Gracious, gracious Heavenly Father,
we come before Thee, we who are Your people, born again by Thy
Holy Spirit, washed in the precious blood of the Lamb, O Lord, washed
clean in Thy precious, precious blood. And we pray, O Lord, that
the Holy Spirit would illuminate the Scriptures today, that You
would teach us the things of Christ, Lord, without you illuminating
the Scriptures, we will learn nothing and we will receive nothing,
but we pray that you would illuminate the Scriptures. We desire, as
your people, to hear from you through thy precious, precious
Word. And we know that you speak to each of us as individuals
through the Word. We know that some of us you reprove,
some of us you rebuke, some of us you build up. with different
messages from the word, and Lord, we just pray that your will would
be done, that you would guide us and direct us and teach us,
because ultimately, you are our teacher, you are the one who
reveals the things in the scriptures to us. So we seek thy face, oh
Lord, and we pray that you'd be glorified and magnified, and
we pray that we'd be attentive to the word, Lord Jesus, and
that, As this word goes forth, Lord, we know that the scripture
declares that your word will not return unto you void. So
Lord, as this word goes forth from this place, the trumpet
sound of the gospel, Lord, we pray that you'd use it for your
glory. We pray that you would use it to draw on your lost sheep.
Reveal to them their sinnership, O Lord, just like you've done
for we who are your people. Reveal to them their desperate
need for thee, O Lord. We pray, as only you can do,
is only you can do. And also we pray that your people,
we who are your people, would be built up and edified through
the preaching of thy word. O Lord, give us hearing ears
and give us seeing eyes to hear you through thy word preached
and proclaimed and to see thee with the eye of faith, O Lord,
to look to thee and to thee alone. Look away from this world Look
away from the current situation going on, the uncertainty of
the times going on, and help us to look to Thee who is in
control over this virus, over all things visible and invisible. And it's for You we give the
glory and the honor and the praise. In Jesus' name, amen. This week's message came from
a very encouraging text I received from a very dear sister in fellowship
here with us. I have received it about three
or four weeks ago. And she sent this to Vicki and I, and the
more I looked at this passage of scripture, the more I was
blessed by the words that are within it. C.H. Spurgeon used to say to those
who sat in his congregation, send me texts, send me scriptures
that have blessed you through the week. or through your personal
readings. Send them to me. Because they'll
bless me as well. They'll bless me as well. And
I may even end up preaching them, he said. And it's true. It's
true. This portion, again, was sent
to me by a very dear sister. And as I read this chapter, the Holy
Spirit illuminated the scriptures for me. He revealed to me, through my
studies, the more I marveled at our wondrous Savior's mercies
to we who are the people of God, to we who used to be called forsaken
and desolate. But now we are called, we who
are the people of God, we who are the born-again, blood-washed
saints of God. My, oh my. Now we are called
God's delight. God's delight. And we will see these wonderful
truths brought forth in the passage here before us this morning. We will see the prophet is at
prayer, and we will see that God will confirm his promises
to his people, which we know are all yea and amen in Christ. We will see the glories of the
church in her husband, her Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And those who know Him rejoice in these
wonderful truths set forth. They are celebrated by the born-again,
blood-washed saint. And Lord willing, by the illuminating
power of God the Holy Spirit, we will see that this passage
before us brings forth the Lord's, which is Jehovah in the Hebrew,
Jehovah's intent for his church, his intent for his church in
the world in the promise of her glory as she spreads the gospel
throughout the whole world. Let's read Isaiah chapter 62,
Isaiah chapter 62. We'll read verses one to seven. For Zion's sake will I not hold
my peace And for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest until the
brightness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation
thereof as a lamp that burneth. Now remember who's speaking here.
It's Jehovah. It's Elohim. Those two names
are used in this passage. Again, as we looked at last week,
whenever we see Lord capitalized, that's Jehovah. And in here,
in verse three, when we see the name of God, that's Elohim, the
strong and the mighty one. Verse two, and the Gentiles shall
see thy righteousness, and all thy kings, thy glory. And thou
shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord,
the mouth of Jehovah, shall name. Thou shalt be a, look at this
verse. Look at this verse, beloved. Let this just sink in. We know
we're sinners from the top of our heads to the bottom of our
feet, don't we? We know we are. And we know even
after we're saved, we're still sinners, aren't we? We still
sometimes operate in the flesh, don't we? Yes, we do. And look
what it says here, though. Thou shall also be a crown of
glory in the hand of the Lord, in the hand of Jehovah. and a
royal diadem in the hand of thy God. Look at verse 4. Thou shalt no more be termed
forsaken, neither shall thy land any more be termed desolate.
