If you would, open your Bibles
with me to Isaiah chapter 60. As you're turning, let me bring
you the greetings that have been sent to you from your brethren
in Ashland. And let me tell you what a great
honor it is for me to be invited to come and worship with you
and preach the gospel of our God's free and sovereign grace.
You know by now, but it does bear repeating. how much I love
this congregation, how much I think of you, and how much I dearly
love your pastors, a dear friend of mine. And I pray the Lord's
continued blessing will be upon you. Now the title of the message
this evening is The Mighty One of Jacob. And the title comes
from verse 16 of Isaiah chapter 60. Thou shalt also suck the
milk of the Gentiles. and shalt suck the breast of
kings, and thou shalt know that I the Lord am thy Saviour and
thy Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob." Now this whole chapter
of Isaiah chapter 60 is just full. It's full of Christ, it's
full of rich comfort and encouragement for God's people and that's the
way I hope to be able, the Lord will enable me to preach these
verses this evening. Now I noticed as I read this
verse a couple weeks ago that one of the names given to our
Savior in this verse is the Mighty One of Jacob. And that caught
my attention. He doesn't say the Mighty One
of Israel like I kind of expected Him to say. He says the Mighty
One of Jacob. Now why is it He said that, the
Mighty One of Jacob? Well we know from Scripture that
God is the God of Jacob. Hold your finger there and look
over at Psalm 46. This phrase, the God of Jacob, is used 25
times in scripture. Two of them in this one psalm,
Psalm 46. Beginning in verse 7. The Lord of hosts is with us.
The God of Jacob is our refuge. Come behold the works of the
Lord. What desolations he hath made in the earth. He maketh
wars to cease and to the end of the earth. He breaketh the
bow and cutteth the spear in center. He burneth the chariot
in the fire. Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the heathen.
I will be exalted in the earth. The Lord of hosts is with us.
The God of Jacob is our refuge. Isn't that a blessing? The God
of Jacob is our refuge. That tells me that God calls
himself the God of Jacob. Because God saves sinners who
are just like Jacob. Now who is Jacob? You all know
the life and story of Jacob very well. But let's rehearse it. When Jacob was born, he wasn't
born deserving the birthright, was he? He wasn't born first.
He was born second. He didn't deserve the birthright.
And that's a picture of sinners like us. We're born in Adam. So we're not born deserving any
blessing from God. No, we're born deserving God's
wrath because we're born in Adam with Adam's sinful, rebellious
nature. As Jacob grew, it came to be
revealed Jacob's personality. Jacob was a chief. His name means
heel catcher. It's someone who tries to grab
the heel and trip an opponent so they can win a race. The Olympics
are on now. I like the Olympics. I like especially
swimming and the running events. I like to watch those competitions.
And I remember a number of years ago, my dad and I were just fascinated
with this woman, Mary Decker, this middle distance runner.
And a huge showdown set up in the Olympics with this girl,
I think she was from South Africa, Zola Budd. And they were running
the race. And their feet get tangled up
and Mary Decker falls down, breaks her leg, she's out of the Olympics.
And my dad and I are so mad. She was a heel catcher. She tripped
her. She didn't do it on purpose,
but you know, we felt like she did that on purpose, you know,
to cheat America of our gold medal. That's Jacob. He did it on purpose. He came
from the womb that way. When Jacob was born, you know
what he was doing? He was hanging on to the heel
of his brother, trying to pull him back into the womb so somehow
Jacob could be born first and get that birthright. Jacob spent
his life from the womb all through his life trying to get what didn't
belong to him by dishonest means. That's the way old Jacob operated.
And that's the nature every one of us have. We try to get what
doesn't belong to us by dishonest means. We'll do anything we can
to get it. And I'll tell you the worst way
that manifests itself. By nature, what we try to do
is somehow cheat God's holiness. Somehow sneak around the holy
requirements of God's law. We want God just to accept the
best that we can do, even though it's far from His holy standard.
