Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to Isaiah 22, the first portion
that we read. Prophet Isaiah chapter 22, and
reading from our text, verses 23 through to 25. And I will fasten him as a nail
in a sure place, and he shall be for a glorious throne to his
father's house, and they shall hang upon him all the glory of
his father's house, the offspring and the issue. all vessels of
small quantity, from the vessels of cups even to all the vessels
of flagons. In that day, saith the Lord of
hosts, shall a nail that is fastened in the sure place be removed,
and be cut down, and fall, and the burden that was upon it shall
be cut off. For the Lord hath spoken it. Isaiah 22 and verses 23 to 25. We continue this evening with
the theme of the illustration of vessels in the scripture. In verse 24 we have three mentions
of the vessels. Vessels of small quantity from
the vessels of cups even to all the vessels of flagons. And so it is to look at that
illustration, the illustration of vessels hung on Christ this
evening. On to though first look at the
literal interpretation of the prophecy that is here. Isaiah prophesied in the days
of Hezekiah, the godly king Hezekiah. This scene is especially set
and with the chapter that we read further on in 37, in the
time when Assyria came against Judah, and they took the fence
cities, they took the other ten tribes, and they were seeking
to discourage, dishearten Hezekiah and his people, and overcome
them. And yet God appeared for them. He heard their prayer. He delivered
them out of the king of Assyria's hands. But here we have the prophecy
that speaks not of a nation here, but speaking of two people, Shebna and Eliakim, two people
in Hezekiah's court. In this particular passage, We
have Shebna set forth in the verse we started reading, verse
15, as being the treasurer. And not only treasurer, but was
over the house. He was in an important position
and holding the money, if you like, and obviously It seems
that this went to his head. He walked in pride. He queued
out a sepulcher for himself. He was really concerned with
his own advancement. The word here was to be spoken
to Shebnon. It's not a good word at all. What hast thou here? And whom
hast thou here? that thou hast hewed the outer
sepulchre here, as he that heweth the outer sepulchre on high,
and that graveth an habitation for himself in a rock. And then
we have some most solemn pronouncements what the Lord will do, carrying
him away captive, He will surely violently turn and toss thee
like a ball into a large country, there thou shalt dine. I will
drive thee from thy station, and from thy state will he pull
thee down. So this is spoken against Shebna. Now in the portion that we read
in Isaiah 37, We have the king, Hezekiah, having heard
all what Rabshakeh and the servants of Assyria had said, they are
sending to Isaiah. And in this time, it is not Shebna that is over the house,
but Eliakim. Shebna has been reduced in his
station and he is now the scribe and yet Eliakim is over the house. And so there is a very difference,
a change in verse 2. He sent Eliakim who was over
the household and Shebna the scribe. and the eldest of the
priests. So he was still in Hazekiah's
court, but he'd been demoted. He was no longer over the house. This Eliakim is a different one. He is the son of Hilkiah. He comes some hundred years before
The good king, Josiah, had been killed by Necho, Pharaoh Necho,
and Pharaoh had installed Eliakim, the son of Josiah, as the king
and changed his name to Jehoiakim. That was some hundred years later
than this time. It's not the same person at all. Here, though, is Eliakim, and
he is set over the house. And indeed, in the following
on, in Isaiah 22, we have the prophecy that this would be so,
in verse 20, and it shall come to pass in that day that I will
call my servant Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, and I will clothe
him with thy robe and strengthen him with thy girdle, and I will
commit thy government into his hand. He shall be a father to
the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. So
we have a picture that one, who only sought to advance himself
and walked in pride was deposed and another was raised up from
a low position and he was greatly strengthened by God and all that
Shebna had, his robe, his girdle, his government, was all given
unto him. Now the things that are written
concerning alike him here. It would be a poor thing if we
just viewed it and viewed it that they were only written concerning
this man, concerning his role in Hezekiah's cause, that we
weren't able to look past him and see our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ being set forth. If we think of Verse 22, good
to remember, isn't it? Isaiah 22, verse 22, and this
beautiful reference to our Lord Jesus Christ. And yet it's spoken
here is regarding Eliakim. And the key of the house of David
will I lay upon his shoulder so he shall open and none shall
shut and he shall shut and none shall open. Now this of course
is exactly what has been said of our Lord Jesus Christ and
in the letter to Philadelphia in Revelation chapter 3 and verse
7 to the angel of the church in Philadelphia,
that is the pastor, the minister, write, these things saith he
that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David,
he that openeth and no man shutteth, and shutteth and no man openeth. This is the Lord Jesus Christ
is speaking in Revelation, and this is him that is set forth
here in prophecy, that Eliakim is a type of. And so it is in
this way that I desire to speak this evening, not of Eliakim
as a type or person or Shebna, but of our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ and what is prophesied here and spoken of Eliakim really
pointing it to our Lord Jesus Christ. It is He that the key
of the house of David is laid on. He is the nail that is fastened
in a sure place. He it is that all of His dear
people hang upon Him, and the burden of their sins, when He
is cut off, when He falls, that shall fall, that burden that
was on it be cut off. In the prophecy of Daniel we
read of him Messiah's day, that he shall be cut off but not for
himself. And here we find the same illustration,
the nail that is cut off or cut down and fall. that the burden
that was on it, it laid on him, the iniquity of us all, that
that burden then is cut off. And so it is with those thoughts
and that brief summary. I want to look firstly at Christ,
the nail that is in a sure place. And then secondly, the vessels
hung upon him. And thirdly, Christ cut down
and the burden of his people's sins cut off. Percy, though Christ, a nail
fastened in a sure place. Verse 23. And I will fasten him
as a nail in a sure place, and he shall be for a glorious throne
to his father's house. A nail in a sure place, a nail
designed to have hung upon it all of these vessels, small and
great, hung upon it. Let us think of the illustration
that is here. Sometimes, no doubt, you have
seen or actually done, say, hung a picture and you put a nail
in the wall and you looked at that picture and you thought,
is that nail strong enough? Will it bear the weight? of that
picture, and depending on the size of the picture, you make
that nail as bigger or smaller, drive it in deeper, make it more
secure. When you put that nail in, do
you take that valuable picture and just hang it on it, just
hope it will work? Or do you test it? Do you pull
on it? Do you put some other weight
on it? to really see if it is able to hold what you're going
to put on it first. This is the illustration here.
Whatever we are going to hang upon a nail, we want to put that,
not in some loose plaster, not in the mortar, but actually in
the brick, in the hardest part we'll put it in, so that it holds
firm. And in our text, I will fasten
him, God will fasten our Lord and Saviour as a nail in a sure
place, a place that is very strong, we will not let go. And he shall
be for a glorious throne to his father's house. And of course,
what follows to be hung upon him. One of those sure places that
the Father hath fastened our Lord is in His eternal purposes,
His eternal counsels. The people of God are chosen
in Him from the foundation of the world. He is the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. And our Lord is there right from
the very, very beginning, before ever the world was, the glory
He had with the Father, He is the Eternal God. And in the purposes
of God, He was foreordained to be the Saviour of His people,
the Deliverer of His people. And there He is, fastened in
God's purposes. Then he is fastened in the promises
of God. When man fell, there was the
promise of the seed of the woman that should bruise the serpent's
head. And right throughout the scriptures,
we have one promise after another of the coming of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And each one of those, as it
were, taking him as a nail and fastening him in a sure place
because God's promises will never fail, they can never fail, they
will come to pass. Hath he said and shall he not
do it? Another sure place that the Lord
Jesus Christ is fastened in is in the Word of God. Heaven and
earth, says our Lord, shall pass away, but my words shall not
pass away. When our Lord came to Suffolk,
Calvary, in the lead up, in the garden, and at Calvary, many
times we hear that the Scriptures might be fulfilled. And being
taken in the garden, and Peter had his sword, the Lord said,
put up thy sword within its sheath. The cup which my father hath
given me to drink, shall I not drink it? Dost thou not know
that I could presently pray the Father? He would give me twelve
legion of angels, but how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled? The word of God is settled forever
in heaven, and those words cannot fall to the ground. They must.