But thou shalt be called Hezekiah in thy land Beulah. For the Lord
delighteth in thee, and in thy land shalt be married. For as a young man marry the
virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee. And as the bridegroom rejoices
over the bride, so shall thy God, Elohim, rejoice over thee. I have set watchmen upon thy
walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day or
night. And that's preachers just proclaiming
the gospel. It's going forth, day and night,
beloved. Ye that make mention of the Lord Jehovah again, keep
not silence, and give him no rest till he establish, until
he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth. Now let us take note
of verse one of this chapter. The scriptures declare, for Zion's
sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will
not rest until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness,
and salvation thereof is a lamp that burneth." Now, many grace
preachers have said this in the past, but it's worth repeating
at this time. Looking at the scripture, note
the first few words here, verse 1. For Zion's sake, never ever
forget, beloved God, that everything that happens in this world happens
according to God's perfect plan and purpose, and it happens for
the good of the elect, for our good, beloved, for the good of
God's people. All the inventions in this world,
all the things that man have made are for our benefit, beloved,
and everybody else just gets the residual effects. Now, someone
could say, how could you make a statement like that? Because
it's true. Because it's true. And think upon this, beloved
God, that everything and everyone else on the face of the earth
will serve God's intent. Right? Will serve his intent. And on that great day, every
knee shall bend and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord to the glory of Elohim. To the glory of God. the Father,
to the glory of Jehovah. And that will be a fact clearly
seen. So what is being said here is
that Jehovah, for Zion's sake, will not be silent. Jehovah,
for the church's sake, for the sake of his elect, he will not
be silent, beloved. He will not be silent. And for
Jerusalem's sake, which is another picture of the church, He will
not rest. He will not rest. Because Zion and Jerusalem, again,
refer both to the body of Christ. The church also will not be silent.
The church also will not be silent, will it? We will not be silent
in our praise to Jehovah. We will marvel at the great things
that he's done in our lives and in the church. And what he does
with the messages as they go forth, we will absolutely marvel
in that truth and that fact, won't we? Marvel, marvel in that. And as the truth sees the glory
of the Lord and his marvelous works being done, we will not
be silent in our praise to Jehovah. We cannot be, we cannot be. Because God has sent the spirit
of his son into our hearts. The scripture declares this.
God has sent the spirit of his son into the hearts of every
born-again believer, in the hearts of his blood-washed people. And
what does the scripture say we now say? And because God has
sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts, cry, and
Abba, Father. Now we cry, Father, Father. And do we not marvel at the works
of God? We never used to in our natural
state. And the people around us who
aren't saved, they don't marvel in the things of God. They may
look and say, oh, look at that wonderful thing nature's made.
No, that's a wonderful thing God's made. That's a wonderful
thing that Elohim has made. He's the one who's done that.
And we marvel at that, don't we? We marvel at that. So the church will not be silent
in her praise. And beloved of God, we do not
come to the place where the law was given. We don't go to Sinai,
do we? We don't get yoked under the
law. Oh my, that mountain could not
even be touched because it burned with fire. But what did it represent? It represented, it sent forth
the message of God's majesty. the message of God's holiness,
the message of the righteousness of God. Hebrews chapter 12, verse
18, the scripture declares this, and I'll read all the way to
verse 24. If you want to turn there, you can, but I'm going
to read it. Hebrews chapter 12, we'll read verses 18 to 24. Scriptures
declare this. It says this, for ye are not
come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with
fire, nor in the blackness and darkness and tempest, in the
sound of a trumpet, in the voice of words, which voice they that
heard entreated that the word should not be spoken to any more. For they could not endure that
which was commanded. And if so much as a beast touched
the mountain, it shall be stoned, shall be stoned, or thrust through
with a dart. And so terrible was the sight
that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake. That's what the
man of God said. We see in verse 21 of Hebrews
chapter 12. But ye are come unto Mount Zion,
and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to
an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church
of the firstborn, that's Christ, which are written in heaven and
to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made
perfect. Look at that, just men made perfect, how? By God and
by God alone. The only way we can be called,
we men and women in Christ can be called just is because we're
in Christ. That's the only reason. Outside
of Christ, outside of Christ, there's no hope. And that's why
we tell sinners to flee to Christ, because he's the only hope. He's
the only hope for a sinner. He's the only hope for anyone.
Outside of Christ, there's no hope, but there's condemnation
and there's damnation. There's no hope outside of Him
other than that. But in Christ, oh, what a hope we have, beloved. What a hope we have. The forgiveness
of all our sins. Our sins are bought and paid
for. Think of that. Those outside of Christ who perish
in their sins, their sins aren't bought and paid for. They're
paid for their sins for eternity. And they're never paid enough.
