Well, please open your Bibles
to Isaiah in the 49th chapter. Unless anyone should be mistaken,
the campus church is just like Sovereign Grace Baptist Church
here in Jacksonville. It's not a massive university
ministry. Campus West is a locality, a
bit like Onslow County. It's just a place in Wellingdon
City. That's why the church is called
what it is. And thankfully, there's a people there whom Jesus Christ
has loved and for whom he came into the world and whom he's
called to himself. And we rejoice in that. And it
is a tremendous privilege to preach the gospel, knowing that
that people will be called through those glad and glorious tidings
of their Redeemer. And those tidings and that redeemer
are found in every part of scripture. Men who take it upon themselves
to claim to be preachers find many things in the word of God. Enough to assure their own destruction
and the just condemnation of all that hear them and heed them.
We look for the one thing that is needful on every page. in every line. We look for the
one who is needful, for we know he is there. For all the scriptures
he said speak of me. We look for Christ. And here
he is again this evening, openly displayed, wonderfully promised,
powerfully at work, devotedly rescuing the people whom the
Lord has given him, the family that he has adopted. And we have
before us here in verse 7 through to verse 21, we have wonderful
things, wonderful promises. We have an election, the first
and foremost election of which our own election is a consequence.
And it is the election of Christ, his great commission. to be the
Redeemer, a people in him yet unborn, yet uncreated, chosen. And he is chosen to be their
Redeemer. But he's not only chosen to be
their Redeemer, we don't only have his commission here. We have the covenant that is
in him. For He is the covenant that is given to that people.
He doesn't just bring a covenant. He doesn't just make a covenant.
The Scriptures say, I will give you as a covenant to the people. It is the covenant that is made
in Him, in His blood, in His body, in His person, in His life,
in His sacrifice, in His agreement. with the Heavenly Father, to
be the Redeemer, the Ransomer, and the one in whom His people
will be found safe for all eternity. He's given a great covenant.
And the consequence of that is the tremendous care, the tremendous
care, the love that is above every love, the tremendous care
that He has for those whom He has loved with an everlasting
love. He provides for them wonderfully, constantly, unchangingly, compassionately. And that is found for us there
from verse 9 and 10 right through to the end of the chapter. It
is what we need to see. It is what the Lord needs to
reveal to each of our hearts. It is the true consolation of
His people. to see this Christ, to be reminded
again and again of all that He has done and all that He is doing,
all that He is. We are, what does the hymn writer
say, prone to wander. Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave
the God I love. And in every age, those who are
that people of grace, that remnant people, even here in the days
of ancient Israel, they were not all of Israel that were of
Israel, but the children of the promise. They were God's true
children. And here, this remnant people
in a time of great upheaval, in a time of tremendous idolatry,
they were tempted. They said, the Lord has forsaken
me and my Lord has forgotten me. Have you ever been tempted? I have to confess to you, I don't
think a week goes by that I don't think in these terms over some
matter, over some matter. But the Lord said, that's not
the way it is. He says, I will never leave you.
No, never forsake you. He has pledged himself at the
cost of himself to ensure that we are never forsaken. Once we
were a forsaken people, once we were under terrible and damning
judgment, for we were in Adam But in the eternal counsels,
in the wonderful and unconditional love of God, we became His people. His people. And we're found in
the second Adam. We're found as the fruit of a
new creation that can never be undone. We're found as a chosen
generation, a royal priesthood, His own particular people. And so, he says to us in the
strongest terms, he appeals to something that is undeniable. He appeals to the strongest bond
of nature. When we're tempted to say, the
Lord has forgotten me, the Lord has forsaken me. When we're tempted
as a church, so small, as people, so scattered, as preachers, so
much often parted from one another. He says, can a woman forget her
nursing child? I wonder, Miss Madeline, did you
ever forget Anthony and Timmy there when they were little ones
in your arms? I don't think you would have.
I can't think that my mother would have forgotten me. But the Lord tells us that even
the strongest bond The bond between a mother and a nursing child,
that bond is subject to fallen humanity. That love is subject
to the same ruinous capacity that sin brings. Can a woman
forget her nursing child and not have compassion on the son
of her womb? Well, we would say, no, that would be unnatural.