They must be fulfilled. And our Lord Jesus Christ is
in all the scriptures on the way to Emmaus when he met with
the two that were so low, who had seen the sacrifice at Calvary
and knew not what it meant, thought that, yes, he was the one that
should redeem Israel, but they couldn't see it as redeeming
Israel. The Lord took them back to where
that nail, our Lord Jesus Christ, was fastened in the scriptures.
in all the scriptures, the things concerning himself. Then we have
in the New Testament church, in our days, these gospel days,
our Lord Jesus Christ is fastened here as well in the ordinances
of the house of God, in baptism, and in the Lord's Supper. This
do in remembrance of me or in baptism buried with him by baptism
into death and risen again in newness of life. He is fastened
in a sure place in the ministry of the word through the preaching
of the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is central. The apostle
says, I determined to know nothing among men. save Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. Both before His sufferings and
after His sufferings, our Lord Jesus Christ is fastened, is
secured in that place of honour and glory and that work that
His Father gave Him to do. In heaven He is, as a lamb as
it had been slain in the midst of the throne, He is there, the
glory is His. Our text says that He shall be
for a glorious throne to His Father's house. The Lord sits
upon that throne. That throne is His and all that
belongs to it. But there's a special need for
this nail to be fastened in a sure place and to be made sure it
is sure. When our Lord Jesus Christ came
to this world, He came to bear the sins of His people. He came
to be a man, a real man, made flesh and dwelt among us. But
was he able to fulfill that work that his father gave him to do? His life had to be perfect and
sinless. He had to be able to resist the
devil and his temptations and not fall like our first parents
did. He had to endure the contradiction
of sinners against himself and yet still be spotless and perfect. He had to be strong enough to
be able to bear his people's sin and to carry them from Gethsemane
right through to the judgment and then to carry them to Calvary
and there suffer, bleed and die to put away those sins. He must
be strong enough for that. How many, in a natural sense,
men, women, have seen a task before them and they've said,
I'm able to do that, I'll do that. Some of them it has been
a physical task and they've started to do it and they've realised
they were not strong enough. They couldn't carry the weight.
They had to buckle under it. They needed someone to step in
and to lift the weight off them and to help them. Others, they
were strong physically, but mentally they couldn't. They buckled under
the taunting, under the temptations. They couldn't bear the load. And with our Lord, we have recorded
in the scriptures how he was tried and tempted in all points
like as we are, yet without sin. After his baptism, he was driven
of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And
there the devil came and tempted him. If thou be the son of God,
command that these stones be made bread. And the Lord had
already fasted for 40 days and 40 nights, and the devil tempting
him all that time, and yet now he comes, his last temptation
when he is so hungry after all that time. What was the first
temptation of our first parents? It was to do with food. But they
were not hungry. They had all the Garden of Eden.
They had all the fruits of it. They weren't hungry. but they
fell in a temptation to eat of a forbidden fruit. But our Lord
stood that test. He said, Man shall not live by
bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth
of God. It is written that is set forth. Our Lord was not to be the servant
of Satan. He would not on his terms prove
himself to be the son of God. He did not need to prove it.
