sinless humanity, human nature, human body and soul of Christ. Conceived not by man, but by
the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary. That's why in
Genesis 3.15, he's called the seed of woman. The woman has
no seed, the man has the seed. but the woman has no seed, but
there's a seed planted by the man in natural birth. But now,
in this case, this was a holy seed planted in her womb by the
Holy Spirit, a miraculous birth. And he came forth out of her
womb as a child, speaking of his humanity. And I know, again
now, I tell you, this is mind-boggling stuff. You think about Christ
in his childhood, the infant, and then as he grew, the Bible
says he grew in wisdom and stature. People argue and debate about
things. How much did he know? What did
he say? Things like that. It's useless to speculate on
anything like that because we don't have a whole lot of biblical
testimony on it. For example, we do have the testimony
of him, I won't say disputing, but he was discussing in the
temple in Jerusalem when he was 12 years old with the elders,
and his mother and father were looking for him when they found
him. They sort of chided him, and he said, I must be about
my father's business. See, all of that. And that's
what the scripture teaches us and what it tells us. But Christ
was fully human without sin. The Bible says He was tempted
in all points as we are, yet without sin. So we're speaking
of the sinless humanity of Christ when we say, when Isaiah prophesied,
for unto us a child is born. And it was also prophesied that
He would be born in Bethlehem. But then it says, look here,
this is Isaiah nine and verse six now. For unto us a child
is born, unto us a son is given. Now the son given there refers
to his deity as the second person of the trinity, the son of God,
the eternal son of God, the only begotten son of God. And again
now, the trinity is not three gods, it's one God who subsists
in three distinct persons, reveals himself in this way, and Christ
is the Son of God, so unto us a child is born, that's his humanity,
his sinless humanity, a son is given. That's his absolute deity. So we have the God man. And then
Isaiah goes on to say in verse six, the government shall be
upon his shoulders. Now what does that mean? Well,
what's the government? It's the government of his kingdom.
The government of His covenant. The covenant of grace. The government
of grace. The government of His church.
You can say it that way. And what that means is their
whole salvation and eternal well-being rest upon His shoulders. Not upon ours. Preachers imply
all the time, some state it out blatantly, Like the success of
the kingdom depends on us. No, no, no. The government is
up on his shoulders. All my salvation is conditioned
on Christ. All of the conditions, all of
the stipulations, all of the requirements of the salvation
of his people is squarely up on his shoulders. And is he able
to carry that burden, to carry that weight? Well, listen. In
Isaiah 9-6, his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor,
the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.
And verse seven says, of the increase or success of his government
and peace, peace between God and his people, there shall be
no end. There'll be no failure. And it
will not end in time either. Upon the throne of David, Now
that's David as a type of Christ there. That's not the throne
in Jerusalem, in physical Jerusalem. That's the throne of God. And
he says, upon his kingdom, his spiritual kingdom, to order it
and to establish it. Upon what ground? Judgment and
with justice. That's the righteousness of God. Christ satisfying the justice
of God for the sins of his people and bringing forth everlasting
righteousness. So he will establish it with
judgment and with justice from henceforth even forever. The
zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. The desire and
goal of the Lord who cannot be defeated, the invincible God,
will perform this. If you go back over into Isaiah
52, right before Isaiah 53, if you look at Isaiah 52 in verse
13, He says, behold, my servant shall
deal prudently. The servant there is Christ. God speaking of his servant,
the son of God who submitted to his father for the salvation
of his people. And he says he shall deal prudently.
What does that mean? It means he shall prosper. He
won't fail. He shall be exalted and extolled
and be very high. Now, in order to accomplish this,
he's going to have to suffer and bleed and die. Look at verse
14 of Isaiah 52. As many as were astonished at
thee, his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form
more than the sons of men. That's why he had to suffer and
die. And verse 15 says, so shall he sprinkle many nations. Christ
has a people out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nations.
The kings shall shut their mouths at him, for that which had not
been told them shall they see, and that which they had not heard
shall they consider. All the kings of this earth are
gonna shut their mouths at him eventually. and they'll bow down
and they'll worship. Well, back in Isaiah 53, verse
two, he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, as a root
out of a dry ground. That dry ground, think about
Jerusalem and Israel, the day that the Lord came, how pitiful
state it was in. It had been a flourishing kingdom
under David and Solomon, but it had degraded into a nation
of slaves to the Roman Empire. It says, he hath no form nor
comeliness, and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that
we should not desire him. There was no outward special
quality about Jesus of Nazareth in his humanity. When he walked
around this earth, it wasn't with a halo around his head or
anything like that. There was nothing about him in
his visage, in his human nature that would tip you off. And that's
why in order to see the glory of God in Christ, it must be
revealed. John said, we saw his glory,
even the glory as the only begotten of the Father. But that was revealed
by God. And then verse three says, he's
despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows. We sing a hymn,
man of sorrows, what a name for the son of God who came. He was
acquainted with grief. Oh, he knew grief and sorrow
and pain. And we had, as it were, our faces
from him. We turned away from him. That's
us by nature, that's all people by nature. Turned away from him,
he was despised and we esteemed him not. You see, this is the
natural man's view of the true Christ of the Bible. Now everybody
has some view of someone they call Jesus, which they admire. But here's what you've gotta
ask yourself, is it the Christ of the Bible? Paul warned against
counterfeits in 2 Corinthians chapter 11. They're a counterfeit
Christ. You see, people today, they think
about a Jesus who loves everybody, who's trying to save everybody,
who spoke no harsh words against anybody, but my friend, that
is not the Jesus of the Bible. The Jesus of the Bible is God
manifest in the flesh. who loves his sheep and gave
his life for the sheep, died for them. He is the very righteousness
of God. And if you don't have him, you're
on the broad road that leads to destruction. And he told people
without fail, somebody said, well, he had no harsh words.
He said this, he said, accept your righteousness, exceed the
righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will in
no wise enter the kingdom of heaven. He said, except you likewise
repent, you shall perish. He that believeth not the Son
shall be damned. That's the arm of the Lord revealed
in Christ. I hope you'll join us next week
for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
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today and may the Lord be with you.