The Lord tells us the truth. Yes. Yes. Surely they may forget. Surely
they may forget. Yet I will not forget you. I
will not forget you. See, I have inscribed you on
the palms of my hands. It's the most remarkable thing,
is it not, that the Son of God and the Son of Man that the eternal
God made flesh, even in His resurrection glory, even having risen from
the dead and appearing to His disciples in the midst of their
fear. It's but four days since they
last saw Him. They've heard the news. He has
risen, just as He promised, and yet they're shut inside for fear. Fear of the religious people
who slew their Master. They're shut inside for fear
of the Jews. And he appears in the midst of
them and he says, peace, peace be unto you. He appears in the
midst of them just as one of them is saying, unless I see
the holes in his hands, unless I put my fist into his side,
I will not believe that he is risen. And he says, Thomas, Thomas,
even now he bears the marks. of his great sacrifice. And here,
look, 800 years before he came into the world, he speaks of
those marks. What do they bespeak? His people. His people. Just as the high priest under
that old law wore the people upon his heart and upon his shoulders,
the names, he wears this upon the palms of his hands, graven
there. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon Him. It pleased the Lord to bruise
Him. He has put Him to grief. And
He says, this, this is the mark of my remembrance of you. This
is the proof that I will never leave you, no, never forsake
you. This is the encouragement that
I would bring to you. It is myself and what I have
borne and you are graven upon my hands. Why should we be there?
Have we been good enough? Have we loved him enough now
to deserve a place there? Have we worked hard enough? Have
we been more sensible than others, more diligent in Sunday school?
Were we brought up the right way? No. who once were not a people, who
once did not know mercy, have now received mercy, who were
sinners, separated from God, dead in trespasses and sins,
alienated from God by wicked works. You, you, because of His
great love for which He loved you, sent His Son into the world. You see, there are children here
of great privilege in this passage. It's another temptation to think
the Lord has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me. Because
there are children that are ours, children by nature, children
by flesh and blood. The bond, you see, that he has
mentioned in verse 15. Can a woman forget her nursing
child? He continues to refer to that bond. We become discouraged. Of course, I think we do, although
we wouldn't claim it for ourselves. We sometimes think that because
of the position of privilege that our children have had, they've
heard the gospel. Millions have never heard the
gospel, and the Lord shall justly destroy them forever in the second
death, and they shall suffer perpetually. No one has a right
to the gospel. God doesn't have to bring the
gospel to anyone, and yet he brings it to our children. the
children of our flesh and blood, the children of our pilgrimage.
And like this woman here, this city of God that is pictured,
she's mourning for her desolate places. She's mourning for the
land of her destruction. She's mourning for the children
she's lost in, in verse 20. You've lost the others. You've
lost the others. Verse 21, she says, since I have
lost my children and am desolate. That's her appraisal of herself.
