All right, Isaiah chapter 14. Now, these two chapters we looked
at last week, and we'll look at chapter 14, a portion of it
this week. Isaiah has a prophecy that Israel
will be one day set free from bondage to Babylon. And this
is a picture that he gives us. This prophecy is a picture of
God saving spiritualists spiritual Israel, setting his elect free
from all spiritual bondage. Now, let me see if I can make
good on that statement. I know I can. This is more than
a prophecy of an historical event. This is given to us as a picture
of Christ. Look at the end of verse 2 of
Isaiah 14. And they shall take them captives,
whose captives they were, and they shall rule over their oppressors. Now, this is a prophecy. But
more than a historical event, because Babylon was never in
bondage to Israel, ever. Israel never took them captive.
So this is telling us something more than about a historical
event of Israel, the nation Israel being set free from bondage in
Babylon. It's a picture of Christ setting his people free from
sin and from the law and from Satan and from death and from
self. Now look over in Isaiah chapter 44. In Isaiah 44, Isaiah has a prophecy of the
king that God is going to send to set Israel free from this
bondage in Babylon. Now, we know this was referring
to King Cyrus, but who is this really speaking of? Beginning
up in verse 28 of Isaiah 44, the Lord is identifying himself. He is identifying himself. Thus
saith the Lord thy Redeemer. He is identifying himself as
he that hath formed thee from the womb. I am the Lord, I make
all things. I am the Lord, verse 25, that
frustrates the tokens of the liars, and maketh the diviners
mad. Verse 26, I am the Lord that
confirmeth the word of his servants, and performeth the counsel of
his messengers. Verse 27, I am the Lord that
saith to the deep, Be dry, and I will dry up thy rivers. 28
I am the Lord, that saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and
shall perform all my pleasure, even saying to Jerusalem, Thou
shalt be built, and to the temple thy foundations shall be laid."
Cyrus was the king of Persia, but Isaiah was writing 200 years
before Cyrus was even born. Cyrus, not only was he not king
yet, Cyrus wasn't even born yet. He wouldn't be born for 200 years.
And Josephus says Cyrus couldn't sleep one night and he was reading.
He had these rolls brought to him and he read this prophecy
about himself. There he saw his name. And the
next morning he set out to go conquer Babylon because he saw
a prophecy. God told him to. God said he'd
be successful. God used a heathen king who wasn't
even born yet to fulfill this prophecy of Isaiah's. But now
this verse 28. Who is that verse really talking
about? In type and picture, who is that verse really talking
about? Well, it's referring to Cyrus. But this is talking about
our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is the good shepherd.
He says here, Cyrus will be my shepherd. Christ is the good
shepherd. He's the one who lays down his
life for his sheep, so his sheep will live. The Lord says here
in this prophecy, Cyrus will perform all my pleasure. Well,
that's Christ. He performed all the pleasure
of the Father. The pleasure of the Lord prospered
in his hand. And then it says Cyrus is going
to tell them to go build the temple. Well, that's Christ.
Christ is the one who builds his temple. If Christ doesn't
do the building, you and I are building in vain. Christ is the
one building his temple. And that temple is a spiritual
temple made up of living stones that Christ calls out that he
gives life to and puts them in their place. That's how he builds
his temple. And then he says here, Cyrus
will tell him the foundation shall be laid. Well, Christ is
the foundation on which the whole church is built. You see, that
refers to something Cyrus is going to do in history. But this
is talking about the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, back in our text,
Isaiah 14. The title, the message. Is salvation
from beginning to end, and we see that this is what we see
in these opening verses of Isaiah 14. And the first thing we see
is that salvation begins with God's electing love and mercy.
Look at verse 1. For the Lord will have mercy
on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their
own land. And the strangers shall be joined
with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob. Now this
verse tells us why Christ suffered and died for his people. Because
God chose to be merciful to them. God chose them. So He's going
to send His Son to die with Him. Now whatever else it is God's
doing, whatever it is He's doing, I know what He's doing. Whatever
it is He's doing, He's doing for this purpose. So He can have
mercy on His elect. That's why God's doing what He's
doing. God created this world for this reason. So He'd have
mercy on His elect through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. God
created this world, and then he put man in it, and God allowed
Adam to fall for this reason, so he could have mercy on his
elect that he chose out of Adam's fallen race, that Christ would
be glorified in their redemption. God allows his elect to be born
in a state of rebellion and sin. He allows them to be born with
Adam's sin nature so that they're rebels against him, and God does
that so he can save his elect out of all that and show mercy
to them. in the Lord Jesus Christ. And
even when God deals with His people in correction, He sends
trial and trouble, God's dealing with us in mercy. Even then,
He's always dealing with His people in mercy. He's teaching
us something that we need to know so that we will depend more
than ever on the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, if we're made to depend
on Christ even more than ever before, my friend, that's mercy. God's always doing what he's
doing to show mercy to his people. Salvation begins with God's electing
love and his sovereign mercy. And to prove the point, this
prophecy of deliverance was given before Israel was even in bondage.