You ever think of that? My, oh, my. My, oh, my. But we have all our sins paid
for. We are purchased by the blood
of the Lamb. By the blood of the Lamb. We
are come unto Mount Zion and unto the city of the living God.
the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels,
to the General Assembly and Church of the Firstborn, which are written
in heaven." Well, in the Lamb's Book of Life, aren't they? And
our names weren't written in the Lamb's Book of Life, like
some people slyly say, oh, the moment you profess Christ, your
name was written in the Lamb's Book of Life. No, it wasn't.
Blessed be God, my name's been written in the Lamb's Book of
Life for eternity. And if you're a believer, it's so with you.
And that's what makes us marvel too. No wonder we praise God.
No wonder we just sing praises to our great God. No wonder.
How can you not? How can we not rejoice in the
gospel? How can we not? It's glorious. And then it says, and to Jesus,
that's who we came to, the mediator of the new covenant, the mediator
of the new covenant. into the blood of sprinkling,
his blood. Life of the flesh is in the blood. He gave his
life for his people. Look at that. That's speaking better
things than that of Abel. Why does it speak better things
than that of Abel? Because Abel, when he offered that sacrifice,
it could never take away sin. But it pictured the one who's
coming. It pictured the Lord Jesus Christ, who would shed
his blood on Calvary's cross for the redemption of his people.
His blood is so much more, so much better, better things than
that of Abel. And we also come to the one mediator,
don't we? When I was in Catholicism, they
used to tell us, go to the priest. He's the mediator between God
and you. Well, I found out that I was
alive from the pit of hell. Scripture declares there is only
one mediator between God and man, and that's the man Christ
Jesus. And you know why there's only
one meteor between God and man? Because he's God and man at the
same time. And because God ordained it to
be so. You see, only God could forgive the sins that we did
against him and against his holy law, right? But God cannot die. So Christ became a man that he
could die. And what did he do? The sinless,
spotless Lamb of God died in the room and place of His people,
shedding His blood, giving His life for His people. And there's only one mediator
between God and man. There's only one who could satisfy
the justice of God and the law of God. And that's God Himself. And God became a man. and lived
a perfect life, sinless life, in our room and place. And he
had set his face like a flint to Jerusalem. And how long has
he had his face set like a flint to Jerusalem? For eternity, beloved. You ever think of that? He's
a lamb slain from the foundation of the world. He was awaiting
that time when he would come into this world. and redeem his
bride whom he's loved with an everlasting love. That's why he came here, the
scriptures declare. To save his people from their
sins, to save sinners. Paul says, of whom I'm chief.
And every believer says, no, I'm chief too, Paul. Oh, my beloved. So how can we not praise our
great God? Knowing that our great God, Jehovah,
will not hold his peace or rest until the work that he has purposed
to be done, which is the salvation of the church, will be done in
a way that he will be heard. He will be heard. The gospel
will go forth, and the gospel will triumph by the power of
the Holy Spirit of God. And our great God does this through
the preaching of his word, beloved. The only way the voice of the
Lord is heard is through the preaching of the gospel. This was bought for so clearly
in the book of Thessalonians, which we are studying on Wednesday
nights. In chapter two, verse 13, the scripture declares this.
For this cause also thank we God without ceasing because when
you receive the word of God, which you heard of us, you received
it not as the word of man, but as it is in truth, the word of
God. So they received it as God was talking to them. Henry Mahan
said this, I read this this week and man, it just, he said, if you do not receive
the words of a man sent by God, you are not receiving the words
of Christ. And we see that brought forth
here. For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because
when you received the word of God which you heard of us, you
received it not as the word of man, not as Paul's words or Silas'
words or Timothy's words, but as it is in truth, the word of
God, which effectively worketh also in you that believe. Paul penned this to the Corinthians.
For after that the wisdom of God For after that, in the wisdom
of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. And we know that faith comes
by hearing the word of God, doesn't it? That's clear in the scriptures.
Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And the gospel
is sovereignly appointed the sovereignly appointed means by
which God brings his people to Christ. To Christ. The gospel, again, is the sovereign
appointed means by which the Lord, Jehovah, by which his remnant
of people is born again by the power of God, the Holy Spirit.
That's what he uses. He uses the preaching of the
gospel. He doesn't use man's wisdom, does he? Nope. He uses the foolishness of preaching.
The foolishness of, and that's what men call foolishness. But
for the born again believer, what do we do? We rejoice, don't
we? Praise God that you've appointed
me, Lord, to hear the words, your words from the scripture.