She's barren. Isaiah 54, barren. And her children have perished. I've never met a gospel preacher
who's not overwhelmed with concern for his children. I've met some very hard and strange
people who seem to think that somehow a gospel preacher's children
are meant to be less sinful. Somehow they're meant to be different
to other people's children. Somehow it should be that they
should become believing people by virtue of the fact that they're
born into his family. Sometimes we measure God's blessing
by all the wrong instruments. There are people who think that
if your children do not prove to be chosen, elect, precious,
brought to faith by the power and perfect and wonderful call
of God, that it is somehow an evidence that he has withdrawn
his hand of blessing. But he tells us this, that we
will be tempted to mourn over those children of our barrenness,
those children that have only inherited the first Adam in us
and have not proven to be part of that inheritance that the
Lord has given his son. It's a great grief, is it not,
to see them go astray from the womb, God have mercy on our children
may they prove to be the heirs of an everlasting covenant may
he have mercy because he has looked upon them in mercy from
time eternal and therefore he's come come for them but you see
the church's true children are not the children of flesh and
blood they are not the children of the promise The family in
which to rejoice, the children in which to rejoice, the antidote
to feeling that we're forgotten and forsaken and ruined and barren
is to look around, is to rejoice that the Lord has children, that
He's been able to raise up from the stones children to Abraham,
that He has given Christ a people and there'll be children On that
great and glorious day, when every one of those elect sinners
stands before the living God, on the great and glorious day
of the Lord, and time is no more, and a new heavens and a new earth
have been created wherein righteousness dwells, and resurrection unto
life has taken place, we will look around and say, whose children are these? Where did they come from? The
children that you will have after you have lost the others will
say again in your ears, this place is too small for me. Give
me a place where I may dwell. Then you will say in your heart,
who has begotten these for me since I have lost my children
and am desolate, a captive and wandering to and fro? And who
has brought these up? There was I left alone. But these,
where were they? We're like Elijah in the cave,
aren't we? Only I am left. The Lord says
no. I have reserved unto myself yet
seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to bow or kissed the
idol's lips. He's always reserved such a glorious
people to himself. They're more than we can ever
number. They're more than we imagine. And so there's a tremendous reason
to look, to look at the encouragement that is here because I've cheated
a bit, I've gone to the end and now we need to go back to the
beginning. I've dealt with what I guess tempts us most. to doubt the love of Christ.
It's a fleshly and a terrible thing. If anything should ever
prove to us that we're vessels of mercy, that we're debtors
to mercy alone, it's our response in our flesh, it's our misdoubting,
it's our temptation even having seen Christ freely offered, freely
displayed that we still question the love of God. It's all of
grace or there is no grace. It's all of that merciful and
eternal love or we've never known love. It's all of the one who
has come and has been commissioned for us. There's much talk today
of a great commission and there is a great commission to go into
all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. But
there's a greater commission. That commission is only a consequence
of a greater commission and is the one before us now. An end
to every temptation to misdoubt the Lord. An end to every temptation
to look upon the barren children of our womb and forget that on
that great and glorious day Christ shall say, here am I and the
children thou hast given me. Thus says the Lord, the Redeemer
of Israel, their Holy One, to Him whom man despises, to Him
whom the nation abhors, to the servant of rulers kings shall
see and arise. Princes also shall worship because
of the Lord who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, and He
has chosen you. This is a song of Christ. This
is a song to Christ. Here He is in all His glory. Here is the Father in a great
covenant of grace, entrusting to the Son this tremendous commission
to redeem a people. This great God, the Lord, the
I am that I am, I will be what I will be, I will do what I will
do, the Redeemer of Israel, the Holy One, has entrusted a people in a great
commission to the one whom man despises. The one whom man despises. He is despised and rejected of
men. Isaiah goes on to say this as greater revelation. By nature,
Christ is despicable. The true Christ of Scripture,
rather than being someone that people clap their hands over
and joyfully skip towards, He's despised. Man, that's a general,
universal statement. Man by nature, man by natural
affection, natural apprehension, by careful consideration. When
the true Christ is preached, despise Him, despise Him. We will not have this man to
rule over us. To him whom the nation, whom
the nation abhors. Kings of the earth and the rulers
set themselves together, we see it in Psalm 2. Every nation abhors
Christ. Every nation. Whether it's the
United States of America, or the United States of Europe,
or the isolated independent states of Australia, every nation abhors
Christ. Psalm 2 tells us that. It says that the kings of the
earth and the rulers have set themselves together. The people
plot a futile thing, the nations rage. The rulers take counsel
together against the Lord and against His Christ. That's how Peter quotes it in
the book of Acts, because that word anointed is the word in
Hebrew for Christ, the word for the Messiah. So, any Christ whom the nations
love, It's not the Christ of Scripture. It's not the Christ
of Scripture. Any Christ who man in nature
and in sin just wants to be with is not the Christ of Scripture.
