I invite your attention to the gospel of Isaiah, chapter
42. It is indeed a gospel, usually
not considered as one. We think of four gospels, Matthew,
Mark, Luke, and John, but the gospel is Nowhere set forth clearer
in the Old Testament than in this prophecy of Isaiah. My text will be in verse 8. God
willing, we will commence this Lord's Day a short series of
messages on Jehovah's names or Jesus' names. Brother Mitch, thank you for
those hymns. They were all good. Jehovah's names are Jesus' names. Isaiah 42, verse 1. Behold My servant. There are
four of these servant passages in the prophecy of Isaiah. Four
different times Jehovah speaks of My servant. My servant. And all four times
he's speaking of Jesus Christ, prophesying of him and declaring
whom and what he will be. Jehovah says, Behold my servant
whom I uphold, mighty elect in whom my soul delighteth. I love that doctrine of election. Not only Did God choose a people? God chose their Savior. He calls Jesus, Mine Elect One. I chose Him. He's mine. God chose me in Christ. Is that not glorious? I'm glad
He did not choose me in someone else. He chose me in Christ.
He chose Christ and then said, I'm going to put you in Him.
I'd rather be in no one else than Him. And notice also Jehovah says
I will uphold Him and He will delight me. He does not say He
will delight me and I will uphold Him as though I will uphold Him
because He delights me. No, I say to you that if Jehovah
upholds you You will delight Him. I have put My Spirit upon
Him. That's the Holy Spirit. Folks,
look at this. We have all three persons of the Holy Trinity in
one verse. Jehovah, His servant, and His
Spirit. And He shall bring forth judgment
to the Gentiles. That's you and me, Gentile believers. He came not only for the salvation
of the Jews, for us idolatrous Gentiles as well. He shall not
cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street.
They marveled at that. They beat him. They abused him. They falsely accused him. And
not one time did he ever say, I was framed. I did not do it. He just said nothing. And when they beat him, that
would make a grown man cry, he said not a word. He's the most
remarkable man who ever lived. A bruised reed shall he not break. He's gentle. Nothing is easier
to break than a reed that is already bent. Jesus does not
even break bruised reeds. And the smoking flax, shall he
not quench? He's considerate. This smoking
flax is the wick of a candle, and it's about to go out. All
you see is smoke. That's some of us sometimes in
life. Our wick is about to go out.
He is so considerate that instead of snuffing it out, blows on
it and the wick comes back to flame. He shall not fail nor be discouraged
till he have set judgment in the earth and the isles shall
wait for his law. Thus saith God the Lord. I need to bring to your attention,
and I've done it before, But when you see this word Lord in
all uppercase letters, it is God's name Jehovah. Most times
when you see the name God the Lord, God not in all uppercase
letters, the name is Adonai Jehovah. Thus saith Adonai Jehovah, who
is he? He that created the heavens and
stretched them out, He that spread forth the earth, and that which
cometh out of it, he that giveth breath unto the people upon it,
and spirit to them that walk therein. I, Jehovah, have called thee. Called whom, my servant? I called
him. I chose him. Then I called him.
I called him in righteousness. And I will hold thine hand. and I will keep thee, and give
thee for a covenant." Christ is the covenant. What covenant? You read in the epistle to the
Hebrews of the blood of the everlasting covenant. God the Father and
God the Son made a covenant in old eternity past before the
foundation of the world God covenanted to choose a people and to give
them to the Son for safekeeping. And the Son covenanted to the
Father to fulfill the law for them, to work out a perfect righteousness,
and to die in their place instead. And Jesus Christ is not only
a member of that covenant, He is the covenant. That's why you
read of the blood of the everlasting covenant, an eternal covenant,
one that never had beginning, never had ending, because it
began in eternity and extends forevermore. And that is the
covenant of our salvation. And I will give thee for a light
of the Gentiles. Why? to open the blind eyes,
to bring out the prisoners from the prison and them that sat
in darkness out of the prison house. And here's my text. I am Jehovah. That is my name. And my glory will I not give
to another, neither my praise the graven images. That's my
name, Jehovah. God has two prominent names in
the Old Testament. The first is Elohim. The second is Jehovah. Elohim is a strange name. It is plural in number. the noun is, but singular in
usage, like the word family. The family is one unit, but there's
more than one person in it. We say the family is in the house. There's only one entity in the
house, it's a family, but there's more than one person in that
family, so the house is more than one person. If we say Elohim,
God is in the house. We mean the same thing. There's
one entity in the house, but there's more than one person
in that entity. God the Father, God the Son.
