Good morning. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we're thankful
that you've enabled us to sing hymns like that with some understanding
and we ask, Lord, that you would answer that prayer. and that
you would provide for us once again the only place of rest
that a sinner has in the everlasting arms of the arm of God, the Lord
Jesus Christ. We thank you for his accomplished
work. We thank you that we have an advocate, Jesus Christ, the
righteous one. We ask, Lord, that You would
bless Your Word now with Your Spirit and that You would cause
Him to be lifted up in our hearts and that we would find ourselves
comforted, rejoicing in what He's done to redeem His people.
For we ask it in His name. Amen. I want to introduce this message
on the arm of God. As we've seen over the last few
months, the many names and titles that are given to the Lord Jesus
Christ in scripture help us to understand a little bit different
aspect of his character, of his nature, and of his accomplished
work. And there are several places
in the Word of God where the Lord Jesus Christ is referred
to as the strong right arm of God. Isaiah asked the question,
who hath believed our report? Who has believed the gospel? To whom has the arm of the Lord
been revealed? Now I want to introduce this
message by asking you a very simple question. Do you want
something this morning to do or do you want something to believe? Most men are looking for something
to do. What can we do to work the works
of God? You get those flyers in the mail,
like I get, about these religious clubhouses meeting all over town. And they advertise their churches and hopes that you'll
come. And I got one this week. Exciting, relevant worship that
will help you to know how to live a better life. And I'm sure that men flock to
that in great numbers in hopes of discovering some trick, some
secret, some work that they can perform that will help them to
live a better life. I want you to live a better life.
I want to live a better life. It's not going to be accomplished
by what we do, it's going to be accomplished by who we believe. Who we believe. And I want you
to believe that the Lord Jesus Christ Himself is the strong
arm of God and that nothing, nothing is too hard for Him. I want you to believe that. I
want you to believe that He is able. to save to the uttermost,
that his arm is not weak, his hand is not short, that it cannot
save. Jeremiah said in Jeremiah chapter
32 verse 17, Ah Lord God, behold thou who hast made the heavens
and the earth by the great power of thy outstretched arm, is there
nothing too hard for thee? Nothing too hard for thee. The Lord told Abraham and Sarah
that at this time next year they were going to have a child. Sarah,
I remind you, was 90 years old and when she heard, she laughed. And the Lord confronted Abraham
and asked Abraham, He said, Wherefore did Sarah laugh? Is anything too hard for the
Lord? Is anything too hard for the
Lord? No. No. For us to experience the strong
right arm of God, for us to know anything of His abilities, we
must come to the end of hours. For Him to work, we must rest. The scripture says that His strength
is made perfect in our weakness. Paul said, When I am weak, then
I am strong. The Lord said, I'll not share
my glory with another, that no flesh should glory in his presence. That which is of the flesh is
flesh, and the flesh profiteth nothing. If we're going to know
anything in the strong arm of God, we're going to have to be
brought by that strong arm to be left without any ability of
our own. We're going to have to be made weak in order to experience His
strength. We just sang that. Was that Newton
that wrote that hymn we just sang about the Lord being our
Sabbath? Turn with me to Deuteronomy chapter
5. Deuteronomy chapter 5. at verse 15. And remember, remember that thou
wast a servant in the land of Egypt. Talking about the Lord saving
somebody and the person I was talking
to was just you know, wondering how that could be. He saved you. He saved me. His arm is not short that He
cannot save. He came into Egypt and brought
us out. And if He can bring me out of
Egypt, He can bring you out of Egypt, He can bring anybody out
of Egypt. He did it. Remember that thou wast a servant
in the land of Egypt. We served the taskmaster of the
law. We thought that we were earning
favor with God, and all along we were just being abused by
the Egyptian taskmasters. and that the Lord thy God brought
thee out thence." He's the one who took you by his strong right
arm and brought you out of Egypt through a mighty hand and a stretched
out arm. What was that stretched out arm
that resulted in the children of Israel coming out of Egypt?