He is the eternal son of God. But he stood that test three
times to be tempted of Satan. And we read that Satan, he left
him for a season. We do not read of those specific
other times that he was tempted, but we know that there were other
times, because it was only for a season. that he left him. Our captain stood that fiery
test, hymn writer says, and we shall stand through him. But
it was necessary that he should be tempted in that way so that
it was established he was not like fallen Adam. He was not
of the seeds of Adam. He was sinless, spotless. He
was from heaven. He was as he testified he truly
was. without having to prove so to
Satan. His very superiority to Satan
forbid him from doing Satan's bidding. And then we have in the Garden
of Gethsemane. Now in the Garden, of course,
there was the time when the sins of all his people were laid upon
him. He had laid on him the iniquity
of us all and he had to bear that weight. We see a picture
there, bowed down to the earth and sweating great drops of blood. We hear him praying beforehand,
Father if it be possible let this come pass from me, nevertheless
not my will but thy will be done. And he is having then the weight
of His people's sins laid upon Him, carrying that burden, bearing
that burden. And He must be able to bear it,
able to carry it out of that garden, and to the judgment,
and before Pilate, and to the cross. He must be able to bear it. And
all that had gone on before And all that had gone on then, as
we come to the end, it proved he was truly a nail in a sure
place. I will fasten him as a nail in
a sure place. A nail for a work. A nail that
there should be that hung upon it that was very, very precious. And I want to look then secondly
at the vessels hung upon him. We read in verse 24, And they
shall hang upon him all the glory of his father's house, the offspring
and the issues. At first what is said to be hung
upon him was the glory of his father's house. The Lord rest be the Saviour,
the Redeemer, and the people of God, they show forth his glory. This people have I formed for
myself, they shall show forth my praise. and that at last innumerable
multitude in heaven, they shall be all to the praise and glory
of God. His Father's house, His Father's
children, His people, a redeemed people, a saved people,
a chosen people in Him, an everlastingly loved people, a people that were
to be drawn, a people that are spoken of in Acts 2 that the
promise is unto you and your children, the offspring and the
issue, even as many as the Lord thy God shall call. These are then described as vessels. vessels of small quantity, vessels
of cups, even to the vessels of flagons. What difference there
are in the people of God? Some, like David, King David,
you might say the greats, or like Abraham, they are the great
faithful ones, those that are so highly set forth even in scripture. But then you have those that
are the little ones, the children, the servants, the things that
are referred to by Paul writing to Corinthians and things that
are not so small. All are the people of God, great
and small. When Paul writes to Timothy,
he speaks regarding prayer, that prayer ought to be made for all
men, and he includes the kings, the governors. all men, of every nation, kindred
and tongue, of every station. The Word of God speaks to masters,
but it speaks to their servants as well, whatever station it
is. And then we have another thought
as this as well, because each one of these vessels are sinners. And our Lord spoke of those that
were great sinners and little sinners, not that there really
is any different, because who has sinned in one point is sinned
in all. But when we had the scribes and
the Pharisees murmuring that our Lord went to suck with publicans
and sinners, then the woman that was washing his feet with the
hairs of her head, they grumbled at her. And yet our Lord then
told a parable. And he said, if there was a man
that had debtors, and those that were indebted to him, and one
owed 500 pence and the other owed 50 pence, and he frankly
forgave them both, And he asked, he said, and which one do you
think would love him most? And they answered, well, the
one that had been forgiven, 500. Yes, he said. This woman. And he points to
her. Though her sins are great, he
didn't deny that. Yet here's the evidence, repentance. Godly sorrow for sin, the sins
which are many are all forgiven. And so we have those that are
notorious sinners, open sinners, great sinners, like the woman
at the well of St. Mary that had had five husbands. The husband that she had was
not her husband. Those like Rahab the harlot, They like Jacob, supplanter,
deceiver. David, a murderer. Moses, a murderer. Dinner's like them. And so it's
pictured here. These vessels that vary in size,
so also God's people vary. in how their outward sins, how
their sins are manifested in this world. And yet they all
are hung upon the same nail. They shall hang upon him all,
not some. all the glory of his father's
house, the offspring and the issue, all vessels, a small quantity,
from the vessels of cups even to all the vessels of flagons,
every one, the emphasis is on all, every one of the people
of God, every one whose sins are to be borne away and put
away, they are all to be hung upon the Lord. ways of looking
at this, because of what is to happen later on,
that this nail is to be cut off and the burden that is to fall. And so the first aspect is the
hanging upon him. We especially think of the Old
Testament here. Those that were saved, they were
saved by faith that the Son of God would, in the fullness of
time, come and put away their sins by the sacrifice of himself. They had the types, the shadows,
they had the blood of bulls and of goats that were sacrificed
for sin. In Hebrews 11 we are told that
they saw the promises afar off and they embraced them. They
trusted that the Lord would come as he said he would, and that
he would bear their sins away, he would put their sins away.
