Isaiah 51. Hearken unto me, my people. Give
ear unto me, O my nation. For a law shall proceed from
me. And I will make my judgment to
rest for a light of the people. Hearken unto me. I believe it's
three times in this chapter. The Lord says, hearken unto me.
He reminds us again that though he's already said that, he needs
to say it over and over because we need to wake up again sometimes. Remember
Gethsemane. It's hard for us to watch with
him. And remember why. Because the
flesh is weak. But if God is going to comfort
us, which is what he's doing in this chapter. Comforting his
people. In verse 3 he says that. Then we've got to listen to him.
Don't go to this world for comfort. We all need his comfort. Some
are in particular trials right now. We just heard from Tamara that
Charlie is in some pain again. I think he's got a kidney infection. He's going to the doctor again
tomorrow. It's just one thing after another. I don't usually know what to
say when people are suffering. But I know where comfort is. You could say, well, we're suffering
with you, but are we really? A little bit. It hurts when I hear it. When
I hear somebody's hurting that I love, but we can't really
bear it for them. But I know where comfort is because
I know that I also need it. And God says, hearken unto me.
Not to say a word of judgment, but to say a word of comfort. This world has no comfort for
the believer. And I'll tell you this, God's
providence is not always comforting. But His Word is. Sometimes He
deliberately makes us uncomfortable in His providence. But His Word
is always comforting. If we know that it's Him, and
we know why He's doing it, there's comfort. So He says, hearken
to Me. For that purpose, He tells His
preachers to comfort My people. And then He says this, My nation. Well, I'm comforted already,
because he says you're mine. We just sang that song. Now I
belong to him. I like that. Oh, my nation. That should comfort
me already, if I'm his. and he is mine, then I shall
not want. The Lord is my shepherd. It's
not because the Lord's a shepherd, but because he's mine, I shall
not want. For a law shall proceed from
me. We need to always remember, when
you see the word law, to resist the tendency to think of it as
the Ten Commandments or even the Levitical law, moral law,
the ceremonial law. It's not right to think of it
that way. It's all of God's word. It includes the Ten Commandments.
It includes the moral and Levitical law. But the word Torah, which
everybody knows that Jewish word, don't they? Torah means law.
But here's the definition of it. It means direction or instruction. Now, when I give direction, You
can take it or leave it, but when God does, it's law. Law is a good word, isn't it? What is his direction or instruction?
It's this whole book. Now think about this. Direction
or instruction. Sometimes it does refer to the
moral law, which instructs us of God's revealed will concerning
our thoughts and behavior toward him and one another. He gives
commandments regarding people to people. Thou shalt not kill.
Thou shalt not covet. Thou shalt not bear false witness.
He gives law concerning the sinner to God. Thou shalt love the Lord
thy God with all thy heart, soul, mind, and strength. Thou shalt
have no other gods before thee. So he does give us instruction
regarding that, but the gospel also directs and instructs. The gospel directs us to Christ.
The moral law directs us concerning God's revealed will. The gospel
directs us to Christ and instructs us to believe on him, to trust
him as our keeping of the moral law, as our righteousness, as
our sin offering. Now think about this though,
even the spiritual nature of even the moral law is to direct
us to Christ. All of his law, all of his word,
even the law, even the Ten Commandments, they direct us to Christ. Remember
what Paul said in Galatians 3.21? I was going to have you turn
there, and you certainly can, Galatians 3.21, but listen to
this. Is the law then against the promises
of God? And that's clearly talking about
the moral law, isn't it? The commandments. In the sense
that we normally think of that because he's saying is the law
against the promises of God God forbid for if there had been
a law given which could have given life Verily righteousness
should have been by the law But the scripture has concluded all
under sin therefore Salvation can't be by the law that the
promise by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ might be given to
them that believe. You couldn't earn salvation,
so God's just got to give it to you. He's got to give it to
you anyway, even though you fail to measure up to his standard. He's going to give you righteousness. might be given to them that believe.