And you generally find he's not the Christ who's able to say
to the uttermost. He's the Christ who has to be
helped because that's why he's not despised. Because he's the
one who needs us. He's the one who needs us. And
that makes us feel good. Because we believe we are good. To the servant of rulers. What
a way to describe the Messiah. We saw last night, he's the King
of Kings. He's the Lord of Lords, the ruler
over all the kings of the earth. And what does he do? He comes
in the likeness of men. He takes the form of a servant.
He humbles himself and is obedient even unto the death upon the
cross. He labours for thirty years,
God incarnate, works with his hands, submits to Caesar even
in the womb. He goes and becomes subject of
the census He's put in the hands of Herod,
He's put in the hands of Pilate, He's put in the hands of the
rulers of the people. It seems that He's subject to
them, that He's a servant of rulers. And yet He is the King
and God, Lord and Creator of all. By Him, kings reign. By Him, kings reign. But He's
seen as a despised and rejected servant. But then he's revealed. He's
revealed. God comes, he opens eyes, he
opens hearts. Even among kings. Not many mighty,
not many noble, but not, it doesn't say not any. It doesn't say not
any. Kings, it says, shall see and
arise. Remember those magi? Princes
also shall worship. Remember those magi who sought
out the Lord in his new birth, followed the star, led of God. What a wonderful presentiment
they were of the Gentiles being gathered in. It tells us there,
doesn't it, that you should be My salvation to the ends of the
earth I will give you as a light to the Gentiles." Jew and Gentile. King David sees
and arises. Have mercy upon me, O God. Have
mercy upon me. You are the man. David in his
sin. David in his pride. The Lord
reaches into his heart and abases him and opens his eyes and he
sees Christ. Melchizedek saw him, Abraham
saw him, Job saw him. These great patriarchal men who
were the heads of their families, who were the prophets, the priests
and the princes of their families in ancient days. Job in all his
suffering would he not have been tempted to say, the Lord has
forgotten me. His wife certainly told him the Lord had forsaken
him. And he says, I know that my Redeemer lives and that he
shall stand at last upon the earth. He shall stand at last
upon the earth. Kings shall see and arise. Because
of the Lord, you see, that's the reason. He's given this commission. It will be successful because
Christ will be successful. The work will be finished. It
shall be effectual. Because of the Lord who is faithful. Because of the Lord who is faithful. The Holy One of Israel, He has
chosen you. Thank God that Christ is the
chosen Redeemer. Thank God that He is faithful. What is He faithful to? He is
faithful to the covenant. The covenant which is in His
blood. which is in His person, which
is Himself. And that's where we're led. Thus
says the Lord in an acceptable time, in a favourable time. That
means in a time of grace, in a time of release. It's that
same word for the acceptable year of the Lord, the year of
Jubilee, the year of release, when all debts are cancelled,
when everyone who is enslaved and captive is set free, when
the inheritance that is lost is restored, In an acceptable
time, in a time of grace, in a time of favour, I have heard
you and in a day of salvation I have helped you. I will preserve
you and give you as a covenant to the people. To the people. What reason to be encouraged?
What reason to be encouraged? There in Romans chapter 8, Paul, What then shall we, 831, what
then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be
against us? He who did not spare his own
son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with
him? I used to wonder what that meant.
How shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? It
means those things will be given us with Him. When we are given
Him, when He is given for us, we receive all things. I used
to try and think, well, does that mean that the Lord Jesus
is receiving something with us? No, no, no. We receive everything
with Him. That's what that means. Oh, there's a list of things,
isn't there, that come against us. Charges against God's elect,
condemnation, nakedness, peril, tribulation, famine, sword. Why do these things come? Is
it because we're not living the victory life? No, it's because we've been chosen
in Christ. These things come to show that
it's not of him who wills nor of him who runs, but it's of
God who shows mercy. Wasn't that what Job's experience
was all about? It's Satan's accusation. Strike
him in his body. Take away all that he possesses.