As Isaiah is writing this, they're not in bondage to Babylon. He's
telling them they're going to be, but he's also giving them
a promise of deliverance before they're ever in captivity. Now,
when they went into captivity, ultimately, Israel didn't choose
God and let God set them free. God chose Israel. He didn't choose
the Babylonians. He chose Israel and he sent them
a deliverer to set them free. And this is the picture. Now,
that's the historical event. But here's the message. God purposed
and he promised salvation before the world was ever created. God
promised a savior. before there was ever a sinner.
This was always God's purpose. And when those men fell, we fell
in Adam, we didn't choose God. We didn't choose to accept Jesus
as our personal Savior. God chose them. He chose them
and He set them free through the obedience and through the
sacrifice of His Son because He promised He'd do it before
the world was ever created. Now that's mercy. That is sovereign
electing mercy. But you know, before God reveals
Himself to His elect, those people are in bondage. Just like Israel
would one day be in bondage to Babylon. All of us were born
in bondage to sin. If you don't think that you're
in bondage to sin, I want you to sit for two seconds and try
not to sin. Can't do it, can you? You know
why that is? We're in bondage to sin. Sin
whistles and we come running and it's a constant whistle.
We can't quit sinning because we're in bondage. We're born
in bondage to our sin nature. It's our nature to sin. That's
all our nature can do. And the proof that we're in bondage
to our nature is how hard it is to quit doing something we
love. I love to eat. Just try stopping. Just try it. I mean, just people
who smoke. Try stopping. I mean, whatever
it is, whatever it is people enjoy, there's an anonymous group
somewhere to help you stop it. Eaters anonymous, smokers anonymous,
alcoholics anonymous, because we're in bondage to our nature. We cannot do what we would because
our nature loves it and we're in bondage to that nature. We're
in bondage to the law when we're born. We've been looking at this,
our study in Galatians. The law has rule over us until
Christ comes and sets us free from that awful bondage to the
law. And you know, unless Christ comes
and reveals himself to us, we'll never even want to go free. I
mean, we like being under the law. We like trying to, you know,
keep up this failing attempt at obedience. You know, we won't
want to go free unless Christ reveals himself to us, much less
ever choosing. He had to choose us first. We're
born with a nature that's in bondage to this world. And even
a believer still has that nature, finds that nature in bondage
to this world. We love the things of the world,
even though we know better, even though we know they're perishing.
We love the things of this world. We want the praise and recognition
of the people in this world, even crave it, even though we
know it's worthless. We don't walk according to God's
way by nature. What do we do by nature? We walk
according to the course of this world and can't choose a different
course. Why not? Because we're in bondage
to this world. The world is set in our natural
heart. And we're in bondage to Satan.
We're in a lot of bondage, aren't we? And there's a lot of things
where we got a lot of masters. We're in bondage to Satan. Look
at John chapter eight. We walk according to the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the
children of disobedience." That's our nature. In John 8, verse
41, look what our Lord says here. You do the deeds of your father.
Then said they to him, We have not been born of fornication.
We have one father, even God. Jesus said unto them, If God
were your father, You would love me, for I proceeded forth and
came from God. Neither came I of myself, but
he sent me. Now, why do you not understand my speech? Even because
you cannot hear my word. You cannot hear my word because
you are of your father the devil, and the lust of your father you
will do. He was a murderer from the beginning,
and a bow-knot in the truth, because there is no truth in
him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he
is a liar and the father of it. And because I tell you the truth,
you believe me not, because your father is the father of life,
the devil. The devil is your father. That's
what our Lord told him. Now, that's harsh language, isn't
it? Isn't that harsh language about our nature? You're of your
father, the devil. That's harsh. It's true, but
it's harsh. One of the men Saturday, we were
up at the preacher school, one of the Men there asked Brother
Nyberg this question. He said, why aren't there riots
today when we get done preaching? Like there was in Paul's day.