Praise God that you've given me a place to come to and hear
those words preached and proclaimed. Hallelujah, Lord. Praise God
you opened my ears. Because if you had left me to
myself, I would not have known anything. And even still, left
to ourselves, we won't know anything unless the God, the Holy Spirit
illuminates the scripture, right? He has to do it, beloved. I heard
David Pledger, I was listening to Brother David Pledger this
week, Lunch went back home for lunch and Vicki and I turned
on a sermon by David and I'd heard a lot of him, a lot of
good things about him from, from, uh, Drew Dietz. And so I turned
it on. I was listening to him and he
said, we who preach the gospel, we preach the report that's in
the scriptures and we don't even have to explain it. Isaiah said,
who has believed our what report? See, we're just reporters. We
report what the Word says. And God the Holy Spirit, amazingly,
takes those words from these clay pots of men who are but
sinners, saved by the grace of God, and He uses those words
to build up His people. It's amazing. It's absolutely
incredible, beloved. And that's His sovereignly appointed
means. That's what he does. Let's read
verse 1 again. For Zion's sake will I not hold
my peace. For Jerusalem's sake I will not
rest until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness
and the salvation thereof is a lamp that burneth. Now note
the word until here. Note these words here. For Zion's
sake will I not hold my peace. and for Jerusalem's sake I will
not rest until, note that little word there, until the righteousness
thereof go forth as brightness and the salvation thereof is
a lamp that burneth. Note that little word until.
After the Lord proclaims that he will not hold his peace and
that he will not rest for Jerusalem's sake, which is the church, we
see the reason being brought forth, why he will not do those
things. or no, sorry, why he will continue
to do those things. With a little word, until. Until
the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness and the salvation
thereof is a lamp that burneth. This speaks to the fact, beloved,
that the preaching of the gospel will be employed on this earth
until a specific goal is reached. That's what's being brought forth
here. That the gospel will be preached until a specific goal
is reached. And we know what that is. We
know that the gospel will be proclaimed until the very last
sheep of God, chosen in the everlasting covenant, is born again by the
Holy Spirit of God, and then it's all over, beloved. It's
all over. So God will not rest. He will
not hold his peace. He will not be silent until all
those who he gave to Christ in eternity are saved. And the gospel
will go forth until that appointed time when the last sheep of God
again is born again of the Holy Spirit of God. And here's the
gospel. My, what comfort for God's people. Until that goal is reached, the
gathering in of all whom Christ died for, of all who the Father
gave him, until that gathering in of all those he shed his precious
blood for, until then, the gospel will go forth in power, beloved,
and God will not be silent, and God will not rest until this
takes place. My Elohim will not be silent, beloved.
He will not be silent. He will send his preachers to
proclaim the gospel where he pleased to send them, and they
will trumpet the gospel, beloved, by the grace of God and by the
mercy of God, and that will continue until the last sheep is saved. And look at that, God will not
rest, and he will not hold his peace until that occurs. And
that righteousness is the righteousness of Christ, beloved. Which we
know, last week we looked at, is revealed through the preaching
of the gospel. Oh my. Now let's read verse two, it
says, and the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness. all kings
thy glory and thou shall be called by a new name which the mouth
of the Lord shall name." Look at this, and keep this in mind
in verse 1 again, the success of the gospel going forth, the
righteousness of the church, which is the righteousness of
Christ, that which is only revealed through the gospel, and that
being the only righteousness that God will accept, And that
is imputed to the believer by the Holy Spirit of God. And then
in verse 1, we see that the Lord will not rest. The gospel will
go forth like a brightness. That's what the lamp means, like
a lamp. The brightness there is it goes
forth like a lamp. We see that in the latter part,
that burneth. Oh my. And that occurs by the
God's preachers sent by God declaring the person and work of Christ
as he is in the scripture. Again, Isaiah said, who hath
believed our report? Who hath believed our report?