So in that sense, by the grace of God, as they saw, by faith,
the Lord Jesus Christ set forth before them in the types and
shadows and in the Old Testament scriptures, they hung upon our
Lord Jesus Christ. They hung upon His coming. They
waited for His coming. Our text says, and they shall
hang upon Him all the glory of His Father's house. Who is they? Really, you may say, the Old
Testament, the prophets, the Lord's people that pointed to
His coming, In the New Testament, the ministers of the Gospel that
point, point to the Lord Jesus Christ and point Him as the only
way that sin is put away and put away and forgiven and that
that is what the Lord has done. The Old Testament saints, they
look forward to what the Lord would do. I wonder how it finds
us this evening. looking upon the Lord Jesus Christ,
seeing God, putting Him in that sure place, establishing Him
right through the Scriptures, in the Church of God, in the
ministry, and where is our hopes placed? Where are our hopes hanging? Where are we leaning upon? Is it upon this nail? Is it upon
Christ? Are we hanging upon Him? There's
no other way, no other place, no other person that we can hang
our hopes for heaven upon. When many forsook the Lord in
John 6, when He spoke hard things to them concerning His coming
sufferings, and except you eat the flesh and drink the blood
of the Son of Man, you have no life in you. Then many went back,
walked no more. The Lord asked his disciples,
his 12, will you also go away? They said to him, can we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life and we believe and are sure that thou art the Christ, the
Son of the living God. They were hanging upon him. Their
hopes were upon him. same as those on the way to Emmaus. We trusted it should have been
he that should have redeemed Israel. That is what it is to
be to be hanging upon the Lord. Our hopes are placed there. Our
expectations are there. Our hopes of our sins being forgiven,
blotted out, put away, are all hanging upon the Lord Jesus Christ. They're not resting on man. not
hanging upon man, proud man like Shebna, Shebna who makes his
nest here below, who even makes provision that when he's died
there's going to be a remembrance of his name, same as what Absalom
did. What a solemn thing to have our
name written in the earth and to be written in the sand. But our Lord's name is written
in the fleshy tables of his people's hearts. and they hang upon him
and they wait upon him. Are we a vessel? A vessel, a
vessel that is full by nature of sin. A vessel that by God's
grace is to be filled with his grace, with his glory, with all
the beauty of what the Lord has done. And so the time then changes. The vessels hung upon him in
expectation is the people of God looking to the Lord for their
salvation, for their blessing. But then we have what the Lord
has done and the vessels then are now representing the people
of God, their sins, great and small. He had laid on him the
iniquity of us all and this is where we come our last point
Christ cut down and the burden of his people's sins cut off. Verse 25 in that day saith the
Lord of hosts shall the nail that is fastened in the sure
place be removed and be cut down and fall and the burden that
was upon it shall be cut off for the Lord has spoken it. Again,
what we mentioned was in Daniel, shall be cut off, but not for
himself. These two sides, the strength
of our Lord. He says, no man taketh my life
from me. I lay it down to myself. I have
power to lay it down. I have power to take it again.
I have strength to bear these sins, to carry them and to carry
them to the judgment. And then at my own free will,
And in my own time, not when the soldiers break my legs, not
when man determines it." Now Pilate, he wondered that he was
dead already. They didn't have to break his
legs. Scripture had prophesied, a bone of him shall not be broken,
and nor was it. But the time was in his hand.