He will curse you to your face. It's not what we possess. It's
not what we have in earthly prosperity that is the blessing. It's no
evidence for us of the love of God. It's Christ. Christ given as
a covenant to the people. Christ despised and rejected
of men. Christ giving his cheek to the
smiters and his back. Christ hanging between heaven
and earth and all the dominions of darkness. Satan. Mankind howling with derision. gleefully planning his death, and then the law of God, the
wrath of Almighty God falling upon his soul and his heart and
his mind until it was extinguished in his person, hour upon hour,
all because of that love, all because of that covenant. That is the proof of blessing. And so, tribulation and nakedness
and sword and famine and peril and even being accounted as sheep
for the slaughter, they're not the measures of victory.
Christ's great work is the measure of victory. Christ's glorious
person is the measure of victory. Christ being given by the faithful
God and faithfully keeping the covenant in Himself is the victory.
In all these things we're more than conquerors. Through what?
Through Him that loved us. Through Him that loved us. My
brother was telling me about covenants that hang on the walls
of churches. People take the pledge. Different
things. It seems to me it's always something
to boast in, isn't it? It's always something to say,
there's something that makes me to differ. Something that
makes me differ. Don't know why the Lord should
have blessed me. Something makes me different. Thank God he's
given me the strength to be a better person. I thank you, Lord. I'm not as other men. Felt this in my own heart so
often. Preachers sometimes have to say
unpleasant things. I know there was a time in our
own congregation where there was this spirit at times. Lord,
we thank you we're not as other churches. What a terrible thing. Who makes you to differ? Thank God Christ is not as other
men. Thank God that Christ is not
as other saviours. That Christ is not as other covenants. All those other covenants, what
did they depend upon? Covenant in Adam, what did it
depend upon? Depend upon Adam. Covenant of Law at Sinai, what
did it depend upon? Depend upon Israel. Which covenant
they break? And I disregarded them, says
the Lord. Covenant of salvation, covenant
of grace, covenant of eternal redemption. What does it depend
upon? Christ. Christ. God's done everything he can.
Now it's up to you. Never. It's always been up to
him. It's never been up to us. It's
always been up to Him. I would make with you an everlasting
covenant. Why? Why is that said of the
Church? Why could David say, yet He has
made with me an everlasting covenant? Steadfast, sure in all things,
only because we are in Christ. Only because we are in Christ.
I'll give you as a covenant to the people, to restore the earth,
I know that a whole lot of religious maniacs go berserk and make lots
of money publishing book after book of prophetic truth. I know the cults talk about new
heavens and new earth but you see when godless religious people
who depend upon their own righteousness misuse the truth That's no reason
to reject it. For a long time I would never
ever go anywhere near the prophecies of the Lord's return and preach
about the second coming because in my religious ignorance I'd
been wound up to the maximum waiting for the man of sin and
the secret rapture and you know looking for Gog and Magog and
when the USSR fell all my prophetic schemes fell with it. But that's
no reason not to love the Lord's return. That's no reason to be
robbed of our inheritance in Christ. There is a new heaven,
a new earth, and old heavens and old earth passed away. What
were they known by? They were known by sin. They
groan and they travail even till now because of our sin. But He
says, Behold, I make all things new. even a new heavens, even
a new earth. What dwells there? Righteousness. Why? Because Christ dwells there. He is the creator and the sustainer.
What is the light of that city that dwells in a new creation?
It doesn't need a sun. Christ is its light. Given as
a light to the peoples and the Lord's promises that there's
a new heavens, a new earth, What was once desolate shall return.
Those who were once prisoners shall go forth. I will preserve
you and give you as a covenant to the people to restore the
earth, to cause them to inherit the desolate heritages that you
may say to the prisoners, go forth. To those who are in darkness,
show yourselves. Have you ever been afraid to
show yourself to God? We huddle in the darkness. We
try, look, you know those aprons that Adam and Eve made out of
fig leaves? That's every one of us. Hiding behind the trees,
covering ourselves, staying in the dark, staying in the corner.
Maybe you won't notice me as much. The last thing that any
of us want to do by nature is come into the light. But then, not clothed in our
own filthy garments, not clothed in our own sinful flesh, but
clothed in the fine linen, clean and white, clothed in the glorious
righteousness of Christ, that which is imputed to us now, that
which is imputed to us now, that which we wear, what will happen
in that new creation? We'll be constituted righteous.
