Open your Bibles, if you would,
to Isaiah chapter 22. The name of the message is, A
Nail in a Sure Place. A Nail in a Sure Place. Isaiah chapter 22, we'll be reading
verses 20 to 23, and our text will be found in verse 23. So let's read Isaiah chapter
20, verses 20 to 23. And it shall come to pass in
that day that I will call my servant Elohim, the son of Hilkiah,
and I will clothe him with thy robe and strengthen him with
thy girdle, and I will commit thy government into his hand,
and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and
to the house of Judah. And the key of the house of David
will I lay upon his shoulder, So he shall open and none shall
shut, and he shall shut and none shall open. And I will fasten
him as a nail in a sure place, and he shall be for a glorious
throne to his father's house. Now, take note of verse 22 before
we look at 23. It says, in the key of the house
of David will I lay upon his shoulder. Now, beloved, this
is talking about Christ our King, our great God and our Savior.
Well, how do we know that? Well, if you turn to Revelation
chapter three, verse seven, there is one who is the holder of the
key of David. And his name is none other than
the Lord Jesus Christ, the word of God, God incarnate in the
flesh. Look what it says in Revelation
3, verse 7. And to the angel of the church
in Philadelphia write, these things say it's he that is holy,
he that is true, and he that hath the key of David. He that
openeth, and no man shutteth, and shutteth, and no man openeth. I'm going to read Isaiah 22,
22 again to you, and listen to this. And the key of the house
of David will I lay upon his shoulders, so he shall open,
and none shall shut. And he shall shut, and none shall
open. Well, who is he? He is the Lord
Jesus Christ. And then in verse 23, God, the
Father, is still speaking of him, and he says, and I will
fasten him as a nail in a sure place, and he shall be for a
glorious throne to his father's house. Now, someone might ask,
what is a nail in a sure place? I remember reading this text,
and I asked someone, what does this mean? What does this mean?
What's this nail in a sure place? And you know what, growing up,
I had seen a nail in a sure place and didn't even know that's what
it was called. Growing up, my dad had several
nails hammered into a beam, and he would always put them on an
angle like this. So the beam would be straight,
and he'd always put the nail on an angle. And I often wondered
why, and I asked my dad one time, I said, why do you put the nail
in an angle in that beam? And he said, well, so I can hang
things on it. And then when I read this passage,
I didn't understand what a nail was in the sure place. Well, my dad had several nails
hanging in these beams. And the things that he would
often hang upon these nails would not move. They wouldn't bend
the nail, and the beam, the beam was a strong beam that he put
them into, the beam wouldn't break. And I learned after the Lord
saved me and after seeing this verse that those nails were nails
in a sure place. Now notice here in our text,
it's a singular nail. And God says, I will put, I will
fasten him as a nail in the sure place. Now, we hang our souls
on Christ, don't we? We cast ourselves upon him. He's
a nail in the sure place. And who put him there? God did.
Oh my, isn't it wonderful? Oh my. So this nail in the sure
place is hammered into a piece of timber where the nail would
not fail or be removed or be cut down. And as a result, that nail would
not drop whatever's placed upon it. Whatever's hanging upon it,
that nail won't drop. Now we read here in Isaiah 22
and verse 23, and let's look to Christ as the nail in the
sure place, because that's who this is speaking of. Look at
this. God says this, and I will fasten
him. Who's the author of our salvation?
God is. Who is our salvation? Christ
is. Who's the finisher of our salvation? Christ is. And why? Scripture says, he shall not
fail. And he didn't, did he? It's finished. Look at this.
God says about Christ, I will fasten him as a nail in a sure
place, a place where you can hang your soul upon, where I
can hang my soul upon, and trusting that it will not be moved. Oh,
isn't that wonderful? And he shall be for the glorious
throne to his father's house. And note the singularity of this
nail. I will fasten him. This is God's
doing. As a nail in the sure place.
Salvations of the Lord, beloved. Oh my, and my soul, oh, my soul
marvel, marvel at this. that by the grace and mercy of
God, that we who are the people of God, we who trust and rest
in the Lord Jesus Christ, who is that nail in the sure place, are resting in one who's sure for the saving of our eternal
souls. All who trust in Christ are resting
in a nail in a sure place. He shall not fail. He won't drop
us or lose us. No. Think of this. He's fastened into the eternality
of our great God. My. And marvel that the grace
of God has long ago established that the people of God for all
eternity had been enabled to hang all our concerns, all our concerns for all of eternity
upon the Lord Jesus Christ. All the forgiveness of our sins
are laid upon Him by God. And He bore them all for us,
all our sins. And He paid the price for them,
didn't He? Fully. And we're saved through His blood
and righteousness. He shed His blood to save us from our sins. My. And let we who are the people
of God meditate upon this wonderful truth, beloved, that God has
made Christ a nail in the sure place. God did it. God did it. And he did it for his people,
didn't he? Isn't that wonderful? He saved us. God saved us. And God will keep us. And God
will never let us fall away. Isn't that wonderful? God the
Son. God the Father made Christ a
nail in a sure place. The only place where sinners
can be saved from all their sins. The only place where the justice
of God and the law of God can be satisfied in and through the
Lord Jesus Christ. My, and then we're born again
by the Holy Spirit of God. He gave us faith to believe.