He cried with a loud voice, farther into thy hands I commit my spirit. He laid down His life to take
it again. And so that nail in a sure place
was removed and cut down and fell. The death of our Lord Jesus
Christ is that which put away the people of God's sin. He dealt with sin, the sin that
was laid on Him. It had to be laid on Him. to
be carried away, to be atoned for, so that he would die for
his people's sin, that he should bear their sins in his own body
on the tree, that it should be a burden, and that is how it's
spoken of here. It says the burden, it doesn't
actually say the vessels that was cut off. The implication
is it's one and the same but really it is the burden and what
is the burden that the Lord bore was the burden of his people's
sin. That is what pressed him down
and that is what he was to bear away and suffer for and bleed
for and to redeem them And this is what the Lord did, and viewing,
viewing our Lord at Calvary, and viewing His death, and we
view this word here, what assurance we have, along with many other
scriptures, that those who hung upon Him, those that hang upon
Him, those that look for Him to deal with and take away their
sins, The Lord shall do it. He has done it. And in these
gospel days, we look back and we see him as the nail in a sure
place. We see him, what he accomplished
at Calvary. We hear the preachers determining
to know nothing among men, save Jesus and him crucified. And we see those sins blotted
out and put away. We have also a type of the scapegoat
in the Old Testament. In the sacrifices of the scapegoat,
two goats were used. There had to be two, though it
sets forth the one Lord Jesus Christ. And the one had to be
slain, identified with the sins of the people, and his blood
then shed. And the other, the sins of the
people confessed upon it and taken by a strong man into the
wilderness, into the land of forgetfulness, never to be seen
again. And in those two types, it sets
forth what Christ was to do, that he was to, by the shedding
of his blood, put away his people's sin, and his people's sins were
to be forgotten. As far as the east is from the
west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. They are cut off, and they were
cut off, at Calvary, and it was always ordained in those types
and shadows that they would be cut off there, they would be
dealt with there, and the burden that was upon it shall be cut
off, for the Lord has spoken it." And we know in gospel terms
it has been cut off. Later on in Isaiah you have the
beautiful 53rd chapter speaking of the sufferings of our Lord. Surely he hath borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten
of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him. And with his stripes we are healed. And we read later on, he was
taken from prison and from judgment. And who shall declare his generation? For he was cut off out of the
land of the living. For the transgression of my people
was he stricken. And the whole of that chapter
speaks of what the Lord, Jesus Christ, would do at Calvary,
what he has done there. So may we see in this, you might
say, strange prophecy, removing Shabna, We could think about
it of ourselves or as Adam, that is not able to save from sin,
not able to be a blessing to the house of God, like the near
a kinsman that Boaz had. that said that he couldn't, he
couldn't redeem Ruth, he could redeem a land, but Ruth, no,
he couldn't, because it would mar his own inheritance. And
you and I, if we died to save another, we'd kill ourselves. Man cannot save himself, man
cannot deliver himself, but the God-man, our Lord Jesus Christ,
can and did. Shebna, proud man, wicked man,
dare to be laid aside. Adam, in all his sinfulness,
and all the sons of Adam, and the Lord. Set forth here
in this time, the illustration of Eliakim, the son of Hicah.
He, Hilkiah, he comes. And he does that which Shebna
would never have done. Here truly is the one that the
key of the house of David is laid upon. Here is the Lord Jesus
Christ set forth. And may our hopes be placed on
him. May our faith look back to Calvary
and see that our sins were laid upon him there and borne away
there. May we see in him our hope of
heaven, the one that has opened heaven to us as sinners, and
yet sinners whose sins are put away through our Lord Jesus Christ,
the nail in a sure place that was cut off, but not for himself,
for his people. The Lord add his blessing. Amen.