When Paul preached and Peter preached, there were riots. Why
aren't there riots when we preach today? Paul was taken out. Can
you imagine? Here's the Apostle Paul standing
there preaching, knowing when I get done, these people are
going to take me out there, they're going to tie me to a post, and
they're going to whip my back with a cat-of-nine-tails. No
one they're going to do that. And the question is, why doesn't
that happen today? And Todd gave his twofold answer.
He said, number one, there's laws, laws of man that restrain
those kinds of things today. This wasn't against the law in
the Apostle States, it's against the law in our country. And this
is the second part of his answer. Todd said, we probably don't
preach as boldly and plainly as the Apostle Paul did. I don't
think we're preaching as plainly as our Lord did. You are of your
father, the devil. Now, that is bold, plain language
that tells us what our nature is. We're in bondage to it. Now,
God elected the people. He set His love on those people.
He determined to give them deliverance, but they're born in bondage.
That brings me to my second point. The Father elected the people,
and Christ came. and set those people free from
their bondage. The Lord Jesus Christ, He's the
promised deliverer. He comes and He sets His people
free from the bondage to sin. Christ breaks that heavy yoke
of the bondage of the law that's breaking the backs of His people.
He breaks the power of sin over His people by being made sin
for them and putting their sin away under His blood. Look at
Romans chapter 16. I'm sorry, Romans 6. Romans 6, verse 14. For sin shall not have dominion
over you, for you're not under the law, but under grace. But
what then? Shall we sin because we're not
under the law, but under grace? God forbid. Know ye not that
to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, His servants ye are,
to whom ye obey, whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto
righteousness. But God be thanked that ye were
the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form
of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from
sin, ye became the servants of righteousness." Christ sets His
people free from sin, and now we serve Him. Christ sets us
free from the bondage of our sin nature. by giving us a new
nature. A new nature that's holy and
cannot sin. Now, we still sin. That old nature
is not going to change. We still have that old nature.
But the new nature of Christ rules. Because where Christ is,
He rules. He's in control. He breaks the
power, the ruling power of that old nature by giving us a new
nature. Then Christ sets His people free from the law. by
keeping the law for them as their representative and dying the
death that the law demands for their sin. When Christ died,
everyone who was in Christ died. They died to the law in Christ. Look in Galatians chapter 2.
So the law has no more claim on them because we died in Christ. The penalty of the law is satisfied.
In Galatians 2 verse 19. For I threw the law, and did
to the law, that I might live unto God. I am crucified with
Christ. Nevertheless I live, yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. In the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved
me and gave himself for me." The law is satisfied in Christ,
and in his death he sets his people free from the law. Christ
sets his people free from bondage to this world. Now, we're still
in the world, aren't we? But we're not of the world. In
John 15, we'll look at this in our study in John before too
long, I think next Sunday, Christ chose us out of the world. So
we're still in the world, but we're not of the world because
he chose us out of the world. Now, he warned us, as long as
you're in this world, you shall have tribulation. But be of good
cheer. I've overcome the world. In 1
John 4, the apostle tells us we will overcome the world. We're
in it. We're battling against it, but we'll overcome the world.
Because greater is he that's in you than he that's in the
world. Christ is already overcome. And
we'll be more than conquerors in him. Then Christ sets his
people free from bondage to Satan. Christ crushed Satan's head. He crushed his power at Calvary.
Christ defeated the strongman armed, and now Christ rules and
reigns. Christ led captivity captive,
and His people go free. Now again, this is not just a
prophecy for the nation Israel that they are going to go free
from bondage and battling. This is a prophecy for spiritual
Israel. Look back in verse 1 in our text,
Isaiah 14. At the end of that he says, And
strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to
the house of Jacob. These strangers are Gentiles
who are going to be saved by Christ. Now, they're born into
this world enemies of God, but they've been conquered by Christ
and they're going to come and they'll be willing, loving bond
slaves of Christ. They're going to cleave to Christ.