To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? Well, we know the answer
to that, don't we? All those who are born again
by the Holy Spirit of God will believe the report of God. All
those others will perish in their sins and go into a Christless
eternity. And it's only the mercy and the
grace of God that we who are his people are included in that
number who will believe the report by the grace and mercy of God. See, never forget where you came
from. Never forget the pit that God dragged you out of. Sister Bonnie once told me about
Henry Mahan saying, never forget that you were like a maggot on
the dunghill, and the Lord came down and picked you up and plucked
you off that. What a picture, eh? What a picture. Never forget where the Lord took
you from. Never, ever forget that. Scripture declares this,
thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. It
lights our way, doesn't it? The word of God lights our way. Oh my. So who is set forth when
the gospel is preached? Who goes forth conquering the
hearts and souls of his lost sheep? Well, it's the Lord Jesus
Christ, isn't it? The one spoken of in verse one,
until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness. That's
his righteousness, beloved. In verse two, let's look at that
again. And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all
kings thy glory, and thou shalt be called by a new name, which
the mouth of the Lord shall name. Now we see in the second verse
that it declares that the Gentiles are part of the chosen remnant,
and they will see the glory and righteousness of God, which is
spoken of in verse one. Now all of us by nature, every
son of Adam and every daughter of Adam, by nature have the gospel
hid to us. Hid to us. Why? Well, because we come into this
world dead in trespasses and sins. So the gospel in our natural
state is hid from every one of us. And it takes the life-giving
power of God the Holy Spirit, again who is God Almighty, Elohim,
to reveal the wondrous gospel of salvation in Christ alone
to us. I was thinking about this this
morning, and how natural man denies their sinnership. Natural
man denies their sinship. When I was dead in trespasses
and sins, and when you were dead in trespasses and sins, if somebody
called you a sinner, you probably got offended. You probably got offended. If
some religious person came up to you and called you a sinner,
oh my. You know, because we don't like having exposed to ourselves
our natural state. And by God's grace and mercy,
he brought us to a place where we heard the gospel. We may have
even been sitting in the gospel church for years and not hearing
anything. I know some of you have. You told me the testimony of
how you sat in the gospel preaching church and didn't hear anything
at all until one day the Lord opened your ears. And you heard
the voice of the shepherd calling your name. Calling your name. Revealing to you what? Your sinnership. Right? Isn't that what happened?
That's what happened to me. I know that's what happened to
everybody else I talked to who's born again. He reveals to us our sinnership. He reveals to us what we are
before him. And this is all done by the Holy
Spirit of God. The preacher's just proclaiming
the report, beloved. And the Holy Spirit takes those
words, and he uses those words to convict the sinner, to show
them their sinnership. And then we earn it, don't we?
We're like that publican, and we say, God, be merciful to me,
the sinner. We may have been like that publican,
Or that Pharisee, I thank God I'm not like them. Piece of dirt on my shoe. And if we were like that, and
the Lord saves us, now we're the publican. Oh my Lord, have
mercy on me. And do we not ever stop saying
that? If the Lord should mark iniquity,
I'm gonna ask you this to examine your hearts. If the Lord should
mark iniquity, who should stand? If the Lord should mark your
iniquity, would you stand? Well, we all
know the answer with that, right? But praise God, the verse that
follows that says there's forgiveness with the Lord. Hallelujah. There's forgiveness with the
Lord, beloved. in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. And look at this verse, it says,
the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and that's by faith, beloved,
and all the kings thy glory, and thou shalt be called by a
new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name. So we see
here again that in the second verse, it declares that the Gentiles
are part of the chosen remnant, and they will see the glory and
the righteousness of Elohim. and all of us again by nature
are dead, the gospel's head to us. And so we see this mighty
truth here brought forth that God Almighty will reveal the
wonderful gospel of salvation in Christ alone to his people. Again, the ones who will believe
the report are the ones who were chosen in Christ before the foundation
of the world and are the ones who Christ went to the cross
and shed his precious blood for. and they will be born again.
We see that in verse one, that that gospel will go forth and
it will accomplish whatever God has purposed it to accomplish.
And God will not rest until this is accomplished. So we see here, knowing that
the church is comprised of chosen sinners who are both Jew and
Gentile, We see in this verse, in verse two, that the Gentiles
shall see thy righteousness, shall see Christ, beloved. They'll
see Christ. And now we know this is not all
Gentiles. We know that. We know that the gospel's not
revealed to all Gentiles, just like the gospel's not revealed
to all Jews. But the gospel is revealed to
those who God has commanded his light to shine out of darkness.
See, it's God who's done that. It's God who's done that. shine
out of darkness, giving them knowledge of the glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ. That's what we should be rejoicing
about, shouldn't we? Now that's something to rejoice about. That's
something for us to think about this week and meditate upon this
week. That really is. That God himself, Elohim, the
strong and mighty one, Jehovah, has commanded the light to shine
in the darkness. And that was our natural state,
beloved. In the darkness, and that He has given us knowledge
of Himself. That's something to rejoice in,
isn't it? And I never get old for a believer. You can keep the lamp burning
for a long time on that truth, can't you? Because We can read chapters
and chapters and chapters and not get anything out of the scriptures
unless the Holy Spirit illuminates it. And unless He gives us the
knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And it is Christ and Christ alone,
again, who is God's righteousness. It is He who the chosen Gentiles
of God shall see, just as the chosen Jews will see. And both
Jew and Gentile comprise the body of Christ, all having been
born again by the Holy Spirit of God. So we see here that those
who the Lord saves are said to be given a new name. In Revelation
chapter two, verse 17, the scriptures declare, he that hath an ear,
let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. To him
that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, that's
Christ, and will give him a white stone and in the stone a name
written, which no man knoweth, saving he that receiveth it."