And in His Word, God's given us the honest way to come to
Him. The honest way to come to God is in and through the Lord
Jesus Christ. But by nature, we try to come
some other way. Any other way that includes our
own doing. And when we do that, you know
what we're doing? We're trying to cheat Christ out of His glory
and salvation. We're just like Jacob. And Jacob
was a dishonest man. Of all the things Jacob did dishonest,
I'd say this pretty well tops the whole thing. Jacob deceived
his own father to get the birthright. And he deceived his own father
so he could steal from his only brother. What a dishonest man. But now we can't look down our
nose at Jacob, can we? Because we've got the exact same
nature he does. Nothing is more dishonest than
claiming to ourselves or trying to convince other people that
we've earned our own righteousness with our fallen nature. There's
nothing more dishonest than that. There's nothing more dishonest
than a man acting like we can do something to please God. That's so dishonest. That's Jacob. And that's the nature you and
I have too. But here's something else I know
about Jacob. Jacob was an object of God's love, of God's mercy.
He was an object of God's electing love, even though there was no
cause found in that love in Jacob. The cause of that electing love
was all found in God. Jacob have I loved, but Esau
have I hated. God set his eternal electing
love on old Jacob, that heel catcher. And one day, God met
Jacob face to face. That angel that came down and
wrestled with Jacob all night long, that's a pre-incarnate
appearance of the Savior himself. And he wrestled, he met God face
to face. And when he did, God gave Jacob
a new name. Jacob, no longer, you're not
heel catcher, you're not cheat, you're not supplanter anymore.
Now your name is Israel. Prince with God. And you know
why Jacob got a new name? Because when Jacob met God, Jacob
got a new nature. That's why he got a new name.
And if God ever meets you and me in mercy, we'll get a new
name. We'll get a new name because
He's going to give us a new nature. No longer will we have to bear
the worthless, horrible name of our father Adam. But now we'll
bear the name of our Redeemer. Jeremiah said, this is the name
Wherewith she shall be called Jehovah Sidkenu, the Lord our
righteousness. We've got a new name because
God gave us a new nature. If He ever meets us in mercy,
that's what will happen. And when God met old Jacob in
mercy, Jacob's walk was changed forever, wasn't it? As they wrestled,
the Lord touched Jacob in the hollow of his thigh, and he halted
on that, he limped on that the rest of his days. Jacob's walk
was changed, because he met the Savior. And if God ever meets
you and me in mercy, we'll have a changed walk. We'll have a
changed walk because of the new nature that God gave us. The
songwriter said, he touched me. Oh, he touched me. And oh, the
joy that floods my soul. Something happened, and now I
know what it is. He touched me, and he made me
whole, and I'm never the same again. And Jacob was blessed
of God his entire life long. And Jacob got to the end of his
life. He pulled his son Joseph aside. And Jacob looked back
over his life. Jacob had suffered many sorrows,
many heartbreaks, many trials. But when he looked back over
his life, you know what he saw? He saw God's blessing. That's
what he saw. He told Joseph. He said, Son,
God has shepherded me my whole life long. He's fed me. He's
led me. He's guarded me. He's led me
to the deep still waters. He's led me to those green pastures
of His Word. He's shepherded me my whole life
long. And the only explanation you
can find for that is Jacob was an object of God's mercy. And
what God did for Jacob. He does for every one of His
Jacobs. Every rotten, sinful, heel catcher,
cheat that God chose to save, He does the same thing for every
one of His people. And I want us to look here this
evening at some of the blessings that Isaiah lists. Blessings
that are ours because of Christ our Savior. I want us to see
what Christ, the mighty one of Jacob, has accomplished for His
people. First, we see this. God reveals Himself to the heart
of each one of His people. In verse 16 He says, I the Lord
am thy Savior, am thy Redeemer. The Lord Jesus Christ is thy
Savior. He's your Savior. As our Savior
suffered and died at Calvary, He didn't just hang there considering
Himself to be saving, A nameless mass of people that no man can
number. The Savior died saving each one
of his people with their name on his heart. There's a picture
of that in the Old Testament on the Day of Atonement. That
high priest would wear the breastplate with the names of the tribes
of Israel on it. That's a picture of Christ our
great high priest offering himself as the sacrifice to God with
the names of every one of his people on their heart as if they
were the only one he was dying for. Gary with your name on his
heart. Can you imagine such a thing?