He saved our souls 2,000 years ago. The Lord Jesus Christ did that,
and it's the Lord Jesus Christ who'll keep us. You know, a bunch
of religious people say, you gotta keep yourself. Well, we
can't keep ourselves. But we know the one who keeps
our souls, don't we? Because we're hanging on that
nail in the sure place by the grace and mercy of God. Now,
remember who hung us on that nail in the sure place? That's
Christ. Who put us in Christ? God the
Father did that. Isn't that wonderful? So God
has made Christ a nail in the sure place for all his born-again
blood-washed saints. That's amazing. Christ is our
salvation. This nail in the sure place that
God says he put, he put a nail in the sure place, that's Christ.
He's all our salvation, isn't he? And neither is there salvation
in any other. There's no other name given among
heaven whereby we must be saved, only through Christ and him alone,
the Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man, the Word of God incarnate. And
behold the Lord Jesus Christ, beloved, with our eyes of faith.
Behold the Lord Jesus Christ in his person, in his work, in
his righteousness. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday,
today, and forever, is the nail in the sure place put there by
God. for the salvation of his people. My. Jesus Christ is the believer
of salvation. May we contemplate that he's
all of our salvation. He's all of our salvation, beloved. He's the source of our salvation. He's the origin of our salvation. He's the fountain of our salvation. And he's the support of our salvation. My. He's the support of all the
great things of salvation. They all find their end in him. There is not a purpose of God
but that which is founded in the Lord Jesus Christ. There's
not a promise of God that is made, that's not confirmed and
fulfilled in Christ, because Jesus Christ is the yea and the
amen of all the promises of God. Let's read that verse again.
Isaiah. 22 verse 23, and I will fasten
him. God says, I'll fasten him as
a nail in a sure place. And he shall be for a glorious
throne to all his father's house. Let us further think upon the
fact that the Lord Jesus Christ is as a nail in a sure place
and that all of his people's concerns hung upon him. We can hang all our concerns,
all of them, concerns of the mind, concerns of health, concerns
financially, we can hang everything upon Christ. Everything, beloved. Especially the salvation of our
souls. My They hang all our concerns, all
our blessings, and think of this too, all our blessings hang upon
Him. They come from Him. They come
from Him. From the Lord Jesus Christ, all
of God's redeemed people derive all their spiritual strength.
Think of that. All our spiritual strength comes from Christ. He's
the vine, we're the branches. Without Him, we can't do nothing.
My. All our gifts come from Him.
All our graces come from Him. And all His redeemed people depend
for life. Christ is our life. All God's
people depend on any ability we have to do anything upon Him.
And even the power to carry on all comes from Him. All comes
from the Lord Jesus Christ. All comes from the nail in the
sure place, beloved. Isn't it wonderful? We give Him
all the glory and honor and praise. This is why we praise our Savior,
the Lord Jesus Christ. This is why we seek to give Him
all the glory and honor and praise. Because without Him, we can't
do nothing. We can't do anything. Even the breath we breathe, He
gives us. Let's read verse 22 again, or 23 again of chapter
22. and look to Christ as a nail
in the sure place. And I will fasten him as a nail
in the sure place, and he shall be for a glorious throne to his
Father's house. Lastly, let us consider that
this sure nail, this nail in the sure place spoken of in our
text, is a nail fixed by God. God put him there. God made him
Lord, didn't he? People say, well, just make Jesus
Lord of your life. God already beat everyone. My, let us ponder
this wonderful truth this week, that this nail in the sure place
is put there and fixed by the hand of God, thy Father, for
sinners such as we. And note in our text that God
is both fixing him there and proclaiming it to the souls of
his people. I will fasten him, God does it,
say it Jehovah, as a nail in a sure place and he shall be
for glorious throne to his father's house. Praise God and glory to
our great God and King, our glorious almighty mediator, the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's our savior. and is founded on such authority
as God the Father has fixed him as a nail in the sure place for
the eternal souls of his people. We who are the redeemed of the
Lord by the grace and mercy of God, according to his divine
will, will hang our souls upon him. Oh, we'll hang our body,
our souls, and our spirit upon him for everlasting salvation. And all through eternity, beloved,
you know, we'll rejoice and praise the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus
Christ, who is God's sure nail fixed for the salvation of His
people. I ask you, my hearers, how can
a soul perish that hangs on Christ? Oh, it's impossible. It cannot,
because God has made Christ a sure nail a nail in a sure place for
all who trust Him. All who trust His perfect, sin-atoning
work, through His blood and righteousness, for the salvation of their souls.
And what do we say? Amen and amen.