That's what will happen then. We shall be changed. This corruptible
shall put on incorruptible. This mortality shall put on immortality. We shall all, the scriptures
say, we shall all be changed. Until then, wretched man that I am, Who shall
deliver me from the body of this death? Flesh lost against the
spirit and spirit against the flesh. But there's coming a day
when that warfare will be forever ended. There's coming a day. He says, brethren, I mean Paul's
honest. Some people think preachers know
everything. The apostles are honest. We don't
know. I think it's John that says it
actually. Don't know what we shall be. Don't know what we
shall be. But we know this, that when he
appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. God's blood-bought, sin-cleansed
children. Robed in the righteousness of
Christ, even in this world we are permitted to walk in the
light. We're free. We're free. And in the world
to come, there will be no darkness. Not in ourselves. Why? Because there's none in Him. Because there's none in Him. They shall feed along the roads,
and their pastures shall be on all the desolate heights. They
shall neither hunger nor thirst, neither heat nor sun shall strike
them, for He who has mercy on them will lead them." Just summarise
that. They shall feed. Why? Because he shall lead. That's
why. The great shepherd of the sheep,
through the blood of the everlasting covenant, establish you, strengthen
you. That's how the book of Hebrews
ends, isn't it? Why? You see, they shall feed because
he shall lead them. He shall lead them where they've
never been led before. He shall lead them on a path,
a highway. Holiness. Even a fool there shall
not err therein." He's that highway. He's that way. It's not some
way where you take ten steps and you've finally worked out
how to be good enough to get there and to guide yourself through
there. No, Jesus said, I am the way. Not, I'll show you a way. He
said, I am the truth. Not, I'll give you something
to guide you. He said, I am the life. He didn't just say, I'll
give you a life. He said, I am the life. You see,
he's the covenant and he's all that the covenant provides. And
because he leads us and because he feeds us and because we are
in him, the path of life lies before us. And that life endlessly
brings us to God again and again and again. Accepted in the beloved,
cherished, uncondemned. Who shall raise a charge against
God's elect? There's been too much raising
charges against God's elect as far as I'm concerned. Too much. But he shall not hear them. He
shall not hear them. It is God that justifies. It
is Christ that died. Neither heat nor sun shall strike
them, for he who has mercy on them will lead them. This is
the heritage of the children of the Lord. This is the heritage
of the chosen in Christ. You see, his commission, He is
the covenant for his people, means that the care, the care
that is lavished upon them is such that I, a man in nature,
eye hasn't seen nor ear heard, neither has it entered into the
heart of man. What God has prepared, what God
has prepared, for those who love Him. Why do we love Him? Because He
first loved us. How is this thing that has never
been revealed in the heart of man and His eye never seen and
His ear never heard, how is it brought? Because the Holy Spirit
has revealed it unto us. It doesn't come by nature. It
doesn't come by effort. comes by Christ, because that
wonderful benefit of Christ, our covenant, is that God himself
comes and resides with us. He shall be in you. He shall be in you. And that
is the assurance, not our works, but His. His, not our fruits,
but His. Surely these shall come from
afar. Look, those from the north and the west and those from the
land of Sinim. I don't know where that was,
but they were God's elect there. Where does that leave the heavenly
host? Where does that leave his earthly
people? It leaves us in the beautiful
position of having one glorious response. Sing, O heavens. Be joyful, O earth. Break out
in singing, O mountains. Even the creation sings about
this and every righteous angel and every person righteous in
Christ. This is our joy. What is the subject of our song?
What is it that the Lord commands heaven and earth to sing about
and to rejoice over? What is it? For the Lord has comforted his
people. And we'll have mercy. And we'll
have mercy on his afflicted. You see, as he is in this world,
so are we. And as he is despised and rejected
of men, so are we. And as men had no mercy for him,
who brought the truth and only ever told them the truth. So
often men will have no mercy when they are told the truth
as it is in Jesus. But He will have mercy. He will
have mercy. He will have compassion. We know that because He gave
His only Son and He delivered Him up for us all.