But that's what he did for his people. And as Brother Marvin
said, we love to come together in public worship. This side
of glory, I agree with you, this is the greatest blessing we have,
to come together in public worship, to sing the praises of our Redeemer,
to read the Word of God, to hear His Gospel preached. In public
worship, it's got to be public. But you know there's something
very personal about worship, isn't there? Even though we're
in a group of people, Worship comes from my heart. Praise comes
from my heart. Baptism is a public confession. You can't baptize somebody in
secret. Baptism is a public confession
of Christ. But yet it is intensely personal,
isn't it? It's a public confession. Confessing
that Christ died for me. He died, He was buried and He
rose again for me. The Lord's table is the same
way. The Lord's table is part of public worship. The Lord's
table is intensely personal. Let a man examine himself and
so let him eat. And when the men distribute the
bread and the wine, I must take and eat. I must take and drink. Confessing, believing that the
only hope I have that my sin has been purged is the sacrifice
of Christ. His body was broken for me. His
blood was shed to put away my sin. Public worship is public. I'm preaching to a whole group
of people gathered together. But you know what the blessing
of public worship is? That God speaks to the heart,
each individual heart of His people. I can't remember how
many times I told Brother Henry and how many times someone has
said this to me when I get done preaching. God gave you that
message just for me. And somebody else thinks the
exact same thing. How can that be? Because God
speaks to the heart of His people. He reveals Himself to the heart
of all of His Jacobs. And He'll never leave you. Well,
here's the second thing. Look over in verse 10. Christ,
the Mighty One of Jacob, He saved His people. He redeemed them
by the sacrifice of Himself. Verse 10, And the sons of strangers
shall build up thy walls, and their kings shall minister unto
thee. For in my wrath I smoked thee, but in my favor have I
had mercy on thee. Now we understand exactly what
the prophet means when he said, in my favor have I had mercy
on thee. We understand that. God didn't
give us the damnation that we deserve. We understand God had
mercy on thee. We understand what he means.
But what does the prophet mean when he says, in my wrath I smoke
thee? We weren't smitten. Christ our
substitute was smitten, but we weren't. So what does Isaiah
mean here? I'll tell you what he's talking about. He's talking
about union with Christ. When Christ our substitute was
smitten for our sin, so were we who believe. Our sin was punished
in the person of Christ our substitute. We were smitten in Him. When
Christ our substitute died for our sin, so did we who believe. We died in Him. You know why
the law is not hunting you? Because the law is satisfied. The law says you already died.
in the person of your substitute. When Christ our substitute arose
from the dead, so did we who believe. We arose to newness
of life in him and we live because he lives. What Isaiah is talking
about here is union with Christ. Christ our substitute, he suffered
and died under the wrath of God against the sin of his people.
So now in justice God shows mercy to his people. He shows mercy
to everyone that Christ died for. God pours out his mercy
upon his people. You know why? Because he poured
out his wrath against our sin on the person of our substitute.
So now he's merciful to his people because Christ has redeemed them
from all their sin. Thirdly, Christ the mighty one
of Jacob has built a wall around his people. Look at the beginning
of verse 10 again. And the sons of strangers shall
build up thy walls, and their kings shall minister unto thee. Christ has built up the walls
of his kingdom. Now walls, you know those great
cities of old, you know they built the city and they built
these huge walls around them to protect them from their enemies.