Was it not that lamb? that was slain on that fateful
night when the death angel came through, and the firstborn in
every household was killed, and the Lord saw the blood, and after
that, Pharaoh said, out of here, be gone, be gone. And even after he changed his
mind and pursued the children of Israel, the Lord protected
them, didn't He? He put a cloud between the Egyptians
and the Israelites, and that cloud was Christ. He's that outstretched
arm. He was the lamb that was slain
before the foundation of the world. He's the cloud that protected
them, that shadowed them. He's the fire that led them by
night. He was the rock that was smitten
by Moses. He was the manna that came forth
out of heaven miraculously. He is that outstretched arm. And in all of these types and
pictures, we're reminded of what God has done for us. He's done
the same thing. He's fed us with the bread of
life. He's quenched our thirst with that water that flows from
the river of God that's clear as crystal. He has shed that
blood for us and passed over us in judgment. Look at the rest
of this verse in verse 15 of Deuteronomy chapter 5. Therefore
the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath day. To keep the Sabbath day. Now
you know there's a whole lot of folks that in their attempt
to keep the Sabbath are in fact violating the Sabbath. They've set up for themselves
certain rules and regulations of things that can be done and
ought not to be done on Sunday. And if we'll live by this set
of rules, then we will have kept the Sabbath. And we'll have earned
God's favor and God's blessings through our keeping of the Sabbath. That's not the keeping of the
Sabbath. The keeping of the Sabbath is
resting in the Lord Jesus Christ. I shared this story recently,
I'm so moved by it, when they brought that man to Moses that
was found picking up sticks on the Sabbath. And they said, what
should we do? And Moses didn't want to exercise
the law against him, so Moses went to the Lord and asked the
Lord, what do we do? And God told Moses, kill him.
Kill him. He's violated the Sabbath. He's
done work on the Sabbath. I shared that illustration once
recently and somebody said, boy I sure am glad I was in church
this morning. I said, you missed the point. You missed the point. I wasn't going to come this morning
but I came and I sure am glad I came. No. No. Picking up sticks on the
Sabbath is putting your hand to the work of Christ. He's our
Sabbath. He's the one who satisfied the
demands of God's law. Keeping the Sabbath is resting
in Christ, relying upon Him alone for all your righteousness. He's
accomplished the work of salvation. And the Lord said, I brought
you out of Egypt with a strong right arm and delivered you from
the taskmaster of the law. Therefore, I command you, keep
the Sabbath. Keep the Sabbath. Oh, if we've
been delivered by Christ, then we just keep coming back to Christ,
don't we? To whom? Coming. Keep relying
upon Him. Keep trusting Him. Keep believing
Him to be the same strong arm, the same strong arm that enables
us every day to find our hope, our comfort, and all our salvation
in His finished work. Hebrews chapter 4 tells us that
we are to labor to enter into His rest. That's the spiritual
work that's impossible for the natural man to do. That's why the Lord said this
is the work of God that you believe on Him whom God has sent. That's
the work of God. It's a miracle of grace in the
heart that enables us to enter into His rest. We won't do it. We won't do it. We come into this world as lawmongers. We live our lives thinking that
God is all together as we are, ourselves, and that we need to
earn His favor by what we do. And even as believers, we are
recovering Pharisees, aren't we? We just spend all of our
lives just being drawn. So the Lord says, Remember! You
see that in Deuteronomy chapter 5 verse 15? You still have your
Bibles open there? Remember! Remember where God
found you. Remember where you were. Remember
what He did for you and how He did it. So that you can keep the Sabbath. so that you can keep the Sabbath. Do you want something to do, or do you want someone to believe? Do you want to do something for
God, or do you want God to do something for you? Believe. Cease from your labor. even as he ceased from his." Turn with me to Luke chapter
1. Mary, after she visits with Elizabeth, makes this glorious declaration
in verse 51 of Luke chapter 1. He hath showed strength with
his arm. Luke chapter 1, verse 51. He,
the Lord, God Almighty, has shown forth His strength with his arm,
he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
He hath put down the mighty from their seats and exalted them
of low degree. He has filled the hungry with
good things, and the rich he hath sent empty away." Those
who are rich in their own righteousness, those who are like the Laodiceans
who said, We're rich, we're increased with
goods, we're in need of nothing, and the Lord said, Oh, you don't
know that you're miserable and poor and blind and naked? Come
and buy of Me. Without money, without price,
you don't have anything. You don't have anything. What
is Mary saying here? She's saying the same thing Paul
said in Galatians. God gives grace, strength, power
to the humble and he resists the proud. If we're going to
know anything about the strong right arm of God, It'll only
happen as He brings us, by that strong right arm, to acknowledge
our inability to do anything to help ourselves. Isaiah said in Isaiah 51 verse
9, Awake! Awake! Put on thy strength, O
arm of the Lord! Would you awake for me, Lord?
Would you exercise your power and your grace in my life? If that's to happen, He's going
to have to do it. He's going to have to do all
of it. I mentioned that verse in Isaiah chapter 53 verse 1. Who has believed our report? Who's believed the gospel? That's
the report. The only report we have is the
report of who the Lord Jesus Christ is and what it is He's
accomplished on behalf of His people. That's our report. But
men don't believe it. Why don't they believe it? Because it strips them of all
their righteousness and leaves them with nothing to do. It gives
to the Lord Jesus Christ all the glory and all the praise.