But before faith came, we were kept under the law. Shut up unto
the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Shut up because,
I mean, what are you gonna do? You're under the law. You're
bound by it. You're imprisoned by it. You
can't keep it, but neither can you get out from under it. Shut up unto the faith which
should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore, the law was our schoolmaster
to bring us to Christ. So if law, if Torah means direction
and instruction, even this moral law, even the Ten Commandments,
where do they direct us? To Christ. That we might be justified
by faith. But after that faith has come,
we're no longer under a schoolmaster. The moral law now, we delight
in it, Paul says, we desire to honor God in it, but we don't
trust to the law for salvation. Now we still, though we don't
need a schoolmaster anymore, but we still daily experience
our own inability to measure up to God's holy standard. And
what effect does that have? It brings us to cry. It shuts
us up to the Son of God. So though we don't need a schoolmaster
anymore, we understand that, we know that, but we still experience
that. That shutting up to faith in
Christ every day because we see how far short we fall of God's
standard all the time. And it has a perpetual effect
of causing us to look to the Savior. as he alone who kept the moral
law for his people and paid for their not keeping of it by his
precious blood. Those who know the Lord Jesus
Christ will experience that over and over continually, their own
failure, their own shortcoming, but also it causes us to lean
evermore on Him, to look to Him, to constantly need Him. So God is saying, my gospel will
go forth from me. There will be direction, instruction,
you'll listen to me, I've got some instruction for you. And
the whole overriding purpose of all of it is comfort. And look at what He said next,
that I will make my judgment to rest for a light of the people. God's judgment cannot and will
not rest until it is perfectly satisfied. And that's the message of the
gospel. The satisfaction of the judgment, the justice, the law of God, the commandments
of God. It is the message of the gospel
that answers the ancient question that Job asked. Pretty sure Job
is the oldest book in the Bible. And Job asked a long, long time
ago, I know it's so of a truth, but how then can man be just
with the holy God? It's the gospel that answers
that question. Christ is the answer to that
question and Christ is the gospel and he's also described in our
text here as a light of the people. He said, I'm the light of the
world. We know where God's light, who
God's light is. God who commanded the light to
shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts. To give the light
of the knowledge, spiritual light, knowledge of the glory of God
and that's in the Savior's face. The light we need, the light
we must have, the light of God that shines upon the sinner
and in which light, by which light we can see Him, we know
Him. It shines in the face of God's
Son. We look to Him. for that light, because he is
the light. Light to see who God is, light to see ourselves in
our sinfulness, light to see the riches of his glory, light,
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. And his glory,
of course, shines forth mostly in his redeeming character. If you're going to see the glory
of God shining in his face, you're going to see what he did for
you. His precious redeeming blood.
His all-accomplishing death on Calvary. And then verse 5, my righteousness
is near. You see, everything in verse
4 referred to Christ. And who is the righteousness
of God? But Christ. And this tells us something now.
We see the theme of this whole chapter is to comfort. What is
our true comfort if you boil it down to the essential reality
of it? It's a person. It's a person. We're not comforted just to know
we're going to go to heaven someday or something like that. We're
comforted in Him. Right now I have Him. Right now
I belong to Him. Right now we're His nation, His
family, His people. He said He'll never leave us
nor forsake us. He works everything for our good. All things are
ours. How shall He not freely with
Him also give us freely all things? So we're comforted in Him, by
Him, to know Him. 1 Corinthians 1.30 of Him. of God
are you in Christ Jesus who of God is made unto us wisdom and
righteousness and sanctification and redemption his name is the
Lord our righteousness and he said my righteousness is near and salvation my salvation is
gone forth a person Simeon looked into the
face of that eight-year-old baby and said, now, Lord, let us thy
servant depart in peace. It says in Luke 2 28, he took
him up in his arms. An eight-day-old baby. We try to picture that. We don't
know much about, you know, how much did he weigh? How big a
baby was he? We want to know that when somebody
has a baby, don't we? We don't know but I know eight
days old ain't old. That's a little bitty one there.