Walls are built to protect us, to keep the enemy out. Christ
Himself is the wall of fire about His people to keep the enemy
out so the enemy can't touch us. Our Lord said that all of
His people are in the hand, the almighty hand of His Father. That hand completely encircles
us just like those walls circle those cities. And I know we're
safe from that hand because the Lord said no man is able to pluck
them out of my hand. That wall about us keeps us safe
and secure from all of our enemies. But walls serve a dual purpose.
Walls are also built to keep people in, aren't they? You know
those sheepfolds they would bring the sheep to at night? They had
walls around them. Those walls serve two purposes.
Number one, the wall kept the wolf out. And number two, the
wall kept the sheep from wandering off. If it wasn't for the wall,
the wolf wouldn't have to come. The sheep would just wander off
and the wolf would get them. Those walls were there to protect
the sheep from themselves. I don't know about you, but that's
what I need. I need God to protect me from
myself. I am my own worst enemy. And
that's what these walls are. It's the great hand of our God
who keeps the sheep and will not let us wander away from Him
so that we can become lost. These walls mean this, that believers
are safe in Christ the Mighty One of Jacob. We'll never leave
Him. We'll never wander off and the
enemy will never steal us from Him. We're safe with Him. Then
fourthly, Christ the Mighty One of Jacob gives His people constant
access to the Father. Verse 11, Therefore thy gates
shall be opened continually. They shall not be shut day nor
night. that men may bring unto thee the forces of the Gentiles,
and that their kings may be brought." Now these open gates represent
Christ opening the way, opening the way to God for sinful people
to come to God through Him. You who believe, you can come
to God at all times. Anytime you desire the way to
God is open, you can come to Him. You might wake up at three
o'clock in the morning. It's dark. And everything seems
worse at that time in the morning, doesn't it? You're alone and
you're worried. Everything seems worse. And you
think, well, I can't call so-and-so. They're asleep. You can call
on God. He never slumbers nor sleeps. And this way is always open. You'll never find access to God
closed. You'll never have some unforeseen
event that will block the way and stop you from coming to the
Father. Last Sunday evening, I was supposed to go to Lexington,
preach Sunday evening service at Todd's Road Grace Church.
And my brother was driving me. We were driving along on our
merry way. Everything was going good. We
were going to get there hours in advance. And suddenly everything
came to a screeching halt. There had been a wreck on the
westbound lane of I-64 that closed both the westbound and eastbound
lanes. Stuck. We're sitting there looking
on our phones trying to figure out. They said, well, we think
it will be open. We'll get one lane open of the
westbound lane. We'll get one lane open by 430.
I told John, if they open it at 430, I think we'll make it. If they open it at 445, I don't
think we will. The way was closed. So what we
did is we found a way to cross the median. We turned around.
We went back through this little old road. Marvin, it had to be
a trail Daniel Boone carved. I mean, it was just the windiest.
It got down to be a one lane thing. And I thought, oh my,
we're in trouble. And then, lo and behold, we come
out on the opposite way that I normally come up to the church
building. There we were. Well, we kind of found our way
there. But you listen to me. That will never happen to you
if you come to God in Christ. Never. The way is always open. You'll never have to find some
way to sneak in the back. The way to God is always open
for the believer. Because Christ, the mighty one
of Jacob has opened that way with his blood. Let me show you
that in Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10, verse 17. And their sins and iniquities
will I remember no more. Now where remission of these
is, there is no more offering for sin. Having therefore, brethren,
boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new
and living way, which he hath consecrated for us through the
veil, that is to say his flesh, and having a high priest over
the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart and full
assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil
conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. A child of God
has boldness, freedom to enter into the presence of the Father
because the blood of Christ has made us accepted. The blood of
Christ has cleansed us from all of our sin So the Holy God will
always accept us with open arms if we come in Christ. There's
no reason for Him not to accept us. Now if Christ died for us,
there's not. Christ opened the way for Jacob
of all people to come to God by his blood. Now what is it
you need? What burden is there on your
heart? Come to God. Come to God. Let's come to God in full assurance
of faith. Now, not assurance of anything
we've done. Now, let's make that clear. It's full assurance of
faith. We're fully assured because we
believe Christ. We come to God in full assurance
of faith that believes assuredly the sacrifice of Christ is all
I need to have my sin forgiven. We come to God in full assurance
of faith that believes undoubtedly that the obedience of Christ
is all it takes to make me righteous and accepted of the Father. And
if you look back in our text, Isaiah 60, verse 18 gives us
a summary of these blessings that we have in the walls and
the gates. Verse 18, violence shall no more
be heard in thy land, wasting or destruction within thy borders,
But thou shalt call thy walls salvation, and thy gates praise."