Men don't want that. They don't want that. And the
rest of that verse is an answer to the question when it says, to whom has the
arm of the Lord been revealed? Revealed. It's not of him that willeth.
It is not of him that runneth. It's of God that showeth mercy.
The Lord's got to reveal himself to us. The arm of the Lord must
be revealed. The Lord Jesus Christ said in
John chapter 6, no man knows the Son except the
Father. And no man knows the Father except the Son and them
whom He reveals Him. He's got to make Himself known
to us. Lord, I can't. You're past finding
out. Lord, what am I going to do to
discover God? And here again, the Lord humbles
his people, doesn't he? He brings us to that place, Lord,
I can't, I can't study this out. I can't work it out. I can't
make it happen. Lord, you're going to have to
have mercy upon me. You're going to have to open the eyes of my
understanding. You're going to have to unstop
my ears. You're going to have to reveal yourself to me. Don't you love that story in
Luke chapter 24, when the disciples are walking back to Emmaus from
Jerusalem, and the Lord comes along beside them. And he asked
him, he said, what's the matter? And they said, well, are you
a stranger from around here? I mean, they were talking to
the Lord. Are you a stranger around here? Don't you know what's
just happened? The one that we thought was the
prophet has been crucified. All our hopes are dashed. We've
got nothing else. We had all of our hope in him. And beginning with Moses, and
the Psalms, and the prophets, he began to expound to them those
things concerning himself." Their eyes were still holding,
they couldn't, they didn't know who he was until they got to
their house. And the scripture says he acted
as if he would have gone on. He said, well this is y'all's
house, I'll see y'all later. Now there's a message there.
There's a message there. Scripture says they beseeched
him to stay. Oh no, don't leave us now. Please, please come into our
home. Please break bread with us. And
in the breaking of bread, their eyes were opened and they saw
who he was. And immediately he left and went
back to Jerusalem and did the same thing for the apostles who
were gathered in an upper room that he did for them. And they
said, Oh, did not our hearts burn within us as he expounded
with us along the way, as he spake with us, as he described
himself as the fulfillment of those scriptures. If the Lord's going to be pleased
to make Himself known, He's going to do it by His Word. But He's going to have to attend
to His Word with His Spirit. The disciples said, Lord, why
speak thou to them in parables? Why do you speak to them in parables? And the Lord said, because it's
not for them to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God. That's
why I'm speaking to them in parables. This gospel message is a mystery. It's a parable to the natural
man, but unto you it has been given to understand. Lord, don't let the gospel be
a parable to me. Don't let it be a mystery to
me. The means that God uses to speak
to His people and make Himself known to them It's not dreams
and visions, it's not intuitions. Or people say, well, I saw a
sign. No. Of His own will, of God's own
sovereign will and sovereign purpose, begat He us with the
word of truth. With the word of truth. Faith
comes by hearing, and hearing comes by the Word of God. If
we're going to know God, we're going to know Him in the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ revealed to us from the pages of His Word. When Isaiah, turn back with me
to Isaiah 53, this is the same passage that the Ethiopian eunuch
you remember in Acts chapter 8 was reading when Philip came
upon him there in Gaza and the Ethiopian said Philip asked him
he said understand this what thou readest you remember what
the Ethiopian said he said how can I unless the man should guide
me come up here and explain this to me Now, is the prophet speaking
of himself or is he speaking of another? And beginning right
there, in Isaiah chapter 53, he preached unto him Jesus. He preached the Lord Jesus Christ.
He told that Ethiopian how this passage was a revelation of Christ. This is the arm of the Lord.
Look at verse 1. Who has believed our report?