But Simeon said I've seen God's salvation now. I'm ready to die. I've seen God's salvation. It's
a person. The fact that that person was
eight days old didn't make any difference. It's who he is that
Simeon saw. And then he said in verse 5 next,
my arms shall judge the people. My arms. God is spirit. Does God have arms? Yes, he does. And again, we're talking about
the Lord Jesus Christ. My arms shall judge the people. Who's going to judge the people?
The Lord Jesus Christ said, the Father judgeth no man in John
5.22, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son. That's
who's going to judge. And he's called here the arms
of God. That all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the
Father. He that honoreth not the Son
honoreth not the Father which hath sent him. Mine arms shall
judge the people. And we've seen now that that
word judged there doesn't always mean condemnation. We think of
judgment, we think of the wrath of God. Well, he judges mercy
too. It's his discernment, it's him
deciding the case. He said I'll have mercy on whom
I will. Who will you have mercy on Lord? That's his judgment.
He decides. He has mercy on some, he has
wrath on others. And sometimes the word judgment is used to
denote his wrath, his condemnation. But his judgment is not always
that. He judges some worthy in Christ Jesus of eternal life. So mine arms shall judge the
people. The owls, the next phrase, the
owls shall wait upon me. That's talking about the Gentile.
I'm glad he said that, don't you? Because I'm not Jewish.
the owls. Christ is the Savior of the whole
world, not the Jews only. But he calls his elect out of
every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue under heaven. I'm
glad of that. And on mine arm shall they trust. Now we know that arm, the arm
of the Lord all through the scriptures, he stretched forth his arm and
something is done. Something happens when he does
that. Because the arm denotes power, it denotes accomplishment,
it denotes strength and ability. Well who's that? Christ is called the wisdom and
power of God. unto the Jews a stumbling block,
unto the Greeks foolishness, but unto them which believe,
unto them which are called, Christ the wisdom of God and the power
of God, the arm of the Lord. Do you remember Isaiah 53, 1?
Who hath believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the
Lord revealed? What's the next word? He. The
arm of the Lord is a he, he shall grow up before him as a tender
plant, as a root out of a dry ground. The arm of the Lord is
Christ. Boy, shall they trust. My people, my sheep hear my voice
and they follow me. That word follow, we follow him
because we trust him. So he is the power, he is the
strength, the ability interesting that the Lord Jesus
Christ is called both the arms of God and the arm of God. The arm, as we've already seen,
is his power. Christ is the wisdom of God and
the power of God. He's God accomplishing salvation. If God's just up in heaven like
religion says, just wanting everybody to be saved, That's all fine
and well, but how's he gonna get it done? You ain't gonna
get it done. He's got to get it done. How's
he do that? What's his power? It's Christ. He sent Christ down here to get
it done. And he got it done. So the arm of the Lord is pretty
clear. His arms. By his arm, he is strong and
able and mighty. And in his arms and with his
arms he embraces sinners. To be in his arms is to be safe. Listen to this scripture. Mark
10, 13, they brought young children to him that he should touch them. I could see me doing that if
I knew who he was and I knew what he could do. I'd want to
bring my children. I'd want him to bless my children,
wouldn't you? Well, I do know who he is. And I know what he does. And
I do want him to bless my children. And so they brought them to him
that he should touch them. And his disciples rebuked those
that brought them. They had in their minds what
salvation was. They had a doctrinal understanding. You know, this, this, and this,
and we believe these things. But what they didn't realize
is that salvation, blessing, is Him. Does that blow your theology
out of the water? To just bring somebody to Him
and say, Lord, would you touch my children? I want them to be
blessed. He is our theology. How else
are they going to be blessed unless he touches them? Well
that's not how sinners are saved. Oh yes it is. That's exactly
how they're saved. By him blessing them. These disciples rebuked those
that brought them but when Jesus saw it he was much displeased. And said unto them, Suffer the
little children that come unto me, and forbid them not. For
of such is the kingdom of God. He said to them in another place,
Well, listen, here it is. I was thinking it was in another
passage, but it's in this one. Listen to this. For of such is
the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, Whosoever
shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he
shall not enter therein. It is another passage where he
said to them specifically, you shall know no wise entering in
unless you come as a child. And having said that, he took
them up in his arms. What a picture that is. I believe
that's what our scripture tells, our text. He's the arms of the
Lord. He is God embracing sinners. And you might think, what a beautiful
thing, he's those sweet little, precious, innocent children.