These walls that keep us close to Christ, that keep us so the
enemy can't steal us and so we can't wander off, that's the
assurance of our salvation. He'll keep us safe in Him. And those open gates, that's
our reason to praise God, because Christ has opened the way for
sinners like you and me to come to Him through His Son. But you
know the opposite of faith. There's always the other side
of the coin in there. The opposite of faith is unbelief. And unbelief ends in utter destruction. We see that in verse 12. For
the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish.
Yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted. They'll be utterly wasted
because they refused to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. They
kept being like Jacob, trying to cheat and find some other
way. But those who come to God in Christ will always be accepted. Well, here's the fifth thing.
Christ, the mighty one of Jacob, is going to humble his people
and bring them to his feet. Verse 13. The glory of Lebanon
shall come unto thee, the fir tree, the pine tree, and the
box together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary, and I'll
make the place of my feet glorious. Now, by nature, We don't want
to sit humbly at anybody's feet, do we? Not me. Now, I'll just sit right up there
equal with you. I'm not sitting at somebody's feet. Well, that's
our pride, isn't it? But Christ, the Mighty One of
Jacob, He's got the might. He will break His people. He'll
break us. And He'll give us a new nature
that we'll sit at His feet. And when he does that, then we'll
see how beautiful, how glorious it is to sit at the feet of Christ
and to worship Him, to hear His words. Every believer, every
one of them, they all admire Mary. You know why they admire
Mary? She did what we desire to do.
She sat at the feet of Christ and she heard His words because
she desired that good part. She desired that one thing needful. And Christ is going to bring
all of His people to that place where we sit at His feet and
hear His Word. That's how He's going to save
us, through the hearing of His Word. What a blessing! How thankful
I am! God broke me. Aren't you glad? God breaks His people and humbles
them so that they see sitting at His feet is glorious. Learning
of Him. Seeing Him. Here's the sixth
thing. Christ, the mighty one of Jacob,
will always feed his people with the milk of the word. Verse 16,
Thou shalt also suck the milk of the Gentiles, and shalt suck
the breast of kings. Now, what Isaiah here is talking
about for national Israel is that they're going to go into
captivity in Babylon, and then they're going to be set free
from their captivity, and the kings of the Gentiles are going
to give them everything they need to rebuild their city, rebuild
the temple, and restore Jerusalem the way it was. Gentile kings
gave them the money and the means to do all that. That's what he's
talking about for national Israel. But I'll tell you what he's talking
about spiritually. He's talking about a babe in Christ coming
to nurse at the church. To nurse and be fed the sincere
milk of the Word. And you know, the milk of the
Word is for every believer. It's not just for babes, but
for every believer. It's the simple milk of the Word
that feeds and sustains and encourages and blesses the heart of the
oldest believer. It really is amazing how simple
the gospel is. It's so simple a child can understand
the rudiments, they understand the gospel, they understand what
that means because it's so simple. Yet that simple gospel that a
four-year-old can understand is a great blessing to the oldest
believer that's heard it 10,000 times. That's the sincere milk
of the word. The Lord's Table. Isn't that
a simple ordinance? It's just plain unleavened bread
and plain old wine. Oh, but what a picture it gives
us to clearly remember the sacrifice of our Savior. Baptism. It's so simple. It's a simple
ordinance. You don't have a bunch of fanfare.