This name Elohim, plural in number, singular in usage, and then this
name Jehovah that we will consider today. Elohim is God's name in
relation to the creation and the universe as its creator. For example, we read in the very
first verse in the Bible, In the beginning Elohim created
the heavens and the earth. But when we come to this name
Jehovah, it is used in relationship to
God with His people. Not with the universe. It is
used in relationship to God with this people as their Redeemer
and their Savior. We therefore read, he says in
Isaiah 41, 14, Fear not, you men of Israel. Yes, you people
outside Israel, you have good reason to fear, but you people
in Israel, fear not. I will help you, says Jehovah.
Your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. So those two prominent
names, Elohim, God in relationship to the universe. Jehovah, God
in relationship to His people. But Jehovah is God's foremost
name. It means, we're not really sure what it
means. It means more than we can fathom. God, when He gave
the name, He says, I am who I am. I do not understand what all that
means. I mean, God is what He needs
to be. God is what He is. I am what
I am. And nobody else is what I am,
and I am nobody else. But I am what I am. It also intimates
that He is The self-existent One. Now that distinguishes Him
from all of us. We are not self-existent. Our
existence is derived. There is a time when you did
not exist. And there is a time with regard
to your earthly experience, you no longer will exist. Jehovah
says, I've always existed. Always. Can't fathom that. Eternal. I mean, it's... I don't
know. There's a ring. Where is the
beginning of it? There is none. Where is the ending
of it? There is none. There is God. Where is His beginning? There
is none. Where is His ending? There is
none. He is the self-existent One.
No one gave existence to Him. He gave it to Himself. Well,
He did not give it to Himself. He always had it. You see, you
cannot fathom what all is meant in this name. I am what I am. I am who I am. I am this self-existent
one. And I want you to note that Jehovah
is Jesus' name. That's a glorious truth. For
example, remember the story in Exodus 3 of Moses? having to flee Egypt, and he
goes to the back side of the wilderness, far away from Egypt,
and there he's a shepherd tending sheep. And one day, while he's
tending sheep, he looks and there's a bush on fire. He looks and it's not being consumed. I mean,
The flames keep burning and not a single leaf is being consumed. Well, I've got to go check this
out, he says. So he walked to the burning bush. And as he did,
he heard a voice from the bush that said, take your shoes off
your feet. You're on holy ground. And who
was it? The angel of Jehovah. Now that word angel means messenger. And it was Jesus, the pre-incarnate
Jesus. Take your shoes off your feet,
you are on holy ground. And then he identified himself.
The angel said, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham,
the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And then the angel
said, I am who I am. Now folks, nobody but Jehovah can truthfully
say, I am the God of your father and I am who I am. That angel
of Jehovah said it, speaking for himself, I am who I am. It's the angel of Jehovah speaking
to Moses from the bush, telling him that in my presence the ground
is holy. Jesus truthfully confessed much
the same in His conversation with the Jews. In the days of
His incarnation, He says, Before Abraham was, I am. Lord, don't you mean to say that
before Abraham was, you were? No, no, no, no. I meant what
I said. Before Abraham was, I am? Well, so they grabbed up stones to
kill him. Why? You just made yourself God, saying
that you are the I am. They understood what he meant.
In another instance, Jesus with the Jews said, I and my Father
are one. And so saying, he says, we are
two separate persons in one indivisible Godhead. Two separate persons. One indivisible God. And again,
they picked up their stones and were going to stone him. He says,
for what good work will you stone me? And they said, oh, we're
not going to stone you for what you did. We're going to stone
you for what you said, because you, being a man, made yourself
to be God. They understood what he meant
when he said, I and my Father are one. One of his disciples says, Show
us the Father. Can you show us the Father? Jesus
says, How long have I been with you, and you still do not understand? If you have seen me, you have
seen the Father. Meaning that there's a unity
there between the Son and the Father. Jehovah's name is Jesus'
name. Furthermore, Jesus has the name
which is above every name. God ascertained that. That at
the name of Jesus, which is Jehovah, that is the name above every
name, every knee should bow and every tongue should confess that
Jesus Christ is Jehovah to the glory of God the Father. Have
you done so? Have you bowed your knee and
acknowledged the deity of Jesus Christ and confessed him as Jehovah
your Savior? But here we're looking at Jehovah's
names. And here we're going to consider
for the next, at least a couple of, two or three weeks, Jehovah's
compound names. Jehovah's compound names are
names that contain the name Jehovah and the title or a word that
goes with it to describe who and what he is. There are twelve
of them. I give them to you in your synopsis. Jehovah Jireh, the Lord will
provide. Jehovah Raphael, the Lord who
heals you. Jehovah Nissi, the Lord is my
banner. Jehovah Kadash, the Lord who
sanctifies you. Jehovah Shalom, the Lord is peace. Jehovah Elyon, the Lord most
high. Jehovah Roi, the Lord my shepherd. Jehovah Asa, the Lord our maker. Jehovah Elohim, the Lord our
God. Jehovah Tzavot, the Lord of hosts,
Jehovah Tzidkenu, the Lord our righteousness, Jehovah Shammah,
the Lord is there. There are twelve of these. No
way can we cover them all in one message. So we'll begin with
this first one, Jehovah Jireh. Jehovah Jireh, it means the Lord
will see But it means that in the sense
of the Lord will see to it, and from that we are told He will
provide. Locate in your scriptures the
book of Genesis, chapter 22. Oh, I love this passage. I do not mean that there are
some that I do not love, This one especially. We're going to be looking at
Jehovah-Jireh in Genesis 22, and we're going to observe that
He is Jesus Christ. Genesis 22, 22nd chapter, verse
1, And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt
Abraham. The word test would be a better
word. He tested him. God does not tempt men, but He
will test you. He tested Abraham and said unto
him, Abraham. And Abraham said, behold, here
I am. And he, Jehovah, said, take now
thy son. Lord, I have two sons. There's
Ishmael and Isaac. No, no, no. You have one son. Your only son, Isaac. There's no mistake about it. The son of promise. The son Jehovah
said, I'm going to give to you and your seed shall be called
through him. Take your only son Isaac whom
thou lovest. Thou lovest him. and get thee
into the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt offering
upon one of the mountains which I shall tell thee of. What do you say, Lord? Take that
son you love, take him to the mountain that I will show you,
go to the top of that mountain, build an altar, put your son
on it, and make him a burnt offering unto me." Now, there are different
offerings in the Scriptures, particularly under the law. A
trespass offering, a sin offering, and a burnt offering. The burnt
offering was probably the foremost. When that animal was put on the
altar and put to the flames, it was entirely consumed. In some of the other offerings,
the animal was partly consumed and the priests were then permitted
to eat what was remaining of it, but not this one. You stayed
at that altar until it was entirely consumed. And this burnt offering
signified the entire, complete, unreserved dedication of the
offerer unto God. And here, God is going to test
Abraham. Take your son whom you love to
Moriah, build an altar, tie him, put him on it, and offer him
as a burnt offering unto me. You may say, well, that's cruel.
Well, no, it was not. But it was a test. It was a test. What will Abraham do? And Abraham
rose up early in the morning. He's going to get this task done. He will waste no time. He saddled
his ass, took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son,
and claimed the wood for the burnt offering. The wood he tied
it up into a bundle. and rose up and went into the
place of which God had told him. And on the third day Abraham
lifted up his eyes and saw the place afar off. And Abraham said
unto his young men, now bear in mind there are four people
in this expedition. Abraham, Isaac, the son he loves,
and the two men who probably were carrying the wood and whatever
else was needed for the sacrifice. Abraham said unto his young men,
now watch carefully what he says, abide ye here with the ass and
I and the lad will go yonder and worship and come again to
you. Well, how are you going to worship?
I'm going to offer him as a burnt offering to God. And then, he's coming back with
you? Yes. Abraham was going to offer this
son as a burnt offering. But he knew that Jehovah had
promised, in Isaac shall your seed be called, And Isaac had
not had children yet. He's still a young man. I mean,
he's probably in his twenties or so. He's probably man enough
to take on his father and win the fight if there should be
one, but there was none. But Abraham knew that, God, God,
You made a promise to me. You promised that in Isaac my
seed would be called. So I'm going to go up yonder,
and I'm going to offer him as a burnt offering to you. But
I know good and well Isaac's going to walk down that mountain
with me when it's over. He's got a whole lot more faith
than most of us ever heard of. Verse 6, And Abraham took the
wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son. And he took the fire in his hand,
and a knife, and they went both of them together. And Isaac spake
unto Abraham his father, and said, My father? Abraham said,
Here am I, my son. And Isaac said, Now behold, the
fire and the wood, but where is the lair for a burnt offering? I mean, I see the wood. I got it on my back. I see this censer. It has the
fire in it. I see that big dagger in your
hand. We need a lamb for a burnt offering. Where is it? What did Abraham
say? My son, God will provide Himself
a lamb for a burnt offering. So they went both of them together. Most translations put the preposition
for, F-O-R, into this verse. God will provide for himself.
But I want you to notice how it is in our King James Version.
God will provide Himself. a lamb for a burnt offering. You can take that in a rather
literal way, can you not? God will provide Himself a lamb
for a burnt offering. So they went, both of them, together.
And they came to the place which God had told him of. And Abraham
built an altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac
his son. Now remember, this Isaac is probably
a strapping young man. Abraham, he's over a hundred
years old, folks. Isaac, he could have resisted and not
been tied. His faith is being tried too,
is it not? He lets his father bound him
with the rope. He bound Isaac's son, laid him
on the altar upon the wood, and Isaac now realizes that he is
the burnt offering, or he will be. He will be. And yet, he consents. We speak of Abraham's faith.
Yes, speak of Isaac's faith as well, will you? And Abraham stretched
forth his hand and took the knife to slay his son. It would involve
the slashing of the throat. Cut the jugular. Let the blood
flow. And Isaac looks up and sees the
sunlight glancing on that dagger. It's ready to come down upon
him. And the angel of Jehovah, notice, the angel shows up again. The angel of Jehovah called out
of heaven and said, now notice, when he called him the first
time, he called him Abraham. When he called him this time,
he said, Abraham, Abraham! called his name twice. I'm getting
your attention, Abraham. Abraham! Abraham! And he said,
here am I. And the angel of Jehovah said,
now listen carefully to his words. Lay not thine hand upon the lad,
neither do thou anything unto him. For now I know that thou
fearest God. Whom do you fear? You fear God. How do I know this? Seeing thou
hast not withheld thy Son, thine only Son, from me. Did you see that? The angel of Jehovah is speaking
as Jehovah and says you did not withhold your son from me that
is the same as saying you have not withheld your son from Jehovah and Abraham lifted up his eyes
and looked and behold him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns
And Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for a
burnt offering in the stead of his son. Can you imagine what's going
through Isaac's mind? Bound upon the altar. His throat and jugular will be
severed. And then the wood be put on fire. And instead, he hears that racket. What is that? There's a ram caught
in a thicket. Evidently got its horns caught
in the thicket. And Abraham goes and gets it.
Brings it up to the altar and unties Isaac. What a happy day that was. He
unties Isaac. Isaac gets off of the altar.
because there is a substitute now in place, a substitute, a
lamb, a male one being a ram. God has provided a lamb for the
burnt offering. Isaac gets off of the altar,
Abraham put the ram upon it, and offered him up for a burnt
offering in the stead of his son." Kind of sounds to me like the
doctrine of divine substitution. Substitution! Believe it is. I tell you, you can find the
gospel in a whole lot more places than you might have thought it
was. Here it is. I've told you before. You find Christ on every page
in this scripture. Here He is. There is a substitute. And the angel of Jehovah called
unto Abraham out of heaven the second time and said, now watch
carefully what he says, By myself have I sworn saith whom? Jehovah. The angel is speaking
as Jehovah, by myself I have sworn, saith Jehovah. For because thou hast done this
thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thy only son, from me. You cannot escape the fact that
this angel of Jehovah knows he is Jehovah. He himself is Jehovah. I am the God of your father.
I am who I am. And you have not withheld your
son from Jehovah because you did not withhold him from me. I have sworn, verse 17, that
in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply
thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which
is upon the seashore, and thy seed shall possess the gate of
his enemies. And in thy seed shall all the
nations of the earth be blessed, because thou hast obeyed my voice. Now watch that verse very carefully. In thy seed. Paul the Apostle quotes this
verse and he says, note that the text says seed singular,
not seeds plural. In thy seed. In one certain person
who shall descend from your loins I'm going to bless every nation
on this earth. Now who's he talking about? What descendant of Abraham? One person came into this world
and blessed every nation upon the earth. It's Jesus Christ. He's prophesying of Jesus Christ. Here's the angel of Jehovah,
who is Jesus Christ, prophesying of himself to come in a future
day. So Abraham returned unto the
young men and said, I told you I'd bring
Isaac with me. Here he is. What did you do up
there? I offered him as a burnt offering
on the mountain. How did he come back with you?