And then in Revelation chapter 3, and I want you to turn to
Jeremiah while I'm reading this in Revelation. I want you to
turn to Jeremiah while I'm reading this, Jeremiah 23. Revelation
chapter 3, the scripture declares, him that overcometh will I make
a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more
out, and I will write upon him the name of my God, the name
of my God, the name of my God, in the name of the city of God,
which is New Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from
my God, and I will write upon him my new name. Now look at
what it says in Jeremiah chapter 23, and then put your finger
in Jeremiah chapter 33. Now that verse I just read there,
It said, I will write upon him the name of God. I'll write upon
him. I'll write upon my people in
the name of God. That's what God's saying. Look at this, what
these scriptures declare. Jeremiah 23 verse five. And six, behold, the days cometh,
saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous branch
and a king, and this is speaking of Christ, shall reign and prosper
and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In his
days, Judah shall be saved. Oh, my. All of God's people will
be saved and Israel shall dwell in safety. Why? Because he that
never slumbers or sleeps is watching over them, beloved. Right? Oh, my. And the king shall reign
and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.
In his days, Judas shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely.
And this is his name, whereby he shall be called the Lord our
righteousness." Now, that's speaking to Christ, isn't it? Now, turn
over to Jeremiah chapter 33. Look what scripture took us.
See, this is why we always have to measure scripture with scripture,
beloved. We always have to. Now, look at this. Now, remember
in those verses there in Jeremiah, it said that Judas shall be saved,
right? In Jerusalem, again, that's a
picture of the church. Look at this. Jeremiah 33, 16.
Remember this, too. When a wife marries her husband,
she takes upon the name of the husband. That's in most circumstances,
right? It's changed a little bit in
modern days now, but in the old days, there was never anything
like that, right? Well, it may have happened one
or two times or a few times, but very, very little. Very little. My mom used to sign her name
Mrs. J. Boyd. She took the name of
my dad, my dad's last name, when they were married. You know that
we, as the bride of Christ, we take the bridegroom's name upon
us. Look at this, Jeremiah 33, 16.
In those days shall Judah be saved. So all God's people in
Jerusalem, that's another name for the church, shall dwell safely.
In the name of the Lord, wherewith she shall be called? The Lord,
our righteousness. The Lord, our righteousness.
She shall be called the Lord, our righteousness. Oh my, but now there's a difference
though, isn't there? In the first one, it's all capitalized.
Jeremiah 33, 16. In those days shall Judah be
saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely, and this is the name
wherewith she shall be called, the Lord our righteousness. And then look back again at Jeremiah
23. It's all capitalized because
he is the Lord our righteousness. We just take his name. We're
the bride, but he is the king. Oh my, and what are we clothed
in? What are we clothed in, beloved? Oh, we're clothed in the righteousness
of Christ. In this verse 16 of Jeremiah 33, this is speaking
of the elect of God, beloved, the bride of Christ. All the
saints, both Old and New Testament, who are the bride of Christ,
we've taken His name, beloved. And we've taken His name by His
mercy and by His grace. Oh my. You know what another
name for our Lord is? Jehovah Shammah, which means
the Lord is there. His presence is among his church,
beloved, among his people at all times in a very remarkable
manner. In Ezekiel 48.35, the scripture
declares, it was round about 18,000 measures in the name of
the city of From that day shall be the Lord is there, Jehovah
Shema. So he is amidst his bride. He's
ever with his bride, beloved. He's ever with his bride, always,
always. Never forget this. In dark times,
beloved, as we go through in this world, in times of joy,
the Lord is ever with you. He's ever beside you. He'll not
leave you. If you're one of his people,
if you're one of his born-again, blood-washed people, he will
never, ever, ever leave you. And the bride is united to the
bridegroom. Listen to what John Gill says, brings forth on this
wonderful union between the bride of Christ and our great Savior.