It's just a pool full of water and dunk somebody under it and
lift them up. It's so simple. But what a glorious picture we
have in baptism that our salvation is through the death, the burial,
and the resurrection of Christ. And milk like that, plain preaching
like that, is for sinners. It's for people like Jacob. I
think that's why God calls this the milk of the Gentiles. It's
milk, number one, for the Gentiles. The Jews considered the Gentiles
to be the worst sinner there was. If you wanted to really
insult a Jew, you call them a Gentile. That's vile. That's us, isn't
it? This is the milk of the Gentiles.
It's a gospel for sinners. And you know today, it's milk
preached by Gentiles now, isn't it? You know, the Jews as a nation
rejected the Lord. They would not have that man
to reign over them and God took His presence from them. He took
His gospel from them. Almost exclusively today, the
gospel is preached by Gentiles. The gospel is preached by those
sinful men that the Jews hated so much. The gospel is preached
by sinful men to sinful men. Who better to tell a beggar where
to find bread? than another beggar who went
and found it. That's the gospel. That's how
God feeds and strengthens his people through the milk of his
word. Then seventh, Christ the mighty one of Jacob enriches
all of his people. Verse 17, for brass I will bring
gold and for iron I will bring silver and for wood brass and
for stones iron. I will also make thy officers
peace, and thine exactors righteousness." And nothing enriches a believer
except Christ. Now we can't be enriched by anything
we do. We can't be blessed by anything
we bring to God. It's got to be all found in Christ. And that's what Isaiah is talking
about here. Think about it for yourself. Before God saved you,
what were you doing? Under whatever different heading
and different thing that you can think of, I tell you what
we're doing. We're trying to bring our own works to God. That's
exactly what we're doing. Hoping somehow that God would
accept us. 6,000 years after Cain, we haven't
changed a bit, have we? Still bringing the best we got
to God, and it's still not good enough. Our works can never be
accepted. Our works aren't good enough.
They're not valuable enough. But Christ is. He's valuable
enough. Everything about grace is richer
than anything about works. By nature, we try to bring brass
to God. He said, for brass, I'll bring
gold. By nature, we brought brass to God. Christ brought gold. Now what is brass? Brass is an
alloy. It's a mixture of copper and
zinc. That's what we try to do. We try to bring a mixture of
grace and works to God. And He'll never accept it. But
Christ, God's Son, brought the pure gold of His deity. And the Father accepted that.
And He accepts His people in pure grace. Not a mixture now,
pure grace. We're accepted in pure grace. We try to bring iron to God.
But Christ brought silver. We brought the hardness of human
nature. That's what that iron represents.
It's cold and it's dead and it's hard and it's inflexible. God
will never accept that. But Christ our Savior brought
pure silver. Silver in the Old Testament is
always used for the price of redemption. The redemption price
was always paid with silver. That's Christ. He brought that
pure silver. The pure redemption price was
paid by His precious blood. We tried to bring wood to God,
but Christ brought brass. We brought the wood, hay, and
stubble of our works. And it won't get the job done,
will it? Our works are easily burned up in the fire of God's
wrath. But Christ brought brass. Now there's that alloy again.
What is it that Christ brought as an alloy? I imagine everybody
here has heard this statement. This is talking about the alloy.