They're going to cling to him. They're going to cling to him
like the branches cling to the vine. They're going to cling
to him because they're joined in union with Christ. Now, that
salvation. to be set free and to be joined
to Christ because of His work for us and His work in us. The
Father elected a people. The Son came and set those people
free. But, verse 3, now the warfare
begins. Or, I'm sorry, my third point,
verse 2, now the warfare begins. And the people shall take them
and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel shall
possess them in the land of the Lord. for servants and handmaids,
and they shall take them captives, whose captives they were, and
they shall rule over their oppressors." Now, if someone's holding you
captive, the only way you're going to take them captive and
rule over them is you're going to have to overpower them. You're
going to have to conquer them, and they're not going to go quietly.
You can rest assured Babylon's not going to go quietly. self
and Satan and the law, they're not going to go quietly. So there's
going to be a battle. As soon as the Lord saves you,
you're going to find yourself in a battle. I mean, the very
moment you're born again, the battle begins. You didn't have
a battle before. Before you're born again, you
don't have a battle. You only got one nature. That nature loves
sin. It can't sin enough. It's not
going to fight against sin. You never have a battle until
that nature, that sin nature's got somebody to fight with. When
you're born again, there's a new man born. Now they've got somebody
to fight with. And they're going to fight with
one another to the day that flesh dies. The warfare can't begin
until you're born again. And I'm telling you, when you're
born again, you're in a battle royal. That old nature is not
going to go down without a fight. Now, we don't call men to come
to Christ so they'll just have a bed of roses to lie on the
rest of their time here on earth. We don't call men to come to
Christ so they'll be wealthy and healthy and wise. We don't
do that. We call men to come to Christ and tell them, you
count the cost. Now, count the cost because you're
going to be called to be a hardened soldier in a long and difficult
battle. Now, I don't tell you that to
discourage you from coming to Christ at all. Just being honest
with you, you count the cost. And I tell you that so you won't
be discouraged that when you do come to Christ and suddenly
the battle begins. Don't be surprised. When that
new man's born, suddenly that old man's got somebody to fight
with and you're going to have a battle. Now, as long as we're
in this flesh, there's going to be a battle. Because we're
never going to fully, in this flesh, conquer all these enemies
of ours. We'll never conquer sin. We'll
never quit sinning. We won't ever completely subdue
that first nature. Now, he won't rule anymore, but
we're not going to completely subdue him. He's always going
to sin. He's always going to love sin. You're going to have
to fight him daily. You have to suppress him daily.
We know we're never going to subdue this world. That's why
I don't get involved in politics and all these things. Because
you're not going to subdue it. You're just not going to do it.
I mean, we ought to vote. I'm talking about from the pulpit
in a public forum. You're not going to subdue it.
And you're certainly not going to subdue Satan. I'm not going
to take him on. This victory will not be fully
enjoyed until we're in glory. And we will always battle those
that used to hold us captive because that new nature He's
not going to surrender either. And ultimately, he's going to
win. Look at Romans chapter 7. I'll
show you that. Ultimately, he's going to win
and enjoy the victory in this warfare. Romans 7 verse 15. This has got
to be one of the clearest descriptions of this inward warfare in every
believer. Paul says, for that which I do,
I allow not. For what I would, that do I not. But what I hate, that do I. There's a civil war, isn't it,
going on inside him? If then I do that which I would
not, I consent under the law that it's good. Now then, it's
no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know
that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. warring against the law of my
mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in
my members. O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from
the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ
our Lord. So then with the mind I myself
serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin." Ultimately,
that new man is going to win because he is in Christ. He has
got to deliver. And God's elect, his objects
of mercy, will conquer every enemy because Christ has already
conquered them. And we're simply going to enjoy
his victory. There's warfare. But then, verse
3, there's rest. And it shall come to pass in
the day that the Lord shall give thee rest from thy sorrow. And
he'll give you rest from your fear and rest from the hard bondage
wherein thou wast made to serve. When Christ comes, there is perfect
rest. There's rest from sorrow because
Christ, the man of sorrows, bore all those sorrows away. He bore
the sin of his people away. Now, Dan, sin's removed. There's
no more reason for sorrow. The only reason we sorrow is
sin. When Christ has removed it, there
can't be any more sorrow. And he gives us perfect rest
from fear. There is no fear of death in Christ because Christ
took the sting of death away. And God gives us a heart that's
quiet. That's quiet. You know, when
your heart's quiet. When there's nothing to fear. When's there nothing to fear?
Look around you. When is there nothing to fear?
The world's going crazy. When is there nothing to fear?
There's nothing to fear. when we really believe God's
Sovereign. That's when there's nothing to
fear. Our hearts quiet when we truly believe what we say we
believe. God's Sovereign. Often, the situation
looks dire on earth, but the heart's quiet if we're resting
in Christ. And we have perfect rest in Christ
from all the hard bondage of our oppressors of the law. We've
been seeing this in our study in Galatians. The law is a hard
taskmaster. You could never please Him. But
there's rest in Christ. Our sin nature is a hard taskmaster. I mean, that nature can't get
enough sin. You could never sin enough for
that sin nature to say, that's enough, let's take a break. Never. Hard taskmaster. But there's
rest in Christ. The world's a hard taskmaster.
I mean, you just always gotta go get more, more, more, more,
more, more, more in this world. The world is just constant. Gotta
have more. Gotta have more. But there's
rest in Christ. Because in Christ, there's enough. There's enough. You have all
things if you're in Christ. It's enough. And Satan's a hard
taskmaster. Leads men to eternal death. But
there's rest and eternal life in Christ. Perfect rest. So you come to Christ. You come,
you serve Him. There'll be a battle, but His
yoke is easy. His burden is light. And in Christ,
you will find rest for your soul. Then, verse 4, then there's victory. This day that He gives you rest
from all these things, this is that thou shalt take up this
proverb against the king of Babylon. And you'll say, How hath the
oppressor ceased? The golden city ceased. The Lord
hath broken the staff of the wicked and the scepter of the
rulers. He who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke,
he that ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted, and none
hindereth." Now, taking up this proverb, it's not saying, nah,
nah, nah, nah. It's all our enemies. It's not
making fun of people. It's not making fun of people
that are in the exact same situation we were in. before God saved
us. They're in the same bondage we
were at one time. You know the Lord might save
them too. We're not going to make fun of them. I mean, He
could save them too. Wouldn't that just be like the
Lord being merciful? He was to you and me. He could be to others. So we're not going to make fun
of them. We're going to pray for them and preach Christ to
them. This proverb is not making fun
of those who don't know the Lord. It's celebrating the victory
of our Savior. Believers celebrate the victory
of Christ. We celebrate the victory. That
former king, he ceased. That city he used to rule in,
it's gone. That staff that he used to beat
us with continually, God broke it. He broke that staff. He can't
reach me with that staff anymore. Never again. That scepter that
he ruled over me, that scepter's been broken. He's been replaced
on the throne. by Christ. This is celebrating
the victory of Christ. And that's going to lead us to
my sixth point, singing. Then they're singing the praises
of our Savior. Verse 7, the whole earth is at
rest and is quiet. And they break forth into singing.
Now the church is a singing group. The church is constantly singing
the praises of our Savior. We love to sing about him, who
he is and what he's done. And if the Lord saves you. You
can't help but sing, God's put a song in your heart, it's in
you and you can't help but sing. I have a cute illustration, I
have a niece, she's five years old, she's in kindergarten. And
they do their work and. In her class, what they do, they
give them a time that's kind of quiet, and they have time
to do their work. I don't know what work you do in kindergarten,
color or something. And then the teacher plays music.
Well, music is just in the heart of my niece. So what she does
is she gets up, she stands beside her desk, and she's coloring,
and she's two-stepping, and she's dancing. And the teacher said,
no, sit down. This is a battle, you know, sit
down. And no, I just want to dance. And she asked her mommy,
mommy, If they don't want me to dance, why do they play music?
Because if there's music, I'm going to dance. Isn't that a
believer? If you start talking about my
Savior, I'm going to sing. I'm going to sing his praises.
I look this up. I'll just read these to you.
I put them in my notes here about singing. Psalm 7, 17. I will praise the Lord according
to his righteousness, and I will sing praise to the name of the
Lord Most High. If you know His name, you can't
help but sing it. Psalm 9, 2. I will be glad and
rejoice in thee. I will sing praise to thy name,
O Most High. If we have any concept of how
high the Lord is, and yet He thought on me, I'll sing His
name. I'll sing His praises. Psalm
9, verse 11. Sing praises unto the Lord which
dwelleth in Zion. Declare among the people his
doings. If the Lord gives us any idea
what the Lord has done for his people, we're going to sing. Psalm 13, verse 6, I will sing
unto the Lord, because he hath dealt bountifully with me. Bountifully. Amazing grace, how
sweet to sound, that saved a wretch like me. Psalm 95, verse 1, O
come. Let us sing unto the Lord. Let
us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Last Thursday, I was up in Fairmont,
and I mentioned about making a joyful noise. And I said, I
always like staying right behind Mike while I sing, because I
can just belt it out with no worries. He's going to drown
me out. And after we were singing that closing hymn, there's this
one songbook there. Marvin told me, he said, let's
share a book. He said, we'll sing together.