I offered him. How do we know he offered him?
Because the writer to the epistle to the Hebrews says so. By faith,
when Abraham was tested, offered up his son. God judges you more upon your
intentions than he does upon your deeds. Because not all of your intentions
come to deeds. Abraham fully intended to offer
his son as a burnt offering. And God said, since you intended
to do so, you did so. By faith, Abraham offered up
his son. And they rose up and went together
to Beersheba. And Abraham dwelt at Beersheba. Now, what do we know about this place? We know that Abraham called the
name of this place, Jehovah-Jireh. Look in verse 14. And Abraham
called the name of that place, Jehovah-Jireh, as it is said
to this day. in the mount of Jehovah it shall
be seen Jehovah Jireh he provided that day he provided a substitute for
Abraham for Isaac he provided a substitute that died in his
place instead and Jehovah Jireh did the same
for me on Mount Calvary. There was a father and a son
up there and there was me. I deserved the death that was
to be given that day. I deserved to die on that cross But Jehovah Jireh intervened,
and Jesus took my place instead, became the offering for my sin,
a burnt offering. He was under the wrath of God.
Jesus suffered the hell flame and fire that every one of God's
elect deserves. He did it for them. He's not
only a sin offering on that tree, He is a burnt offering. And in
His own offering, He showed His complete, entire, unreserved
dedication to God. On Mount Calvary, Jehovah-Jireh
provided a Lamb for most parts. He's the Lamb of God. He's the
Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. He's the Lamb of
whom the prophet says, speaking of Jehovah, you shall make his
soul an offering for sin. Jesus is my substitute. He's
the substitute of all God's people. He became the burnt offering
in their place instead. Jesus came to be such a provision. He suffered, or he offered himself
as a burnt offering according to Hebrews 10, verses 5 through
10. Therefore, when he came into
the world, he said to God, a body you have prepared for me. Why did God prepare a body for
Jesus? Because you cannot offer on an
altar a spirit. Only a body, a physical body,
can be offered on an altar. Jesus says, Abba, you have prepared
for me in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin. You had no
pleasure. And they did. Folks, there was
a burnt offering every day on the altar of Israel from 1440
B.C. Every day, a burnt offering. Two on the Sabbath. and other burnt offerings that
the people voluntarily offered for themselves. Thousands and thousands of these
burnt offerings and never was God satisfied. He said, I'll
pass over for one more year but you come back next year with
the same offering. They did it until Jesus came.
and made one offering. And God said, it's done. You have provided. He made that
one offering. God had pleasure in it. He says,
I have come in the volume of the book it is written of me
to do your will, O God. And by that will we have been
sanctified through the burnt offering of the body of Jesus
once for all. He was a burnt offering for us
on Calvary. He showed his entire complete
unreserved dedication as he suffered the hell flame and fire and wrath
that you and I deserve. He did it for three hours until he shouted
in glorious victory, it is finished. The provision has sufficed. Let Abraham be an example unto
us. God may require some strange
things of us. Trust Him. He's promised that He would take
care of you, has He not? Look back over your life. Have
you not seen how He has provided for you in so many different
ways? I mean, surely you don't think
that you actually earned and merited every good thing you
ever received, do you? No. It came from Him. He provided. This is our Jehovah
Jireh. The Lord will provide. He did
it for Abraham on Moriah. He did it for me and for all
His people on Calvary. And He'll do it for us for the
rest of your lives. Folks, I can trust a God like
that. If He'll give me faith, I can
trust a God like that, Jehovah Jireh. Is it yours? Are you looking to Jesus Christ
for your provision? Or will you look to yourself?
Whatever you provide for yourself on this earth, it came from Him,
even though you take credit for it. But whatever it is, when
you come to the end of this pilgrimage, it's gone. It's gone. Why, Jehovah
Jireh provides for His people here on earth, and then gives
greater provisions to them in glory. And I want to know, is
He yours? If you have never trusted in
this Jehovah Jireh before, do so today, right now. O God, our Father, be pleased,
we pray, to bless Your Word. Thank you for the glorious way
you provide for your people. We pray that you receive our
thanksgiving to the glory of your son. In whose name we pray,
amen.