No, he's embracing sinners, those vile little heathens. We like to think of our children,
you know, as precious, and they are, they are precious to us.
But by nature now, in the sight of God, that he would embrace
them is great mercy, great mercy. He took them up in His arms and
put His hands upon them and blessed them. Oh, well, they're not old
enough. Can He do that if He wants to? I'll tell you this, when the
Lord blessed me, when He had mercy on me, I wasn't very old
either. In fact, I didn't exist yet. So if He wants to do this,
He can do that. Come on, look at verse six, what
a blessing. Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath. For the heavens shall vanish
away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment,
and they that dwell therein shall die. in like manner. But, now you think about this
tonight. This has application for us right
now. He's saying look around you.
Look up and look down. Look everywhere you can look.
Lift up your eyes to the heavens and look around in this earth.
All of this is going to be burned up and everybody in the earth
is going to die when God destroys this world. But my salvation shall be forever. Look all around you, look up
and down, know that everything and everybody, they that dwell
therein, all that you see, strangers and loved ones, young and old, shall pass away. Do you ever actually do that? God's
telling us to do that. Look around. And know that everybody
you see, before long, is going to be destroyed. And know this,
the only thing that endures, the only one that endures, the
only hope, the salvation of the Lord, that's Christ and everybody
in Him, shall endure forever. But everybody else is a goner.
You ever think about that? You ever look around at people
and realize that? It'll give you a whole different
perspective. It'll give me a completely different perspective on this
world. Look around with understanding. I believe it will have three
effects if we do what God said right here. Now think about it. His salvation, my righteousness
shall not be abolished, but everything and everybody that's not righteous,
everything and everybody that's not perfect is gone. It's going to be gone. He's going
to destroy it violently and suddenly. I believe if we look around on
people with that in mind it will have three effects. First of
all, turn with me to 2 Peter chapter 3. Second Peter 3.8. Just three brief things now,
and let's apply ourselves to this. Because this applies to
us right now. As we go into this world tomorrow,
look around you. Look at people. People you know,
people you don't know. Especially people you know. People
you love. Look at what he says, Second
Peter 3.8. But beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing. That
one day is with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years as
one day. Not that way with us. A year
can be a long time for us, depending on our experience in it. Then
again, 55 years doesn't seem all that long. But with the Lord, day is he is so intimately acquainted
and involved and I don't even know how to describe it but you
know what I mean one day is like a thousand years with God everything
that happens he does it he controls it and so it just one day is
a universe to him but also a thousand years is just like that to him
hard to hard to enter into But here's what his application of
that is in verse 9. The Lord is not slack concerning
his promise, as some men count slackness. To him, just a few
days has gone by since he made this world. That's it, just a
few days. But his long-suffering to us-ward, I'm glad he waited as long as
he did. I'm glad he's still waiting, aren't you? There's a few folks
I'd like to see him save yet. He's not willing that any should
perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of
the Lord will come. Before long, it will be too late. Before long,
he will burn this thing up. He will come as a thief in the
night, in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise,
and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. The earth also
and the works that are therein shall be burned up. That's exactly
what our text is talking about. That's the day that our text
is talking about. And look at the application.
Here's an effect now that it'll have if we see this, if we look
around and know this, look with understanding at the people around
you in this world. Seeing then that all these things
shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in
all holy conversation? and godliness. I don't want to spend whatever
time I have on this earth on the vanity of my flesh. Do you?