He said, I won't be like Mike, but he said, we'll drown each other
out. Let's just make a joyful noise. If God sets you free,
enables you to cling to Christ, you're going to make a joyful
noise. You can't help it. It's in you. Psalm 147, verse 1. Praise ye
the Lord, for it's good to sing praises unto our God, for it's
pleasant and praise is comely. It's just right that we sing
the praises of our God. Psalm 147, 7, sing unto the Lord
with thanksgiving. Sing praise upon the heart unto
our God. Who has more reason to be thankful
than we do? Who? Then we ought to be singing
those praises of thanksgiving, shouldn't we? The Church, God's
Church is a singing group. And then last, their salvation
enjoyed eternally. Look at verse 8. Yea, the fir
trees rejoice at thee, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, Since
thou art laid down, no feller has come up against us." Now
these trees are pictures of redeemers. I'll show you that in two scriptures.
Isaiah 61. Isaiah 61, verse 3. to appoint unto them that mourn
in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for
mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness,
that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting
of the Lord, that he might be glorified." This is what he calls
his people, trees of righteousness. Now look at Psalm 92. Those trees
are cedar trees. Psalm 92, verse 12. The righteous shall flourish like
the palm tree. He shall grow like a cedar in
Lebanon. Those same cedars of Lebanon
that are singing over here in our text, this is who David is
talking about here. They are the righteous. He shall
grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those that be planted in the
house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. They
shall still bring forth fruit in old age. They'll be fat and
flourishing. Now those are the cedar trees.
These are God's people. His elect. He calls them cedar
trees and fir trees. And look at their song. This
is what they sing. Since thou art laid down, no
fellers come up against us. Since the song of these trees
is, since thou art laid down, the feller is an ax man. He's
someone who fells trees. Someone who cuts trees down.
Since thou art laid down, Nobody's come with an axe to cut us down
anymore. Now, Satan and the law and sin
itself, they've been trying to cut us down ever since man's
created. And God let Satan get his hands
on Adam. And he felled Adam like Adam
was a sapling. But, since Christ is laid down. Now, you notice he doesn't say
since you came. Since you lay down. Since Christ laid down
his life for his sheep. No one can cut his trees down
ever again because they're his trees. Those trees that he planted,
they could never die. They can never be cut down because
Christ was cut down for them. Now, we were cut down in Adam,
but in Christ, the second Adam, he was cut down for his elect
and his trees, those trees of righteousness will never be cut
down again. They're going to stand eternally. And they're cedar trees. And
it's no accident he chose cedar trees. Cedar doesn't rot. God's trees never rot because
he took the sin out of them. He took their sin away. He took
their sin away. He was cut down for them. They
never have a reason to fall down. They're not going to fall down
because of sin, because they never rot and they can't be cut down
because Christ was cut down for them. Then what are they going
to do? They're going to enjoy salvation eternally. That salvation
from beginning to end. It's all the Lord. Now, I believe
we can sing about that, don't you think? Before we do, let's
bow in prayer. Our Father, which art in heaven,
how thankful we are for a message of salvation in our Lord Jesus
Christ. How we thank you for your unspeakable
mercy Mercy we can never fathom. We can never fully grasp the
depth of mercies that you have reserved for sinners. How thankful
we are for your unspeakable love that you would choose sinners
to save. That you would take sinful men
and women such as we are before the world was created and put
them in your Son to be our surety. To send Him to suffer and die.
to set us free and give us life. How thankful we are, Father,
that even in this world of sin and turmoil and things that look
to man to be quite uncertain, You've given us a heart of rest
and peace in our Lord Jesus Christ. It's all because of Him. And
how thankful we are that this salvation The salvation that
you've given your people and your son because of your son,
because of his sacrifice and his righteousness, is eternal. It can never be lost as long
as he lives. And he lives eternally. Father,
we're thankful. Now, as we close this service,
Father, give us a heart to sing. Every day, give us a heart to
sing thy praises. You're worthy to be praised.
Give us a heart that sings unto thee. It is in the precious name
of our Lord Jesus Christ we ask that you bless your word as it
has come forth to your glory and to the hearts of your people.
For his name's sake we pray. Amen.