The God-man. The Lord Jesus Christ was as
much God as if He were not man. And as much man as if He were
not God. If Scott would have just trademarked
that phrase, you'd be rich man. I can tell you every time I quote
that. The God-man. The man, Christ
Jesus, is God. And in His sacrifices, He hung
on there on Calvary's tree. He withstood the fire of God's
wrath against the sin that was laid on Him. He was able to endure
the fire of God's wrath until the fire went out. Normally,
what happened with the sacrifice, that burnt sacrifice? The fire
went out when the sacrifice was consumed, wasn't it? In this
case, the sacrifice consumed the fire. The fire went out because
the sacrifice consumed it. All the sin that fueled the fire
of God's wrath is removed by the sacrifice of Christ the God-man. And he says, I'll make your officers
peace and I'll make your exactors righteousness. The officers and
the exactors are overseers. They're God's pastors. And here's
how you can identify God's pastors. Their message is going to be
peace in Christ alone and righteousness in Christ alone. Because He's
the one who purchased our salvation for us. Then in 8th, Christ,
the mighty one of Jacob, gives his people light that they can
never lose. Verse 19. The sun shall be no
more thy light by day, neither for brightness shall the moon
give light unto thee, but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting
light, and thy God thy glory. Thy sun shall no more go down,
neither shall thy moon withdraw itself, for the Lord shall be
thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall
be ended. And you can read, I believe it's
in Revelations 22, you clearly see this is talking about Christ,
the light of the world. John saw that New Jerusalem,
it didn't have any need of sun or moon, because Christ the Lamb
was the light of it. This is talking about Christ,
the light of the world, the light of His people. And there are
several things about light. First, light is life. You can't
have any life without light. We need light for things to grow
and live. That's Christ. He's the life
of His people, because He's the light of His people. And light
is also understanding. It's a picture of understanding.
When we have light, we see. When we say, oh I see, we mean
I understand. In Christ the light, now we see. Once we see Christ, now I see
what I really am in the light of who He is. Now I see how much
I need Him in the light of who He is. And now I see how God
can be just and save a sinner like me. It's got to be through
the sacrifice of this One, Christ. And thirdly, light is joy. We have joy in Christ. That's
why Isaiah said, the days of your mourning are ended. Mourning
has ended because Christ has borne our griefs and carried
our sorrows and put them away. And the light that we have in
Christ is everlasting. Isaiah said the suns never go
down. The moon is never going to depart from you. This light
will never end. In this life, that light will
never end. And certainly, in the life to
come, that light will never end. In glory, we're going to have
this light, this life and understanding and joy, perfectly, eternally. And then last, Christ, the Mighty
One Objective, makes His people righteous. Verse 21. Thy people
also shall be all righteous. They shall inherit the land forever,
the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may
be glorified. I want you to notice this doesn't
say that thy people shall be called righteous. No, they're
not called righteous because they are righteous. Even those
words shall be are in italics. They've been added by the translators.
This is what Isaiah wrote. Thy people also All righteous. They are all righteous right
now. Not someday. You don't have to
wait until you wake in glory to be righteous. God's people
are all righteous right now in the Lord Jesus Christ. He has
made us righteous through His obedience to the law. God, the
Father, made Him to be sin. And He made us the righteousness
of God in Him. We're righteous right now. See,
we're the work of Christ hanging. This is all the work of Christ.
So He gets all the glory. And we're righteous through union
with Christ. That's what this planting is
all about. It's talking about union with Christ. When Christ
was obedient, His people were obedient in Him. The believer
is planted in Christ. Joined to Christ because we're
made part of the body of Christ. In chapter 61, verse 3, He says
this again. 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." Now I'm telling you,
these people who are so greatly blessed, isn't this a great blessing
that Jacob's have in the God of Jacob? But I'm telling you,
they just don't look like much right now. It does not yet appear
what we shall be. They're little now. There's no
counting on themselves right now. But the mighty one of Jacob,
he's going to make them a strong nation. Boy, I sure would like
to know when he's going to do that. He's going to do it in
his time. Look at verse 22. A little one
shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation.
I, the Lord, will hasten it in his time." Well, what can we
say to that? Lord, hasten the day. Thank you
for these blessings. Oh, what blessings we have in
the mighty one of Jacob. And Lord, hasten the day. Hasten
the day when you make it so. The Lord bless you.