To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he, the arm
of the Lord, shall grow up before him, before the Father, as a
tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He hath no form
nor comeliness, and when we shall see him there is no beauty that
we should desire him. Oh, His form and comeliness,
His visage was so marred that men couldn't look upon Him. They
shook their heads. And it's symbolic of how we look
upon Christ apart from His saving grace, apart from the arm of
the Lord being made known to us. We wouldn't be interested. He is despised and rejected of
men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and we hid as it
were our faces from Him. He was despised and we esteemed
Him not." We looked at a passage of Scripture
Wednesday night. I'll ask you to turn there with
me in John chapter 19. John chapter 19. You are aware of the fact that
when our King James Bible has words put in the text that are
in italics, it means those words weren't there in the original
text and the translators were trying to make it more readable,
but as we've seen time and time again, The passages are usually
better understood by just leaving those words out. Look at John
chapter 19 at verse 4. Pilate therefore went forth again
and saith unto him, Behold, I bring him forth to you, that you may
know that I find no fault in him. Then Jesus came forth, wearing
the crown of thorns and the purple robe, and saith unto them, Behold
the man." Who said, Behold the man? Perhaps
Pilate did. I can't speak with absolute authority
on that. But the scriptures seem to make
it. clear that it was the Lord Jesus
Christ Himself that came forth with a visage so marred, as Isaiah
63 says, He was despised, He had been beaten, flogged, mocked
with a purple crown, a purple robe, a crown of thorns placed
on his head and he comes forth out of the praetorium and stands
before the people and in making reference to all the prophecies
relating to him as the man of God, the strong right arm of
God, he cries, behold the man, look on me, look on me, look
on me. That's what Isaiah is telling
us. That's what the Lord is saying to us. That's what Philip said
to that Ethiopian. Behold the man. Look back in
our text now in Isaiah chapter 53 verse 4. Surely he, that man,
hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem
him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. He was wounded
for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement
of our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. We are healed. Oh, all the forgiveness of God
is found in this one who's called the right hand of God, the right
arm of God, the strong arm of God, the one who is able to do
for us what we cannot do for ourselves, the one who's made
himself known in his word, the one as we could go on to the
end of this chapter and see that the Father was satisfied with
him. God Almighty is satisfied with
Christ. You know what faith is? Just
a simple definition of faith. It's being satisfied with what
God's satisfied with. Are you satisfied with what God's
satisfied with? If you are, then you cease from
your labors as He ceased from His, and you rest in the strong
right arm of God. Psalm 44, let me ask you to turn
there with me. Psalm 44. Why does this One who's called the strong right
arm of God, make himself known to some and not others. Why does
he do it? Psalm 44 verse 3, for they got
not the land in possession by their own sword. You didn't save
yourself. You didn't defeat Satan. You
didn't conquer sin. You didn't deliver yourself from
Egypt. You didn't get the promised land
by your own efforts. Neither did their own arms save
them. But thy right hand, and thine
arm, and the light of thy countenance. Why? Because thou hast favor
on them. Now that word favor is grace. because you were pleased to grace
them, to gift them with salvation. They didn't do it. It wasn't
by their arm. It wasn't by their will. It wasn't by their works. It
wasn't by their efforts. Who has believed our report?
To whom has the arm of God been revealed? Has he been revealed
to you? If He has, then you know who it is that made you to differ.
You know that you didn't save yourself. You know that you didn't
make any contribution to your salvation. He did it all. Why
did He do it? By grace. By grace. Because He
favored you. Psalm 77, verse 15. You're there
in the Psalms. Look at verse 15. Thou hast with
thine arm redeemed thy people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph,
Selah. You know what the word Selah
is? Those of you that know something
about music, these Psalms were hymns. And the word Selah is
a rest in the musical score of things. So you'll be reading
the Psalms and all of a sudden you'll come to this word Selah.
In other words, just rest there a moment. Just rest there a moment. Reflect on what's just been said. Thou hast with Thine arm redeemed
Thy people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph." Just rest on that
for a while. When did He do it? When did He
do it? He did it when the Lamb was slain
before the foundations of the world. As we saw from Ecclesiastes
chapter 3 last Sunday, that which is present is past. That which
is to come is passed. All the judgments of God are
based upon what? The past. He's done it all. Notice the verb tense in verse
15. Thou hast with thine arm redeemed. The work of redemption is accomplished. It's accomplished. When God saves
a sinner, all they're doing is discovering that which is already
done. That's why you don't hear believers
say, well, I got saved at a certain, certain time and date, like religious
people do. We don't talk like that. The
Lord opened my eyes. He gave me faith to believe that
my salvation was accomplished. He's already done it. It's done. Why? Because the strong
right arm of God did it. The Lord hath made bare his holy
arm. In the eyes of all the nations,
all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God. Behold, the Lord God will come. It's what Isaiah said now, the
Lord God will come and he has come with a strong hand and with
an arm shall rule for him. Behold, his reward is with him
and his work goes before him. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
only one, he's the only one that was ever recommended to God by
his works. His works went before Him. He's
the strong right arm of God. You want something to do? You want something to believe?
Someone to believe? Can you say with Brother Paul, I know whom I have believed,
and I'm persuaded that He is able to keep that which I've
committed unto Him against that day. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we ask that
You would make Your arm known to us, humble us in our inability, Make Yourself known by Your Word.
Make us to differ, Lord. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen.