Now here in chapter 63 of Isaiah,
the first several verses is pictured the Lord Jesus Christ as the
mighty conqueror. Clearly he's a warrior who's
returning from battle. His garments are covered with
blood and there's figurative language concerning treading
the winepress. We'll talk about that a little
bit. But this is Christ pictured He was in David when they sang
that song Saul hath slain his thousands and David his ten thousands
This is Christ our captain the captain of our salvation And
he's pictured as being two things in his apparel And that's interesting
in his apparel two things a In the scriptures, the apparel is
always our standing before God. It has to do with our standing
before God. Remember what the first apparel
was. The first apparel, the first time there was clothing. There
was an attempt by Adam and Eve to sew fig leaves together and to make a garment, but that
didn't cover anything. The first clothing was made by
God. And blood had to be shed in order
to cover the shame of Adam and Eve. And what was the purpose
of that? Well, they had been naked before
God, before the fall, and there was no understanding of guilt. There was no guilt. There was
nothing wrong. But then having fallen, it represented
Their standing before God now was one of guilt and shame and
sin. And that had to be covered, it
had to be provided for. And so that was the first clothing
that was ever made, it was made by God. Remember the white robes
in Revelation chapter seven, verse 14. Who are these who are
arrayed in white? And John said, thou knowest.
He said, these are they who have washed their robes and made them
white in the blood of the lamb. They wouldn't have been there
in that place. We don't get to glory. We don't get to be with
him forever unless our standing before him is one of spotless
righteousness washed in his blood. Remember the wedding garment.
The kingdom of heaven is like unto a king that made a marriage
for his son. And in that parable, There were
those who came into that marriage feast that had not on a wedding
garment. That was a garment that was provided
by the king himself. And you're not welcome without
it. You're not in on what God is doing in glorifying his son.
You're an outcast. Remember the best robe in the
story of the prodigal son. It begins to be clear what apparel
is, what clothing is, what covering. The best robe. The father welcomed
the prodigal son back. He ran to meet him. He said,
kill the fatted calf and bring my ring and put it on him and
bring him the best robe. and put it on him, showing that
that represented the favor of the Father. You're home, you're
mine, you're safe. You have everything you need
now, everything you want. And that was the representation
there. This is how important the apparel is in the scriptures. But if Christ is our apparel,
and we see that, Paul said, put you on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Then why does he need apparel if this is him in our text? And
it is, clearly. Why does he need apparel before
the Father? As a man, he must be acceptable
as our representative. As God, of course, he needs no
apparel. He dwells in the light to which
no man can approach. He dwells in holiness and perfection. But as a man born into this world,
our representative, our last Adam, he had to be acceptable,
holy in the sight of God. He must be these two things in
our text, in his apparel, in his standing before God as a
man. And that's why we see him arrayed
here in this way, characterized in these two ways.
Because of who he is and what he came to accomplish, because
he represents us. He had to put on human flesh,
did he not? And as a man, he didn't take
upon him the nature of angels, but he took mine. Yours and this
is a picture of course the actual clothing is just a surface thing
what's underneath you can't cover up sin with physical clothing,
but this picture is a spiritual nature a standing Acceptance
and the qualities that result in acceptance with God the qualities
that are necessary for acceptance with God that's what the apparel
represents in all of those places we talked about and more and
in the scripture. And Christ had to be, he was,
and he is two things in his apparel. As our representative in the
sight and presence of God as a man, he is two things in his
apparel, glorious and red. Honorable, that's what that word
glorious means, it means full of honor. Honorable. and bloody. And here is why, the last phrase
of verse one, look at this. Let's do a little word study
here. Look at the last part of verse
one. I that speak in righteousness,
he's identifying himself here. I that speak in righteousness,
mighty to save. Now think about that. That relates
exactly, precisely to the two things that he is in his apparel.
I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save, that phrase is
sandwiched between the mention of these two qualities in his
apparel. Righteousness and mighty to save.
He is honorable before God. He's honorable, that's that word
glorious again, it's honorable. And he's honorable before God
that is righteous in thought, word, and deed. Perfect. You can be obedient without being
honorable. You know that, right? As a child,
I was often obedient out of necessity. There wasn't much honorable about
it because I was grumbling in my heart the whole time and hating.
I despised the whole thing. I wanted to be God, just like
we all do, by nature. I didn't want anybody telling
me what to do. I'd do it now, because I didn't want to whoop
it. But there wasn't anything honorable about it. You see what
I'm saying? You can do exactly what you're told, and it'd still
be sin. If you have rebellion in your
heart while you're doing it, it's sin. And Christ not only
did and does righteousness, he loved and loves righteousness. He hungers and thirsts after
it. They said to him one day, Lord, you're gonna have to eat
something. You haven't eaten anything for so long, you're
not gonna, you can't live like that. He said, I have meat to
eat that you know not of. You know what it was? Doing the
will of his father. doing righteousness, doing what's
right. Hebrews 1.8, unto the son he
saith, God the father saith, thy throne, O God. The son is
God co-equal with the father. Thy throne, O God, is forever
and ever. A scepter of righteousness is
the scepter of thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness
and hated iniquity. Therefore God, even thy God,
hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows."
He was not only righteous, he loved righteousness. The word honorable or glorious
in the text here is key, but he is also mighty to save. Remember
our word there at the end of verse one? I that speak in righteousness,
there's his honorableness before God. Everything he did, he did
in righteousness, thought, word, and deed, but also mighty to
save. And so he is red in his apparel
as well as glorious. He can be perfectly honorable
and glorious and everybody go to hell. You think that would
diminish his glory at all? Would that make him unrighteous?
Would he not be doing the right thing if he put every one of
us in hell? But if he's gonna be honorable and mighty to save,
That is, when I say mighty to save, and when the scripture
says mighty to save, you know what that's talking about? He
saves whoever he wants to save. That's what that means. Mighty
to save. Having mercy on whomever he will
have mercy. If he's gonna be honorable and
mighty to save, then he must be bloody in his apparel also.
Got to be red. And clearly that word red in
verse two represents blood because we see that plainly in verse
three. But also, do you know what that
word red is? Let's look at verse three so
you don't have to, you're probably reading it while I'm talking,
but look at verse three. I've trodden the winepress alone
and of the people there was none with me. And I will tread them
in my anger and trample them in my fury and their blood shall
be sprinkled upon my garments. So he's red in that sense, but
it's not only their blood that stains his garments. All of the
scripture is clear about this. But let's talk about it. That
word there, red, regards the blood that was on his garments. But do you know what that word
red is? Adam. He got to be Adam, doesn't he?
He must be Adam in his apparel. He must stand before God as the
man. Remember what Pilate said? Behold,
the man. I don't imagine Pilate had any
idea that when he said that, that's God. There's really just
one man. There's just one. I've heard
people say there's only ever been two men, and everybody is
represented by those two men, and that's true in the sense
that all of us, Adam was our federal head in the garden, and
all are represented by Adam, all died in him, all are sinful
in him. And then there's what Christ
has called the last Adam. But really, can you call Adam
a man? If God made man to glorify him
and to honor him and to obey him and to rejoice in him and
to be with him, What is man that thou art mindful of him? Adam didn't measure up, but the
last Adam did. He's the man now, he's the man. And then think about this, how
does God bleed? God is spirit, how does God bleed? Adam, you got to be Adam. He
got to be read in his apparel. How does life die? It behooved him to be made like
unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high
priest in things pertaining to God. That he might be our high priest,
represent us, and have something to offer his precious blood. First Corinthians 15.45, and
so it is written, the first man, Adam, was a living soul because
God breathed into him the breath of life. The last Adam was made
a quickening spirit. Adam lived. The last Adam gave
life. Adam was the recipient of life.
The last Adam is the one that gives it, both physical and spiritual. You see what he's saying there,
a quickening spirit, a life-giving spirit. Adam was a living soul,
but Christ is a quickening, a life-giving spirit. How be it that was not
first, which is spiritual, but that which is natural, and afterward,
that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth,
earthy. The second man is the Lord from
heaven. You see that word, Adam, red,
ruddy, The last Adam is a quickening, life-giving spirit. How is it
that he gives life to dead sinners? He must be Adam in his apparel
and he must be red with blood as well. Turn with me please
to 1 John chapter 4. I want us to look at this together
because we quote this a lot, but I want to show a little bit
of the context of it. 1 John 4, 9. in regard to our text tonight. Who is this that is glorious
in his apparel? Who is red in his apparel? 1 John 4, 9, in this was manifested
the love of God toward us. Remember what we talked about,
he's a life-giving spirit. How does he bestow life? How does he give life to dead
sinners? Then this was manifested, the
love of God toward us because that God sent his only begotten
son into the world that we might live through him. That we might
live, we're dead. If he died, we read that this
morning, we reckon that if he died, it's because we were dead.
We ought to live for him now that died for us. that we might
live through him, how's that gonna happen? Herein is love,
not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son
to be the propitiation for our sins. Not only is that, we talk about
that being the definition of love, that's what God said, here's
love, you wanna know what love is? Here it is. It's not you,
it's not a quality of yours, it's what God did for us. It's also the definition of life.
He did that that we might live through him. He loved that we
might live. And the love that resulted in
life for us looks like this. He is glorious and red in his
apparel. Glorious and bloody. it says
he travels in the greatness of his strength in our text he travels
in the greatness of his strength listen to first corinthians one
twenty three we preach christ crucified unto the jews a stumbling
block they were looking for a miracle weren't they they were looking
for signs show us a miracle moses did miracles you know we want
to see And unto the Greeks, the philosophers,
the wise of this world, he was foolishness. He represented foolishness. But unto them which are called,
both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, the power of
God, his gospel, which is just him expressed, him declared,
him heralded, is the power of God unto salvation to those that
believe on him. Christ, the power of God and
the wisdom of God. And listen, verses three and
four, you remember we read there, verses three, it speaks of his
enemies being trampled. He's trampling his enemies now.
And it only mentions that the blood that's gonna sprinkle his
garments is that of his enemies in there. But listen, it is said,
that since it is not his blood mentioned here that stains his
garment, that this is not in our text a picture or a declaration
of Christ sacrificing himself for sinners on Calvary for his
people. But this is talking about a future
defeating of his enemies, spoken about in the book of Revelation,
which we'll see one of these days, maybe a year or more. But
in Revelation, it talks about the blood of his enemies running
bridal deep and things like that. And that does talk about that. But listen, first of all, let
me say this about that, that those who say this is not Christ
crucified here, that's glorious and red in his apparel, but this
is Christ the avenger, come back to earth, to kill everyone. Two things about that. First
of all, don't miss the word redeemed in verse four. The year of my
redeemed is come. That's why he's red in his apparel
because the year of redemption is come. Also now the day of
vengeance in the same verse four. It is the day of vengeance. It's
also the year of his redeemed. Don't miss that. But the second
thing about that and identifying whether this is Christ crucified
or Christ the avenger coming in his second coming. Is it Christ
the first time he came? Hanging on the cross, defeating
our enemies? Or is it Christ coming back the
second time in vengeance and wrath upon his enemies? Well,
think about this. Where are all of God's enemies? My enemies, your enemies, every
enemy. If you're his, that's your enemies.
My enemies, God's enemies. Where were they all defeated? Are we waiting for that to happen? I believe now it does make reference
to this in Revelation in Christ's second coming. And it is characterized
by vengeance upon his enemies. So that's included in this, I
believe too. But the victory was and is already won. He's already defeated all of
our enemies. They're just waiting to find
out about it. I don't know if Satan knows it for sure yet or
not, but he's done. And it's not gonna happen one
of these days. It happened on Calvary. It happened on the cross. The serpent's head is crushed
on the cross. So I wouldn't exclude what it's
talking about in Revelation regarding his second coming. I believe
that's some manifestation and some experience of what was accomplished
on Calvary. Just like, are we saved yet? But what's gonna happen, we're
gonna be saved, right? But why? Because we were saved
on Calvary. Because he shed his precious
blood. So it's both, don't exclude, don't miss. Everything in the
word of God has to do with Christ giving himself a ransom for his
people. You wanna talk about our enemies
being destroyed, you're gonna have to look to Calvary. We're not waiting on future victory.
He giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. And so
that's happening here now. Whatever happens in the future
will be a direct result of the victory already won by Christ
on the cross. Past, present, and future all
points to the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. God forbid that
we glory in anything or anybody else. The one who is glorious,
a just God, and bloody, a savior. Alone is a key word in verse
three. There's a lot in these verses
that we read tonight Alone, I've treaded alone the wine press
alone See If you see I want you to
turn to another scripture just one verse with me and I want
you to think of these words Glorious and red we saw those right from
the start didn't we and alone another word alone Hebrews 1
3 See if you see our text in this
verse, Hebrews 1 and verse 3. Hebrews 1, 3, who being the brightness
of his glory, he's glorious in his apparel now. We didn't see
any beauty in him as a man now. Oh, but he's the very brightness
of the glory of God as a man. You might say, well, of course
he's the brightness of his glory. He is God, but as a man now,
most will never see him this way. And the express image of
his person and upholding all things by the word of his power. There's another word that's in
our text. I missed one. You see how it says he traveling
in the greatness of his strength in our text. By the word of his
power, when he had by himself purged our sins, he's bloody
in his apparel too, isn't he? He purged our sins and he sat
down at the right hand of the majesty on high. But think about those two words
right before he purged our, he did it by himself. Alone he tread
the winepress of God's wrath. You've heard the phrase, the
winepress of God's wrath. And the reason you've heard that
phrase is because it's in the book of Revelation. It doesn't
say the winepress of God's wrath here, but that's what it is.
It's the exact picture that's in Revelation. The winepress
of the wrath of God. What happens in a winepress?
Something's crushed and somebody crushes it. That's talking about
the wrath of God. And so we'll talk about that
in a minute. But did you see those words? Glorious in his
apparel. Purged our sins. He's red. By himself, alone. And that one
that I missed until now, by the word of his power, he's traveling
in the strength, the greatness of his strength. And notice in
our text, he's coming from Edom. And that also means red. You'll
see the similarity to the word Adam. Adam, Edom. It's a different
form of the word Adam. It means red, too. And the Lord
Jesus came from Adam. He cometh from Edom. Think about
that. Well, wait a minute, Chris. He
didn't come from Adam, now. He was born of a virgin. He didn't have a sinful nature.
That's exactly right. But he's a descendant of Adam,
nonetheless. Mary came from Adam, didn't she? In that sense now, all of us
did. Every human being came from Adam
in that sense. He's the one exception that when
he was born in the lineage of Adam at some point down the line,
he wasn't born with a sin nature because he's not the seed of
man, he's a seed of woman, born of a virgin. so that the nature
of man wasn't passed on to him. But as a descendant of Adam,
born with the nature of man, in that sense, he was born with
the nature of man, yet without sin. His virgin birth is the
reason that he's born without the sinfulness, the sinful nature
of man. But human, human, yet sinless. And so from Edom in that sense.
And his garment, it says there, who is this that cometh from
Edom with dyed garments from, his garment came from Basra.
What does that word mean? Fortress, sheepfold, and enclosure. Because of his glorious red apparel,
we are forever hedged about. held in his hand and safe. His
red garment is our fortress. Under the blood of Jesus, safe
though the worlds may crumble. Verse four is given as a reason
for verse three. You see that? For the day of
vengeance is in my heart and the year of my redeemed is come. What's that word for, therefore?
Well, I've trodden the winepress alone, and of the people there
was none with me. I've tread them in my anger, trampled them
in my fury, and their blood shall be sprinkled. Really, all of
it. Here's the reason given. Here's why all that happens,
why he does what he does. Why is his garment stained red?
Why has he fought? Why did the Son of God have to
fight? Why did he have to win a victory? because of his enemies
and because of his friends. That's verse four. Vengeance
and redeemed. These key words now in these
texts, they outline it for us, don't they? They help us to understand
verse by verse what's taking place. This is why. That blood represents vengeance
It also represents redemption. That's why I know it's not just
the blood of his enemies. It doesn't say that, does it?
That it's just that. He's red in his apparel and his
garments are sprinkled with the blood of his enemies. He did what he did at Calvary
to kill and to make alive. punish and redeem That's what
he did That's what he did The preaching of his cross is the
savor of life and death But always victory always triumph 2nd Corinthians
2 14 through 17 That is because his cross, the
reason his gospel is the saver of both is because his cross
is a victory for the purpose of and resulting in both life
and death. Destruction of every enemy of
his and ours as his people. And the redemption of everyone
that he's loved with an everlasting life. Verse four is a big verse
and it gives the reason for all of it. What's all this about? What's all this blood? What's
all this destruction and the whole thing, what's it for? What
does it mean? It means that nobody ever gets
away with sin. It means that sin is always punished
and it means that he loves sinners. some of them, enough to shed
his precious blood to redeem them from all their sin. That's
why he did everything he did. Think of this verse now in Exodus
14, 13. Turn over there with me, Exodus
14, 13, please, dude. I don't mean to just... If you would, please, turn over
to Exodus 14, 13. Think of this verse when you're
thinking about Who this is that comes with glorious red apparel
and why does he look like that? Why is he glory? What has he
done? What's he accomplished? Look
at Exodus 14, 13. And Moses said unto the people,
fear you not, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord,
which he will show to you today for the Egyptians whom you have
seen today You shall see them again, no more, forever. Think about this, what I'm about
to say, because this is verse four of our text. This is a glorious picture of
perfect salvation accomplished by Christ on Calvary. What do
you mean, Chris? How is it a perfect picture?
Every enemy destroyed. Those in bondage set free. And what's our part in it? Just
stand there and watch him save you. That's what happens when
we look to Calvin. Stand still and see the salvation
of the Lord in Christ crucified, in the gospel. Just stand there
and watch him save you. God's gonna use a red sea. And when he does, when he's finished,
when he's done with it, The way he described it in that verse,
what do you call it? What happened today? Salvation,
that's what happened. Salvation. See the salvation
of the Lord. And there was death and life
that day. And there is every time the gospel goes forth. And
there will be in the end. And this signifies both now.
It's not just his second coming in Revelation when he'll wreak
vengeance upon us. He's already defeated all of
our enemies. Look to Calvary, look at the
one who is glorious and red in his apparel, and don't be afraid. I didn't comment on that in the
verse we just read there. He said this, don't be afraid. Moses said it, that's the first
thing he said to him. Fear ye not. Stand still. and see the salvation of the
Lord. He's going to wipe somebody out and put them in hell. And
he's going to save somebody. Glorious and red in his apparel,
look to him and don't be afraid and don't do anything. Just stand
still. Don't do anything to be saved.
We may do a whole lot because we're saved, but don't ever do
anything to be saved. That's what's wrong with really,
they say you do this, this, this, and this, and you'll be saved.
They'd say to lame people, take the first step. Labor now to enter into his rest,
Paul said. We labor to enter into his rest.
We take his yoke upon us, not to cooperate, not to bear part
of the load, to rest, to find rest unto our souls. We come
to him heavy laden. Now we do things as a result
of him saving us by himself, alone. He tread the winepress
alone, and because he did, we love him and we want to serve
him. But all that we do is designed to cause us to rest in him. labor to enter into his rest. Hebrews 4, 10 and 11. Now verses
five and six in our text. He said, I looked and there was
none to help. And I wondered that there was
none to uphold. Therefore, my own arm brought
salvation into me and my fury. It upheld me. I will tread down
the people in my anger and make them drunk in my fury and I will
bring down their strength. To the earth, I looked and there
was a work to be done. And this is, of course, figurative
language. He didn't have to look to find
out we couldn't do anything. Okay, he didn't have to look
around and see if there was any. This is a picture. I look and there
was no helpers. No helpers. There's a work to
be done and there was nobody else that could do anything.
Not only could we not accomplish the work, we couldn't even help. You remember the garden. I think
when I say that, I remember the garden of Gethsemane. They couldn't
only... He was bearing our sins there. And not only did we not have
any part in that, we couldn't even watch Him do it. We didn't
even have the strength to watch Him do it. And you know what's
a blessing to my heart? As the Lord Jesus Christ began
to bear our sin in His own body, We didn't even have the wherewithal
to watch with him for one hour. And you know what he said to
us? Sleep on now and take your rest. It's enough. It's enough. You can rest. Do you ever hear
those words when you're laying down at night? I know it's a
different kind of rest, but the reason I can do that kind of
rest in my bed at night is because of this rest. Do you ever hear
him saying that? And just about every day, I think,
subconsciously at least, I didn't do what I needed to do today.
I didn't do what I needed to do. There was so much I didn't
get done. It's enough. You know what he says? Go to
sleep. Take your rest. It's enough. It's enough. And spiritually, it's enough
physically because it's enough spiritually. What are we gonna
be afraid of? If we don't have to be afraid
of ourselves and the devil and hell and every evil, then what
are you gonna be afraid of? Your boss or somebody? We ought
to respect our boss. We ought to work hard and do
the right thing, but you're gonna be afraid of a man? The Lord is
my rock. The Lord is my defense. He's
my shield. He's my strong and mighty tower.
I'm not gonna be afraid of what man can do to me, David's saying. Sleep. You ever hear him saying
that to you? Just sleep. Take your rest. That's
so precious to me. As he accomplished our salvation,
he said, rest. Salvation is what needed to be
done. That's right there in the verse, isn't it? Mine own arm
hath gotten me salvation. Nobody else could do it. Nobody
else could even help do it. And so with my own arm, the arm
of the Lord, the right hand of God, what is that? That's Christ. He had to get it done by himself.
Now think about this again, a wine press, and you can look that
phrase up in the book of Revelation, because we won't turn there tonight,
but it does speak of the wine press of the wrath of God, and
I believe that's what it's talking about here, too. In a wine press,
there are grapes, And there is someone to crush them. They trot upon them. That's why
it says it that way in our text. They trot upon them to crush
them. Well, I mean, it's a picture. It's a simple, beautiful picture,
isn't it? The way the Lord always teaches us. The Lamb of God that
takes away sin. Beautiful pictures, doesn't he?
Simple and clear. But in this picture, is Christ
the one who is crushed? or is he the one doing the crushing?
yes of course he is the son of god given but
he's also the everlasting father Isaiah 9 in the same phrase in
the same sentence I believe he's the son who is given not just
given as a gift come down to this earth, but given as a sacrifice
for the sins of his people. But he's also the everlasting
father. He said, if you've seen me, you've seen the father, you've
seen God almighty. So in the sense that he is one
God in three persons, he is both crushed and crusher. And also
in the sense that no man takes his life from him, but he lays
it down of himself, he is both the crushed and the crusher. And that's what was happening
there. God's wrath was being poured out. in the case of those who are
his enemies, and in the case of those who are his loved ones.
Think about that for a minute. His own arm delivered what was
needed, and what was needed was his death. Blood. That's how you get salvation.
Isn't that the way he put it? That's how you bring salvation. His own arm delivered what was
needed, and what was needed was what he gave. His sacrificial,
sin-atoning, vicarious, supernatural, satisfactory death on Calvary. Paul was able to say, think about
this now, all the scriptures, so many scriptures, we see this
passage and it sheds light on all these other passages that
we remember, that come to our minds as we're looking. Paul,
what did he say there in Romans chapter 8? I'm blameless. Nobody
can charge me with any sin. I'm justified by God. God has justified me. That's
what he said. Why, how, Paul, how can that
happen? You said you're a wretched man,
less than the least of all saints, injurious. I'm blameless without sin before
God. God has justified me because
it is Christ that died and is risen again. That's how salvation
was brought. It was brought by his arm. It
was brought to me. unto the father for unto God
the first primarily preeminently but also to me and listen now
the word fury in verses five and six that that puzzled me
a little while at first because It seemed to talk more about
wrath and fury and anger and destruction here than it did
mercy. Did you notice that? The word redeemed, it's the year
of his redeemed. There's no question. The time
of his redeemed, the redemption of his people, but also so much
wrath, vengeance, wrath. I will tread down the people
in my anger. And then what I realized, the
reason for that is this. We do see the word redeemed and
we see the word salvation, but it seems like there's such a
strong emphasis on wrath and fury and vengeance. But here's
what we need to understand. In the matter of redemption and
salvation, there was fury poured out also. The fury and the wrath
poured is not just poured out on those who are going to hell
and richly deserve it. We richly deserve it too. And
so in the case of the redeemed, in the case of those that he
loved, in the case of those who he saved that day, there was
wrath poured out too. That's why we see that so much
in this text. It's just that In the case of
the redeemed, his fury and wrath was poured out upon the Lord
Jesus Christ, our substitute, his only begotten son, his full
and complete wrath against all the sin of all of his elect.
So there in verse six, that's not just talking about what happened
to his enemies, but it's talking about what happened
for his loved ones. When thinking of the winepress
of the wrath of God, there's only one place and one event
and one person that can ultimately be considered. There's only one
place where justice was ever, ever, ever satisfied. It is never, God's justice and
wrath and vengeance are never satisfied in hell, never. Just one place. So there's only
one thing this can be talking about. People suffer a little bit in
this life and they say, oh, the wrath of God is over. No, you
don't even know what it is. You have no idea. And the thing
is, you never will. You never will. If God kills
you, which we all richly deserve right now for God to kill us
and put us straight in hell, if he does that, you'll never
know what his wrath is. and you'll never understand it.
You'll never see the end of it. The only way you can see it is
by God's grace and he gives you faith to look to Calvary and
see God pouring out his wrath upon God. And we won't understand that
until Isn't it interesting, only those who will never suffer the
wrath of God will ever know the wrath of God. We'll know, won't we? We'll know
perfectly what he suffered. Those in hell never will, even
though they're suffering his wrath. They'll never know the
fullness of it. But we will. And we'll never
taste a drop of it. We'll never drink a drop of that
cup. in the matter of redemption,
it was fury also. It's by God's fury being poured
out that I'm redeemed, poured out on my Savior. Yes, with regard
to the enemies of God and His Christ, the cross is nothing
but defeat and vengeance, but also with regard to our redemption
and salvation, the word fury there is integral. For us to be redeemed, for us
to be saved, God had to pour out his fury upon his son, his
only begotten, well-beloved son. In our place, his full and complete
wrath against all the sin of all of his elect. So you see that this, as everywhere
we look in the scriptures, it's the cross. God forbid that we
glory. God's wrath was utterly quenched
there for his people. There's only one place that that
could have happened and only one person who could have done
it. It's Calvary. It happened on Calvary and it
was accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ. is both glorious in his apparel
I Would say a lot more about that if I had any idea what to
say And his garments were dad read This is why He is why we have
verse 7 and I just want to read it because I We'll look at it
more Lord willing next time, but I just get we got to read
this don't we? This is why I will mention the loving kindnesses
of the Lord and that's why because he's glorious and red And the praises of the Lord we're
gonna praise him forever aren't we worthy is the lamb According
to the all that the Lord hath bestowed on us Behold what manner
of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called
the sons of God And the great goodness his great
goodness toward the house of Israel, of course They're not
all Jews which are Jews. They're not all Israel which
are of Israel. This is the Israel of God His spiritual Israel If
God gave you faith in his son like he did Abraham then you're
Abraham seed and Heirs according to all of the promises of God
which are yes and amen not in Israel, but in Christ Which he hath bestowed on them
According to his mercies Thank God not according to their works That would have that would have
excluded me If he did it according to what we deserve it would excluded
all of us with it But according to his tender mercies
the psalmist said your mercies Lord are new every day Remember that one chapter in
the Psalms that every verse ends with this for his mercy endureth
forever And there's nothing monotonous about it For his mercy endureth
forever And according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses
may we fall asleep tonight and He says to us, both physically
and spiritually, take your rest, sleep on now, it's enough, it's
done, it's accomplished. Don't be afraid. You've seen
me save you. Don't be afraid, sleep on, take
your rest. And may we fall asleep thinking
about this, trying to number all of the multitude of his loving
kindnesses toward us. Every one of them are in his
son. Let's pray.