He says, Jehovah, our righteousness, this being most clearly revealed
as before observed, Christ, to whom she, the bride, is closely
united and so nearly allied as to have his name her. Oh my. So the bride of Christ
again is clothed in the perfect spotless righteousness of Christ
and God delights in his bride. Look at verse 3 of Isaiah 62. 3. Thou shalt also be a crown
of glory in the hand of the Lord and a royal diadem in the hand
of thy God. Now here is the balm of Gilead
for the believer. To see these words and to know
this is what we are to our great God. We see his eternal love
for those he has chosen in Christ on full display here. Look at
this. Thou shall also be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord
and a royal diadem in the hand of God. Now some may ask, what
is a diadem? A diadem is a headpiece symbolizing
royalty or authority. It's usually worn by a king or
queen. Another word for diadem is crown. Moses' brother Aaron was chosen
by God as the first high priest and God commanded specific garments
for the priest to wear while serving in his temple. Among
those garments for the high priest was a turban topped with a holy
crown or diadem. And this diadem symbolized Aaron's
unique position as spokesman for the Most High. Therefore,
Israel was to obey the words of Aaron and Moses as though
obeying God himself. Now we see here in verse 3 that
the Lord says to his people, he says this, thou shalt also
be a crown of glory, which means beauty and splendor in the Hebrew. Isn't that amazing? Glory there
means beauty and splendor in the Hebrew. Thou shalt also be
a crown of beauty and splendor, oh my, in the hand of the Lord,
and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God. Beloved God, there
is a coming day when Christ will present his bride, sinless and
spotless, to the Father. And God will display his redeemed
people as a king would display a splendid crown. That's what
this is bringing forth. Isn't that amazing? We who are
sinners saved by the grace of God. Oh, my. And this is only a work of God,
isn't it? Nothing we could do on our own. This is a mighty
work of God, beloved. And that's why God gets all the
honor, the glory, and the praise, beloved, from his people. And
we will be displayed as trophies of God's grace for eternity. all because of his mercy and
all because of his grace. Every born-again, blood-washed
saint of God will be displayed as a trophy of God's grace. And
the church is called a holy nation in the royal priesthood. Why?
Because God's made it so. Right? He's the one who's made
it so. Oh, my. All those who are redeemed by
the precious blood of the Lamb would be made kings and priests
unto God. And kings and priests also reveal
the union of Christ and his church. As I mentioned earlier in the
study, our Lord is King of kings and Lord of lords. He's a great
high priest, and he and his church are one. She is bone of his bone
and flesh of his flesh, and will one day be presented to the Father,
accepted in Christ. redeemed by his precious, precious
blood, which he shed on Galilee. And remember this, conform to
the image of the Son. How so? Or be sinless in glory. We will not be plagued by this
sinful body of flesh anymore, will we? Oh, what a day that'll be. What
a day that'll be, beloved. The lyrics of the hymn, All Hail
the Power of Jesus' Name, use the word diadem in a way that
helps us grasp its full meaning within this verse. The first
verse says, All hail the power of Jesus' name. Let angels' prostate
fall. Bring forth the royal diadem
and crown him Lord of all. Bring forth the royal diadem
and crown him Lord of all, that's what we are to God. We're a royal
diadem, beloved. And it cost God to have that
crown, didn't it? The Word of God, the second person
of the Trinity became man, dwelt among us, and died for us, for
His people. Now look at verse four, look
at this. Thou shalt no more be turned forsaken, neither shall
thy land be called desolate, but thou shalt be called Hephaziahba,
and thy land, for the Lord delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be
married. Now the born-again, blood-washed
saint of God is not what he or she will be, are we? And we're
not what we want to be right now. But praise God, there'll
be a day when we will be with Christ and we will be sinless. We see that the sinner who has
been saved by the grace and mercy of God is a new creature in Christ,
aren't we? We were once considered desolate and forsaken. By all
appearance, this was certainly our case. People may have said of us, Well,
I don't know if that person will ever be saved. But a person who
truly knows Christ says, if God wills that person to be saved,
they will be saved. If he's willed them to be saved,
because he saved me. And I know what I am. I was once
called forsaken and desolate. Oh my. And not unknowing, Unknowing to we who are God's
people in our natural state of being dead spiritually, our great
God had chosen us in eternity. We had no clue, did we? Chosen
in Christ unto salvation before the world began. And as his gospel
permeates the earth as it goes forth, this church will be seen
by the power of God and by the glory of God in their glorious
relationship with Christ, which unknowing to them they had with
him from eternity. And we see that the sinner who's
been saved by the mercy and grace of God was once considered as
desolate and forsaken. And by all appearance, again,
this was certainly our case in our natural state. But as we looked at earlier,
the church is the bride of Christ. And we've seen in verse three
that the bridegroom, our great God, the word of God, the Lord
Jesus Christ, who became flesh to purchase us with the shedding
of his own precious blood that he delights in us. Thou shall also be a crown of
glory in the hand of the Lord and a royal diadem in the hand
of thy God. Thou shall no more be termed
forsaken, neither shall thy land any more be termed desolate.
Oh my. And in the latter part of that
verse, for the Lord delighteth in thee and thy land shall be
married. My goodness. Turn, if you would,
to Isaiah chapter 49. Isaiah chapter 49. We'll read verses 13 to 16. Look at this. Look at these wonderful
words. What words of comfort we have
here before us. We who are the people of God. Sing, O heavens, and be joyful,
verse 13. Sing, O heavens, and be joyful,
O earth, and break forth into singing. O mountains, for the
Lord hath comforted his people, and will have mercy upon his
afflicted. But Zion, that's the church, said, the Lord hath forsaken
me, and my Lord hath forgotten me. Can a woman forget her suckling
child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her
womb? Yea, they may forget, yet Will I not forget thee? And then
look at this next verse. Behold, I have graven thee upon
the palms of my hand. Thy walls are continually before
me. We are ever before the Lord. We are ever before the Lord,
beloved. And so we see, let's go back
to Isaiah 62, verse 4. Thou shalt no more be termed
forsaken, neither shall thy land any more be termed Desolate.
Zion was once called forsaken. In Hebrew, this means to leave,
loose, or forsake. And she's also called desolate,
which in Hebrew means devastation, waste, destruction, desolation. So what a picture we have here
before us of our natural state. That's a picture of us in our
natural state when we're born into this world We came into
this world dead in trespasses and sins. Beloved, we fell when
Adam fell. We fell in him. And so we come
into this world dead in trespasses and sins. But do not despair,
beloved of God. Do not despair, beloved of God.
Look at the comforting balm of Gilead before us in this very
verse. Zion, the church of the living God, the called-out ones,
born again by the Holy Spirit of God, shall be called Haphzibah and Beulah. The word hafzibah
in Hebrew means this. Listen to this. Let this sink
into your soul. It means, my delight is in her. Called forsaken and desolate,
and then called after we're born again by the Holy Spirit of God.
And we know this is true. God's always delighted in us,
right? But look at this. Oh, my delight is in her. That's
what that word means. And then the word beulah in Hebrew
means this, listen to this, to marry, to rule over. Isn't that
incredible? Right there in that very verse,
God tells us that we who are his people, we who are born again
by the Holy Spirit of God, washed in his precious blood, that he
delights in us, his delight is in us, and that the beulah means
to marry, rule over, and possess, to own. We are his. We are his. We'll see that tonight when we
look at a message tonight in Jeremiah. Oh my, we are his. What a picture we have here in
these two words. Our great savior, the Lord Jesus
Christ delights in his bride, and here are the words of the
bridegroom in Song of Solomon. This is only to God's people.
He says, how fair and how pleasant art thou, O love for delights. Oh my. So let this precious truth
comfort your souls this week. Turn, if you would, one more
scripture and then we're closed. Isaiah chapter 54. Isaiah chapter
54. So let these precious truths
we've looked at this morning, let them comfort your soul this
week, beloved. And I pray God the Holy Spirit
would make it so. Our great God, our maker, is
our husband. And we are the bride, we who
are the people of God are the bride of Christ. And what is
his name, O beloved of God? Well, his name is the Lord of
Hosts. Look at this, Isaiah 54, verses five to seven. For thy
maker is thine husband. Look at that. Exactly what we
were just talking about. For thy maker is thy husband.
The Lord of Hosts is his name. That's his name, beloved. He's
the Lord of Hosts. He's a sovereign, almighty God.
And thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. That's our Lord Jesus
Christ, who's God incarnated in the flesh, who came here and
bled and died in our place. The God of the whole earth shall
he be called. For the Lord hath called thee
as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth,
when thou wast refused, saith thy God. For a small moment have
I forsaken thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee. Oh
my. And he's gathered us, hasn't
he? He's gathered us, beloved, through the preaching of the
gospel by the Holy Spirit of God at that exact time of love
which was appointed for every one of God's saints. Glory be
to God. Praise His mighty name. Heavenly
Father, we thank Thee for the opportunity that we've had to
come before Thee. We pray, O Lord, that if it be
your will, that you would let us gather together in the flesh. O Lord, we lift it up to you.
We, as your people, we so desire to see one another, to be in
fellowship with one another, to rejoice with one another,
to cry with one another. O Lord, we just know that our
lives and that the time of this all being over that we're facing
right now is in thy hands. So we just lift it up to Thee,
O Lord. We pray that during this time that You would be glorified
in our lives, that You'd be glorified in the things that we say. Lord, let us remember these precious
truths and never let us forget the pit that we were in, the
pit that You pulled us from, O Lord, and You've done it. We couldn't do it by ourselves
and we couldn't do it for anyone else, oh Lord. But you've done
it for us, we who are your people. And we will eternally be grateful.
Let us praise thy mighty name while we are here upon this earth
with joyful hearts, in Jesus' name, amen.