Do you? What manner of persons ought
we to be? Honoring Him, thinking of Him, glorifying Him, wanting
to in all that we do. Looking for and hasting unto
the coming of the day of God. Wherein the heavens, being on
fire, shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with
fervent heat. Nevertheless, we, according to
his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth
righteousness. That word's in our text too.
Remember what he said? Look up, look down, it's all
gonna be dissolved, it's all gonna be destroyed, but my righteousness
won't be. My righteousness will never be
done away. My salvation is forever. The second effect that it will
have, turn to the book of Jude. Verse 17. The first thing is we just want
to live for Him, don't we? We just got a little time left,
don't we? Just a little bit of time. What manner of persons are we
to be? Let's think about that as we look around us. But also,
Jude 17, But beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken
before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, how that they
told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should
walk after their own ungodly lusts. These be they who separate
themselves, sensual having not the spirit. Now he's talking
about the last time. and not much doubt now, you can't
hardly read the scripture and think we're not in that time.
They separate themselves not having not the spirit, but ye
beloved, verse 20, building up yourselves on your most holy
faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of
God. That's kind of what we read in second Peter, wasn't it? What
manner of persons ought we to be? That kind, that's what. But look at the second thing. looking for the mercy of our
Lord Jesus Christ and to eternal life and of some have compassion making a difference and others save with fear pulling
them out of the fire hating even the garment spotted by the flesh
What manner of persons ought we to be? But think about this,
too. Others. As you look around at this world,
knowing what you know, knowing who you know, is there anybody
that you just can't bear to see consumed by the wrath of God?
Because it's coming. I know that there is. And there is for me, too. And
we know we can't save anybody. But whatever that passage means
right there when he says, others saved with fear, I won't in on
it, whatever it is. If they're going to be saved,
I won't in on it. I just want to see it, if nothing
else. If a difference is going to be made, and the Lord can
use me in whatever way, I want that. I think it will have that effect,
don't you? If we look, look up, look around. And then the third thing is in
2 Samuel chapter 22. Second Samuel 22 warning David
spake unto the Lord the words of this song In that day that
the Lord had delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies
and out of the hand of Saul Now think about this we look
around at this world we look around and got we know God's
going to judge this world He's going to destroy this world all
everybody that dwells there in he said but my salvation I believe
if we look at that and we realize the truth, we'll sing this song
with David. The Lord is my rock and my fortress
and my deliverer. God's going to destroy this world
in judgment. Remember Noah? What was his refuge? What was his fortress? The Ark.
That's Christ. The God of my rock, in Him will
I trust. As we look around and we know
what's going to happen, we're going to trust more and more
in Him. He is my shield and the horn
of my salvation, my high tower and my refuge, my Savior. You save me from violence. Violence is coming. It's going
to be swift, isn't it? Like a thief in the night. Unexpected
and sudden. And a fervent heat is going to
melt everything and everybody. But you save me, Lord. You save
me from violence. I will call on the Lord, who
is worthy to be praised. So shall I be saved. His salvation
Endureth forever and his salvation is Christ. He's our rock our
fortress. We sing that song safe Though
the worlds may crumble and I like that because the worlds are gonna
crumble But we're safe in him being in
Christ we cannot perish He is our refuge though all else perish
things and people He said, my righteousness shall
not perish. Well, Christ, of course, is righteousness,
but we're in Him, and we are the righteousness of God in Him.
2 Corinthians 5.21, He, God the
Father, hath made Him, God the Son, to be sin for us who knew
no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. His righteousness shall endure
forever, shall never perish. Under the blood of Jesus, I am
secure in Him. And as we walk through this world
and look around, those three things, it's easy to get complacent and
the reason Simon said that, that a day with the Lord is as a thousand
years and a thousand years as a day, Because the days go by
for us and they just go by, don't they? And we forget. We kind
of get complacent. We kind of get involved in the
concerns of this world and things that are important to the flesh. But if we see this world in light
of what God's going to do, I believe it would change us.
I believe we'd be different. We'd act different. We'd think
differently. And may God give us grace in
that. Let's pray. Thank you.